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Vespa

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Many a butterfly wing has flapped in this variant of the Worm universe. Who can say what else may be different?
 
Daemion said:
That seems strange to me, since Kyushu sank in November 1999 and now we're in February or March (?) 2011. That would give Kenta only ~4 months to have his Yangban encounters and his West Coast adventures, which seems like an extremely rushed itinerary compared to the multiple years he had in canon. By the start of Worm, Lung had been in BB only for about 2.5 years.
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Point of fact, according to the timeline Lung came to Brockton Bay in September of 2008. So the ABB is fairly new as a gang. The Archer Bridge Merchants I think are suppose to have been around in one form or another for a while though.
 
I think... it is very brave that this story pushes the date of the BB blockage back from the more usual about a decade to half that again. The interrelationships... are complex. Whether there was any covert parahuman involvements in the riots/scuttling, tricky.

We can suspect any parahumans in BB at the time would be unlikely to (just) ignore them?

Whatever, Dirty Deeds Were Done.
 
That's not suspected either. Mostly because the HOUS is too identifiable as a Giant Asian Hornet. I think the going theory might currently be "para-hornet".

EDIT:
Really, nobody other then Taylor and her dad know what's going on. But "Bio-tinker" has tentatively been ruled out due to the HOUS that rescued Vista being too easy to identify it's species.
 
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It seems that there have already been suggestions about the presence of biotinker. I'm not sure.
 
Okay, you convinced me. Based on the above and in accordance with the rules of this forum and banal erudition. From now on, point 4 of my post from 18:01 date 01.03.2025. I am stating in the following edition - 4) The supposed biotinker, probably responsible for the appearance of enlarged insects, may have changed its location to LA. But this is not certain.
The corrected one is to be believed
 
PossiblyEnos said:
Void Cowboy is the national PRT spokesperson
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Obviously! But, only informally.

Vote: Void Cowboy for Official National PRT Spokesperson - Today!

(Poll to be held in a special thread on PHO, of course.)

((Please note: alien demonic lizards may not vote, due to being 'alien', of course. 'Winged One' will be tallying the vote, and accepting other candidates, as well as announcing the final result.))
 
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I can't help but imagine, while Taylor is positively frolicking in her slice of life anime.

We cut to a somber scene in the Cauldron Situation Room. Red klaxon lights strobing non-stop, klaxon horns mercifully disabled after blaring for too long.

Members of Cauldron eerily silently looking over a map of the world, red splotches littered with emergency icons slowly, inexorably spreading across the East Coast. New icons popping up in New York and LA.

"By God, It's broken containment.."

"The storm we sent its way was always a long shot, we knew even Contessa's precognitive abilities were becoming unreliable within the Infestation Zones."

"We're going to have to extract Rebbeca's double from New York Post-haste, get her back to DC before we lose New York. We're going to lose the ability to Door unobserved city-wide within 48 hours and can't afford not being able to switch Rebecca in and out in a timely matter."

"Keith, you'll be our hands and feet within the Infestation Zone. We'll keep an eye out with Clairvoyant, but you know your civilian identity is essentially shot with this. We'll keep your husband safe in the meantime. You recall the worst-case precog results we got from Watchdog, the ones we got after they stopped screaming. So tread lightly, and godspeed".

----

Cut back to Taylor's slice of life,

Taylor: "LA feels so different huh. All crime here should be crushed in maaaybe 40 minutes tops? Ooh, a new exotic pets shop just came in to range. I'll have to go purchase some new friends!"

Danny: "You sure you don't need the toilet? We'll be coming in for the landing any moment now."

Taylor: "That's alright, Dad"
 
Kinsfire said:
And with the blocking being a Cauldron plot (it pretty much has to be, because only they are capable of doing a conspiracy where no one talks about stuff where others can heat), I guarantee that RCB blackmailed people to ensure that it paid out fast and that there was no attempt to clear things. They needed the city shut down, and now people are getting in the way of that! (She'll probably try to find out who is ruining their experiment and see if she can 'talk to them'. (Then go and clean the bloody viscera off her costume from the 'conversation'.)
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The problem now is that their favorite for their 'experiment' (which was so one sided it was not even funny) got completely taken off the board by Taylor, and they don't have a replacement.

As said by others, Africa already shows how parahuman controlled societies look like, in order to make it stick they would have to cut off ALL outside govt support, AFTER a massive Endbringer attack (Brockton Bay, we're looking at you).

The smart thing (heh) for Cauldron to do is cut it's loses in BB and let everything get blamed on Coil. In fact, "It was a Coil Plot" is going to overtake "It was a Ziz Plot" in BB. 🤪
 
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PossiblyEnos said:
They know. Their experiment was how to AVOID another Africa when they are unable to run interference any longer.
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And the answer is... they can't.

The Triumvirate would have to get off their butts (looking at Eidolon) and do hunter-killer sweeps against all heavy hitter villain capes and not play patty cake with them. And make it semi-publically known that all high combat level villain capes that do not assist with Endbringer fights will have lethal force authorized against them. Otherwise they get one chance to surrender or join the Protectorate 'Auxiliary' and be on standby for Endbringer fights (a nicer version of the Birdcage).
 
mp3.1415player said:
Wishing she'd thought to pick up some good underwater action cameras, she made a note to do that as soon as possible, then panned her phone around, videoing the scene. Unfortunately it wasn't sufficiently waterproof to risk using in the lake itself, so she'd have to wait to get good footage there, but this was still going to make her dad pleased.

Putting the phone away in the waterproof case she'd brought, which went back into her backpack, she walked over to inspect the ancient stone construction sticking out into the incredibly clear water of the lake. It was so clear she could see the bottom from here in her self-generated light, although she could tell from the creatures down there the water was over a hundred feet deep.
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There are transparent and quite waterproof phone cases that looks like transparent bag for the phone, that allow for touch pass-through (somehow). The water-proofing of the entrance is done by rolling it a few times. Example: Baseus Let's Go Slip.

mp3.1415player said:
It lifted its head and front section of body then curled into a sort of horizontal question mark shape, opened the tripartite jaws, and then started rotating its head back and forth so fast it was just a blur.

"Jesus," her dad breathed, staring. The worm jabbed its head at the concrete and there was a screeching sound like chalk on a chalkboard only much louder, making even Taylor wince, and her dad clap his hands over his ears. Sparks and dust flew up and the worm rapidly started boring into the concrete, sufficiently rapidly that within a minute the head was entirely under the surface. The noise had reduced dramatically and was more of a crunching rumble at this point, and as it drilled deeper, the sound went lower in pitch.
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I don't think there is any biological high speed and high torque / high force solutions, but I might be mistaken. It's either high speed, high torque, or slow loading for high speed and high force release (pistol mantis, grasshopper jump, snapping fingers), but the loading is not that fast.

Why not use chemistry, or slow crushing force?

mp3.1415player said:
"All we need to find is one made out of insects and you'll have something suitable too," her friend giggled, feeling the coat.

"I'm not entirely sure insect chitin makes very good clothing," Taylor replied dubiously. "Silk would work though."

"A silk coat is a bit high end for me," Lucy laughed.
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I have once, long time ago, found off-white raw silk (I think) coat, that for some reason was quite cheap (not more expensive that ordinary suit / jacket). I have unfortunately since outgrew it...
 
PossiblyEnos said:
They know. Their experiment was how to AVOID another Africa when they are unable to run interference any longer.
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To avoid another Africa, the solution is not "parahumans run the world". It's "Functional Law, Order, and GOVERNMENT exists". That is what Africa demonstrated, and which Cauldron didn't want to believe. Thus they picked a city to run their idiotic and self sabotaged "experiment" in.

EDIT:
Yes, that does mean removing such players as Nilbog, the Machine Army, Teacher, and S9 from the board permanently. It would also require allowing sensible Rules of Engagement for law enforcement and telling Contessa to stop preventing normals from being effective vs parahumans via firearms. How many of those African parahuman warlords would have been a non-issue if Contessa's moronic "prevent normal people from killing parahumans" path wasn't being ran?

EDIT 2:
It would also require Cauldron to stop undermining legitimate governments and law enforcement.
 
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mp3.1415player said:
"Jesus would need more than a raft to survive that," Dauntless commented, looking pale.
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Nope! He's the only one (barring Leviathan, I suppose) who wouldn't!

mp3.1415player said:
"Suddenly I don't have any questions about how that fucking ship disappeared so thoroughly," Assault remarked, his normal slight smile entirely missing. "Holy crap, that was the most horrifying thing I think I've ever seen in my life."
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...Has he ever been to an Endbringer fight? Because it might well rank second only to that. But not surpass.

mp3.1415player said:
Emily slowly smiled, feeling that the day was looking up already. Costa-Brown would probably bitch about it, she was a massive pain in the ass about such things, but by then those two Nazi bastards would be someone else's problem. She could live with that.
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"You aren't allowed to be competent; we're the PRT for goodness sakes!"

"What?"

"Worse than that! You're not just PRT, you're Parahuman Feudalism Experiment - you can't actually put criminals away permanently! It's not done! This is the United States of America, for goodness sake!"

"...With all due respect, Director Costa-Brown, I think we have very different ideas about what comprises the United States of America."

"Crap. My mike was on wasn't it? Contessa-magic-plot-device, bail me out please!"

A note comes through a portal: "No."

mp3.1415player said:
"Please don't infest LA with abominations of nature," he begged.
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Director Costa-Brown: "Double crap."
 
Robinton said:
"You aren't allowed to be competent; we're the PRT for goodness sakes!"

"What?"

"Worse than that! You're not just PRT, you're Parahuman Feudalism Experiment - you can't actually put criminals away permanently! It's not done! This is the United States of America, for goodness sake!"

"...With all due respect, Director Costa-Brown, I think we have very different ideas about what comprises the United States of America."

"Crap. My mike was on wasn't it? Contessa-magic-plot-device, bail me out please!"

A note comes through a portal: "No."
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And to Costa-Brown's horror, the video call was recorded as is standard practice. She also fails to notice the webcam was on (and recording) and call started while she changed out her Alexandria identity due to the monitor being turned off. The resulting congressional inquest ends up revealing Cauldron's existence and all their crimes across multiple Earths. Legend gets off with merely a (large) fine due to his "friends" keeping him in the dark about all the Crimes Against Humanity going on.
 
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