Yrsillar Wrote:Just a single chapter to note the restart. The normal pause for the first full week of january will still be there, but things will be resuming properly soon!

Avrjoe Wrote:“Noelle is a duplicator like Kudzu or Spree. She makes copies of others, not herself. Complete with powers if they have them. We have not seen Parahuman power able to duplicate a connection to Quantum. They are perfectly able to duplicate and utilize Neotic powers. Noelle was duplicating John. It gave vent to her powers urge to send duplicates into combat by fighting against others.”

She made clones of your brother?

“She made clones of your brother?” Cyber asked.

“Yes, each time his exact Noetic template was shuffled a bit. Each clone had different powers. They had all of John's memories with a slight personality change. They were completely loyal to Noelle or rather her out-of-control power, and they inverted the love-hate axis. They despised everything John loved and vice versa.”

“What did they do with these clones after they were defeated?” Brown asked.

“They used the technology I saved the Punks from. They removed their brains and put them into a cybernetic preservation unit. Then John performed minor edits. He restored perfect symmetry with his morality and persona. Ending the fun house mirror version they had. It left them in a state of synchronized Noetic fields.”

“He erased their minds and gave them copies of his own?” Legend said shocked.

“They already were copies of his own. He corrected the deviations in the copy. One might say he unified them with the greater whole.”

Armsmaster shifted uncomfortably “If the information from my experiments is correct when Neotic fields are aligned right they reinforce each other. How many copies did he weld into this gestalt?”

“They did this for about six weeks twice weekly I think, Trickster?” Justin asked.

Trickster stubbed out his cigarette and turned from looking worriedly toward the field hospital.

“Huh? Oh yeah, about that many sure, something like twelve to fourteen sessions I guess I wasn’t keeping a strict count. Noelle might have. A couple of dozen clones each time. I guess they carted away something like three hundred give or take. ”

“John was already stronger than we were. You are telling me he’s now a gestalt of over three hundred minds?” Cyber asked alarmed.

“No, no I’m not saying that,” Justin answered.

“He’s saying John is a single mind being processed by the gestalt of some three hundred psionic brains.” Dragon dryly added.

* * *

Nicholas Vasil was lying on his side feeling like a pinata. He knew he felt exactly like a pinata because he had been strung up by teenagers and beaten with a stick.

Meet the new in-laws.

A hand pulled his hair. The expected beatings didn't start. He felt slim fingers untying his blindfold. It didn't feel like Cherie. When the cloth was removed he found himself staring into a pair of deep blue eyes.

“Hello, brother Nicholas. I'm your new brother-in-law Elijah. Elijah Mathers some people call me Valefor. You can call me Master. From here forward you do exactly what I command.”

* * *

Jack straightened his nose and glared. “What is your goal torture?”

“Interesting idea. Could be fun. You definitely deserve it. Eternal torment that is.”

The only one who can judge Jack Slash.

“Who made you my judge? That old man? Did he pass the title of Devil to you?”

“Not judge just prosecutor. The case against you was brought by her. Let me introduce Doctor Emily Sullivan”

A woman with light brown hair and hazel eyes stepped out of the darkness to take a place by the wingback chair.

“Don’t know her someone I killed?”

“No Doctor Sullivan decided to self terminate. She couldn’t handle the road ahead she had an illness she had seen kill her father. It was a long torturous death. Her mother died a year later in an accident. The sort that the police politely didn’t dig into. They wanted to make sure the insurance paid out for the poor college student trying to get her MD.

On the edge of non-existence, she triggered. The trigger was most likely a bud from your own Bonesaw. She’s a medical tinker and at the time it was speculated Bonesaw was near given your migration patterns. The powers that be find her useful and are doing their best to hide her nature. They've created layers of deception. You see first it seems they are keeping her status secret. They can take full advantage of her without running into any need for special NEPA waivers. Below that is them deflecting from the timing and location of her trigger. That way no one saddles a new parahuman with an unfortunate connection. No one knows she's a bud from an infamous killer.

Below that are more lies. The government doesn’t know the real story. The truth is far more complicated. Would you like to tell Jacob the Truth Emily?”

“The truth Jacob, is good girls avenge their families.”

(01-05-2025, 06:15 PM)Mamorien Wrote: Danger Zone Brockton (Worm/Trinity Continuum) Chapter 41: Chapter 28 Pandemonium.

(01-06-2025, 10:12 AM)robkelk Wrote:

(01-05-2025, 06:15 PM)Mamorien Wrote: Danger Zone Brockton (Worm/Trinity Continuum) Chapter 41: Chapter 28 Pandemonium.

* robkelk reads only the snippets posted here

* robkelk reaches for brain bleach

So, should I be blacklisting the writer for turning a setting so grimdark that the story can't possibly be enjoyable to read, or should I be blacklisting the settings for being grimdark to begin with?

(01-06-2025, 01:46 PM)Bob Wrote: I find Worm fics that are designed to ameliorate the grimness much more to my taste -- and when you consider that I consider A Darker Path, in which Taylor becomes a super-powered serial killer (to cast it in the worst possible terms) a distinct improvement in the setting, that should say something.

Quote:I know nothing about Trinity Continuum, so I can't speak to that.

Mr_Crocodile Wrote:Roused by the thundering of an all too human war, two ancient beasts rouse, and decide to use the provided opportunity to start rearing the heir of their almost-extinct dynasty.

---

Notes:
New Monarchs installment, once more taking a look at another corner of the setting that wouldn't ever be featured in an official piece of media!

See the end of the chapter for more notes.

---

Yeah, I know that the idea of putting Kaiju as obscure as Gappa in the middle of an alternate version of the Iran-Iraq War of all places is a wild decision. But hey, putting Kaiju in strange and interesting geopolitical contexts is half the point of OtSoT, you sou aren't allowed to complain.

• https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/vespa.1196279/page-55#post-108020369
  
• https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/vespa.136433/page-102#post-33927491
  

(01-09-2025, 04:34 PM)aku Wrote: Vespa 25

• https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/vespa.1196279/page-55#post-108020369
  
• https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/vespa.136433/page-102#post-33927491
  

with note to Ed.

(01-09-2025, 06:47 PM)Bob Schroeck Wrote:

(01-09-2025, 04:34 PM)aku Wrote: Vespa 25

• https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/vespa.1196279/page-55#post-108020369
  
• https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/vespa.136433/page-102#post-33927491
  

with note to Ed.

Just as a note, the last time we had a link to a new chapter of Vespa, the story had only gotten up to chapter 17.  So unless you've been reading it all this time since then, you'll need to backtrack a bit.

• https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/vespa.136433/page-68#post-33710972
  
• https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/vespa.1196279/page-38#post-107511239
  

(01-09-2025, 07:29 PM)aku Wrote:

(01-09-2025, 06:47 PM)Bob Schroeck Wrote:

(01-09-2025, 04:34 PM)aku Wrote: Vespa 25

• https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/vespa.1196279/page-55#post-108020369
  
• https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/vespa.136433/page-102#post-33927491
  

with note to Ed.

Just as a note, the last time we had a link to a new chapter of Vespa, the story had only gotten up to chapter 17.  So unless you've been reading it all this time since then, you'll need to backtrack a bit.

Apologies, missed that. Vespa 18 is

• https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/vespa.136433/page-68#post-33710972
  
• https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/vespa.1196279/page-38#post-107511239