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The Taste of Peaches (Worm AU)

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I feel like we're getting a little off topic with the Wildbow bashing and Trailblazer discussion y'all.
 
Well, back on the topic of the story, I can't help but wonder if we'll see any of the myriad Kitsune variants pop up. And when I say Myriad, I mean it, because there is a lot of different kinds of Kitsune, from the Tenko and Zenko(who were typically benevolent and were often direct servants of Inari) to the Nogitsune and Chiko(who were more earthly in nature and ranged from mischievous to malevolent), all the way to the Kuda-Gitsune(a bizarre little creature, being a rat-sized fox who typically aided Sorcerers and frequently were housed in bamboo pipes, hence the name Kuda-Gitsune, which means "Pipe Fox)).
 
I'm personally wondering what happens to the information the shards are returning to the entities. This can't be the first time they've run across gods.
 
Lisa and Sophia in particular.

Lisa because there's a personality showing up in her shard (FLUFFY!) and self-awareness from a shard is always an interesting thing from a rebellion against the entities perspective. Sophia because the meld was very much an Event, and happened right after she had become conscious of how her power was shaping her personality.

If the entities have been driven off by Gods before, then they'd have quite a bit of data... And it makes you wonder: in all the future simulations they ran when both were alive and planning, did they see the return of the gods? If so, what was their end game and it's it still in play with Eden dead? If not, what caused the future to change such that they are returning?
 
Glau said:
If the entities have been driven off by Gods before, then they'd have quite a bit of data... And it makes you wonder: in all the future simulations they ran when both were alive and planning, did they see the return of the gods? If so, what was their end game and it's it still in play with Eden dead? If not, what caused the future to change such that they are returning?
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Well these specific entities, the Warrior and Thinker, would probably not be looking for the return of the gods on earth. Because they weren't the one driven off. That was another, probably Abadon. If they've had problems in the past though they may periodically check for such things. If anything I think that their strategy for dealing with gods would be to avoid dealing with via avoidance. Just like they do with sufficiently advanced societies. Entities wipe life if they think a society could grow to be a potential threat, quarantine if they don't think that would work, and avoid entirely if the society is an actual threat. Gods would probably fall under the third category.
 
Iridesce said:
Gods would probably fall under the third category.
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Pretty much what I've been thinking too. I think that it really depends on how encompassing the whole "shards cannot see or understand divinity" thing they seem to have going on. Regardless of if the entities are using predictive engines or genuine future-sight shenanigans, it may be possible that that effect may be enough where their precursor analysis just saw a regular host world with no gods, past present or future, and it is only when Taylor first showed up after eating the Peach, and Thinkers started trying to look at her, that they got their first clue that they have an OOCP in their midst.
 
X9Killbot said:
To be fair that is a lot easier for a vigilante to do than a governmental entity. Vigilantes don't need to follow the 4th Amendment, they don't need warrants, they don't need to follow the process. And it is also a LOT harder to dismantle a gang and keep it dismantled without it rising up again or keeping another from taking its place (We don't want a repeat of The Boston Games. Plus, the normal gang members ate the BBPD's job not the PRT's job. Most make it seem easy but that's also because they give Taylor a REALLY strong power that the makes it easy for her. I love this quote from a Worm Reddit Post
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Note that "our requests for additional support are always denied. Chief Director must hate us or something." is bad fanon. The BB Protectorate was actually on the large size for a city that size. The 'Parahuman Feudalism' experiment consisted of Cauldron not sending Contessa to put a bullet in Coil's head. The whole point was that they had been actively propping up the Western world (by, e.g. assassinating any supervillain that was about to successfully take over their city), but they were reaching the limits of what they could do; they thus withdrew their extraordinary assistance from BB in order to get a preview of what would shortly be happening everywhere and thus be better prepared for it.
 
Personally I was thinking the entities might absorb gods as new shards if they can.
 
Glau said:
If the entities have been driven off by Gods before, then they'd have quite a bit of data... And it makes you wonder: in all the future simulations they ran when both were alive and planning, did they see the return of the gods? If so, what was their end game and it's it still in play with Eden dead? If not, what caused the future to change such that they are returning?
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In all likelihood, this is the first time a Warrior & Thinker pair arrived on Earth. The one known as Abaddon had arrived, and got kicked off the planet. But when it shared info with The Thinker, that entity likely assumed there were no 'anomalies' left. Assuming it was ever told about them. And the older cycles of gods arising and getting wiped out while ending a Major Threat from Beyond may not have dealt with these Entities either.
 
It was rather explicitly implied that an Entity was responsible for Ragnarok.
Grounders10 said:
"It was here we made our last stand." Poseidon said, "Against a foe one hundred years ago. It came from beyond the stars and attempted to spread its corrupt influence through all the worlds under our protection."

Thor nodded. "Aye. We saw it off. It shan't return for at least a thousand years, but it cost us everything." Apparently noticing her horrified look he added, "This is not unusual for gods. Ragnarok, of a sort, comes around every few thousand years. That era's gods see it off and everything continues apace. Why I think we lasted longer than most have."
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Context clues imply that Abaddon was the culprit.
 
THIS time Abaddon was the cause of Ragnorok. But it's also been stated that Ragnorok is a cycle, with a new set of gods cropping up every few hundred years or so, then the gods getting wiped out fighting off some threat, only for a new generation of gods to crop up with enough time to get a handle on their abilities before the next cataclysmic threat from beyond. The problem this time being that the next Threat from Beyond came before the next crop of gods and goddesses could arise, let alone get a handle on their abilities.
 
FaerieKnight79 said:
THIS time Abaddon was the cause of Ragnorok. But it's also been stated that Ragnorok is a cycle, with a new set of gods cropping up every few hundred years or so, then the gods getting wiped out fighting off some threat, only for a new generation of gods to crop up with enough time to get a handle on their abilities before the next cataclysmic threat from beyond. The problem this time being that the next Threat from Beyond came before the next crop of gods and goddesses could arise, let alone get a handle on their abilities.
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Specifically,
Grounders10 said:
"This is not unusual for gods. Ragnarok, of a sort, comes around every few thousand years. That era's gods see it off and everything continues apace.
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And this time, two Ragnarok-tier threats came a mere 70 years after the previous one was defeated. Knowing that was coming is why Inari decided to break tradition and directly mentor the first of the new generation.

And we know that because Magical Spirit Guide Inari-chan told Taylor and Danny. So Taylor knows that one of them is dead and the other still active, but not who or where.
 
I'd quibble that it was unlikely to be abbadon, because the other entities would have known not to follow it's originating path; that way lies only systems that have already been predated on. Probably a fourth, unrelated.

Unless this was a sneaky assassination plot by abbadon all along? Shank the thinker with the high-end future sight shard, have the gods kill the weakened warrior. It's a neat means/opportunity confluence, thinking about motive.
 
TempestK said:
Except Bakuda's ego meant that she didn't even consider that a possibility. Instead Wildbow had all of the people she implanted completely cowed. It's basically the Loki at the gala scene from Avengers where he screams at people to kneel, except that his rather dim view of humanity meant that no one was willing to stand. Not some old man who knew his life was over anyway, not a mother with a child to save, not a single normal person is given any actual influence or impact in the entirety of the whole web serial.
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At the risk of invoking Godwin's Law, I wish to point to the Holocaust with the death camps.
Why didn't the prisoners rise up when it was obvious they were going to the gas chambers and the ovens?
The Kharmer Rogue I know less about with the Killing Fields of Cambodia, but IIRC supposedly a similar phenomenon occurred with the people being told to dig their own graves, then somebody walking down the line and shooting them with no resistance.
Glau said:
Personally I was thinking the entities might absorb gods as new shards if they can.
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Something similar was done in Queen of Blood, where the Endbringers were corrupted and enslaved gods from the previous world the entities destroyed.
forums.spacebattles.com

Queen of Blood (Worm/Castlevania) (Complete)

Deleted Scenes:Here. Available for download! Cover pic (I suck at art, so I made it in Skyrim...
forums.spacebattles.com forums.spacebattles.com
 
macdjord said:
"our requests for additional support are always denied. Chief Director must hate us or something." is bad fanon
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Oh yeah, I know.
TempestK said:
Because there they were heavily outnumbered, starved, beaten and had multiple machine guns covering them. Situation wasn't exactly the same.
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I would say it's similar enough. There is a mystique around capes and their capabilities to the common man. She also probably, at first, put in a couple bombs threatened them to comply but said she would keep them alive if they served her and used them to recruit more and more in a continuing cycle.
 
X9Killbot said:
TempestK said:
Because there they were heavily outnumbered, starved, beaten and had multiple machine guns covering them. Situation wasn't exactly the same.
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I would say it's similar enough. There is a mystique around capes and their capabilities to the common man. She also probably, at first, put in a couple bombs threatened them to comply but said she would keep them alive if they served her and used them to recruit more and more in a continuing cycle.
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Also the ABB probably had guns covering them. Maybe only automatic rifles instead of light machine guns, but still guns.
Also the prisoners in the death camps were not "heavily outnumbered", there were a lot of guards, but I think the prisoners outnumbered the guards by a minimum of ten to one.
Same with the ABB. My point on the lack of resistance is that a bunch of armed guards against unarmed prisoners lets them get away with a lot of things where objectively if the prisoners rose up as one they could overwhelm the guards at the cost of some of their lives. However, nobody wants to be the casualty, and there WOULD be significant casualties.

I know that the phenomenon was explained better in some book I had to go over for Illinois' mandatory holocaust education back in 8th grade or high school, but that was over 30 years ago. If I could remember the proper term I'd have cited it instead.
 
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