Goddamn Teenagers (Worm, AU/time travel)

[dc2008]

"Why do I have to do this again," Taylor asked, not sulking.

"You already go running. This is running."

"But a gym and the partner? What's wrong with just going out the door?"

"In order, you could be a Blaster 10 and you would still be a lone teen female running alone through the mostly empty streets of this city at the crack of dawn. And you are both more likely to consistently exercise if you are in it together."

Taylor did not pout, grumble or whine. "But she's all famous and popular!"

"She actively avoids the spotlight. Just treat her like a normal human being."

---

Notes:

Jaded!Taylor: [Hates being told what to do]
Jaded!Taylor: [Tells younger counterpart what to do]

But it's different because it's me doing it!

 

[dc2008]

"How come you get this awesome bachelor pad?" Asked Vicky.

"It's not… It's a studio apartment. In a building conveniently located between home, school, and the hospital district."

"All I'm hearing is paaar-tay!"

Amy glowered, and bopped her sister on the head with her welcome packet. "First, you are not a dumb blonde, don't act like one. Second, it's a security thing and it's part of a bunch of security stuff I'm not allowed to talk about. Third, the PRT absolutely are monitoring things and I'm pretty sure at least some of the neighbors are PRT."

"Hey, could…"

"No," Amy interrupted, "you and Dean can't borrow the apartment, for fucks sakes!"

"Oh," Vicky said with an exaggerated pout, "why must you be so cruel, I'm just trying to lighten the mood GODDAMNIT."

The aura light had gone on again.

---

Notes:

Yes, Taylor, you are making Any less dependent and codependent on Vicky. And letting her establish some space from Carol. But are you really sure this is a good idea?

This is one of those things I feel made Taylor-sense, but also feels very colored by Taylor's relationship with uptime!Victoria.

 

[dc2008]

Brian opened the door, and hissed. "Lisa, what are you doing here!"

Lisa snorted. "Of course she didn't tell you."

"What?"

"Oh, hey!" Aisha said, popping up next to him. "I see you've met, bro, this is my running buddy. Running buddy, this is my bro."

"What?" That, in fact, explained nothing.

"Blame PRT Lady," Lisa said with a grin. "She had this whole thing on fitness and stamina and stuff, and how she won't teach us advanced escape and evasion techniques until she is sure we won't die trying them."

"Hey!" Aisha exclaimed. "Ixnay!"

Lisa rolled her eyes. "I know you know I used to work with him."

Aisha crossed her arms. "But where's the fun in that!" She turned to Brian. "She's just grumpy that I get to make her actually exercise instead of just pretending."

 

[dc2008]

"Finally, I was hoping to discuss with you a proposal that Vista recently advanced," said Director Piggot.

"Oh?" Dr. Weaver looked intrigued

"Yes. Regarding an attempt to navigate a remote-controlled vehicle from the shore station to the Rig. Specifically, an RC car."

"Oh!" The other woman perked up. "It's good to see her becoming more creative with the use of her powers, and she seems to be putting thought into safety as well. Much better to try this over water than, say, from the roof of the PRT building."

Emily mentally counted down from ten.

"Dr. Weaver, I think you miss the point. Vista is a Shaker 9. In designing our ROE for such threats, care has to be taken to thread the needle of 'measures strong enough to work' and "'measures that will not violate strategic arms control treaties or intrigue the Simurgh'."

"You must be exaggerating."

"So as to avoid putting you the position of declining to answer, or worse answering, certain questions, I will assume you have not previously dealt with parahumans of such power at such a young age. Vista, again, is a Shaker 9. This is a level of destructive potential which in a prior age was reserved for extraordinarily expensive weapons platforms or major industrial installations. Previously, such capabilities were carefully protected by safety precautions ensuring that multiple trained, competent adults would have the possibility to prevent irresponsible use. Now such power is in the hands of a young girl, just entering puberty. Thanks to considerable work, and despite her best efforts, the general public views her as adorable rather than existentially terrifying."

Understanding began to dawn on Dr. Weaver's face, but Emily kept going.

"I appreciate that, at the level on which you operate, such things might have slipped your mind, but that section in the back of each parahuman's file where the power researchers get, hmmm, creative? Access to that information is very tightly controlled and, for Wards and indeed many younger Protectorate members, does not include the parahuman themselves."

"Ah."

"Indeed. I will not insult anyone's intelligence by asking things such as 'how could this happen' and instead suggest that, going forward, you take a more direct hand in overseeing Vista's development, as well as that of any otherparahumans with dangerous powers who might feel like experimenting."

"That seems fair."

---

Note: Remember, everything Taylor knows about cultivating underage parahumans was learned in post-apocalyptic hellscapes.

The basic problem is that Taylor has spent her entire life learning how to survive in a world state she is actively trying to avert. Vista the pint-sized strategic weapon is welcome in post-Leviathan BB, because everything is either exploded, underwater, or fire. However on a pre-apocalypse world, the prospect of a girl entering puberty with Vista's power is objectively terrifying.

 

[dc2008]

Piggot, and Tagg, are people who grew up in an age of soldiers, and have strong views about things like minimum training and discipline requirements for combatants. They fundamentally and logically do not like the new world's dependence on undertrained capes for basic police and military functions. You also have the problem that both the PRT and Protectorate are effectively gendarmeries, a sort of hybrid soldier policeman that the US military for historic and cultural reasons does not like and is usually bad at. You've also got the further problem that most capes fight as warriors, not soldiers, which is nails on the chalkboard of the soul to someone like Piggot or Tagg for reasons that are deeply rooted in the US and indeed Western military tradition going back to at least the Greek hoplites and conception of the polis.

Piggot does not find convincing the typical cape counter-argument of "But I can shoot LASERS with my nose isn't that AWESOME" and indeed views your typical cape as they might view a 16-year old ordinance technician with ADD who somehow snuck into the service and they aren't allowed to reassign or otherwise get rid of.

---

Also, as an additional note, as frustrating as Piggot found this episode, Dr. Weaver got a lot of points for Calvert. The hand grenade alone was delightful but the fact he's gone? Just divine. Also whatever happened with Coil to flip the Undersiders was nice too, and the thing with Rory's cousin.

 

[dc2008]

"No," said the older woman firmly.

"Come on!" Lisa did not whine. "Although its proposed solutions are controversial and perhaps even flawed, it is a historically important work and includes interesting and valid critiques of the modern socioeconomic system."

The older woman was not impressed. "It is a work so fringe as to be considered niche and even, in some circles, heretical. Aisha does not have the academic background to appreciate it as a work of socioeconomic criticism, nor does she have the background to critically engage with it and its flaws."

"It is an excellent opportunity for her to expand her horizons!"

"Even you can't say that with a straight face. The most likely result is her not reading it. The next most likely is her cherry-picking sections and feigning believe so as to annoy her brother. The least likely, but still possible, outcome would be her becoming a true believer, with all that would entail. None of this is an appropriate or proportional response to her taking seriously her responsibility to ensure you exercise."

"I can't believe you think so little of me!"

"You are not introducing Aisha to Atlas Shrugged. If you must discuss it with someone, I suggest Rachel or Alec."

 

[dc2008]

This one spawned a lot of notes—

---

Note from other place:

Honestly Lisa is showing her background. If she really wanted to outrage Aisha she would do better to get her reading materials about That Time The Government Gave Black People Syphilis for Reasons, or Malcolm X, or a stuff about how the FBI totally killed MLK. You know, stuff Aisha can relate to. On the other hand, proud rich white possibly neurodivergent business people just aren't going to get much sympathy from Aisha.

The best way to get Aisha to read Atlas Shrugged would be to emphasize to her how all the protagonists think different than the rest of the people and how society is keeping them down man, just because their parents while pregnant smoked opium or whatever old-timey white folks smoked.

---

Note note: I chose Atlas Shrugged as the book to use here not to make any political statement but because it is a divisive book IRL that would in Worm further resonate with readers who identify Rand's protagonists with capes, and thus would likely be even more divisive in that setting.

---

More Notes:
It's not about Atlas Shrugged specifically. Rather, Lisa is being a teenager about something and went "what's a book that if I get Aisha to read that will cause drama and be funny?" Because man can you imagine how annoyed Brian would be? The look on his face!

I'm pretty sure at this point Lisa's political and economic philosophy is basically "lol whatever I'm smart and as long as I can have nice things for me and my friends it's all good!"

 

[dc2008]

Dinah was confused. She was used to it, she had a lot of practice lately. It was better than being terrified, which had gotten a lot of practice previously, and better than The Bad Thing that led to all the numbers starting.

She was pretty sure that the doctor from the PRT was, well not at fault, but responsible. She was like, as old as her uncle but not as old as some of Dinah's teachers, but something about Dr. Weaver felt old and intense, like the principal that time those kids got caught with spray paint back in elementary school. Kind of like her uncle when he got mad, but Dr. Weaver was better at it.

She still wasn't sure what Dr. Weaver's thing was. She was pretty sure Dr. Weaver has made the Bad Men stop plotting to get her and instead start protecting her, which was weird. She would rather they have just gone away. And Dr. Weaver seemed protective of Dinah, and concerned about her. But Dr. Weaver didn't seem to actually like Dinah for some reason and sometimes got all sad or condescending or like she thought something terrible would happen to Dinah even though Dinah told her the numbers said otherwise.

She did believe Dinah about the numbers, though, and made her parents believe too! That was nice. And finding out that Rory had actual usefulsuperpowers was cool! The the nice PRT doctors were helping with the headaches even though she had to go to Boston to see them due to spy reasons. The numbers agreed that was better but it was still annoying.

Dr. Weaver's seminar thing was interesting. It was like looking through one of those weird spinny tubes, or those mirrors at the amusement park. It made Dinah feel like whatever else was going on Dr. Weaver took her seriously and did want to protect her, instead of just making noises about it. And Dr. Weaver was good at talking without asking questions, and Missy was nice and Aisha was funny.

But still, it was confusing. Where did Dr. Weaver come from? And what was she doing?

 

[dc2008]

"I'm back," Amy loudly grumbled as she staggered into the house. Never in her life had she greater bemoaned her inability to tune up her own biology. This morning running thing sucked, and she couldn't even complain because she knew Dr. Weaver was right.

"But Mooooom!" Vicky's voice drifted from the other room.

"Joy," mumbled Amy, toeing off her shoes. And Vicky was between her and the coffee.

"Victoria, could you please just slow down?" Carol said, with exaggerated patience. "Not all all of us spent half the night going over PRT statistics."

"Statistically speaking, eye injuries are a major risk to active heroes, even breakers and brutes! That's why the Protectorate and Wards uniforms usually have a visor or goggles or something! Also we fly! At night! It's a miracle we haven't run into something! Like a building! Or power lines! Or a helicopter!"

"Victoria I'm not disagreeing with you I'm just asking you to slow down and pick. One. Thing. At. A. Time. Also, aura."

Amy felt an uncommon spike of sympathy for Carol.

---

Note: Taylor has used summon PRT incident statistics! It's super effective!

 

[dc2008]

My take on Vicky is that at this point in the story she is an enormous nerd on certain subjects, like powers! And being a hero! And being a better hero!

Taylor didn't even have to massage the figures, she just dumped a bunch of anonymized stats on Ward performance and injuries and stuff, basically a similar packet to what they give Wards liaisons in cities that have budget for such things.

It's a win-win-win-win-win-win for Taylor (if not even more win), because (1) it gains her points with Vicky, (2) it means that Vicky and not her will be the one taking all that time to harass the local Wards to get their shit together, (3) same for New Wave, (4) it means Carol will be on the back foot and more willing to work with the PRT while not feeling called out about it because her daughter is the one being annoying and not any adult authority figures, (5) it means Amy is more likely to accept intervention on the "need to use your powers" point, and (6) will distract Vicky for the near term so Taylor can try to deal with the unintended consequences coming out of some of her other interventions.