BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Reminds me of Phalanx from Demon Souls.
Stab. Stab. Stab.
Good times.
What Doesn't Die, Rots [Worm/Dark Souls Gradual Fusion AU]
- Thread starter unsanity
- Start date
-
- Tags
- dark souls worm
Stab. Stab. Stab.
Good times.
- Location
- USA
So, could the impending end of all life on Bet still be stopped by a strategic nuke at this point? Or is it too late for that already?
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Far far faaaar to late for that my good forumite.
Cause QA would still exist to fuck around, presumably.
- Location
- Gensokyo
Which remimds me of The Penetrator from Demon Souls.
Penetrate. Penetrate. Penetrate.
Just dangerous enough to be exciting.
...
...
...
...
...
I'm not apologizing.
unsanity
Fractionally Assembled
I used to have a build where I'd put Sticky White Stuff on my Penetrating Sword and stab people from behind.
I assume everyone I met was satisfied with the encounter, because they never wanted to go another round.
- Location
- Gensokyo
I can imagine so. If only the Ceaseless Discharge could join in for extra fun but he is in a different game. What a shame.
Or better yet. Play as the Ceaseless Discharge with the Build you described. But such is not possible.
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unsanity
Fractionally Assembled
I have good news and bad news for everybody. The bad news is, I have another major test coming up on Monday and can't afford to not study, so don't expect any chapters until after then. The good news is, I spent all of tonight planning out the rest of this arc, so the next three chapters should be pretty decent. I hope. Depends on how well I can pull off a major fight scene, really.
I'll see you all again on Monday!
I'll see you all again on Monday!
unsanity
Fractionally Assembled
[A/N: As an apology for what is likely going to be three days until the next chapter (and right when things were just about to get interesting), here's a spoiler-free overview of Taylor's power, straight from my backstory notes. This document describes Taylor's power as QA intended it to be when she created it, which actually has very little to do with anything in the story, truth be told. Hence why it's spoiler-free.]
=====
Power Description: Proxy
When QA designed Taylor's power, she'd meant for it to act as a cascading feedback loop; the idea was that Taylor would use her active power to send out her 'proxies' into an area, which would gradually saturate a location by replicating in-field, where she could then use her active power to guide the direction of their growth and claim more ground, ad nauseum. The 'twist' here was that the proxies imitated humans, which QA anticipated would play merry hell on Manton limits and give Taylor a well-defined role in any team as a Shaker/Trump with a side order of Master (since Taylor's power had to work on humans in order to affect the proxies in the first place).
Active Power: Project
Taylor's active power, that being the one she has direct control of, is her Master power. She is able to send any one emotional state, along with the context behind it, to another person. Doing this ends that emotion on her and brutally severs the connections it had; as a consequence, it becomes harder for her to re-experience that same emotion in that same context. On the receiver's end, the included context makes the foreign emotion seem like a natural, rational outgrowth of the situation, especially if they happen at the same time.
Taylor is, of course, leery of using this even when she doesn't know about the side effects on herself, and generally restricts its use to her school life (with a few exceptions). The effectiveness of this ability to straighten up her school has lead to her being even more distrustful of authority than she would be in canon, seeing almost anyone in power as being outright incompetent and lazy until proven otherwise, and is quick to "encourage" them if she thinks it's necessary.
Passive Power: Proxy
The intended centerpiece of Taylor's power, designed from data drawn from a number of nearby capes during her trigger event. Unfortunately, Taylor has had nothing but bad experiences with it, and by and large refuses to use it unless she absolutely has to. As a result, QA gradually reduced the maximum number of proxies Taylor could retain at any one time until "absolutely has to" hit a frequency QA was willing to tolerate. Taylor produces one new proxy every three hours, and each one will split into two on its own every three days. She continues to produce them after reaching her cap, but the excess is automatically vented.
Taylor's proxies are partially tangible and have mass, sharing properties with Grue's darkness and Shadow Stalker's Breaker state. Standing inside a large cluster of them is not unlike being underwater, except slightly more breathable. They are nigh-indestructible and will continue to exist in an area, but high-energy reactions like fire and electricity repels them. This weakness is actually intentional, and is the mechanism behind her secondary power.
They imitate a human mind well enough to fool shards (as was their intended design), and are capable of slow, self-directed flight.
Secondary Power: Seal
This is one of those 'required secondary powers' that are all-important, but nobody really thinks about when designing powers. Put simply, Taylor has a power to automatically ignore the mental states of other humans. It's extremely specific, and by and large its main use is to let her completely disregard what would effectively be numerous human minds inside her at any given time. On the other hand, this is also why she can't sense other people with her active power, meaning she doesn't have any kind of Thinker rating. This is also the power QA tweaks when adjusting how many proxies Taylor can retain at a time.
-
Trigger Event: Shaker/Trump (primary), Master (secondary)
During Taylor's trigger event, several members of both the Wards and the Undersiders were present and fighting, and QA ended up requesting data from Grue's, Gallant's, Shadow Stalker's, and Regent's shards, resulting in a very strong indirect Trump element (the Manton fuckery). This data was used to design the so-called "proxies" Taylor's power is built around, with Shadow Stalker's and Grue's powers leading to their physical properties while Gallant's and Regent's formed the basis of their mental framework. All things considered, there was very little actual input from QA herself in all this, though her own preferences still show through strongly in the overall design. (Namely, vast quantities of minions and group directing.)
The primary Shaker component of Taylor's power stems from the root of her trigger event being environmental in nature: Taylor was drowning in the freezing cold waters of the Bay at the time. There was still a Master factor involved due to her social isolation leading up to it, but the environmental factor was a lot more pertinent than with the locker. Since none of the nearby capes were attacking her directly, Taylor's Trump elements do not directly target other powers, and are instead linked to her environmental control.
Incidentally, Taylor's power here is not a second trigger, though she isn't going to second trigger in this fic.
=====
[A/N: There used to be an additional power mentioned in the trigger section, but I removed it. Upon further consideration, it didn't add anything to the fic overall, and actually kinda took away from it.]
=====
Power Description: Proxy
When QA designed Taylor's power, she'd meant for it to act as a cascading feedback loop; the idea was that Taylor would use her active power to send out her 'proxies' into an area, which would gradually saturate a location by replicating in-field, where she could then use her active power to guide the direction of their growth and claim more ground, ad nauseum. The 'twist' here was that the proxies imitated humans, which QA anticipated would play merry hell on Manton limits and give Taylor a well-defined role in any team as a Shaker/Trump with a side order of Master (since Taylor's power had to work on humans in order to affect the proxies in the first place).
Active Power: Project
Taylor's active power, that being the one she has direct control of, is her Master power. She is able to send any one emotional state, along with the context behind it, to another person. Doing this ends that emotion on her and brutally severs the connections it had; as a consequence, it becomes harder for her to re-experience that same emotion in that same context. On the receiver's end, the included context makes the foreign emotion seem like a natural, rational outgrowth of the situation, especially if they happen at the same time.
Taylor is, of course, leery of using this even when she doesn't know about the side effects on herself, and generally restricts its use to her school life (with a few exceptions). The effectiveness of this ability to straighten up her school has lead to her being even more distrustful of authority than she would be in canon, seeing almost anyone in power as being outright incompetent and lazy until proven otherwise, and is quick to "encourage" them if she thinks it's necessary.
Passive Power: Proxy
The intended centerpiece of Taylor's power, designed from data drawn from a number of nearby capes during her trigger event. Unfortunately, Taylor has had nothing but bad experiences with it, and by and large refuses to use it unless she absolutely has to. As a result, QA gradually reduced the maximum number of proxies Taylor could retain at any one time until "absolutely has to" hit a frequency QA was willing to tolerate. Taylor produces one new proxy every three hours, and each one will split into two on its own every three days. She continues to produce them after reaching her cap, but the excess is automatically vented.
Taylor's proxies are partially tangible and have mass, sharing properties with Grue's darkness and Shadow Stalker's Breaker state. Standing inside a large cluster of them is not unlike being underwater, except slightly more breathable. They are nigh-indestructible and will continue to exist in an area, but high-energy reactions like fire and electricity repels them. This weakness is actually intentional, and is the mechanism behind her secondary power.
They imitate a human mind well enough to fool shards (as was their intended design), and are capable of slow, self-directed flight.
Secondary Power: Seal
This is one of those 'required secondary powers' that are all-important, but nobody really thinks about when designing powers. Put simply, Taylor has a power to automatically ignore the mental states of other humans. It's extremely specific, and by and large its main use is to let her completely disregard what would effectively be numerous human minds inside her at any given time. On the other hand, this is also why she can't sense other people with her active power, meaning she doesn't have any kind of Thinker rating. This is also the power QA tweaks when adjusting how many proxies Taylor can retain at a time.
-
Trigger Event: Shaker/Trump (primary), Master (secondary)
During Taylor's trigger event, several members of both the Wards and the Undersiders were present and fighting, and QA ended up requesting data from Grue's, Gallant's, Shadow Stalker's, and Regent's shards, resulting in a very strong indirect Trump element (the Manton fuckery). This data was used to design the so-called "proxies" Taylor's power is built around, with Shadow Stalker's and Grue's powers leading to their physical properties while Gallant's and Regent's formed the basis of their mental framework. All things considered, there was very little actual input from QA herself in all this, though her own preferences still show through strongly in the overall design. (Namely, vast quantities of minions and group directing.)
The primary Shaker component of Taylor's power stems from the root of her trigger event being environmental in nature: Taylor was drowning in the freezing cold waters of the Bay at the time. There was still a Master factor involved due to her social isolation leading up to it, but the environmental factor was a lot more pertinent than with the locker. Since none of the nearby capes were attacking her directly, Taylor's Trump elements do not directly target other powers, and are instead linked to her environmental control.
Incidentally, Taylor's power here is not a second trigger, though she isn't going to second trigger in this fic.
=====
[A/N: There used to be an additional power mentioned in the trigger section, but I removed it. Upon further consideration, it didn't add anything to the fic overall, and actually kinda took away from it.]
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unsanity
Fractionally Assembled
Eh, close enough. What, specifically, went wrong will get more clear as the story goes on. It's actually only a single, tiny detail, but that one thing is the driving force behind the entire plot.
My prediction here is that QA's proxies managed to emulate 'humanity' a little to well-
their function and design seem almost identical to the pursuers you get off of Manus:
"Grant a fleeting will to the Dark of humanity, and volley the result.
They will feels envy, or perhaps love, and despite the inevitable trite and tragic ending, they will sees no alternative, and is driven madly towards its target."
Dark, shadowy projectiles with their own will and consumed by emotions, sounds pretty familiar.
So my theory here is that Taylor's power/QA's new proxies have begun to 'generate' capital-H Humanity with all of the consequences (the abyss, reality-bleedover, random sentience) that entails.
their function and design seem almost identical to the pursuers you get off of Manus:
"Grant a fleeting will to the Dark of humanity, and volley the result.
They will feels envy, or perhaps love, and despite the inevitable trite and tragic ending, they will sees no alternative, and is driven madly towards its target."
Dark, shadowy projectiles with their own will and consumed by emotions, sounds pretty familiar.
So my theory here is that Taylor's power/QA's new proxies have begun to 'generate' capital-H Humanity with all of the consequences (the abyss, reality-bleedover, random sentience) that entails.
unsanity
Fractionally Assembled
[A/N: No chapter today either, too busy studying. Sorry!
In lieu of story progress, please accept this excerpt from my backstory notes. Like the previous one for Taylor, this covers Charles Grant's power as [Salvage] meant for it to work. However, much like with QA's attempt, something went screwy somewhere and the end result was a little different from what you see here.
Don't worry; much like with Taylor, this will tell you basically nothing about what's coming down the road.]
=====
Power Description: Framework
Much like QA, [Salvage] had an original plan behind Grant's power before everything went horribly wrong. Up until that point though, it was simply supposed to let him physically "link" to dead biological matter and build a larger body out of it, then control that body using a method based on Taylor's active power. The intent was to make a Brute/Changer that would get stronger when surrounded by death and destruction, making him an especially good teammate for hosts who liked to sit back and rain exactly that from a distance.
[Salvage] initially contacted QA through the proxy Charles had been infected with, bypassing what would normally be far too much distance to get input from another shard. That data was then used to design the control mechanism for Grant's power, making something much more robust than what [Salvage] could normally have created on its own.
Active Power: Project
This is Grant's active power, which he uses to move his meat shell. It differs from Taylor's power in that, rather than transferring his mental state from himself to the target, it copies his mental state among any number of targets within the network of minds linked by his secondary power. Due to how intertwined his active power is with his passive and secondary power, it's hard to explain one without also explaining the others.
Any body linked to Grant through Network is added to a sort of conglomerate mind, but which lacks its own will. Project allows Grant to direct these bodies in whole or in part, and was intended to be the means by which he moves his powered form. As a result of all the minds being linked and Grant's will being copied among them, the overall effect becomes exponentially stronger the more it's copied rather than linearly stronger. This can let him outright brute force his way through Master effects like Regent's, or overwhelm Taylor's own version of Project.
Passive Power: Framework
The core of Grant's power, and without QA's intervention it would have been his only power. Nonliving matter linked through Network is added to Framework, forming a humanoid mass which is then directed using Project. Any remaining brain matter is connected into a makeshift conglomerate brain, giving Charles access to the knowledge and any trained skills left in whatever hasn't physically decayed yet (such as fighting, reasoning, sciences, etc).
No aspect of Grant's power prevents corpses from decaying, which is intentional. Shards use many subtle means to push their hosts into conflict, and the need for constant upkeep was how [Salvage] decided to go about it.
Secondary Power: Network
This is just the Striker power that lets Charles add dead bodies to his Framework. It only works on nonliving biological matter, and doesn't make that matter count as living afterwards. This is also the channel through which Project is propagated.
-
Trigger Event: Brute/Changer (primary), Master/Striker (secondary)
Charles Grant's trigger event was only partially shown in-story: shortly before Taylor shared his trigger vision from roughly a mile away, Charles had finally managed to beat a hole through the lid of his coffin, causing it to break and all the dirt above to come collapsing down on top of him, the weight of it gradually cracking several bones and damaging major organs. All of the stressers of his trigger event being ultimately derived from the same source (the dirt) resulted in a power where all the separate aspects were as closely intertwined as his trigger event. As such, describing the effect each part had on his resulting power is rather difficult, since they all draw on each other.
The Brute/Changer part is related to the initial damage of the dirt collapsing in from above, as well as the more gradual crushing of all that weight pressing down on him. Since this threat wasn't something Charles could physically fight against, [Salvage] sought an external means of augmenting Grant's body, settling on the quantity of biological matter nearby. Most of them were just bone, but there was enough (decaying) muscle and flesh to give Charles a sturdy shell and let him crawl out of his own grave.
The Master/Striker component relates to the isolating nature of being buried alive, as well as its physical proximity. Since this comes from the same source as the Brute/Changer part of his power, the two are very closely linked and work in concert with each other. In fact, they can't work separately from each other at all: Charles can only Master things that his Brute power applies to, and his Brute power only works with things he's Mastered. Ordinarily, the bodies would have been directly linked to Grant's own nervous system and there would have been no need for a Master power, but for some reason [Salvage] was having difficulty connecting the bodies to its host; luckily, [Salvage] just so happened to have a direct link to the best there is when it comes to connecting things and making them work together, and a solution was found.
Curiously, Taylor and Charles have something in common with their trigger events: they both died during them. Although, Charles died several times before that over the course of a day, so there's a bit of difference, too.
=====
[A/N: There was a mixup early on with [Salvage]'s name and the power it made for Grant, Framework. [Salvage] was actually supposed to be named [Framework] and the power was going to be called Salvage, but it's a little too late to change that now...]
In lieu of story progress, please accept this excerpt from my backstory notes. Like the previous one for Taylor, this covers Charles Grant's power as [Salvage] meant for it to work. However, much like with QA's attempt, something went screwy somewhere and the end result was a little different from what you see here.
Don't worry; much like with Taylor, this will tell you basically nothing about what's coming down the road.]
=====
Power Description: Framework
Much like QA, [Salvage] had an original plan behind Grant's power before everything went horribly wrong. Up until that point though, it was simply supposed to let him physically "link" to dead biological matter and build a larger body out of it, then control that body using a method based on Taylor's active power. The intent was to make a Brute/Changer that would get stronger when surrounded by death and destruction, making him an especially good teammate for hosts who liked to sit back and rain exactly that from a distance.
[Salvage] initially contacted QA through the proxy Charles had been infected with, bypassing what would normally be far too much distance to get input from another shard. That data was then used to design the control mechanism for Grant's power, making something much more robust than what [Salvage] could normally have created on its own.
Active Power: Project
This is Grant's active power, which he uses to move his meat shell. It differs from Taylor's power in that, rather than transferring his mental state from himself to the target, it copies his mental state among any number of targets within the network of minds linked by his secondary power. Due to how intertwined his active power is with his passive and secondary power, it's hard to explain one without also explaining the others.
Any body linked to Grant through Network is added to a sort of conglomerate mind, but which lacks its own will. Project allows Grant to direct these bodies in whole or in part, and was intended to be the means by which he moves his powered form. As a result of all the minds being linked and Grant's will being copied among them, the overall effect becomes exponentially stronger the more it's copied rather than linearly stronger. This can let him outright brute force his way through Master effects like Regent's, or overwhelm Taylor's own version of Project.
Passive Power: Framework
The core of Grant's power, and without QA's intervention it would have been his only power. Nonliving matter linked through Network is added to Framework, forming a humanoid mass which is then directed using Project. Any remaining brain matter is connected into a makeshift conglomerate brain, giving Charles access to the knowledge and any trained skills left in whatever hasn't physically decayed yet (such as fighting, reasoning, sciences, etc).
No aspect of Grant's power prevents corpses from decaying, which is intentional. Shards use many subtle means to push their hosts into conflict, and the need for constant upkeep was how [Salvage] decided to go about it.
Secondary Power: Network
This is just the Striker power that lets Charles add dead bodies to his Framework. It only works on nonliving biological matter, and doesn't make that matter count as living afterwards. This is also the channel through which Project is propagated.
-
Trigger Event: Brute/Changer (primary), Master/Striker (secondary)
Charles Grant's trigger event was only partially shown in-story: shortly before Taylor shared his trigger vision from roughly a mile away, Charles had finally managed to beat a hole through the lid of his coffin, causing it to break and all the dirt above to come collapsing down on top of him, the weight of it gradually cracking several bones and damaging major organs. All of the stressers of his trigger event being ultimately derived from the same source (the dirt) resulted in a power where all the separate aspects were as closely intertwined as his trigger event. As such, describing the effect each part had on his resulting power is rather difficult, since they all draw on each other.
The Brute/Changer part is related to the initial damage of the dirt collapsing in from above, as well as the more gradual crushing of all that weight pressing down on him. Since this threat wasn't something Charles could physically fight against, [Salvage] sought an external means of augmenting Grant's body, settling on the quantity of biological matter nearby. Most of them were just bone, but there was enough (decaying) muscle and flesh to give Charles a sturdy shell and let him crawl out of his own grave.
The Master/Striker component relates to the isolating nature of being buried alive, as well as its physical proximity. Since this comes from the same source as the Brute/Changer part of his power, the two are very closely linked and work in concert with each other. In fact, they can't work separately from each other at all: Charles can only Master things that his Brute power applies to, and his Brute power only works with things he's Mastered. Ordinarily, the bodies would have been directly linked to Grant's own nervous system and there would have been no need for a Master power, but for some reason [Salvage] was having difficulty connecting the bodies to its host; luckily, [Salvage] just so happened to have a direct link to the best there is when it comes to connecting things and making them work together, and a solution was found.
Curiously, Taylor and Charles have something in common with their trigger events: they both died during them. Although, Charles died several times before that over the course of a day, so there's a bit of difference, too.
=====
[A/N: There was a mixup early on with [Salvage]'s name and the power it made for Grant, Framework. [Salvage] was actually supposed to be named [Framework] and the power was going to be called Salvage, but it's a little too late to change that now...]
unsanity
Fractionally Assembled
For the people who read the informational post about Taylor's original power, I have to apologize a bit. Turns out there's actually a certain category of Brute power that does exactly what I was trying to make that Breaker one do, and even comes from the same trigger scenario that I was trying to use for it. Go figure, right? So now, instead of being a Shaker/Trump, Master, Breaker, she's a Shaker/Trump, Master, Brute.
I'm sorry if this confuses anyone.
I'm sorry if this confuses anyone.
unsanity
Fractionally Assembled
No, not really. Keep in mind, this describes how the power was supposed to be, before everything went wrong. QA's original design for it was something closer to Grue's darkness fog, except it could be moved around after placing it, went through walls, outright confused powers, and more or less became a permanent feature of the landscape. The problem was, QA overlooked one small, seemingly insignificant detail, which ended up making everything spiral out of control in ways nobody could have predicted.
Basically, she made them a little too human.
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Chapter Twelve: Frozen in Fear
unsanity
Fractionally Assembled
[A/N: Too tired to study, too awake to nap. Ugh. So, have a chapter instead, I guess.
Oh, and if you've been keeping up with the informational posts? Upon further consideration, I just removed the part about Taylor's "Brute" power outright. It didn't add anything to the story, and actually kinda took away from it instead. And considering the state of things at present... yeah.
So, she's a squishy now. But that's okay, it's not like she'll be attacked by a horde of angry hollows anytime soon.]
=====
"Just grab whatever it is and let's go!"
The zombies Uber and Leet were fighting had, about ten minutes ago, regrouped halfway between the mall and here. Dad decided that was close enough, and we were packing up to reach the evacuation point before it got crowded.
Meanwhile, I was agonizing over whether or not to take my new mask. On the one hand, zombies, and using powers in public without a disguise would be bad. On the other hand, if dad ever went through my backpack for any reason, I would be kinda screwed.
On the other, other hand, if the zombies somehow caught up to a car, we'd be screwed anyways.
"Taylor, I'm starting the car!"
Take it, and risk dad finding it, outing me as a cape? Or don't take it, and risk using powers publicly, outing me as a cape to everyone? You'd think the second option would be the riskier one, but the first was so much more personal.
... I'll leave it. Less to explain that way. With that decided on, I grabbed my bag and raced down the stairs, jumping into the car where dad left the passenger door open.
"Had me worried there, owl. Thought you were considering going for lichhood on me." Dad backed out of the driveway, turning down the street while I shoved my backpack under the seat and buckled up.
"Not yet. I still need to make my phylactery."
Dad gave me a funny look, before turning his eyes back on the road. "Well, if you do go supervillain, just don't forget us little guys."
"I'm not a Nazi, dad." I could've sworn we'd already had this conversation.
"I'd certainly hope not. I raised you better than that." To be fair, the fact that I took offense to the idea was probably proof of his words.
"No daughter of mine would be something so classless as a Nazi," he added. I almost missed the smirk sitting just barely at the corner of his mouth.
"Dad, we're middle class at most. We don't get to be picky."
He gave me a slightly less funny look at that. In hindsight, that probably sounded a bit suspicious.
"Also, I'm not a villain."
He turned his eyes back to the street, shaking his head.
Why am I so bad at this? I might as well have brought the full costume if this was how things were going to go. I could imagine the conversation already.
Hey dad, guess what? I have superpowers! I'd say. Oh really? What kind? Are you the next Alexandria? The new Legend? Or, dare I hope... Eidolon? He'd say. Then I'd be all like Nope, even better! My powers are fueled by hate and anguish, and also I've got mind control! Oh, and I may have accidentally disappeared a warehouse with a swarm of evil ghost things. Sorry about that. And then dad would cry, the PRT would come, and I'd rot in prison forever. And then I'd find out where the warehouse went when I inevitably accidentally disappeared the prison, too.
Hopefully they had a Fugly Bob's in Hell, because I was definitely going there when I died.
It turned out we weren't the only ones who'd decided to leave early, and when we caught up with the traffic, I noticed there was a PRT squad van escorting everyone. That was a little concerning, actually, because it implied the PRT had reason to think the zombies might actually catch up to us. Or, maybe they just wanted everyone to feel like the situation was under control. To be fair, I couldn't think of any reason why containment foam wouldn't work against zombies, so we were probably okay.
There was an awful lot of traffic though, and dad turned the ignition off to save gas while we were waiting.
Now that we were in the middle of it, the zombie apocalypse was starting to look like a wildly improbable scenario. Even without containment foam, people with guns were just strictly better than people without. I almost felt sorry for the villain who got it as a power, and not just because Uber and Leet made him look bad.
Although, he probably didn't have much of a choice. It'd be really hard to spin zombies as a hero, and that was me saying this.
"So," dad said, probably for the sake of conversation more than anything, "not a villain, huh?"
"I don't have powers, dad." So not doing this right now. At least I only had six sparks instead of twenty or so, this time. Those things got itchy when they built up like that.
"So you aren't going to, say, run off to fight zombies when I'm not looking?"
Oh, so that's what he was worried about. That made sense.
"I'm pretty sure someone beat them already. Doing it again would just be rubbing salt in the wounds. Not to mention it'd be a waste of time, since they don't die." That, I supposed, made them slightly more threatening. Though, there was still the question of how it was spreading in the first place. What if all they needed to do was touch you?
"Wait, what?" Dad seemed surprised at that, and I remembered he hadn't been there to watch that part.
"Yeah, they just keep getting back up. If they didn't, this probably would've been solved hours ago." Maybe the guy behind it all was making them reanimate, somehow. With the way these things were popping up all over the city, he was probably just sitting in a basement somewhere, watching the TV talk about him. Masters made for the lamest villains.
Someone was honking their car horn at the front of the line, and I leaned to the side to get a better view. Why would someone be doing that here? It wasn't like-
Now several people were honking their horns, and someone screamed. The PRT van's doors slammed open to disgorge six troopers, who sprinted off ahead of us. Maybe it was like.
There were too many cars behind us for anyone to back out in time. We were on a bridge, so there were no buildings to run into- and now there were more zombies climbing up over the side of the bridge, because of course they'd be smart enough to do that. The apocalypse was starting to look a little more plausible, now.
Fuck.
They were climbing onto cars. Pounding, windshields cracking.
Can't go outside. Trapped. One of them jumped onto the car, and I screamed.
Dad had his seatbelt off, and he pulled a bat out from behind the seat before opening the door.
Oh fuck no.
I pointed both my hands at the zombie and shoveled all my panic into the sparks, hoping for the best.
Vista sat shotgun in the squad van, shortening their travel time by turning long stretches of road into shorter ones. They were going too fast for her to do much, but every little bit counted, here. A PRT operative was driving, Miss Militia was in the back with four other operatives, and Velocity kept pace with the van outside.
Another small horde had popped up out of nowhere again, attacking the evacuees this time. Vista was starting to hate this guy. At least his zombies were easy enough to put down, and there'd been few casualties that they could confirm.
The problem was how many were running around. They'd already run out of room in the Headquarters, and they'd switched to using the normal prisons just to hold them all. If this kept up for much longer, they'd have to start leaving the things where they foamed them.
Armsmaster had been able to confirm the zombies weren't contagious or anything like that, so it wasn't an S-class situation. Still, the question was who this guy was killing to make all these zombies; they'd long since gone through the entire graveyard population, and people were starting to recognize the bodies they'd been bringing in. That meant the guy himself was somewhere out there, attacking people. They just hadn't found him, yet.
Every zombie they'd been able to identify had been a Merchant, so far. But Vista could tell there was a larger goal behind all the chaos on the surface, and it didn't just stop at wiping out one gang. Even with a shambling, aimless horde, he was still managing to make organized strikes, still somehow sneaking them in wherever the PRT couldn't look. Sending them at everything except his real goal.
The zombies were easy enough to handle, but if all they had to do was distract the PRT, then they were playing their part perfectly.
"Ho-ly shit..." The van slowed down as the driver spoke, and Vista took the chance to shorten the stretch ahead of them twice over, then again three more times.
"Language," Miss Militia said, but her power had already morphed into a trench gun before she changed it to something less lethal, "What do you see?"
Miss Militia and the squad members were out of their seats by now, holding the cord webbing on the walls for balance, and Vista stopped focusing on her power to look ahead.
Something wound around and through the center of the bridge, like a thorn bush or barbed wire, but as thick around as a tree branch. Vista couldn't tell if it was ice or glass: it looked bluish white and transparent, with an oily black dampness clinging to the surface. Here and there, zombies were suspended off the points like ghoulish ornaments, with smaller vines of razor ice woven into and out of them as if someone were trying to tie them up from the inside.
As she watched, the giant vine shuddered, and the dangling zombies dropped to the street below in pieces as razor twine sliced through flesh and bone with contemptuous ease.
Vista gulped, trying to loosen the sudden tightness she felt in her chest. Her Shaker 9 rating didn't feel all that high, all of a sudden.
Car alarms were sounding off all around us, at least from the ones that hadn't been speared through by spines of gnarled, thorny black ice. The road was cracked and warped, and I wouldn't be surprised if the twisting, frozen mass was the only thing keeping the bridge from collapsing.
Nobody was screaming. I hoped that meant I hadn't hit anyone, and not that I'd hit everyone.
Dad had stopped halfway out of the car, and was staring at me with an utterly shocked expression on his face. His mouth opened, closed, opened again, as if trying to speak words his brain couldn't process.
"... Oops?" I tried for a sheepish grin, but it probably came off as nervous, instead.
At least I wasn't panicking anymore.
=====
[A/N: Which is better, in-line QA or end-of-scene QA? I'm not sure, myself.]
Oh, and if you've been keeping up with the informational posts? Upon further consideration, I just removed the part about Taylor's "Brute" power outright. It didn't add anything to the story, and actually kinda took away from it instead. And considering the state of things at present... yeah.
So, she's a squishy now. But that's okay, it's not like she'll be attacked by a horde of angry hollows anytime soon.]
=====
Chapter Twelve
Frozen in Fear
Frozen in Fear
"Just grab whatever it is and let's go!"
The zombies Uber and Leet were fighting had, about ten minutes ago, regrouped halfway between the mall and here. Dad decided that was close enough, and we were packing up to reach the evacuation point before it got crowded.
Meanwhile, I was agonizing over whether or not to take my new mask. On the one hand, zombies, and using powers in public without a disguise would be bad. On the other hand, if dad ever went through my backpack for any reason, I would be kinda screwed.
[i still can't believe you managed to find a skull mask at this time of year]
[it's like edginess just gravitates toward you or something]
[it's like edginess just gravitates toward you or something]
"Taylor, I'm starting the car!"
Take it, and risk dad finding it, outing me as a cape? Or don't take it, and risk using powers publicly, outing me as a cape to everyone? You'd think the second option would be the riskier one, but the first was so much more personal.
... I'll leave it. Less to explain that way. With that decided on, I grabbed my bag and raced down the stairs, jumping into the car where dad left the passenger door open.
"Had me worried there, owl. Thought you were considering going for lichhood on me." Dad backed out of the driveway, turning down the street while I shoved my backpack under the seat and buckled up.
"Not yet. I still need to make my phylactery."
[what is a phylactery and how do i make one]
[this sounds relevant to my interests]
[this sounds relevant to my interests]
"I'm not a Nazi, dad." I could've sworn we'd already had this conversation.
[you might as well be for how much of you is in them right now]
"No daughter of mine would be something so classless as a Nazi," he added. I almost missed the smirk sitting just barely at the corner of his mouth.
"Dad, we're middle class at most. We don't get to be picky."
[do you actually think about things before you say them]
[serious question because i'm starting to notice a pattern here]
[serious question because i'm starting to notice a pattern here]
"Also, I'm not a villain."
He turned his eyes back to the street, shaking his head.
Why am I so bad at this? I might as well have brought the full costume if this was how things were going to go. I could imagine the conversation already.
Hey dad, guess what? I have superpowers! I'd say. Oh really? What kind? Are you the next Alexandria? The new Legend? Or, dare I hope... Eidolon? He'd say. Then I'd be all like Nope, even better! My powers are fueled by hate and anguish, and also I've got mind control! Oh, and I may have accidentally disappeared a warehouse with a swarm of evil ghost things. Sorry about that. And then dad would cry, the PRT would come, and I'd rot in prison forever. And then I'd find out where the warehouse went when I inevitably accidentally disappeared the prison, too.
[i have reason to suspect they'd be a lot stronger if you fueled them with love you know]
[but you are the last person i'd expect to go for the truth love and justice angle so you do you i guess]
[but you are the last person i'd expect to go for the truth love and justice angle so you do you i guess]
[i can confirm hell has a fugly bobs]
[i know because it's stuck in here with me and i can't figure out how to put it back]
[i know because it's stuck in here with me and i can't figure out how to put it back]
There was an awful lot of traffic though, and dad turned the ignition off to save gas while we were waiting.
Now that we were in the middle of it, the zombie apocalypse was starting to look like a wildly improbable scenario. Even without containment foam, people with guns were just strictly better than people without. I almost felt sorry for the villain who got it as a power, and not just because Uber and Leet made him look bad.
Although, he probably didn't have much of a choice. It'd be really hard to spin zombies as a hero, and that was me saying this.
"So," dad said, probably for the sake of conversation more than anything, "not a villain, huh?"
"I don't have powers, dad." So not doing this right now. At least I only had six sparks instead of twenty or so, this time. Those things got itchy when they built up like that.
[i do that specifically to annoy you]
[it's one of the few pleasures i have in life]
[it's one of the few pleasures i have in life]
Oh, so that's what he was worried about. That made sense.
"I'm pretty sure someone beat them already. Doing it again would just be rubbing salt in the wounds. Not to mention it'd be a waste of time, since they don't die." That, I supposed, made them slightly more threatening. Though, there was still the question of how it was spreading in the first place. What if all they needed to do was touch you?
"Wait, what?" Dad seemed surprised at that, and I remembered he hadn't been there to watch that part.
"Yeah, they just keep getting back up. If they didn't, this probably would've been solved hours ago." Maybe the guy behind it all was making them reanimate, somehow. With the way these things were popping up all over the city, he was probably just sitting in a basement somewhere, watching the TV talk about him. Masters made for the lamest villains.
[gotta give props to that guy though because he's super enthusiastic about all this]
[seriously you should've seen what he did to that asswipe guy or whatever that merchant host's name was]
[seriously you should've seen what he did to that asswipe guy or whatever that merchant host's name was]
Now several people were honking their horns, and someone screamed. The PRT van's doors slammed open to disgorge six troopers, who sprinted off ahead of us. Maybe it was like.
There were too many cars behind us for anyone to back out in time. We were on a bridge, so there were no buildings to run into- and now there were more zombies climbing up over the side of the bridge, because of course they'd be smart enough to do that. The apocalypse was starting to look a little more plausible, now.
[oh goody time to rev up that conflict drive]
[go go magical hatred girl]
[actually wait i just realized you could literally kill people with kindness]
[go go magical hatred girl]
[actually wait i just realized you could literally kill people with kindness]
They were climbing onto cars. Pounding, windshields cracking.
Can't go outside. Trapped. One of them jumped onto the car, and I screamed.
Dad had his seatbelt off, and he pulled a bat out from behind the seat before opening the door.
Oh fuck no.
I pointed both my hands at the zombie and shoveled all my panic into the sparks, hoping for the best.
[my terrible mistake senses are tingling again]
[but they've been doing that ever since i first linked to you so it's kinda hard to tell sometimes]
[but they've been doing that ever since i first linked to you so it's kinda hard to tell sometimes]
{-Vista, slightly later-}
Vista sat shotgun in the squad van, shortening their travel time by turning long stretches of road into shorter ones. They were going too fast for her to do much, but every little bit counted, here. A PRT operative was driving, Miss Militia was in the back with four other operatives, and Velocity kept pace with the van outside.
Another small horde had popped up out of nowhere again, attacking the evacuees this time. Vista was starting to hate this guy. At least his zombies were easy enough to put down, and there'd been few casualties that they could confirm.
The problem was how many were running around. They'd already run out of room in the Headquarters, and they'd switched to using the normal prisons just to hold them all. If this kept up for much longer, they'd have to start leaving the things where they foamed them.
Armsmaster had been able to confirm the zombies weren't contagious or anything like that, so it wasn't an S-class situation. Still, the question was who this guy was killing to make all these zombies; they'd long since gone through the entire graveyard population, and people were starting to recognize the bodies they'd been bringing in. That meant the guy himself was somewhere out there, attacking people. They just hadn't found him, yet.
Every zombie they'd been able to identify had been a Merchant, so far. But Vista could tell there was a larger goal behind all the chaos on the surface, and it didn't just stop at wiping out one gang. Even with a shambling, aimless horde, he was still managing to make organized strikes, still somehow sneaking them in wherever the PRT couldn't look. Sending them at everything except his real goal.
The zombies were easy enough to handle, but if all they had to do was distract the PRT, then they were playing their part perfectly.
"Ho-ly shit..." The van slowed down as the driver spoke, and Vista took the chance to shorten the stretch ahead of them twice over, then again three more times.
"Language," Miss Militia said, but her power had already morphed into a trench gun before she changed it to something less lethal, "What do you see?"
Miss Militia and the squad members were out of their seats by now, holding the cord webbing on the walls for balance, and Vista stopped focusing on her power to look ahead.
Something wound around and through the center of the bridge, like a thorn bush or barbed wire, but as thick around as a tree branch. Vista couldn't tell if it was ice or glass: it looked bluish white and transparent, with an oily black dampness clinging to the surface. Here and there, zombies were suspended off the points like ghoulish ornaments, with smaller vines of razor ice woven into and out of them as if someone were trying to tie them up from the inside.
As she watched, the giant vine shuddered, and the dangling zombies dropped to the street below in pieces as razor twine sliced through flesh and bone with contemptuous ease.
Vista gulped, trying to loosen the sudden tightness she felt in her chest. Her Shaker 9 rating didn't feel all that high, all of a sudden.
[Concern]
[Concern]
[words]
[Query]
[sarcasm]
[Confusion]
[biting retort]
[Confusion]
[pointed rebuttal]
[Confusion]
[long winded diatribe]
[Confusion]
[i'm not actually saying anything you dipshits]
[Confusion]
[Confusion]
[this was less entertaining than i thought it'd be]
[Concern]
[words]
[Query]
[sarcasm]
[Confusion]
[biting retort]
[Confusion]
[pointed rebuttal]
[Confusion]
[long winded diatribe]
[Confusion]
[i'm not actually saying anything you dipshits]
[Confusion]
[Confusion]
[this was less entertaining than i thought it'd be]
{-Meanwhile, back with Taylor-}
Car alarms were sounding off all around us, at least from the ones that hadn't been speared through by spines of gnarled, thorny black ice. The road was cracked and warped, and I wouldn't be surprised if the twisting, frozen mass was the only thing keeping the bridge from collapsing.
Nobody was screaming. I hoped that meant I hadn't hit anyone, and not that I'd hit everyone.
Dad had stopped halfway out of the car, and was staring at me with an utterly shocked expression on his face. His mouth opened, closed, opened again, as if trying to speak words his brain couldn't process.
"... Oops?" I tried for a sheepish grin, but it probably came off as nervous, instead.
At least I wasn't panicking anymore.
[oops she says]
[i mean really now]
[you're all like today is christmas and i bring the gift of death and you don't even have the decency to top it off with a snappy one liner]
[i love how this happened not even three minutes after you told him you don't have powers too]
[i mean really now]
[you're all like today is christmas and i bring the gift of death and you don't even have the decency to top it off with a snappy one liner]
[i love how this happened not even three minutes after you told him you don't have powers too]
=====
[A/N: Which is better, in-line QA or end-of-scene QA? I'm not sure, myself.]
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- Location
- Madison, AL
GOD this is funny, and pathetic, but mostly funny.
Jack of Olives
Rolled a '3' on their Con score
- Location
- The land of fruits and nuts (California)
This is just how I like my train-wrecks.
With it's own snarky commentary.
With it's own snarky commentary.
- Location
- SoCal, USA
QA is the snarkiest of snarks and I love it.
Alex Prior
We are Many
- Location
- A charming, foreign port
NemiTheNen
Perpetual Phone Poster
Both if you use invisitext with the in-line, otherwise, just inline
unsanity
Fractionally Assembled
Well... I've never been a fan of invisitext, not really. If you don't know the author is using it, then you aren't going to see it and you're missing out on part of the story. If you do know the author is using it, then why's it invisible? Then you have to sit there and highlight everything line-by-line just to make sure you aren't missing anything.
Plus, it would also mean I'd have to limit what she says, since several lines of invisitext means lines of plaintext get several lines of seemingly blank space between them.
Sorry. I know some people prefer invisitext, but I just can't do it like that. It isn't logical.
NemiTheNen
Perpetual Phone Poster
It's Ergodic lit, and also engaging in exploration of a new medium. Admittedly, span text is much better, but it doesn't work on the forum I don't think
unsanity
Fractionally Assembled
That literally translates to "literature that takes effort to read".
Making something more difficult for the sake of difficulty is wasteful. The question I have to ask is "what does the reader gain for the extra effort?" If all they gain is reading the complete story, then the effort is wasted; people who don't put in the extra effort don't get the complete story, meaning all you're really doing is taking away from the story instead of adding anything to it. Even Dark Souls isn't hard for the sake of being hard. Miyazaki's own statement is that it's "challenging, but fair", and that the point of the difficulty is to give a greater sense of achievement when the player succeeds (but, again, still emphasizing that fairness). Even then, they still include easy ways to bypass these challenges, because otherwise the added challenge only takes away from the complete game instead of adding to it. It diminishes, instead of improves. You want the player gets the complete experience either way, but also giving them the option of getting even more on top of that should they put the effort in.
So far, I've only seen one fic that used invisitext in a way that actually added to the story instead of just obtusely cutting parts of itself out. It was a mystery/horror, and the setup was that each chapter was a collection of letters people were mailing to each other. Every now and then, it would seem like a page was missing, or the person ran out of ink halfway through writing and there was a big blank spot in the middle of a page, or some of the text was scratched out and illegible, or half a page was torn and missing, etc. But because they were written on paper (that being the premise), the following page would have the missing text 'indented' because it was underneath when the character was writing on the page above it. If you read the story as it looked on the surface, it was fluffy and WAFFy and stuff and you wondered why it was a horror story. But if you read all the hidden stuff, you saw there was actually some really fucked up shit going on in the background, and I think at one point someone started murdering half the cast and pretending to be them so the others wouldn't get suspicious. Shit was crazy.
This fic, though... it's nothing so clever. I feel like using invisitext wouldn't add anything, and all it would do is cut out a bunch of the backstory and foreshadowing that the main characters themselves would have no business being aware of and so couldn't actually say. Also, I'd have to cut out tons of snark just to fit all the lines in neat little rows between each other, and that would be no fun at all.
That's my reasoning for not using invisitext here. If you were wondering, I mean.
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