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H+ Mayhem (Worm)

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The one that I think is canon is not the one that I want to be canon.

On the other hand, this could be a setup for a sort of writer's double reverse. Sveta stealing military hardware didn't happen because she just asked really nicely for it, and she's adorable enough for a Master rating.
 
I don't care which is declared as canon, mostly because I'm going to believe that the Regent interlude is canon and I'll promptly ignore any evidence to the contrary. :V
 
I'll go with Regent being canon. Because I'd like to think Cauldron's plans have changed somewhat because of Adam and this is one of the major results.
 
They're clearly both real. I didn't see Jurric ever say that either one was real. He just said 'Guess which one?' which could mean anything. :p
 
Jurric said:
It should feel empty, but for Regent, it felt the same as it always had. A hollow lie of companionship and friendship.
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What the fuck, dude. Why not just start composing shitty poetry and stealing your sister's pants?

'I'm out. The Nine are to big for me. Thanks for the pizza.'
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Well... Crawler is, at least. You... don't want to know how he got THAT adaptation. (Moord Nag STILL tries to booty call him.)

He went to his room, packed a backpack with the essentials, put a pair of Tinkertech earplugs in, and smirked.

"Door." He said.
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Mother. FUCKER. (Admittedly, Regent's... distinctly lacking moral standards would fit right in with Cauldron's approach to... everything.)

He walked through the door, checking his earplugs to make sure that he wasn't able to hear the melody playing over the speakers.
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"Canadian or not, even HE couldn't enjoy Bieber."

It wasn't work that he particularly enjoyed, playing nursemaid for a group of drooling criminals, but it paid well, and it had it's perks.

He stopped at a cell near the end, and made one of the three women inside walk towards him.
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...this isn't going where I HOPE it isn't going, right? Right?

The Three Blasphemies were a favorite of his.
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Unrelatedly, that'd be an AWESOME band name. Just sayin'.

"Door. Heartbroken." Regent said.
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Well, THAT can't be good.

Bonesaw would return to her lab to find her latest creation missing, for no apparent reason.
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...on the other hand, anything that inconveniences the S9 is a plus in my book.

They were sleeping, Bonesaw had obviously sedated them so she could continue her work.
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Which is weird, since she'd usually just make it so they couldn't scream.

Bonesaw had used a horse as the base,[snip a whole bunch of body horror]
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Well. That's only mildly horrifying. I mean, compared to what I was expecting from Bonesaw, it's positively tame. I barely want to curl up in a corner and rock back and forth sobbing at all!

Or perhaps this monstrosity was not as dangers as he assumed, and his new employers simply wanted him to have some closure on this part of his life?
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No, they're probably doing some stupid plan that might possibly one day lead to someone maybe coming up with an idea to fight Scion... THAT WON'T WORK.

He could have continued. Could have gone back and collected Ash Beast, maybe even Slicer,
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*narrows eyes* Well, now. It appears as though Cauldron is collecting S-Class threats and/or POTENTIAL S-Class threats. That's a hell of a thing. Maybe putting together something resembling an army early?

...wait. Wait wait wait. The song. The god damn song is from CANARY. It has to be! Cauldron's plucking people out of the Birdcage, too! ...shit, at least Canary is doing a little bit better now? She got SUPER fucked in canon, after all.

they normally warned him if there was anyone new in the prison, but sometimes there were rush jobs.
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Implying that Cauldron is ACTIVELY and AGGRESSIVELY moving to snap them up. Perhaps they decided that negotiating for things was a bad approach and instead are going for a proto-Khepri option.

A weird little interlude, but it's interesting to see Regent move on to other things. More importantly, though, it implies that maybe, just maybe, Cauldron is GIVING UP on the S9 as a source of conflict and/or data. Which means that Ada might actually have a chance to achieve her goals and fuck their shit up, now that the Fedora ex Machina isn't going to be sabotaging all kinds of shit. Fingers crossed!

Now, we just have to wait to see how Ada reacts to things in the next chapter! ...which appears to have just been pos-
Jurric said:
One of these updates is real. The other is a non-canon omake. I am interested to see if you can guess which is which.
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SON OF A BITCH.

Jurric said:
Cranial, can you start by stateing your credentials?

Cranial: "I don't have any. Unless you count that Alexandria came to me for psychological counseling after she lost her eye."
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I... yeah, that'll count. I don't think anyone will argue with THAT.

Cranial: "You're welcome. Even if it is a transparent ruse by the PRT to get me to perform a psychological analysis without first charging them my normal fee, I've always wanted to be on this show."
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*laughs* Man, I like this lady already.

When someone like Canary was sent to the Birdcage because she could not be safely held in a normal prison,
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Uh... point of order? That's NOT why she was Birdcaged. It was because she had the entire deck stacked against her by parahuman-hating bigots. (Also, because Wildbow reads stories about people getting caught on corruption charges and beats off.)

What is your professional opinion of Coil?
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"Well, my current professional opinion, based on talking to a few contacts in the Bay is that he's currently becoming a lovely batch of worm food. Also, he was a major asshole."

Interviewer: "Interesting, and what about Mouse Protector, the hero who has recently been liberated by the Slaughterhouse Nine?"
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"In response, let me remind you that part of our agreement for this interview was you keeping her AND HER PUNS away from me for at least three years."

she cannot provide that personal touch that I think Mouse Protector requires.
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*puerile giggle* I have a list of people who COULD, though!

Cranial: "Sveta? I see. Well if you want a psychological assessment of her, I'll give it to you. She is the sweetest, kindest, most apologetic and generally nicest thief that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Are we done here?"
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To steal a phrase: WAFFBOT STRIKES AGAIN!

When Sveta heard what was happening in the Bay she stole an experimental particle cannon, and a scram-jet, both of which were being developed for the military. I imagine she will be arriving shortly."
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Dear god, I know we've been... distant, ever since that whole 'swearing to overthrow you in order to have an eternity of my own despotic rule' thing, but... I think we can BOTH agree to let bygones be bygones in the shared goal of letting Sveta blow up Jack Slash with a particle cannon. ...and if WE can't, I'll go check in with Ganesha. Pretty sure HE'D help me out!

(Seriously, I want a "I may be slow, but I'm GOOD at cleaning up!" callback SO BADLY.)

So, yeah. My (hopeful and probably wrong) vote is for the Cranial interview to be real. I WANT SVETA TO RIDE TO THE RESCUE.

Khepri14 said:
Not to mention I don't recall the Heatbroken being formed or whatever this early,
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Heartbroken were in place long before this. After all, they're the reason we've got Regent and Cherish and the others.

not to mention Heartbreaker and all of his minions would've killed most of the Slaughterhouse Nine(Shatterbird and Burnscar and Bonesaw would've fallen under his control at least, not to mention all of the capes under his command/harem-slave capes and what they could do)
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Nope. Canon has proven that the S9 can no-sell Heartbreaker. (See the way the all shrug off Cherish, for example. When you've got a Bio-Tinker Trump on your team, there's a LOT you can prevent.) And as for all the minions... A good portion of them were unpowered so, against almost any cape, they'd be essentially worthless.
 
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....

What the fuck.

Ok so I forget how, but I put this thread/story on my watched threads list a few weeks/months back and thought to get around to reading it eventually. Then I noticed the amazing update rate, constantly pinging my alerts with HUGE (comparatively to other stories, 2-5k is pretty damn good!) chapters often. Sometimes twice a day!

I finally had a whole day to put aside and give it a whirl. And then it was 8 hours later suddenly and I'm parched and starving. @Jurric this story is amazing. It's so good. I don't even have the word ability to describe how much I love what you have done here. And it only gets better the deeper *PUERILE GIGGLE ALERT* you get into it. The latest chapters are so damn good I couldn't stop giggling while reading them. The genderbend of course is something that I adore to see (Though of course Mayhem is basically ignoring it of course because s/he wouldn't be MAYHEM if they weren't oblivious), but Mouse Protector. Oh god Mouse Protector!

She just never gets much screen time in fanfics/fanon. The only other good example I can think of offhand is probably 'DIRE'. Probably because she basically never existed in canon but DAMN if she isn't one of the best characters! And you have done her so well! It's... so hammy! I can't wait to see more of her. I really hope for a good ending for her.

Now here's some quotes with comments or typos in no particular (ok oldest to newest!) order.

Jurric said:
Mush had been upstairs, and he did give Trainwreck something of a fight despite the fact he still had cracked rips from his last clash with Glory Girl, but he surrendered when Circus and Genesis came in to assist.
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ribs

Jurric said:
Thanks, fixed.
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Seems like you didn't actually fix this one.
Jurric said:
Please let it be real.

"WHY DID YOU DO THIS!" Sveta yelled, throwing a chair out of her way hard enough for it to spinter splinter against the far wall.
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Oh god. Sveta so good.

Jurric said:
Good news, or just news, depending on how you look at it. I think we're going to have a sixth arc. I was expecting to resolve these sub-plots a little bit quicker.
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I think it's good news personally. I just started reading this and it's amazing. As long as possible of course is my vote since I love million plus word epics, but make it the right length for you. Better than stretching a story out more then it should be.
Jurric said:
I didn't' mind much. Trainwreck was a good counter for Murder Rat, too tough for her to claw to pieces, even if he was probably too slow to catch her.
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Extra ' it seems.

Datcord said:
And, just like that, Mouse Protector has done more to help Mayhem's opinion of the PRT than anyone else... by trusting him a little.
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Heh. Misplaced trust, but I get your point.

BTW, I love that you're in this thread. And going thru it I get the distinct FEELING you may have contributed to the slight shipping feeling that has been increasing in the later chapters.

Thank You for spreading that @Datcord feelz.

The Stormbringer said:
They're clearly both real. I didn't see Jurric ever say that either one was real. He just said 'Guess which one?' which could mean anything. :p
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There is this line. \/
Jurric said:
One of these updates is real. The other is a non-canon omake. I am interested to see if you can guess which is which.
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... This is hard actually. I'm going to assume the Regent one is the canon chapter, though it feels off. The Cranial one though feels even MORE off for a reclusive Rogue Tinker to be doing an interview... No matter how much I wish for Sveta to have stolen a BAMF gun and a Jet to come back to protect her lov.. er I mean friend.

Datcord said:
*narrows eyes* Well, now. It appears as though Cauldron is collecting S-Class threats and/or POTENTIAL S-Class threats. That's a hell of a thing. Maybe putting together something resembling an army early?

...wait. Wait wait wait. The song. The god damn song is from CANARY. It has to be! Cauldron's plucking people out of the Birdcage, too! ...shit, at least Canary is doing a little bit better now? She got SUPER fucked in canon, after all.
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... Wow this seems so obvious now that you pointed it out. Really sorta makes it seem more to me that this is the 'real' chapter.

Though I would wonder at Dragon not noticing the missing inmates since she has all the surveillance in there. The exterior S-Class threats yeah I can see it, and of course we haven't been getting any Dragon interludes so we haven't seen any of the world changes of various S-Class threats suddenly going missing. Nothing else big picture focused from the PRT/Protectorate side of things either.

I'm assuming this isn't a AU world or course other than the obvious added OC Bonesaw brother, and recent trigger and changes s/he has caused. I'm assume those S-Class threats (Three Blasphemies / AshBeast) were doing their normal terror sprees until the divergence happened. With Ada/m we just haven't seen any of this because of how oblvious/focused s/he is.

And... Well damn I hope things are going better for Canary here because damn she deserves it.

Datcord said:
Implying that Cauldron is ACTIVELY and AGGRESSIVELY moving to snap them up. Perhaps they decided that negotiating for things was a bad approach and instead are going for a proto-Khepri option.

A weird little interlude, but it's interesting to see Regent move on to other things. More importantly, though, it implies that maybe, just maybe, Cauldron is GIVING UP on the S9 as a source of conflict and/or data. Which means that Ada might actually have a chance to achieve her goals and fuck their shit up, now that the Fedora ex Machina isn't going to be sabotaging all kinds of shit. Fingers crossed!
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We can only hope.
 
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Mizu said:
You like genderbending as a concept too? Huh. Always had the impression it was a bit of a rare fetish.
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I think you may have missed a large part of the internet somehow... but yes it's intriguing.

It's part of basic transhumanism I think too, before the whole leaving the organic experience behind part I guess.
 
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Thinker generally cant predict thinkers. The big question is if Contessa can path through Mayhem Protocol in extradimentional mode. If she can Regent interlude can make sense, as part of the bigger path. But I still didnt like R branch - it contradict to generally low competence level of Cauldron. There is only one smart person in Cauldron - Alexandria. Contessa is just mindless predicting engine operated by narrow minded and ignorant operator - "Doctor" Mother. And Alexandria is too busy playing dominance games to care about such sensible things as effective use of parahuman powers.
 
I just realized which butterfly could have been caused by Adam's presence and which could plausibly make Cauldron act like this.

Dinah being picked up by Cauldron.

Regent's interlude is canon and Cauldron are doing these things because it improves the numbers.
 
Ashmaker said:
I just realized which butterfly could have been caused by Adam's presence and which could plausibly make Cauldron act like this.

Dinah being picked up by Cauldron.

Regent's interlude is canon and Cauldron are doing these things because it improves the numbers.
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Hmm.. Possible. But then again Coil consulted with Dinah just a few chapters back. Days or so less. So I find that theory unlikely. At least it being caused by Dinah anyways.
 
Jurric said:
Thanks for pointing that out, they should be fixed now, even the ones that I said were fixed earlier, and then only fixed over on SV. I'm glad you enjoy the story, and I hope that I can bring it to a satisfying conclusion.
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Yeah I'm enjoying the ride. Wish I'd chimed in sooner to give you that comments it seems you were craving. Then again I'm never been much a commentator. I usually lurk and just hit the reaction buttons usually unless I REALLY have something to say.

Honestly I didn't even quote that passage for the splinter typo. I had some Sveta comment in mind at the time. Forgot what it was, but I noticed the typo so I kept it!

Also I'm guessing you meant SB. :p

/me runs away
 
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BTW why PRT didn't interrogate Mouse Protector about location of Mayhem lab? It would be natural for PRT to try take out Mayhem ASAP, before S9 got another biotinker. The only explanation for inaction I see is Cauldron/Costa Brown interference
 
serg0 said:
BTW why PRT didn't interrogate Mouse Protector about location of Mayhem lab? It would be natural for PRT to try take out Mayhem ASAP, before S9 got another biotinker. The only explanation for inaction I see is Cauldron/Costa Brown interference
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You shall see.

No update tonight, sorry. I'm still planning out arc five, trying to make sure everything gets tied up properly.

For those of you who want to know, I'm sorry, but both those prior posts are going into the non-canon pool. Both hold hints as to what I have planned, and I was considering altering the Regent one slightly to make it a bit more canon compliant, but I decided against it. This is now just a bit of a belated April Fools, sorry for tricking you, although some people did guess.
 
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Jurric said:
For those of you who want to know, I'm sorry, but both those prior posts are going into the non-canon pool. Both hold hints as to what I have planned, and I was considering altering the Regent one slightly to make it a bit more canon compliant, but I decided against it. This is now just a bit of a belated April Fools, sorry for tricking you, although some people did guess.
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Waffbot: Big Damn Hero is headcanon until proven otherwise.

Don't you take this away from me.
 
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