Remove ads

Firebird, a Worm AU/Xover?

Reader mode
Datakim said:
Would the PRT actually care in the slightest what Danny thinks at this point?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
At this point I think the PRT does not care about what Danny wants. The problem is they could have him declared unfit as Taylor's guardian, but, as a cape and with no other family, the PRT/Protectorate would probably be declared her guardians. Which would place Taylor right back in to the situation she was trying to avoid.

Actually, in the conversation between Piggot and Glenn, it was pointed out the Piggot had an agent talk to Danny only ONCE. I believe that it was right after she found out that Taylor had run-away. And Danny had already started his descent into alcohol. So it sounded like he wasn't exactly in the right frame of mind to have a serious talk about Taylor. Of course, Coil was still running interference at this time, so the PRT could have tried to contact Danny more times, but only one got through and at the worst time.

As for his decision . . .

That is the one idiot ball in this story that drives me nuts. Danny is in charge of a union. He should have experience working with contracts and reviewing them. Instead it felt like he found out Taylor was a cape and would have signed and sent the paperwork if Taylor hadn't stopped him the first time. Hell, it reads like Taylor spent more time going over the contracts than Danny ever did. Because of his stubbornness, instead of working together, Taylor had to work on them herself until she got in a fight and Danny lost his shit and signed her up anyway.
Datakim said:
He had his chance of being a parent and he could not have failed worse had he tried.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That why he is #2 on my 'Worst Danny Hebert Award' of 2016. Lost out to Constellation's Danny Hebert.
 
Dark Mage said:
That is the one idiot ball in this story that drives me nuts. Danny is in charge of a union. He should have experience working with contracts and reviewing them.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Not really an idiot ball when a similar situation came up in canon and the man folded in much the same way. Danny, in spite of what should be many, many years of experience, can't do legal to save his life. Which explains his close friendship with Alan, he knows he can't do anything there. Well either that or when it comes to family Danny has a -20 modifier to all his die. Choose whichever you like.
 
Oi Skipper

Location, location, location,
riaantheunissen said:
Firstly, how did they find Taylor in her civilian guise?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Wherever she's at should most assuredly lead to how they found her, you might want an interlude beforehand about that.
You know I don't know why but i keep thinking of the coma Nazi that broke her nose and was 'about to kill her' and how Noelle coached her about her not just being her shitty beliefs but an actual person along with the man holding her hand, she could be paying them a visit, either to heal her or to read her mind and find out if she is an actual caring person and was trying to kill her...
or
She could be doing something else that a cape arriving at would draw all sorts of wrong attention to the situation both Taylor and whatever 'important thing' Taylor was doing.

I wouldn't mind seeing her experience a bit more of Kenta 'my word is law you are now Asian' I can't help wondering how her presence will influence Kenta's future actions.
 
Dark Mage said:
He should have experience working with contracts and reviewing them. Instead it felt like he found out Taylor was a cape and would have signed and sent the paperwork if Taylor hadn't stopped him the first time
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Or maybe the things that Taylor thought were objectionable like costume control, limits on actions as a cape were things that Danny thought were insignificant or good things that would keep Taylor safe. You have to remember that Danny is looking to the PRT to keep her safe first and happy second while Taylor is looking for control and independence first and safety second. So Taylor can look at the contract and hate it while at the same time Danny will see the contract restrictions as a good thing.
 
chibipoe said:
How they had found me made curious, but I wasn't going to go digging in their thoughts for that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Taylor.

Taylor, no.

This is how you get blindsided again. This is what you were supposed to learn from the whole Coil scenario. And, well, pretty much every interaction with everyone else as well.

Shtap.

chibipoe said:
Also, Browbeat is nowhere to be found in that scene. (Or is he/she? Would we know with Browbeat's stranger power?)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Browbeat: A stranger rating so high that even cosmic forces can't remember his/her existence.
 
landcollector said:
She's on relatively good terms with Ethan and his wife though.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
She was on relatively good terms with Emma. She was on relatively good terms with her father. She was sort of getting along with the PRT (admittedly, not their fault that all went wrong, but Taylor still had to deal with the fallout). She was on ... well, as 'relatively good' terms as you can reliably get with a villain you've barely interacted with, with Lisa.

At this point, I'm sort of surprised Taylor isn't working off a Whitelist, instead of a Blacklist, in terms of dealing with people.
 
Franklymydear said:
Taylor.

Taylor, no.

This is how you get blindsided again. This is what you were supposed to learn from the whole Coil scenario. And, well, pretty much every interaction with everyone else as well.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I am stupid. I missed that last night. You are so correct.

landcollector said:
She's on relatively good terms with Ethan and his wife though.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Franklymydear said:
She was on relatively good terms with Emma. She was on relatively good terms with her father. She was sort of getting along with the PRT (admittedly, not their fault that all went wrong, but Taylor still had to deal with the fallout). She was on ... well, as 'relatively good' terms as you can reliably get with a villain you've barely interacted with, with Lisa.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Don't forget Professor Colin Singer, who helped her out with her Emma and Sophia situation as well. Considering that they approached her in her civilian guise, her memory of him doing the same and outing her should make her rather less than happy, as well as motivate her to find out what they know, who told them what and why they're approaching her.
 
riaantheunissen said:
Don't forget Professor Colin Singer, who helped her out with her Emma and Sophia situation as well. Considering that they approached her in her civilian guise, her memory of him doing the same and outing her should make her rather less than happy, as well as motivate her to find out what they know, who told them what and why they're approaching her.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
*shrugs*
Not the same circumstances and you should be aware of that.
 
landcollector said:
*shrugs*
Not the same circumstances and you should be aware of that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
While I kind of agree with you, humans don't think like that. She's hardly going to look for circumstances that match up, but something close enough will still remind her that she's got a reason to be annoyed with the lot of them, in various ways.

After all, look at how she treated Dauntless when he approached her, and she's had next to no interactions with him before that point.

We think strangely for strange reasons. If we knew why we do the things we do, life would probably be a lot easier.
 
I know it won't happen, but I kinda want her to tell them that if they were going to demonstrate their contempt for the idea of secret identities like this, they really shouldn't have given her their name, then stand up, announce their identities to the entire restaurant at the top of her lungs, and walk out.


Dark Mage said:
Danny is in charge of a union.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
No, he's the head of hiring for the union.
 
Franklymydear said:
While I kind of agree with you, humans don't think like that. She's hardly going to look for circumstances that match up, but something close enough will still remind her that she's got a reason to be annoyed with the lot of them, in various ways.

After all, look at how she treated Dauntless when he approached her, and she's had next to no interactions with him before that point.

We think strangely for strange reasons. If we knew why we do the things we do, life would probably be a lot easier.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

No, we often don't think. We feel. This is not a conscious process, at least in my case, but something that just happens.

Something about a person reminds us about somebody else we don't like? We initially see that person in a less than positive manner, because what we're reminded of brings up unpleasant associations. Something about a person reminds us about somebody we trust? We initially see that person in a positive manner, because what we're reminded of brings up good associations. We often don't realize why until afterwards, if we take the time to think about it.

Something about a situation reminds us about an unpleasantness in our past? Initially more negative. Something about a situation reminds us about a pleasant experience in our past? Initially more positive.

Add that to the conscious thoughts.

So, in a situation like what was given in the teaser, I would expect her basic opinion of Assault and Battery to influence how she feels, the way that they approach her to influence how she feels, her memories of the last time a Protectorate employee (Armsmaster) surprised her in her civilian identity to influence how she feels and any feelings she has about the interference by the Protectorate and PRT in her family life to influence how she feels. All of these to occur in the back of her mind, not her conscious thought.

Add to that the fact that they now know her identity, approached her out of costume, interrupted her while she was enjoying herself, work for an organization that is trying to (softly) force her to do something she does not want and that their boss is Armsmaster. Somehow I am of the opinion that the negatives, what she unconsciously feels and the negatives that she would consciously realize outweigh the positives.

As to Dauntless, she was in costume (not the case here), he did not surprise her (not the case here) and she left instead of staying.
 
Last edited:
Nicholai said:
Might help if you explain why, LC.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
My thoughts: outing Assault and Battery is stupid because it is punishing people for the past fuck ups/wrongdoings of others (guilt by association iow).

SandwormPhish said:
Because right now the biggest thing helping to keep Taylor independent is that the PRT doesn't have any sort of leverage over her to keep her in line. I imagine that the identities of Protectorate capes have legal protections so if she does that then they finally have a real reason to drag her in.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This as well.
 
SandwormPhish said:
Because right now the biggest thing helping to keep Taylor independent is that the PRT doesn't have any sort of leverage over her to keep her in line. I imagine that the identities of Protectorate capes have legal protections so if she does that then they finally have a real reason to drag her in.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

You realize that in this scenario, it's practically a fail condition for the protectorate right? They drag her in and she just turns them to ash.
 
SandwormPhish said:
But do THEY know that?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Consider the amount of power that Sirin has thrown around in-story - specifically the power that they've been able to verify. Little things like Sirin managing to solo a significant portion of the E88's parahuman fighters.

Now consider what she's capable of doing to whatever building they try and restrain her in.

"Collateral Damage Barbie" (Glory Girl) uses things like dumpsters and motorcycles as melee weapons. Sirin uses Hookwolf - and that means she's capable of doing everything Glory Girl can do at a minimum.
 
The question of course being do they think Taylor's willing to cross that line.

Smashing the Nazis around is another, tearing up a government building means that she's going to go from 'runaway' to 'fugitive', and Taylor wants to be a hero.

Right now the PRT can't bring her in because they have no form of leverage or handle on her. She hasn't done anything other independent capes don't do (that they know of) so they can't bring any sort of legal pressure to bear and all the usual punishments for a ward (shit duties, docked pay, etc) don't apply when the Ward doesn't want to be there in the first place.

They're also going to well aware of the kind of power she's put on display before which means that no they don't want to poke her with a stick until she snaps at them to give them that option, but if she starts outing Protectorate capes to the public then what choice the Piggot's had in the matter about not trying to forcefully bring her in is going to go right out the window and Taylor's choices are now limited to 'go villain' or 'surrender'... in a city where she's just publically outed two capes which means the rest of the cape population is going to know she's breaking the rule on secret IDs. This worked fine for Coil because nobody knew it was him, it would work out much less well for her.
 
*Waits for the Endbringers alarm to go off when Sirin gets killed, Resurrects and goes Phoneix*
 
SandwormPhish said:
The question of course being do they think Taylor's willing to cross that line.

Smashing the Nazis around is another, tearing up a government building means that she's going to go from 'runaway' to 'fugitive', and Taylor wants to be a hero.

Right now the PRT can't bring her in because they have no form of leverage or handle on her. She hasn't done anything other independent capes don't do (that they know of) so they can't bring any sort of legal pressure to bear and all the usual punishments for a ward (shit duties, docked pay, etc) don't apply when the Ward doesn't want to be there in the first place.

They're also going to well aware of the kind of power she's put on display before which means that no they don't want to poke her with a stick until she snaps at them to give them that option, but if she starts outing Protectorate capes to the public then what choice the Piggot's had in the matter about not trying to forcefully bring her in is going to go right out the window and Taylor's choices are now limited to 'go villain' or 'surrender'... in a city where she's just publically outed two capes which means the rest of the cape population is going to know she's breaking the rule on secret IDs. This worked fine for Coil because nobody knew it was him, it would work out much less well for her.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
While you're raising good points it is also worth keeping in mind that Sirin has publicly had "a minor meltdown" when Cricket confronted her again. Then there's the fact that Taylor bolted when her father signed her up with the Wards. Or the fact that she's "reacted negatively" to members of the PRT for a protracted length of time.

The reason I'm bringing those things up is that they all point to Taylor being a young girl headed for an emotional meltdown.

So, given her power level they have to be aware of the kind of damage Taylor will be able to do if she decides to choose the "violent emotional outburst" option instead of the one they would very much prefer - which probably is something like "breaks down sobbing on New Wave's couch" or "has a tearful reconciliation with her dad" or even "over-doses on ice cream and romantic comedy movies."

Oh, hey! That sounds like what Piggot has been doing through the entire story. She's already done the mental math, decided that it would be a losing proposition even if no one was seriously hurt, and is working to find any other option.
 
Nicholai said:
Oh, hey! That sounds like what Piggot has been doing through the entire story. She's already done the mental math, decided that it would be a losing proposition even if no one was seriously hurt, and is working to find any other option.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...


It is very much what Piggot's been trying to do, as crappy as her situation is. Something I've commented on in the past where even if they did force her into the Wards it's all a PR nightmare because they have no way of actually using her because she's one run-in with a reporter away from setting fire to their image without even doing anything illegal.

But this whole line of discussion started when macdjord proposed her just outing Assault and Battery in the street. My point was in response to that which is basically that if she does that the political realities are going to force Piggot to stop the method she's using and take her in by force because she just publically outed two Protectorate heroes. Taylor's choices then become 'Fight'. In which case she's liable to rapidly end up branded a villain. 'Flee' in which case she's a fugitive and might still end up branded a villain, only now she's in a town where the local cape population knows she doesn't give a shit about revealing identities, or 'surrender' in which case she's got the whole Wards nonsense she was trying to avoid.

Again this whole thing was elaborating on why outing Assault and Battery is a dumb idea.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top