Firebird, a Worm AU/Xover?

Why would she be scanning the future?

Presumably because of Lisa? I mean scanning the future 24/7 does not make sense and would grow old fast. But scanning the future (just in case) when talking to a coerced(or so she says) agent of an enemy that has tried to kidnap you once before seems less SV!Paranoia and more common sense.

Lisa is what makes it SoD breaking. Taylor learns of an obvious threat, and does not bother using her most usefull ability in this situation.
 
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main SOD breaking thing was that she didn't see an explosion happening right where she is at all.

Her precog: I look ahead x amount of time and see x things happening or, as we saw with Danny, she can look ahead, and do the possible futures to judge how someone can respond to various things. It isn't: "I ask and see bombs blowing up. She has managed to make the look ahead aspect into a pseudo-danger sense, but it isn't something running all the time."

Also... consider something else... the unreliability of it might be by design. Cosmic Firebird cares not for your agenda, only its own.
 
You forget this is SV where anything but constant paranoid power uses is considered having the idiot ball.
That's not really what this is, though? To me, anyways, it is that her power set includes precog, but it never seems to get used for anything other than plot convenience. It strains SOD.

Instances like this, where things are happening that make her angry, vulnerable, and/or scared, or in the fights with Cricket, I would expect her to be using it almost instinctively. If her precog is detailed enough to go through conversations, why would she bother manually checking if Cricket is okay in the first place? Why doesn't she seem to even think about using it during fights and now when she's inviting a villain into her house that's dropping scary information? It's starting to feel a lot like "because the plot demands it" to me.

It's the first power she noticed she had, iirc, so it seems strange that she's barely ever using it constructively. If she can plan out several minutes into the future, why is she rushing into fights and getting nervous, when she could actually check to see what happens? School and talking with her dad established that she would use it when she thought something unpleasant was coming up, but she seems to have just stopped doing that now that it actually matters a lot more. Any time she's scared about something coming up in her direct future, I expect her to fall back on it, like she was doing at school. If she isn't falling back on her first power that she started using to get around bullies and get money, there needs to be a good in-story explanation for it. Why the big change? Nothing in the story that I've noticed has given a reason for this change, so it makes her actions seem confusing, or like it's forced for the plot.

I'm still enjoying the story, of course. That's why I'm here. But this is becoming something I'm noticing more and more myself. It was established that she would use it one way, and now that the story is building up, she's seems to have stopped doing that for no given reason I can recall.
 
Her precog: I look ahead x amount of time and see x things happening

So this: "I look ahead 1 minute and see explosions."

If she looks ahead for any reason she sees something bad happening.
By saying it's by design your essentially saying its for plot convenience, why else would PF let it's host potentially be killed, with any sort of bombs that's always a possibility, even non-lethal ones.

That's not really what this is, though? To me, anyways, it is that her power set includes precog, but it never seems to get used for anything other than plot convenience. It strains SOD.

Instances like this, where things are happening that make her angry, vulnerable, and/or scared, or in the fights with Cricket, I would expect her to be using it almost instinctively. If her precog is detailed enough to go through conversations, why would she bother manually checking if Cricket is okay in the first place? Why doesn't she seem to even think about using it during fights and now when she's inviting a villain into her house? It's starting to feel a lot like "because the plot demands it" to me.

It's the first power she noticed she had, iirc, so it seems strange that she's barely ever using it constructively. If she can plan out several minutes into the future, why is she rushing into fights and getting nervous, when she could actually check to see what happens? School and talking with her dad established that she would use it when she thought something unpleasant was coming up, but she seems to have just stopped doing that now that it actually matters a lot more. Any time she's scared about something coming up in her direct future, I expect her to fall back on it, like she was doing at school. If she isn't falling back on her first power that she started using to get around bullies and get money, there needs to be a good in-story explanation for it. Why the big change? Nothing in the story that I've noticed has given a reason for this change, so it makes her actions seem confusing, or like it's forced for the plot.

I'm still enjoying the story, of course. That's why I'm here. But this is becoming something I'm noticing more and more myself. It was established that she would use it one way, and now that the story is building up, she's seems to have stopped doing that for no given reason I can recall.

This is essentially what I'm saying. It's SOD breaking that Taylor wouldn't automatically fall back on her most used power, that she used so much for this exact reason, to check for danger after she learns that a Supervillain that has already tried to kidnap her once knows her identity and most likely where she lives.
 
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And again, why would she be anticipating explosions, when Coil's previous attempts had not utilized them? You're using perfect knowledge of what's already happened to try raising issues.

Presumably she would not be looking for explosions. She would be looking for anything bad/her general health, and seeing the explosions as a result.

Basically, this is the idea:

1. A supervillain is after me, and one of his coerced agents is in my house. She could have been followed. Or he might know where I am. Better to just make sure...
2. *Precog 10 minutes into the future to see myself*
3. Holy crap! I am unconscious and being manhandled by these strangers! What happened!
4. *Precog*
5. Fuck, my place is bugged, we have to get out now!
 
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o this: "I look ahead 1 minutes and see explosion."

If she look ahead for any reason she sees it.

This is exactly what happens.

"Ok, fine," I said, tapping my precognition for a moment to help with my decision. "Does he know about this place? That I am here?"

She shook her head. "As far as I know, he doesn't..." she said, looking and sounding less than confident. Something that was easy to pick up, even without powers.

"As far as you know? As in –"

She scowled. It was one of the few honest emotions I had seen on her face since she got here. It was actually refreshing in a sense. She was telling the truth, and her feelings were for the most part genuine. But there was always something that made me feel the need to doubt her. Not this time, though.

This time, she spoke with a bitter and sharp tone, an edge of frustration in her voice. "As in yes, I don't know for sure. He...cheats. He can figure stuff out in one part of the split, and use it in the other. It's like he can read minds. He'll pry secrets from someone on one hand, then use them against them with the other. I'm not sure what he doesn't know. The best I can do is figure out what he does. But I'm pretty sure he doesn't know about –"

It was sudden, a surge of tension welling up in the back of my mind as my precognition went crazy, strong enough to make me flinch. It probably saved me when my eyes caught on something glinting in the rafters.

There.

Tucked in the rafters, I could see a metal cylinder taped down, the source of what I had just seen. I could see the lights blinking on one side, and I didn't need to have watched action movies to know what it was.

She was using her precog in 'how do I get what I want answered' mode and it flared up telling her Something was Wrong and she switched modes in time to pull everyone in as it went off.
 
And again, why would she be anticipating explosions, when Coil's previous attempts had not utilized them? You're using perfect knowledge of what's already happened to try raising issues.

I'm not saying she would be expecting explosions!!!! WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU GOT THAT FROM!

I'm saying if SHE LOOKS AT THE FUTURE FOR ANY REASON SHE WOULD SEE EXPLOSIONS!

Taylor: "Oh shit Coil knows my identity, fuck fuck fuck, oh okay I've got time to plan, I can sort this out, not the end of the world...hang on, Lisa's here, fuck he might be keeping an eye on her....no she'd know if that was the case, surely she'd know and wouldn't come here or warm me.....right?...Okay Lisa admitted she doesn't know everything about him, he already tried to kidnap me once without telling lisa before hand.....fuck okay, Ill check to see if he does anything tonight, hopefully not becasue then we'll have time to plan....okay. (*Starts looking into future*) okay....nothing...all fine....phew noth-FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT! SHIT THAT WAS A FUCKING EXPLOSION SHIT!"

What she did instead: 'Coil knows my identity and his unwilling forced minion is here.....I think I'll ask more questions first.

Nothing about specifically looking for explsions or bombs or the Travelers, just looking to see if ANYTHING happens in general.

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She was using her precog in 'how do I get what I want answered' mode and it flared up telling her Something was Wrong and she switched modes in time to pull everyone in as it went off.

So you're still saying that after finding out Coil knows her identity and that he might know where she lives, she, instead of checking out if anything bad happens or looks at the future in general, she instead looks 'how do I get what I want answered'. I would think that sensing if theres any danger first would be her automatic reaction.
 
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This is exactly what happens.
She was using her precog in 'how do I get what I want answered' mode and it flared up telling her Something was Wrong and she switched modes in time to pull everyone in as it went off.
Chibipoe, I don't think he's paying close attention. He's probably not going to be happy until Taylor's precog makes her better than Contessa and then burn/murder/kills solos everyone in Worm because she's the Goddamm Phoenix. Just ignore him. He'll probably start shouting and complaining next, just ignore him.
EDIT: Oh look, he did just that.
 
Ugh. I think I just got cancer. Anyway, one thing that might not be immediately evident is that we now have Taylor's know residence, blown to shit in the street, two independents she's know to hang out with and her MIA, and shit's about to get very, very real. This is a worst-case scenario, and the PRT better get ready to pull all the stops.
 
Chibipoe, I don't think he's paying close attention. He's probably not going to be happy until Taylor's precog makes her better than Contessa and then burn/murder/kills solos everyone in Worm because she's the Goddamm Phoenix. Just ignore him. He'll probably start shouting and complaining next, just ignore him.
EDIT: Oh look, he did just that.

Again, I specifically said, TWICE, that its fully possible that the outcome wouldn't change and that just knowing it would happen wouldn't mean she'd know how to avoid it. In fact, I literally said it's nowhere near PtV.

Not saying it's PtV and automatically provides her with a way to win and/or escape, but she at least should have seen it coming and been a fairer fight against the Travelers. It's fully possible she might lose so they end result would be the same (Taylor captured). But it's still SOD breaking that considering the situation Taylor wouldn't be using precog and see the attack coming.

I mean even if Taylor only saw like 10 seconds before, which wouldn't really change anything, the fact that she didn't see it at all is the main SOD breaking thing, even if the precog can't do anything about it (IIRC Dinah in canon saw 'somebody' coming after her, she just wasn't able to stop it), it's still almost impossible to get the drop on them, especially if they are as paranoid and as tense as Taylor.

Whilst precog isn't as powerful as some people make it out to be, after all knowing is only part of the battle, it's dead useful as a 'danger sense'. If you're paranoid and feeling threatened, i.e. Taylor when Lisa tells her about the library, you subconsciously look for threats, escape etc, so for a precog that would mean subconsciously looking a short while into the future ('Danger Sense') to see if that THREAT became actively HOSTILE, so even if she specifically focused on Lisa and therefor didn't see the bombs directly she'd at least see Lisa react to the bombs, which would clue her in that something else was happening.

So know you're just being insulting, before commenting at least have the decency to actually read what I've posted before insulting me. At no point whatsoever I have implied that Taylor should be better than Contessa and destroy everything. I've joked about it much earlier in the thread, when everyone was saying PHONEIX FORCE HAZZAH and PF BURNATE EVERYTHING, but considering that happening would end the story immediately, (can't have a story if PF has destroyed Worm), I obviously was joking.
 
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Again, I specifically said, TWICE, that its fully possible that the outcome wouldn't change and that just knowing it would happen wouldn't mean she'd know how to avoid it. In fact, I literally said it's nowhere near PtV.

chibipoe also literally said she did see it, it just wasn't quick enough to matter, especially because it seems like it was a remote det IED, and the triggerman hit the clapper as soon as he saw them start moving with urgency. In fact, it might be that he detonated because they reacted like they had made the bomb, which only happened because she saw it going off, which only... precog sucks.
 
Is Taylor's Pre-cog real time? Because that would make it useless in a fight and as an early warning system if you have seconds to react.
 
So you're still saying that after finding out Coil knows her identity and that he might know where she lives, she, instead of checking out if anything bad happens or looks at the future in general, she instead looks 'how do I get what I want answered'. I would think that sensing if theres any danger first would be her automatic reaction.

I am saying that, unease over Lisa aside, she's in a place she's comfortable at(by this point, she's been there nearly a month) and she is devoting attention to milking the source she has in front of her for information. Somewhere in the back of her head, she's considering how to deal with Coil, but he isn't here in front of her, Lisa is.
 
the triggerman hit the clapper as soon as he saw them start moving with urgency. In fact, it might be that he detonated because they reacted like they had made the bomb, which only happened because she saw it going off, which only... precog sucks.
That would be an interesting theory (a cool way to thwart a known precog to some degree), but it seems incongruent with the presented scene. She would then see it going off further in the future, and it would then be triggered earlier than she saw because she deviated from that future. There could be a system like that, but in this case it would appear that a timed explosive and someone keeping watch would have the same end result, making someone keeping watch much less likely than a timed explosive (or the explosive being set off based on different parameters, like the Travelers being ready to go).
 
Watching this trainwreck, I am reminded of the saying:
Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, but only the pig likes it.

I still love reading the story, take heart, write more and ignore the idiots :)
 
chibipoe also literally said she did see it, it just wasn't quick enough to matter, especially because it seems like it was a remote det IED, and the triggerman hit the clapper as soon as he saw them start moving with urgency. In fact, it might be that he detonated because they reacted like they had made the bomb, which only happened because she saw it going off, which only... precog sucks.

That's my main problem, that she didn't think to look as soon as Lisa told her about coil, and that she only saw it last minute.

If it was a remote det IED and it was only detonated because she noticed it, then you've definitely got a point, she wouldn't have noticed it even with precog because of time loop shenanigans. But to me it read like when she noticed it, it was already about to go off which was why she got that last second wrong feeling, because she sensed it when it was literally about to detonate. And considering you're the first person to suggest a remote det IED and chibipoe hasn't mentioned it as a rebuttal like you've done, I can't be the only one who read it that way.

Chibipoe could literally retconn, or just clarify that's what happened in the first place, what you've said, about it be remotely detonated and only detonated because she noticed it, and that would be fine with me, it would sort out my problem completely because it completely invalidates her precog due to the bootstrap paradox ( bombs only go off if she notices them but she only notices them if they go off and so on).

That's my problem remember that she didn't use her precog and her precog didn't see it till the last second (which is pretty useless), remote detonation makes it so even if she was using the hell out of her precog she wouldn't catch it.
 
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The reason I'd imagine it has a triggerman attached is that otherwise that means Coil's set a timed charge, in her house, to go off at exactly the time that she comes home from thwarting a prison break, on a specific timetable, Lisa being with her, and the Travelers sitting outside ready to assault when it goes off. Think about that for a second. Now think about Trickster ports in someone, who sets and arms the bomb, then ports him back out and they eyeball the place with binos waiting for her to come home. Then, surprise surprise, Lisa's there too, and they have to make a decision. Then everyone freaks. What would you do? Which one makes more sense as a scenario? There's reason insurgents trying to hit US convoys use either pressure triggers or a spotter so they at least get near what they're aiming for.

Edit: By the way, part of the reason I like to imagine their movement caused the attack is that it amuses me to think the precog actually fucked her, as opposed to rendering challenges effortless.
 
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The reason I'd imagine it has a triggerman attached is that otherwise that means Coil's set a timed charge, in her house, to go off at exactly the time that she comes home from thwarting a prison break, on a specific timetable, Lisa being with her, and the Travelers sitting outside ready to assault when it goes off. Think about that for a second. Now think about Trickster ports in someone, who sets and arms the bomb, then ports him back out and they eyeball the place with binos waiting for her to come home. Then, surprise surprise, Lisa's there too, and they have to make a decision. Then everyone freaks. What would you do? Which one makes more sense as a scenario? There's reason insurgents trying to hit US convoys use either pressure triggers or a spotter so they at least get near what they're aiming for.

Good point's. It just read like a timed explosive to me, with
Tucked in the rafters, I could see a metal cylinder taped down, the source of what I had just seen. I could see the lights blinking on one side, and I didn't need to have watched action movies to know what it was.
Blinking lights screams timed or motion activate explosive to me. Set it off to go in the evening as he knows she'd be there or motion activated that would trip when she got home (alerting the Travelers to get ready) and starting a timer.

I don't know, the author hasn't specified (yet?), all we know is that there was a bomb that had a blinking light that Taylor recognized as stereotypical of bombs, and as stereotypical bombs are often timed.....(*shrugs*)

It's almost 2 A.M. where I am, so I'm going to bed. Be interesting to see what else will be said by the time I wake up. :p
 
Edit: By the way, part of the reason I like to imagine their movement caused the attack is that it amuses me to think the precog actually fucked her, as opposed to rendering challenges effortless.

That would be ironic and would also make a lot of sense considering we have WoG that Coil has been preparing to counter a precog as best he can.

IMHO, its still rather foolish of Taylor to wait so long to check from her POV. And yes, I think thats common sense foolish, not SV!foolish. Using precog constantly? Makes sense Taylor would not do that. Using Precog to quickly check how things turn out when bringing in an unknown person of unknown powers working for a hostile agent into your home? Common sense. Especially if its a sense that you have had time to have gotten used to like Taylor has from the fact that she has used it a lot previously, in a lot less important and dangerous situations. This was not a "bring a friend home to hang out with" thing, and Taylor is smart enough to understand that, 15 or not.

But its not a story breaker really. Though I would hope that Taylor will learn from this experience and start relying on precog more in these kinds of situations.

Actually, I wonder if the trauma of this experience (and this is going to be traumatic even if she instantly wrecks Coils base before he can do anything) should cause her to get precog "addicted" even? As in making detailed checks before she enters her home every single time for a while, just to make absolutely sure theres nothing there (to an unhealthy degree)?
 
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