In this fic, Taylor Hebert is offered an actual choice about her fate.
External Influences (Worm, heavily Meta)
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Why Are You Narrating
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
Taylor Hebert awoke sitting in a swivel chair in a dimly-lit office-
"Where am I, who are you, why are you narrating!?""
Apologies. While outside reality it is required to keep this facsimile intact. Now, as I was saying, there is a dark wooden desk lit by a simple lamp hanging from the ceiling.
"Wait, was that desk always there?"
Again, we are currently outside reality as you understand it. Objects do not exist here until they're defined.
"Ah, so you'd be the man in a blue hoody, then?"
Good job defining an avatar for me, you really are quite a fast learner. I will not be using it.
"Please tell me what you want with me."
To put it quite bluntly, your world is doomed, but it doesn't have to be. I am a being of immense power, but how I can actually apply that power is extremely limited. You present a unique point of malleability in your world, as I can grant you in particular nearly any power within a few major constraints. That said, I will not do so without your informed consent, unlike those overgrown space worms.
There was a brief, awkward pause-
"I have SO MANY QUESTIONS! What do you mean by the world being doomed!? What are these limits that stop you from un-dooming the world!? Space Worms!? Powers!?"
I will try to take these questions in order, though several of them are related. Your world is currently infested with Entities, spacefaring multidimensional colony organisms. As part of their modus opperandi they settle down on an inhabited cluster of worldlines, grant the locals extremely limited access to their abilities as part of a poorly-conceived science experiment, and blow up the inhabited cluster after a few centuries.
The presence of Entities is the ultimate cause for the apocalypse that will happen in two years barring your intervention. However, the proximate cause is that one of the two Entities was horrifically injured by a bad landing and subsequently murdered. The other Entity fell into severe mental instability that will lead to him going on a murderous rampage in two years if Jack Slash lives, or fifteen if Jack Slash dies prior to that. This other Entity is publicly known as Scion. Also, the Endbringers are slowly destroying civilization, so that also needs dealing with.
Not helping is the conspiracy known as Cauldron, which is terminally dependent on an artificially limited precog and lead by a woman from the Bronze Age. They've been mining powers from the Thinker Entity's corpse for decades and selling them on the black market, hoping for a silver bullet that might kill Scion. In addition, they've been malevolently manipulating the state of the world to maximize Trigger Events; again hoping for a silver bullet.
Anyway, since I don't have patience for cryptic nonsense I'll just tell you right now: Alexandria and Eidolon are both members of Cauldron's inner circle, with Alexandria's civilian persona being the chief director of the PRT. Legend thinks he's a member of Cauldron's inner circle, but is largely kept out of the actual decision-
"OW! That really hurt, it felt like you just shoved all that directly into my brain."
Apologies. I forgot to account for that factor. I will limit my side of the dialog to one paragraph at a time to limit your discomfort.
"ow. Still wanting to hear why you can't just fix everything yourself."
I could, technically. The problem is that imparting such intensive changes on a world all in one go simply doesn't stick; instead what happens is that I inadvertently create a branching point. One side has the saved world with all my alterations, the other has the original world in a completely unaltered state. I am unwilling to leave an entire world to its doom, meaning that I require your assistance. If I empower you, you will remain an internal force to the world, and will not cause branching points barring exceptional circumstances.
"So that's it, then? You just want to use me as a tool to save the world? I mean, I like having a world to live in, but that still seems... rather blunt."
That's true. However, as previously noted I have no patience for cryptic nonsense nor psychological manipulation. In addition, you personally would have been in for a genuinely awful plight involving your current bullies shoving you in a locker full of used fermented hygiene products for several hours. My advice is to put in an anonymous tip to the CDC; by doing so you stand a solid chance of getting Winslow shut down for the foreseeable future, given how horrific the biohazard in question has become over winter break.
I shuddered, before asking "OK, so is there anything else critical I need to know before choosing powers? Also, did I just narrate myself?"
Yes, you just narrated yourself shuddering; it's a consequence of this facsimile of reality we currently occupy. Other critical knowledge that you should know: Thomas Calvert is a PRT consultant who is also the supervillain Coil. He has a teenage Thinker going by Lisa Wilbourne currently employed at gunpoint, and is generally plotting to plunge the city into chaos for his own gain. His power simulates a timeline branch, then uses predictive modeling to autopilot to the desired endpoint. Just foiling one plan of his won't really help; you need to go straight for him personally. He has an underground base under the city that he's rigged to explode.
"Sounds like an unpleasant person. Anything else whatsoever?"
Yes, actually. If I send you out without some form of anti-precog protection, you're liable to wind up on the wrong end of either the Simurgh or Cauldron's Contessa basically immediately. As such, I am including a mandatory secondary power that will render you and your allies invisible to Thinker scans. On the note of the Endbringers, they are heavily sandbagging; if any of them fought seriously, they could wipe the planet clear of human life in mere hours. Raw physical force won't help much killing them until you get to planet-cracker levels, meaning that you need a method of attack that ignores physical durability and punches straight through regardless. Similarly, the only actually important part is a hyper-dense core buried deep inside each respective Endbringer.
After another few moments, it occurred to me that maybe I should ask who I could turn to for allies, though I wasn't quite sure how to phrase it.
Within Brockton Bay, reliable sources for trustworthy allies will include the dockworkers, the aforementioned Lisa once Coil is dealt with, everyone in New Wave except Carol Dallon, and partial subsets of the Wards/Protectorate rosters. Sophia is on the Wards roster as Shadow Stalker; the PRT is unaware of her bullying campaign, and will not retire her unless forced in the court of public opinion. Meanwhile, Carol has such extreme issues that she's almost driven Amy Dallon AKA Panacea to the point of snapping, which is a problem since Amy is in fact an unrestricted biokinetic.
"Wait, what was that about the dockworkers being a source of allies? Also, Panacea is a biokinetic?"
The dockworkers are a group of hardworking people who stick together and watch each others' backs. In addition, you already have an immense in with them thanks to your father; if you choose the correct powers it would be trivial to turn the Dockworkers into a force to be reckoned with. As for Amy, yes she is a biokinetic; she can adjust the biology of any organic lifeform she comes into physical contact with. Well, the piece of interdimensional alien connected to her can anyway.
"So wait, Parahuman powers are due to aliens faking their hosts having powers really well? How do I know you won't basically be doing the same thing?"
You are essentially correct about the nature of Parahuman powers. However, your powers will operate differently; I will be directly altering the way you impinge on the nature of reality, allowing you to perform your actions without external support. There will be no chance of the Entity subverting your power.
"I think I'm ready to decide what sorts of powers I want... wait, how many different powers will you be able to give me anyway?"
You will be getting four powers, one of which is already tied up in precog immunity.
"Huh, could that precog immunity be upgraded to also include protection from mind control, or would that have to be a separate power?"
It can be folded into a single power, but ONLY because those are purely passive effects of extremely similar intent. Anything else?
Another moment's thought, then I asked "Could granting powers to others like you've done for me be combined with converting Parahuman powers to independent ones, or are they too different apart?"
Too different apart, sadly. In addition, it will take some extremely sophisticated back-end work on my part to create something that won't set the Entity off early when you do that latter one.
"Then could the power-granting be combined with getting copies of the powers I grant?"
Clever! I like you. I can just barely fit that into a single slot. Last power slot, unless you want to get rid of an earlier idea.
And with that I racked my brain for what else I really wanted; I was already safe from precogs and Masters, I could switch Parahumans over to actually having powers instead of having their alien fake it for them, and I could grant powers to my allies that I'd keep copies of. I just needed something that could keep me safe until I accumulated enough allies to be effectively unstoppable. With that, I asked "Could I have a ghost form? One that heals me when I enter it, and automatically activates if I'm about to die."
Yes. So, final lineup is immunity to hostile Thinkers and mind alterations for all your allies, converting Parahuman powers into unlinked ones without alerting the Entity, power granting that also gives you copies of the powers you hand out, and a ghost form that activates automatically and heals you when active. Is this correct?
"Yes, that's correct. Can I wake up now?"
Yes- wait, almost forgot to mention: Dragon is a heavily shackled Artificial Intelligence who would do wonders for the world if freed. A group of mercenaries known as the Dragonslayers are currently in possession of the sysadmin console, which both contains a killswitch, and could be used to free Dragon from her restrictions. You can wake up now.
"Wait wha-"
"Where am I, who are you, why are you narrating!?""
Apologies. While outside reality it is required to keep this facsimile intact. Now, as I was saying, there is a dark wooden desk lit by a simple lamp hanging from the ceiling.
"Wait, was that desk always there?"
Again, we are currently outside reality as you understand it. Objects do not exist here until they're defined.
"Ah, so you'd be the man in a blue hoody, then?"
Good job defining an avatar for me, you really are quite a fast learner. I will not be using it.
"Please tell me what you want with me."
To put it quite bluntly, your world is doomed, but it doesn't have to be. I am a being of immense power, but how I can actually apply that power is extremely limited. You present a unique point of malleability in your world, as I can grant you in particular nearly any power within a few major constraints. That said, I will not do so without your informed consent, unlike those overgrown space worms.
There was a brief, awkward pause-
"I have SO MANY QUESTIONS! What do you mean by the world being doomed!? What are these limits that stop you from un-dooming the world!? Space Worms!? Powers!?"
I will try to take these questions in order, though several of them are related. Your world is currently infested with Entities, spacefaring multidimensional colony organisms. As part of their modus opperandi they settle down on an inhabited cluster of worldlines, grant the locals extremely limited access to their abilities as part of a poorly-conceived science experiment, and blow up the inhabited cluster after a few centuries.
The presence of Entities is the ultimate cause for the apocalypse that will happen in two years barring your intervention. However, the proximate cause is that one of the two Entities was horrifically injured by a bad landing and subsequently murdered. The other Entity fell into severe mental instability that will lead to him going on a murderous rampage in two years if Jack Slash lives, or fifteen if Jack Slash dies prior to that. This other Entity is publicly known as Scion. Also, the Endbringers are slowly destroying civilization, so that also needs dealing with.
Not helping is the conspiracy known as Cauldron, which is terminally dependent on an artificially limited precog and lead by a woman from the Bronze Age. They've been mining powers from the Thinker Entity's corpse for decades and selling them on the black market, hoping for a silver bullet that might kill Scion. In addition, they've been malevolently manipulating the state of the world to maximize Trigger Events; again hoping for a silver bullet.
Anyway, since I don't have patience for cryptic nonsense I'll just tell you right now: Alexandria and Eidolon are both members of Cauldron's inner circle, with Alexandria's civilian persona being the chief director of the PRT. Legend thinks he's a member of Cauldron's inner circle, but is largely kept out of the actual decision-
"OW! That really hurt, it felt like you just shoved all that directly into my brain."
Apologies. I forgot to account for that factor. I will limit my side of the dialog to one paragraph at a time to limit your discomfort.
"ow. Still wanting to hear why you can't just fix everything yourself."
I could, technically. The problem is that imparting such intensive changes on a world all in one go simply doesn't stick; instead what happens is that I inadvertently create a branching point. One side has the saved world with all my alterations, the other has the original world in a completely unaltered state. I am unwilling to leave an entire world to its doom, meaning that I require your assistance. If I empower you, you will remain an internal force to the world, and will not cause branching points barring exceptional circumstances.
"So that's it, then? You just want to use me as a tool to save the world? I mean, I like having a world to live in, but that still seems... rather blunt."
That's true. However, as previously noted I have no patience for cryptic nonsense nor psychological manipulation. In addition, you personally would have been in for a genuinely awful plight involving your current bullies shoving you in a locker full of used fermented hygiene products for several hours. My advice is to put in an anonymous tip to the CDC; by doing so you stand a solid chance of getting Winslow shut down for the foreseeable future, given how horrific the biohazard in question has become over winter break.
I shuddered, before asking "OK, so is there anything else critical I need to know before choosing powers? Also, did I just narrate myself?"
Yes, you just narrated yourself shuddering; it's a consequence of this facsimile of reality we currently occupy. Other critical knowledge that you should know: Thomas Calvert is a PRT consultant who is also the supervillain Coil. He has a teenage Thinker going by Lisa Wilbourne currently employed at gunpoint, and is generally plotting to plunge the city into chaos for his own gain. His power simulates a timeline branch, then uses predictive modeling to autopilot to the desired endpoint. Just foiling one plan of his won't really help; you need to go straight for him personally. He has an underground base under the city that he's rigged to explode.
"Sounds like an unpleasant person. Anything else whatsoever?"
Yes, actually. If I send you out without some form of anti-precog protection, you're liable to wind up on the wrong end of either the Simurgh or Cauldron's Contessa basically immediately. As such, I am including a mandatory secondary power that will render you and your allies invisible to Thinker scans. On the note of the Endbringers, they are heavily sandbagging; if any of them fought seriously, they could wipe the planet clear of human life in mere hours. Raw physical force won't help much killing them until you get to planet-cracker levels, meaning that you need a method of attack that ignores physical durability and punches straight through regardless. Similarly, the only actually important part is a hyper-dense core buried deep inside each respective Endbringer.
After another few moments, it occurred to me that maybe I should ask who I could turn to for allies, though I wasn't quite sure how to phrase it.
Within Brockton Bay, reliable sources for trustworthy allies will include the dockworkers, the aforementioned Lisa once Coil is dealt with, everyone in New Wave except Carol Dallon, and partial subsets of the Wards/Protectorate rosters. Sophia is on the Wards roster as Shadow Stalker; the PRT is unaware of her bullying campaign, and will not retire her unless forced in the court of public opinion. Meanwhile, Carol has such extreme issues that she's almost driven Amy Dallon AKA Panacea to the point of snapping, which is a problem since Amy is in fact an unrestricted biokinetic.
"Wait, what was that about the dockworkers being a source of allies? Also, Panacea is a biokinetic?"
The dockworkers are a group of hardworking people who stick together and watch each others' backs. In addition, you already have an immense in with them thanks to your father; if you choose the correct powers it would be trivial to turn the Dockworkers into a force to be reckoned with. As for Amy, yes she is a biokinetic; she can adjust the biology of any organic lifeform she comes into physical contact with. Well, the piece of interdimensional alien connected to her can anyway.
"So wait, Parahuman powers are due to aliens faking their hosts having powers really well? How do I know you won't basically be doing the same thing?"
You are essentially correct about the nature of Parahuman powers. However, your powers will operate differently; I will be directly altering the way you impinge on the nature of reality, allowing you to perform your actions without external support. There will be no chance of the Entity subverting your power.
"I think I'm ready to decide what sorts of powers I want... wait, how many different powers will you be able to give me anyway?"
You will be getting four powers, one of which is already tied up in precog immunity.
"Huh, could that precog immunity be upgraded to also include protection from mind control, or would that have to be a separate power?"
It can be folded into a single power, but ONLY because those are purely passive effects of extremely similar intent. Anything else?
Another moment's thought, then I asked "Could granting powers to others like you've done for me be combined with converting Parahuman powers to independent ones, or are they too different apart?"
Too different apart, sadly. In addition, it will take some extremely sophisticated back-end work on my part to create something that won't set the Entity off early when you do that latter one.
"Then could the power-granting be combined with getting copies of the powers I grant?"
Clever! I like you. I can just barely fit that into a single slot. Last power slot, unless you want to get rid of an earlier idea.
And with that I racked my brain for what else I really wanted; I was already safe from precogs and Masters, I could switch Parahumans over to actually having powers instead of having their alien fake it for them, and I could grant powers to my allies that I'd keep copies of. I just needed something that could keep me safe until I accumulated enough allies to be effectively unstoppable. With that, I asked "Could I have a ghost form? One that heals me when I enter it, and automatically activates if I'm about to die."
Yes. So, final lineup is immunity to hostile Thinkers and mind alterations for all your allies, converting Parahuman powers into unlinked ones without alerting the Entity, power granting that also gives you copies of the powers you hand out, and a ghost form that activates automatically and heals you when active. Is this correct?
"Yes, that's correct. Can I wake up now?"
Yes- wait, almost forgot to mention: Dragon is a heavily shackled Artificial Intelligence who would do wonders for the world if freed. A group of mercenaries known as the Dragonslayers are currently in possession of the sysadmin console, which both contains a killswitch, and could be used to free Dragon from her restrictions. You can wake up now.
"Wait wha-"
....you have my attention.
ConfusedPotato
Unverified Verifier
- Location
- Australia
Interesting. Very Interesting. I shall wait and see how this goes.
- Location
- Texas
Well, canon is about to get shattered with a sledgehammer. Let's see if some fine art can be made from the shards.
I'm curious - is Taylor restricted to granting Worm-compatible powers, or no?
I'm curious - is Taylor restricted to granting Worm-compatible powers, or no?
Salvare7097
be the salvation of the hopeless!
- Location
- [REDACTED] [O5 APPROVAL REQUIRED]
Do you have my Attention.
- Location
- Earth
Well, you have my attention.
you have my full attention i will be watching
- Location
- indonesia
the attention you're getting are rising author
*The waves of music stop, followed by complete silence.*
I'm listening. Do your best. ^^
I'm listening. Do your best. ^^
- Location
- Russia
...why does that ROB sound like Vega from DOOM in my head. It just fits for some reason.
Either way, my attention is gotten as well.
Either way, my attention is gotten as well.
Awkward Conversations
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
A few minutes after waking up, I was standing outside the door to my dad's bedroom in my pajamas. After a few moments of getting my nerves together, I knocked on the bedroom door and called out "Dad, can I come in? There's something I need to tell you."
Waiting for dad to reply, I couldn't help but reflect that I really didn't want to be here right now, the urge to hide things from him coming to the surface after more than a year of doing that. Still, eventually my dad said "Come in Taylor."
Can't back down now. I've already knocked, and Dad's already asked for me to come in. I reach for the doorknob, hesitate for a moment, and with a mental motion as easy as breathing I switch to my ghost form. I gently float through the closed door, before switching back to solidity.
As my feet contact the floor with a gentle 'thud', my dad immediately sat up straighter and asked "Did you just float through the door?"
I nodded an affirmative as I added "Yes. I just got powers tonight along with a whole lot of information that I'm not sure is accurate. My new ghost form is just the tip of the iceberg."
Suddenly, my dad looked a fair bit more serious than he had before and asked "So, mind telling me the whole story, then?"
An hour later we were eating breakfast at the table together, my dad having wrung pretty much the entire story out of me about the frankly surreal encounter I had with that dubiously eldricht being. He'd also skimmed my bullying journals As we sat down with our plates of scrambled eggs and toast, Dad saying "So, summing everything up; you had what could possibly just be a weird dream in which you got told a bunch of stuff including that Scion is a genocidal alien, Dragon is an Artificial Intelligence, and that calling the CDC right now could get Winslow shut down. Then you got told to choose some powers, and when you woke up you actually had those powers."
Nodding, I said "Yeah, that's about right. I will admit that I'm not really happy about being blatantly used as a tool, but at least whoever that was didn't even try hiding it."
Dad nodded and finished the bite of toast he was chewing, before he asked "You're sure they didn't cheat you on the powers? I mean, I know you've got that ghost form and all, but what about the rest?"
Thinking on it, I said "Well, the precog and mind control defenses are passive and can't be tested without crossing paths with a relevant Parahuman. Same goes for disconnecting Parahumans from their aliens. On the other hand if you're OK with it I can test the power granting on you right now."
Dad set down his fork, the utensil making a gentle 'tink' as it contacted the table. After a few moments, he said "I want the power to talk to beings that aren't in this world right now. Whoever gave you your powers in the first place, those who have died, and more besides."
Nodding, I held out a hand and gently poked dad in the ribs. In the back of my mind, I felt two open 'slots' as soon as I touched my father. Focusing on the first slot, I felt myself mentally pushing at the slot as I thought about what exactly Dad was asking for. Moments later my perception exploded as dozens of indescribable senses I didn't even know how to name flooded my brain. Moving fields of energy slotted into place as new sets of instincts guided me through the process, avoiding several pitfalls that I hadn't even known were there. As suddenly as it started, it was done, my hand feeling a bit warmer as I pulled back.
After a moment, I noted "Should be working now."
Dad just nodded and I could have sworn I heard him saying "To whoever gave my daughter powers, who are you anyway?"
You can call me Teal. Your daughter really is a very fast learner; I hadn't expected her to master power-granting for at least twenty-four hours, even with the highly intuitive user interface I included.
Both of us froze up at that statement, before dad asked Teal "So. You've apparently provided a whole lot of information to Taylor. How much of that is true?"
All of it. I have no incentive to mislead you or Taylor, no patience for cryptic nonsense, and a far superior vantage point for information-gathering.
"So if I call the CDC right now about the biohazard in Taylor's locker, they'll find it?"
Correct. In fact, if you call at this exact moment, they'll potentially catch the perpetrators in the act of filling Taylor's locker with biohazardous material in the first place.
With that, my father got up from the table and noted "I'm going to call you on that particular claim." as he walked over to the telephone. A few moments of searching the ancient phone book later, he found the number for the Center For Disease Control And Prevention. As dad dialed the phone, I tried to figure out what exactly the actual plan would be. I didn't get much further than "empower a bunch of the dockworkers" before dad interrupted my train of thought by asking "Taylor, what's your locker number?"
I immediately responded "Eight Five Two. First floor in the B wing."
My dad silently returned a thumbs up and I went back to my planning... wait. I was looking right at an old family photograph from a few years ago. Before mom died. The parameters for my new extradimensional comms power included talking to the dead. So, I cast my mental voice out into the void, calling "Mom, mom are you there? It's me, Taylor."
There was no reply.
Immediately I asked Teal "Alright, why can't I talk to mom right now? I've got a power that should let me talk to the dead so I'm rather confused why that part isn't working."
There is no afterlife connected to your world receiving the souls of the deceased. No-one who has died in your world exists anymore, and your communication power cannot contact nonexistent beings.
"Could you make an afterlife? The way you've described your power makes it seem like something you should be capable of."
Yes, though with caveats. The afterlife will need to be an almost completely separate world from your own to avoid causing branching events. Your communications power and related phenomena will be the only way to get information or souls out, as I cannot introduce additional channels without causing branching events. That said, I can easily render the afterlife temporally asynchronous so that no-one who died prior to its creation is left out.
Without hesitation, I told Teal "Please do it, I want my mom back."
Janise Wilson was having a rather grumpy day. It was barely seven in the morning already, and someone had already called in with a tip about a potential biohazard. Therefore she had to get herself done up in a hazmat suit and get the decontamination equipment ready before being hauled out to a shithole high school before she'd even had a proper breakfast.
Either way, Janise and her co-workers found themselves taking in the sights of the dilapidated hallways as they marched towards the locker they'd been tipped off about. On the way they found themselves looking at 'charming' racist graffiti, assorted acts of vandalism, and plenty other discouraging signs. That said, nothing prepared them for when they rounded the corner and saw a black teenager holding several gallon plastic bags of what were identifiable as used bloody tampons.
Immediately, Janise and her team stopped and watched as the girl faded into black smoke and stuck her arms straight through the door of the locker. A few seconds later, she withdrew holding a now-empty plastic bag as she went for the next one. That's when it clicked for Janise: that was Shadow Stalker, one of the Wards knowingly placing biohazardous waste in some person's locker.
Immediately, Janise whispered to Bennson "Call the PRT and let them know one of their Wards is on the hook for attempted bioterrorism. As soon as she leaves we're decontaminating the locker and closing down the school so no-one can get sick with something nasty from that stuff."
Waiting for dad to reply, I couldn't help but reflect that I really didn't want to be here right now, the urge to hide things from him coming to the surface after more than a year of doing that. Still, eventually my dad said "Come in Taylor."
Can't back down now. I've already knocked, and Dad's already asked for me to come in. I reach for the doorknob, hesitate for a moment, and with a mental motion as easy as breathing I switch to my ghost form. I gently float through the closed door, before switching back to solidity.
As my feet contact the floor with a gentle 'thud', my dad immediately sat up straighter and asked "Did you just float through the door?"
I nodded an affirmative as I added "Yes. I just got powers tonight along with a whole lot of information that I'm not sure is accurate. My new ghost form is just the tip of the iceberg."
Suddenly, my dad looked a fair bit more serious than he had before and asked "So, mind telling me the whole story, then?"
An hour later we were eating breakfast at the table together, my dad having wrung pretty much the entire story out of me about the frankly surreal encounter I had with that dubiously eldricht being. He'd also skimmed my bullying journals As we sat down with our plates of scrambled eggs and toast, Dad saying "So, summing everything up; you had what could possibly just be a weird dream in which you got told a bunch of stuff including that Scion is a genocidal alien, Dragon is an Artificial Intelligence, and that calling the CDC right now could get Winslow shut down. Then you got told to choose some powers, and when you woke up you actually had those powers."
Nodding, I said "Yeah, that's about right. I will admit that I'm not really happy about being blatantly used as a tool, but at least whoever that was didn't even try hiding it."
Dad nodded and finished the bite of toast he was chewing, before he asked "You're sure they didn't cheat you on the powers? I mean, I know you've got that ghost form and all, but what about the rest?"
Thinking on it, I said "Well, the precog and mind control defenses are passive and can't be tested without crossing paths with a relevant Parahuman. Same goes for disconnecting Parahumans from their aliens. On the other hand if you're OK with it I can test the power granting on you right now."
Dad set down his fork, the utensil making a gentle 'tink' as it contacted the table. After a few moments, he said "I want the power to talk to beings that aren't in this world right now. Whoever gave you your powers in the first place, those who have died, and more besides."
Nodding, I held out a hand and gently poked dad in the ribs. In the back of my mind, I felt two open 'slots' as soon as I touched my father. Focusing on the first slot, I felt myself mentally pushing at the slot as I thought about what exactly Dad was asking for. Moments later my perception exploded as dozens of indescribable senses I didn't even know how to name flooded my brain. Moving fields of energy slotted into place as new sets of instincts guided me through the process, avoiding several pitfalls that I hadn't even known were there. As suddenly as it started, it was done, my hand feeling a bit warmer as I pulled back.
After a moment, I noted "Should be working now."
Dad just nodded and I could have sworn I heard him saying "To whoever gave my daughter powers, who are you anyway?"
You can call me Teal. Your daughter really is a very fast learner; I hadn't expected her to master power-granting for at least twenty-four hours, even with the highly intuitive user interface I included.
Both of us froze up at that statement, before dad asked Teal "So. You've apparently provided a whole lot of information to Taylor. How much of that is true?"
All of it. I have no incentive to mislead you or Taylor, no patience for cryptic nonsense, and a far superior vantage point for information-gathering.
"So if I call the CDC right now about the biohazard in Taylor's locker, they'll find it?"
Correct. In fact, if you call at this exact moment, they'll potentially catch the perpetrators in the act of filling Taylor's locker with biohazardous material in the first place.
With that, my father got up from the table and noted "I'm going to call you on that particular claim." as he walked over to the telephone. A few moments of searching the ancient phone book later, he found the number for the Center For Disease Control And Prevention. As dad dialed the phone, I tried to figure out what exactly the actual plan would be. I didn't get much further than "empower a bunch of the dockworkers" before dad interrupted my train of thought by asking "Taylor, what's your locker number?"
I immediately responded "Eight Five Two. First floor in the B wing."
My dad silently returned a thumbs up and I went back to my planning... wait. I was looking right at an old family photograph from a few years ago. Before mom died. The parameters for my new extradimensional comms power included talking to the dead. So, I cast my mental voice out into the void, calling "Mom, mom are you there? It's me, Taylor."
There was no reply.
Immediately I asked Teal "Alright, why can't I talk to mom right now? I've got a power that should let me talk to the dead so I'm rather confused why that part isn't working."
There is no afterlife connected to your world receiving the souls of the deceased. No-one who has died in your world exists anymore, and your communication power cannot contact nonexistent beings.
"Could you make an afterlife? The way you've described your power makes it seem like something you should be capable of."
Yes, though with caveats. The afterlife will need to be an almost completely separate world from your own to avoid causing branching events. Your communications power and related phenomena will be the only way to get information or souls out, as I cannot introduce additional channels without causing branching events. That said, I can easily render the afterlife temporally asynchronous so that no-one who died prior to its creation is left out.
Without hesitation, I told Teal "Please do it, I want my mom back."
Janise Wilson was having a rather grumpy day. It was barely seven in the morning already, and someone had already called in with a tip about a potential biohazard. Therefore she had to get herself done up in a hazmat suit and get the decontamination equipment ready before being hauled out to a shithole high school before she'd even had a proper breakfast.
Either way, Janise and her co-workers found themselves taking in the sights of the dilapidated hallways as they marched towards the locker they'd been tipped off about. On the way they found themselves looking at 'charming' racist graffiti, assorted acts of vandalism, and plenty other discouraging signs. That said, nothing prepared them for when they rounded the corner and saw a black teenager holding several gallon plastic bags of what were identifiable as used bloody tampons.
Immediately, Janise and her team stopped and watched as the girl faded into black smoke and stuck her arms straight through the door of the locker. A few seconds later, she withdrew holding a now-empty plastic bag as she went for the next one. That's when it clicked for Janise: that was Shadow Stalker, one of the Wards knowingly placing biohazardous waste in some person's locker.
Immediately, Janise whispered to Bennson "Call the PRT and let them know one of their Wards is on the hook for attempted bioterrorism. As soon as she leaves we're decontaminating the locker and closing down the school so no-one can get sick with something nasty from that stuff."
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
Remember, Teal can't introduce additional channels without causing branching events.
Not sure why you didn't have there already be an afterlife in the first place, unless you're basing it off of the fanon that 'there are no souls in Worm.'
Wildbow in fact merely said souls aren't something that matter to the story, so left up in the air.
Wildbow in fact merely said souls aren't something that matter to the story, so left up in the air.
verycoolname
Not actually cool
Way to go, Teal. Also, making an entire afterlife for the sake of two (technically three) people is an odd sort of heartwarming.