Hay! It lives! This is a fun story, and I'm glad it hasn't been abandoned.
Contractual Villainy
- Thread starter Sandy River DL
- Start date
Honorguard Ra
(Verified Lizard Dude)
It Lives! I'm way too amused by Taylor going shopping for useful things, only to intentionally waste time by shopping for stuff for her ladies. Kudos for going after older style clothing. Well made Medieval clothing is surprisingly sturdy stuff. Considering the settlement is near the sea on the new homeworld, and Brockton Bay being an oceanic city, any chance of a pirate store nearby? :3
How long is the gap time between the 2 Earth's?
Anyway, Taylor should start saying embarrassing stuff about Emma, let's see how well reputation handles that one!
Anyway, Taylor should start saying embarrassing stuff about Emma, let's see how well reputation handles that one!
Sandy River DL
(Verified Destroyer Leader)
- Location
- Lake Michigan
- Pronouns
- Her/She
She probably could have, yes, but isn't entirely clear on if that's actually allowed or if Emma has to no-show.
...I posted an update a month ago?
Well, she is a teenager...
More seriously, yeah. SHe be spiteful about this, even if she knows it gave her the fresh start she and her new friends desperately needed."Hey, I've got time. I'll grab some good clothes, me and the others will need them later."
And I'm sure there was some pirate cosplay stuff at the shop, the leggings she grabbed for when Amy moves in may or may not be from that selection...
Taylor's base of Kairafon is a little an hour behind Brockton Bay due to time zones, but the earths are in temporal sync like Bet is with Aleph. As for spilling embarrassing secrets about Emma... that would, one, violate the unwritten rules and cause her trouble and two,is something Emma did to her.
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MaimakteriAnn
(Verified Sleepy)
- Location
- Enormous And Round Terran Homeworld
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Dr
"Glory, every charm on this bracelet is on the adl list of hate symbols"
"You can't prove the owners know that"
"That clock has a sonnenrad for a face, and figure eights for hands"
"Yeah but that's just done pagan blessing right? And the figure eights are probably infinity symbols, because time"
"The inscription is 14 words long, Victoria..."
"You can't prove the owners know that"
"That clock has a sonnenrad for a face, and figure eights for hands"
"Yeah but that's just done pagan blessing right? And the figure eights are probably infinity symbols, because time"
"The inscription is 14 words long, Victoria..."
- Location
- North Carolina
Well, I think that Emma is going to probably seriously injure Taylor here....
Since Taylor played her for a fool and gave the Wards the runaround, Emma's going to be hopping mad.
Since Taylor played her for a fool and gave the Wards the runaround, Emma's going to be hopping mad.
Sounds like Taylor really needs to call Cauldron and get very clear on her obligations. Being required to have a 5 minute fight would seem a problem if the Cauldron customers want to have multiple encounters without looking stupid.
JVR
Contessa's #1 Fangirl
- Location
- Cauldron Compound
Arguably, not getting clarification might be more useful. Ambiguity can exploited, explicit rules less so.
- Location
- Attached to a wall
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Did Zennith sprain her ankle or something while punching? Or is her suit was Emma's suit choking her?
Ambiguity can be exploited by someone. Always important to ask who it is that can exploit a given ambiguity.
Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
JVR
Contessa's #1 Fangirl
- Location
- Cauldron Compound
If Cauldron doesn't say she can't interpret the rules this way, then they've effectively given tacit consent that she can. Better to ask forgiveness than permission.
- Location
- Europe
Dear gods, Vic, by now you're not only abetting via ignorance but straight up aiding them by keeping yourself stupid to those signs.
Great chapter, i wish this lootrun will allow Taylor to create some more active abilities to defend herself but she already has the psychological games down pat.
I've been grinning the entire time.
See, that aphorism is pure reckless arrogance. It's only true if the likelihood and severity of not getting that forgiveness are comfortably low.
There are such occasions. You might want to think hard about whether dealing with a quasiomnipotent ruthless conspiracy is a good bet for one though.
RogueInquisitor
Unexpected!
See, Cauldron can decide to enforce punishment clauses if your reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous term or clause doesn't match theirs. They can enforce a correctness standard, not a reasonableness standard, and Taylor is still essentially at their mercy. Plus, getting clarification, rather than trying to exploit ambiguity, is a sign of good faith, which again potentially benefits Taylor by getting the referee of this little series of encounters on her side.
Really wish we had been able to hear Vicky's chat with the store owner. Was she actually ignorant, or playing dumb to keep Taylor from deflecting from the whole ongoing theft and stalling for time?
Sandy River DL
(Verified Destroyer Leader)
- Location
- Lake Michigan
- Pronouns
- Her/She
It can also screw you over. One can only push as far as the rules enforcing party allows, and Taylor doesn't want to annoy the shadowy conspiracy that is also her primary lifeline should things go sideways.
Landed wrong after overcommitting her lunge. More detail next chapter.
Fixed.
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- Location
- Painting, Peach's Castle
Well, that's embarrassing.
I can just imagine Vista looking at her with disgust over being taken out by a bad step of all things.
KillerFish
Grumpy Owl, Bird Lawyer
If I remember correctly, was it 11 encounters within a six month period of time? What happens if Taylor cannot have the required amount of encounters with Emma, due to Emma being taken off the patrol rota for "training", under console duty punishment, or stuck in a M/S screening cell?
I mean, yeah, Emma *could* schedule an encounter when she's officially off-duty, but she seems insistent on being highly visible in beating Taylor.
I mean, yeah, Emma *could* schedule an encounter when she's officially off-duty, but she seems insistent on being highly visible in beating Taylor.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Likely nothing to Taylor. If the one who purchased a Nemesis F's up why does the Nemesis need to pay. Also in the inspiration it was noted that there are exceptions for things like Endbringer battles or just things out of either parties control. It might be 11 required encounters or 6 months whichever comes first ends the contract.
This.
Taylor cannot reach Cauldron. She cannot successfully attack Cauldron. She cannot successfully defend from Cauldron. She cannot even stall Cauldron, and she cannot hide from Cauldron.
Cauldron is not under some exact wording geas; they have not made some unbreakable vow to obey their contract explicitly. They are not subject to any authority at all; no nation has sway over them. No planet has sway over them. There is no binding arbitrarion, no legal system, no justice system, no association that governs, regulates, or even counsels or advises Cauldron on their contracts.
There would be no repercussions from anyone anywhere if Cauldron opened a Door and instead of dropping supplies, just nuked Taylor and crew. Or Mastered them all. Or brainwiped them. In most cases, nobody would know anything except that the teleporting crew talking about living on another planet teleported out and never showed up again.
Cauldron can do whatever they want without limit to Taylor and crew. Taylor already knows they can travel to her planet whenever they like.
Taylor and crew can do nothing to Cauldron; they merely hope that Cauldron chooses to honor the deal made; and Cauldron's interpretation is the only one that matters.
Sure, maybe they'll negotiate a clause... but far better to ask in advance than get instakilled, or worse, in retaliation for a different interpretation.
While I wouldn't do it to just anyone, I wouldn't have minded inflicting some payback in kind on my own bullies/abusers. So yes, even if it is what they did to me that I hated, I wouldn't have minded as a teenager letting them know how it feels to be on the receiving end. Note that it's been long enough (I'm over 3.46 times as old as I was when it started, and 2.5 times as old as when I graduated and didn't have to see them ever again and so it stopped) that I probably wouldn't do much to them TODAY even if given the opportunity for no repercussions, but back in high school when the harassment was ongoing? Absolutely.
Of course, such behavior only got ME in trouble, since the rules were only enforced on Targets, but the point is Taylor might be willing to do that to Emma, Sophia, and Madison, if nobody else who didn't betray her first.
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Emma probably isn't even thinking about this kind of stuff. She's used to being able to do pretty much whatever she wants without any repercussions whatsoever. I don't think she's quite gotten the fact that she's just as beholden to the rules as everybody else outside of highschool.
My interpretation of Emma is that while she's somewhat clever, she's not actually all that smart. She really only got to the top of the social ladder because of a combination of factors: a target that can't fight back to be used as an example, a thug (Sophia) who is more than happy to visit violence upon anybody for any perceived slight, and a school faculty who cannot give less of a damn about their students. Any even halfway decent school and she probably would have spent most of her highschool career in detention, suspended (either in school or out of school), or completely expelled.
We already know from canon that Emma doesn't deal well with the unexpected. She's both mentally and emotionally fragile and was using Taylor as a stress ball she can squeeze anytime she wants. Now that she can't just do whatever she wants, she's spiraling and if she realizes that Taylor is both smarter and better than her, I wouldn't be too surprised if she starts escalating to the point that she starts deliberately trying to kill Taylor.
While this story doesn't necessarily match Nemesis rules, over there the encounters were at the beneficiary's discretion. So if Emma didn't call them in within the time limit that would be her problem, not Taylor's. And similarly if she called one but didn't show up, it would still count, though that could be used to pressure Taylor into unwanted positions.
JVR
Contessa's #1 Fangirl
- Location
- Cauldron Compound
I'd take the chance, it's a calculated risk. Let's review, her directions were:
"You are to rob a store in the Weymouth Mall at 6:30 PM on Sunday the 6th. As a reminder, you must spend at least twenty-five minutes at the target and cannot retreat from the encounter for a minimum of five minutes. You may bring your associate and she is not bound to remain once the encounter begins."
She robbed a store at that mall at the appointed time - check. She's still in the mall - check. She hasn't even left the wing of the mall where the store she robbed is at. If the "heroes" are too stupid to find her while she ducks behind some display racks, that's not her problem. She's complied with the instructions as given.