Alright then she can wake up with a few Nazi heads in her bed for the next few weeks, whatever.
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The Eldritch One (Celestial Forge)
- Thread starter Optimal Robotics
- Start date
ScottotheUnwise
Verified Crack (fic) Dealer
- Location
- Mulberry, Fl
And the shelf formed inside her warehouse in the room the antimatter is stored in. And melts. Each book is only there for a few minutes, then takes several hours to reform.
In a place that Taylor has been avoiding like the plague.
On a side note, Vicky may find her Tiara supply to be radically reduced. That and every LEFT shoe is gone. As well as all the bra underwire.
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The Stormbringer
Worm Fanfic & Crack Connoisseur
- Location
- Spaaaaace~!
They might just give her a diploma now if they figure that's her goal.
I have a feeling the whole family was heavily involved with Cauldron (like Accord), they buy/get vials in exchange for services/money/connections. They are the family behind the spice company, which is over a hundred years old. They have connections everywhere. I said was, because what happened at the end seems like Cauldron wrote them off, or at least moved support to a different branch of the family.
Also, if I'm right, can the new branch be from South Park? Kenny would be a hilarious end to it. His vial could be the Eden version of Alabaster, but it resets him everyday, and has a stranger component that makes everybody forget about anything it reverts.
Unfortunately you are wrong. A few shards wanted hosts with access to influence and money. And this family just happened to be dysfunctional enough to semi reliably produce trigger events
Interlude: Emily/Carol
Emily Piggot
"Yes?" I answer the phone.
"Carol Dallon is here. Should I let her in?"
"Hell no, let the dumb bitch stew for a little bit. Do I have any pending calls?"
"Well, uh, there is the principal of Arcadia on the line-"
"Perfect, patch him through." A couple seconds later a very stressed sounding man is patched through to me. Well tough luck asshole, we're all stressed today!
"D-d-director Piggot, what a lovely surprise! I thought I would be getting the deputy director like usual."
"He's busy, what can I do for you?"
"Well as I'm sure you know, the issue of Taylor Hebert came up again today. She issued a complaint against another student and we have the video evidence to back it up, but..." I swear to God, the stupidity of bureaucrats.
"Sir, do you happen to know what happened to the last principal who screwed over Taylor Hebert when she was the victim?"
"No?"
"She's in jail awaiting trial on multiple felonies. Including bribery, child endangerment, and improper disposal of toxic waste."
"Uhh,"
"You see Taylor seems to have a habit of making PR shit bombs that explode all over, and at the slightest provocation. I got hit, Shadow Stalker" the fucking psychopath. "Got hit, Winslow got hit, the McCormicks got hit, this 'newscasting' asshole got hit, and New Wave is about to be hit. I would label her a Thinker if I didn't know what her power actually is. And all this is secondary to the violence she can achieve under her own power.
"Listen. Has she ever shown any indication of being anything other than the shy little bookworm all your other reports paint her as?"
"Uh, no."
"Then I would say protect yourself, and your school, by following the letter of the law here."
"Yes ma'am!" And he hangs up. Thank God. For a second there I was afraid he was about to expel her over that stupid bounty in the name of protecting the students. I didn't even have to tell him the real reason I wanted her still in school. Which is to lock down a ridiculously versatile mover for seven hours every single school day. And who knows, she might actually get properly socialized in her time there! Weirder things have happened. Like Assault marrying Battery.
Another call comes in not ten seconds after that. This time from Deputy Director Rennick. I answer.
"Good news?"
"I'm afraid not. We've been denied WDGD access and nobody is coming to reinforce."
"What! What the fuck are they thinking!? This asshole is a national threat! Now he finally overextends and we have a chance to nail him to the fucking wall and they don't wanna go for it?!"
"I don't even know anymore Emily." He wearily sighs.
"...We're being sabotaged." I growl out.
"Possibly. I'm going to put out some more fires that have undoubtedly popped up."
"Make sure Armsmaster makes some more air gapped copies of those recordings. That dickhead already deleted the decoys on our servers."
"Will do." Click. I call up my secretary.
"Send Carol in."
Carol Dallon
"The Director will see you now." About time too. A standard power play to make me wait, but never one that stops being annoying. I walk through the door and stand in front of the Director's desk.
"Carol Dallon. Take a seat, we have something to discuss." I pointedly remain standing and look at the failure of a woman in front of me. Pallid skin and failing kidneys. She should've either retired long ago, or called on Amy to heal her by now.
"Be like that then. Me, and everybody with a brain really, noticed you sent out a statement suspiciously synchronized with the announcement made by The Instigator. Condemning the actions made by Taylor Hebert. Tell me, have you been in contact with the man himself?"
"I don't see how that's any business of yours."
"Believe me I wish it wasn't. The man is a politically motivated worm and we finally caught him dead to rights in a lie. Here let me give you some reading material." As she hands me over a dossier. "We can't prove it in a court of law, but we've noticed a pattern of behavior from him. He shows up in town, starts pushing a narrative, usually a lot more subtly than this, and opinion starts turning against the PRT. In about half of such cases he starts coordinating with a local team or independent, and their star starts to rise. Then they falter or get involved in some controversy. And lo and behold, the Elite swoops in, totally coincidentally to pick up the pieces.
"The Nazis are bad enough Carol, I'd rather not have another out of town villain team put down roots in this city." I tighten my grip on the folder. I'm going to fucking eviscerate the man once I find him.
"Was that everything?"
"Yes. Unless you had something to share that would make the investigation into The Instigator go any smoother."
"No I don't think I do. What are you going to be doing about the Undersiders? They're still a villain group."
"What about the Undersiders? Aside from the recent unpleasantness, the only thing they've ever done is knock over gang establishments. The only reason they aren't a vigilante group is because of previous classifications. Nobody cares!"
"I see. I think I'll be leaving now." She makes no moves to stop me. Good. That's only led to shouting matches in the past. I will, of course, have to review the evidence she presented me, but I have no reason to doubt it. Not after that journalistic mousetrap that put all of New Wave in a tight spot. It is, of course, going to be just the thing to force me into opposing the Instigator. Entirely truthful as well. I hate that Piggot has such a good read on me.
I make it to the parking lot when my phone rings.
"Hello Carol."
"Yes? Who is this?"
"This is Taylor, and I believe your daughter just tried to have me arrested this morning." Ice runs through my veins.
"How did you get this number."
"Public directories. You would be absolutely floored to find out how much information is just available to those who know how to look."
"And what the hell do you want?"
"I want you to tell me why I shouldn't press kidnapping charges on your daughter." Shit. We didn't know it was a setup at the time, but that's not something a jury might care about with all the public outcry surrounding Taylor here.
"You wouldn't. You just got cleared of a murder charge, you wouldn't jump straight to blackmail."
"I find I don't really give a shit about the legality of a situation when a rich asshole is using it as a shield from the consequences of their own actions. You see I was reading a legal ethics book a few days ago. It turns out it's a disbarrable offense to threaten a lawsuit, harass, or otherwise try to ruin somebody's life in retaliation for reporting a crime."
"Miss Hebert, blackmail is when you don't report a crime in exchange for something. This is still illegal." And really stupid to boot.
"Yeah, I'm not talking about you. One of your coworkers, a Mr. Alan Barnes, threatened this the last time I tried reporting his daughter for stealing my shit. I want him gone from your firm in a week's time."
"Taylor I can't do that. He's under contract, he's... I don't have that power." I may be a named partner, but he's a partner and a divorce attorney. He's a sizable chunk of our income all on our own. Nobody will go for it.
"Ah, there is. 'Our goal being to spark a New Wave of accountability and moral standing amongst all the heroes in this country.' I guess I know where all that idealism and optimism ends. Right when it gets difficult for you personally. A hypocrite like all the others." That bitch! How dare she use our unmasking speech against me! Fleur fucking died for that!! I feel a sparking on my hands. I force myself to calm down before I destroy my phone.
"You forget I came prepared for a little bit of inconvenient moral flexibility. Either your daughter pays for the crime she committed, probably on your orders, or the shit bag lawyer who threatened and coerced a formerly defenseless little girl gets fired. Your choice." My guts twist at the ultimatum. Despite my hard line on Taylor's crimes I was aware of the Shadow Stalker situation. Kind of hard not to be with that horrible video out there. I remember thinking that the whole story was either far worse or overblown compared to what was shown. This morning I thought it was overblown, now I'm thinking it's far worse.
"I'm going to need a majority partner vote to oust him. And they're going to need more than 'trust me bro' as a source for this. The reality of the situation will not conform to what you want it to be just because you're angry about it."
"Then pull his email history. I can guarantee you'll find something you can take to the bar association." And she hangs up. Well shit. I guess I can send our tech support to go after that, but do I think they'll find anything? Let's see, what can I remember about the man in question? I remember him bragging to me he vouched for Shadow Stalker's character a few times. Well son of a bitch.
My phone rings again. I answer.
"Hello Carol this is Principal Danvers."
"Yes?"
"Well, there's no easy way to say this, but..."
"Out with it man."
"We're going to have to expel your daughter."
AN: again guys I'm not a lawyer. I don't know if that's a disbarrable offense or not.
Also Taylor can't guarantee shit, she's just talking out her ass at the end there.
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- Location
- Hot Springs
And Taylor at this rate will become known as "The SKUNKbomb"!!!
The fuck?!?? Why would any shard care about money. They are literally too stupid to care. Shards are basically bio computers with intelligence at the same level as a dumb dog on the best days.
Though nice job on this latest chapter. I wonder if Calvert is making this easier for this out of town we idiot.
Though nice job on this latest chapter. I wonder if Calvert is making this easier for this out of town we idiot.
money = conflict. more money = more conflict.
Mo money, mo problems!
This story is damn fun! Carol is going to have a progressively worse day and Taylor over here with some great takes. Love that it was presented as a choice between two tough options rather than just one demand.
Also decent argument for making sure Taylor stays in School particularly since she mostly does stuff Directly with the undersiders or is reacting to some brand of parahuman shennanigans targeting her specificly which means keeping to herself at school and not causing problems deliberately while there
Especially since she's a Brute Mover with acid Striker bullshit and the bigger part of her Escalations along with the Undersiders involves people pulling unwritten rules Violations on someone who is one of those capes that exemplifies why they Exist in the first place because that game can get very deadly for those who Try
Especially since she's a Brute Mover with acid Striker bullshit and the bigger part of her Escalations along with the Undersiders involves people pulling unwritten rules Violations on someone who is one of those capes that exemplifies why they Exist in the first place because that game can get very deadly for those who Try
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- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Thirty years of variance in regards to the law. It may very well be at least in this state.
Damn, go Taylor!
I did not see GG's expulsion coming. On second thought, that describes a lot of the plotlines of this story - quite original. I feel like a lot of Worm fics, especially Celestial Forge-type ones, tend to devolve into power trips with no actual plot, but this avoids a lot of those pitfalls. I find it refreshing that Taylor doesn't have this instant, perfect understanding of her power and makes a lot of mistakes along the way.
I did not see GG's expulsion coming. On second thought, that describes a lot of the plotlines of this story - quite original. I feel like a lot of Worm fics, especially Celestial Forge-type ones, tend to devolve into power trips with no actual plot, but this avoids a lot of those pitfalls. I find it refreshing that Taylor doesn't have this instant, perfect understanding of her power and makes a lot of mistakes along the way.
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ExaltedNekoKun
Exalted Glorious Feline Light Source!
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him/Lord/Fuzzball
Why do people think Taylor is some balloon or passed out drunk? Seriously, Emily seems to understand that nothing amusing or benign will happen when poking this Taylor with a sharp stick. She's a Chimera of Honey Badger, Wolverine and Dragon, and the stick is epoxied to a neon sign spelling out 'Bad Idea' in bright, colorful and glowy cursive, her side a bullseye with 'Find Out' encircling the outer ring written by a Magnum Sharpie.
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Especially since trying to actually deal with a Mover brute that trying to conventionaly harm or contain in Containment foam Doesn't really work at all
Also Emily is definitely pissed that she is not getting the Support needed to deal with the National Organizational threat that is The Instigator
Also Emily is definitely pissed that she is not getting the Support needed to deal with the National Organizational threat that is The Instigator
- Location
- Море песка, солнце огня и множество злых сарацин
I forgot, was it in this story that Taylor got a perk that hid most of her powers from Thinkers?
If so, this could be the effect of people relying too much on their Thinker powers to make the decisions, and as a consequence perceiving it as "this random uppity girl apparently somehow believes she can stand up to us, let's prove her wrong".
(...and also Cauldron not noticing her as a major factor in their independence experiment for Brockton Bay, which probably explains a lot of the sabotage)
EDIT: doesn't explain Carol, but honestly that part could just be that Carol is generally Like That.
- Location
- Auckland, NZ
There's a problem with that:
Article said:
I suspect that The Instigator is going to be dealt with - and which ever branch of the Elite that he works for as well.
Most of the 'conduct' rules (It naturally varies by State) are fairly broad. So its less a matter of "Does this violate ethics" as much as "Does this violate ethics badly enough for somebody important to care".
For example a Lawyer has a "Duty to maintain the integrity of the profession". Exactly how much of an ambulance chaser do you have to be to cross that line? Where does making an overblown claim to help your ability to negotiate a settlement cross from valid negotiating tactic (you always start by asking for more than you expect!) to harassing the opposition?
Its a lot less 'you can not do this' and more 'you've made enough of us look bad we're involved now.'
There are specific rules, like a Lawyer can't lie to the Court.
In this case though Alan Barnes would likely run up against the fact that threatening a lawsuit does constitute a crime if its used as a means of blackmail or extortion "do this or I do this".
Proving it was meant as blackmail as motive rather than the straightforward warning of 'I could bring legal action against you if you continue' might be a trick, but it a thing.
Committing a felony is totally disbar-able, though. Some states automatically disbar for it, some require a hearing first.
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
Yeah. Alan claiming ignorance about his 'client' Sophia's true character just makes him look incompetent instead of working to actively cover up criminal acts.
The Bar would deal with him just out of common sense, especially if Carol's firm drops him like a rod of Cobalt-60.
