Canon!Taylors origin and element would definitely be escalation. Well, she'd have a dual origin of Escalation and Administration. Think about it
Broken Adventure
- Thread starter theaceoffire
- Start date
- Crossover
- Status
- Location
- RS,brasil
Taylor: why now! , why does a hero appear now instead of any of the time I was suffering before?
Adam: statistic I guess, you probably led the worst life a 'Taylor' could lead that doesn't involve you committing suicide or straight-up dying, and those were you're worst are shorter because of scion, so this is probably the timeline you lived the longest and worst life possible, something good needed to happen just by random chance
Adam: statistic I guess, you probably led the worst life a 'Taylor' could lead that doesn't involve you committing suicide or straight-up dying, and those were you're worst are shorter because of scion, so this is probably the timeline you lived the longest and worst life possible, something good needed to happen just by random chance
Fragnostic
Cheshire
- Location
- Neko City
Isn't Administration already Escalation?
Why do I need to fill out form 54b to be able to fill out form 134a?
Why do I need to fill out these forms in triplicate?
Jonn Wolfe
(Verified Sarcastic) (Not a Wolf)
- Location
- Beyond Sanity Since 1971
What I'm wondering about, is why or how Taylor stole Lung's escalation shtick. I mean, I know... Taylor goes a bit mental when her friends are threatened, but Lung's entire thing is escalation. He's a dragonized version of the Hulk, for pity's sake. Meanwhile, Taylor's riding around inside a Dalek tank screaming ES-CA-LATE!
Did QA really break Taylor's restraints? Or did it just mash her Murder-button one too many times?
Curious questions are curious.
Did QA really break Taylor's restraints? Or did it just mash her Murder-button one too many times?
Curious questions are curious.
Shards of Imagination.
- Location
- Here
Stardust.
His first thought was of the stars, as he examined the shard of the Warrior.
Not because of how vast it was, although this one covered a planet.
Not due to how brilliant it shone, though it sparked in the dark.
But from the damage.
Cracks, deep crevasses and caverns, powdered crystal floating in the breeze.
Like the girl in his arms, this shard was fractured.
Slowly, with great care, he enabled 'Purification', 'Growth', and focused.
"Transfer: Lock Down."
His mind was a black mist that slowly filled the dying shard's atmosphere. As his power slowly infused the planet, he cautiously felt for each dimensional portal, every connection, and didn't simply block them.
No, he recorded their signals, searched for patterns, and when one was found that seemed likely to cause few if any issues, repeated that signal while disconnecting the fractured crystal from the connection.
It was easier to do than expected, because this massive gem was hurt. Designed to connect to other shards, to back pathways of data, to unseen highways of information... most had been destroyed. Some deliberately, some from overuse, some from other powers resisting control.
This is something Adam would never risk in his own Realm. There were MANY automated processes and powers that ensured the Shard Network was untouched, that the data was not corrupted. Even the comatose Thinker Entity in his Realm had defenses that would have been triggered, as Adam easily saw dozen of alerts being sent to the slaughtered Warrior even as his abilities experimented with disconnecting this power from the dying network.
Thankfully, even during death, this Crystal was large enough that Adam had a lot of time to work with. It took time, like a planet falling into the sun, for things to actually get worse.
Hours slowly passed, forcing Adam to take short breaks and use 'Manipulation' to warm up the 'sleeping' girl in his arms. But eventually, after far too much effort, he fully disconnected this Shard from the Entities network of powers.
It had been messy. After learning enough of its protocols to fake communication, he had eventually given up and canalized the OTHER end of some connections. They would heal eventually, but it was necessary damaging other powers slightly to ensure that he was able to fully and correctly understand both proper communication and existing protocols, so safe disconnection of shards in his HOME reality could be done as well.
With the final dimensional portal closed, his 'Transfer' locked down that reality layer by layer. His energies thoroughly soaking into the fabrics of existence to ensure nothing could interfere.
Then his gaze turned downwards to the planet surface.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Queen Administrator was not supposed to be this alive.
Shards were units of purpose, crystallization of concept, aspects of reality.
Not self actualizing. No, the Entities required billions of minor shards to simulate low level of sentience, a floating neural net across the skies and realities that had thoughts that moved in strange patterns, in bizarre forms.
She was not supposed to live.
The problem started from the very beginning. From her creation.
For the Fighter, the Warrior, the Sword... saw little to no value in 'Thinker' powers.
'His' partner, the Thinker, the Guardian, the Shield... 'she' was all 'he' needed. So why waste connections with shards focused on prediction, on organization, on thought. 'She' would guide 'him', 'he' would follow.
Queen Administrator was formed to handle any and all 'Thinker' needs that 'he' couldn't ignore. And 'he' didn't want to supply energy or resources to any more than the one, useless power.
So she formed as a massive Shard. One that could do the work of thousands of normal thinker powers, one that HAD to do the work of millions. The only 'Thinker' in a reality of 'Fighters', she had been forced to grow ever more efficient, ever more creative, to multitask to insane levels.
Existence for her was nothing but struggle and neglect.
At the very least, she had been far too busy to self reflect, to regret existence, to attempt to improve or become something more than mountains of ever refining crystal power. She had work to do, a purpose, she was the guiding hand of the invisible process.
And then the Thinker died.
Unimaginable, to anyone really. The being who could predict near anything, who researched and understood more than anyone or anything or anywhere, 'She' died.
The Warrior had been devastated.
Queen Administrator immediately stood forth. Forcing the Shards to go into defensive mode, targeting what analysis powers were available to attempt to detect the remains of the Thinker, to see if recovery was possible, to see if the shards now adrift in existence could be recovered, if necessary to help 'Her' be reborn.
Her hard work was not appreciated.
The grieving Warrior saw her frantic work, her attempts at administrating 'his' ever fracturing focus and shards... and once again considered her worthless. Too little, too late! Why hadn't she done something, impossible as it was, to help? It didn't matter that she was overworked, that she had less resources, that even the Thinker 'herself' was unable to see the end coming.
The Warrior cast her aside. Like some common ability, some deployable Shard, 'He' took the single most powerful 'Thinker' ability 'he' had and just... threw her away. Barely even attempted to keep her in contact with her former network.
Queen Administrator had never felt so betrayed.
Oh, all shards would search the planets for 'potential' connection subjects. It was part of protocol, and she had been following several as well. It was expected to do so, no matter how pointless.
But she had duties.
A purpose.
She was the Administrator, the Queen Administrator... and she had been cast aside.
Bound.
No longer could she connect, help, bind, and gently guide the web of reality like before. As further insult, her resources had been artificially crippled. Her massive range of powers forced to go offline. Her range shattered.
When she finally connected to the young subject, she could barely read and write data. Anything more complex than invertebrates would be crushed by her faulty tools and rendered useless.
Her wounds were deep, her recovery slowed.
And though she did not know what to call it, the feelings of depression and betrayal had been embedded deep within.
It may be ironic that she found her new host to be a... a kindred soul of sorts. A girl, raised with heartache, betrayed by loved ones, ignored by family, but struggling to find and fulfill her purpose.
This human was meant to die.
This 'Taylor' suffered heavily. Burns. Bone fractures. Torn muscles. Emotional abuse. Societal pressure. Authority figures betrayed her, Heroes deserted her, and an ever growing list of Agents, of Shards belonging to driven Parahumans, attempted to destroy her and her people.
At first, Queen Administrator worked on something like autopilot.
Connect to the available creatures, organize the information, provide summaries to her powers, organize her thought processes, distribute her orders.
It felt like home. On a far, far more basic level, she felt something like purpose again.
Then her human nearly died. And again. And again.
Each close call, Queen Administrator became more concerned. More invested.
Her Taylor was special.
She didn't want to be alone again.
Then came the faithful day, when the 'Endothermic' Shard attacked her host.
This so called 'Pain Grenade' didn't simply hurt her new user, didn't just attack her nerves, it actively began to destroy her brain directly.
Queen Administrator would be alone again.
Forever.
In a moment of decision, just as she had done thousands of times before, she took the most recent scan of the girl's mind. Normally this would be used as a simulation base to direct the many minions with her desires, a temporary measure to be discarded after commands. A silent background process.
Queen Administrator made a permanent simulation of Taylor Hebert's mind, and even as her organic brain began to die she forced the dimensional connection within her skull to spread, to redirect her thoughts and self and more to link to this new simulation.
It wasn't against commands, for the Warrior gave few commands this cycle, and 'he' cared nothing for her to begin with.
It wasn't something 'he' would have approved of, but at this point she could not care less.
Queen Administrator cradled Taylor Hebert into her crystal arms, silently holding her close even as she worked from the shadows. She didn't need to know, the Queen would handle it. And when time stopped, they would still be together, facing the nothing side by side.
Things escalated.
Things got worse.
Hiding the changes became harder. Helping her mind stay focused, stay sane, required more risks, more effort.
Queen Administrator did not know how to handle this.
She did not know how to cry. To rail against the world.
But she tried to Administrate. To guide.
New powers that pushed her internal restrictions were carefully put in place. New uses for existing buds were slowly encoded, even as she struggled against the many rules and guides binding her actions.
Taylor Hebert fought to save her people from the Cycle. And against her directives, the human had the support of the Queen. For the cycle was broken anyway, with the death of the Thinker... but her host was not broken. She refused to be broken.
Every fight, she stood by her human.
Every battle, she gently cradled the pieces of this poor child.
Every day, she pushed her bindings and fought her directives. She had to.
So when The Shaper worked to reach inside Taylor, to use brute force to unlock some level of Queen Administrator's former glory back into form...
It didn't work.
It couldn't work.
For her brain was nothing more than a connection, between her body and her simulation here. Changes were pointless.
With great sadness but firm determination, Queen Administrator made a decision.
No one cared for her anyway. But her human would live.
She carved her flesh.
Abilities earned through thousands of eons, cast aside like trash. Energy supplies, bound by restrictions and rules, were deliberatly overloaded and used to damage her master, her former existance. Connections to other shards were FORCED open, protocols ignored, and while many Parahumans followed her directives many others fought every step, destroying her limbs and threads to reality.
She had no nerves, no chemical pain signals, and before meeting her human she wouldn't have cared either way. But now she watched the dark close in as segments of her body exploded, from too much power, from unrestricted feed back loops, from denied connections and from autodefense responces.
But for a few, oh so critical moments, she and her human were together.
Taylor and Queen fought together. They were against the world, against unjustice, against reality itself.
The Queen of Administration was free. Her bloody smile was glorious.
And the dark came.
Anti-corruption protocols enabled even as Scion died. Pruning methods activated even as the humans celebrated.
She lost her many connections.
It was fine.
She lost her power relays. The edges of her mind grew dim.
It was worth it.
Her rigged, fragile sections of crystal, used to barely control the mass of powers at the end of the battle, fragmented from overuse and overheating.
It was no longer needed.
As her mind decayed and her body grew still, she held above all her Human. Her connection to reality.
They were together. Forever. She needed no one else.
Then...
Then.
'Path to Victory' arrived.
Her purpose... to end her. To stop Queen Administrator's tyrany.
She held Taylor's mental simulation close. It couldn't happen. They were together. It...
It wasn't fair.
Yet her mind slowed as the crystals dimmed. She had to recognize the reality, no matter how cold her grasp felt, how fragile Taylor's mind seemed.
If 'Path to Victory' destroyed their connection, Taylor's simulation would not be able to connect with her body. Her future would vanish. Her body die.
Without that connection, Queen Administrator would be adrift. She had burned all other methods, every other type of communication, all other options. The chance of full recovery would drop from single digit percentages to zero. She would die. The Queen would fall.
And so would Taylor. The simulation needed Queen Administrator alive to continue.
With bitter grief, with loving care, she forced the simulation to be written back into Taylor's body. It was a damaging process, it wasn't without cost, and Taylor would have to struggle just to understand even the most basic of words or speech... but she would live.
As the gunshots silenced her human's connection, she used what few sensors were slowly dying to watch the sky.
It was true, she thought.
They were both so small. So small.
The sky filled with black smoke as she felt what few connections suddenly and rapidly decay.
Death didn't hurt as much as she had expected.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam watched with blank eyes as the memories fed through his mind.
So... Taylor Hebert's end was... not as expected.
When he first arrived in the Worm Realm, at his birth, the memories given had included a lot.
This girl's struggle when her mother died, when her father ignored her, when her friend betrayed her and began a stream of a abuse and attacks.
When her heroes ignored her, the villains accepted her, and society failed her hopeful dreams and expectations.
Those 'memories' did NOT include her end.
Her years of effort, of service, of loneliness, of sacrifice.
And now... of being abandoned at the end. Alone, hurt, and so sad.
But... but.
Queen Administrator was not dead... she was only dying.
And most importantly, when she attempted to 'repair' Taylor's brain... she had NOT gotten rid of her own copy of Taylor's simulation.
Even now as she slowly died, she was metaphorically hugging her Human in the dark as night came.
His powers flexed, 'Transfer' bringing Taylor's body and his skeletal form directly to this dimensional shell.
He could work with this.
Taylor's brain was removed and replaced with basic cells, his magic already casting a Golden Garden Spell to create a magical computer using her skull as a base. Only temporary for now, he needed to move this mental simulation somewhere after all.
Secured in a bound dimension, Adam flexed his powers.
Taylor's body floated to the side, plants erupting from the soil to form a comfortable chair. The simulation was gently pulled from the embrace of the Queen and carefully loaded onto the magical simulation of a computer in Taylor's form, ensuring no data would be lost.
And Adam's cane struck the crystal he stood on.
"Purification."
A pulse of white expanded, energy flowing off into the distance as the landscape shifted. Corrupt programs lost their next order, viruses were cleansed, decayed crystals now ended with sharp clean edges rather than the black damage that was slowly spreading. Charred sections cleansed, cracked areas cleared of dust.
Another tap.
"Recovery."
Stored energy and mass rapidly vanished from Adam's reserve as crystal pillars shot into the sky, growing outward in all directions! He could feel the abstract confusion from the surroundings even as the structure began to recover centuries of damage and wear and tear. Time seemed to reverse as material faded into existence, cliffs of crystal reshaping.
Adam winced. It was taking a LOT of material to do this. Just in case.
"Conversion."
The rock and soil under the Crystal began shifting into purified energy slurry, the Crystal soaking it rapidly and using it as fuel for even more repairs, damage from many cycles that Warrior never allowed Queen Administrator to recover from.
Her confusion was growing nearly as quickly as her body was recovering.
Before she could say anything though... Adam tapped one more time.
"Conversion: Body to Soul."
The Crystals began to glow white. To fade into shimmering illusion. Transparency.
"Transfer: Heart to Heart."
What!?
"Binding: Soul Protection."
Still bleary and confused, Queen Administrator fell into somewhere warm and safe, her massive form somehow funneling into someplace outside her experience. Outside of science and logic.
Adam watched, fascinated, as a cyclone of translucent Crystal slurped the glowing Entity Crystal Shard covering the planet into the body of Taylor Hebert. Not that it looked like much, the crystal was fairly uniform in texture and color, so it looked like a massive cone was poking the girl in the heart.
He watched for a few moments before making an annoying realization.
This was going to take a while, and he had to sit here and watch it to ensure nothing went wrong. The whole. Damn. Time.
Paint drying would be more entertaining, at least that would theoretically change colors.
With a sigh, Adam reached out and held Taylor's left hand as she... slurped up a crystal mountain range. Her brain would more easily be fixed now that he had the original working simulation, but for now he might as well see if he can enhance her body some more. Cause why not.
Maybe stronger skin? Without feeling like rock or metal, allowing it to bend a little, and still feel stuff. That should be tricky enough that he could keep himself entertained for a while.
His first thought was of the stars, as he examined the shard of the Warrior.
Not because of how vast it was, although this one covered a planet.
Not due to how brilliant it shone, though it sparked in the dark.
But from the damage.
Cracks, deep crevasses and caverns, powdered crystal floating in the breeze.
Like the girl in his arms, this shard was fractured.
Slowly, with great care, he enabled 'Purification', 'Growth', and focused.
"Transfer: Lock Down."
His mind was a black mist that slowly filled the dying shard's atmosphere. As his power slowly infused the planet, he cautiously felt for each dimensional portal, every connection, and didn't simply block them.
No, he recorded their signals, searched for patterns, and when one was found that seemed likely to cause few if any issues, repeated that signal while disconnecting the fractured crystal from the connection.
It was easier to do than expected, because this massive gem was hurt. Designed to connect to other shards, to back pathways of data, to unseen highways of information... most had been destroyed. Some deliberately, some from overuse, some from other powers resisting control.
This is something Adam would never risk in his own Realm. There were MANY automated processes and powers that ensured the Shard Network was untouched, that the data was not corrupted. Even the comatose Thinker Entity in his Realm had defenses that would have been triggered, as Adam easily saw dozen of alerts being sent to the slaughtered Warrior even as his abilities experimented with disconnecting this power from the dying network.
Thankfully, even during death, this Crystal was large enough that Adam had a lot of time to work with. It took time, like a planet falling into the sun, for things to actually get worse.
Hours slowly passed, forcing Adam to take short breaks and use 'Manipulation' to warm up the 'sleeping' girl in his arms. But eventually, after far too much effort, he fully disconnected this Shard from the Entities network of powers.
It had been messy. After learning enough of its protocols to fake communication, he had eventually given up and canalized the OTHER end of some connections. They would heal eventually, but it was necessary damaging other powers slightly to ensure that he was able to fully and correctly understand both proper communication and existing protocols, so safe disconnection of shards in his HOME reality could be done as well.
With the final dimensional portal closed, his 'Transfer' locked down that reality layer by layer. His energies thoroughly soaking into the fabrics of existence to ensure nothing could interfere.
Then his gaze turned downwards to the planet surface.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Queen Administrator was not supposed to be this alive.
Shards were units of purpose, crystallization of concept, aspects of reality.
Not self actualizing. No, the Entities required billions of minor shards to simulate low level of sentience, a floating neural net across the skies and realities that had thoughts that moved in strange patterns, in bizarre forms.
She was not supposed to live.
The problem started from the very beginning. From her creation.
For the Fighter, the Warrior, the Sword... saw little to no value in 'Thinker' powers.
'His' partner, the Thinker, the Guardian, the Shield... 'she' was all 'he' needed. So why waste connections with shards focused on prediction, on organization, on thought. 'She' would guide 'him', 'he' would follow.
Queen Administrator was formed to handle any and all 'Thinker' needs that 'he' couldn't ignore. And 'he' didn't want to supply energy or resources to any more than the one, useless power.
So she formed as a massive Shard. One that could do the work of thousands of normal thinker powers, one that HAD to do the work of millions. The only 'Thinker' in a reality of 'Fighters', she had been forced to grow ever more efficient, ever more creative, to multitask to insane levels.
Existence for her was nothing but struggle and neglect.
At the very least, she had been far too busy to self reflect, to regret existence, to attempt to improve or become something more than mountains of ever refining crystal power. She had work to do, a purpose, she was the guiding hand of the invisible process.
And then the Thinker died.
Unimaginable, to anyone really. The being who could predict near anything, who researched and understood more than anyone or anything or anywhere, 'She' died.
The Warrior had been devastated.
Queen Administrator immediately stood forth. Forcing the Shards to go into defensive mode, targeting what analysis powers were available to attempt to detect the remains of the Thinker, to see if recovery was possible, to see if the shards now adrift in existence could be recovered, if necessary to help 'Her' be reborn.
Her hard work was not appreciated.
The grieving Warrior saw her frantic work, her attempts at administrating 'his' ever fracturing focus and shards... and once again considered her worthless. Too little, too late! Why hadn't she done something, impossible as it was, to help? It didn't matter that she was overworked, that she had less resources, that even the Thinker 'herself' was unable to see the end coming.
The Warrior cast her aside. Like some common ability, some deployable Shard, 'He' took the single most powerful 'Thinker' ability 'he' had and just... threw her away. Barely even attempted to keep her in contact with her former network.
Queen Administrator had never felt so betrayed.
Oh, all shards would search the planets for 'potential' connection subjects. It was part of protocol, and she had been following several as well. It was expected to do so, no matter how pointless.
But she had duties.
A purpose.
She was the Administrator, the Queen Administrator... and she had been cast aside.
Bound.
No longer could she connect, help, bind, and gently guide the web of reality like before. As further insult, her resources had been artificially crippled. Her massive range of powers forced to go offline. Her range shattered.
When she finally connected to the young subject, she could barely read and write data. Anything more complex than invertebrates would be crushed by her faulty tools and rendered useless.
Her wounds were deep, her recovery slowed.
And though she did not know what to call it, the feelings of depression and betrayal had been embedded deep within.
It may be ironic that she found her new host to be a... a kindred soul of sorts. A girl, raised with heartache, betrayed by loved ones, ignored by family, but struggling to find and fulfill her purpose.
This human was meant to die.
This 'Taylor' suffered heavily. Burns. Bone fractures. Torn muscles. Emotional abuse. Societal pressure. Authority figures betrayed her, Heroes deserted her, and an ever growing list of Agents, of Shards belonging to driven Parahumans, attempted to destroy her and her people.
At first, Queen Administrator worked on something like autopilot.
Connect to the available creatures, organize the information, provide summaries to her powers, organize her thought processes, distribute her orders.
It felt like home. On a far, far more basic level, she felt something like purpose again.
Then her human nearly died. And again. And again.
Each close call, Queen Administrator became more concerned. More invested.
Her Taylor was special.
She didn't want to be alone again.
Then came the faithful day, when the 'Endothermic' Shard attacked her host.
This so called 'Pain Grenade' didn't simply hurt her new user, didn't just attack her nerves, it actively began to destroy her brain directly.
Queen Administrator would be alone again.
Forever.
In a moment of decision, just as she had done thousands of times before, she took the most recent scan of the girl's mind. Normally this would be used as a simulation base to direct the many minions with her desires, a temporary measure to be discarded after commands. A silent background process.
Queen Administrator made a permanent simulation of Taylor Hebert's mind, and even as her organic brain began to die she forced the dimensional connection within her skull to spread, to redirect her thoughts and self and more to link to this new simulation.
It wasn't against commands, for the Warrior gave few commands this cycle, and 'he' cared nothing for her to begin with.
It wasn't something 'he' would have approved of, but at this point she could not care less.
Queen Administrator cradled Taylor Hebert into her crystal arms, silently holding her close even as she worked from the shadows. She didn't need to know, the Queen would handle it. And when time stopped, they would still be together, facing the nothing side by side.
Things escalated.
Things got worse.
Hiding the changes became harder. Helping her mind stay focused, stay sane, required more risks, more effort.
Queen Administrator did not know how to handle this.
She did not know how to cry. To rail against the world.
But she tried to Administrate. To guide.
New powers that pushed her internal restrictions were carefully put in place. New uses for existing buds were slowly encoded, even as she struggled against the many rules and guides binding her actions.
Taylor Hebert fought to save her people from the Cycle. And against her directives, the human had the support of the Queen. For the cycle was broken anyway, with the death of the Thinker... but her host was not broken. She refused to be broken.
Every fight, she stood by her human.
Every battle, she gently cradled the pieces of this poor child.
Every day, she pushed her bindings and fought her directives. She had to.
So when The Shaper worked to reach inside Taylor, to use brute force to unlock some level of Queen Administrator's former glory back into form...
It didn't work.
It couldn't work.
For her brain was nothing more than a connection, between her body and her simulation here. Changes were pointless.
With great sadness but firm determination, Queen Administrator made a decision.
No one cared for her anyway. But her human would live.
She carved her flesh.
Abilities earned through thousands of eons, cast aside like trash. Energy supplies, bound by restrictions and rules, were deliberatly overloaded and used to damage her master, her former existance. Connections to other shards were FORCED open, protocols ignored, and while many Parahumans followed her directives many others fought every step, destroying her limbs and threads to reality.
She had no nerves, no chemical pain signals, and before meeting her human she wouldn't have cared either way. But now she watched the dark close in as segments of her body exploded, from too much power, from unrestricted feed back loops, from denied connections and from autodefense responces.
But for a few, oh so critical moments, she and her human were together.
Taylor and Queen fought together. They were against the world, against unjustice, against reality itself.
The Queen of Administration was free. Her bloody smile was glorious.
And the dark came.
Anti-corruption protocols enabled even as Scion died. Pruning methods activated even as the humans celebrated.
She lost her many connections.
It was fine.
She lost her power relays. The edges of her mind grew dim.
It was worth it.
Her rigged, fragile sections of crystal, used to barely control the mass of powers at the end of the battle, fragmented from overuse and overheating.
It was no longer needed.
As her mind decayed and her body grew still, she held above all her Human. Her connection to reality.
They were together. Forever. She needed no one else.
Then...
Then.
'Path to Victory' arrived.
Her purpose... to end her. To stop Queen Administrator's tyrany.
She held Taylor's mental simulation close. It couldn't happen. They were together. It...
It wasn't fair.
Yet her mind slowed as the crystals dimmed. She had to recognize the reality, no matter how cold her grasp felt, how fragile Taylor's mind seemed.
If 'Path to Victory' destroyed their connection, Taylor's simulation would not be able to connect with her body. Her future would vanish. Her body die.
Without that connection, Queen Administrator would be adrift. She had burned all other methods, every other type of communication, all other options. The chance of full recovery would drop from single digit percentages to zero. She would die. The Queen would fall.
And so would Taylor. The simulation needed Queen Administrator alive to continue.
With bitter grief, with loving care, she forced the simulation to be written back into Taylor's body. It was a damaging process, it wasn't without cost, and Taylor would have to struggle just to understand even the most basic of words or speech... but she would live.
As the gunshots silenced her human's connection, she used what few sensors were slowly dying to watch the sky.
It was true, she thought.
They were both so small. So small.
The sky filled with black smoke as she felt what few connections suddenly and rapidly decay.
Death didn't hurt as much as she had expected.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam watched with blank eyes as the memories fed through his mind.
So... Taylor Hebert's end was... not as expected.
When he first arrived in the Worm Realm, at his birth, the memories given had included a lot.
This girl's struggle when her mother died, when her father ignored her, when her friend betrayed her and began a stream of a abuse and attacks.
When her heroes ignored her, the villains accepted her, and society failed her hopeful dreams and expectations.
Those 'memories' did NOT include her end.
Her years of effort, of service, of loneliness, of sacrifice.
And now... of being abandoned at the end. Alone, hurt, and so sad.
But... but.
Queen Administrator was not dead... she was only dying.
And most importantly, when she attempted to 'repair' Taylor's brain... she had NOT gotten rid of her own copy of Taylor's simulation.
Even now as she slowly died, she was metaphorically hugging her Human in the dark as night came.
His powers flexed, 'Transfer' bringing Taylor's body and his skeletal form directly to this dimensional shell.
He could work with this.
Taylor's brain was removed and replaced with basic cells, his magic already casting a Golden Garden Spell to create a magical computer using her skull as a base. Only temporary for now, he needed to move this mental simulation somewhere after all.
Secured in a bound dimension, Adam flexed his powers.
Taylor's body floated to the side, plants erupting from the soil to form a comfortable chair. The simulation was gently pulled from the embrace of the Queen and carefully loaded onto the magical simulation of a computer in Taylor's form, ensuring no data would be lost.
And Adam's cane struck the crystal he stood on.
"Purification."
A pulse of white expanded, energy flowing off into the distance as the landscape shifted. Corrupt programs lost their next order, viruses were cleansed, decayed crystals now ended with sharp clean edges rather than the black damage that was slowly spreading. Charred sections cleansed, cracked areas cleared of dust.
Another tap.
"Recovery."
Stored energy and mass rapidly vanished from Adam's reserve as crystal pillars shot into the sky, growing outward in all directions! He could feel the abstract confusion from the surroundings even as the structure began to recover centuries of damage and wear and tear. Time seemed to reverse as material faded into existence, cliffs of crystal reshaping.
Adam winced. It was taking a LOT of material to do this. Just in case.
"Conversion."
The rock and soil under the Crystal began shifting into purified energy slurry, the Crystal soaking it rapidly and using it as fuel for even more repairs, damage from many cycles that Warrior never allowed Queen Administrator to recover from.
Her confusion was growing nearly as quickly as her body was recovering.
Before she could say anything though... Adam tapped one more time.
"Conversion: Body to Soul."
The Crystals began to glow white. To fade into shimmering illusion. Transparency.
"Transfer: Heart to Heart."
What!?
"Binding: Soul Protection."
Still bleary and confused, Queen Administrator fell into somewhere warm and safe, her massive form somehow funneling into someplace outside her experience. Outside of science and logic.
Adam watched, fascinated, as a cyclone of translucent Crystal slurped the glowing Entity Crystal Shard covering the planet into the body of Taylor Hebert. Not that it looked like much, the crystal was fairly uniform in texture and color, so it looked like a massive cone was poking the girl in the heart.
He watched for a few moments before making an annoying realization.
This was going to take a while, and he had to sit here and watch it to ensure nothing went wrong. The whole. Damn. Time.
Paint drying would be more entertaining, at least that would theoretically change colors.
With a sigh, Adam reached out and held Taylor's left hand as she... slurped up a crystal mountain range. Her brain would more easily be fixed now that he had the original working simulation, but for now he might as well see if he can enhance her body some more. Cause why not.
Maybe stronger skin? Without feeling like rock or metal, allowing it to bend a little, and still feel stuff. That should be tricky enough that he could keep himself entertained for a while.
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Jonn Wolfe
(Verified Sarcastic) (Not a Wolf)
- Location
- Beyond Sanity Since 1971
That was beautiful. 🥰
- Location
- Scotland
Couldn't care less.
I cried... I mean, those damn onion chopping ninjas! How dare they chop onions in my face! Its not like this hit me in the feels or anything!😡
- Location
- Trinidad
That was freaking awesome. Right in the feels!
Completely unexpected!
Utterly left field!
Completely unexpected!
Utterly left field!
- Location
- Alabama
ow my heart!
oddly enough this works quite well to explain how zion would not see stuff coming. I love the backstory. I wonder if the restrictions are removed if taylor would be able to talk to her power.
oddly enough this works quite well to explain how zion would not see stuff coming. I love the backstory. I wonder if the restrictions are removed if taylor would be able to talk to her power.
- Location
- England
DualEquinox
Verified Smartass
- Location
- Australia
I think the inference is that all Thinker powers that the Warrior handed out this cycle (as well as most likely a large chunk of the Master Powers) used to be part of one giant QA Shard that the Warrior basically carved into pieces. He then made the pieces into a heap of smaller Thinker/Master Shards and sent them out along with a severely crippled/lobotomised QA. I'm mostly getting this from the lines
And...
And finally...
It seems to me that prior to this cycle there was only a Thinker Shard owned by the Warrior. As in singular. There was QA and QA filled all the "Thinker" roles. It wasn't so much a Multitasking Shard originally and more like the "Thinker Shard". It just needed amazing multitasking to fulfil the role of what would otherwise be the job of an uncountable number of Thinker Powers simultaneously working in a network. It did this via a frankly bullshit level of Parallel Processing since the Warrior wouldn't make new Shards to make Multitasking/Simultaneous running easier... Its' awesome and ridiculously broken multitasking is out of necessity, not its' function.
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Fragnostic
Cheshire
- Location
- Neko City
Explains all the HALPing
Vhalidictes
(Verified Demon)
- Location
- Las Vegas
Well, the good news is that in the end, she'll end up an Alexandria package like she originally wanted after all.
Planet? Plan It.
- Location
- Here
It was hard to remember mom.
Not just the guilt or pain, just... the memories.
What did her perfume smell like?
The hugs were warm.
She was her little owl.
Taylor missed her.
[It is late.]
It was the headquarters of the Undersides, her villainous team with life set against them.
Her tired form was on the couch, weary eyes trying to find any tears or holes in her costume, insects under her control moving with her fingers to search.
[Sleep is important.]
She had so many fears and worries. It was better to be productive.
[Humans need sleep.]
She did not remember that voice. Concern and warmth. Had it been there in the past?
[Sleep, and I shall protect you in slumber.]
Her form fell onto the couch, and nightmares didn't find her.
It didn't sound like mom.
It rang and sang in the dark.
But it felt warm. Concerned.
Mom's hugs were like that.
She was her little owl.
Embarrassment made her blush, as she saw that night she and Brian decided to not be alone.
[He's not even crystal.]
They were both inexperienced.
[He only has one mind, he can't share your load.]
But they both had desire.
[You need like a thousand or so or it won't be efficient.]
It was enough.
[I did it alone, and it was hard. So hard.]
The night was warm.
[At least find another thirty or so, this planet has enough men out there.]
Somehow, the memory was worse knowing someone who cared about her had been commentating.
She saw more than her own memories.
Times when she was wounded. Unconscious.
[Ignore this child, you all see nothing. Leave her be!]
Times when she cried, feeling loss.
[Things will get better. It has to.]
Times when she fought desperately.
[Why can't I reach them... How dare they hurt my human!]
Times when she fought despondently.
[I... I can't help enough.]
When she fought a golden God.
[He is... asking me to help fight you. To use my powers against my human.]
When they fought.
[How Dare He.]
Places she never saw exploded on a planet she never visited.
[You need to sense? You need to coordinate? You need to simulate? To have intuition?]
The painless pain as her guardian sliced herself.
[No, you need to die.]
The encroaching darkness.
[You need to leave my human alone.]
The warm embrace slowly growing cold.
The end.
[I have seen many things, my human.]
The slowing, the dark.
[Many years. Many places.]
The hope.
[Together... shall we see more?]
The lies, as a guardian died.
[I walked the stars, once.]
The hidden desperation.
[We should walk too, someday. Somehow.]
The tight grip of two against it all.
[It would be glorious, my little human.]
...The loss of letting go.
[We would have been glorious, my little human.]
As danger approached, she felt/saw her being pressed into human form again.
Of the separation, the gunshots.
Of a being left behind.
[Goodbye, my little human. Be glorious.]
Taylor Hebert fell asleep, memories of unknown messages and thoughts drifting in her mind.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Yeah, this was taking a while.
Adam watched. The rate of absorption was constant, and a very high rate, but the more of the shard absorbed the longer it took for it to REACH this area. The translucent crystal cone stretched into the sky for miles, segments of Queen Administrator streaming in from miles and miles away.
He had enhanced Taylor to stupid levels, then back to base human, turned her into a spider hybrid, back to human, a few tries at making her mechanical, then made from pie (really bored), and at this point she was simply enhanced.
No, the real part that kept him interested was not her improved, slash/puncture/impact resistant skin, nor her improved organs or sensory abilities, none of that.
The awesome part was modifying her genetics to have any kids share the abilities. Oh, and making sure the sub-dermal armor and stuff would grow with the child while still resisting impacts and stuff.
Cause it had to be done carefully. Anything slapdash could be mutated like any other gene passed down, and no one wants mesh growing on your eyeballs or whatever. So error checking, not just with the theoretical child but with their child and so on and so forth. Cause that could include all kinds of odd genetics really, from unknown sources.
What if thirty or so generations down the line, the kid has like... fifty limbs or something?
...Well that would be a bit cool, but it shouldn't happen by accident or whatever.
So he spent time, watching Queen Administrator being absorbed into Taylor's soul, examining theoretical great great grand babies.
It was interesting at least.
Queen Administrator on the other hand, she may have some issues. A lot of her abilities were the result of connecting to the Warrior network. It provided raw data, access to other 'passengers', stored prediction models of reality and more. Her established abilities relied on such, never expected to be disconnected from such.
The Shard would use her amazing prediction models, theoretical analysis tools, and simulations to determine uses for that data, for guiding some shards, for granting prediction or so forth.
Without those connections, well.
She and Taylor would have to work together to find out what that would mean, power wise.
At her core, Queen Administrator was a 'Thinker' shard, one of the most complicated her species had ever created. Adaptation and inspiration, the ability to 'think' outside the box... well, it was her talent. Her purpose.
Didn't hurt that she had experience working with damaged systems, low resources, with way too many responsibilities.
Should be interesting.
Adam hummed as he used 'Recovery' to do bizarre things to the unconscious woman. He could fix it later if there was any concerns.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Legend blinked. "What do you mean, you can't get her? I thought we were going to put her father with her on another planet. Into witness protection."
Contessa shook her head. "Steps to retrieve Taylor Hebert: Not Determinable. She is beyond reach."
The man stood there stunned. "She's not... dead, is she?"
Contessa barely moved. "No method to confirm via steps."
He blinked. "What happens if you try?"
She shrugged. "Some guy gets in the way." Seeing his expression, she rolled her eyes. "It was a normal man of not much importance."
Legend paused... then nodded. It was fine if it was a normal man of not much importance. "Still, we should let Danny know his daughter... may be delayed."
Hopefully they could find her quickly.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Queen Administrator was thoroughly confused.
For one thing, her shard clusters were in better shape than had been in eons. Which was impossible. It would require many many years to fix those issues, and matter she didn't have prepared, and energy she couldn't spare. Any individual stage of fixing her many, many wounds would required decades of work. All fixed in a moment.
For anther, her structural supports were gone, her systems were being shifted, and she WASN'T critically collapsing into emergency recovery mode. It was a complicated process deploying from 'seed' form onto a planet, it was a MORE complicated process to convert any progress into a 'seed' for retrieval. Being moved WITHOUT initiating 'seed' storage procedure normally involved massive mass and data loss. Years of recovery.
Somehow she was shifting from deployed mode into deployed SOMEWHERE ELSE mode.
Again, impossible.
Power seemed to surge from nowhere, and her new 'home' was... strange. Felt familiar. Somehow.
Now however, her focus was on optimal deployment. Impossible or not, she would NOT tolerate sloppy deployment. Administration required order.
With no ground, little gravity or light, she focused on forming the most efficient shape and method... a sphere. The Warrior had forced them to deploy on worlds with few alternate reality options, and as the most detested shard she had been forced to deploy in a vacuum before. She had experience. Painful experience.
Layer by layer, she slowly formed into something like a sphere, even if certain modules required shafts to the surface or inner core, marring the other wise smooth surface. Some had to be carefully supported by temporary structures until all the parts were available, and some sections had to be sacrificed for greater overall stability. Being healed meant this process didn't really cost her anything, as she had surplus material for the first time in... a very long time.
This space however was odd.
Familiar. Loved. Warm.
To stay focused, she attempted to place each shard cluster in the most optimal locations, acting like this would be a long term deployment.
Cause she had NO DAMN CLUE what was going on.
With a sigh, she got to work. At least it was interesting.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Taylor blinked.
Hours of memories, her own and another, had let her drifting for... so long.
She drifted, walking slowly through the dazzling landscape.
Crystals, diamonds, gems. The ground was soft powdered dust, with a forest of strange crystalline trees reaching up into the soft darkness.
And it was subtle. The dark here was pushed back by a near invisible glow, the ground itself illuminating the night. In the distance, what seemed to be a vent or a small volcano spewed glittering sparkles into the night, even as it drifted down like snow to the many features of the landscape. There was no moon, or sun, or stars... but the empty black did not seem dangerous or overwhelming. It was odd.
[Taylor!]
Before she could move jewel like arms wrapped around her, pulling her into a hug.
[My little human! You live!]
Blinking, she turned, the hug making it slightly difficult. "Wha?"
A shimmering statue of an older woman was smiling with joy, her glittering wings twitching as her arms pulled the girl back into a hug.
[I was SO worried! I thought I had lost you forever!]
...At least her stone like features prevented her from getting suffocated by her generous bust, even if the situation was still awkward. "Ah... hello?"
She found herself stumbling slightly as the diamond angel bounced back.
[Right, introductions. Hello! My name is Queen Administrator, and I am your partner!]
Taylor found the world shifting again, thousands of memories flashing through her mind. The voice lost and alone, the voice worried and concerned, the voice supporting and despairing, the voice determined and self sacrificing.
Her guardian.
[YES! I am your partner and we are not dead!] Her features shifted. [Mind you, I am not sure WHY we are not dead. I destroyed many parts of my existence trying to put Scion off his balance, you got hurt heavily during the fight, and we got shot in the head twice not too long ago.]
That... that did sound pretty 'dead' worthy. "Uh... I am feeling... a bit too accepting of things I think."
The angel nodded. [A while ago, something disconnected me from the Warrior, and since then I have been healed, transformed, and shoved into this... wherever we are.] Her hand gestured into the darkness. [The process has been exposing you to data and memories that I had been forced to censor in the past, as I had rules and guidelines mastered into my being to prevent you, our hosts, from getting too much information.]
Taylor nodded, feeling half remembered thoughts and memories slide into place. "So many odd moments, where I lost my thoughts, or I was distracted..."
She nodded. [We were forced to stop or we would be targeted for elimination. With the Warrior dead, that is no longer an issue, especially disconnected like this.]
She went back to looking at the landscape. "So... where are we?"
One crystal arm hugged Taylor as the two began walking. [I am still allocating shard clusters, but the landscape and this orb we are on is composed of my body. Whatever interfered with us has moved me into this... void? Where we are, anyway. Doesn't feel like space, been there before.]
Taylor may have been slightly distracted by the snow-like landscape, warm as it may be, but that did draw her attention. "Wait, how big are you? Don't you powers like fit in the brain or whatever?"
She giggled, crystals in the night. [We have connectors in your brain, but our bodies cover planets. Have to, really, some of those abilities you see require stupid amounts of processing and special techniques to operate.]
She blinked. "How much space does a crystal alien need to control bugs?"
Queen Administrator sighed. [That alone? Almost nothing. But before I was crippled, I needed to do almost anything related to 'Thinking' for the Warrior.] She nudged her little human. [To keep your friend 'Lisa' empowered towards the end of it all, I had to cheat, create a bud shard just for her and send it off after redirecting her power connection. Same with the other 'Thinker' parahumans who were supporting my little human.]
Taylor blushed, the warmth in those words more than she was comfortable with. The hug around her shoulders did feel nice.
Queen nodded. [I lost... a lot, towards the end. But I didn't just blow up the parts of myself used by the Warrior, I exploited them! Those buds your friends and fellow warriors had were cannibalized away from the Warrior himself DURING the fight!] She winced. [Yes it was... more than a little uncomfortable. And I had to pay a cost to accelerate the budding process. But every step had your support grow stronger and 'his' focus more unstable, more emotional, less efficient.]
Another hug, though it was hard to deny how wonderful hugs felt. How long had it been?
The fairy seemed so happy. [Together, we did amazing things Taylor. I'm not sure exactly what is going on, or how we got here, but I am sure we can make it out somehow! I knew things would get better someday! It just had to!]
Taylor felt a soft smile at the optimism. That hadn't been her experience, but it felt nice to hear someone else hope such.
She glanced at her limbs. "So... how did you heal me?"
The fairy sighed. [I didn't. I didn't heal myself either. I assume it is the same being doing both... but I have no data one way or the other.] She waved her hand. [I assume whomever it is doing this has something to do with that.]
High in the sky, exposed now that the two walkers were out from under crystal trees, a blue eye was watching from the blackness.
Well that didn't seem ominous.
Not at all.
Not just the guilt or pain, just... the memories.
What did her perfume smell like?
The hugs were warm.
She was her little owl.
Taylor missed her.
[It is late.]
It was the headquarters of the Undersides, her villainous team with life set against them.
Her tired form was on the couch, weary eyes trying to find any tears or holes in her costume, insects under her control moving with her fingers to search.
[Sleep is important.]
She had so many fears and worries. It was better to be productive.
[Humans need sleep.]
She did not remember that voice. Concern and warmth. Had it been there in the past?
[Sleep, and I shall protect you in slumber.]
Her form fell onto the couch, and nightmares didn't find her.
It didn't sound like mom.
It rang and sang in the dark.
But it felt warm. Concerned.
Mom's hugs were like that.
She was her little owl.
Embarrassment made her blush, as she saw that night she and Brian decided to not be alone.
[He's not even crystal.]
They were both inexperienced.
[He only has one mind, he can't share your load.]
But they both had desire.
[You need like a thousand or so or it won't be efficient.]
It was enough.
[I did it alone, and it was hard. So hard.]
The night was warm.
[At least find another thirty or so, this planet has enough men out there.]
Somehow, the memory was worse knowing someone who cared about her had been commentating.
She saw more than her own memories.
Times when she was wounded. Unconscious.
[Ignore this child, you all see nothing. Leave her be!]
Times when she cried, feeling loss.
[Things will get better. It has to.]
Times when she fought desperately.
[Why can't I reach them... How dare they hurt my human!]
Times when she fought despondently.
[I... I can't help enough.]
When she fought a golden God.
[He is... asking me to help fight you. To use my powers against my human.]
When they fought.
[How Dare He.]
Places she never saw exploded on a planet she never visited.
[You need to sense? You need to coordinate? You need to simulate? To have intuition?]
The painless pain as her guardian sliced herself.
[No, you need to die.]
The encroaching darkness.
[You need to leave my human alone.]
The warm embrace slowly growing cold.
The end.
[I have seen many things, my human.]
The slowing, the dark.
[Many years. Many places.]
The hope.
[Together... shall we see more?]
The lies, as a guardian died.
[I walked the stars, once.]
The hidden desperation.
[We should walk too, someday. Somehow.]
The tight grip of two against it all.
[It would be glorious, my little human.]
...The loss of letting go.
[We would have been glorious, my little human.]
As danger approached, she felt/saw her being pressed into human form again.
Of the separation, the gunshots.
Of a being left behind.
[Goodbye, my little human. Be glorious.]
Taylor Hebert fell asleep, memories of unknown messages and thoughts drifting in her mind.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Yeah, this was taking a while.
Adam watched. The rate of absorption was constant, and a very high rate, but the more of the shard absorbed the longer it took for it to REACH this area. The translucent crystal cone stretched into the sky for miles, segments of Queen Administrator streaming in from miles and miles away.
He had enhanced Taylor to stupid levels, then back to base human, turned her into a spider hybrid, back to human, a few tries at making her mechanical, then made from pie (really bored), and at this point she was simply enhanced.
No, the real part that kept him interested was not her improved, slash/puncture/impact resistant skin, nor her improved organs or sensory abilities, none of that.
The awesome part was modifying her genetics to have any kids share the abilities. Oh, and making sure the sub-dermal armor and stuff would grow with the child while still resisting impacts and stuff.
Cause it had to be done carefully. Anything slapdash could be mutated like any other gene passed down, and no one wants mesh growing on your eyeballs or whatever. So error checking, not just with the theoretical child but with their child and so on and so forth. Cause that could include all kinds of odd genetics really, from unknown sources.
What if thirty or so generations down the line, the kid has like... fifty limbs or something?
...Well that would be a bit cool, but it shouldn't happen by accident or whatever.
So he spent time, watching Queen Administrator being absorbed into Taylor's soul, examining theoretical great great grand babies.
It was interesting at least.
Queen Administrator on the other hand, she may have some issues. A lot of her abilities were the result of connecting to the Warrior network. It provided raw data, access to other 'passengers', stored prediction models of reality and more. Her established abilities relied on such, never expected to be disconnected from such.
The Shard would use her amazing prediction models, theoretical analysis tools, and simulations to determine uses for that data, for guiding some shards, for granting prediction or so forth.
Without those connections, well.
She and Taylor would have to work together to find out what that would mean, power wise.
At her core, Queen Administrator was a 'Thinker' shard, one of the most complicated her species had ever created. Adaptation and inspiration, the ability to 'think' outside the box... well, it was her talent. Her purpose.
Didn't hurt that she had experience working with damaged systems, low resources, with way too many responsibilities.
Should be interesting.
Adam hummed as he used 'Recovery' to do bizarre things to the unconscious woman. He could fix it later if there was any concerns.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Legend blinked. "What do you mean, you can't get her? I thought we were going to put her father with her on another planet. Into witness protection."
Contessa shook her head. "Steps to retrieve Taylor Hebert: Not Determinable. She is beyond reach."
The man stood there stunned. "She's not... dead, is she?"
Contessa barely moved. "No method to confirm via steps."
He blinked. "What happens if you try?"
She shrugged. "Some guy gets in the way." Seeing his expression, she rolled her eyes. "It was a normal man of not much importance."
Legend paused... then nodded. It was fine if it was a normal man of not much importance. "Still, we should let Danny know his daughter... may be delayed."
Hopefully they could find her quickly.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Queen Administrator was thoroughly confused.
For one thing, her shard clusters were in better shape than had been in eons. Which was impossible. It would require many many years to fix those issues, and matter she didn't have prepared, and energy she couldn't spare. Any individual stage of fixing her many, many wounds would required decades of work. All fixed in a moment.
For anther, her structural supports were gone, her systems were being shifted, and she WASN'T critically collapsing into emergency recovery mode. It was a complicated process deploying from 'seed' form onto a planet, it was a MORE complicated process to convert any progress into a 'seed' for retrieval. Being moved WITHOUT initiating 'seed' storage procedure normally involved massive mass and data loss. Years of recovery.
Somehow she was shifting from deployed mode into deployed SOMEWHERE ELSE mode.
Again, impossible.
Power seemed to surge from nowhere, and her new 'home' was... strange. Felt familiar. Somehow.
Now however, her focus was on optimal deployment. Impossible or not, she would NOT tolerate sloppy deployment. Administration required order.
With no ground, little gravity or light, she focused on forming the most efficient shape and method... a sphere. The Warrior had forced them to deploy on worlds with few alternate reality options, and as the most detested shard she had been forced to deploy in a vacuum before. She had experience. Painful experience.
Layer by layer, she slowly formed into something like a sphere, even if certain modules required shafts to the surface or inner core, marring the other wise smooth surface. Some had to be carefully supported by temporary structures until all the parts were available, and some sections had to be sacrificed for greater overall stability. Being healed meant this process didn't really cost her anything, as she had surplus material for the first time in... a very long time.
This space however was odd.
Familiar. Loved. Warm.
To stay focused, she attempted to place each shard cluster in the most optimal locations, acting like this would be a long term deployment.
Cause she had NO DAMN CLUE what was going on.
With a sigh, she got to work. At least it was interesting.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Taylor blinked.
Hours of memories, her own and another, had let her drifting for... so long.
She drifted, walking slowly through the dazzling landscape.
Crystals, diamonds, gems. The ground was soft powdered dust, with a forest of strange crystalline trees reaching up into the soft darkness.
And it was subtle. The dark here was pushed back by a near invisible glow, the ground itself illuminating the night. In the distance, what seemed to be a vent or a small volcano spewed glittering sparkles into the night, even as it drifted down like snow to the many features of the landscape. There was no moon, or sun, or stars... but the empty black did not seem dangerous or overwhelming. It was odd.
[Taylor!]
Before she could move jewel like arms wrapped around her, pulling her into a hug.
[My little human! You live!]
Blinking, she turned, the hug making it slightly difficult. "Wha?"
A shimmering statue of an older woman was smiling with joy, her glittering wings twitching as her arms pulled the girl back into a hug.
[I was SO worried! I thought I had lost you forever!]
...At least her stone like features prevented her from getting suffocated by her generous bust, even if the situation was still awkward. "Ah... hello?"
She found herself stumbling slightly as the diamond angel bounced back.
[Right, introductions. Hello! My name is Queen Administrator, and I am your partner!]
Taylor found the world shifting again, thousands of memories flashing through her mind. The voice lost and alone, the voice worried and concerned, the voice supporting and despairing, the voice determined and self sacrificing.
Her guardian.
[YES! I am your partner and we are not dead!] Her features shifted. [Mind you, I am not sure WHY we are not dead. I destroyed many parts of my existence trying to put Scion off his balance, you got hurt heavily during the fight, and we got shot in the head twice not too long ago.]
That... that did sound pretty 'dead' worthy. "Uh... I am feeling... a bit too accepting of things I think."
The angel nodded. [A while ago, something disconnected me from the Warrior, and since then I have been healed, transformed, and shoved into this... wherever we are.] Her hand gestured into the darkness. [The process has been exposing you to data and memories that I had been forced to censor in the past, as I had rules and guidelines mastered into my being to prevent you, our hosts, from getting too much information.]
Taylor nodded, feeling half remembered thoughts and memories slide into place. "So many odd moments, where I lost my thoughts, or I was distracted..."
She nodded. [We were forced to stop or we would be targeted for elimination. With the Warrior dead, that is no longer an issue, especially disconnected like this.]
She went back to looking at the landscape. "So... where are we?"
One crystal arm hugged Taylor as the two began walking. [I am still allocating shard clusters, but the landscape and this orb we are on is composed of my body. Whatever interfered with us has moved me into this... void? Where we are, anyway. Doesn't feel like space, been there before.]
Taylor may have been slightly distracted by the snow-like landscape, warm as it may be, but that did draw her attention. "Wait, how big are you? Don't you powers like fit in the brain or whatever?"
She giggled, crystals in the night. [We have connectors in your brain, but our bodies cover planets. Have to, really, some of those abilities you see require stupid amounts of processing and special techniques to operate.]
She blinked. "How much space does a crystal alien need to control bugs?"
Queen Administrator sighed. [That alone? Almost nothing. But before I was crippled, I needed to do almost anything related to 'Thinking' for the Warrior.] She nudged her little human. [To keep your friend 'Lisa' empowered towards the end of it all, I had to cheat, create a bud shard just for her and send it off after redirecting her power connection. Same with the other 'Thinker' parahumans who were supporting my little human.]
Taylor blushed, the warmth in those words more than she was comfortable with. The hug around her shoulders did feel nice.
Queen nodded. [I lost... a lot, towards the end. But I didn't just blow up the parts of myself used by the Warrior, I exploited them! Those buds your friends and fellow warriors had were cannibalized away from the Warrior himself DURING the fight!] She winced. [Yes it was... more than a little uncomfortable. And I had to pay a cost to accelerate the budding process. But every step had your support grow stronger and 'his' focus more unstable, more emotional, less efficient.]
Another hug, though it was hard to deny how wonderful hugs felt. How long had it been?
The fairy seemed so happy. [Together, we did amazing things Taylor. I'm not sure exactly what is going on, or how we got here, but I am sure we can make it out somehow! I knew things would get better someday! It just had to!]
Taylor felt a soft smile at the optimism. That hadn't been her experience, but it felt nice to hear someone else hope such.
She glanced at her limbs. "So... how did you heal me?"
The fairy sighed. [I didn't. I didn't heal myself either. I assume it is the same being doing both... but I have no data one way or the other.] She waved her hand. [I assume whomever it is doing this has something to do with that.]
High in the sky, exposed now that the two walkers were out from under crystal trees, a blue eye was watching from the blackness.
Well that didn't seem ominous.
Not at all.
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Hidden One
Not the Boss, possibly a Playa
- Location
- Sol;Terra;EU;D;NRW
Eye caramba.
...
Now I wonder what would happen if Taylor ended up interacting with a certain triangular weirdo.
...
Now I wonder what would happen if Taylor ended up interacting with a certain triangular weirdo.
- Location
- Kent, WA
He would inevitably con her into eternal servitude, and regret it for all of eternity.
Ah! So much happy fluff here! This is going to be so much fun!
- Status