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Goddamn Teenagers (Worm, AU/time travel)

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If You Take Notes It’s Science
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    • "Ok," Taylor said with a determined look in her eye.

    Lisa found it somehow fascinating and worrying.

    Taylor made a note. "Next, we will see how your Power reacts to proximity and affection."

    "Uh…" Lisa said nervously.

    "Don't worry, you just write down whatever your Power sends you."

    Taylor took a step closer to Lisa. Lisa felt a spike of anxiety, and she wasn't sure if it was from her or from Power or both. Seeing Taylor's significant look, Lisa duly made a note.

    Taylor took another step. She was almost within arm's reach.

    THIS ONE IS NOT WORTHY!

    "Hmmm," Taylor said. "I'm getting amusement?"

    Lisa shook herself. "Uh, I'm getting anxiety and anticipation." All of it from her Power, definitely all from her Power.

    Taylor took a step closer and, in one fluid motion, began awkwardly patting Lisa's head.

    It felt nice.

    THIS ONE IS NOT WORTHY OF SUCH GRACE! LONG MAY THEY REIGN!

    Taylor coughed significantly, and Lisa dutifully made a note.
    Note: This was originally going to be a non-canon joke, then I realized, no, they would actually do this, complete with note taking. For science.

    Also, Power might be a little buzzed due to {spoilers}.
     
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    • Ace Dreamer said:
    You will do Science! Your QUEEN commands it! :)

    So, if you MLP:FIM it, QA is Celestia, IE is Derpy???

    (From a human PoV, Inference Engine is an incredibly valuable, useful, shard, from the Warrior's one...)
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    Part of this is that, well, it is like when your boss's boss's boss constantly talks about how awesome their friend is. And then you meet the friend.

    It is kind of stressful and anxiety-inducing. {Spoilers} does not help.
     
    Earning their Pay, Part 8
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    • "CUI contingent suggesting engagement," Dragon said, interrupting what had been a steady procession of wellhead fires and what Kamil had been informed was called, in all seriousness, 'fracking'."

    "Reason?" Kamil asked, automatically.

    "Thinker alert, as to potentially severe cumulative seismic effects." Dragon replied. "From one of their's, operating independently of the broader Thinker pool."

    "Reliability?" Tagg's voice said.

    "They say high but we have no verification. Eidolon disagrees strongly but can't articulate why. Protectorate and Guild analysts view it as unlikely based upon observed evidence, absent previously unknown power expression by Behemoth. Few precogs can get a reading at all, and those who can have no indication that anything we do to Behemoth affects probability of him causing a seismic event at the suggested scale. There is a minority report that an event may nonetheless occur absent our intervention."

    "Throw up the latest on evacuation status," Kamil said. Casualties had been remarkably light, but that would change the moment they engaged directly.

    He scrutinized the information carefully. A few shelters remained in the red zone but…

    "Do not engage, repeat do not engage," Kamil said with forced confidence. "Monitor closely and seek ways to relieve seismic stress, but do not engage. Not enough to risk the casualties, not yet. Will revisit if things change."
    Note: On the one hand, the CUI have very good reason to be skeptical of powerful foreigners. Them contributing at all might be a good sign.

    On the other hand, Kamil knows what they would do to Weld. Can they be trusted?
     
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    • @dc2008 dc2
    I think you meant Kamil being skeptical of the CUI at the end there.

    Which makes sense given that we've seen them want to rescue a hidden base in the area already. What are the chances of another part of said base being arround?

    Also, I'm pretty sure Kamil and others are aware of the last endbringer fight destroying a secret CUI operation. Twice is coincidence, three times and things look mighty suspicious.

    Edit: He and Tagg are really earning their pay here. Risk of death vs massive systemic event is nothing to sneeze at. On top of already making the hard call with the dam.

    Note that Behemoth can't just detonate the gas and oil underground. There's no oxygen for the fuel, and even then you have to get the ratio right, and everything mixed relatively evenly.
     
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    EmperorArthur said:
    @dc2008 dc2
    I think you meant Kamil being skeptical of the CUI at the end there.

    Which makes sense given that we've seen them want to rescue a hidden base in the area already. What are the chances of another part of said base being arround?

    Also, I'm pretty sure Kamil and others are aware of the last endbringer fight destroying a secret CUI operation. Twice is coincidence, three times and things look mighty suspicious.

    Edit: He and Tagg are really earning their pay here. Risk of death vs massive systemic event is nothing to sneeze at. On top of already making the hard call with the dam.

    Note that Behemoth can't just detonate the gas and oil underground. There's no oxygen for the fuel, and even then you have to get the ratio right, and everything mixed relatively evenly.
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    China/CUI have very good reason to be skeptical of powerful foreigners. The past couple hundred years were extremely traumatic for them (e.g., Opium Wars, various foreign interventions and unequal treaties, WWII, etc.).

    Behemoth can and is igniting wellheads. He is also 'fracking', i.e. injection hyper pressurized stuff (which in this case could include some oxygen and god knows what else) to fracture underground shale deposits and allow trapped oil and gas deposits to more freely flow.

    The suspicious CUI transit request was addressed firmly by the regional Director, who hasn't escalated it yet. Dragon knows, and might have told Tagg (haven't had to make a decision yet on that). This is the kind of messy detail that Kamil won't get told unless absolutely necessary, due to his audience. Dragon could still whisper it into Kamil's earpiece or display only on Kamil's screen, but they are assuming anything transmitted into that command center is susceptible to interception. For now, Kamil accordingly does not know.

    Kamil absolutely knows about the CUI stuff from the prior attack.
     
    dc2008 said:
    Behemoth can and is igniting wellheads. He is also 'fracking'
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    Behemoth: My platform (of shifting tectonic plates) will open up new and diverse fields for the American Heartland, creating thousands, if not millions of new jobs (and potentially tens of millions of corpses). To my opponents that say I am 'inhuman' and a 'monster,' I ask that you look into my one, molten red eye, a̷n̸d̷ ̴s̶a̴y̸ ̸t̵h̷a̷t̵ ̴t̵o̶ ̵m̵y̷ ̷f̸a̸c̵e̴.

    I'm sorry, I shouldn't be getting heated, ha ha, so let me just close with Behemoth, Leviathan, 2012. Drill, baby, drill!

    (They were going to have the Simurgh on the ticket, but thought that a female Endbringer wouldn't play to the male voters, so they went with Levithan.)
     
    Ace Dreamer said:
    Does Behemoth get depicted, on the posters, as wearing a thousand gallon hat? :)
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    "My father's a proud Texan, as well as a public servant, and though I'd like to consider myself as outside of the political gridlock, I can also acknowledge tradition and heritage." A massive clawed hand reaches up, adjusting the brim, "But mostly? I make this look good."

    Months later...

    "Okay, but how did he win?" "Probably Earth Shin election tampering." "Contessa says that people were honestly just excited for a viable third party candidate." "Translation: They didn't want to get incinerated when he did those meet and greets." "I don't care what any of you have to say, the debate was the greatest television event of our generation." "They're going to have to resize everything in the White House." "And lay down rubber mats for the VP, too. He... drips." Alexandria sighs, and prepares to go read the President-Elect into the situations they need to be aware of... as well as the country's preparedness regarding the next Endbringer Event. None of her co-conspirators dare to bring up the irony of that to her before she slips through the portal in her civilian attire.
     
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    If You Take Notes It’s Science, Part 2
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    • "Does your headset monitor thing give you anything useful?"

    Lisa and Taylor were not blushing, and were standing exactly across the table from each other for perfectly valid workspace reasons. Anyone who said otherwise was a liar.

    "No?" Lisa replied, realizing Taylor was looking at her expectantly. "I turned it off when the box showed up and Power started panicking?"

    "Didn't you say your thing got all the feeds?"

    "Yes?"

    Abomination has served its purpose and should go away.

    "Did anything happen around the time it showed up? The timing can't be unrelated?"

    "Uh… other you went to do something with Eidolon?"

    "So what was Eidolon doing?"

    "I don't know," Lisa rolled her eyes. "I was busy dealing with Power having a meltdown."

    "I'm surprised your Power let you not focus on the feeds this long."

    Lisa felt a very complex and somehow simultaneous set of emotions from her Power, including indignation, abashment, and grumpiness. She was saved from having to process (or worse articulate) it all by the sudden appearance, via portal, of Dr. Weaver, looking inexcusably awake and alert.

    "Right," the older woman said, turning to the box. "That's enough of you, door Chuuni return."
     
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    • Ace Dreamer said:
    Isn't 'door' usually capitalised as 'Door' when Clairvoyant is requested to open one?

    ---

    You know, an explanation of the weird box and its history would be nice, sometime... Of course, *spoilers* may delay this...
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    FaerieKnight79 said:
    i'm assuming the box is "Chuuni", which raises questions.
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    As per 'Magician's Apprentice', the box is labeled 'Shouty McChuuni Jr., no 3'.

    Subject to the usual caveats about me and planning, I expect to be learning more about the box this week.
     
    The box of mystery was dropped off at this time specifically to distract Lisa and Taylor from watching the Behemoth attack.
    Sneaky Dr Weaver antics yet again.
     
    Magician’s Apprentice, Part 3
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    • "So," Lisa asked tentatively, "what was that thing?"

    "A tinker-trump device to facilitate communication among Fae," Dr. Weaver replied absentmindedly as she set up her tinkertech multiscreen workstation. "We are still working on jailbreaking the networks, so we daisy-chained Chuuni boosters with my power's corona connectivity, since physical proximity still acts as an override. Taylor being here while I was with Valkyrie let us bridge the dimensional gap."

    At Taylor's nudge, Lisa dutifully tried to write down all of… that but found it difficult to remember. Suspiciously difficult. She felt a vague sense of apology from the back of her mind.

    Seeing her difficulty, Taylor passed across her own notebook, which Lisa was able to copy even if she could not parse directly.

    Then the penny dropped. "Hey!" Lisa asked, looking up sharply. "How come she can remember but I can't?!"

    Dr. Weaver shrugged apologetically. "Our power has high-tier permissions. In theory the Fae connected to Chuuni could authorize an override, but we've deliberately blocked it from authorizing anything."

    "Huh?"

    "It knows what it did," Dr. Weaver replied firmly, as she inserted an earpiece. "Now, were you going to listen in?"

    "Oh!" Lisa scrambled for her headphones, only to find them (and the comms unit) appropriated by Taylor.
     
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    • Almost certainly Jack's shard. Facilitating shard communication is it's specific purpose, and the reference to not allowing it override authorization is likely a reference to canon where a huge part of Jack's ability to survive is a secret thinker/master power that manipulates and undermines other parahumans who try and fight him.
     
    king208 said:
    Almost certainly Jack's shard. Facilitating shard communication is it's specific purpose, and the reference to not allowing it override authorization is likely a reference to canon where a huge part of Jack's ability to survive is a secret thinker/master power that manipulates and undermines other parahumans who try and fight him.
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    I suppose if we're really lucky someone might write an Omake about Jack's... discussion with Dr. Weaver. Which, maybe, might include Broadcast's increasing horror at just what sort of situation it's actually in.

    Hmm. 'Abomination'. What's in the box? Maybe Riley has been a Good Girl and cultured copies of Jack's brain, sort of a 'Slaughterhouse Negative 9000', for Broadcast to connect to? So, 'abomination=fake-Host'? Dunno.

    Why would it need to be an omake? Well, it wouldn't be about GDTs...
     
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