She's a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, gelatine Dynamite with a laser beam Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anyway, realy like this one. SI seems to be resonably smart and genre sawy, and I like that. Even if some desigions seems to be a little rash.
I meas, kidnapping Calvert? Realy? All that it will accomplish is that Coil will collaps the timeline where he was in his civillian identity, then spend a few days figuring out who is after him, and then SI is done.
To safely assasinate/kidnap Coil you need to attack him in both timelines at roughly the same time. And that can be achieved only by planning the time of the action before he splits, so the plan would be the same in both timelines. And then everything should go just as planned in both worlds, so there will be no lag between attacks for Calvert to exploit. And you don't know if alternate you are succesfull or not.
could throw the "unwritten" rules out the window since coil gives 0 Fu*ks about them, and spill the beans to the PRT about who coil is, and try to leave the little "tip off" in multiple place's at once, so he wont get to them all in time.
I wonder why they didn't connect the person rumoured to be recruited by the ABB who already wrecked an institute of higher learning to make a point to... well, a person presumably recruited by the ABB who wrecked an institute of higher learning to make a point.
Woah the narration, bring unreliable to a higher stage with how often it delves into "let's make more bombs woo!"
And blowing up Winslow was awesome, at end of chapter 3 when the SI said she missed Plan Blow Up Winslow I was reading it thinking it didn't get blown up, and was very disappointed. I'm glad to see in chapter 4 it's just her missing being able to see it in action. Blowing up Taylor's high school, what a great service you're doing to her and everyone else attending.
As for plan Blow Up Oni-Lee and Let Lung Get Carted off to Birdcage, I don't know how that'll go. Essentially she's telling Oni-Lee to go solo the Protectorate, yes? So I have a feeling that she'll succeed with the 1st part, but probably not the 2nd. Though I'm kind of hoping Lung does get cart off, just so there's no immediate alpha male in the SI's range, and we'd get to see the SI do her own thing. Plus characterization of Lung has been so inconsistant, he's either painted as a 2-bit thug or this (noble) samurai, and honestly I'm not sure which I prefer, or rather, which you'll prefer, but again, the SI's life will be so much easier without Lung around, so...
All right, all right, let's stop feeding the troll.
Edit: Actually, this time Valor wasn't utterly obnoxious, but he's popped up in several threads lately just to say that the story sucks and anyone who disagrees is wrong, with such stunningly formulated responses as "Shut up!" to attempts at arguing against his position. Still, I may have been a bit hasty this time.
And since i apparently have a problem with sounding passive-aggressive when I'm trying to softpedal criticism, this is intended as legitimate acknowledgement of not repeating the more objectionable behavior.
I appreciate your comprehensive response. Regarding Coil: in this case, it's not that he's putting his Coil identity above his Calvert one, it's that he's putting not getting messily murderated above anything else. It's possible you could immediately convince him to stick with the kidnap timeline by acting non threatening enough, but Oni Lee's reputation alone would preclude that. I could maybe see him playing along for a little bit before collapsing the timeline in order to learn more about the attackers, but Coil is really careful, and really doesn't like having extensive reliance on one timeline. Being held captive by the Cornell bomber and Oni Lee is pretty much a timeline write off. That being said I heartily agree with killing Coil (or in a perfect world completely controlling) right away. Coil alone is 'I win eventually.' Combined with Dinah... What you need is to simultaneously capture Calvert, while making the timeline where you don't capture him simultaneously completely untenable. Since Coil is so selfish that pretty much means killing him. Not actually that tough for Bakuda when collateral damage is irrelevant.
Sure, but Coil has A Plan that demands his Calvert identity is beyond reproach. (Aside from the covered-up Nilbog incident) My point was less "My version of events makes sense" and more "Fanfics seem to forget Coil has A Plan, and the demands it makes of him in the here and now".
It never seems to cross peoples' mind that Coil might take a sub-optimal "Calvert is in danger" timeline because he's unwilling to destroy The Plan just out of fear of the possibility of dying. I personally feel this is a weakness with a lot of the fanfics that deal with Coil. (ie most of them) People get so caught up in Coil being a selfish, cautious prick that they forget he has goals that depend on more than him simply surviving, goals that he's been building toward for years. He even brings out Dinah to try to convince the Undersiders to join him -prematurely. That wasn't a threat on his life, yes, but clearly he's willing to take risks to advance his plan, even if those risks are, themselves, severe, and not possible for him to immediately undo.
...I think the Si is going about things all wrong. Yeah, she can't make anything that doesn't potentially kill someone or explode somehow. But that is the big thing. Making a booby trapped super powered laptop that can be triggered to kill the user is still something that is usable so long as it isn't triggered. Actually, that is probably barking up the wrong tree. As shown by her ability to make that earring things that are related to bombs are also allowed. Maybe she could build a bomb pumped laser? Either as a bullet or a whole weapon or something? Could she build a neural interface to detonate bombs which could incidentally be used as a normal computer interface? Cybernetic limbs or armor that can be used to deploy weapons?
That's assuming the power supports those ideas. Not saying you're wrong, the narrative hasn't touched upon possibilities like "Hey, can I build a laptop that works just like any ol' laptop up until it explodes?" but it's a bit of leap to go from "Hmm, I wonder if the SI can do that" to "The SI is wrong for not doing this hypothetical I just came up with".
Note, for instance, that SI me has already tried to take "can read medical information in a target" and convert it to "can be used for, you know, actual medical work" and dead-ended outside of an auto-injecting syringe.
I've never had much of a problem with chafing. Also? I'm one of those people that goes "Oh yeah, I am bleeding, aren't I, that does kind of hurt, maybe I should do something about that.
...
... once this cartoon gets to its commercial break."
Discomfort isn't a big influence on my decision-making process, for all that I prefer to wear comfortable clothes. (Yeah, I know, it sounds inconsistent, it's still how I am) It's a sufficiently small influence that it's not liable to crop up in narration: I literally do not pay attention to discomfort beyond confirming that I'm not, like, dying from it.
And also you I arrrrrgh what is this? : (
There are these things called braids for a reason. You put your hair in a bun and it is up out of the way and secure (and also you get an additional place to accessorize, this is important) and then later on you can let your hair down.
That's leaving aside how the only real issue would be if your hair was blocking your view if it was long, which again is easy enough to fix through the magic of accessorizing. Long hair supposedly being easier to grab or whatever doesn't matter because if they were close enough and capable enough to grab your hair anyway, you had bigger problems.
Long hair takes longer to dry, is harder to keep clean, and also? I've never had my hair longer than shoulder-length, if that. I have literally zero experience with doing interesting things with my hair.
I will keep this in mind for future chapters though, inasmuch as it has a chance of cropping up in conversation.
Bakuda: "Yeah, I chopped it all off so it wouldn't get in the way."
Somebody else: "Dude what. Braids! Hair in bun! Accessorization!"
Bakuda: "You may or may not have a valid point, but I don't care because it's too late now."
Somebody else: "BUILD A HAIR-GROWING BOMB"
Bakuda: "I can't- huh. Actually, I think I can." /goes tinkering, forgets the original point of making a hair-growing bomb, uses it on /sneer "Halbeard totally fits now, huh?"
I meas, kidnapping Calvert? Realy? All that it will accomplish is that Coil will collaps the timeline where he was in his civillian identity, then spend a few days figuring out who is after him, and then SI is done.
To safely assasinate/kidnap Coil you need to attack him in both timelines at roughly the same time. And that can be achieved only by planning the time of the action before he splits, so the plan would be the same in both timelines. And then everything should go just as planned in both worlds, so there will be no lag between attacks for Calvert to exploit. And you don't know if alternate you are succesfull or not.
Please note that this response is not a commentary on how this story will or won't play out. Among other points? I roll dice to decide certain things.
That said, I consider the scenario you laid out to be.... a kind of fanon? Like, literally every fanfic I've seen that doesn't cheat the issue and have our hero somehow bypass Coil's power starts from the assumption that you must perform a simultaneous strike in both timelines on his location in both timelines.
And I find that odd, because in canon Coil was dealt with by maneuvering him into a position where he was convinced he'd won, when in actuality it was a trap, but he was no longer in a position to timeline shenanigans his way out of things.
It never seems to occur to fans that Coil can be maneuvered, over a long period of time, into a dead-end, where it's too late once he realizes it's a trap. Odd.
could throw the "unwritten" rules out the window since coil gives 0 Fu*ks about them, and spill the beans to the PRT about who coil is, and try to leave the little "tip off" in multiple place's at once, so he wont get to them all in time.
"Hey, this new villain is trying to discredit one of our trusted PRT members."
"Ugh, again? Like, do they not realize this is Worm, and therefore we automatically assume everything villains say is a lie/a plot to do something Evil? Like, gawd, we're not going to listen to villains, that would be wrong."
"Yeah, I'm putting the letter in the shredder. Good for a laugh, though."
Also, the most likely scenario if they did believe Bakuda would be: "Bakuda is trying to violate the Unwritten Rules! Get her!"
I wonder why they didn't connect the person rumoured to be recruited by the ABB who already wrecked an institute of higher learning to make a point to... well, a person presumably recruited by the ABB who wrecked an institute of higher learning to make a point.
I'll point out that we don't really know what Bakuda did at Cornell in canon or what the world thinks she is capable of, nor, if the plan went off without a hitch, is it known how Winslow was made to not exist. Worm fans already know that Bakuda can do absurdities like stop time and create a miniature black hole with bombs, but the people within the Wormverse don't have the advantage of having read ahead of current events via having read canon. They have to make do with the information they have, in a world of uncertainties, and new trigger is by far the most obvious explanation for a completely new effect not readily traced to the known abilities of an existing cape.
On a not entirely unrelated note, I will also point out that I personally loathe the trend in fanfiction of "Whatever the truth is, everyone in the entire world guesses it instantly and accurately based on one or two pieces of information."
Little bit of me still trying to get a feel for how to write fiction per se (I have a lot more experience with GMing/playing in semi-freeform online RPGs than I do writing a story solo) and little bit of me being like that. I lose track of my own thoughts, get off on tangents and forget partway through that the tangent was me making a point and not meant to be an entire topic unto itself, flat-out forget what I was intending to do, and especially lose track of my thoughts when I have something in front of me to focus on and often never get back the thought once I'm done.
In fact, a fair amount of the writing has been me re-reading and going "Oh yeah, SI me made a plan to ask for a thing or something, I completely forgot about that". Which... translates into SI me forgetting about it.
And blowing up Winslow was awesome, at end of chapter 3 when the SI said she missed Plan Blow Up Winslow I was reading it thinking it didn't get blown up, and was very disappointed. I'm glad to see in chapter 4 it's just her missing being able to see it in action. Blowing up Taylor's high school, what a great service you're doing to her and everyone else attending.
I suspect Emma isn't so thrilled... though Sophia probably considers it perfect: a ready-made excuse to justify violence on someone ("They blew up my school! Asshole!") and more free time to be Shadow Stalker.
As for plan Blow Up Oni-Lee and Let Lung Get Carted off to Birdcage, I don't know how that'll go. Essentially she's telling Oni-Lee to go solo the Protectorate, yes? So I have a feeling that she'll succeed with the 1st part, but probably not the 2nd. Though I'm kind of hoping Lung does get cart off, just so there's no immediate alpha male in the SI's range, and we'd get to see the SI do her own thing. Plus characterization of Lung has been so inconsistant, he's either painted as a 2-bit thug or this (noble) samurai, and honestly I'm not sure which I prefer, or rather, which you'll prefer, but again, the SI's life will be so much easier without Lung around, so...
Oni Lee is being directed to be a giant distraction. If you're familiar with the term, Distraction Carnifex might give context: Oni Lee isn't meant to be winning his fight, he's meant to be so alarming all attention turns to him (Infinitely re-usable time stop bombs being spammed tends to alarm people) while the mission is (ostensibly) being pulled off.
Yeah, I feel most fanfic drifts Lung either too much in the direction of "Noble Samurai" or "Brainless thug", which is kind of sad: his canon interaction with Marquis is great, and seems to capture Lung's essential character best. Marquis is a thug with a veneer of civility, Lung is civility with a veneer of thug -but civility isn't the same thing as nobility. (Japan: most polite country in the world, and also the place old men stab you to death with their umbrella because you were insufficiently respectful)
---
I am reasonably certain I will be offline for the next two days, so unless I get 1.5 smoothed out today the next update is probably going to be the 28th. After that is going to be 1.x, though working on it is going slower than I'd like and I suspect it's not going to be a favorite when I do finish and release it. That'll be the entirety of Arc 1, at that point.
I think a valid point is the Author has confirmed the SI's Specialisation isn't bombs specifically, but traps. This opens a huge amount of possibilities. I look forwards to more.
That said, I consider the scenario you laid out to be.... a kind of fanon? Like, literally every fanfic I've seen that doesn't cheat the issue and have our hero somehow bypass Coil's power starts from the assumption that you must perform a simultaneous strike in both timelines on his location in both timelines.
And I find that odd, because in canon Coil was dealt with by maneuvering him into a position where he was convinced he'd won, when in actuality it was a trap, but he was no longer in a position to timeline shenanigans his way out of things.
It never seems to occur to fans that Coil can be maneuvered, over a long period of time, into a dead-end, where it's too late once he realizes it's a trap. Odd.
Usualy I just go with "prepare for the worst" type of plans. In this case I just assume that in the moment of any attack Coil will have a "safe" timeline running, and then build a plan based on that.
Realisticaly speaking there is no way in hell Calvert will manage to operate as supervillain while constantly keeping his only power unavelable (only one pair of timelines). Eventualy he will choose to drop one timeline in favor of the other. And if this timeline will lead to unavoidable "dead end"... He is done for.
The question is... When Coil will decide to drop timeline? There is no guarantee that in the moment of his demise he will not just abandon that timeline, freeing himself from the trap and learning a little more about his opponents.
Playing against Calvert is such a bich mostly because you have no way to know what your counterpart already tried on him, what information does he posess.
Kidnapping your SI attemting in my head plays out like this:
- Before going out as Tomas Calvert Coil split timelines.
- Calvert gets kidnapped by Oni Lee.
- Coil lock himself in whatewer safehole he have. In other timeline Calvert is negotiating with kidnappers, gathering info.
- Even if negotiation ends with conditions Coil realy pleased about, he drops that timeline.
- Coil uses savescumming to get what he want, but on his terms. Oni Lee still waiting for the opportunity to kidnap Calvert. SI have no idea that Coil already alerted.
Of course, this can end up with better results if Coil simply did not split in the begining, but... Prepeare for the worst, hope for the best.
Anyway, as I sad earlier, your SI looks like a smart person, and your posts shows that you are realy thinking about the plot, and not just write one of thouse "I am SI, and I know no fail" stories... So please don't think that I'm going for "backseat writing" (is this even a thing?) or something.
About fanon, and how it treats certan characters... Fanon is a thing, and with Worm it reached a point where most of the readers can't tell it apart from canon. It is a thing, and this will remain a thing no matter what we will do. I have long ago decided to just go with a flow and enjoy the ride.
If something does go wrong, it's going to end with a bang.
It would be hilarious if the SI starts using a bomber personality, say Deidara from Naruto? Art is an Explosion!.
Can you create explosive bullets that work with a gun, the activation button can be a small one on the nose of the bullet.
Or can you make a bomb that could possibly trap Endbringers, but not kill them so that new ones don't awaken, A possible bomb used could be one that freezes the target in Carbonite (The substance that Han Solo was trapped in).
Usualy I just go with "prepare for the worst" type of plans. In this case I just assume that in the moment of any attack Coil will have a "safe" timeline running, and then build a plan based on that.
Realisticaly speaking there is no way in hell Calvert will manage to operate as supervillain while constantly keeping his only power unavelable (only one pair of timelines). Eventualy he will choose to drop one timeline in favor of the other. And if this timeline will lead to unavoidable "dead end"... He is done for.
The question is... When Coil will decide to drop timeline? There is no guarantee that in the moment of his demise he will not just abandon that timeline, freeing himself from the trap and learning a little more about his opponents.
Playing against Calvert is such a bich mostly because you have no way to know what your counterpart already tried on him, what information does he posess.
Kidnapping your SI attemting in my head plays out like this:
- Before going out as Tomas Calvert Coil split timelines.
- Calvert gets kidnapped by Oni Lee.
- Coil lock himself in whatewer safehole he have. In other timeline Calvert is negotiating with kidnappers, gathering info.
- Even if negotiation ends with conditions Coil realy pleased about, he drops that timeline.
- Coil uses savescumming to get what he want, but on his terms. Oni Lee still waiting for the opportunity to kidnap Calvert. SI have no idea that Coil already alerted.
Of course, this can end up with better results if Coil simply did not split in the begining, but... Prepeare for the worst, hope for the best.
Anyway, as I sad earlier, your SI looks like a smart person, and your posts shows that you are realy thinking about the plot, and not just write one of thouse "I am SI, and I know no fail" stories... So please don't think that I'm going for "backseat writing" (is this even a thing?) or something.
About fanon, and how it treats certan characters... Fanon is a thing, and with Worm it reached a point where most of the readers can't tell it apart from canon. It is a thing, and this will remain a thing no matter what we will do. I have long ago decided to just go with a flow and enjoy the ride.
It all matters when he split the timeline. It could end badly or go well. it could just as easily happen as
-Calvert has an important meet at the PRT headquarters
-He splits the timeline before entering the meeting
-he does this a couple of times during the meeting till ends in his favor
-timeline 1 he stays and tlaks to people after the meeting
-timeline 2 he leaves and gets kidnapped, then drops timeline
-timeline 1 he tries multiple way to leave, even splitting the timeline and still ends up getting kidnapped
or you can kidnap him while he is sleeping or before he splits then timeline in the morning. Even if he manages to escape capture it still ruins his plans because all the SI has to do it hit Coil if they can't find him as Calvert
I've never had much of a problem with chafing. Also? I'm one of those people that goes "Oh yeah, I am bleeding, aren't I, that does kind of hurt, maybe I should do something about that.
...
... once this cartoon gets to its commercial break."
Discomfort isn't a big influence on my decision-making process, for all that I prefer to wear comfortable clothes. (Yeah, I know, it sounds inconsistent, it's still how I am) It's a sufficiently small influence that it's not liable to crop up in narration: I literally do not pay attention to discomfort beyond confirming that I'm not, like, dying from it.
I feel like this is just picking and choosing in order to keep doing something quirky/cute with your SI but it's your story.
It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Did you have trouble walking or reaching for things? No? Then you're actually using Bakuda's body's instincts, not your own. She's going to naturally gravitate towards certain basic norms, including wearing freakin' underwear, and the discomfort from doing so isn't going to be ignorable as it'll be different from whatever you are used to in your own body.
This is leaving aside the hilarious massive elephant in the room that'll be what you're going to do once Bakuda's first period hits.
I've been housemates with two people who had no concept of underwear. It wasn't something they'd ever really worn.
And it is a self insert. If that happens to be his preference, it might as well go in to add a little padding to the story, otherwise you'd just be creating a blank OC with no personality of their own.
Usualy I just go with "prepare for the worst" type of plans. In this case I just assume that in the moment of any attack Coil will have a "safe" timeline running, and then build a plan based on that.
Sure, but luck can run the other way. Coil may be unusually susceptible for some unexpected reason -for instance, we know in canon he apparently splits the timeline to do something to Mr. Pitter, and in both timelines he remains in the same room. Even aside from the fact that he has to collapse timelines periodically, he's not always maximizing the difference between the two timelines -that's his default approach, but he doesn't actually hold himself to it 100% of the time.
Playing against Calvert is such a bich mostly because you have no way to know what your counterpart already tried on him, what information does he posess.
Kidnapping your SI attemting in my head plays out like this:
- Before going out as Tomas Calvert Coil split timelines.
- Calvert gets kidnapped by Oni Lee.
- Coil lock himself in whatewer safehole he have. In other timeline Calvert is negotiating with kidnappers, gathering info.
- Even if negotiation ends with conditions Coil realy pleased about, he drops that timeline.
- Coil uses savescumming to get what he want, but on his terms. Oni Lee still waiting for the opportunity to kidnap Calvert. SI have no idea that Coil already alerted.
I'll point out that gathering info via "negotiation" requires that his kidnappers are bothering to talk to him. He can, of course, still gather some information just by paying attention -"My kidnappers are ABB, going by the tattoos" for instance- but talking requires... talking.
Anyway, as I sad earlier, your SI looks like a smart person, and your posts shows that you are realy thinking about the plot, and not just write one of thouse "I am SI, and I know no fail" stories... So please don't think that I'm going for "backseat writing" (is this even a thing?) or something.
I'm not concerned about you "backseat writing". (And yes that is a thing even if I've never seen anyone call it such per se) I get that you have your view, I'm just pointing out what looks like flaws in the reasoning to me, partially because that's a thing I do and partially because it's relevant to thinking about the story.
About fanon, and how it treats certan characters... Fanon is a thing, and with Worm it reached a point where most of the readers can't tell it apart from canon. It is a thing, and this will remain a thing no matter what we will do. I have long ago decided to just go with a flow and enjoy the ride.
Well, my point in describing it as "a kind of fanon" is that the fandom seems to universally agree that this is the only way to do things... but it doesn't parse logically as the only way and it's actually contrary to what happened in canon. Like, I get why a lot of people think that, but it seems to have become an entrenched "fact" that... isn't.
If something does go wrong, it's going to end with a bang.
It would be hilarious if the SI starts using a bomber personality, say Deidara from Naruto? Art is an Explosion!.
Can you create explosive bullets that work with a gun, the activation button can be a small one on the nose of the bullet.
Or can you make a bomb that could possibly trap Endbringers, but not kill them so that new ones don't awaken, A possible bomb used could be one that freezes the target in Carbonite (The substance that Han Solo was trapped in).
I would kind of hate to risk having people familiar with Earth Aleph culture going "Really? You're patterning yourself after a fictional character and hoping we won't notice because they're only well-known in Aleph?"
Any kind of explosive that's sensitive to physical shock (eg one that has an actual button on it) is going to be problematic to use in a gun if the gun is not, itself, a coilgun or something: making an exploding bullet and then putting it into a regular gun is just asking for trouble. (Now, one designed to only explode when triggered could be used to shoot people and then send the "go boom signal", so that has some potential...) Carting around the ammunition is also all kinds of risky: oops, one of them clinked just so in my bag, and now I'm dead because all my exploding ammunition cooked off. (Or I'm not dead, and wishing I were dead)
I personally suspect perma-trapping an Endbringer A: wouldn't work and/or B: would be treated as a death and/or C: would provoke a different Endbringer into freeing them in an attack. But hey, we'll see.
I feel like this is just picking and choosing in order to keep doing something quirky/cute with your SI but it's your story.
It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Did you have trouble walking or reaching for things? No? Then you're actually using Bakuda's body's instincts, not your own. She's going to naturally gravitate towards certain basic norms, including wearing freakin' underwear, and the discomfort from doing so isn't going to be ignorable as it'll be different from whatever you are used to in your own body.
This is leaving aside the hilarious massive elephant in the room that'll be what you're going to do once Bakuda's first period hits.
Widespread use of underwear is a recent cultural innovation. Like, less than 200 years old, if I'm recalling correctly. Certainly less than 500. You overestimate the degree to which humans are wired to care about underwear.
Even if unconscious impulses are in play, that doesn't mean conscious impulses won't override them -maybe SI me would put on underwear if they weren't thinking about it at all while dressing, maybe they even will at some later date go "Wait, why am I in underwear, I hate underwear", but at this step there's really no reason why SI me would put on underwear. I'm not sufficiently concerned with conforming to cultural norms to care, I haven't been inculcated with ideas like "only bad girls go around without underwear", etc.
I regularly ignore discomfort that is fresh and new because whatever I'm not dying it can't be that important. I don't really see this fresh and new discomfort somehow being more attention-grabbing.
Also, I really should've said in the original post anyway: for me underwear was the cause of much discomfort. I stopped because one day I ended up not wearing any for... whatever reason, it's been more than a decade I don't actually remember anymore... and holy crap this was so much better! Thus, a new standard was born. It's possible that SI me will discover that actually Bakuda's body is more comfortable with underwear than without and switch back... it's also possible that SI me will coast on prior, now incorrect, knowledge and never discover that really that knowledge is incorrect now. Or it's possible SI me is totally justified doing this in Bakuda's body too, from a comfort perspective.
I honestly find it amusing that you think the period will be a big deal. I have long experience with having my mood invisibly altered/shifted to anger where I only later realize it was because of internal biological considerations -it's just historically from being sick or eating food I react allergically to without realizing it. A period is honestly less of a big deal -I can go "ooooh. THAT'S why I've been cussing out Oni Lee for the last hour. Whoops. Guess it's time to figure out tampons or pads." whereas I have to engage in some mental legwork to realize that I'm low-grade sick or that I ate something that disagrees with me, and I'm not actually surrounded by assholes of the highest order. That is, a period is a clear signal that mood is not at its usual baseline, rather than an unclear signal.
("But Ghoul King, women gets cramps and stuff." Being doubled over, in pain, ready to vomit for hours/days on end is probably not exactly the same thing as cramps, but it's probably not that different. Also, cramps primarily occur if your period is unhealthy for some reason, so there's a question of how well Bakuda has taken care of her body, which is admittedly probably "not very")
Though SI me will be pissed if they end up bleeding all over a costume.
(I am glad you reminded me about periods though -unless Bakuda is really fit, she should be having a period, that does affect decision-making, it would be poor form for me to completely ignore/forget about it... like, say, Worm does... and at this point the story is more than 2 weeks in so unless Bakuda has a really irregular period it should crop up soon, realistically)
I am fully expecting this chapter to lose people. It's, uh, mildly disturbing (Says the sociopath), and also there's plot stuff that might cause people to assume this is standard SI Mary Sue wish fulfillment nonsense. It'd be nice if those of you put off by the latter had a little patience, but I totally understand if you're not willing to go with wait and see and just abandon ship. For the former... well, honestly I don't know how you got through Worm in the first place if you're that squeamish, but, uh. I cannot remotely promise that more of the same isn't incoming. The Slaughterhouse Nine exist, for starters. So... bye, have a nice life, to those folks?
1.5
It's a few days later, me in the middle of a tinker fugue, when Oni Lee is suddenly in my workshop holding a man, knife up against his throat and holding both the guy's arms behind his back with the free arm. The guy looks like life has stolen all his toys, kicked him in the nuts, and then laughed at him.
Huh.
"It is done."
Huh.
"Now what?"
Huh.
Honestly, I was half-expecting Oni Lee to just end up dead doing this. Win-win, as far as I was concerned. I... well, I guess I should -do we have a camera? I ask Oni Lee if there's a video camera in here. He nods his head slightly to one side, and comments flatly "Top shelf." As I make my way to the indicated spot I comment idly "I kind of thought you'd take longer, honestly." Oni Lee's response -flat, of course- is to grunt and say "The man was slippery." Aha! Yes, there's a video camera, and my tinker bullshit tells me it's got a battery etc -I have to push down an urge to turn it into some kind of bomb trigger device- so I grab it and make my way back toward Oni Lee and Coi- Calvert. I don't want to accidentally slip that bit.
I maintain a respectful distance from the two, not wanting to give Calvert any opportunity to somehow exploit my presence via timelines. Oni Lee is apparently awesome enough to keep him under control/kill him in timeline shenanigans, but giving Calvert more openings to exploit is bad, and I wasn't exactly a black belt before this. I say "So he lost you a few times, then?" Oni Lee... has emotion in his voice for the first time I can recall. Annoyance. "If I did not know better, I would suspect the man had been trained as a ninja. His ability to account for my presence was... uncanny."
I'll bet I think to myself.
"So!" I start off with a winning smile directed at Calvert. "We're going to do a video of how we have you captured, send it to the PRT, and demand they release Lung or else." Calvert smirks. Wow. Okay then. He opens his mouth to say something, presumably smug, but I steamroll right over him, still smiling and speaking cheerfully. "After I've surgically installed a bomb into your head." Calvert's smirk drops off his face, and he gets... a little paler, though honestly he's sufficiently pale already I'm not sure if that's a sign of his confidence or just because he can't get much paler.
I abruptly drop the smile, level out my voice, and say "Oni Lee. Get him on the table, strap him down, and gag him." while gesturing at one of the relatively clear tables. Lesse, I'm going to need a saw, one of the cauterizer pillbombs... do I want to bother with anesthesia? It would make it harder for him to somehow turn the surgery into a successful escape, but I don't have any in the workshop and I don't want to go into the... huh. I guess the madness place is kind of appropriate. More than I'd thought, really.
Anyway, point is I'm way more likely to give him an opening if I go into tinker mode so I can make some anesthetic, I don't have any here, and I'd rather not call up an ABB thug -Logistics?- to have some delivered, because I really want this done now before Calvert somehow leverages his power to escape via savescumming-based successful recklessness.
I guess that decides it. No anesthetic for one of the scummiest scum that ever did scum in Worm canon.
Oh well! Sucks to be him.
Carefully keeping my focus away from how to make the circular saw (Something I can carve a round hole in his head with and then put the bone back in, is the point) I grab into a more efficient, killier design, I ponder for a moment whether I want gloves. I decide I don't care, because I'm killing him anyway, maybe immediately after the filming, maybe after we get a negative from the PRT. I mean, sure, touching him is going to be gross, but really medical gloves are primarily about protecting the patient's open wounds from germs on the doctor's hands. Also, I have no idea where we have gloves. I'm... not entirely sure how I've made some of my bombs without gloves while avoiding hurting myself, now that I think about it... evidence that Tinkers are using powers in making stuff, per se?
Whatever, getting distracted is bad. Circular saw, check, cauterizer bomb, check, uh, clotting agent and... gosh, my shard really doesn't want to encourage healing. Well. My understanding is that if you cut out a chunk of bone from the skull and then just sort of... put it back, it'll re-seal on its own, no tools needed, so I guess I can skip that step. Head wounds bleed a lot, but it isn't really dangerous, and cutting into the head doesn't lead to tons of bleeding or brain damage if you don't fuck up, and also it's fucking Coil so I'm not exactly concerned about doing it right.
Mind, I read the "seals back together on its own" thing in an Animorphs book, the one where Cassie has to cut open Ax's head to get at his space alien organ because weird alien health mechanics, so hey, I'm trusting Calvert's future comfort/health to something I read years ago in a book aimed at teens. Using a fictional alien as the example. Sucks to be him.
They were good books, the ones that weren't actually written by... god, every time I try to remember her name I want to say "Rowling", but that's Harry Potter. Ugh, whatever, the woman who made Animorphs, most of it was ghost-written, that stuff was good. K. A. Applegate, that was it!
Though I read once she personally wrote the David trilogy. Or was it just two books? Whatever, those were good, maybe I'm being unfair to her, the David books were amazing. On the other hand, the first ten-ish books were just... ugh, painful.
Oh right. Cutting into Calvert's head.
Fortunately, Oni Lee hasn't finished securing Calvert anyway, so standing around lost in my own head hasn't actually looked inappropriate. Not that I'd have any reason to be embarrassed -I'm getting distracted again. Bad Bakuda. (I need to get used to the idea that this is my name now, I should call myself Bakuda even in my own head, I don't need any slip-ups outside my skull)
I smile brightly down on Calvert, who is now sweating, eyes darting around in every direction. I idly wonder if he's doing different eye directions in both timelines for maximum efficiency or if he's trying to do something more risky in the timeline I'm not seeing.
I comment as an aside to Oni Lee "If he gets loose, kill him. We can try again with someone else, someone a bit less slippery." which Oni Lee just grunts at -or maybe grunts at the effort of getting Calvert's last leg into position and strapped down- while Calvert's eyes go wide. I'm kind of surprised he's not shunting that reaction to his other self. He can do that, it's how he fucked with Tattletale in canon, convinced her that Coil intended to kill Taylor, probably by actually doing so in a timeline he promptly dropped or something. Maybe he thinks acting like a normal panicked person is maximizing his odds of escape/survival?
I start up the saw -maybe this kind of saw is called a bandsaw? I know that's a kind of saw- and move in, smiling toothily the whole way.
--------
As it turns out, I still hate listening to people scream.
I don't really care about other people's emotional distress or anything -well, I do, I think it's funny to get a reaction out of people- but man, hearing people scream always leaves me feeling queasy. I'm kind of disappointed when my smile turns into a grimace, but I take some comfort in the fact that Calvert is a bit too busy screaming in pain to be likely to have any sense of victory. (Well, assuming I'm not in a dropped timeline...) I do manage to comment absently (I suspect shard influence) "Oh, quit being such a baby, the side of the head doesn't have nearly enough nerves for this to hurt even as bad as a paper cut." but my original intention of keeping Calvert off-balance, less likely to leverage his power successfully... I'm not able to stick to it.
Then I have Oni Lee manhandle him into a reasonably photogenic corner of the building (ie one not made up for my comfort or trashed out as my workspace, instead being nothing but blank gray wall with no windows or anything to provide a hint of where, exactly, we're filming), grab the video camera while wishing I'd learned how to hum tunes, and direct Oni Lee to hold Calvert, knife against his throat. He does so, and I instruct him that, at some point in recording, I'm going to make a hand motion (I demonstrate) and at that point I want him to let Calvert go. Oni Lee nods his understanding. I also take the opportunity to let Calvert know that if he gets more than 300 or so feet away from me the bomb will detonate all by itself. I don't bother to explicitly explain that it's really if he gets more than 300~ (I'm really not sure the exact range) feet away from my earring, because, seriously, he doesn't need edges to exploit. Also I'd rather not clue Oni Lee into the fact that one earring is actually tinkertech. I'm still hoping he hasn't noticed.
So now Calvert knows that breaking loose and making a run for it will avail him nothing. Mind, I wouldn't be surprised if he did escape in an alternate timeline and die. He doesn't react all that strongly to being told he's on a blow-the-fuck-up leash, maybe it already happened.
Or maybe he's just groggy from the pain of amateur tinker surgery. Eh.
The video we film is pretty straightforward, including me informing the Protectorate that I've installed a bomb in Calvert's head designed to go off if he gets too far away from me, so don't be naughty now, and of course mentioning that we're ransoming Calvert for Lung and if we don't get a response in three days, Calvert dies. Oni Lee releases Calvert on cue -I gesture right after mentioning the headbomb- and Calvert sits there, rubbing feeling back into one arm and visibly fuming. He reminds me so much of a tantruming child I can't quite keep the grin off my face, or out of my voice.
My only presence in the video is my voice, though I do explicate that I am Bakuda, temporary leader of the ABB until you release our glorious leader Lung! I dunno, I don't see any reason to let them actually see me, so I don't.
A quick test shows that the video is basically acceptable -everything wobbles a bit because I had the camera on my shoulder, not on a tripod, but whatever, I was a lot more concerned that I'd be too mumbly, I'm fucking awful at being understood by people- and I instruct Oni Lee to find more long-term accommodations for Calvert in the "leash" range and arrange for the video to be delivered to Protectorate Headquarters. He does another "It shall be done" plus stiff bow, grabs Calvert, and the two vanish.
Once he's gone with Calvert, I find my kludged transmitter (Originally made for the Oni Lee bombs) and set the other part of the headbomb's conditional behavior: if Calvert is ever within 30 feet of me (Well, my earring) before I disable this instruction, that will also detonate it.
There's no such thing as too paranoid when it comes to Calvert.
… come to think of it, I have no idea what Oni Lee did with the neutron-ifying bomb. I don't... think... I've seen him carrying it since I sent him to blow up Winslow...
… man, I really want to look into how things are going with Taylor. Curiosity killed the cat, though. Actually... I grab the laptop again, absently turn on the TV and set it to a cartoon in the background, and look up if the Undersiders are known to have done anything since the bank robbery. Initially, it looks like "no", but then I run across a thread on PHO where somebody has a shaky cell phone video of insects descending on and attacking what I presume are Merchants -they have colored bands around their wrists, that's something from canon, I forget the details- and a bit more digging indicates they've raided a Merchant drughouse.
I don't remember that from canon.
…
Oh. Right. The bank led directly into fighting Bakuda led directly into everybody uniting against the ABB. I haven't ambushed the Undersiders, or painted a giant "We're assholes, please kill us" target on the ABB's back, so they're... I guess doing more regular jobs at Coil's direction? Huh. I would've expected him to send them after the Empire. Isn't part of his goal to have the gangs infighting indefinitely until he takes over as Director Calvert, so he can squash everyone and take credit?
… wait, in canon he did that thing where he released all the E88 names to the public. And... the ABB has lost Lung, it's easy to think he's going to actually go into the Birdcage. Which... would actually leave the Merchants as the only other game in town outside of Coil himself. And Faultline's Crew, I guess, but he's apparently able to hire them just fine. Huh. I feel vaguely insulted at the implication that he thinks the ABB isn't worth his time with Lung gone, but the Merchants are.
I could be misreading things.
Regardless... this is going to make it really hard to predict Taylor's development. Canon constantly pushed her and pushed her and pushed her, the bank heist was the closest canon got to really covering what an ordinary job for the Undersiders looks like and especially how Taylor feels about such, and even then it was un-ordinary on basically every level, with Coil providing abnormal incentives to rob the bank, the Undersiders doing it in broad daylight, the Wards responding in force with no Protectorate oversight, Panacea happening to be there...
Come to think of it, when does the thing with Taylor connecting to Rachel happen? Has it already happened? It was... hm. It happens right as Coil releases the Empire info, which... was after the ABB were dealt with, I want to say. So... probably not. Unless having more leisure time has somehow made Taylor more willing to try to connect to the Undersiders. I... fuck, I forget what actually got her -wait, was it approaching Armsmaster to get his support? No, that was for the bank. Timelines don't add up.
Damn. I don't remember what prompted her to stop holding the Undersiders at arms length and actually befriend them. Is she liable to go hero if she doesn't stop holding them at arms length? Is she less likely to go hero if she does hold them at arms length? Ugh. It's also just hard to parse her exact motivations. Brian is explicitly all about "focus on those I care about, everyone else can rot", and an argument can be made that even though Taylor finds that viewpoint horrifying she engages in a certain amount of that herself anyway... but it's also the case that the heroes burn her, and burn her, and burn her some more in every interaction she has.
Hmmm. I guess maybe the main thing that matters is whether the world decides to just fuck her over repeatedly as per canon, different events be damned, vs having a hero actually be nice to her.
… not really a lot I can do to rig that result in any particular direction.
Well. Calvert should be a non-issue in short order. She's at least not going to find out that the other Undersiders are fine with Dinah's situation... unless someone else takes over Coil's organization and uses Dinah... uuugh. Plus side: Lisa is also horrified by the Dinah thing, and I'm reasonably confident that isn't just her manipulating Taylor into liking her/not committing suicide. If she takes over as per canon, then Dinah is unlikely to remain a drugged-up prediction dispenser.
Of course, that's not remotely the same thing as saying that Lisa would let her go home. We never do get real insight into how Lisa would handle that. Hell, Taylor was bound and determined to get Dinah back to her parents, and the possibility that she wouldn't was high enough for Dinah to be sufficiently concerned about that she deliberately tried to ensure Taylor wouldn't give into temptation.
I'm not sure I'm all that much happier with the idea of Tattletale getting to combine her power with Dinah's while being in charge of Coil's organization. Tattletale would, in all honesty, probably be considered a complete monster if she wasn't specifically Taylor's friend. Even considering that Coil has a fairly literal gun to her head for a while there, she's not a nice person or inclined to make the world a better place. Really, she's inclined to fuck with people, even if it provides no clear benefit to her. Canon also insists she's obsessed with trying to prove she's the smartest in the room, and for all that most fans take that as a fact I don't really buy it, but it's something to keep in mind. There's a question here of exactly what kind of Wormverse I'm in. Thus far I appear to be in canon, myself aside... but not only is it possible that I'm really in a fanfic that isn't obviously divergent as yet -I can't be in Atonement, thank god, (Skitter is a part of the Undersiders, not dead) among others, but I could be in fucking Cenotaph, which is a horrifying thought- but generally, I could be in a world that's really similar to Worm canon without being Worm canon.
The thought comes to mind: does my presence here imply that Entities are real, and my own home dimension is at risk of "every version ever blown up"? Hell, Earth Bet is "BB aside, our world except the Entities diverge it". Earth Aleph is "That, but less diverged from ours by Entity presence". Ours could just be a version of Worm canon that we never see or hear about, one that Golden Morning never gets around to touching through blind luck.
Though I'm from 2015, so there'd need to be weird time shenanigans for that to work. I know too much physics to find that comforting. Weird time shenanigans are totally possible, particularly given the Entities have multiple forms of faster-than-light travel. Tachyons are weird, I hope they aren't a thing, I hope they aren't a thing the Entities can use.
Now I'm really uncomfortable.
Have to wonder why I'd be shoved into Bakuda's head. The Entities have some capacity to copy human personalities and transplant them... the Butcher proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt. But why grab some guy from Earth Omicron or whatever and shove him into Bakuda's head? I'm having a hard time imagining why even Eden's death would lead to that.
… aaaand I'm remembering Abbadon now. Abbadon is weird, Abbadon is alien, Abbadon maybe assassinated Eden (Or maybe it was just ill luck on an Entity scale), Abbadon behaves differently from the model Scion and Eden present.
I can't imagine a reason why Abbadon -oh. I'm already committed to assassinating Scion.
I honestly find it amusing that you think the period will be a big deal. I have long experience with having my mood invisibly altered/shifted to anger where I only later realize it was because of internal biological considerations -it's just historically from being sick or eating food I react allergically to without realizing it. A period is honestly less of a big deal -I can go "ooooh. THAT'S why I've been cussing out Oni Lee for the last hour. Whoops. Guess it's time to figure out tampons or pads." whereas I have to engage in some mental legwork to realize that I'm low-grade sick or that I ate something that disagrees with me, and I'm not actually surrounded by assholes of the highest order. That is, a period is a clear signal that mood is not at its usual baseline, rather than an unclear signal.
("But Ghoul King, women gets cramps and stuff." Being doubled over, in pain, ready to vomit for hours/days on end is probably not exactly the same thing as cramps, but it's probably not that different. Also, cramps primarily occur if your period is unhealthy for some reason, so there's a question of how well Bakuda has taken care of her body, which is admittedly probably "not very")
Though SI me will be pissed if they end up bleeding all over a costume.
I read your warning first and was thinking there's going to be torture pr0n or something, so good warning? Because of it I was underwhelmed? I kept expecting something worst to happen to Coil, or Calvert here, and didn't get it, so...
Kind of confused on what revelation the SI came to at the end though, the mind process went from Abaddon > Zion > oh fuck really confused me. So some clarification would be appreciated.
Another part that I really liked about the fic is, your SI actively thought that this may not be canon Worm. It's something I don't think about when reading SI fics, but when your SI brought it up it made perfect sense. Why assume that this is the canon world you know? And not some AU or heh, fanfic like Cenotaph? And thinking on it some more, I think I appreciate your SI NOT taking canon for 'granted' even more, because heck, things you just assume were fact may not be, and it's good that she's in this mindset and is prepared for it.
Does this mean you can build bombs that explode before they're built?
Because now I'm picturing a VERY conveniently placed explosion taking out Lee for good and you going "...shit, now I'm supposed to build it so it can go back in time and kill him otherwise there's going to be a paradox, don't I?"
Slight adjustment to my point: your framing of "elephant in the room" suggested to me you were thinking in terms of the usual "Men is uncomfortable with wimminz issues". That was the part I found amusing, because I'm really not and have always found that a bizarre trope.
This thing you laid out? Yes, it is going to happen at some point in the fic.
Because yes, I am that derp.
... and I've honestly mistaken bleeding from injuries for sweat ("Warm liquid running down a body part and dripping off=sweat, right?"), bonus points. So it may well be "great, I'm sweating so much my crotch is stained." later "WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME MY CROTCH WAS SOAKED IN BLOOD??"
(This kind of exchange is, by the way, exactly the kind I'm looking for in writing this story -I know I am a derp, but the problem with predicting my own derps is that I'll make them because I won't anticipate them, so I really basically need an external perspective to work out some key derps... like this one)
I read your warning first and was thinking there's going to be torture pr0n or something, so good warning? Because of it I was underwhelmed? I kept expecting something worst to happen to Coil, or Calvert here, and didn't get it, so...
I'm bad at estimating what exactly squicks people out, admittedly. I went with conservative rather than "hey guys, this seemingly lighthearted SI romp through Worm is suddenly involving explicit surgery on an unwilling and conscious subject with no anesthesia while deliberately psychologically torturing the guy, kthxbye". I'd rather be overly cautious than assuming everyone can handle what I'm comfortable with -experience shows that way lies madness.
I can say with confidence torture porn is not going to be a thing. I have the wrong personality for it. I care too little about other people's suffering to be motivated to deliberately extend it. (Though I suppose it could crop up in an Interlude)
Kind of confused on what revelation the SI came to at the end though, the mind process went from Abaddon > Zion > oh fuck really confused me. So some clarification would be appreciated.
"Oh. I'm Abbadon's guided missile, aimed at Scion." /existential crisis
Another part that I really liked about the fic is, your SI actively thought that this may not be canon Worm. It's something I don't think about when reading SI fics, but when your SI brought it up it made perfect sense. Why assume that this is the canon world you know? And not some AU or heh, fanfic like Cenotaph? And thinking on it some more, I think I appreciate your SI NOT taking canon for 'granted' even more, because heck, things you just assume were fact may not be, and it's good that she's in this mindset and is prepared for it.
This is one of those things that most drives me up the wall about SI fanfics: the SI always immediately works out
-I am in another dimension (Even if all they did was show up in some version of Tokyo)
-That dimension is based on fiction I have read/watched/played (What, why?)
-It is X specific fiction (Understandable if you assume the prior are true, admittedly)
based on... very often nothing at all. It so drives me up the wall there's no way if it did happen to me that I would jump straight to that conclusion -here, the context is pretty blatant ("Hey, you, Bakuda. Lung's been captured. I match Oni Lee's description.") and there's an immediate need to pretend to know what's up, rather than asking suspicious questions, and then afterward SI me has time to do some research, so it might look like the usual SI thing, but really it was "Operate on working assumption or die" coupled with "I'm not familiar with anything else containing a Bakuda at all, let alone also a Lung and someone matching Oni Lee's description who all work in the same organization, so I don't have any better guesses". (Admittedly, I could maybe have put effort into actually getting that entire thought process into 1.1...)
... and then yes, here in 1.5 SI me is explicitly thinking "this might not be Worm canon per se". That ("I am in X canon, for sure") is a bad assumption to make that SIs can only make safely so consistently because most authors never think of the possibility of confusing their SI self in such a way. So yeah, I'm glad to hear you appreciate it.
Does this mean you can build bombs that explode before they're built?
Because now I'm picturing a VERY conveniently placed explosion taking out Lee for good and you going "...shit, now I'm supposed to build it so it can go back in time and kill him otherwise there's going to be a paradox, don't I?"
Tachyons are weird in part because, for them to make any sense, they have to largely not be interacting with everything anyway. (Or else it would be very obvious that causality is all kinds of fucked) Last I heard they're just a "mathematically logical implication of Einstein's theories" with no evidence for them existing known. (Mechanically, they're all kinds of headache) My best understanding -keeping in mind I'm not an actual theoretical physicist- is that, assuming tachyons are a thing, SI me could maybe use them to signal a receptive device in the past to explode, not to actually produce a backwards-time-travelling explosion.
Besides, a backwards-time-traveling explosion would, well, travel backwards in time, which from our perspective would be something unexploding for no apparent reason.
Certainly, it's a possibility that SI me might be able to produce a bomb rigged to react to a tachyon signal under the assumption that future-SI-me will know the exact right moment to detonate it... but no, an actual time-traveling bomb would be based on some nonsensical Entity-derived physics/Entity-based pretension that time travel is occuring when it's actually being faked.
I read your warning first and was thinking there's going to be torture pr0n or something, so good warning? Because of it I was underwhelmed? I kept expecting something worst to happen to Coil, or Calvert here, and didn't get it, so...
Kind of confused on what revelation the SI came to at the end though, the mind process went from Abaddon > Zion > oh fuck really confused me. So some clarification would be appreciated.
Another part that I really liked about the fic is, your SI actively thought that this may not be canon Worm. It's something I don't think about when reading SI fics, but when your SI brought it up it made perfect sense. Why assume that this is the canon world you know? And not some AU or heh, fanfic like Cenotaph? And thinking on it some more, I think I appreciate your SI NOT taking canon for 'granted' even more, because heck, things you just assume were fact may not be, and it's good that she's in this mindset and is prepared for it.
