OverReactionGuy
Verified Sanity
If that is a dig against me, fine. But you're also somewhat of a hypocrite when you started to continue the debate as well when you make posts like this.
...Sorry, just grumpy right now and this isn't helping matters.
Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)
- Thread starter Silently Watches
- Start date
If that is a dig against me, fine. But you're also somewhat of a hypocrite when you started to continue the debate as well when you make posts like this.
...Sorry, just grumpy right now and this isn't helping matters.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
I'm going to quote a comment that was made in the tribunal forum a short time ago that I think you may find insightful, the emphasis is in the origional post and was not added by me:'You do not need to respond to every little thing someone says.'
But, but. Its the Internet, I need to correct everyone who is wrong.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
But, but. Its the Internet, I need to correct everyone who is wrong.
OverReactionGuy
Verified Sanity
*sighs*
Yeah, I'm done. Bye.
Yeah, I'm done. Bye.
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
*notices disagreement after a night shift*
"Eh, it'll burn itself out."
*20 hours later*
Silly me, thinking this will end on its own.
1. Yes, Tattletale was being a bitch.
2. Yes, your reaction was a human and understandable one.
3. No, your reaction being understandable does not mean it was the best one.
4. Yes, Tattletale dislikes you now and would love to watch you burn.
5. No, Tattletale is not planning on setting you up to be burned because Samantha's threat was a sincere one, Tattletale knows it, and she likes keeping her insides on the inside.
6. God, please stop arguing about this now.
"Eh, it'll burn itself out."
*20 hours later*
Silly me, thinking this will end on its own.
1. Yes, Tattletale was being a bitch.
2. Yes, your reaction was a human and understandable one.
3. No, your reaction being understandable does not mean it was the best one.
4. Yes, Tattletale dislikes you now and would love to watch you burn.
5. No, Tattletale is not planning on setting you up to be burned because Samantha's threat was a sincere one, Tattletale knows it, and she likes keeping her insides on the inside.
6. God, please stop arguing about this now.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
Welcome to Worm debates. Please check any and all facts at the door, most people don't use them.
*sets stopwatch*
Honestly, its probably going to pop up again. I know you don't want to hear that, but it's likely a.) someone's going to binge this and bitch about it one way or the other or b.) we're going to get to a similar-ish vote and someone's going to drag this out and use it as an excuse for X, Y, and/or Z. *Shrug*
*Pats on back* Sorry.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
There's a silver lining though: Now that the author's explicitly said 'no more of this', next time someone gets the bright idea of starting it, there's a good case for a not-so-surprising jackboot to the neck. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel... Please don't let it be a train.
One resembles the other!
Welcome to SV, where you too can be a god! As long as you obey the Overlords and only in the threads you make.
Psychic Smasher 3.1
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
Psychic Smasher 3.1
Thursday, February 24
Your alarm rings in your ear, and you sluggishly reach out to hit the snooze button. Normally you are ready to get up, but right now, you are just so tired. It's like you didn't get more than a few hours' sleep. Your hand finds the alarm, but swatting at it with your eyes closed isn't making the sound stop. If you could just make it shut up….
"Taylor. Taylor. Taylor!"
"Whaa?!" you demand, your eyes opening as you rub your ear. Why is she shouting at you?!
"What is that noise?"
"It's my…." You trail off because no, that sound isn't your alarm. It's coming from outside. A long, loud wailing, one that is vaguely recogniz—
Your eyes widen in sudden terror. The Endbringer sirens!
You jump out of bed and run to the dresser for some clothes, eschewing your underwear drawer as the irrelevance it is in this situation. There's no way this is just the six-month test of the system. That is always announced on the evening and nightly news days in advance, and it happens precisely at noon so everyone can see that there isn't really a giant city-destroying monster wandering around. They never happen in the early hours of the morning. This is for real. You need to go, get to a shelter and wait the attack out.
WHIIIIIR. WHIIIIIR. WHUUUUR.
Ice fills your veins, and your hands slow to a stop. No. No, no, no. You misheard that. You must have misheard it.
WHIIIIIR. WHIIIIIR. WHUUUUR.
"Taylor," Samantha asks, catching on to your obvious fear, "what does that mean?"
"The third siren was different." Your voice is a whisper, the significance obvious. It has been pounded into your head for the last nine years. If the third siren is the same as the others, you get to a shelter. If the third siren is different, you run. You run for your life and you run for your sanity, because that means…. "The Simurgh's here. In Brockton Bay."
Your movements now are even faster as you throw on an old, too-small t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants and move to the closet for a couple of old suitcases. You can't help but remember that the last time you used them was when your mom was still alive and your parents had taken you to Disney World for a week. Tossing one to Samantha, you shout, "Stuff everything you can in there! We need to get out of here now!" Whole cities were quarantined after the Simurgh visited them, the people inside eventually allowed to leave but treated like criminals for the rest of their lives. No, not criminals; they were treated like ticking time bombs. Time bombs that could go off at any moment and wreck chaos wherever they were.
Because that was exactly what they were. Ordinary people turned into weapons that would go off when and where and why the Simurgh wanted them to. The only way not to become one was to get out of town as quickly as you could.
You grab clothes with both hands and shove them into the suitcase without reason or order. Clothes for the next few days ahead, check. You don't have a driver's license or a credit card. You don't have a phone. You don't have anything you can think of with special sentimental value. That's all the things you need to worry about grabbing with the angel of crazy at your doorstep. Everything else can be replaced.
Zipping up the suitcase, you hear Samantha do the same. "Taylor," she calls out, "catch!"
Perfect Storm falls into your hands, and then it's around your neck and you and your Guardian Beast are literally flying down the stairs. "Dad! Dad, where are you?!"
"Kitchen!" You dash to that room, expecting him to be packing up the few things he and you truly can't do without. Instead, you find him standing half-naked in the room, a cell phone – something he purchased after forming the Privateers and with extreme reluctance – sitting on the counter and the pants of his Captain outfit already on. The bag with the rest of his costume is open on the table. "This is why we made those lists in the first place, Alexander, for if we needed to get info out as fast as we possibly could. Dover's too close. Manchester should be big enough and far away enough, but it's not much farther to Boston, and that's even better. Tell them to get on 95 and haul ass. Grab only what they can't do without; against this bitch, every minute counts."
He stabs a button on the phone and looks over at you. "What are you doing?" you all but demand. He looks like he's…. Surely he's not that stupid. "This is the Simurgh!"
"I know. That's why I can't leave. Lima can't happen again."
That makes you go silent. Much as you want to deny it, he has a point. By the Simurgh's third appearance, people already knew that she drove her victims insane. After their battle plans fell apart in the first few minutes of that fight, many of the capes who had gathered to face her turned tail and ran, deciding to leave Peru's capital to its fate. That wasn't what happened, though. After enough were gone, the Simurgh abandoned her attack, as well, and started flying over a major highway, exposing the fleeing populace to her song until the capes who were still around and some of the runaways chased after her and reengaged. They finally drove her back into the sky, but only after she had ranged back and forth over a total of fifty miles. Over the next year, so many 'Ziz-bombs' went off that the total bodycount was in the millions. Capes never abandoned a Simurgh fight again, and neither had the youngest Endbringer wandered away from her original target.
"I might be the one who tips the balance," he continues, knowing where your train of thought has gone. "If I don't show up, she might decide to go wandering again. And maybe I can make a difference. Storm somehow makes you immune to my power, but the rest of the capes shouldn't be. If they work together as well as the Privateers do, we might be able to stop her before she does too much damage."
"They'll still put the city under quarantine." He nods, and you blurt out, "Capes die fighting the Endbringers, Dad. You could die!"
He looks away from you and pulls on the puffy shirt. "I know that, Taylor. Trust me, do I know that. But I got these powers for a reason. It wasn't just random chance; I can feel it in my gut. And if I can make a difference, I should. 'With—"
"If you quote that old comic at me, I swear I'll hit you."
"I'm scared, kiddo," he confesses. "I won't lie about that. But I have to do this. I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror if I didn't help when I knew I could keep people alive." Looking up at you again, he continues, "But you don't have to stay. I don't want you to stay. Kurt and Lacey are already on their way here to pick you up before heading to Boston. I'll meet up with you when it's all over."
If he's still alive. He'll come back only if he doesn't die. "I have a better chance of surviving her than you do," you tell him. You almost can't believe that you're saying this. The Simurgh scares you, just like she does everyone else with a hint of common sense. Behemoth is the hero-killer. Leviathan is the city-killer. But the Simurgh? She's the hope-killer. If she targets you, you aren't the same person you were the day before. You're her puppet, her weapon.
But, and this is an important but, you have powers now, too. If you run when your powers could make a difference, if you run and your dad dies, you know you'll blame yourself for it for the rest of your life just as he would if he ran. And you're not lying when you say that your Barrier Jacket gives you protection your squishy father lacks. "If you're staying to fight… then so am I."
"No, you're not." When he sees your hardening expression, he looks to Samantha. "Tell her she's not staying!"
The raccoon woman looks back and forth at the two of you for a moment before she replies, "This is a question with no good answer. All I will say is that where you go, Taylor, so do I. The decision of whether we fight or flee I leave to you."
Fair warning: depending on how busy work gets, I can't promise prompt responses to your questions. But I will answer them eventually.
Because so many people suggested it on SV, and because how you vote here will greatly influence how this and at least the next arc go, I have to ask….
What will you do now?
[ ] Stay and stand against the Simurgh
[ ] Flee with the rest of the Privateers
Thursday, February 24
Your alarm rings in your ear, and you sluggishly reach out to hit the snooze button. Normally you are ready to get up, but right now, you are just so tired. It's like you didn't get more than a few hours' sleep. Your hand finds the alarm, but swatting at it with your eyes closed isn't making the sound stop. If you could just make it shut up….
"Taylor. Taylor. Taylor!"
"Whaa?!" you demand, your eyes opening as you rub your ear. Why is she shouting at you?!
"What is that noise?"
"It's my…." You trail off because no, that sound isn't your alarm. It's coming from outside. A long, loud wailing, one that is vaguely recogniz—
Your eyes widen in sudden terror. The Endbringer sirens!
You jump out of bed and run to the dresser for some clothes, eschewing your underwear drawer as the irrelevance it is in this situation. There's no way this is just the six-month test of the system. That is always announced on the evening and nightly news days in advance, and it happens precisely at noon so everyone can see that there isn't really a giant city-destroying monster wandering around. They never happen in the early hours of the morning. This is for real. You need to go, get to a shelter and wait the attack out.
WHIIIIIR. WHIIIIIR. WHUUUUR.
Ice fills your veins, and your hands slow to a stop. No. No, no, no. You misheard that. You must have misheard it.
WHIIIIIR. WHIIIIIR. WHUUUUR.
"Taylor," Samantha asks, catching on to your obvious fear, "what does that mean?"
"The third siren was different." Your voice is a whisper, the significance obvious. It has been pounded into your head for the last nine years. If the third siren is the same as the others, you get to a shelter. If the third siren is different, you run. You run for your life and you run for your sanity, because that means…. "The Simurgh's here. In Brockton Bay."
Your movements now are even faster as you throw on an old, too-small t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants and move to the closet for a couple of old suitcases. You can't help but remember that the last time you used them was when your mom was still alive and your parents had taken you to Disney World for a week. Tossing one to Samantha, you shout, "Stuff everything you can in there! We need to get out of here now!" Whole cities were quarantined after the Simurgh visited them, the people inside eventually allowed to leave but treated like criminals for the rest of their lives. No, not criminals; they were treated like ticking time bombs. Time bombs that could go off at any moment and wreck chaos wherever they were.
Because that was exactly what they were. Ordinary people turned into weapons that would go off when and where and why the Simurgh wanted them to. The only way not to become one was to get out of town as quickly as you could.
You grab clothes with both hands and shove them into the suitcase without reason or order. Clothes for the next few days ahead, check. You don't have a driver's license or a credit card. You don't have a phone. You don't have anything you can think of with special sentimental value. That's all the things you need to worry about grabbing with the angel of crazy at your doorstep. Everything else can be replaced.
Zipping up the suitcase, you hear Samantha do the same. "Taylor," she calls out, "catch!"
Perfect Storm falls into your hands, and then it's around your neck and you and your Guardian Beast are literally flying down the stairs. "Dad! Dad, where are you?!"
"Kitchen!" You dash to that room, expecting him to be packing up the few things he and you truly can't do without. Instead, you find him standing half-naked in the room, a cell phone – something he purchased after forming the Privateers and with extreme reluctance – sitting on the counter and the pants of his Captain outfit already on. The bag with the rest of his costume is open on the table. "This is why we made those lists in the first place, Alexander, for if we needed to get info out as fast as we possibly could. Dover's too close. Manchester should be big enough and far away enough, but it's not much farther to Boston, and that's even better. Tell them to get on 95 and haul ass. Grab only what they can't do without; against this bitch, every minute counts."
He stabs a button on the phone and looks over at you. "What are you doing?" you all but demand. He looks like he's…. Surely he's not that stupid. "This is the Simurgh!"
"I know. That's why I can't leave. Lima can't happen again."
That makes you go silent. Much as you want to deny it, he has a point. By the Simurgh's third appearance, people already knew that she drove her victims insane. After their battle plans fell apart in the first few minutes of that fight, many of the capes who had gathered to face her turned tail and ran, deciding to leave Peru's capital to its fate. That wasn't what happened, though. After enough were gone, the Simurgh abandoned her attack, as well, and started flying over a major highway, exposing the fleeing populace to her song until the capes who were still around and some of the runaways chased after her and reengaged. They finally drove her back into the sky, but only after she had ranged back and forth over a total of fifty miles. Over the next year, so many 'Ziz-bombs' went off that the total bodycount was in the millions. Capes never abandoned a Simurgh fight again, and neither had the youngest Endbringer wandered away from her original target.
"I might be the one who tips the balance," he continues, knowing where your train of thought has gone. "If I don't show up, she might decide to go wandering again. And maybe I can make a difference. Storm somehow makes you immune to my power, but the rest of the capes shouldn't be. If they work together as well as the Privateers do, we might be able to stop her before she does too much damage."
"They'll still put the city under quarantine." He nods, and you blurt out, "Capes die fighting the Endbringers, Dad. You could die!"
He looks away from you and pulls on the puffy shirt. "I know that, Taylor. Trust me, do I know that. But I got these powers for a reason. It wasn't just random chance; I can feel it in my gut. And if I can make a difference, I should. 'With—"
"If you quote that old comic at me, I swear I'll hit you."
"I'm scared, kiddo," he confesses. "I won't lie about that. But I have to do this. I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror if I didn't help when I knew I could keep people alive." Looking up at you again, he continues, "But you don't have to stay. I don't want you to stay. Kurt and Lacey are already on their way here to pick you up before heading to Boston. I'll meet up with you when it's all over."
If he's still alive. He'll come back only if he doesn't die. "I have a better chance of surviving her than you do," you tell him. You almost can't believe that you're saying this. The Simurgh scares you, just like she does everyone else with a hint of common sense. Behemoth is the hero-killer. Leviathan is the city-killer. But the Simurgh? She's the hope-killer. If she targets you, you aren't the same person you were the day before. You're her puppet, her weapon.
But, and this is an important but, you have powers now, too. If you run when your powers could make a difference, if you run and your dad dies, you know you'll blame yourself for it for the rest of your life just as he would if he ran. And you're not lying when you say that your Barrier Jacket gives you protection your squishy father lacks. "If you're staying to fight… then so am I."
"No, you're not." When he sees your hardening expression, he looks to Samantha. "Tell her she's not staying!"
The raccoon woman looks back and forth at the two of you for a moment before she replies, "This is a question with no good answer. All I will say is that where you go, Taylor, so do I. The decision of whether we fight or flee I leave to you."
Fair warning: depending on how busy work gets, I can't promise prompt responses to your questions. But I will answer them eventually.
Because so many people suggested it on SV, and because how you vote here will greatly influence how this and at least the next arc go, I have to ask….
What will you do now?
[ ] Stay and stand against the Simurgh
[ ] Flee with the rest of the Privateers
... Okay, is this the part where we tell him we don't plan on actually fighting? Because it feels like your saying either "You run" or "You fight her directly" with these options and since none of our discussion was about actually fighting her, I have to wonder what you're trying to do.
Numen
Long Time Creeper
- Location
- Canada
[X] Flee with the rest of the Privateers
The Privateers will return for vegeance one day. But for now they need to be ROAD WARRIORS. PIRATES OF THE FREEWAY, WANDERING THE USA, RECRUITING AND FIGHTING VILLAINS, LOOTING BOOTIES AND SPREADY CALAMITY! ARGH! IN THE NAME EL CAPITAIN!
The Privateers will return for vegeance one day. But for now they need to be ROAD WARRIORS. PIRATES OF THE FREEWAY, WANDERING THE USA, RECRUITING AND FIGHTING VILLAINS, LOOTING BOOTIES AND SPREADY CALAMITY! ARGH! IN THE NAME EL CAPITAIN!
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
This is "leave the city" or "participate in the fight in some capacity". It's why I said "stand against" her rather than fight against her.
[X] Stay and stand against the Simurgh
Knight-Radiant
Recovering Rageaholic
[X] Stay and stand against the Simurgh
OverReactionGuy
Verified Sanity
-applies head to wall-
Aw, damnit. An enbringer fight when we aren't ready in the slightest.
-edit-
Who is likely here only because of us.
Aw, damnit. An enbringer fight when we aren't ready in the slightest.
-edit-
Who is likely here only because of us.
- Location
- United states
Hold on, wouldn't the PRT bar Taylor and the privateers from the fight due to them no having gotten screened for fighting the Simurg? Also really do not think it is a good idea to expose Danny of all people to the Simurg's scream.
[X] Stay and stand against the Simurgh
[X] Stay and stand against the Simurgh
...Well fuck. All the Dakka would be really useful right now...
Also, it's highly likely that we're the target since it's possible that Simmie can't actually see us right now. Which is troubling.
So at the very least, if we stay in Brockton the Privateers won't become a prime target. Maybe.
...Well fuck. All the Dakka would be really useful right now...
Also, it's highly likely that we're the target since it's possible that Simmie can't actually see us right now. Which is troubling.
So at the very least, if we stay in Brockton the Privateers won't become a prime target. Maybe.
There's really nothing we can do to fight Ziz, so:
[X] Flee with the rest of the Privateers
[X] Flee with the rest of the Privateers
OverReactionGuy
Verified Sanity
I would vote knock our idiotic father out and drag him with us as well, because he can't do shit here either.