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Firebird, a Worm AU/Xover?

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Hm hm hm ha ha ha HA HA HA he he heheh. Poor Coil. You were no Mastermind, I fear. But don't worry, you didn't suffer as much as he did...
 
chibipoe said:
"I… the one who promised that he could help you," he began, then swallowed. "I helped him capture someone. I... I don't know what he's doing to her… and I… I justified it because it was all for you, but that isn't making it easier to deal with."
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Interesting. Krouse is experiencing doubt, I guess he still has some limits he won't easily cross.

chibipoe said:
"I'm not sleeping well, Krouse," she said, her voice sounding dazed. "I dream and all I see is fire."

He ran a hand over his face. "Haven't been sleeping well either. Do... do you want me to try singing to you?"
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Hmm. Something's waking up I think.

chibipoe said:
"Heads, tails, and the edge dividing," she began, her voice an off-key singsong. "Six becomes seven, fire burns and birds fly."

"Something useful, if you would," Coil said, exasperation clear in his voice as he raised a small remote. The girl recoiled at the sight of it and Trickster felt his stomach twist again. What the hell had he helped do to this girl?
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And that's probably a remote injection device. Coil is scum as always.

chibipoe said:
The mercenaries were fighting for a bit and I saw some blonde girl run by a while ago.
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I'm not surprised Lisa is making a run for it. Now's her best chance at escape.

chibipoe said:
The voice drew him to a halt. It wasn't like the Simurgh at all. The screaming that had been her work was a discordant, terrible thing. This… felt nothing like that. Warmth suffused him, lIke being enfolded in the embrace of his mom when he had hurt himself as a kid. Certainty filled him, now as then, that everything would be alright.

Fire sprung up around the girl, taking shape before his eyes. Wings spread out and the head of some great bird rose above her, beak open like it was crying out. It held that shape for a moment, then folded down around both Noelle and the girl.

His calm shattered and he cried out in alarm just before the fire blossomed, rushing out and over him and the others. He stared at his hands, watching the flames dance across his skin. They didn't burn.

"What—" he began, then started as the fire collapsed inward, the shape of the bird visible for just a moment before it dispersed.

The figure he had become used to was not there. A figure he hadn't seen in years stood in front of Coil's former prisoner. Their foreheads were touching and both appeared to be clinging to the other for support. He saw Noelle's hands start to slip from the other girl's shoulders and her legs begin to give way.
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Very interesting. I wonder if the flame took care of them being Ziz'd.

chibipoe said:
Her dad didn't immediately answer, analyzing me. If I was remembering right, he was former military and I was pretty sure that he wasn't missing any details about my condition.

Finally, he nodded. "It is. Come in, Taylor. I think we should all sit down for a talk."
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I guess seeing Taylor's condition has raised some questions in his mind about his preconceptions of her.

A lovely chapter chibipoe.
 
I like this portrayal of Krouse honestly, I think he gets way too much hate in the fan community. The only thing that he did that I think was completely off the reservation was helping Noelle eat the ones she saw responsible for her condition.

Everything else he did he did for Noelle's sake. Plus, he's actually pretty smart, it's just wisdom that he lacks.
 
Hmm....will have to comment more in-depth later, but hmm...psychic bonding?

Glory Girl (friend)shipping is one thing, but if this potentially means (or at least could open the door to) some 'interesting' developments.
 
While that was very noble of Krouse, it would have been smarter to replace Taylor with Coil inside the collar.

These updates backtracking and skipping around perspectives is kind of getting disoriented and disjointed, to be honest. Hopefully it's over. The payoff of getting one perspective on Coil's end didn't end up very satisfying here, for me at least.

If we do flashback to a closer perspective on Coil's death, hopefully it's from Taylor's view. Though I think a perspective from Coil would have been best, before we were told he's dead. Then we could watch the Phoenix hunting him down across his timelines. Although I guess if Coil just keeps cool and trying to escape it may not be quite as satisfying since he won't break down and blubber without some character assassination.
 
Impstar said:
I like this portrayal of Krouse honestly, I think he gets way too much hate in the fan community. The only thing that he did that I think was completely off the reservation was helping Noelle eat the ones she saw responsible for her condition.

Everything else he did he did for Noelle's sake. Plus, he's actually pretty smart, it's just wisdom that he lacks.
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I like this depiction as well. Krouse has always seemed more like a rather wellwritten example of the slippery slope analogue to me. At his core a far more nuanced character then he generally is depicted as.
It is always nice to see authors availing themselves of narrative resourses.
 
HymnOfRagnarok said:
The payoff of getting one perspective on Coil's end didn't end up very satisfying here, for me at least.
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Well, I am working on the next bit. And right now, my thought is two interludes. One tracks Lisa(but it isn't a huge timeskip jumping around. It follows her from the moment Oliver mentioned, of seeing a blonde girl run by.) The other interlude(or it may just be part of the next part) will answer the Coil thing and everyone can finally see what happens...
 
Metroidvania said:
Hmm....will have to comment more in-depth later, but hmm...psychic bonding?
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More or less. Turns out being directly manipulated/fixed/cured/insert description of your choice here by someone who is mainlining a cosmic entity and drugged so that red tastes like blue and the sun is made of cheese has unforeseen effects. Noelle isn't as aware of it as Taylor is, obviously and it'll probably mellow out after a bit.
 
chibipoe said:
Well, I am working on the next bit. And right now, my thought is two interludes. One tracks Lisa(but it isn't a huge timeskip jumping around. It follows her from the moment Oliver mentioned, of seeing a blonde girl run by.) The other interlude(or it may just be part of the next part) will answer the Coil thing and everyone can finally see what happens...
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Eh. Personally I think you kinda killed the anticipation of seeing what happened to Coil. You told us straight up OOC that is dead so there's no suspense there, and we've been given enough hints that at this point I'm kind of ready to just ditch his plotline and move on, rather than keep belaboring what happened while Taylor was out when she's back in the game.

I really cannot tell what you are aiming for with this arc.
 
HymnOfRagnarok said:
I really cannot tell what you are aiming for with this arc.
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Eh, there's things I could have rearranged to make it more fluid, but this arc deals with Coil in the bg and Taylor acclimating to getting out on her own. Really, i should have run the Coil moments where she perceives splits all into this arc. Stuff is happening around her that she isn't sure of while she's dealing with being on her own and all that, culminating in things going south when Coil makes his move. There's ways I could have improved it, but hindsight 20/20 as they say.

Still, the fall out for things she's done here will be addressed in the next arc, as even though the gang war's over, there's one faction that isn't happy with Sirin at all. And others may be taking an interest, given the Empire's obvious vulnerability.
 
The most interesting thing that people have missed is that Krouse's change of heart and dreams is likely Pheonix!Taylor reaching out and messing with his head to free her in a way that punishes Krouse for having put her there, what with what she said when asked about the future:

chibipoe said:
"Heads, tails, and the edge dividing," she began, her voice an off-key singsong. "Six becomes seven, fire burns and birds fly."
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BerserkerZeroOne said:
The most interesting thing that people have missed is that Krouse's change of heart and dreams is likely Pheonix!Taylor reaching out and messing with his head to free her in a way that punishes Krouse for having put her there, what with what she said when asked about the future:
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Certainly possible.

TBH, I really got a bit frustrated trying to figure out something suitably nonsensical that Krouse might still figure out what it meant. First iteration was a bit too incomprehensible and needed readers to have etymology of Krouse's name to make sense without having it spelled out for them. Writing that sort of prophecy is hard!
 
So either Coil got burned in both timelines, or suffered a headsplosion. Either way, he's been permakilled by the Phoenix, and Dinah Alcott survives a nasty fate. I would like to know what happened to the Undersiders but I would be lying. Either way, they're out of a boss and job.
 
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