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Firebird, a Worm AU/Xover?

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chibipoe said:
This one was fun. I tried to ameliorate the mood whiplash, thought it does turn somber toward the end.

No, she isn't dead, though I was tempted, but decided it was too cheap. Likely her last showing in here unless I get some amazing inspiration for something to do with her. Which is unlikely. Emma isn't ultimately germane to the story.
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chibipoe said:
I've thought about it. I'm not sure though. There's been others who did the Emma redemption bit(some good, several bad, though I'm not specifying which I feel is which)) and I figure some closure, of sorts, for Taylor was something I hadn't seen. She doesn't know why, but... Emma apologized. We'll see.
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I think you should go with the redemption angle. If this was cannon Taylor I would deem it not such a good idea, but this Taylor has bits and bobs of Jean's personality floating around, and Jean is a good person last I checked. It could be a small plot that happens in the back ground where they slowly rebuild their friendship while the main plot is happening and come to head whenever you choose.

Either way, this seems a bit too open ended to be a place to end it. It's too emotional and leaves Taylor with too many questions on her mind. That, and if Emma really did do some soul searching and is finally seeing sense again I can't see her not trying to at least talk to Taylor one more time.

Point being, that putting a redemption angle in for Emma can only, in my opinion, make the story much better then it already is. As is, the story already has an optimistic feel to it and while that probably won't last it would be a shame for it to go away completely.

OverReactionGuy said:
After all, Emma used to be like a sister too her. Even after two years of betrayal, it is hard to forget a bond like that. Unless you are mentally ill like Emma, I guess.
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One could argue that just how strong Emma's hate for Taylor was in Worm shows how much she actually loves Taylor. Worm has a big theme of self deception, and Emma's whole thing is that she uses her hatred of her past to cope with the present. Present Emma fools herself into thinking she's stronger then she was in the past because if she is then she won't be mugged and almost raped again. It's why she hates Taylor, cause Taylor is a walking memory of past Emma, who was weak and couldn't save herself.

It's just sad and pathetic, and why I have a soft spot for stories where Emma actually gets the help she needs and patches things up with Taylor. Also why I never feel sorry for Shadow Stalker ever, because dat bitch is stupid crazy.
 
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Mostly in ToT Emma's cape name is Phoenix and the fact that her powerset is a Striker based Pyrokinesis that also forms a forcefield around her.
That was suppose to be the joke.
 
Now I just wonder how will Mr. Calvert recruit Taylor into his service? The carrot or the stick?
 
Bishamon said:
I think you should go with the redemption angle. If this was cannon Taylor I would deem it not such a good idea, but this Taylor has bits and bobs of Jean's personality floating around, and Jean is a good person last I checked. It could be a small plot that happens in the back ground where they slowly rebuild their friendship while the main plot is happening and come to head whenever you choose.

Either way, this seems a bit too open ended to be a place to end it. It's too emotional and leaves Taylor with too many questions on her mind. That, and if Emma really did do some soul searching and is finally seeing sense again I can't see her not trying to at least talk to Taylor one more time.

Point being, that putting a redemption angle in for Emma can only, in my opinion, make the story much better then it already is. As is, the story already has an optimistic feel to it and while that probably won't last it would be a shame for it to go away completely.

One could argue that just how strong Emma's hate for Taylor was in Worm shows how much she actually loves Taylor. Worm has a big theme of self deception, and Emma's whole thing is that she uses her hatred of her past to cope with the present. Present Emma fools herself into thinking she's stronger then she was in the past because if she is then she won't be mugged and almost raped again. It's why she hates Taylor, cause Taylor is a walking memory of past Emma, who was weak and couldn't save herself.

It's just sad and pathetic, and why I have a soft spot for stories where Emma actually gets the help she needs and patches things up with Taylor. Also why I never feel sorry for Shadow Stalker ever, because dat bitch is stupid crazy.
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A very good case for it. Like I said, it's under advisement. :)
 
chibipoe said:
I wouldn't necessarily say it was SoD breaking, since we didn't have Emma's view, or even what prompted the utterance of those words. As it is, I'll ruminate on Emma, but I'm still leaning away from a redemption tale and having her reappear. I simply didn't want to just go onward without closing that thread off and my original plans would have filled in the three weekish space we jumped to from the end of Arc 1 to the start of Arc 2.
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I wouldn't call it SoD breaking because:
-this stories Emma Has Not Said That. Nor is she yet the person who would say that, though she may have been rather close at this stories start.
-Here Emma has received a reprimand; and correction; from people in authority; Collin and her Father; demonstrating to her that the behaviour is not ok, unlike EVERY PERSON in canon with authority over the situation, who all silently condoned her behaviour via their inaction, sometimes even helping her get away with it.
(I am somewhat mad at canon Emma, but find her ultimately understandable, though not likeable. I AM ABSOLUTELY WROTH at Blackwell and company, whose responsibility it was to stop this kind of situation from getting anywhere near as bad as it did in canon)
-Taylor here has already changed the dynamics of there relationship from canon, and there is room for a good story to be told in these changed dynamics
-Emma appears to have had character growth away from her canon train wreck of a path.
-I believe your a good enough writer that you could do it well, if that is the direction you decide to go.

Edit: Bishamon said it more eloquently, although I will politely disagree on the matter of Sophia.
 
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Meh.

I still don't get all the hate redemption stories get when it comes to Emma and Sophia.

Both of them have the potential to be effective rivals and anti-heroes in their own right, without going down the stupid path and bullying Taylor just because Emma wants to ensure that she's strong by beating up on her former best friend.

And, like others have said before me, this Emma is already on the path to a more positive position in this story if Chibipoe decides to go down that path. That, and without Sophia whispering sweet nothings all the Darwinist bullshit into her ears she'll be a lot more receptive to it.

So yeah, that's my measly three cents on the matter, and while I personally hope that Chibipoe does it, I won't lose sleep over Emma fading into obscurity.
 
I kinda though it would the moment Taylor thought to wear the jacket with her costume. I was like, haven't there been people who have seen Taylor wearing that? what if they recognize it and who it is? I didn't think about GG though.
 
Bishamon said:
Don't get me wrong, I get that Sophia's issues are real and she needs help. I even like stories that do a redemption of her, that doesn't stop the little burst of joy in my heart every time she suffers though.
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Fair, she is rather hateable until you reflect on her circumstances/character for a while (guess what I've been doing), then it just becomes very sad.
 
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Bishamon said:
I kinda though it would the moment Taylor thought to wear the jacket with her costume. I was like, haven't there been people who have seen Taylor wearing that? what if they recognize it and who it is? I didn't think about GG though.
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Taylor has scrap material left over, so I'm sure she'll work out something to make the jacket look different when she goes out. Some kind of overlay or such. The jacket itself is more black than in the picture, so the big gold parts I see as some sort of reinforcement/armoring.
 
Don't think that actually gonna happen both Triggering and the Sharp Dressed Woman
 
If Coil wants to recruit Taylor the same way he did Dinah, that's going to backfire. Just aside from the fact that Taylor has powers herself and isn't a soft target, GG knows she's a cape now. If Taylor gets kidnapped? New Wave would probably do something about it. If he wants to control her, I think he'd try to go after Danny. That would backfire too, of course, but maybe not as soon.

Though actually, I'd prefer it if he just looked at her and decided it wasn't worth the trouble. A problem for later. Maybe try to push her into the Wards, since he wants to become PRT Director anyway.
 
Methinks behind the scenes manipulation would be a far more valid approach without attracting attention.
After that when he becomes Director of PRT he may try to use his clout and information network to blackmail Taylor.
That last bit is the bad part of the plan.
 
BurnNote said:
Though actually, I'd prefer it if he just looked at her and decided it wasn't worth the trouble. A problem for later. Maybe try to push her into the Wards, since he wants to become PRT Director anyway.
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It'd be such a shame if she was to develop the ability to read minds. Oh wait.

It'd be such a shame if she was to keep that to herself. Oh wait.

Sure it's slow ramp in this fic, but unless Coil goes for completely hands off or 'oh, the other side of the country looks nice' then he's going to have issues. Because nobody likes a pissed off Phoenix Force user.

Except us. Because we're about as far out of that universe as we can be.
 
Only read this this morning, and I haven't looked through all the comments, so I'm not sure if this has been pointed out:
chibipoe said:
There hadn't been enough material after the first few attempts at dying to make more than this. Dying, as I found out, was quite a bit harder than I had thought. Or at least, dying and making it look good was difficult.
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Was this foreshadowing, or just a happy accident?

Also, great chapter. I hesitate to say I liked the resolution of the Emma situation, as a teenage girl was hospitalized, but it was well thought out, satisfies my thirst for retribution, and was not over the top.
 
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