Goddamn Teenagers (Worm, AU/time travel)

[dc2008]

Compiling here from the other places some of the author comments from the other places. Will do this periodically to compile some of the stuff that is individually too short to make sense as its own thread mark. Will still use full informational thread marks for the longer ones.

Chapter 2: What Kind of Sickos Does The PRT Hire?

This is partly a riff on the physical therapist idea. Partly, it's going off Alec's perception that his power is all about pratfalls and body jacking. He doesn't actually know whether his power causes nerve damage, but the fact that it might be used for healing has never occurred to him.

I have not had a chance to bring it up in game yet, and I'm not sure when I'm the timeline it happens, but Alec has been given assurances by jaded!Taylor that his family will not be allowed to exert malign influence in BB (although she is open to 'saving' more of his siblings). Scion and Endbringers will be dealt with off-screen, which makes PRT, Protectorate and Cauldron more comfortable taking strong action against threats like HB.


Chapter 9: An Attempt at Outreach

Jaded!Taylor has perhaps forgotten that while Teen!Taylor's social skills are underdeveloped, Teen!Taylor is excellent at detecting bullshit and manipulation. You see it's the bit where someone's mouth is moving.

Or, Teen!Taylor's trust issues have trust issues, to a degree that Jaded!Taylor has allowed herself to, not forget so much, she knows intellectually. But it's not something Jaded!Taylor likes to dwell on because thinking about it is painful.


Chapter 11: Slither Slither

Coil: Oh noes, I has learned the world is full of scary monsters!
Coil: I know, I will go to the biggest monster I can find and sell my soul for power! I'm sure that nothing can go wrong!
Coil: Ants! You are ants! I SHALL NEVER FEAR AGAIN!
<Door opens>
Coil: Oh no! How could I ever have foreseen this! <rolls over, shows belly>


Chapter 14: Lisa Has AWESOME Plan

Also keep in mind this is very early Lisa. No S9, no warlord, no Leviathan. Heck, no bank. She had a lot of growing up to do before she got to where she was by the end of Worm.

And as much as jaded!Taylor loves her uptime!Lisa, jaded!Taylor has no intention of letting her friend's counterpart go through even a tenth of that trauma.


Chapter 15: The Use Of Cocaine To Facilitate Custody Proceedings

To be fair, this only worked because Taylor had Coil's people get the recording, and then had someone from the PRT presenting the evidence. Coil could have done this on his own but it would have taken longer. At this point in the story TT likely would have messed it up somehow. Brain couldn't do it himself, he doesn't have the knowledge or contacts.

Although this hasn't come up yet in story, this is more for Aisha than Brian. For her Alec and Brian are people she is vaguely fond of who are long dead, she has a vague sense of goodwill to their counterparts but not a huge amount of motivation. She actually feels closer to some of the heartbroken (although I'm not sure yet if they will be addressed on-screen). Aisha, Rachel and Lisa are all people she knows uptime. Taylor is not precisely conscious of this aspect of her thinking and would not be pleased with herself if she did realize it. I haven't decided yet if Lisa will eventually point out how sentimental and irrational some of Taylor's behavior is, and how much that diverges from Taylor's self-image as a cold-hearted operator (which is a lot easier when your peers, friends and family can all either take care of themselves quite


Chapter 18: Family Matters

You've also got the things where uptime!Aidha has been Jaded!Taylor's friend, ally, and general pain in the ass for decades. While Brian is merely That Guy I Dated Once God That Was Awkward, and the she went to Chicago and stuff happened and he died horribly.

Or rather, Taylor is more invested in helping Aisha (and Lisa and Rachel and even the Heartbroken) than she is invested in helping Brian. Jaded!Taylor hasn't articulated this to herself yet and would feel vaguely bad if she did, but Taylor despite the progress she's made is still far better at compartmentalization and denial than she cares to admit. Uptime she kind of leaned on uptime!Lisa to call her on it when it got bad (I don't have a *problem* it's just a one-off).


Chapter 22: Meditation Is The Answer

Yep. And for all that Zion's grand pronouncement to Eidolon was dramatic, remember that Zion said it in a context where he was trying to kill Eidolon. And by using that line, Zion succeeded.

 

[dc2008]

It's not Brian getting custody. Mom loses custody, Aisha goes to dad. I'm going to say that the reason this didn't work before is that dad and Aisha were not capable of pretending to get along long enough for him to win a contested custody fight against mom, even if that was something he wanted to do, which I'm pretty sure he was not.

Dad immediately signs something saying he is ok with Brian and Aisha living independently, because hell no she is not living with him. Even if mom complains, mom is persona non grata at CPS so no one listens, and anyway BB is such a shithole that even if CPS did investigate, she's happy, getting fed, there are no drugs around and the heat works. For the Bay, that's good enough.

Aisha could still mess things up if she gets into enough trouble with the law, but Taylor will run interference for that. And even if Brian struggles to deal with Aisha, Taylor has decades of experience dealing with Aisha bullshit, and little!Aisha is basically easy mode.

They might actually run into more trouble if they relocated to a less shit city with more functional CPS, but even then Taylor could set up some sort of witness protection plausible deniability thing. There is real, not even fake evidence of a creepy villain stalking Aisha (Coil), and if need be Taylor can make Coil generate more proof of such on demand. And soon enough Brian will be eighteen or emancipated, and with mom not able to contest dad will sign WHATEVER IS NEEDED to let Aisha legally stay with Brian and not him.

 

[dc2008]

"Ready for school, Little Owl?"

"I guess. It feels weird after all this time to be starting over at Arcadia."

"What did Dr. Weaver say?"

"Some stuff about a second chance to make a first impression. She also gave me some books and a laptop and, ah, a cell phone."

"Yeah," Danny shrugged. "I still don't like it, but she was very convincing about the safety concerns."

"Yeah." Taylor shuffled her feet. "The books are interesting though?"

"Oh?"

"Yeah, there's a translation of Beowulf, from Aleph, that we don't have here. Also a collection of some pre-cape comics, and a book on insects."

"Insects?"

"Yeah." Taylor shuffled her feet again. "She said she was into insect-ology as a teen and thought I might find it interesting too."

---

Notes:

They're trying!

Comics are a collection of The Shadow. Yes, it is a shout out to The Weaver's Web.

Jaded!Taylor is not being subtle with the entomology book. At least she resisted the urge to annotate it.

Jesus Christ I just realized—I'm pretty sure I'm older now than Danny is at the start of Worm.

 

[dc2008]

"Director Piggot," the woman said respectfully.

"Dr. Weaver. I felt that going forward, it would be helpful to schedule these little check-ins periodically so as to make sure things go smoothly."

"Of course," the woman nodded.

"Firstly, I'm not sure if you've heard, but Calvert has put in for retirement. Medical. Unfortunate, but these things happen."

"I'm sure we will all feel his departure deeply."

"Hmm. Do you recall the incident with the package."

"Yes." Whatever else could be said, the woman had an amazing poker face. "What an unusual incident"

"I wonder why he never reported it. Really, he seemed remarkably unconcerned by it, as if being mailed a hand grenade was something entirely understandable and expected."

"Might it be related to the medical retirement?"

"It's possible. I pulled the security footage from his office. Perhaps your thinker can make something of it?"

There. Finally a small crack in her facade.

---

Note: Piggot is not stupid, but just maybe she can work with this madwoman.

 

[dc2008]

"What's all this?" Lisa looked at the equipment curiously.

"Director Piggot suggested you watch something to see what information you can derive, however I am concerned about how your power might react. Accordingly, we are taking cognitohazard precautions. You put it on, it starts the process, we expose you to the possible cognitohazard, and then we see what happens. Absent deliberate and conscious action by you, at the end of a short period your mind will be reset to the start."

Lisa laughed. "I don't know whether to be intrigued or insulted! Hit me, I can take it!"

Shortly thereafter

"Ow, my head." Lisa mumbled as she blinked her eyes. "What happened."

"In order, we watched a video, you discovered, quote, 'The Truth' behind, well, various things, and had a sort of power-driven fit. You were too distraught to trigger the retention process, so you reverted. Unfortunately the process doesn't do anything for the migraine."

---

Note: Yes, this was the Coil video. Lisa enjoyed the Coil reveal, then realized what he was afraid of, and things went downward from there

 

[dc2008]

Lisa eyed the now-familiar equipment with trepidation. "We're doing this again?"

The older woman nodded. "Yes. We are watching a different video today. The risk of cognitohazard is quite low, and I have reason to believe you will find the experience quite enjoyable."

"I should feel more conflicted about this. But the prospect that there is information that is too dangerous for me to handle, that bothers me. That bothers me like you have no idea."

Shortly thereafter

Lisa tried to disguise her nervousness as the video began. She didn't think it would work against the older woman, but she had her pride damnit!

PRT office. Security footage. Her power unnecessarily told her. Inter-office mail package on desk. Nameplate read Thomas Calvert.

Her breath caught. The man who entered was not in costume, and she had never seen his face before. But she knew that gait, knew that confidence. She didn't even need to use her power. Coil.

And then he opened the package, and she began to laugh.

"Hand grenades," the older woman offered with a smile. "Someone anonymously sent him hand grenades through the intra-office mail. Shortly thereafter he filed for medical retirement."

She sent them. Her power offered, and Lisa just couldn't take it. She laughed, and laughed, and laughed until she cried.

---

Note: You didn't think I would leave poor Lisa in the dark, did you?

 

[dc2008]

A couple of reasons. First, here the bandaid is getting ripped off fast. She got the whole mess very quickly. Second, this Lisa is younger and less jaded/experienced/traumatized.

When Coil switched from freaking out about the grenades to freaking out about Cauldron and Contessa, Lisa got something like He now thinks he knows who did this, and has worried they will send a teleporting assassin to get him. The woman in the room with me sent the grenades though, and is not surprised at Coil's double freak out, so she knows about the assassin and conspiracy. The woman who my power strangely told me was the most influential in the world. She runs the conspiracy (not quite true actually, but Lisa is missing he some nuances of what her power is telling her). But she works in RCB's office, oh noes RCB is in on it which means the entire PRT and by extension the US government AND ALL GOVERNMENTS IN ALL THE WORLDS are compromised by the teleporting assassin people (true but way overblown, again this Lisa has a long way to go in learning how to listen to exactly what her power tells her). She also picks up on vial powers, a sense that the conspiracy is doing something deeply messed up to give out powers, possibly involving something alien and other-worldly and eldritch that her power finds uncomfortable and unnatural but can't or won't fully explain, so Lisa's imagination fills in the rest.

At some point, law of large numbers says that she realizes that some internet conspiracy theory she saw once was if you squint close to part of "the truth", concludes that poster is some kind of thinker or pre-cog (this one is all Lisa, not her power), and then her power starts filling her in on other things that are "true" if you start on the assumption that everything some random internet nutter says is correct.

Basically she's doing a power-assisted speed run through the EVERYTHING I KNOW IS A LIE spiral most teenagers go through at some point, aided because her power is curious what sort of nonsense new data it can generate by "assisting". Look! If you get a human in a certain mindset you can feed them snippets of context free data and they get Re ally creative! Much of the results are garbage but some are not! Neat!

Also Power knows from QA that Best Host wont let Power's pet human be permanently damaged by this so why not have fun.

Sort of the thing kids do with cats sometimes where they give kitty ALL THE CATNIP to see what happens.

TLDR Lisa is getting a mix of all of canon dumped on her at once plus OH NY GOD EVERYTHING VOID COWBOY SAID IS TRUE REALITY IS A LIE AND I AM CHEESE.

 

[dc2008]

"Was the video productive?"

The other woman adopted a serious expression. "Our not-yet-rebranded thinker quickly confirmed that Calvert has a lot of nasty skeletons in his closet. Then she had a sort of power-driven speculative fit and starting babbling about teleporting assassins, vast world-controlling conspiracies, and dead gods. Fortunately the cognitohazard reversion worked."

Emily looked at the other woman intently. "I can't say I'm surprised, but I didn't expect it to be that bad. Is it something we need to worry about?"

"It has been escalated. I can't speak about Calvert specifically but, well, one hears stories. Never official, never confirmed, about people too useful to lose and too knowledgeable to stand trial."

Emily's expression soured. That sounded all to familiar.

"But sometimes, it is said, they can't help but bite the hand that feeds them. And, well, one may be too useful to die but one might be surprised at what one can survive. I doubt those in this category much enjoy the experience."

"A sort of community service then?"

"After a fashion, I suppose. Less justice than one would hope, but more than can at times otherwise be obtained in this imperfect world. Perhaps if the Endbringers are ever resolved that might start to change."

---

Note:
If you'd asked her before coming back, jaded!Taylor would never have believed how well she relates to Piggot.

As for Emily, well, she's not entirely sure what to make of this unusual woman, but is pretty sure they are at least pointed in the same direction. Emily definitely (1) sees why RCB would have someone like her around and (2) finds her infinitely easier to deal with than most people from RCB's office.

Even if when interacting with the woman, Emily sometimes catches a glimpse of something dark she doesn't want to examine too closely.

Jaded!Taylor might actually be offended at the comparisons Emily draws between her and RCB, but of course jaded!Taylor is sort of in denial about the extent to which she resembles an RCB who grew the fuck up.

 

[dc2008]

"Brandish and Glory Girl, thank you, this should only take a moment."

Carol wasn't entirely sure yet what to make of Dr. Weaver. The request for an aura monitor had been discreet, reasonable, and non-confrontational. Still, Carol preferred to be the one holding authorities responsible, rather than the other way around.

Still, Carol maintained a professional demeanor. "Of course, how can we help the PRT."

"We constantly strive to improve the training we can provide our Wards. When conducting a review of incidence of inadvertent use of excess force statistics, it was noted that Glory Girl's metrics are substantially lower than what we would have expected in a parahuman of her profile. We would love to chat with you and your teammates in detail about your training regimen so as to replicate this success in the Wards program."

Carol did not like where this was heading.

"Of course," Dr. Weaver continued, "if there are additional incidents that inadvertently went unreported, we would be happy to make available to Glory Girl additional training opportunities."

Oh, Christ. Victoria's flinch was unmistakeable. Still, there were formalities to be observed. Carol forced a smile. "Certainly, let me check availabilities and I'll get back to you."

---

Note: Jaded!Taylor is, of course, cheating. She has spent decades hearing uptime!Lisa needle uptime!Victoria about control issues.

 

[dc2008]

Significantly, Victoria is not stupid. Basically as soon as she and her mother were in private she immediately confessed. She didn't realize how badly she had goofed until her mother explained in excruciating detail, but from Dr. Weaver's tone Victoria did realize that she done goofed. Again, Victoria is not stupid. Most of her problems can be summed up as "is a teenager".

Similarly, Carol is not stupid. She knows that this issue is being raised in what is basically the most low-key way possible, and a part of her is waiting for the other shoe to drop. She knows, for example, that if Piggot was the one delivering the message, it would not have been so circumspect. And she knows that if Victoria does not come clean now, the alternatives could be very unpleasant.

I might at some point write some or all of (1) jaded!Taylor giving reasons why she is being so nice, (2) Carol and Victoria's very calm and reasoned discussion or (3) other events going on around this. The messy details of whatever deal gets cut for Victoria will be largely or entirely off-screen because we've all seen that done before, in other fics, no doubt better than I could.

 

[dc2008]

Amy was drained. Her sister had just spent almost an hour tearfully apologizing for asking her to heal those late night gang members. Which was... a thing. That was a thing. Really, she loved Vicky dearly, but it's like her sister was only nowprocessing what Amy had been telling her since the beginning. It sounded like someone had read Vicky the riot act about something, perhaps involving potential leverage that could be used by villainous thinkers, or Victor, or both? Maybe something to do with those news stories about Empire moles? Amy wasn't really sure, and wasn't sure Vicky was entirely clear on the subject either.

Oh well, I suppose I'll get lectured about it eventually.

Amy's musing was interrupted by a politely knock. "Come in?" She said, confused. The only one in this house who knocked politely was her father, who had already retired early. Amy was thus surprised to see Carol enter, looking unusually serious.

"Amy," Carol said without preamble, "I know things have been changing lately. I want you to know, no matter what happens and no matter what anyone says, I love you, and I am so very very proud of you." And then Carol hugged her before, thankfully, fucking off.

What was that about?

 

[dc2008]

This occurs before the prior chapter.

---

"I have now activated a jamming device of the same type used to protect the most sensitive conversations of the Chief Director. Before we talk about Victoria, I would like to first speak of Amy."

Carol stared impassively.

"It is not uncommon for parahumans to be unaware of the full extent of their capabilities. This is especially true of young parahumans. Similarly, recent events have highlighted why a responsible parent might have had perfectly reasonable grounds to decline to share full details of their child's powers with ENE."

Carol continue to stare impassively.

"Thinkers, especially precognitives, are notoriously imprecise. And so when I say 'there exists a timeline', that is all that is meant. It merely speaks to a possible future, not a certain future. With that said, a very select group of persons, which does not at present include anyone in ENE, have recently become aware of two key pieces of information. Firstly, there exists a timeline where Amy plays a critical role in enabling a series of events which avert the death of a number of human lives greater than the current total known collective population of Earth Bet, Earth Aleph, and every other alternate we are aware of. The precise details of how this happens, why it happens, how it can be encouraged or avoided? These details are not certain. Similarly, there exists a timeline where an S-Class threat discovers Amy's potential before we do, and conducts a sustained campaign against her of physical, emotional and mental abuse which results in her becoming uncertain of her ability to control her powers and demanding that she be put in the Birdcage for the safety of the world, over the objections of relevant authority figures, to the extent of attempting to hold the world hostage unless her 'demand' was met."

Carol stared, dumbfounded.

"Needless to say, the Chief Director is now extraordinarily interested in ensuring Amy's continued health and well-being. As well as in determining what, precisely it is about her powers that gives her such potential. Oh, and whatever it was that gave her the strength to with such persistence hold out against such sustained hostile pressure, and to with such fervor insist on the greater good at her own expense."

---

Note:

Yes, jaded!Taylor is heavily slanting things here so as to ensure Carol reacts as desired. Principally, to (1) get Carol to cut Amy some slack and (2) give Taylor room to take such steps as Taylor deems appropriate to ensure that Amy doesn't go off the rails.

It's not that Taylor still has trust or control issues, no. It's just that, well, she knows best after all, and none of the people she spent years carefully vetting are around, so she has to rely entirely on her own counsel and nothing bad will come of it.

Finally, a reminder that Taylor here is older than Brandish.

---

More notes:

Taylor, for the first time in decades, is operating without her usual collection of people to tell her when she needs to rethink things.

Hence, plans like "I will manipulate a traumatized mother to allow me to insinuate myself into the life of her traumatized daughter, so I can reshape her as I see fit I mean properly guide her, so I can ensure the safety from her of my friend's counterpart and also the world! No, it's not grooming, it's a totally different thing for reasons!" Even young!Lisa could tell her that is a bit much.

For all that Taylor is trying to be better, and intellectually knows better, emotionally she never unlearned some of her bad habits around issues like trust and control. Kind of like Brandish in that regard, actually.

 

[dc2008]

Taylor eyed the room's other occupants with trepidation, while munching on her free bagel.

She thought she recognized one girl from a Winslow, and anyone who went to Arcadia was familiar with the Dallon girls. But the rest were a mystery, and ran the gamut from just older than her to a trio of younger girls eying each other suspiciously.

Her older counterpart did that thing she did, where suddenly everyone in the room was paying attention to her.

"Thank you all for coming. Before we get started, it is very important to discuss what these sessions are and are not. Principally, these sessions are about helping young women such as yourselves succeed in our trying world. Although uninteresting to some, this is very important and we will spend some time each session going over basic information you can share on the topic if asked.

"Now let's talk about what this is not…"

Ok so maybe this would be interesting.

A couple hours later

"Hey bro! I'm back!"

"Aisha, how was the thing?"

"I have a worksheet of stuff about girl power!" Aisha considered carefully, before continuing. "And we most definitely did not learn how to lie to the police."

Goddamnit, thought Brian.

---

Note: Aisha is trying

 

[dc2008]

The collective set of (1) people she wants to look out for (e.g., Taylor, Aisha, Sierra, Charlotte, Vicky, etc.), (2) people she doesn't trust and wants to reprogram I mean rehabilitate I mean ensure they don't follow the path of their uptime counterparts (e.g., Amy, Dinah), and (3) people who are in for Reasons (e.g., Missy).

Not willing to firmly and finally state the complete list yet, but the above names are definitely included.

Also, I'm not sure that Taylor has really thought through what the effect of including Missy will be. Uptime, she and Missy have after many years improved their working relationship to "that person you don't like and don't trust but can, sigh, work with" (uptime!Missy never really forgave uptime!Taylor for being Skitter). So Taylor doesn't really like uptime!Missy but also isn't going to excludedowntime!Missy from the super awesome secret club, because that's just what uptime!Missy expects and Taylor will show her! Oh and also downtime!Missy is an at-risk (pre?)teen, and a super-strong shaker, and has a messed up personal life, and is criminally under-utilizing her power, and that's totally the reason it's all to help this adorable girl and the world and stubborn spite doesn't play a role at all.

My take on uptime!Taylor is that she didn't so much get over or grow past certain of her main issues, but rather developed coping and masking strategies because when you are the most correct and right person in the whole world it is easier to present a lie to the world all the time than it is to admit you are wrong. Unfortunately, certain of those strategies rely on having someone (e.g., Aisha, Lisa, etc.) occasionally dope-slap her, and she doesn't have that anymore. I'm sure it won't cause problems.

 

[dc2008]

Armsmaster was surprised to find Vista, in civilian clothes and a domino mask, waiting outside his lab door on the Rig.

"Vista? I wasn't expecting to see you today.

"Oh," she said with feigned nonchalance, "I was out for a walk, had some ideas about my power, and figured I'd stop by."

"Out for a walk on the Rig?"

"No," Vista smiled. "Started at home, stopped by the Medhall tower and then I walked to the rig!"

Ok but that didn't explain WAIT A MINUTE.

"To be clear," Armsmaster said slowly, "you walked, the entire way from your house, to here, without taking a boat?"

"Exactly!"

"Why don't you come inside. I think we have a lot to talk about."

---

Note: Taylor, what have you unleashed!

 

[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—

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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.

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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.

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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.