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Firebird, a Worm AU/Xover?

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Metroidvania said:
Incidentally, if Taylor's drawign the giant firebird, that's a pretty decent sign, as Collin seems quite aware of.
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It's one more straw on top of the other circumstantial evidence, but, well, it isn't exactly the arcane insignia of the phoenix society, engraved only inside of their most trusted operative's secret decoder ring and visible only by the light of the new moon. It was big and flamey and parahuman and appeared hanging above the school in the middle of the day. It's cool, and probably the biggest news at Winslow since that time Jimmy got shanked behind the bleachers. It's unlikely that she's the only student drawing it in their notebook.

Now, if he'd seen one of the pages where it was blazoned boldly across the chest of an anonymous dark-haired girl in suspiciously costume-like apparel, that would be a bit more problematic for her to explain.

(Even that wouldn't be totally conclusive beyond the reach of a good lawyer- "yeah, the PRT can show that the bullied, socially awkward teen fantasized about being the powerful new parahuman, how terribly incriminating." Just very suspect.)

notmi said:
Aside from the fact that it's explicitly not a thing in worm, and thus important, it's also heavily associated with Ziz, to say nothing of the huge violation of privacy that she doesn't seem to care about in the slightest.
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It's probable that, having just discovered this ability, Taylor has done no research on and is not familiar with mind-reading's rarity or reputation among the cape-following-public. It's not obviously outside the realm of normal parahuman capability. Canonically, not only was Armsmaster willing to treat Lisa's claim seriously, he devised what he apparently considered a functional defense against it sight unseen.

(Tinkers be bullshit, yo.)

Taylor didn't react much to the "suddenly I laugh at privacy" thing either, yeah. But she'd only had that ability for all of a few minutes, and nothing she heard was more private than "daaang, that new teacher". Which, ah, she didn't exactly consider "new information".

(Given her canon reactions to Beefcake Brian, we could've had great comedy from Taylor developing a crush on her would-be investigator. Alas, his role in the interrogation has likely forestalled such a development.)

(She'll just have to be a font of hilariously awkward moments in other ways.)

chibipoe said:
Did he own Leet? I thought he'd just taken advantage of Leet losing his buddy.
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Own-ish? He eventually hired Leet (and Uber), apparently in the context of "here's a pile of money to do one big job for me and then quietly leave town." Coil's death-faking plan involved hiding equipment in a powersuit, and Trainwreck had been unlucky enough to get himself killed by the Nine.

To elaborate on what someone mentioned, Leet didn't lose Uber in canon, but got killed himself sometime in the timeskip. Uber apparently then flailed around for a while, had a failed relationship with Circus, and ultimately got arrested.

Starfox5 said:
Does she know Taylor is a precog?
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She knows Taylor seems to know Sophia's plans in advance a highly suspect amount of time, but it's been more "reacts just a bit too quick" than "The Eye of Taylor Sees All." As far as Sophia can reasonably predict, planting stuff in her locker should work. Or at least not get screwed by Taylor's power. It's still a rubbish plan, just not rubbish in that particular way.

(As far as Sophia can reasonably predict.)

(Tinkers wish they were as bullshit as the Phoenix Force.)

(...yo.)
 
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Once my beta wakes up and looks things over and I do finetuning after I get off work this evening, expect the wrap-up chapter for the first arc, which will touch on some of the things discussed here. It needs some polish and maybe some parts need a bit more fleshing out still and should be ready to go. And, a preview:

She picked up the phone. by the keyboard and tapped one of the contacts, staring at the picture of the girl and committing it to memory.

"Sorry about this," she said quietly. "Maybe I'll be able to make it up to you somehow…"
 
Hmm, checking a phone and memorising a picture doesn't sound like the sort of thing Taylor would be up to. If we're speculating, to me It soooort of reads like Lisa being up to no good, though personally I'd prefer to be wrong about that.
 
chibipoe said:
Nope, no betrayal mentioned there at all.
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Implied.

The person is doing something that the other person she or he is talking about wont like. The person also says they would try to make up for it later. So it may be a small betrayal, but still a betrayal.

Could be of trust, or other things.

Though it also implies the person in question has no idea about it.

Best guess is Lisa is found out about Taylor and is giving information about her to Coil.

So Coil will try and recruit Taylor.


And Coil is going to get mind crushed.
 
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IssanLen said:
Hmm, checking a phone and memorising a picture doesn't sound like the sort of thing Taylor would be up to. If we're speculating, to me It soooort of reads like Lisa being up to no good, though personally I'd prefer to be wrong about that.
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That's certainly a possibility, since we're speculating. But let's face it... Lisa would be firmly under his thumb at this point in time, if I am recalling the timeframe correctly, with no way out. Are the Undersiders even a thing yet? I don't remember when they came together as a group, but i don't think it had been too long before canon start.
 
Well, I stand corrected. Still, Lisa was still pretty firmly under his thumb til Taylor came onto the scene, that was pretty clear.
 
chibipoe said:
Well, I stand corrected. Still, Lisa was still pretty firmly under his thumb til Taylor came onto the scene, that was pretty clear.
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Eh, she always wanted out, she just never had a good opportunity till Taylor came along (the group she was with wouldn't act against him on their own). Since we actually haven't reached the start of canon yet, it's possible she doesn't know what his power is, so she'd be too scared to overtly act against him, and she'd be acting under the assumption that it's some form of probability manipulation or precognition or the like. Don't think it's Lisa though, more likely one of the girls Taylor's been hanging out with.
 
*deletes most quotes to avoid reviving quiescent arguments*
uju32 said:
That's not counting Aster
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Not to reawaken the arguments or anything, but killing Aster was way after joining the Wards. That was during the S9000 arc, after all.

I'd be interested if anyone was willing to discuss how attacking Alexandria was "defense of others" in PMs.
chibipoe said:
I couldn't really find a good descriptor of Taylor's actual eye color beyond maybe dark/brown.
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I spent a notable number of hours for a couple of days trying to pin down her eye color as green without success (though I could show you the citation that Danny has green eyes). Do you have a citation on "maybe dark/brown" that you could share?
 
Sheaman3773 said:
I spent a notable number of hours for a couple of days trying to pin down her eye color as green without success (though I could show you the citation that Danny has green eyes). Do you have a citation on "maybe dark/brown" that you could share?
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I honestly don't. That was discussion with another person who had read Worm. The character descriptions are usually so minimalist that there wasn't a lot to go on.

Like, a character who appears in the interlude I'm waiting for beta work on got her clothing from a piece of Worm fanart because I liked the picture.
 
kenhikaru said:
Eh, she always wanted out, she just never had a good opportunity till Taylor came along (the group she was with wouldn't act against him on their own). Since we actually haven't reached the start of canon yet, it's possible she doesn't know what his power is, so she'd be too scared to overtly act against him, and she'd be acting under the assumption that it's some form of probability manipulation or precognition or the like. Don't think it's Lisa though, more likely one of the girls Taylor's been hanging out with.
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Yeah, she went along cos she didn't want a bullet to the head, but even so, cowed is a good description there for a while. So, Early to Mid-February, still pretty cowed, imo.
 
chibipoe said:
She picked up the phone. by the keyboard and tapped one of the contacts, staring at the picture of the girl and committing it to memory.

"Sorry about this," she said quietly. "Maybe I'll be able to make it up to you somehow…"
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My first thought when I read this was that this might be Vicky, because Dean and her might have reported her to Armsmaster/Hannah/Piggot about Taylor being a blackout to Dean's powers and as such confirming their suspicions of Taylor being a Parahuman.
It probaply isn't right since I'm always bad with guessing these things but I figured I might aswell throw it in the thread.
(Love the fic, thanks for the entertainment Chibipoe)
 
FlyingOctopus said:
My first thought when I read this was that this might be Vicky, because Dean and her might have reported her to Armsmaster/Hannah/Piggot about Taylor being a blackout to Dean's powers and as such confirming their suspicions of Taylor being a Parahuman.
It probaply isn't right since I'm always bad with guessing these things but I figured I might aswell throw it in the thread.
(Love the fic, thanks for the entertainment Chibipoe)
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Oooh, good point. Thanks for that. *makes some adjustments on something*
 
@chibipoe
Glad to have helped!
I don't know if this has been answered already, but do you have an idea of how long this story is gonna be?
 
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