Remove ads

Contractual Villainy

Reader mode
owlmessenger said:
The path was to "Getting Better Coffee", not "Getting Better Coffee NOW".
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, one of the Doyalist reasons for Path to Getting Better Coffee is to show how sloppy Contessa is in her use of PtV. She'd have had her coffee within an hour if she'd put any real thought into the instructions. Just like she'd have gotten better results in saving humanity by Pathing to save humanity instead of kill the scary thing.
 
Tankrider said:
Then PtV might define 'humanity' or 'save' differently, what if it led to a path where all humans are uploaded or preserved as a snapshot in some bullshit shard? it's not easy to ask questions.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
And she wasn't literally running a Path from the words ''kill the scary thing' either. I was commenting on the goals, not the wording.
 
I always wondered if a path like "prevent Scion from running amok" wouldn't have been just as possible. But one got the impression that Cauldron had rather a tunnel vision on the subject.
 
Laylissa said:
I always wondered if a path like "prevent Scion from running amok" wouldn't have been just as possible. But one got the impression that Cauldron had rather a tunnel vision on the subject.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I'd hazard a guess that it is quite strong tunnel vision, given that Contessa was a recently traumatized little girl when she started the path and basically let her shard begin running her life and Cauldron's plan forward.
 
I've also read Beaconhill's fic. This has great potential, and I'm looking forward to more of Taylor's experience as a villain. But I also hope we see more backstory to have a better understanding of what's happened.
 
Caiuz said:
I hope Best Shard took control of Cauldrons Braindead Blend when Taylor drank the vial.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Cannonically, QA is a Crown Shard that was intentionally crippled not just in programming, but also physically by the 'Scion' segments of Warrior.
And now she's just been given direct access to a handful of other shards...
Which might seem pretty important, but here's a couple pieces of information that might make it even more so.

Thinker had previously come in direct contact with an entity known as Cannibal, where she traded shards with it.

And.

Consuming each other is how their race kicked off their early, omnidimensional civil war. Before they were even a spacefaring species.

All that put together, I would not be surprised if QA had found a way to subsume the semi-active shards leftover from Thinker that Taylor drank (Liquid connect liquid? LCL? Best not to think too hard on it.) and turned herself into a Frankenshard.
 
Sandy River DL said:
shipping
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Sold. Watch Button Clicked, no further reading required.

Sandy River DL said:
Contessa stepped out of Doormaker's portal behind the inquisitive creature investigating Hausōs's freshly constructed shelter and caught it in a debilitating hold. She then passed back through to Bet, where the fedora'd woman walked to an ordinary-looking house on the outskirts of Boston. Picking the lock one-handed, she pushed open the door and tossed the rat-like animal through the doorway and closed everything back up. Strolling away she spoke in a hushed voice. "Step 374 in the Path to Getting Better Coffee complete."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I knew it! It was a PtV plot all along!!!!!!!!!! They're helping out Taylor for their own self-interest!!! She's gonna make the best Coffee someday, so cauldron has to intervene to make it a reality.

Sandy River DL said:
Yeah, one of the Doyalist reasons for Path to Getting Better Coffee is to show how sloppy Contessa is in her use of PtV. She'd have had her coffee within an hour if she'd put any real thought into the instructions. Just like she'd have gotten better results in saving humanity by Pathing to save humanity instead of kill the scary thing.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, 100% Contessa doesn't really make that good of use of PtV, partly because it seems that the Shard kinda runs the show more than her, and partly because she doesn't really know better. (and for a lot of the things we know she did, she didn't really super need to know better)

With the context of her backstory, I can also see how they never thought to Path save humanity, as if all the worlds were destroyed they'd be gone. And by the time Legend and Co. join it's entirely plausible if they thought of it, they assumed it was already explored.
Caiuz said:
I hope Best Shard took control of Cauldrons Braindead Blend when Taylor drank the vial.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Pffffffttt, like Best Shard, would give up her potential host to another shard ever. Like she's a big bad Queen shard, why would she? (Though she'd totally still let Taylor have some new toys from that other shard)
 
Weren't there restrictions placed on PtV before it went to Contessa? Restrictions that prevent it from properly pathing anything directly related to the entities, ie, Scion, the Endbringers(and Eidolon by extension).
 
jcfiala said:
I mean, if you're going to use Path to Victory, might as well use it for something important. Like Coffee.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Well, there is this where Taylor gets a food variant of PTV. Whatever path has the restriction of needing something to do with food.
Path to Cookies
Path to Tea
Path to Chinese Takeout
forums.spacebattles.com

Path to Munchies (Worm AU) (complete)

Taylor Hebert – Saturday night/Sunday morning – January 8-9 I’ve been home from the hospital...
forums.spacebattles.com forums.spacebattles.com
What happens to Hookwolf, Uber & Leet, plus Bakuda & Oni Lee are hilarious.

Destruct said:
Weren't there restrictions placed on PtV before it went to Contessa? Restrictions that prevent it from properly pathing anything directly related to the entities, ie, Scion, the Endbringers(and Eidolon by extension).
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
No, Eden did it with her last breath.
 
Destruct said:
I wonder what kind of powers Emma will choose. Wait, where did Emma even get the money for the vials?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It hasn't been covered yet (though I imagine it will with Emma interlude we're supposed to get) but I imagine it's something similar along the lines of Nemesis, where Emma loses a family member or three and has a rather large inheritance to spend around.
 
Or she just owes a lot of favors, that's always an option. Especially if THE PATH says that this will probably help.
 
Mecharic said:
Or she just owes a lot of favors, that's always an option. Especially if THE PATH says that this will probably help.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Isn't one of Contessa's restrictions around Trigger Events? Wouldn't that prevent steps that happen after a person Triggers relying on their power? (Only to a certain degree of course, obviously, if it was completely no-sold PtV would be worthless)
 
Arzte said:
Isn't one of Contessa's restrictions around Trigger Events? Wouldn't that prevent steps that happen after a person Triggers relying on their power? (Only to a certain degree of course, obviously, if it was completely no-sold PtV would be worthless)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

If it was a natural trigger, yes, but this is a Cauldron Vial. They have a basic understanding of what powerset she'd be getting - Tinker Power, Architectural Subclass of some sort. That can easily be given a general model for prediction or pathing. This also assumes that Cauldron can't get any more specific on what power their Vials give, if they can actively select "base-building" or "survivalist technologies" as specific tinker sets... well, that can be modeled and built around even more easily.

That said, it could even be as simple as getting a Tinker out of it who is already on friendly terms with Cauldron, even if they don't know the specialty.
 
Neolithic III is almost done, so I should have it up tomorrow. From there, I'm thinking another three chapters before the arc is finished, at which point Emma Interlude I will come.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top