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System Administrator (Worm) (AltPower!Taylor)

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Rathanel said:
I think it's a fairly compelling presentation of events, especially for one targeted at the court of public opinion.

If he was mastered, how did he make it past the guards? What other things did anyone and everyone around him say that construed "commands" did he hear and not follow through on?

Given that Canary's power makes someone suggestible to anyone, not just Canary, that's a contradiction in the established narrative that must be addressed.
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Daemion said:
He's a psychopath. He knew he could destroy her career and life by doing this and it wouldn't even be permanent since parahuman healing exists.
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I feel like you are both underestimating what it takes to cut your penis off. Being a psychopath does not mean you are a robot who is able to cut organs off of your body on a whim. You would need to have something much more seriously wrong with you for that.

Also, Parahuman healing is supposed to be pretty rare if I'm not mistaken. So it's not like he could just assume that they could just fix his genitals with 24 hours. He could be waiting months or years for that and if his plan fails they could decide to only give him standard treatment due to his crimes. This is a massive risk to take for a plan that didn't even have that much of a chance of succeeding.

He did not know that they would throw the book at Canary. Any number of thinkers or people with an eye on the case could have noticed his deception. If dragon didn't have restrictions (something he didn't know about) he would have gotten caught immediately. Someone like Sudo could have also stepped in to help.

I just can't picture this man hearing someone say "go fuck yourself" and immediately deciding "I know! I'll cut off my penis and then no one will look into it at all, not even someone with super powers who would want a favour out of a high level master." It's the worst plan I've ever heard.
 
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Riverking said:
I just can't picture this man hearing someone say "go fuck yourself" and immediately deciding "I know! I'll cut off my penis and then no one will look into it at all, not even someone with super powers who would want a favour out of a high level master." It's the worst plan I've ever heard.
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To be fair, a lot of Taylor's writing in this chapter was speculation. Aside from the things she got direct evidence of, like the coerced confession, this is still the speculation of the girl who thought that going undercover in a criminal gang with a Thinker was a good idea.

I don't think we're supposed to take this series of events as the absolute truth by @TemporaryMeasure, just as the case Taylor believes or is presenting to the public.
 
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I have but one concern.

TemporaryMeasure said:
►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied On Jan 23rd 2011:
Hey, don't make fun of me like that! Just because none of you all know about the secret power-granting conspiracy in charge of the PRT that orchestrates all their incompetence is no reason to laugh at the only one smart enough to figure it out!
►Dawgsmiles (Veteran Member)
Replied On Jan 23rd 2011:
Aaaaand we're back. Power-granters behind the scenes this week, is it, Void? Guess the lizards of yesteryear got tired and retired, huh?
End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
■​
Steven Costa looked up from his screen at his beautiful wife, who was washing the dishes. (He'd made dinner, after all. "Hon, come see the newest ridiculous Void theory, it's hilarious!"
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Did Void derail this or is Costa an important person?
 
0xFFF1 said:
You underestimate the lengths psychopaths can go in service of their goals. Compared to fucking over Canary, a little dick pain is nothing.
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They will go to great lengths when hurting others, not themselves. If someone is mutilating themselves like this then (in my uneducated opinion) they definetly have more wrong with them then psychopathy. I wish nothing but the best for this guys recovery and I hope he gets the mental health help that he desperately needs. Because he's clearly not all there.
 
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WillRobinson said:
To be fair, a lot of Taylor's editorializing in this chapter was naive speculation. Aside from the things she got direct evidence of, like the coerced confession, this is still the speculation of the girl who thought that going undercover in a criminal gang with a Thinker was a good idea.
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Bingo! I was wondering how long it would take. Taylor is neither a trained lawyer nor investigator, and is not doing the best possible job of interpreting the evidence.

That said, it is pretty clear from the way Canary's story goes that she definitely wasn't mastering her ex. Her power only applies itself through song. Either:
  1. He was mastered when he tried to make it through security, in which case he'd fail
  2. He wasn't mastered when he tried to go through security, but was afterwards, in which case he'd have to have heard her singing, in which case she'd have to have been singing, which I find unlikely and which in this story she definitely wasn't (which is maybe an AU but it is small and it is my story, so nyehh)
  3. He wasn't mastered but chose, for whatever reason including being his particular brand of crazy and stupid, to pretend to be
  4. He wasn't mastered but knew she could master people, and therefore thought he was mastered and had to do it
  5. He was mastered but wasn't??? IE, he got the master effect applied in the audience, and then got past the guards because it for some reason wasn't working then, but then it started again when face to face with Canary (See Wildbow's slipshod retcon)
Wildbow's slipshod retcon: conflict drive edition. During the concert, she wasn't in conflict, so her power wasn't working at full potential. But when she is angry at him, then it starts working, because conflict drive.

The problem with that: you're telling me that having your way blocked by security guards isn't conflict?
The other problem with that: you're telling me that being in power testing is conflict?

Overall, though Taylor is not a trained investigator and neither am I, it seems to me that the only sensible interpretations are 3 and 4. Maybe Wildbow's official version of events doesn't include power testing and states that her power only works when she is angry, but does so retroactively, but to me that smacks of retcon and violates Occam's razor.

So Canary's innocent. Although tbf she doesn't think she is. But also, given the amount of procedural screw-up here, she can't be convicted of this crime ever, regardless of if she actually did it.
 
In canon, it isn't so much singing as her voice and the emotion behind it(the emotion part is REALLY important). When he busted into her room, she was still high off of the performance; then you add in the anger and she becomes a LOT more persuasive.

This isn't Canon so please don't let that impact your story.
 
yacov said:
With Dragon definitely-not-condoning this investigation, I imagine taking this scoop down from the PHO will be on Dragon's "low-priority" list. Just behind calculating all the lost grains of sand from the latest Leviathan attack and reanalyzing all of Void Cowboy's posts to see if the bans were justified.
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Dragon can't take it down. Sudo's access exceeds hers.
 
WillRobinson said:
It wasn't discussed in the story, but Wildbow said that it was a result of her having a Cauldron power. Her shard was dead, but it had some blunt conflict-inducing protocols. You know how Taylor's range increases based on how close she feels to her trigger event, or how Lung's power ramps up in conflict? Canary's power was at reduced strength to lull her into complacency until it sees an opportunity to start shit. So she's singing on stage and her power is at a reduced level, but then it increases in potency while she's arguing with her ex because she might say something rash.
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Yes, I'm aware of that particular WoG. It's nonsense and doesn't even work as a retcon because it's not a conflict drive, it's power incontinence. If this was an actual thing that existed, then it would be extremely important for all parahumans and the PRT. But it is never mentioned and we see no other example of "the shard decides to fuck around on its own".

In canon there was no security (another oversight by WB), only a manager IIRC. Also "fuck yourself" doesn't really mean mutilation, you can fuck yourself with something else after all. And as I mentioned before, Paige's influence wears off quickly. Last but not least, even a live concert uses microphones and speakers, which means the effect of her power is very limited to start with. It only works at full power directly, when you use technology to transmit/record it most of the effect is lost.

I much prefer the chain of events as they are presented here. It makes sense and explains all the oddities. The siblings out for revenge are an interesting change from the PRT itself going after Paige.


Riverking said:
Also, Parahuman healing is supposed to be pretty rare if I'm not mistaken. So it's not like he could just assume that they could just fix his genitals with 24 hours. He could be waiting months or years for that and if his plan fails they could decide to only give him standard treatment due to his crimes. This is a massive risk to take for a plan that didn't even have that much of a chance of succeeding.
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Paige has a lot of money and would be liable for civil damages. He'd take her to court for all she has and pay for parahuman healing with her millions. Or the PRT would step in and get him fixed up because that would be easy positive PR in such a high profile case.

It doesn't really matter if his plan would work, what matters is that he believes it would work. And as you can tell, without Taylor's interference he would have succeeded.
 
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Pseudonymous said:
Dragon can't take it down. Sudo's access exceeds hers.
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and the fact Sudo has what is essentially Kernal Level Permissions on ANY site she uses is why I am always looking forward to updates on this story. QA took its name seriously and gave Taylor the highest level of admin access to THE INTERNET! Imagine what Taylor could do if she got her hands on the laptop with Dragon's Kill Switch!
 
For a historical reference consider Vernon Florida in the 50s and 60s, aka Nub City. Where they had a rash of people amputating limbs for insurance claims.

In the case of Canary her ex could planning a civil lawsuit.
 
Daemion said:
Yes, I'm aware of that particular WoG. It's nonsense and doesn't even work as a retcon because it's not a conflict drive, it's power incontinence. If this was an actual thing that existed, then it would be extremely important for all parahumans and the PRT. But it is never mentioned and we see no other example of "the shard decides to fuck around on its own".
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The conflict drive isn't literally mind control, it's mostly on the power-side of things, like giving the parahuman more power under certain conditions. I literally just gave you two examples of this in Lung and Taylor. Just because this doesn't fit your fanon idea of what a conflict drive should be doesn't mean it's nonsense.

Canary is a special case in that she's a Cauldron cape, so instead of having rewards and punishments tailored to the host she has a chance of getting residual programming from previous cycles, and that she tries not to use her power. If Triumph sat around without using his power (or used it to play baseball as he intended) maybe he would have found himself blasting someone during an argument too, but not many capes do that.

Hell, there was even a moment in canon where Taylor finds out that her power was acting on its own to mask a camera's view of her movements and make her look scary.

Daemion said:
I much prefer the chain of events as they are presented here. It makes sense and explains all the oddities. The siblings out for revenge are an interesting change from the PRT itself going after Paige.
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Broadly I agree that it makes sense for things like this to go on behind the scenes, and it fits the timeline. But you're misremembering canon again, the PRT weren't ever going after Paige. It was the state of Massachusetts, which is why Dragon sent letters to the judge, DA, and governor that had it out for her. She was initially picked up by police, we only see the PRT involved in her transport to the birdcage.

Edit: One inconsequential inconsistency in the chapter, the judge in canon was named Peter Regan, not Brawen.
 
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TemporaryMeasure said:
He was mastered when he tried to make it through security, in which case he'd fail
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Purely theoretically, he could be mastered, put on ear protection, force himself through security, take off ear protection, then be commanded to fuck himself.

It would be incriminating him, though, because of CCTVs. And it is also even more improbable than #5, because it would require him both be smart enough to research her powers (independently from PRT, even!)(this step would make his goal easier, as he would only need to tell PRT that she's a powerful crowd-controller and suggest that she is too dangerous as a rogue) and stupid enough to be mastered anyway.
 
WillRobinson said:
The conflict drive isn't literally mind control, it's mostly on the power-side of things, like giving the parahuman more power under certain conditions. I literally just gave you two examples of this in Lung and Taylor. Just because this doesn't fit your fanon idea of what a conflict drive should be doesn't mean it's nonsense.

Canary is a special case in that she's a Cauldron cape, so instead of having rewards and punishments tailored to the host she has a chance of getting residual programming from previous cycles, and that she tries not to use her power. If Triumph sat around without using his power (or used it to play baseball as he intended) maybe he would have found himself blasting someone during an argument too, but not many capes do that.

Hell, there was even a moment in canon where Taylor finds out that her power was acting on its own to mask a camera's view of her movements and make her look scary.



Broadly I agree that it makes sense for things like this to go on behind the scenes, and it fits the timeline. But you're misremembering canon again, the PRT weren't ever going after Paige. It was the state of Massachusetts, which is why Dragon sent letters to the judge, DA, and governor that had it out for her. She was initially picked up by police, we only see the PRT involved in her transport to the birdcage.

Edit: One inconsequential inconsistency in the chapter, the judge in canon was named Peter Regan, not Brawen.
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yes the state went after paige technically, but when people say "the PRT" what they really mean is cauldron, and cauldron was manipulating the behind the scenes to ensure she went to the cage as a way to give a precedent against masters they can use, as the public fears would be stoked and legal precedent would affectively allow the PRT to browbeat masters into the protectorate with the very simple threat of caging them if they dont. cauldron wanted masters under their control as a potential plan to actually control all the capes during gold morning that refused to fight, to build up their army, even if they knew most capes would be useless atleast they would be canon fodder
 
WillRobinson, thank you for your objective and polite correction that makes no assumptions whatsoever. Absolutely stellar logic throughout your post, bravo. Obviously there couldn't have been any PRT involvement when holding a dangerous parahuman with special restraints and of course a federal agency that exists to enforce parahuman law and regulations would never have jurisdiction over a human master case. No, they are only called in after the fact to play chauffeur. Anything else is preposterous.

I applaud your thorough use of citations for all your canon arguments, you have left no doubts whatsoever about your interpretation. Nothing but cold, hard facts. Excellent work!
 
TemporaryMeasure said:
Steven Costa looked up from his screen at his beautiful wife, who was washing the dishes. (He'd made dinner, after all. "Hon, come see the newest ridiculous Void theory, it's hilarious!"
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I really hope that this guy took more out of the article than "Void is an idiot" - or that he is not a good representative of other people. Having the general public just shrug and ignore the situation would be extremely depressing.

yacov said:
Also Steven Costa. Wonder who that wife is and how pleased she will be with the article?
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Assembler Maniac said:
Does the name Rebecca Costa-Brown mean anything to ya?
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I hope it's not Alexandria's husband. I do not see her relaxing enough with anyone to marry them and eat dinner with them. Also, she is already living a triple life - she is the leader of the PRT, Alexandria, and is in charge of an enormous multi-universal conspiracy controlling world governments and manipulating events on a global scale. She doesn't have the time for a relationship - with how busy she is she would see her husband once a month and would still not have the time to do the dishes. So I hope it's just a random guy called Costa.
 
Rebecca was never in charge of Cauldron, she's at best a senior member. Her main duty is picking up dying people on other worlds to test vials on, that's basically it.

Of course, that doesn't change the fact that she's super busy already.

I do think that Steven is her husband. You don't get put in charge of an agency (or promoted to a high rank in the military) if you're not married. As weird as it sounds, having a partner and/or family is necessary if you want to be in charge. No idea where that comes from but it's a thing.
 
Riverking said:
Why did you make it so she didn't master him at all? So he heard her say "go fuck yourself" and just decided to mutilate himself on a whim??? What???
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Sadly that is entirely believable. Look up "Nub City" (Vernon, Florida). While I do not think anyone there cut their dick off, a LOT of them cut off other parts of their body for an insurance scheme. I imagine a popular singer would be a lucrative target for a lawsuit (maybe enough to pay a parahuman to regrow a dick while still coming out ahead?).
 
Аlexandria have husband?!
How? When? For what? Body in stop-time (no affection, no erection, no need eat, no need sleep) only breath-limited.
 
Assembler Maniac said:
Does the name Rebecca Costa-Brown mean anything to ya? :)
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So... Their love life must be quite "stone cold", or Becky wouldn't be able to keep her illegal Parahuman status a secret from her partner.
Either that, or he must be a diamond hard paragon of manliness not to notice that his wife's body is as unyielding as an Endbringer's.

This is just one of the many reasons why I believe that Alexandria is single.
 
Daemion said:
I do think that Steven is her husband. You don't get put in charge of an agency (or promoted to a high rank in the military) if you're not married. As weird as it sounds, having a partner and/or family is necessary if you want to be in charge. No idea where that comes from but it's a thing.
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Might be approximately the same logic as to why astronauts need to have families. Keeps them psychologically grounded. Having someone to return to is motivation to not go insane. Mental instability could ruin the mission, after all. Either that or people in power need families so that they can be taken hostage if you go mad with power. Gives you a good reason not to go mad with power. Unless you're a sociopath and just need the family as window dressing. Then all bets are off.
 
Of all of Wildbow's shitty retcon's Canary's is probably the least offensive.

We see several powers in canon increase in potency during high stress situations. So her power managing to apply her master effect by just shouting when confronted by her abusive ex who has somehow gotten past her security seems pretty reasonable. She had to be extremely stressed and her power could have picked up on that.


While it's a stretch it's not a large one.
 
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