Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
and at a guess, i would say JAlter is Wrath
Hereafter [Worm x Fate/Grand Order]
- Thread starter James D. Fawkes
- Start date
- Crossover
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Nullius in verba
- Location
- a Pale Blue Dot
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
It is true that School Shootings were less prevalent before the past three decades, but I wouldn't say they were completely nonexistent. On the Wikipedia page, of the thirty-one school shootings with more than four fatalities, only eight occurred before 1982.Wikipedia said:
The network, technology and communication infrastructure seem to be broadly similar with roughly 2011-level smartphones, Hotmail/Yahoo email, and Google Docs(probably the rest of the Google Suite as well). But with OSs vaguely inspired by Tinkers, OS360 had concentric radial circles as the user GUI. With infrastructure roughly the same, human nature should indicate the development of similar Cyberbullying tactics, if not equipped to do so.
In other parallels, the US probably has the PRT instead of the DHS, and the budget meant for late-era Cold War was probably allocated there with excess therefore leaving less to spend on petty social concerns.
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Isiri Pudireach
Predictive text can go duck itself
I think the school shooting conversation has reached the point of derail.
Emma's dad as opened with was the one who actually escalated it and called the meeting not Taylor she just took the opportunity while there to defend herself and counteratk. The real reason though it shouldn't count as mediation is the bias of the staff due to the fact that despite part of the settlement over the locker incident being they'd look out for her they were never going to take her side.
To further illustrate this here's a subtle thing people may have missed: Sophia's prt handler is the one who showed up to that meeting to represent her. However, when actual canon Dragon chose to break the unwritten rules* (which fanon Dragon would never do) and hunted for Skitter's id there was nothing about Taylor Hebert in any of the prt's files. This combined with the wog the locker tripped the trigger watch and 2 agents went to the hospital only to leave when they learned she was insensate is the source of the local prt agents including Sophia's handler knew and were covering it up theories and appearance in fics because otherwise it's odd for there to be absolutely no mention of Taylor.
* The context for anyone curious was that Dragon had been curious about Skitter to begin with which only grew when they met during the atk on the prt base but Dragon's chains forced her to sacrifice her suit to save Skitter's life. During said atk Taylor had taken one of Kid Win's guns and used it a few times which was enough to cause it to overload and violently explode but Skitter was trapped because Rachel had punted her into containment foam when they were making their escape due to the revelation of her stupid double agent stunt and Rachel losing so may dogs saving Taylor from Levi. Due to her the fact it would have killed Skitter the chains forced Dragon to free Skitter and block the explosion with her suit which broke it's shell and made the creepy foetus processor things Dragon uses melt and die. Following her reboot Dragon's records showed they had spoken but she didn't know what about which made her more interested.
Due to this when Regent dumped the contents of Sophia's personal phone (that she carried with her in costume) online which was mostly about the bullying of Taylor Dragon considered why he would do it and thought of the possible reason that Taylor was Skitter. Purely, from her own desire and curiosity and without consulting anyone else or getting warrants or any form of permission Dragon that accessed basically all data including school, prt and hospital records on Taylor to investigate her and eventually found a several year old photo of Taylor which she then used analysis software to compare to a photo of Skitter and somehow got a result they that were definitely the same person.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
This paragraph is a bit obtuse. And you have a run-on sentence in there.
Okay. First, per my memories, the woman who showed up at the Winslow meeting was not a PRT handler. Remember, Piggot hated Hess and would have jumped at the chance to throw her in Juvie. The woman worked for the Youth Guard. Her job was to keep Hess out of trouble and in school.
Second, I've never heard anyone mention the PRT getting involved in Taylor's case. Was this mentioned in-story? It has been a while since I read it.
Karyis
procrastinating as we speak
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- He/Him
could you put this in a spoiler please? some people don't want to be barraged by a list of school shootings when they're trying to read fanfic.
also echoing the sentiment that this is getting to be a derail.
___
Nullius in verba
- Location
- a Pale Blue Dot
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Sorry, I tried to put it in an Article, but it was borked, should be fixed now.
Besides, direct response to OP shouldn't be that significant a derail, since this is FGO, you know it's going to be a singularity eventually.
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Karyis
procrastinating as we speak
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Thank you, I appreciate it.
And mm, I suppose that's fair. Even so, I'm not sure that school shooting drills are really on-topic for the the question of "would Taylor be qualified for Avenger class or not," since iirc that's what the conversation was about.
if i recall, the unwritten rules are absolutely a thing that are broken, at least the fanon variant of it, like, the prt will absolutely try to figure out the secret identity of a villain, they just won't publish it, or involve family until she's actually arrested, what tagg did to skitter was breaking the unwritten rules cause it happened so publically, if the prt had instead tracked her secret identity down and then caught while she was alone (might even have waited for her to go out in costume as they monitor her), and then informed her closest family, this being danny, that'd be about what is normal operating procedure. the unwritten rules are basically guidelines and all that, it's not that you can't break them, it's that it's kinda stupid to break them, you end up with cornered rat situations, which when powers get involved, can lead to a lot of collateral.
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My main point in mentioning that bit was the it's something fanon Dragon would never do bit. The canon prt's usual going after ids is also iffy because we don't really see enough in canon to know because of how Taylor is the protag and how tiny the time she spends as a ward is. If you count pho Sundays and wogs though we can at least say that they do because of their trigger watch program; the pho sunday where a hero who was delirious, feverous and high on meds blabbed to a nurse he was a local hero who then called the prt to come interrogate him in that state and the case of Browbeat from wogs where he was missed by the trigger watch but after he went out and had a decent win/loss record they wanted to recruit him and went hunting for his id. Which resulted in it being rather flimsy when he did join because of all the asking around they did including speaking to a lot of his friends before actually speaking to him.
We do however see in canon them being acknowledged to exist and be followed by the protectorate including Legend and Assault the latter of who brought them up because Battery died to Bonesaw's spiders chasing Jack, Bonesaw and Skitter who was effected by the agnosia plague and he wanted to go harder on the undersiders citing their breaches of the rules as a reason to not follow the rules when dealing with them.
Additionally, actually spying on their civ id alone let alone waiting for them to get into costume would be breaking the rules because respecting and not touching civ ids is part of it. It's established to be so when the undersiders captured Shadow Stalker because despite knowing her civ id in order not to break the rules they made sure to target her in costume on a normal patrol so as not to be doing anything based on knowing her civ id. They did so simply by having Skitter appear in her sight on a patrol and then Stalker went charging after her because Stalker knew Skitter had seen her unmasked and injured which Stalker couldn't handle and so when she caught Skitter she pinned her and tried to slit her throat with one of the lethal bolts. Unfortunately, for her because it was a trap to capture her that Skitter was just her costume filled with bugs, her bolt failed to cut the spider silk and doing so removed the hesitation some members felt about using Regent's full power on her.
They do however get broken pretty consistently mainly because it seems to be like the playground rules when unsupervised they only matter if a person or group can defend themselves and doing so is pretty much solely on them so you are absolutely going to get people who break them.
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I'm pretty sure that the Youth Guard didn't exist when Worm completed. It was during the PRT Quest that the Youth Guard got created when the readers was choosing outlandish options and Wildbow created them to try and control what was going on.
Of course, I could be remembering wrong on this.
- Pronouns
- He
You're right, but it was retroactively inserted into the story since Victoria mentions it in Ward.
I see, didn't read Ward. Wildbow's writing is incredible depressing and it was a chore just to read Worm. So I'll never read Ward, even though there are several aspects of that story I'd really like to read.
And to tie this in to the story itself, Taylor is going to need to go over M/S protocols (whatever fanon version of it, unless it gets detailed in Ward or something) and whatever strategies for getting attacked by various Magic sources. Cause if she had done that, Ritsuka (I think that is his name) would have alerted everyone to what was happening and there might have been a small chance to prevent these events from happening.
Of course, since we don't know why these are happening, we don't know if it is preventable or not. But yeah, Taylor and the other might have gotten complacent thinking all of their enemies are in the past and can't reach them in Chaldea. But this should be a wakeup call on that.
The point being made tho was I originally said Sophia's prt handler was the one who showed up to the discipline meeting Emma's dad called which someone countered by saying no that's wrong it was someone from the youth guard there to keep Sophia out of trouble. The youth guard being shown to exist in worm via Kenzie's backstory in Ward doesn't change CCMax's implied point that it couldn't have been written as someone from the youth guard because the youth guard didn't exist at the time it was written and it hasn't been revised.
Though even if you were to headcanon it was actually someone from the youth guard it doesn't change my original main point that there was nothing about Taylor in the prt's system at all when checked after that and of course also after the 2 prt agents wog says went to see her in the hospital following her trigger event which is the basis of the theories and fics that have prt agents actively suppressing the bullying.
Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
In canon worm, the woman with sofia at the meeting was her "Case Worker" now whether this was her PRT handler or a Youth Guard rep is left open to debate, however, the likelihood is that this was the former and not the latter.
Fleeting Lunar Phantasia - Part 8
James D. Fawkes
Court Scribe
- Location
- Avalon (Isle of Mists)
Fleeting Lunar Phantasia
Part Eight
Part Eight
— o.0.O.O.0.o —
Even in a hurry like that and running like the devil was on our tails — an apt comparison, in hindsight, considering our enemy's appearance — I had enough presence of mind to know that we shouldn't head straight back to Elise's mansion. Bad enough that they might figure out where we'd come from by looking at a map and tracing the route we'd taken, we didn't need to make it any easier on them by leading them to it.Instead, once we'd gotten some distance, I managed to signal the group and swing our path back towards the city. As callous as it might have been to the potential danger it would subject the citizens to, it was better for us if the enemy thought we were based somewhere inside the city, and it would also be easier for us to lose a tail in the streets than it would be out in an open field.
Ordinarily, it would be even easier for me to get our pursuer off our trail in the city, since I could use my bugs to make human-shaped doppelgangers while we broke line of sight, but with my powers the way they were, that wasn't an option.
"Where," Ritsuka huffed between breaths, "are we going?"
"Right now," I answered, "we're just trying to lose him." Which was going to be all the harder when he had multiple bodies to use to surveil us. "We can find a place to hide after that."
"What about," Rika began.
"Don't mention any names!" I cut her off before she could say anything else. "Unless you want to tell him exactly where we're going and where we've been!"
Rika stumbled a little. She obviously hadn't considered that. "R-right!"
The Assassin followed us, but at a leisurely pace. I wasn't sure if the combination of his duplication power and the Grail's suppressing of Heroic Spirits had made it so that he just wasn't able to overtake us, or if he was deliberately staying slow enough so that he could track us back to our base. As long as he was still following us, the difference wasn't particularly important, but it might be something we could use later on.
A five kilometer run, however, wasn't easy, especially at something near to a full sprint, and it was even harder on the twins, who weren't used to this level of exertion. I at least had enough training to use some minor reinforcement to give myself an edge, because I was at least good enough at it to do that, but they were so new to this that they didn't even have that.
"Ritsuka, Rika," I told them as they started to flag, "use Momentary Reinforcement to give yourselves quick boosts."
They nearly fell over themselves as it dawned on them exactly what I was talking about.
"W-wait," Rika rasped, "we could've been doing that…th-the whole time?"
"W-why didn't," Ritsuka gasped, "we think of that?"
The sudden spurt of speed they got when they used the spell put them way out in front of us.
"M-Master!" Mash called after them.
But it was only temporary. It gave them an extra twenty or thirty feet on us, but the instant the boost was gone, they slowed back down, and the rest of us caught up to them fairly quickly. Staggering those should hopefully be enough to get us back to the city before the Assassin could catch up, if he was even trying to.
Surreptitiously, I cast a couple of First Aid spells at them, hoping it would help with their exhaustion. If it did, they didn't say anything, and how much it helped, I couldn't know, but it at least seemed to give them enough energy to keep going, even as sweat poured down their faces.
Eventually, the city limits came back within sight.
"Almost there!" I shouted at the twins.
"We can make it!" Rika screamed, as much to motivate herself as anything else.
We needn't have bothered. Behind us, just as we were mere yards away from getting back into the city, the Assassin and his squad of doppelgangers suddenly pulled back and vanished, as though they were afraid of entering the city itself. I didn't dare mention it to the twins — it was entirely possible he had simply entered spirit form to keep following us without drawing any attention from the locals, because at midday, people were out and about and going about their lives.
The instant we were back on the streets and amongst the buildings, I pulled the group down the nearest side road, where we had some cover, and only then did I let them slow down.
"Pace yourselves, now," I told them. Even I was panting and sweating from the effort. "We're going to take a roundabout route, but we need to get to the cathedral."
"I can lead the way," Serenity announced. It wasn't fair that she wasn't even breathing hard.
Once again, I was jealous of the raw physicality that came with being a Servant.
"Quickly, but quietly," I said. "The less we stand out, the harder we'll be to find."
"Is…he…still…following us?" Rika asked breathlessly.
"I-I'm not seeing him," Mash said, and the twins relaxed a little, "any of him."
"That doesn't mean he isn't," I reminded them, "just that he's not being obvious about it."
Rika groaned. "I…hate…Assassins."
"Go," I said, and when they didn't move, I was a little more insistent. "Go. We're not safe yet. We can't stop."
"Follow me," said Serenity, and then she started speedwalking further down the side road. The twins groaned, but didn't offer any other protests as we fell into step behind her.
With that Assassin's Presence Concealment, we couldn't even know if he was there at all. Not like a regular Servant, who would still be detectable, even in spirit form.
Serenity led us on a winding, circuitous route, taking seemingly random turns onto more and more side roads, but eventually, we wound up out in the open on one of the main roads, which was bustling with people. Not as many as I was used to seeing in a city, since there were only a fraction of the number of people that would one day be living here, but still enough to fill the streets.
We went deeper in, back in the direction of the Champ de Mars where we arrived the night before, but before we could make it that far, Serenity took us further into the city itself, back across the river, and we came out in front of a plaza, with a large, palatial building standing at the other end, flag flying in front of it. In the absence of a royal family still in charge of everything, I would have had to guess that it was where the local government was headquartered.
The same government that the King of Rot may in fact have subverted before any of us got here.
"Do we have to worry about that?" I asked Serenity quietly.
She glanced in the direction of the building and shook her head. "I don't know. Probably best not to risk it, though."
I nodded. Erring on the side of caution was usually a good idea, here and now even more so.
Back to speedwalking we went, although we'd slowed down quite a bit from how we'd started, and we left the plaza and the government building behind. Slowly, the buildings around us became more familiar, because we'd seen some of them before — or I had, at least, with my powers — when we made the original trip to the cathedral last night.
It wasn't all that long before that familiar stone monolith came back into sight. The twins almost collapsed with relief.
"I have never…seen anything…more beautiful," Rika gasped, "in all my life!"
Ritsuka could only breathlessly laugh his agreement.
We were all sweaty and spent by the time we made it back to the cathedral, and since no Assassins swooped out of nowhere to attack us, I had to assume that we'd managed to ditch our pursuer, one way or another. I could think about how and why at a later point, because the only thing that mattered right then was that he wasn't there.
It probably wasn't the most polite thing to do, walking into church in that kind of state, but then again, I wasn't exactly a very religious girl, never had been, so what did I know? Either way, we stepped inside the safety of the cathedral like that.
We'd barely made it inside the front door before Father Richelot appeared as though he'd been waiting for us to return.
"Welcome back, my friends, welcome back," he said. "Ah, you have excellent timing, as well."
"We do?" Mash asked, bemused.
"For…what?" breathed Ritsuka.
"Not long ago, I received a pair of guests here," said Father Richelot. "I believe they might be allies of yours, after a fashion."
Instantly, my guard was back up.
"Allies?" Rika parroted. She looked at me, like I would have the answer. "We have…some of those?"
It wasn't impossible. The Counter Force had apparently already summoned Liz, who wasn't exactly the model of what a Heroic Spirit fighting for the preservation of mankind's proper history was supposed to look like. There very well could be more Servants who were technically on our side.
Of course, it was also possible that the Assassin had reported back to the King of Rot, and he'd sent a pair of his own Servants here to cut us off. Maybe not as likely, since that Assassin wouldn't know where we were going quickly enough for his Master to send someone here ahead of us, but nothing said that he didn't already have forces inside the city itself.
I'd just asked Serenity about that, after all.
"Come, come," said Father Richelot. "Ah, they might not be expecting you. I told them you had gone out to seek an ally further afield. They said they would wait here to meet you for a day, before seeking you out more directly."
He hustled us deeper inside and towards the "back rooms" where we'd stayed the night.
"Be on your guard," I warned everyone quietly, so that Father Richelot didn't hear us. After all, with the eyes Serenity had told us about, he could have been compromised, too. "There's no way of telling who this is."
The others were still trying to catch their breaths, so the only replies I got were silent nods. Mash's face set into a resolute mask, and Serenity's settled into a neutral expression, mild and unbothered. An affectation of calm.
And then the door opened, letting us into the room, and we saw a pair of familiar faces.
"Wait, what?" Rika blurted out incredulously.
"Oh, hello," Saint Martha greeted us with a smile. "It's good to meet you!"
"Indeed, we were most surprised," said the musketeer-looking person. Man? Woman? I couldn't tell at first glance, and even the voice didn't help. "We thought we might be the only ones here, until Father Richelot explained about you. Well, as much as he understood, at least."
"H-hang on," said Ritsuka, "weren't you two —"
"On Jalter's team?" said Rika.
"Jalter?" the two of them said simultaneously. They shared a bemused look, as though asking each other if one of them recognized that name. Martha shook her head and the musketeer gave a dainty little shrug.
"The name isn't familiar to me," said the musketeer.
"I'm sorry, we were only summoned a few hours ago," said Martha. "We don't know much about what's going on, aside from what Father Richelot was so kind to tell us."
Some of the tension I'd been carrying eased out of my shoulders. It wasn't impossible that they were lying, but given how Servants were supposed to work, it was just more likely that they didn't remember anything at all about the Orléans Singularity. After all, Emiya didn't remember anything about what his alternate self had gotten up to in the Fuyuki Singularity.
"Jeanne Alter," Ritsuka clarified. "From the Orléans Singularity?"
Martha and the musketeer shared another bemused look.
"We're not familiar with that, I'm sorry," said Martha apologetically. "Did we…hurt you in some way?"
"If so, I apologize," said the musketeer. "I can't imagine what sort of circumstances would pit us against a cause as noble as yours."
"I'm wondering about that now myself," said Serenity. She arched an eyebrow at us. "You recognize these guys?"
Rika blinked. "Um, kinda?"
"The enemy Servant behind the last Singularity we were in summoned them to help her destroy France," Ritsuka explained, summarizing what happened. Both Martha and the musketeer looked suitably horrified. "We had to…fight them to stop her from succeeding."
"Destroy France?" the musketeer echoed. "I would never! On my name as a knight, never!"
"I-I'm sure you must be mistaken!" Martha insisted. "I-I can't imagine any circumstances that would lead me to do…something that terrible!"
"Jeanne Alter controlled her Servants by forcing a kind of Mad Enhancement skill on them," I told them both. "Neither of you was in your right mind when we fought, even though you might have struggled against it."
I didn't remember seeing the musketeer more than once, at La Charité. I think she — he? — must have been one of the ones defeated in the forest, right before we hit Orléans itself.
"I…don't understand," said Martha. "You say she forced Mad Enhancement upon us? How, exactly?"
"Should such a thing not be the sole purview of the Berserker class?" the musketeer agreed.
So we had to explain the Orléans Singularity, as briefly and succinctly as we possibly could. I kept the details salient and the conversation on track, so that Rika couldn't go off on any tangents and we could get through it as quickly as possible. Giving them a play by play of the events would take hours and steal time from us that we just couldn't afford to spare, right then.
Of course, explaining Orléans also necessitated explaining some things about who we were and what we were doing there. Our mission statement, as it were.
"I see," said Martha. "If it was through a Holy Grail, then yes, I can imagine even something like that would be possible. And you say there is another here in this time, in the hands of another madman?"
"So we're assuming," I answered. "Obviously, we haven't been able to get a visual confirmation that there's one around here, but we'd need to get inside his castle to be sure of it."
"His castle?" Father Richelot asked, like the words simply hadn't registered yet.
"Where we just came from," Serenity said. "I had a hunch that we would find it right where he put it, so we went to scout it out — and found another several dozen of these Servants keeping watch out on the grounds."
"Several dozen?" Martha gasped, horrified.
"No," I cut in, "just a single Assassin Servant who can duplicate himself several dozen times. He had to have had at least fifty doppelgangers, but whatever he does seems to split up his power, too. Combined with the blanket effect that weakens Servants, he wasn't much stronger or faster than a normal human."
"So it's an actual Shadow Clone Jutsu," Rika said. "Wow. I didn't know watching Naruto when I was a kid would actually come in handy in my job."
Ritsuka let out an exasperated breath, even as the rest of us turned towards her, having no idea what she was talking about.
"Naruto?" Serenity asked. "Shadow Clone Jutsu? Is that another one of these video games you were telling me about?"
"That's… No, but…" Ritsuka's expression twisted painfully. "I…don't really know how to describe it in a way that won't mean me having to explain televisions and animation."
"Don't look at me," said Rika. "I think if I tried to explain it, she'd just wind up even more confused, and I can't even come up with a joke, because I know I'm the only one who will get it."
I…actually agreed with them. How did you explain TVs and TV shows to someone who hadn't even seen a motion picture, a movie, before? Her closest frame of reference was paintings and maybe grainy, black-and-white photographs.
"It's not the important part," I said, steering us back on track. "The important part is that there was only one Servant. Just that he could make more of himself. There has to be a hard limit in there somewhere, even if just on how much he can split his power and still fight meaningfully, but like I said, he had at least fifty."
"Only one that we encountered," Serenity corrected me. "Knowing him as well as I do, he's bound to have at least a few more that he's keeping closer. That one we saw was just his guard dog."
I acknowledged her point with a nod, because she wasn't wrong, and I hadn't assumed that Assassin would be the only one the King of Rot kept around. I wasn't entirely sure what we could expect to face otherwise, though — his mystic eyes would mean he could enforce obedience on even a Servant, but only so long as that Servant didn't have a high level of magic resistance.
By default, that should mean we wouldn't have to worry about Sabers, Lancers, and probably no Archers. In fact, the fact that we hadn't been sniped in the back while we were running away helped prove that, too. Casters might be out, because they too should be able to resist his spells, but the Caster class was also where he was more likely to find someone who was willing to work with him.
Riders, Berserkers, and Assassins were more likely, though. I was willing to bet money he had at least one other Assassin.
"One helluva guard dog," Rika grumbled.
"Forgive me for prying," said the musketeer, "but might you share with us your true name, milady? How is it that you know so much about this enemy that you speak so confidently of his habits and preferences?"
"My name is Serenity," said Serenity, "not that it'll mean anything to you. I can guarantee you haven't heard of me before, one way or the other. As for how I know so much about this bastard? It's because I've been chasing him for years. The entire reason we're here is because he managed to slip by me and escape."
"He slipped by you?" Martha echoed.
Serenity grimaced, crossed her arms, and sighed. "I thought I was prepared for everything he had," she admitted, "but it turns out he's even slipperier than I ever thought. When I went to kill him, I didn't cast my net wide enough, and he managed to worm his way out. Somehow or another, he got his hands on the Holy Grail that started this mess, and that's what brought me here. You, too, in a way."
"I see," Martha said serenely. "Then it's a good thing you're here. I'm certain your help will be invaluable in taking this villain down."
"What about you?" I asked the musketeer. "You're the only one here whose true name we don't know."
They blinked. "Truly? You never once heard my true name in this Orléans Singularity you spoke of?"
"Exchanging pleasantries wasn't high on the priorities list," I said dryly.
"How uncouth of me." The musketeer pressed one hand to their chest. "Then allow me to introduce myself formally. I am known as Chevalier d'Eon, and I served the Crown of France faithfully as diplomat. You may call me D'eon, if you like."
Mash gasped. "I've read about you!"
"Truly?" asked D'eon. "I had not thought myself so great a name as to be immortalized in history…but I suppose my mere existence as a Heroic Spirit has already proven me wrong, no?"
"You're famous for infiltrating Empress Elizabeth's court by dressing as a woman!" Mash gushed.
"Oh?" D'eon laughed awkwardly. "I hadn't realized that particular escapade was so famous!"
Famous enough for Mash to have heard about it. On the other hand, Chevalier d'Eon wasn't a name I automatically recognized, and I didn't remember anything about it in our primer about major Heroic Spirits. Of course, all that really said was that D'eon's contribution to history wasn't big enough to match up to heroes who had done stuff like slay dragons or kill monsters. The likes of King Arthur and Saint George were big shoes to fill.
"Well, I've never heard of you," said Rika. "So nice to meet you, D'eon! I'm Rika, the cutest one of the bunch!"
"I'm Ritsuka, and unfortunately, I'm her twin brother," said Ritsuka, jabbing his thumb in Rika's direction. She stuck her tongue out at him, like the mature young woman she was.
"Taylor," I said simply.
"And my name is Mash Kyrielight, Shielder class Servant." Mash bowed. "Pleased to meet you."
"Enchanté," D'eon replied smoothly.
"In any case," I said, "we should expect the King of Rot to have at least one other Servant, aside from his duplicating Assassin. If he's worried about being able to enchant them with his eyes, then probably another Assassin or a Berserker, maybe a Rider."
"Assassins and Berserkers would definitely be more to his preference," Serenity added. "At least if their class names are any indication of what they do."
"So just to be on the safe side," I went on, "we should probably call in reinforcements."
Beep-beep!
I turned on my communicator, and Romani's face shimmered into existence above my wrist. "Romani —"
"Thank goodness, we managed to get in contact with you!" Romani said, sagging.
My brow furrowed. Thank goodness? "Is something wrong?"
Romani moved aside, and Da Vinci's face took up the screen now, contrite.
"I'm sorry, everyone," she said ruefully. "I screwed up."
"Miss Da Vinci?" Mash said, worried. Martha and D'eon turned to each other and mouthed the name, but didn't interrupt.
"What's going on?" Ritsuka asked.
"Do you remember when I said that the owner of the Grail had put into place some sort of anti-Heroic Spirit defense?" Da Vinci asked rhetorically. "Well, I was wrong. This effect doesn't just apply to Heroic Spirits, but it acts on the concept of outside interference entirely. Anything and everything that isn't native to the Singularity itself — more specifically, to the version of France this 'King of Rot' fellow has created — is being rejected."
I took in a sharp breath. That would explain my powers being weakened, wouldn't it? It made so much more sense, now. After all, my passenger was the very definition of an outside interference.
"I don't feel any different," Rika said, confused.
"Because of the way Rayshifting works," Da Vinci explained. "In order to send you into it in the first place, we have to convince reality that you belong there in that time and place. That's why you Masters won't find yourselves or your magecraft weakened. Even your Command Spells should work just fine."
"That explains why I'm unaffected, too," Serenity realized, figuring it out right as I was heading that direction myself. "I'm as much a part of this Rennes as he is, so this thing he did with the Grail doesn't apply to me."
Da Vinci nodded. "That was my supposition as well." Her lips pulled into a grim line. "Unfortunately, the effect is continuing to grow stronger. The more the Singularity grows, the harder it will be for any outside source — whether it's us here at Chaldea or the Counter Force summoning directly — to influence the events inside of it.
"Furthermore," she went on, "if we sent you reinforcements, even now, they would be at a quarter of their usual strength. Tomorrow, an eighth. The day after, they won't be much stronger than an ordinary human, but that won't matter much because we won't be able to contact you at all by then."
And we'd be all on our own, I realized. Just like in Fuyuki, we'd have to solve everything without any support from the team at Chaldea itself, just whatever allies we could find here in the Singularity.
"A-ah, excuse me," said Martha, "but you said that Servants will be weakened, correct? I've noticed that I'm only about half my normal strength, yes, but I'm not noticing a drop in performance otherwise."
"That's the good news," Da Vinci said. "This effect applies on entry, so Servants that are already inside the Singularity won't be weakened further. It's not much of an upside, but it certainly beats out the alternative, doesn't it?"
"So what does this mean for us?" Ritsuka asked. "Should we bring Arash, Bradamante, Siegfried, and Emiya here to help out, while we still can?"
"It wouldn't be worth it," I told him. "Not for Bradamante, at least, since she's the one who would be most affected in combat. If we have to assault that fortress, though…"
In a straight fight with whoever else the King of Rot might have summoned, Emiya and Arash at an eighth of their normal performance would be too vulnerable. If, however, all they needed to do was keep someone occupied, well, between Emiya's projections and Arash's arrow volleys, they shouldn't need to actually engage in hand to hand, and that meant their decreased performance wouldn't be quite as impactful.
The beginnings of a plan started to come together in my head.
That Assassin was always going to outnumber us. Realistically, the only way to beat him was to take out all of his duplicates at once, or else to take out the original. There was no way of knowing which way that power worked until after he was killed, because there was also no way to tell which was supposed to be the original. We would know, however, if we got all of them and more still showed up, so either way, we needed to mow them all down simultaneously.
Arash and Emiya would be good for that. Even diminished, their output should still be enough to land a killing blow on each of the duplicates at the same time.
The rest of us weren't going to be much use in that fight — so why even be there? Instead, we could put up enough of a fight to draw all of the duplicates in and maybe even catch the attention of any other Servants that might be standing guard, and while they were distracted with Arash and…Saint Martha, because Tarasque had the right combination of defense and offense to keep them occupied for as long as we wanted, the rest of us could sneak past and go after the King of Rot himself.
"Da Vinci, we're going to need Arash, Siegfried, and Emiya," I told her. "In as good a shape as possible, so as soon as you can."
"I'll get right on it!" Da Vinci said, and then she disappeared from frame, letting Romani take that spot back.
"Senpai's got a plan!" Rika announced eagerly.
I turned to our Assassin friend next. "Serenity."
"Yeah?" she said.
"We can't afford to risk leading the enemy back to Elise's house, so with you as the only one who can sneak there, you're going to have to head over to let her know we won't be back tonight. You should stay there, just in case that Assassin decides to snoop and make some trouble overnight."
She stilled as the full weight of what I'd just said hit her, and then her mouth drew into a tight line. "Right."
This was her own personal what-if, after all. I wondered, did she feel anything at all for Elise, knowing that Elise was the granddaughter she had never had the chance to have? I wasn't sure she'd tell me if she did. Not with words, I didn't think.
"The rest of us will stay here for the night, if you don't mind, Father Richelot," I went on, turning to address the man who had remained mostly silent. Probably because he couldn't meaningfully contribute anything except tedious questions.
"Of course, of course," said Father Richelot. "These happenings may be beyond my ability to affect, but this church will remain open to you as you do this important work."
"Ugh," Rika grunted. "I was looking forward to sleeping on an actual bed in that mansion tonight."
Tough luck. The less risk we put Elise in, the better off we would all wind up feeling by the end of this.
"We'll spend the rest of the afternoon getting the lay of the city," I said, leaving her comment unaddressed. "Tomorrow, we'll rendezvous at the mansion and start planning our attack on the King of Rot's castle. Understood?"
A chorus of affirmatives answered me, and I nodded. "By the time we're all together, we'll only have a week to fix everything. We can't afford to screw up."
"No," Serenity agreed, "we really can't."
— o.0.O.O.0.o —
Kept waffling on whether or not to drop this and when, because I do want to finish it, but finding both the time and the drive to power through has been difficult when I also have to walk the tightrope of how much and how little to reveal about this event's star character and her setting.
But, I figured, what the hell. It's Halloween, right? And maybe I should make finishing this my NaNoWriMo project this year. It's already at least halfway finished, because it was never meant to be more than about 15 chapters, so if I can put my nose to the grindstone...
But, I figured, what the hell. It's Halloween, right? And maybe I should make finishing this my NaNoWriMo project this year. It's already at least halfway finished, because it was never meant to be more than about 15 chapters, so if I can put my nose to the grindstone...
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- Location
- Dhaka, Bangladesh
Suddenly Vampire Event! Happy Halloween.
Evil Atlas
Inspector of Details
- Location
- Denial
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I, for one, am happy to see more of this! Appropriate timing, too. The characterization and interpersonal interactions are as solid as ever, and I'm looking forward to seeing the plan put into action. (I'll admit to a bit of relief that she went with the reinforcements she did, rather than bringing Aife in again. More room for the others to shine.)
I wonder if any of her companions are going to comment further on Taylor's powers being weakened...
Anyway! Good stuff. Happy Halloween!
I wonder if any of her companions are going to comment further on Taylor's powers being weakened...
Anyway! Good stuff. Happy Halloween!
Okay, so, to start, I've never read Ward as Taylor being the MC is what carried me through the Grim-derpier and less interesting parts of Worm. That being said, the idea that the girl with the nickname of 'Collateral Damage Barbie,' using 'precise amounts of force' is so far off base of what we see in Worm that I feel that I have to call not just 'Bullshit' but 'Bad Fanfiction' on Ward in response. Even if that nickname is fan-applied-which I'm fairly sure it shows up in the original work, but it has been a while-her Interlude has her straight up crippling a man by accident and having Amy fix him so that she does not get in trouble. With ALL THAT in play, I think that Death of the Author is not only recommended, but just about f@#$ing necessary for the story to ANY sort of cohesion.
Following that, despite how much people would NOT want to talk about it or the apparent denial of the need for Therapists for Parahumans, I find it hard to believe that Khepri would not become a widespread boogieman story for Parahumans at large. At the end, she could quite reasonably be considered the scariest Master to have ever walked the Earth, especially as many would have been unaware of the fact that she no longer had access to the powers of Clairvoyant and Doormaker that let her actually control her massive army of Parahumans. Now, whether or not Khepri would be revealed as Taylor Hebert is a lot more in doubt, as aside from those who knew her personally, they'd likely be unable to find out her true identity, but that's a different issue entirely.
Now, if we were to apply Wildbow's interpretation of how people would fail to talk about the woman who Mastered almost EVERY PARAHUMAN IN EXISTENCE, ACROSS MULTIPLE REALITIES, then I would agree that she'd lose all claim to the Avenger Class.
Please note, by the way, that the main thing I'm having a rather intense disagreement with is Wildbow's continuation of the story, as it makes no d@#$ sense whatsoever. The things you've brought up, by the story written, I actually agree with, and conclude that Taylor would have no claim to the Avenger Class under such circumstances, and might not even make it to the Throne despite otherwise being what I would consider a premier candidate for the Pioneer of the Stars Skill. The problem, as it were, is that the story as written makes no sense at all from what I've heard.
I can agree that people probably wouldn't WANT to talk about it, and also that there was probably a lot of death by starvation and exposure following Gold Morning, but Khepri WOULD be talked about, even if it's just from drunken Parahumans doing their best to forget by drowning their woes in alcohol and whores, and that's a VERY BIG 'if.'
You know
Seeing the nature of the Singularity and how it could screw his plan
I wouldn't be surprise if Goetia send a Pillar to get rid of it
Pillar ally sound like a funny moment
Seeing the nature of the Singularity and how it could screw his plan
I wouldn't be surprise if Goetia send a Pillar to get rid of it
Pillar ally sound like a funny moment
Yeah as I said Vicky is basically a different character if we are being totally fair a changed attitude does make sense because she is visibly traumatised by having been transformed into what she calls "The Wretch" by Amy and spending the 2 years in the Asylum. This also altered her power because the forcefield changed to her larger changed form which had extra limbs and she couldn't control it properly which meant she couldn't really use the forcefield part of her powers around anyone she cared about for long because the limbs would flail around and had her super strength forcing her to be more careful.
The only real problem with it is her internal view of her old self and claims of her past views except well she doesn't actually speak about them to others so you can just let it slide as her being wrong. To be clear her views aren't really true the stuff like her being a power geek or kind to the point of stopping someone being bullied in front of her can be accepted because we didn't see much of her and what we did was also in the context of things like the bank robbery where Amy was being held hostage.
This stuff is also why she's the only one who your opinion is likely to improve of. You could also argue for Dauntless because he got a flashback interlude showing he's a great guy and proceeded to be again when busted out of the time bubble but it was pretty obvious it was so you'd actually care when he got bubbled in the interlude and for the horrible fate that followed. Arguably he also doesn't really count as having stuff in worm because his only appearance is during the gallery escape when he cuts them off but he doesn't really do much due to Armsy having him put earplugs in to counter Tattletale so basically just stands there as a wall. Nilbog similarly was shown to care about his subjects and had given up on establishing a kingdom because he knew he was being watched too closely but again he previously was only there as a background detail and the brief conversation he had with Taylor and Jack.
However, the stuff about force can't really be taken as true beyond the forcefield issues making her have to be extremely careful because well interlude 2 of worm shows she nearly killed the rapist by flinging the dumpster at the rapist and the lid swung out and smacked him. Amy even said it wasn't the first time it had happened or that she'd called her to heal her victims who they threaten into silence plus at the bank robbery she was on the roof then busted in by flying through a wall which also could have easily hurt someone.
Realistically there would indeed be some aspect of treating Kephri as a bogeyman except that the capes she took denied her existence and told everyone they fought willingly. There is also the matter of them all being at New York by the end meaning they also all knew that Doormaker's portals shut down (until GU claimed him) which freed them and her very short control range then became obvious and clearly known about from how they were acting even if ones like Marquis who had worked it out before she got Doormaker didn't tell them. Aside from that there's also the simple fact they lost all technology so aside from movers were largely constrained by walking plus again no internet or phones which would limit spread of info. An example of this is how even though ward starts over a year after gm there are still Americans on bet who are still working their way towards one of the known portals to evacuate to Gimel mainly because the known ones are on the east coast.
I would say though that even with that if you were to accept people in the modern age of worm can become servants even without being tied to Kephri she would probably still qualify as a servant as Taylor Hebert/Skitter/Weaver for all the reasons I covered how she was famous before especially the Behemoth's death video.
Personally though I do think Taylor wouldn't be tied to servant Kephri because of all those other earths that would only know of the mysterious disappearance of all their nukes and all the ones like the birdcage and yangban capes she took who won't know her. Combined with the general distance the portals caused and that she was in costume during in, heck when doormaker's power ran out a lot of people couldn't even point to her as having been the one controlling them (which to be fair she would appear pretty different without the mantle of portals she had around her) and only realised because she was still controlling the people immediately around her.
The people who did know for sure also had their own reasons for keeping quiet due to being her friends, colleagues or for keeping quiet the whole Amy jail broke her power bit along with maintaining the lie they all willingly fought.
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
All this would imply that to become a Servant you need to be famous or, you know, real.
First of all, Khepri in Worm is barely Taylor, so you could've placed the crux of your argument on this fact, that Servant Khepri would be a crazy mishmash of Taylor's and QA's psyches uncontrollably snatching everyone's bodies in the vicinity and throwing them at the nearest perceived threat.
That said, if we establish some continuity of consciousness and intent and just say that Khepri is Taylor Witching Out for superpowers, as it were, then her identity would absolutely be tied to Khepri. Doesn't matter how many people know who she is. Doesn't even matter if nobody knows.
Artoria doesn't stop being female just because literally everybody living in Nasu's present age and most people in Camelot believe she was a guy.
That Alexander's body double sister FGO cooked up can be summoned under her own identity, despite her assuming Alexander's at all times.
Yeah, quite a lot of Servants have their personality and traits warped by common assumptions about them, but then again, just as many don't or have directly opposite ones and are mortified to learn this is how they are remembered.
At best, the situation would be resolved by splitting the difference in the middle like with Charles the Great: one Khepri is relatively faithful to her own characterization and is desperately trying to stay in control and deal with the threat she's been summoned to handle, and the other is an inhuman body-snatching monster who apparently traumatized parahumanity so much that in the sequel We Don't Talk About Khepri, No No No.
First of all, Khepri in Worm is barely Taylor, so you could've placed the crux of your argument on this fact, that Servant Khepri would be a crazy mishmash of Taylor's and QA's psyches uncontrollably snatching everyone's bodies in the vicinity and throwing them at the nearest perceived threat.
That said, if we establish some continuity of consciousness and intent and just say that Khepri is Taylor Witching Out for superpowers, as it were, then her identity would absolutely be tied to Khepri. Doesn't matter how many people know who she is. Doesn't even matter if nobody knows.
Artoria doesn't stop being female just because literally everybody living in Nasu's present age and most people in Camelot believe she was a guy.
That Alexander's body double sister FGO cooked up can be summoned under her own identity, despite her assuming Alexander's at all times.
Yeah, quite a lot of Servants have their personality and traits warped by common assumptions about them, but then again, just as many don't or have directly opposite ones and are mortified to learn this is how they are remembered.
At best, the situation would be resolved by splitting the difference in the middle like with Charles the Great: one Khepri is relatively faithful to her own characterization and is desperately trying to stay in control and deal with the threat she's been summoned to handle, and the other is an inhuman body-snatching monster who apparently traumatized parahumanity so much that in the sequel We Don't Talk About Khepri, No No No.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- They/Them
You could also just have it be like Jekyll and Hyde, 2 Spirit Origins essentially in the same servant container, with Beserker/Foreigner Khepri as a NP that swaps them and Taylor out.
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Maybe. Or maybe with each additional Ascension Taylor loses it little by little until there's nothing remaining of her by AS4.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- They/Them
So basically standard Foreigner ascension model.