Hybrid Hive: Eat Shard? (Worm/MGLN) (Complete)
- Thread starter CmptrWz
- Start date
- Crossover
Morganite
Happiness is a large book.
- Location
- Dynamis - Firefly Alley
I'm not sure I get this comment. It sounds like they behaved appropriately given the possible conflict of interest.
-Morgan.
SanguisAnima
Σ Series Z10/0 Group A 4A-GELU Mk1
- Location
- nowhere important
I very much second this. I can only hope and pray that Mister CW formalises this, or at the very least in an omake.
Just goes to show how many people in this universe are genre-savvy...
Indeed. If a law firm represents the other side of a lawsuit, they are prohibited from representing you as well. This is exactly what I'd expect from an ethical law firm -- not only will they not represent you if they already represent the people you are suing, they won't want you to tell them anything about the suit, just to ensure they're in the clear.
Crazael
Rehydrated Demon King
- Location
- Lost to the vagaries of time.
I'm honestly kinda surprised he even went to them in the first place, though I suppose it's possible he didn't know they represented the Youth Guard already.
Entirely true. Not to say that there isn't something potentially condemning in that section though.
The fact that the Youth Guard apparently has the five best law firms in the area on retainer is... extremely convenient for them. Suspiciously so.
Salvare7097
be the salvation of the hopeless!
- Location
- [REDACTED] [O5 APPROVAL REQUIRED]
Puella Magi Madoka Magica is extremely dark do you want to know how dark.
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
Exhibit C
And finally Exhibit D
Exhibit B
Exhibit C
And finally Exhibit D
That is just a minor highlights reel And now can we please move on.
- Location
- Here
A quick thought; It occurs to me that sometime soon someone will want to talk to Minerva in an official capacity about her actions against Leviathan; if only to debrief her and see how likely it will be that she will be able to act in future Endbringer Battles. Am I the only one who wants to be a fly on the wall for that meeting?
Armsmaster likely chose the first five firms from a list of PRT suggested firms for independent heroes before going to the bloodsucking, villain defending, best in the city and generally disliked by the Heroes and PRT lawyer; Calle has a reputation as the best for a reason.
Armsmaster likely chose the first five firms from a list of PRT suggested firms for independent heroes before going to the bloodsucking, villain defending, best in the city and generally disliked by the Heroes and PRT lawyer; Calle has a reputation as the best for a reason.
I wonder if he tried hiting up Carol?
The problem for Coil is that if what happens to Taylor is different between the two timelines, that might count as using his power on Taylor, which in turn could mean that Hive could eat it even though he's nowhere nearby.
Everyone with a global power could have this problem. The one most likely to turn up is probably Mama Mathers.
- Location
- Burlington, KY, USA
Honestly, I think everyone is missing something from the Riley scene. The way she describes it is not as if watching anime or reading manga with her mother, but almost like she was told about magical girls as bed time stories.
My first thought is that her mom either was, or was descended from, someone that was a magical girl.
Historically, the magical girl genre didn't make the transition to the West until well after Scion would have appeared. Heck, I'd argue that magical girl still isn't a very popular genre of anime compared the rest of the popular ones. Sailor Moon is about the only one that has really gone mainstream. As such, I can't really see them as being the source of her mother's stories.
Also, I thought Coil ran off to Boston, or even further, to get away from Taylor and the effect she was causing. When did he come back?
My first thought is that her mom either was, or was descended from, someone that was a magical girl.
Historically, the magical girl genre didn't make the transition to the West until well after Scion would have appeared. Heck, I'd argue that magical girl still isn't a very popular genre of anime compared the rest of the popular ones. Sailor Moon is about the only one that has really gone mainstream. As such, I can't really see them as being the source of her mother's stories.
Also, I thought Coil ran off to Boston, or even further, to get away from Taylor and the effect she was causing. When did he come back?
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
Coil's power is simulation precognition pretending to be time-splitting via prodigious memory manipulation, so what happens when it encounters OCP's that it can't simulate is that it just makes a sad little failure noise and gives Coil a headache, leaving him confused and in pain.
I hope Riley can have a happy ending. And that Jack gets a painful, ignominious end.
Though helping her mind heal is going to need Doctor Yamada's full effort, and her actions will haunt her. But she's potentially not legally liable for her actions due to her age and extenuating circumstances. Especially if Taylor learns of what happened to her and what Jack did to her to make her that way.
You know, the PRT Thinkers are going to go WTF at everything they see of the Leviathan battle. Especially once Tattletale's insight gets sent to them. On her first encounter with Leviathan Minerva managed to determine Levithan's true weakpoint and relentlessly go after it, when the Protectorate and the rest of the world hasn't managed to learn much at all about the Endbringers even after decades.
I wonder how much the various PRT directors stay awake at night worrying away at just how much power the person or persons that are (as far as they know) Minerva's backers/creators have.
Though helping her mind heal is going to need Doctor Yamada's full effort, and her actions will haunt her. But she's potentially not legally liable for her actions due to her age and extenuating circumstances. Especially if Taylor learns of what happened to her and what Jack did to her to make her that way.
You know, the PRT Thinkers are going to go WTF at everything they see of the Leviathan battle. Especially once Tattletale's insight gets sent to them. On her first encounter with Leviathan Minerva managed to determine Levithan's true weakpoint and relentlessly go after it, when the Protectorate and the rest of the world hasn't managed to learn much at all about the Endbringers even after decades.
I wonder how much the various PRT directors stay awake at night worrying away at just how much power the person or persons that are (as far as they know) Minerva's backers/creators have.
- Location
- The deathworld-in-miniature that is Australia
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Actually, that's a thing - once the Thinkers get Tattletale's info, Cauldron will get it. Cauldron has determined there are almost certainly no (Agents/Shards/fragments of Space Whale/whatever) powering Minerva, that the depowering process allows Minerva and her backers to emulate the powers the Shards once granted, and that Minerva or those backing her can scan entire star systems. Combine it with Armsmaster's (incorrect) deduction that Minerva's backers are likely alternate versions of the Heberts who are somehow limited in how they can interact with Earth Bet, which Cauldron will hear of sooner rather than later, and Tattletale's insight into Minerva having both effective anti-Endbringer weapons and the ability to determine Endbringer's true important portions, and what are the chances that Cauldron decides that Minerva's backers are from an alternate Earth that defeated their Endbringers and Scion, possibly even having Cauldron members among them (because obviously they would have been key to defeating Scion, that's just common sense!), partially explaining why their hideaway was seemingly prioritised for scanning? (plus the fact Minerva used a fedora as her 'fine, then! Run away, coward!' attack upon Leviathan)
And having decided that, what are the chances they approach Minerva on that basis, working from flawed assumptions and with their usual high-handed attitude?
And having decided that, what are the chances they approach Minerva on that basis, working from flawed assumptions and with their usual high-handed attitude?
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No brick-shitting from the fedora? I'm disappointed.
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
This is a MGLN cross. Defeat equals Friendship IS A THING. As noted by the fact that Sophia wakes up depowered and not a violent psycho. Heck, just the increased mana level in Brockton Bay from Taylor being around is having effects:
Armsmaster being as concerned as he is over Missy, and his 'WTF? Am I THAT much of a gloryhound?' moment = shard conflict protocols being suborned
Leet's conflict drive is being derped too, because it's NOT trying to kill him.
So, yeah, Team Mana pulling Riley back from that moral event horizon seems almost a given... though it'll be some time before they likely meet.
That's why he was brooding for an hour. Granted, the rest of Cauldron probably was crapping masonry at that image as well, INCLUDING Contessa, who had NO IDEA WHAT THAT WAS ABOUT.
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- Pronouns
- Yes
In fact it's highly unlikely he'd know in advance which law firms work with the YG. Also note that there are a number of ways a law firm could work with the YG that do not involve them representing them that would still have an ethical firm telling Collin "I can't talk to you about this due to conflict of interest, have a nice day" with basically no other explanation.
If they actually had them on retainer? True, but if they just for example refer parents to them and pay the bills then it's a lot less problematic.
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
Effectively nil... Because the RCB part of Interlude 4 mentions that Cauldron had already looked for said Alt-Earth backers and couldn't find them. It just happens to be the most believable theory, even though they're sure it's wrong.
- Location
- In front of the fairy
Isn't there only one Scion among all the Earths?
- Location
- Odessa
Conclusions May 10:
"Dial, Dragon" commanded Armsmaster as he entered his lab.
"Colin?" dialing tone played only once before Dragon responded.
"I'm sorry." immediately replied Armsmaster "Looks like your theory is far closer to truth than I ..." Armsmaster paused, searching for words "Than I wanted to admit. Sorry."
"Don't worry about it Colin. I understand and don't hold any grudges." Dragons avatar's smiled at him a bit sadly "Any parent or guardian in your place would have behaved similarly."
"But it doesn't make it right." Armsmaster came closer to the screen and removed his helmet "I yelled at you, Dragon. Despite knowing that you are better than me in social interactions. Despite knowing that there is a chance that you are right." Armsmaster said while looking at camera "And that's why I'm sorry."
"Just learn from it and do better next time. And I think we still have urgent matters to attend to, don't we?"
"Just..." Armsmaster paused, again not sure what to say. "You are right, I will have to do better. And we do have work." He turned on a projector "Let's update the board. Vista woke up." Armsmaster started to brief Drangon in short sentences, more for the benefit of logging system, than Dragon's. "I will question her soon. But so far points of interest are: She doesn't seem to have powers, pending confirmation. She is oddly at ease about current situation. Genuinely confused. A bit resigned. Significantly disoriented."
As Armsmaster spoke projected board that was already full of various boxes was filling in with more boxes and lines. Some of those lines immediately turned red, some rare red lines turned blue.
"This does conflict with some of our conclusions." commented Dragon "Also, I got some info as well" one by one half a dozen more boxes appeared "There are a lot of documents, do you need a summary?"
"Yes, but your documents don't affect some of the versions, so let's review those first." Armsmaster switched the view and boxes reordered into 4 distinct trees, the leftmost one highlighted in blue. "First version: Team Mana attacking Vista" he started "Knife and blood lose being a ruse to misguided us. Recent data drops the overall probability from 23 to 4%. In other words, it is even less likely."
"I must highlight again, that this just doesn't make sense." Commented Dragon "Mana's members aren't stupid, they had much better options than attacking ward in the middle of PRT facility. Why leave a fake proof and a ward that will immediately invalidate said proof? It would have had to be a statement in any other situation, a war declaration from any other gang, but taking their other actions into account it simply doesn't add up."
"And with Vista's current behavior it makes even less sense." agreed Armsmaster "She would have remembered being attacked and reported attack after waking up. In the very least she would have questioned why she has no powers or had some other negative reaction. Anger, panic, fear, resignation... She in the very least should have been bothered about losing powers." Armsmaster put video of Vista onto one of his screen "Not this."
"I agree. For the moment we can rule out Team Mana attacking ward unprovoked."
"Next. Third party attacking Vista. Mana intervening." Armsmaster fiddled with controls and projection highlighted second tree, some boxes rearranged themselves. Probability indicated a fall from 60% to 43%. "Still quite high."
"Except we are stumped here." Dragon enlarged boxes marked with red. 'Culprit?', 'Location?' printed over the boxes "Because either attack happened in PRT facility or Vista was attacked before entering PRT and managed to conceal a serious wound. Neither seem likely" Dragon concluded.
"And while such situation does warrant intervention from Team Mana, Vista's reaction doesn't fit." Armsmaster sighted and continued "Next is your suggestion: Team mana collaborating with Vista to depower Vista. Chances rose from 48 to 81%."
"Check out validity of report about Vista visiting Heberts, I caught one of Vista's distortion on camera." the feed from Dragon switched to mentioned video and then back to avatar "And Mr Hebert queried child services after that day, it triggered our programs since request covered Missy Biron." Dragon enlarged the 'Vista visiting Heberts' box and adjusted validity "As such we can consider visit as a fact."
"In other words, Vista either tried to contact Team Mana and succeeded or caught their attention this way."
"Do you think Heberts might be part of Team mana?" Dragon questioned.
"That's still unlikely. If they were, I don't think Mr Hebert would have checked records directly." Disagreed Armsmaster "And it always returns to the point of Insect control being active while Miss Hebert was unconscious, mortally wounded, haven't displayed her unnatural coordination yet. Also Miss Hebert with high certainty wasn't parahuman before the locker incident. It is a fact that Mr Hebert was completely unaware. We can't deny that someone should have made the necklace, someone past initial tinker's steps, who was sufficiently good that locker wouldn't have happened at all."
"I'm not so sure. Even if there are lots of logical conflicts in our theories" pressed Dragon "AI could have been controlling those insect, unlikely but possible. And other irregularities could have other explanations. Still there are a lot of holes in any theories we have..." Dragon's avatar displayed a thinking expression "But I do agree that Miss Hebert is unlikely to join someone who depowered her without her approval at best."
"We will have to update that board later either way, lets focus on Vista for now. I see couple new boxes marked 'Youth guard'. Is that the documents you mentioned? They affected probability a fair bit."
"Yes, however please check how they affected the last theory."
"Suicide? Despite what forensics think we both agre.." Armsmaster stopped mid sentence as soon as fourth tree was updated, the value indicated that it quadrupled to 93% probability. "What did you found?" he questioned with a sinking feeling in his gut.
"Do you remember those forms you sent to Youth Guard about Vista's potential family issues?" Dragon asked and after receiving a nod continued "They were never investigated, at least not in a manner I can track. I found over hundred complaints to school, to social services and Youth Guard, none seem to be acted upon."
"But..." Armsmaster was at loss for words "How?"
"It all leads to Youth Guard." Dragon explained while moving relevant documents to screen "I sent copies of what I found to your terminal. Paper version are waiting for you in PRT's legal office. The common point: Youth Guard seems to either ignore reports or redirect them to themselves and then ignore. Youth Guard effectively blocked social services. School reports directly to Youth Guard in such cases." With each word from Dragon, Colin's expression darkened "Colin, I think that Vista was more desperate that either of us thought possible. Cornered even. So she tried to contact Team Mana. Best case: She contacted them, but got rejected, so Vista decided to force Team Mana's hand, consequences be damned. At least I don't think Vista would have agreed to stage suicide just because of spite. Worst case: actual suicide attempt with a second trigger, trigger that Team Mana noticed."
"I see... I need to... I need to question Vista" Armsmaster started to go towards the door, clearly shaken.
"Just be gentle." Dragon advised "My conclusions might be wrong, but she doesn't need more stress regardless."
"Dial, Dragon" commanded Armsmaster as he entered his lab.
"Colin?" dialing tone played only once before Dragon responded.
"I'm sorry." immediately replied Armsmaster "Looks like your theory is far closer to truth than I ..." Armsmaster paused, searching for words "Than I wanted to admit. Sorry."
"Don't worry about it Colin. I understand and don't hold any grudges." Dragons avatar's smiled at him a bit sadly "Any parent or guardian in your place would have behaved similarly."
"But it doesn't make it right." Armsmaster came closer to the screen and removed his helmet "I yelled at you, Dragon. Despite knowing that you are better than me in social interactions. Despite knowing that there is a chance that you are right." Armsmaster said while looking at camera "And that's why I'm sorry."
"Just learn from it and do better next time. And I think we still have urgent matters to attend to, don't we?"
"Just..." Armsmaster paused, again not sure what to say. "You are right, I will have to do better. And we do have work." He turned on a projector "Let's update the board. Vista woke up." Armsmaster started to brief Drangon in short sentences, more for the benefit of logging system, than Dragon's. "I will question her soon. But so far points of interest are: She doesn't seem to have powers, pending confirmation. She is oddly at ease about current situation. Genuinely confused. A bit resigned. Significantly disoriented."
As Armsmaster spoke projected board that was already full of various boxes was filling in with more boxes and lines. Some of those lines immediately turned red, some rare red lines turned blue.
"This does conflict with some of our conclusions." commented Dragon "Also, I got some info as well" one by one half a dozen more boxes appeared "There are a lot of documents, do you need a summary?"
"Yes, but your documents don't affect some of the versions, so let's review those first." Armsmaster switched the view and boxes reordered into 4 distinct trees, the leftmost one highlighted in blue. "First version: Team Mana attacking Vista" he started "Knife and blood lose being a ruse to misguided us. Recent data drops the overall probability from 23 to 4%. In other words, it is even less likely."
"I must highlight again, that this just doesn't make sense." Commented Dragon "Mana's members aren't stupid, they had much better options than attacking ward in the middle of PRT facility. Why leave a fake proof and a ward that will immediately invalidate said proof? It would have had to be a statement in any other situation, a war declaration from any other gang, but taking their other actions into account it simply doesn't add up."
"And with Vista's current behavior it makes even less sense." agreed Armsmaster "She would have remembered being attacked and reported attack after waking up. In the very least she would have questioned why she has no powers or had some other negative reaction. Anger, panic, fear, resignation... She in the very least should have been bothered about losing powers." Armsmaster put video of Vista onto one of his screen "Not this."
"I agree. For the moment we can rule out Team Mana attacking ward unprovoked."
"Next. Third party attacking Vista. Mana intervening." Armsmaster fiddled with controls and projection highlighted second tree, some boxes rearranged themselves. Probability indicated a fall from 60% to 43%. "Still quite high."
"Except we are stumped here." Dragon enlarged boxes marked with red. 'Culprit?', 'Location?' printed over the boxes "Because either attack happened in PRT facility or Vista was attacked before entering PRT and managed to conceal a serious wound. Neither seem likely" Dragon concluded.
"And while such situation does warrant intervention from Team Mana, Vista's reaction doesn't fit." Armsmaster sighted and continued "Next is your suggestion: Team mana collaborating with Vista to depower Vista. Chances rose from 48 to 81%."
"Check out validity of report about Vista visiting Heberts, I caught one of Vista's distortion on camera." the feed from Dragon switched to mentioned video and then back to avatar "And Mr Hebert queried child services after that day, it triggered our programs since request covered Missy Biron." Dragon enlarged the 'Vista visiting Heberts' box and adjusted validity "As such we can consider visit as a fact."
"In other words, Vista either tried to contact Team Mana and succeeded or caught their attention this way."
"Do you think Heberts might be part of Team mana?" Dragon questioned.
"That's still unlikely. If they were, I don't think Mr Hebert would have checked records directly." Disagreed Armsmaster "And it always returns to the point of Insect control being active while Miss Hebert was unconscious, mortally wounded, haven't displayed her unnatural coordination yet. Also Miss Hebert with high certainty wasn't parahuman before the locker incident. It is a fact that Mr Hebert was completely unaware. We can't deny that someone should have made the necklace, someone past initial tinker's steps, who was sufficiently good that locker wouldn't have happened at all."
"I'm not so sure. Even if there are lots of logical conflicts in our theories" pressed Dragon "AI could have been controlling those insect, unlikely but possible. And other irregularities could have other explanations. Still there are a lot of holes in any theories we have..." Dragon's avatar displayed a thinking expression "But I do agree that Miss Hebert is unlikely to join someone who depowered her without her approval at best."
"We will have to update that board later either way, lets focus on Vista for now. I see couple new boxes marked 'Youth guard'. Is that the documents you mentioned? They affected probability a fair bit."
"Yes, however please check how they affected the last theory."
"Suicide? Despite what forensics think we both agre.." Armsmaster stopped mid sentence as soon as fourth tree was updated, the value indicated that it quadrupled to 93% probability. "What did you found?" he questioned with a sinking feeling in his gut.
"Do you remember those forms you sent to Youth Guard about Vista's potential family issues?" Dragon asked and after receiving a nod continued "They were never investigated, at least not in a manner I can track. I found over hundred complaints to school, to social services and Youth Guard, none seem to be acted upon."
"But..." Armsmaster was at loss for words "How?"
"It all leads to Youth Guard." Dragon explained while moving relevant documents to screen "I sent copies of what I found to your terminal. Paper version are waiting for you in PRT's legal office. The common point: Youth Guard seems to either ignore reports or redirect them to themselves and then ignore. Youth Guard effectively blocked social services. School reports directly to Youth Guard in such cases." With each word from Dragon, Colin's expression darkened "Colin, I think that Vista was more desperate that either of us thought possible. Cornered even. So she tried to contact Team Mana. Best case: She contacted them, but got rejected, so Vista decided to force Team Mana's hand, consequences be damned. At least I don't think Vista would have agreed to stage suicide just because of spite. Worst case: actual suicide attempt with a second trigger, trigger that Team Mana noticed."
"I see... I need to... I need to question Vista" Armsmaster started to go towards the door, clearly shaken.
"Just be gentle." Dragon advised "My conclusions might be wrong, but she doesn't need more stress regardless."
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- Location
- Belfast
Honestly people... Minerva is clearly the avatar for a much sneakier and more intelligent space whale that's currently hunting Zion!
Cauldron need to step up their game and start planning our how they'll deal with it in the aftermath of their fight and before they destroy the planet!
"Sounds good"
*Cue simultaneous spittakes from all of Yuuno's friends who were looking out for him and making sure he was safe from the weird visitor*
And speaking bluntly here, Taylor/Yuuno wouldn't be that surprising a pairing going off what we've seen from her so far... It's just going to be about a decade away from now when the age Gap isn't as significant (and given that magic users probably have longer lifespans, 4-5 years won't be a significant difference in the long run).
Cauldron need to step up their game and start planning our how they'll deal with it in the aftermath of their fight and before they destroy the planet!
"You show me your math and I'll show you mine?"
"Sounds good"
*Cue simultaneous spittakes from all of Yuuno's friends who were looking out for him and making sure he was safe from the weird visitor*
And speaking bluntly here, Taylor/Yuuno wouldn't be that surprising a pairing going off what we've seen from her so far... It's just going to be about a decade away from now when the age Gap isn't as significant (and given that magic users probably have longer lifespans, 4-5 years won't be a significant difference in the long run).
Leechblade
Orientation Nitpicking
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Very clever way of doing the right thing.
That said I'm surprised he didn't go for the villain mouth-piece first. If you need to fight someone who is supposed to be an ally, looking for your enemies is a sound strategy.
Making an Exit (CmptrWz)
Contrary to Taylor's expectations, Leviathan's mad dash to the ocean wasn't a prelude to another attack, and she scowled when she realized that the Endbringer was now running away. Out of spite, she formed a homing bullet set for maximum speed, and manually unfolded the thing while holding the rest of the mana in place properly. It was a pain, took fifty multitasking instances working together, and would only last at most two hours, but she felt slightly better after firing it off to chase after Leviathan. It wasn't fast enough to actually catch the Endbringer, sadly, but at this point it was the principle of the thing.
She'd screamed "TAKE THIS YOU FUCKER!" as she fired it as well, just because.
That done, she sighed and started gathering the combat drones. The battle was apparently over, and she was both exhausted and starving. With any luck the live streams and whatever monitoring Dragon had going would let people know that Leviathan had retreated, because she wasn't in the mood to head to shore to tell them. No, she was going to pack up and go home. She brought all the combat drones in, not waiting for Hive to pack up the surveillance drones.
"Fucking raid bosses," Taylor grumbled, clear enough to be heard on the still-running live streams. "Computer, log out."
She triggered the dimensional transference then, trusting Hive to shut down the feed she was running directly from herself as that happened.
Dwight pointed at the screen. "What the fuck was that?"
Virgil rolled his eyes. "That was her fucking with the world."
"But what if she wasn't? If Leviathan is a raid boss in a game, are we just NPCs? Doomed to never actually amount to anything just because we aren't player characters?"
"Dude, I just said that she was just fucking with us. Any properly built game wouldn't let the NPCs notice details like that anyway."
"But what if she wasn't and we're in a crappy game? Hell, I can't see a good game letting you solo a raid boss like that."
Virgil wanted to argue against that, but his friend had just made an incredibly good couple of points. It took a moment, but he sighed. "Look, if we are in a game then we can't realistically do anything about it and are better off ignoring things like that. If we aren't in a game then she's screwing with us and we're better off ignoring her attempt to screw with us. In either case, ignoring it is the best option."
Dwight looked back at him. "But if we're NPCs then I want to do our best to break the game."
"That would be amusing, but if we aren't NPCs then there isn't a game to break and we're dealing with the real world."
"Maybe I can make a device that will detect if we're in a game?"
Colin blinked several times as he replayed the footage from the end of Minerva's fight with Leviathan. "That raises some disturbing potential implications."
"I agree," Dragon said. "The world being a video game would be...disturbing."
"That too, but there isn't much we can realistically do if that's the case."
There was a pause as Dragon processed that. "I'm sorry, what implications were you referring to?"
"Those behind Minerva may have misled her, causing her to believe that she's merely playing a game and not actually crossing dimensional boundaries to an alternate Earth. To that end, she may not even realize that she's risking her own life here, believing instead that death or serious injury will just get her logged out of the game."
"You win."
Colin blinked again. "I win what?"
"Your disturbing implications are much worse than mine."
She'd screamed "TAKE THIS YOU FUCKER!" as she fired it as well, just because.
That done, she sighed and started gathering the combat drones. The battle was apparently over, and she was both exhausted and starving. With any luck the live streams and whatever monitoring Dragon had going would let people know that Leviathan had retreated, because she wasn't in the mood to head to shore to tell them. No, she was going to pack up and go home. She brought all the combat drones in, not waiting for Hive to pack up the surveillance drones.
"Fucking raid bosses," Taylor grumbled, clear enough to be heard on the still-running live streams. "Computer, log out."
She triggered the dimensional transference then, trusting Hive to shut down the feed she was running directly from herself as that happened.
Dwight pointed at the screen. "What the fuck was that?"
Virgil rolled his eyes. "That was her fucking with the world."
"But what if she wasn't? If Leviathan is a raid boss in a game, are we just NPCs? Doomed to never actually amount to anything just because we aren't player characters?"
"Dude, I just said that she was just fucking with us. Any properly built game wouldn't let the NPCs notice details like that anyway."
"But what if she wasn't and we're in a crappy game? Hell, I can't see a good game letting you solo a raid boss like that."
Virgil wanted to argue against that, but his friend had just made an incredibly good couple of points. It took a moment, but he sighed. "Look, if we are in a game then we can't realistically do anything about it and are better off ignoring things like that. If we aren't in a game then she's screwing with us and we're better off ignoring her attempt to screw with us. In either case, ignoring it is the best option."
Dwight looked back at him. "But if we're NPCs then I want to do our best to break the game."
"That would be amusing, but if we aren't NPCs then there isn't a game to break and we're dealing with the real world."
"Maybe I can make a device that will detect if we're in a game?"
Colin blinked several times as he replayed the footage from the end of Minerva's fight with Leviathan. "That raises some disturbing potential implications."
"I agree," Dragon said. "The world being a video game would be...disturbing."
"That too, but there isn't much we can realistically do if that's the case."
There was a pause as Dragon processed that. "I'm sorry, what implications were you referring to?"
"Those behind Minerva may have misled her, causing her to believe that she's merely playing a game and not actually crossing dimensional boundaries to an alternate Earth. To that end, she may not even realize that she's risking her own life here, believing instead that death or serious injury will just get her logged out of the game."
"You win."
Colin blinked again. "I win what?"
"Your disturbing implications are much worse than mine."
Balrog
not Durin's Bane
- Location
- The Mines of Moria
Dance puppets! Dance!