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The study materials they gave out said it would feel hopeless. More than any other fight against Endbringers.

Victoria, Last 20.6

The Simurgh (Pronounced "see-MOORG" or "SEE-moorg" in US English[35] and "sim-MOORG" in UK English[36]) is one of the three original Endbringers, alongside Behemoth and Leviathan. She is the most recent of the trio to appear, having first made her presence known in Lausanne, Switzerland in 2002.

Personality[]

The Simurgh's thought patterns are clinical and not human, being very goal-oriented and future-focused.[37] She is a cunning planner[38] who, after finding a desired future outcome, will methodically work backwards to decipher the critical events needed to make this outcome possible.[39] She then takes actions in an attempt to causally cause these events to occur,[40] such as taking intervening actions to ideally stop other events from happening that would causally prevent her desired outcome.[41]

The Simurgh is aware of the concept of joy and calm.[42][43] According to Tattletale, the typical shard lacks human rationales, plays the long game, and follows a set goal.[44] Although Tattletale believes the Simurgh runs on more emotional response patterns than other Endbringers such as Behemoth and that the belief system of the Simurgh's creator has influenced how she functions, Tattletale still believes her mindset vaguely resembles that of a shard.[45]

She typically has a neutral expression[46] and does not smile.[47] That said, she is capable of raising a rare smile. After the Simurgh spent two years preparing for her fight against Titan Fortuna[48] and Fortuna decided to cede some ground during their precog duel, the Simurgh smiled and stretched her wings wider.[49]

The Simurgh refers to herself as female.[50][51]

The Simurgh has not shown any inclination to attack satellites in orbit or prevent space travel in general. Several satellites orbit Earth Bet for applications in communication,[52][53][54][55] internet,[56][57] TV,[58][59] observation,[60][61] imagery,[62][63] and Dragon backups.[64][65] Multiple space programs exist,[66] and satellites are still in use during[67][68] and after Gold Morning.[69][70][71][72][73][74][75] On one occasion, she physically intercepted the path of a transmission to a satellite with her body; her dense signature gave off strange signals[76] that scrambled this transmission, which stopped Dragon from getting information from Panacea.[77][78] Indeed, Scion himself is responsible for stopping large numbers of parahumans from leaving the planet[79][80] and the shards already have built-in limitations to sabotage mass transportation options for space travel.[81] Regardless of her interference, Sphere's space project was doomed to fail from the start;[82][83] his shard is explicitly dissatisfied with him.[84] Jess claimed Sphere was working on a clean energy source to power whole cities;[85] he was already a vulnerable target because of his other major projects.[86][87]

Her Drives[]

Eidolon created the Simurgh with a fundamental drive to go to war against him.[88] However, because he unknowingly built her from greater structures intended to salvage a situation where the host species eliminated itself, she also has a drive to collect, consolidate, and sort information[89] produced by parahumans and humanity in a world of conflict.[90][91] The Simurgh describes these drives as being just as fundamental to her as water and food are for humans.[89]

If she is unable to fulfill any of these drives, she will take actions that work towards making them possible again. When Gold Morning occurred, the Simurgh concludes that Scion is now an obstacle to remove;[92] she starts planning for his death via hijacking Dinah's Khepri plot[93] at the last minute[94][95] and also begins planning for events after his death.[48] As she believes the cycle had failed and that the world would eventually be shattered after Scion's death if left alone,[96] the Simurgh explicitly intends to merge with Titan Fortuna,[40][97] take control of Fortuna's network, and start creating a forced simulation.[98][89][99][100] In this forced simulation, humanity is in a caste system[101] and pushed to its limit[90] in a ceaseless struggle to hurt one another with provided tools and powers.[102][103] Although the Simurgh acknowledges a forced simulation is not as ideal as an organically emergent one, she would be able to satisfy her drive to glean information in her three hundred remaining years.[89] She seeks to establish a system that will last until another entity arrives in an estimated three or four billion years.[91] Thus, she opposes Fortuna whose goal is to end the world early and then scatter to other planets.[98][90][104][105]

After Eidolon's death, the Simurgh explicitly intends to recreate her creator to satisfy her drive to war against him.[88] While building a cloning device[106] during Gold Morning, she hides it inside a weapon[107] and refers to it as being cradled.[108] She goes out of her way to protect this device in the ensuing fight against Scion;[109][110] however, she fails her objective as she loses it in the course of the battle,[111] and Lung destroys the infant Eidolon with the help of Teacher's precognitives[112] after Gold Morning.[113] Ten minutes after Lung's success, the Simurgh personally confronts and stares at him before returning to orbit.[114] Although she makes no further attempts to clone Eidolon over the next two years,[115][116] the Simurgh plans on recreating him to be her nemesis once she has merged with Titan Fortuna and set up her forced simulation.[88]

Should the Simurgh notice a non-sabotaged individual trying to build legitimate spaceships to mass evacuate Earth Bet, she would make attempts to corrupt or destroy this individual and hence keep being able to satisfy her drive to glean information.[117]

Relationships[]

Her Creator[]

She calls Eidolon an administrator of the highest order[118] and uses male pronouns when referring to her creator.[88] Eidolon, who has Eden's counterpart shard to Scion's Queen Administrator,[119] created her via the shard network[120] out of Eden's[121][122] pool of emergency resources.[118] The Simurgh is essentially a revamped version of the "Endbringer Lite" Eden would have theoretically created.[121]

After Scion killed Eidolon, she right away started to behave strangely[2] such as appearing on the opposite side of the planet from Bohu[123] and remaining motionless.[124] Valkyrie acknowledges her as Eidolon's long-time opponent; two years after his death, a mere mention of the Simurgh's name would agitate his shade.[125] According to Tattletale, she has a real love-hate relationship with him: the Simurgh respects him despite going to war against him.[9]

Her Siblings[]

She calls the other Endbringers her siblings and refers to them with either male or female pronouns.[16][17] After Scion killed Behemoth, the Simurgh refers to Leviathan as her oldest living brother.[17] After Scion killed Leviathan, she refers to her deceased siblings as Behemoth and Leviathan.[118] Tattletale believes the Simurgh shares some sense of kinship with her siblings.[20]

The Simurgh does not command her siblings. Although they share the common drive of going to war against their creator, her siblings have a different paradigm and purpose as they were built with other fundamental drives.[118][126] The Simurgh cannot force them to take action; for example, if she becomes aware of a non-sabotaged individual trying to build legitimate spaceships to mass evacuate Earth Bet, her siblings would not attack this target on her behalf.[117] Indeed, her siblings have their own objectives; they have their own criteria for attacking vulnerable targets.[127][128][129][86] For example, Leviathan attacked Kyushu in 1999 (i.e., before her creation) to satisfy his fundamental drives to war against Eidolon[130] and to take away resources necessary for survival and thus force relocating communities into conflict.[118][131]

Should their objectives align, the Simurgh can use her understanding of them to better persuade her siblings to pursue common interests.[16] If a String Theory Driver weapon that could kill them existed and Eidolon was alive, they would cooperate and carefully plan their appearances to avoid any setup of a proper hit.[132] After her recruitment during Gold Morning following Eidolon's death, the Simurgh communicated when she was able to with her remaining siblings;[133] they all agreed to cooperate with humanity, remain calm, and attack designated targets when given permission by the groups they were following.[43] In Earth Gimel, the remaining Endbringers all teamed up against Scion,[134][135][136] who murdered Eidolon and their brother.[20]

After Gold Morning, her surviving siblings stayed dormant and did not assist her plot to take control of Fortuna's network.[137][138] When Defiant started firing G-driver blasts at her, none came to her aid.[139] According to Fortuna, the Simurgh can only command Khonsu, Bohu, and Tohu by successfully merging with her and then using an Eidolon shade via Titan Valkyrie;[140] the Simurgh-Fortuna amalgamation would then use her living siblings as bodyguards.[98]

Appearance[]

The Simurgh appears as a fifteen-foot tall human woman, waif-thin and unclothed with pale white skin.[141] Her facial features are delicate,[142] conventionally beautiful in every sense, with classically attractive features such as high cheekbones and luxurious hair.[143] However, her eyes are silver, dull, cold, and empty.[144][142] The Simurgh's hair is almost as long as she is tall and is, like the rest of her form, platinum-white,[141] appearing gossamer-fine and straight.[145] Her body is a smooth facsimile of the human form, lacking nipples or presumably genitalia.[146]

Besides her height and stark white coloration, her major distinguishing features are her profusion of asymmetrically and seemingly randomly placed feathered wings, many of which appear excessively large compared to her body.[147] Parts of her body are described as being "hollow", or made entirely from carefully placed wings or feathers, which trace the outline of any body parts she may have lost in combat.[148] She often wraps her three largest wings around herself.

After seeing her face, despite having no particular feature or quality that he could point to, Trickster found it harder to ascribe any kind of human quality to her.[142] Taylor found her appearance horrifying in the sense that it was all framed;[143] when the Simurgh's hair blew in the wind as if each strand was separate, Taylor believed it was a deliberately intimidating presentation.[145]

Abilities and Powers[]

Psychic Echolocation[]

The Simurgh lacks the five senses and is blind to the present moment.[149] To compensate for this flaw, she has her own psionic sonar system;[150][151] she is a clairvoyant.[147] This kind of psychic echolocation allows her to scan her surroundings[152] and gather information to inform her precognition/postcognition.[153][154][155]

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Illustration by DamienDraidecht on DeviantArt

The Simurgh's psychic echolocation is not interdimensional.[156][157] It can, however, cross dimensional boundaries: when she was near the interdimensional cracks created after the ice broke,[158][159] her active scream could now scan multiple dimensions at once.[160]

Silent Scream[]

Acting as her passive sonar system, the Simurgh's 'silent scream' constantly collects low-feedback information about the environment, even when she is in her hibernation state.[151] Although it lacks planetary range,[117] its range (i.e., radius) is at least 315 km and presumably covers a large area of the Earth's hemisphere while she is in low Earth orbit.[33] As her silent scream is inaudible, it cannot be tracked or sensed by most individuals,[151] allowing her to subtly gather information without being detected.[161][162]

Unlike her active scream, her silent scream does not exert a psychic pressure.[163] It is also slower and much less effective at gathering information,[151] which weakens its predictive power.[164] For example, the Simurgh would require a series of passes[151] (over days, weeks, or months) to thoroughly scan and really understand a subject.[165]

Active Scream[]

Acting as her active sonar system, the Simurgh's 'active scream' is a psionic signal that she consciously chooses to emit that collects a steady feed of information about the environment.[166][167][150] This active scream is optimized for combat: it exerts a psychic pressure[152][168] that presents an offensive time-intensive threat to her opponents.[169][170][154][171] As a result, her signal is telepathically audible, though it remains untrackable by conventional devices.[150]

Her active scream tapers off with distance.[172][173][174] In close proximity, the Simurgh's signal strength is at its strongest;[175][176] her signal strength is at its weakest near the edge of her active scream range.[177][178] Her active scream is explicitly range-limited: she would have to fly closer and then emit her signal to even have a chance at working around Dinah's blind spot to figure out what happened during the remainder of the Wardens' meeting.[166]

The range (i.e., radius) of her active scream is at least a quarter mile[167] and is roughly at most a mile.
(When Defiant fired the Marduk's G-driver outside her active scream range,[164] the path of the resulting beam pulverized a mile-long area of the City before clipping the Simurgh.[139] During the Simurgh's attack on Madison in December 2009, her active scream did not hit the Marquette neighborhood nor parts of the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood when she was at Madison's east isthmus.[179] Krouse estimated the Simurgh was roughly a mile away[180] when his group was near the edge of her active scream range.[181])


If desired, the Simurgh can choose to emit a signal with less strength than normal.[182][183] When going all out, she can deliberately stop using her active scream to better hide her presence[163] and set up ambushes.[184][185]

A tuned Stilling attack, such as one from Scion, can momentarily cancel her active scream.[186] The Bakunawa Zero can send out pulses capable of disrupting powers[187] to scramble the Simurgh's signal.[184]

Precognition/Postcognition[]

The Simurgh perceives the world with her precognition/postcognition,[149] which she also uses to employ long-term schemes that culminate in tragic or destructive outcomes for her deeply-affected victims.[38] While scanning her surroundings and the targets within via her active scream, for every hundredth of a second,[160] she gathers enough data to be perfectly aware of their immediate future (assuming they are not blind spots).[152] The longer she scans targets with her psychic echolocation, the further her power reaches into their past and future[152] (i.e., will keep going until birth/death assuming no blind spots[188]) which she then uses to refine her pretercognition.[153][154] Indeed, the Simurgh is constantly decoding the data gathered from targets to search for valid levers of manipulation.[153][189] Thus, the longer visible targets and threats are exposed to her active scream, the better her pretercognition is at assessing them in a fight:[170] they become less effective against her in a fight over time.[154]

She can focus on a single target to decode them faster. In most cases, this focus is necessary when she needs to quickly form a distraction that involves that target or attack them hard enough to create a window of opportunity. However, she cannot effectively perceive everything else while she is focusing.[153]

The Simurgh also decodes data to find more and better prompts to cause victims past their code red threshold to snap.[171] She can then use two vectors of attack in tandem[190] to effectively turn them into Rube Goldberg devices: 1) a long-term psychic influence, and 2) predictions of their behavior and activity (in the order of months and years).[152] These guided missiles typically produce strings of horrific future events in the vicinity of her attacks, long after she has retreated.[152] Note that more time allows her to create more complex chains of cause and effect.[162]

Information Gathering Time[]

To inform her precognition/postcognition and achieve optimal combat effectiveness in a fight, the Simurgh explicitly needs time to manually gather information via her psychic echolocation and work out the ins and outs of cause and effect.[160][155] This flaw is in marked contrast to the powers of Contessa and Dinah who immediately gather needed information.[191][192]

Before the start of a fight, she has a tendency to reach a position and then remain still while waiting for her opponents to come to her.[193] Once battle ensues, she starts emitting her active scream to initiate her warm-up information gathering phase.[194] At this point in time, she is unable to dodge everything thrown at her: she is less combat-effective because she has not yet gathered enough recent valid data via her active scream.[170] Thus, the Simurgh has a tendency to fight defensively during the early parts of a fight.[195] After years of experience fighting her,[196] humanity learned that doing as much damage as possible at this stage, while also emphasizing chaos and disturbance, was crucial for extending her warm-up phase and delaying the arrival of her final phase.[170][197][184]

Blind Spots[]

The Simurgh cannot directly perceive Scion;[198] she describes him as having no apparent past or future.[92] Eidolon is also a blind spot;[199][200][2] by design, he is capable of stopping the Simurgh in combat.[120][201] Shard-derived sensory powers cannot perceive Mantellum (i.e., he blinds shards);[202][203][204] he and anyone in his radius are presumably a blind spot as even Contessa cannot perceive him with her All-or-Nothing power.[205][206]

She cannot see a trigger event directly;[207] it took her several hours before she noticed Dauntless had a broken trigger.[208][27]

The Simurgh's precognition/postcognition is not All-or-Nothing;[209] other precognitives can interfere with her power.[210][211][112][212] She is unable to directly perceive Contessa,[6][49] Dinah,[166][213][155] and other precognitives (e.g., applicable Teacher thralls,[112] Shamrock[214][215][216]). When a precognitive uses their power and interacts with individuals, these other individuals become temporary blind spots.[188][217][213] Thus, a precognitive's range of influence can make deciphering the following events difficult[212] and obscure possibilities from her sight.[211] Note that Scion[218] and Eidolon[219][220] can also use precognition if needed.

Given enough time, she can work around blind spots to some extent. To handle a temporary blind spot, the Simurgh can use prior information to guess their likely course.[189] For non-temporary blind spots, although she cannot directly perceive them, she can potentially observe the aftermath of their actions after they occur in real time by looking at the reactions of visible individuals; she can then guess the blind spot's location using this context.[92][166] Thus, she appears to favor the shotgun approach when confronting blind spots.[221] According to Tattletale, the Simurgh knows she will be blind sometimes; in a fight, the Endbringer collects and stacks pieces to ideally reach a point where she has so many factors on her side that she can make blind moves and still win.[222]

The Simurgh can be overconfident against sufficiently powerful precognitives, such as the first[206][48][160][209] and third most powerful ones in-universe.[223] During their precog duel, Fortuna and Contessa agreed to work in concert to quickly execute a path without investigating it too much, which forced the Simurgh to leave.[224] Despite being unable to see the remainder of the Wardens' meeting because of Dinah, she erroneously believed there was no reality where the eventual end result was not entirely in her favor.[166] After the disabling of the Mathers Giant confirmed Dinah as a genuine blind spot,[213] Victoria Dallon asked her one last question before extending Dinah's range of influence to every cape present in the immediate area using her aura.[225] The appearance of so many temporary blind spots flowing from Dinah temporarily stunned the Simurgh.[226] It also opened a window of opportunity afterward: the discombobulated Endbringer could only leverage prior information about the surrounding facility[155] and had to restart her warm-up information gathering phase once this temporary blind spot effect disappeared.[227][228][229]

Psychic Pressure and Influence[]

The psionic signal of her active scream exerts a psychic pressure[152][168] that the minds of living beings (e.g., animals and people[12]) interpret as an impossibly high and drawn out scream.[230] This scream changes in pitch and tone just often enough to never settle into a pattern.[231][232] Note that this psychic pressure is psionic in nature as her telekinesis is Manton-limited.[233]

With enough knowledge of a subject, she can evoke memories subconsciously through her posture and actions. By placing a target in a stressful environment, this can be used to cause hallucinations.[234] She can influence machines as well as people.[234][235]

As the strength of her signal depends on proximity, the intensity of her psychic pressure and the amount of exposure received depend on one's distance from the Simurgh.[236] Although signal strength is the most important factor in determining scream volume,[177] the more sustained exposure one receives, the worse and louder this imagined sound becomes.[237][227][228] After years of experience against the Simurgh,[196] humanity came up with a system to evaluate the danger of sustained exposure via two thresholds: code yellow and code red.[170]

When a victim passes their code yellow threshold, they become an increasing danger to others.[170] The stressful environment set up by the Simurgh, combined with a psychic pressure that feels worse with sustained exposure, can affect decision-making and lead to accidental mistakes.[238][239][240] For example, when Victoria Dallon thought about finding out whether she killed her sister or not,[241] when something grabbed her, she accidentally hurt Sveta's arm because she initially thought it was her sister.[242][240] Authorities such as Legend recommend individuals retreat when they are between the code yellow and code red thresholds, or even earlier to play it safe.[170] Indeed, one strategy used against her is to rotate people in and out of her active scream range so that they can reset their exposure and take some time to restabilize.[170][169]

When a victim passes their code red threshold and breaks down, they effectively become a guided missile[243] that she can use against her opponents.[170] The Simurgh can now place a subtle[244][117] and long-term psychic influence that alters their behavior, implants messages, or creates compulsions.[152] Note that she explicitly needs time for the victim to pass their code red threshold before she can get her hooks in;[244] this process does not get any faster when she goes all out.[171]

The amount of sustained exposure an individual can withstand before passing their code yellow or code red thresholds is dependent on their mental stability.[171][245] Several people in any population are already on the verge of a mental breakdown and only need the right prompt from the Simurgh to snap.[171] Emotionally imbalanced individuals (e.g., Noelle,[245] Cody,[245] Shadow Stalker,[246] Taylor,[247] Bloodplay[248]) require much less sustained exposure to pass their thresholds compared with more stable individuals. For example, Victoria Dallon after coming to terms with the Fragile One[249] is highly resistant because she has been dealing with her obvious weak spots for years.[250][251] Despite enduring the Simurgh's constant psychic pressure for an extended duration in close proxmity,[252][190] Dauntless successfully held onto his sanity and fought against her during her final flight.[253]

Emotion inducers can help thwart the Simurgh's efforts at breaking individuals and extend the thresholds for others. After Victoria Dallon gained the ability to choose what emotions her aura induced based on her own feelings and memories,[254][255] she could hit individuals with courage and righteous indignation; these feelings helped them focus their ire on the Simurgh instead of ruminating on negative thoughts.[256][257][258][225] She can also hit individuals with feelings of calm and relief to help sooth emotionally imbalanced individuals.[249]

Blind spots (including temporary ones) are immune to her psychic pressure; they do not hear her active scream.[6][226][155] Some powers that protect the brain can also grant immunity to the Simurgh's psychic pressure.[259] Alexandria is immune because she offloads her mental processes to her shard.[260][259] Cryptid's bird forms[261] are immune[262][263] because they either detach mind from body, or detach vulnerable parts of the mind from other parts of the mind.[264] Torso felt fantastic when fighting against the Simurgh[265][266] because of his All-or-Nothing invulnerability.[267]

In theory, a sufficiently powerful telepath can detect her psychic echolocation and also remove the Simurgh's psychic influence from deeply-affected victims.[268]

Borrowing Powers[]

Although the Simurgh is normally unable to make tinker devices herself,[269] her active scream can pull on nearby Tinker powers.[270] As long as Tinkers stay within active scream range, her signal can allow her to borrow their schematics[271] and techniques,[272] copy the design of specific devices present,[271] and collect knowledge to create related tinker tech via a Thinker/Trump sort of approach.[23] The Simurgh can also choose to create a macro-scale version of their devices from surrounding materials.[272] If relevant Tinkers are not nearby, she can only make cosmetic changes to her tinker devices.[273]

Tinker Devices

Her active scream can allow her to pull on the perception powers of nearby Thinkers and tap into them; as long as they stay within active scream range, she can then borrow those specific powers.[280] When the Simurgh was not fighting during Gold Morning, she tried to stay near Tattletale to pull on her power.[281] However, she still filters these borrowed powers through her active scream: despite having control of the Mathers Giant and being in the same room as Tattletale and Victoria Dallon, she was unable to see Dinah and thus stop the Dinah-influenced Victoria[282] from disabling the Mathers Giant.[213][176]

The Simurgh is unable to borrow powers from blind spots.[209] For example, despite perching on Titan Fortuna's shoulder during their precog duel,[283] Fortuna still had a hundred times the Simurgh's strength.[48] When Fortuna and Contessa worked in concert to quickly execute a path without investigating it too much, the Simurgh could not tamper with it, forcing her to leave.[224]

Telekinesis[]

A powerful telekinetic, the Simurgh is capable of lifting and tossing buildings as if they were softballs.[272][284][285] On one occasion, she picked up six buildings to orbit around her.[180] Although he did not actually see the targets, Krouse speculated the Simurgh could strike a hundred targets simultaneously with thrown debris.[180]

The Simurgh can telekinetically create and control "decoys" made from debris.[286][287][8] She uses this defensive tactic against Scion because he had a pattern of destroying decoys first.[288][289]

Because her telekinesis manifests itself as a grip, the Simurgh cannot use her telekinesis on objects that are too slick to grab.[290] Anything sprayed by Withdrawal's yellow fluid[291] cannot be picked up or held by her telekinesis.[292] Her telekinesis is not effective against Chevalier's Endbringer-derived armor and cannonblade.[293]

Sufficiently powerful telekinetics such as the Giantess (i.e., an individual strong enough to lift and throw buildings[294]) can overpower her telekinesis.[295] The Bakunawa Zero can send out spherical waves capable of stripping away the Simurgh's telekinetic hold.[184]

Manton Limit[]

The Simurgh is unable to use her telekinesis on biological living entities.[233] As a result of the Manton effect, she also cannot manipulate materials close to the skin, such as bodysuits[233] and presumably explosive armbands.[296] This Manton limit even extends to non-living materials that become part of one's identity;[297] the Simurgh cannot use her telekinesis directly on the Marduk[298] as Defiant truly considered the ship as part of him when plugged in.[299]

She can telekinetically grab costume parts that are not close enough to the skin to be considered an extension of the individual, allowing her to obliquely throw around these specific individuals.[300][301][302] Withdrawal's tinkertech frame has mechanical extremities not covered by the Manton effect; she can pin these extended limbs.[303] However, having less vulnerable costume parts can weaken her grip; after Victoria Dallon removed her coat and shoulder decorations,[304] her flight and forcefield could now overpower the Simurgh's faint grip.[305] Withdrawal could still disengage from his tinkertech frame,[306] allowing him to hard counter her telekinesis[292][307] with his yellow fluid.[291]

Flight[]

The Simurgh is capable of flight.[272] Her flight is not dependent on her wings;[30][308] however, by pointing her wings directly behind her, she can become more aerodynamic.[309]

Although Weaver speculated the Endbringer used telekinesis to move,[308] the Simurgh does not refer to the use of telekinesis when she flies.[51] Her telekinesis is not only Manton-limited,[233] but she could still move even when the Bakunawa Zero cancelled her telekinesis.[184] Eidolon built her from structures that presumably have the common ability of flight.[310]

In the troposphere, the Simurgh is unable to fly fast enough to fully dodge a G-driver blast fired outside her active scream range; she was forced to choose between destruction and a grazing hit.[139][164] She is also slower than Victoria Dallon carrying Rain O'Fire Frazier;[311] Victoria can keep up with a train travelling at around 100 mph.[312]

Her flight can work outside Earth's atmosphere. After the shard network transported the finished Endbringer to the far side of the moon (i.e., near the end of December 2002[14] when the moon was closest to Earth Bet), she descended to Lausanne in an unknown time frame.[313] The Simurgh can also fly up and maintain a lazy orbit in the Earth's thermosphere[33] or mesosphere.[34]

Other Abilities[]

The Simurgh has incredible durability, at least for her largest wing,[314] and can regenerate[148] thanks to her Endbringer physiology. Like other Endbringers, she cannot be predicted easily with the typical Thinker danger sense[315] and is also a blind spot to the typical precognition,[316] including Contessa.[317][318] That said, she is not a blind spot for Titan Fortuna.[319]

History[]

Background[]

The Simurgh was the third Endbringer to appear, appearing just after the turn of the millennium. She first appeared in Lausanne, Switzerland in December 2002[14], and initially appeared benevolent and cooperative while psychically manipulating the people around her for three days, [15] after which she let out her first 'audible' psychic scream. [320] Most residents of the Swiss capital, due to exposure to her mental manipulation, became violent and aggressive, attempting to kill as many people as they could and disrupt the world's resistance to the Endbringers as much as possible. This caused havoc throughout the country and the continent with wide ranging consequences. Lausanne's population was barricaded in and bombed. James Tagg was one of the people involved in that campaign.[321]

She attacked London on August 12th, 2003. It is unknown what the outcome of this event was.

The Simurgh was responsible for the corruption of Sphere, leading him to become the serial killer and Slaughterhouse Nine member known as Mannequin.[322]

Sometime in 2006, the United States introduced the D.D.I.D. act which involved bird-shaped tattoos being used to mark individuals who are cleared to leave a Simurgh quarantine zone.[323] This act was revoked in the summer of 2010[324] after she attacked Madison, Wisconsin in December 2009. Note that she previously attacked America sometime between the introduction of the D.D.I.D. act and this attack.[323] Although the heroes won at Madison,[325] the aftermath necessitated the quarantine of a good portion of the city. The Travelers were created as a by-product of this attack, which set the stage for multiple other events.

The Simurgh also attacked Canberra on February 24th, 2011; the event was a Scion no-show, but a Legend/Eidolon victory.[326] The aftermath of this attack necessitated the construction of a dome around the city.[327] This was a factor in Canary having a highly biased trial that sent her to the birdcage.[328]

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine[]

The Travelers and the emergence of The Echidna performed their intended function, it is unknown if the resultant portal was planned. The revelation of Cauldron to the larger parahuman community and the subsequent schisms in The Protectorate was likely planned.

Prevented Dragon finding out crucial information from Panacea.[329]

Post-Echidna[]

The Simurgh's use of the Travelers culminates in the near-assassination of Chevalier and Tattletale and the death of Accord by the expelled Traveler member Perdition at New Delhi. It is unknown whether the death of Behemoth was predicted, given Scion's and Eidolon's interference.

Timeskip[]

Attacked Paris on December 19th 2012 and accessed Earth Shin.[330]

Gold Morning[]

Was recruited by the Undersiders and the Guild into the effort against Zion. Her first mission was to fight off The Yàngbǎn.[331]

Later, after her sibling Leviathan was used to punish The Elite, she upgraded him.

It is unknown if the Simurgh was involved in the creation of Khepri. She was able to fake her destruction at Zion's hands and helped to break his mind.[332]

Post-Gold Morning[]

Apparently, tried to clone Eidolon only for it to be destroyed.[333]

Ward[]

She is recorded as being inactive for the two years since Gold Morning.[116]

Post-Goddess' Takeover[]

Reports had it as her being active again,[334] her intentions were unknown.[138]

Post-Assault on the Time Bubbles[]

After Dauntless undergoes a broken trigger and merges with his shard, the Simurgh approaches the Kronos Titan and begins 'whispering to it'.[252]

Post-Attack on Teacher[]

Ziz abandoned her perch for a moment after the encounter with Chevalier.[335] But returned back after the threat had passed.[32]

The Ice Breaks[]

Simurgh switched her nest from Kronos to Fortuna.[336] According to the Wardens' think-tank Simurgh scrambles Fortuna's communication.[337] Simurgh had managed to outplan the titan. Their duel was interrupted by the interference in The Shardspace.[319]

After ensuring her domination over Fortuna Titan, Simurgh set up Cryptid emotionally, sabotaged Dragon's efforts, and fed pieces of herself to the Machine Army. She skipped attending the Wardens' meeting.[166]

When the Wardens attempted an assault on her, she humored them for a while, then deployed the Machine Army to tie their forces, and went straight to their HQ.[338] She later ambushed the leading group, that was securing the complex, killing several heroes in the process.[339] Meanwhile, Simurgh-compromised individuals put pressure on the Wardens thinkers.[340]

The Simurgh for a short period took over the Mathers Giant, that was used to sedate all her other victims. It allowed her to wreak a massive chaos and kill a dozen or so capes.[341] Antares was able to turn the tide by disabling the Giant and temporarily blinding the Simurgh to the people present with Dinah Alcott's help. The Simurgh was cut in half with Precipice's blades, but escaped.[342]

The Simurgh's Final Flight[]

In a desperate attempt to subsume Titan Fortuna before Dauntless can join her network, the Simurgh flies towards Fortuna's small army of Titans. However, Dauntless attacks her en route as she is pursued by Defiant and Dragon.[343] Using the cover provided by the surrounding ruined cityscape, she tries to dodge the relentless attacks from Dauntless until she eventually gets close enough for Fortuna's group to make its move, causing Dauntless to stop his attacks.[344] The Machine Army, effectively in service to the Simurgh because of their previous exposure to her,[40][345] then arrive and open fire on Defiant and Dragon[346] as they are eager to collect their technology.[347]

While Dragon provides cover, Defiant aims the Marduk in the Simurgh's direction and primes the G-driver[348] outside her active scream range.[164] Although Fortuna's group[347] hits the Marduk and knocks his shot off course,[349] the weapon did not require very good aim which meant the blast still clips the Simurgh[139] (and also Dauntless by accident[350]). However, the Machine Army soon forces Dragon to focus on preventing them from collecting the Simurgh's lost body parts.[76][351]

Under fire from the Machine Army[347][352] and staying out of her active scream range,[164] Defiant notices the Simurgh will reach Fortuna before the next G-driver shot can finish charging.[353] Breakthrough via Lookout contacts him with their plan to contact Dauntless.[354][355] Defiant decides to trust in Dauntless[190] and flies his ship right past him at speeds fast enough to peel away damaged hull.[356] Defiant then places his ship right between the Simurgh and Fortuna.[298]

When a projectile hurled by telekinesis proved ineffective,[298] the Simurgh literally uses herself as a living missile and crashes into the Marduk.[357] Yet despite all her efforts,[190] Dauntless takes action and saves Defiant.[253] With his ship severely damaged,[357] Defiant is forced to manually fire the Marduk's G-driver.[358] However, as they are now in her active scream range, her signal could interfere with the signal of the manual firing button and prevent it from reaching the weapon.[359]

Resuming his attacks once more, Dauntless strikes the Simurgh with his spear:[360] the electricity from his attacks overrode the interference caused by her signal.[361] Shouting at Dauntless, Defiant asks him to join Fortuna's network.[362] Unfortunately for the Endbringer, the Skadi and Liminal Titans then gang up on her and stop her from physically contacting Fortuna.[363] Although Defiant mistimes the first button press,[361] when Dauntless attacks her again, Defiant simply held the button down; this successfully fired the G-driver and flung the Simurgh and the Titans back.[364] Although the resulting blast was not a proper hit capable of killing an Endbringer[132] because of the Marduk's severe damage[357] causing it to break apart while firing this blast[364] and Dauntless having to guide the direction of this blast with the help of Fortuna's sight, it was more than sufficient to knock the Simurgh into Sleeper's storm.[365]

The Wardens previously baited in Sleeper and lured him to the City in an attempt to slow down the Titans.[366][367][368] When the Simurgh was flung into his storm, she was trapped, lay prone, and was taken out of the picture entirely.[365][369] She was still dealt with even after Sleeper retreated from the area.[367]

Chapter Appearances[]

Worm Chapter Appearances
Agitation
1. Agitation 3.1 Absent
2. Agitation 3.2 Absent
3. Agitation 3.3 Absent
4. Agitation 3.4 Absent
5. Agitation 3.5 Absent
6. Agitation 3.6 Absent
7. Agitation 3.7 Absent
8. Agitation 3.8 Absent
9. Agitation 3.9 Absent
10. Agitation 3.10 Absent
11. Agitation 3.11 Mentioned
12. Agitation 3.12 Absent
x. Interlude 3 Absent
Extermination
1. Extermination 8.1 Absent
2. Extermination 8.2 Mentioned
y. Interlude 8.y Absent
3. Extermination 8.3 Absent
4. Extermination 8.4 Mentioned
5. Extermination 8.5 Absent
6. Extermination 8.6 Mentioned
7. Extermination 8.7 Absent
8. Extermination 8.8 Absent
z. Interlude 8.z Absent
Parasite
1. Parasite 10.1 Absent
2. Parasite 10.2 Absent
3. Parasite 10.3 Absent
4. Parasite 10.4 Absent
5. Parasite 10.5 Absent
6. Parasite 10.6 Absent
x. Interlude 10 Absent
x. Interlude 10.5 Debut
Infestation
1. Infestation 11.1 Absent
2. Infestation 11.2 Absent
3. Infestation 11.3 Absent
4. Infestation 11.4 Absent
5. Infestation 11.5 Absent
6. Infestation 11.6 Absent
7. Infestation 11.7 Absent
8. Infestation 11.8 Absent
a. Interlude 11a Absent
b. Interlude 11b Absent
c. Interlude 11c Absent
d. Interlude 11d Mentioned
e. Interlude 11e Absent
f. Interlude 11f Absent
g. Interlude 11g Absent
h. Interlude 11h Absent
Plague
1. Plague 12.1 Absent
2. Plague 12.2 Absent
3. Plague 12.3 Absent
4. Plague 12.4 Absent
5. Plague 12.5 Absent
6. Plague 12.6 Absent
7. Plague 12.7 Mentioned
8. Plague 12.8 Absent
x. Interlude 12 Absent
y. Interlude 12.5 Absent
Colony
1. Colony 15.1 Absent
x. Interlude 15.x Absent
2. Colony 15.2 Absent
3. Colony 15.3 Absent
y. Interlude 15.y Absent
4. Colony 15.4 Absent
5. Colony 15.5 Absent
6. Colony 15.6 Absent
7. Colony 15.7 Absent
z. Interlude 15.z Mentioned
8. Colony 15.8 Absent
9. Colony 15.9 Absent
10. Colony 15.10 Absent
i. Interlude 15 Absent
Monarch
1. Monarch 16.1 Absent
2. Monarch 16.2 Absent
x. Interlude 16.x Absent
3. Monarch 16.3 Absent
4. Monarch 16.4 Absent
5. Monarch 16.5 Absent
6. Monarch 16.6 Absent
y. Interlude 16.y Absent
7. Monarch 16.7 Absent
8. Monarch 16.8 Absent
9. Monarch 16.9 Absent
10. Monarch 16.10 Absent
z. Interlude 16.z Appears
11. Monarch 16.11 Absent
12. Monarch 16.12 Absent
13. Monarch 16.13 Absent
Migration
1. Migration 17.1 Appears
2. Migration 17.2 Appears
3. Migration 17.3 Appears
4. Migration 17.4 Appears
5. Migration 17.5 Mentioned
6. Migration 17.6 Mentioned
7. Migration 17.7 Mentioned
8. Migration 17.8 Mentioned
Queen
1. Queen 18.1 Absent
2. Queen 18.2 Mentioned
x. Interlude 18.x Absent
3. Queen 18.3 Absent
4. Queen 18.4 Mentioned
y. Interlude 18.y Absent
5. Queen 18.5 Absent
6. Queen 18.6 Absent
z. Interlude 18.z Absent
7. Queen 18.7 Absent
8. Queen 18.8 Absent
f. Interlude 18.f Mentioned
i. Interlude 18 Mentioned
Scourge
1. Scourge 19.1 Absent
2. Scourge 19.2 Absent
3. Scourge 19.3 Absent
x. Interlude 19.x Mentioned
4. Scourge 19.4 Mentioned
5. Scourge 19.5 Absent
6. Scourge 19.6 Mentioned
7. Scourge 19.7 Mentioned
y. Interlude 19.y Mentioned
z. Interlude 19.z Absent
Chrysalis
1. Chrysalis 20.1 Absent
2. Chrysalis 20.2 Absent
3. Chrysalis 20.3 Absent
4. Chrysalis 20.4 Absent
5. Chrysalis 20.5 Absent
x. Interlude 20.x Absent
y. Interlude 20.y Mentioned
Imago
1. Imago 21.1 Absent
2. Imago 21.2 Absent
3. Imago 21.3 Absent
4. Imago 21.4 Absent
5. Imago 21.5 Absent
6. Imago 21.6 Absent
7. Imago 21.7 Absent
x. Interlude 21.x Mentioned
y. Interlude 21.y Absent
Cell
1. Cell 22.1 Absent
2. Cell 22.2 Mentioned
3. Cell 22.3 Absent
4. Cell 22.4 Absent
5. Cell 22.5 Mentioned
6. Cell 22.6 Mentioned
x. Interlude 22.x Absent
y. Interlude 22.y Absent
Drone
1. Drone 23.1 Absent
2. Drone 23.2 Absent
3. Drone 23.3 Absent
4. Drone 23.4 Absent
5. Drone 23.5 Absent
x. Interlude 23 Mentioned
Crushed
1. Crushed 24.1 Absent
2. Crushed 24.2 Absent
3. Crushed 24.3 Mentioned
4. Crushed 24.4 Absent
5. Crushed 24.5 Mentioned
x. Interlude 24.x Mentioned
y. Interlude 24.y Mentioned
Scarab
1. Scarab 25.1 Absent
2. Scarab 25.2 Appears
3. Scarab 25.3 Absent
4. Scarab 25.4 Mentioned
5. Scarab 25.5 Absent
6. Scarab 25.6 Mentioned
x. Interlude 25 Mentioned
Sting
1. Sting 26.1 Mentioned
2. Sting 26.2 Absent
3. Sting 26.3 Absent
x. Interlude 26.x Absent
4. Sting 26.4 Absent
5. Sting 26.5 Absent
6. Sting 26.6 Absent
a. Interlude 26a Absent
b. Interlude 26b Absent
y. Interlude 26 Absent
Extinction
1. Extinction 27.1 Mentioned
2. Extinction 27.2 Absent
3. Extinction 27.3 Absent
4. Extinction 27.4 Absent
5. Extinction 27.5 Mentioned
x. Interlude 27.x Mentioned
y. Interlude 27.y Absent
Cockroaches
1. Cockroaches 28.1 Mentioned
2. Cockroaches 28.2 Appears
3. Cockroaches 28.3 Mentioned
4. Cockroaches 28.4 Appears
5. Cockroaches 28.5 Appears
6. Cockroaches 28.6 Appears
x. Interlude 28 Appears
Venom
1. Venom 29.1 Appears
2. Venom 29.2 Appears
3. Venom 29.3 Appears
4. Venom 29.4 Absent
5. Venom 29.5 Absent
6. Venom 29.6 Absent
7. Venom 29.7 Absent
8. Venom 29.8 Mentioned
9. Venom 29.9 Appears
x. Interlude 29 Absent
Speck
1. Speck 30.1 Absent
2. Speck 30.2 Appears
3. Speck 30.3 Mentioned
4. Speck 30.4 Absent
5. Speck 30.5 Appears
6. Speck 30.6 Appears
7. Speck 30.7 Appears
Teneral
1. Teneral e.1 Absent
2. Teneral e.2 Absent
3. Teneral e.3 Absent
4. Teneral e.4 Absent
5. Teneral e.5 Appears
x. Interlude: End Appears

Quotes[]

"She seemed human, but fifteen or so feet tall, waif-thin, and unclothed. Her hair whipped around her, nearly as long as she was tall and platinum-white. The most shocking part of it all was the wings; she had so many, asymmetrical and illogical in their arrangement, each with pristine white feathers. The three largest wings folded around her protectively, far too large in proportion to her body, even with her height. Other wings of varying size fanned out from the joints of others, from the wing tips, and from her spine. Some seemed to be positioned to give the illusion of modesty, angled around her chest and pelvis." - Migration 17.1
"She turned to one side, and Krouse could make out her face. Her features were delicate with high cheekbones. Her eyes were gray from corner to corner. And cold. There was nothing he could point to, no particular feature or quality that could help him explain why or how, but seeing her face made it harder to ascribe any kind of human quality to her. If he’d been thinking she had a sense of modesty before, he didn’t now." - Migration 17.1

Trivia[]

  • This article includes information from a chapter that Wildbow said he would likely change later.
  • Wildbow commented on March 30, 2015, that the Simurgh is the only Endbringer he has not seen drawn accurately yet because artists tend to under-scale the size of her wings.[47] However, he later commented on June 3, 2016, that he was a huge fan of the illustration by DamienDraidecht on DeviantArt because of the intensity and scale of the wings.[370]
  • "Simurgh" is a benevolent, mythical flying creature. It is sometimes equated with other mythological birds such as Arabic Anqā, Persian Homā or Turkic Kerkés, Semrug, Semurg, Samran, and Samruk.
  • "Ziz" is the third creature in what can be called an Abrahamic trinity of beasts. As Leviathan is first among the creatures of the water, and Behemoth is first among the creatures of the land, Ziz is first among the creatures of the air. This serves as a larger clue to the Endbringers' constructed nature that they deliberately tap into these belief structures.
  • In Isaiah 6:2, above the throne of God "...were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying." In the Bible "feet" often stood as a euphemism for genitalia (Deut 28: 57) (Ezekiel 16:25). Simurgh's multiple wings and attempt at modesty might, therefore, be a reference to Biblical Seraphim.

Fanart Gallery[]

References[]

  1. “That’s one of the other names for Behemoth. Like Ziz is for the Simurgh?” - Extermination 8.6
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Let's face the facts, Simurgh. Ziz. Israfel. Ulama. Whatever you want to go by. You started acting funny pretty much right away, after Eidolon bit it. Maybe that’s mourning. Maybe you respected him as an enemy, ’cause he was one of only two individuals who could really give you guys a run for your money. Or maybe you had a different relationship.”

    Tattletale let the words hang in the air.

    “Maybe a parent-child relationship? Maybe he created you.” - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.4
  3. “Yes. This is likely,” Phir Sē said. “This is what he may want. I hoped for the Second or Third. This will have to do.” - Crushed 24.3
  4. “Dinah knows?” I asked.

    “Our Kid Cassandra is flailing in the dark, compared to our lady in silver. Sorry.” - Last 20.6
  5. Tattletale was on the other side of the cover I leaned against, while the dog lay at my feet, taking its beating. I heard her voice. “Metaphor. We’re playing chess. Each and every one of us, we’ve got a board and we’re sitting on the other side of the table from the all-knowing angel. She can think ahead to endgame, and we don’t know how to play.” - Last 20.6
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 The silver woman was silent, but the silence spoke volumes. - Radiation 18.z
  7. I was familiar with my power acting of its own volition. This was something in that vein. My power had a firmer grip on the whole of me, and other things were on shakier ground, acting the way they pleased. Feelings. My body.

    Passenger.

    No, why would it care about any of this? Why would it care about the winged woman? The two individuals who’d been riding the monster?

    But it was the closest feeling I could manage. - Speck 30.7
  8. 8.0 8.1 In the other Earth, the winged Endbringer fell from high above, her innumerable wings broken, ruined and bent. She reached skyward, as if clutching for Scion, high above, and then the hand crumbled.

    The rest of her followed suit.
    [...]
    The moment he left Earth Gimel, the Simurgh scattered the mixed sand and dirt she’d gathered above her, then climbed to her feet, gun in hand. The pieces of the fake body she’d formed of the materials at hand broke apart as they fell free. She waited, recuperating. - Speck 30.6
  9. 9.0 9.1 “So, Simmy, Eidolon made you, or he’s been enough of an opponent that you’ve kind of got that weird frenemy thing going on. Not in the shitty high school way, but a real love-hate relationship. You know what I mean. You fight them so long you get to know them, you almost respect them on a level, and that respect becomes something more.”

    “You’re rambling,” I murmured.

    Tattletale shook her head a little. “Whatever the case, you’re reacting to his being gone. We’re here because we’re asking you…” - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.4
  10. “Fine?” Cody growled. “We’re fucking stuck in a world with Endbringers like that psycho alien bird bitch! And we’ve got you playing head games with us on top of that!” - Migration 17.6
  11. “Because the Simurgh’s been replying old memories for me, and the irritating thing is they aren’t my most painful memories.”

    Cody wasn’t listening. Krouse walked past him, and Cody turned to follow, talking to him from behind. “Not the time my mom had my cat put down, when they definitely could have saved him. No, every time she brings some memory to the surface, it’s you.”

    Krouse paused mid-step, then forced himself to keep walking.

    “Isn’t that a pisser? I get some lunatic alien bird thing speaking in my head, and all she wants to do is make me remember the times you irritated me. The little pranks you pulled, like getting to the clubroom early and fucking with my computer before a game.” - Migration 17.5
  12. 12.0 12.1 No. the back door of the house opened into an enclosed back patio with a dining room table and heavy green curtains blocking each of the windows. On top of the table was a cage with a small bird inside. A cockatoo or something. The bird was standing on the floor of its home, slowly, steadily and monotonously banging its head against the raised metal lip of the cage. Blood and bloody bird footprints joined the bird shit that spattered the newspaper that lined the cage.

    She affects animals too. Is this what’s in store for us? It was unnerving to watch, to imagine that it could easily be him doing the same thing, sometime in the near future. That steady, mindless kind of self harm. Suicide by compulsive repetition, beating his head to a pulp against the nearest solid surface… if he was lucky. He was a human with opposable thumbs, and there were a hell of a lot of ugly things he could do to himself if that fucking bird woman decided to push him that far. Just as bad, there were ugly things that he could do to others. - Excerpt from Migration 17.3
  13. “It’s the smurf,” Cody breathed. - Excerpt from Migration 17.1
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 Lausanne, December 30th, 2002. Simurgh. - Interlude 24.x
  15. 15.0 15.1 “So the whole world watched for something like three days, to see if she would be another Scion, or if she'd be something else. People approached, she even communicated with them some. Not talking, just gestures, I guess. Interacting might be a better word. And when we thought things would be okay, she made a move. The entire population of the city around her, with all the people who had come to talk with her and research her…” - Excerpt from Migration 17.2
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 The younger siblings are harder to target, but their birthplace is studded with temporal anomalies. Holes in time, wells, echoes, slowed time and accelerated time, from confrontations that have occurred, even confrontations she participated in. She manipulates the wind as she affected the water. A stirring that prompts another stirring, and the temporal effects that can be affected are struck in a particular pattern, strained in a particular order, from the fastest to the slowest. Again, she repeats the process emphasizing the anomalies with individuals trapped within. As communications go, it is crude, but she knows her siblings like she knows any other target. Slow, calm, the subjects.

    More communications, to get the point across. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 The younger sister needs only a tremor, the very same wavelength their oldest living brother received. She responds in kind.

    The youngest sister needs only an expression of any power. By the time the others are alerted, the youngest is prepared. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  18. “And who’s this?” Bonesaw asked. She approached the glass case with the Morrígan inside.

    “Morrígan.”

    “Looks like the Simurgh.”

    “She is. In part. The other half of the genetic base is from Myrddin’s tissue. Everything that bridges the gap is a really complex fungus.” - Interlude 19.x
  19. The water finished pouring out, and the Morrígan took its first steps. Five or six years old in apparent age, a vague replica of the Simurgh. It would have some blend of her powers and Myrddin’s.
    [...]
    The Morrígan flopped to the ground. Dead. Dumb. Not viable.

    Just as the crystalline feather and Leviathan’s blood had been, it wasn’t capable of sustaining life. A failed experiment. - Interlude 19.x
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 “…Do it for the psychological impact, leave a mark. Or do it because Scion killed Behemoth, your brother, and some part of you is programmed with a sense of kinship or whatever. But above all else, I’m hoping you’ll help us murder that golden alien motherfucker because he killed Eidolon, and he stripped you of your purpose.” - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.4
  21. A current of water in a particular set of wavelengths, to her brother who sees the world as water – living things as balloons of meat largely made up of water, moisture in the air, moisture running over every available surface as he uses his abilities to move clouds and fog into place. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  22. The Simurgh isn’t a thinker ten. There’s cases of scores exceeding ten. - Comment by Wildbow on Cell 22.1
  23. 23.0 23.1 The Simurgh is another case of a tinker as a secondary power. Picked up details from tinkers and executed it via. a thinker/trump sort of approach. - Wildbow on Reddit
  24. “Fuck me, that’s being used against me?”

    “Master-stranger protocols,” Rain said. “At least until we get a good explanation.”

    I grit my teeth. I had no idea how bad the bleeding was, I didn’t like any part of this, and it just felt like the Simurgh was scoring a win.

    But the protocols overrode any sentiment or logic. That was how they worked. - Excerpt from Last 20.4
  25. He conceded to pick up the phone and read what she’d typed.
    they regen slower as damage is further from center. simurgh core not in human body. decoy. prob in join of biggest wing instead. Is why body fragile n slow to heal.
    His eyes widened. “We destroy the center, we destroy him?” - Interlude 24.x
  26. “Hit the wing!” Narwhal called out. “You know the weak points!” - Excerpt from Last 20.7
  27. 27.0 27.1 “He hasn’t budged,” Rain said. “But the Simurgh is on a corner world right now and she flew to him. She’s staying on his shoulder, in that world.”

    “He’s a living portal,” I said. “Except instead of passing things through doors into other versions of Earth or into distant places, it’s just… Dauntless energy coming through the portal, feeding into him. We had to clear a good long distance around him because apparently portals act to broadcast, scramble, or act as a lens when it comes to power signals. Possibly including hers.” - Black 13.2
  28. In the distance, I could see the shape of the Dauntless Titan. ‘Kronos’. Where portals riddled the city, taller than some buildings, slices of another sky against our sky, the titan was pure white, unmoving, with only a periodic distortion around it. The Simurgh came and went, and when she came, the light seemed just a little darker in the area around her roosting point. - Black 13.7
  29. “The Simurgh? She’s here?” Rain asked.

    “She’s still stationed in what used to be Brockton Bay, keeping company with the Titan.” - Dying 15.7
  30. 30.0 30.1 A third screen showed Dauntless. Kronos. The titan. The Simurgh wasn’t on his shoulder, but flapped lazy circles, flying in a way that didn’t feel intuitive with the flaps.

    Dauntless was moving. A screen below that image showed the plotted paths and positions. - Sundown 17.4
  31. Darnall and Jessica intercepted me, like the Dauntless Titan and accompanying Simurgh seemed intent on intercepting the Chevalier. - Sundown 17.5
  32. 32.0 32.1 One screen for Dauntless, who once again had the Simurgh perched on him, resting on the top edge of the shield he carried. - Sundown 17.7
  33. 33.0 33.1 33.2 The Simurgh was currently directly three hundred and fifteen kilometers above Spain, in the Earth’s thermosphere. It was the Simurgh that offered the most clues about what the Endbringers did in their periods of dormancy. The Endbringer winged a lazy orbit around Earth, beyond the limits of conventional weapons, and the highest resolution camera images showed she barely moved. - Interlude 10.5
  34. 34.0 34.1 Sixty-two miles above the surface of the Earth, the Simurgh changed the course of her flight.

    Following protocol for when Dragon was deployed on a mission, the system routed the message to one of Dragon’s satellite systems. The resulting message was scrambled by the dense signature of the Endbringer en route to Dragon.

    Receiving the garbled transmission from the satellite, a subsystem of the Dragon A.I. proceeded to sort it. A scan of the message by a further subroutine saw it classified as non-pertinent, and a snarl in the code from Defiant’s improvised adjustments to her programming saw the message skip past several additional safeties and subroutines. The message was compartmentalized alongside other notes and data that included flares of atmospheric radiation and stray signals from the planet below; background noise at best. - Interlude 16.z
  35. \siˈmʊ(ə)ɹɡ\ or \ˈsi.mʊ(ə)ɹɡ\ according to Merriam-Webster dictionary (M-W notation: \ sēˈmu̇(ə)rg , ˈ⸗ˌ⸗ \). The "ur" in "Simurgh" is like the "oor" in "poor".
  36. /sɪˈmʊəɡ/ according to Collins Dictionary. The "ur" in "Simurgh" is like the "oor" in "poor".]
  37. “Ridiculous,” Lung repeated himself. “And you stopped in the middle of a conversation. She is waiting for you to continue.”

    “She doesn’t care. Ninety-nine percent sure. Gotta understand, she’s not even close to human, especially once you scratch the surface. We think in black and white, she thinks in… void and substance. In abstracts or in causative contexts, looking into the future and seeing how things unfold. So we’re going to try this, and maybe something sticks.” - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.4
  38. 38.0 38.1 The Simurgh is shorter than her brothers, and sports a large number of asymmetrical wings. She possesses telekinesis, clairvoyance, precognition and a perpetual psychic scream. Seen as the most cunning and intelligent of the three, the Simurgh uses her precognition to employ long term schemes, each with Rube-Goldberg sequences of events, culminating in grave disasters and tragedies. - Cast (in depth)
  39. She worked backwards, deciphering the events that brought this reality about. She would triumph in the fight, because Cryptid would find himself sympathizing with her. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.z
  40. 40.0 40.1 40.2 So it went. Machines tore into her and studied her. This would play a part in removing three more threats from play. Later, a subversion of this network in coordination with her integration with Titan Fortuna would let her spread her signal.
    [...]
    She abandoned the Machine Army, having given them what they would need later, and flew to the battlefield. She was already prepared. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.z
  41. The heroine she had crushed underfoot would have accompanied Lady Photon of the flock to meet Riley Grace Davis. She knew Riley Grace Davis, and was recognizable as a member of the flock. In her company, Riley would not feel so isolated, and would not express the words that would allow Cryptid to sympathize with her.

    Now an unpowered civilian would attend. The conversation would adjust.

    Cryptid was handled. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.z
  42. She does not feel joy at this. This is the task. Means to ends. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  43. 43.0 43.1 And so they have fallen into place. They obey, they remain calm.

    When given permission, they attack designated targets. They cooperate with the subjects. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  44. “It’s going to bounce back from just about anything you could do to it. Prepare for it to have a few tricks up its sleeve, because it’s an extension of a species that plays the long game and that knows we don’t have it in us to permanently stop it. So don’t underestimate it, don’t assume it’s shown you everything it can do.”
    [...]
    “It isn’t human, and it never was,” she went on. “Don’t expect it to have human rationales. Do expect it to have a program it follows, a set goal that may or may not be one hundred percent clear. It’s going to be somewhat predictable, but powerful enough that the predictability isn’t reassuring or an easy answer.” - From Within 16.8
  45. “They run on different patterns. Fair bit of anger, room for some vengeance. Cleverness, sure. More in her than in Behemoth. Some killer instinct, maybe… a blend of fear and caution. Not so they’re afraid, but so they can temper their actions. This? Right here? It’s the closest we’re about to get to communicating directly with a passenger.”
    [...]
    “They’re passengers?” I asked.

    “The shell? No. The outer shell, the concept, the execution, they’re tapping into religious metaphors. The devil, the serpent, the angel, buddha, mother earth, the maiden, each connected in turn to fundamental forces. Flame, water, fate, time, earth, the self. Things deep-seated and fundamental to their creator’s belief system, because that’s how the passengers interpret our world. Through us. But deep down? Beyond that surface, beyond the basic programming that drives them to do what they’ve been doing for thirty years? It’s the passenger’s brush strokes. And I’m getting to her.” - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.4
  46. Her expression was neutral, but then again, the Simurgh’s expression was always neutral. A face like a doll’s, a cold stare. - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.4
  47. 47.0 47.1 As an aside, and this is in no way a reference or meant to give offense to your top tier art skills, B.H., the Simurgh is the only Endbringer I haven't seen drawn accurately.

    Much of the time her wings are just far too short, and she's smiling. - Wildbow in Sufficient Velocity
  48. 48.0 48.1 48.2 48.3 We began this fight when you broke, child, the Titan Fortuna thought, trying to communicate to the battered kernel of human consciousness within herself.

    She began this two years ago, when Gold Morning occurred. It doesn’t matter that we have a hundred times her strength. She’s within paces of the finish line, and she’s no stupid rabbit racing a tortise. Nearly every action she could take brings her closer to a checkmate. - Radiation 18.z
  49. 49.0 49.1 Finally, she decided to cede ground. To look for the answer why. Though the silver woman couldn’t reach her, couldn’t see her, a smile crept over the silver face, and wings stretched wider. She had somehow sensed the surrender. - Radiation 18.z
  50. Excerpt from Interlude 28
  51. 51.0 51.1 Infrared 19.z
  52. “You’ll each be provided with a satellite phone before you leave, with mobile phones to use when the towers are in operation again. - Snare 13.1
  53. Only two kids were sleeping there, both clearly brother and sister. It was as much privacy as she was going to get. She plucked the satellite phone from her pocket. - Interlude 14
  54. My phone lit up as a connection was established to a satellite.

    A moment later, the connection was secured.

    The clock changed, followed by a time zone and a symbol. Four forty-six, Eastern standard time, Earth Bet.
    [...]
    Towers surrounded Brockton Bay, set on mountaintops and high ground within the city itself. It necessitated a careful approach. As we passed between two, I saw that they were communication towers, crafted to put satellite dishes at high points rather than provide shelter. - Venom 29.1
  55. PRT divisions and precincts in neighboring cities were all too willing to send along staff and officers to assist, but her firm requests for the fundamentals -for computers, printers, satellite hookups, electricians and IT teams- were ignored all too often. - Interlude 13
  56. “No,” I heard Tattletale, “Separate power source, buried deeper beneath the building. Same with the computers, there’s nothing upstairs or even in the city that could turn them off. They’re hooked up to that power source, they’ve got internal batteries, and the only external connection is by satellite linkup. They might terminate our connection to the computer database via the satellite feed, but not the lights.” - Parasite 10.3
  57. You state your location as the north end of Brockton Bay, profess to have a generator and satellite internet. Ok, not unheard of. - Interlude 19.y
  58. The first things I’d done after Coil’s men had unloaded the furniture and supplies was to hook up an internet connection and computer and get my television mounted on a wall and connected to a satellite. - Infestation 11.1
  59. “Nuh uh. No way. If you two want to play hardass mom and dad and be controlling assholes, okay. But you can’t tell me I can’t watch T.V.”

    “I mean you won’t get any channels. There’s no cable, no digital connection and no satellite. Only static.” - Monarch 16.6
  60. “Yeah, and unless something’s changed,” Kevin said, “The only person he listens to is me. He’d come when I was alone, when the weather was bad or in the dead of night, and however he comes, nobody ever followed him here.”

    “They can’t follow him with cameras or satellite, I heard. Have to rely on eye witnesses and global communication to track him.” - Interlude 18.x
  61. And then there was Nilbog. The data focused around him. The city was quiet, and the roads leading into the city were being watched by satellite. - Interlude 26.x
  62. The war room sat opposite Aisha’s room, on the same floor as his. It wasn’t large, but it didn’t really have to be. Satellite images of various locations around the city had been printed out onto four-by-five foot sheets of laminated paper, rolls shelved on the wall with labels in marker. They varied in size, with some extending over the whole city, while others covered the various territories. - Interlude 15.y
  63. “Los Angeles?” Chevalier asked. “What area?”

    That area,” Defiant answered, looking at the computer.

    Chevalier nodded slowly.

    Golem stared at the screen. He could see the satellite image, the concentric circles that marked the area around the blinking blue dot. - Interlude 26a
  64. Example: one phase of the peripheral systems check involved collecting the uploaded data that had been deposited on the satellite network by her agent system, the onboard computer within the Cawthorne rapid response unit. - Interlude 10.5
  65. Years ago, Saint had preyed on Dragon, shutting off her ability to connect to her satellite network, using several of these same mechanisms to slow down and hamper whatever mech or device she was inhabiting. He would kill her, block any final uploads, and leave her to self-revive from an hours-old backup with no knowledge of what he’d done or how he’d beat her. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  66. Posted on August 15th, Y1:

    To call the efforts of everyone involved heroic would be grossly understating things. This IT project required the efforts of seventy eight PHO staff members, employees of Stateside Online, former officials of the US government, former members of the United States space program, members of international space programs, the Guild (Masamune in particular), and numerous independent experts and volunteers. - Glow-worm P.1
  67. “I tried to set things up so we’d have some way of maintaining communications and getting some information in, getting information out. Like, I told people about what you said about Scion hating duplication powers. Anyways, only the very high tech and very low tech have really survived. Satellites and hard copies.” - Venom 29.1
  68. My ranged capes aimed for portals once again. This time, I put the exit portals against Earth’s atmosphere, aiming for the general direction of a satellite.

    It took thirty seconds of sustained fire before Shén Yù’s power stopped telling me it was a weak point. Other thinker powers in my range were giving me similar feedback. A cape with perfect eyesight was telling me it could even see the explosion. - Speck 30.4
  69. People got lost or stranded in the wilderness on Earth in 2012, with all that world’s satellites. It can and will happen in new universes. - Glow-worm P.6
  70. Shower: It’s interfering with others’ ability to access things. It might not seem like a problem here, because you’re close to the home node, but there are people on the periphery or far-flung regions and they’re going from satellite to ground to satellite to here, across several Earths. - Glow-worm P.7
  71. His computer had a battery of its own, and the machine it was hooked up to gave it a satellite feed. In a vast sea of darkness, with much of the city unlit at this late hour, people were retreating to Gary’s tent. - Interlude 7.y II
  72. “Overlaying to satellite image of the area.”

    On the largest screen, a map appeared, just large enough to have the New York district in its bottom left and Brockton Bay in the top right. Icons with their own abbreviations worked into them were scattered across the city, many flowing from the same general point. - Polarize 10.3
  73. “As was I, for the latter part. Dragon is immensely powerful, but she, like any tinker, is dependent on her pre-established work to function at optimal capacity. The Dragonslayers knew this and used it against her in the past. Teacher used it against her here. With no satellites to use for remote access except the ones she deployed after passing through the portal, she was limited in what she could do. If she dies without redundant systems and infrastructure behind her, she dies for good, just as any of us would.” - From Within 16.1
  74. The main screens switched to each show half of an overhead view. Satellite camera. The epicenter of the attack, the clouds of smoke from the resulting destruction, and those cracks that spread out, like that from the tap of a hammer on a windowpane, except in three dimensions, not two. A city in black and white, with a shadow of gold due to the prevalence of the solar windows reflecting tinted light down onto snow. - Interlude 17.z II
  75. “I don’t know what it is. The capes in Breakthrough’s area have gone quiet. Phone lines are down, satellites are struggling with all of the interference. But we can’t reach them.” - Interlude 17.z II
  76. 76.0 76.1 The Machine Army was entering the trench, scurrying into the trench, into the dust, where his sensors struggled to read things with the ten kinds of background radiation and-

    And strange signals not unlike those he had picked up from Chevalier, when Chevalier had waded into battle.

    “They’re going after the pieces of the Simurgh! She gave them pieces of herself!” - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  77. Sixty-two miles above the surface of the Earth, the Simurgh changed the course of her flight.

    Following protocol for when Dragon was deployed on a mission, the system routed the message to one of Dragon’s satellite systems. The resulting message was scrambled by the dense signature of the Endbringer en route to Dragon.

    Receiving the garbled transmission from the satellite, a subsystem of the Dragon A.I. proceeded to sort it. A scan of the message by a further subroutine saw it classified as non-pertinent, and a snarl in the code from Defiant’s improvised adjustments to her programming saw the message skip past several additional safeties and subroutines. The message was compartmentalized alongside other notes and data that included flares of atmospheric radiation and stray signals from the planet below; background noise at best. - Interlude 16.z
  78. His eyes stopped on a file. Amelia’s.

    The entire thing was corrupted. Gibberish. Flagged messages filled four pages, each marked private, marked as ‘no conversation partner’, and marked, thanks to the gibberish and random characters that flooded it, with one string of letters and characters.

    The same one that had protected the orange box. The same that had protected Saint and his crew from being uncovered, until Dragon had taken a more direct, brute-force approach to finding them. The built-in blind spot, appearing by chance. A one in a hundred trillion chance.

    Saint investigated, digging through the gibberish to find the strings of words that actually made sense. It was something he could piece together, with each recitation being similar, containing similar content. Faeries, passengers, source of powers, the ‘whole’, lobe in the brain, Manton Effect… - Interlude 26.x
  79. They don't want people leaving the planet they're working with. A very good reason to have an avatar like Scion around. Probably wouldn't draw his notice until people with shards started leaving in any greater number. - Wildbow on Spacebattles
  80. Avatars like Scion are there in part to ensure things continue smoothly. If people decided to mass evacuate, he'd step in. - Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  81. By and large, the shards would sabotage attempts at going to space. Even Sphere's moon base was probably doomed from the start.
    [...]
    It is a built-in limitation. Individuals could theoretically leave (Legend?), but mass transportation options would likely be sabotaged (like a Squealer spacehulk, or Sphere's power, for example).
    [...]
    They tend to be missing /current/ limitations; the ban on space travel is something that would be long-established, valid across multiple species. Other stuff varies for different plans of attack and the like. - Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  82. Uphill/doomed project from the start. Shards are situated on Earth, reaching through realities for corona pollentiae. Powers don't really go into space, because, well, you've got the shard situated on the planet, and their reach is stretching, stretching up & out to the person with the shard. Do they exceed the shard's reach? - Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  83. He likely had the means of creating the moon bubbles and tertiary systems and life support and keeping it running... but maintenance starts getting tricky. The first option is that the shard goes 'this is worth the effort' because Gramme is giving the shard fuel for something interesting, and all is well except for whatever it is that the shard was so keen about. The second option is that the moon base works fine, the first colony gets out there, and then somewhere along the line Gramme's well of inspiration and his eye for key details in his tinkerings just... stops. - Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  84. Keep in mind, also, that the shards aren't inclined to let people sit around and spend months of time working on side projects without getting any dose of conflict. What happens is you get Spheres and Professor Haywires and Leets. - Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  85. “I don’t get it,” Luke said.

    “It keeps happening. Every time she shows up. Every time, people who’ve heard this song that’s in our head? Things go wrong. They snap, they break, their lives fall apart, or they do something, and it makes something else happen, and there’s a major disaster. That guy who was supposedly making a clean energy source that could power whole cities? His wife and kids got killed and he became a supervillain who made it a life goal to murder anyone who tries to better society with their powers. There were others. Over and over, every time she shows up. She never does quite as much damage as Leviathan or Behemoth, not right away, but stuff always happens later.” - Migration 17.5
  86. 86.0 86.1 And I should stress that weak points aren’t necessarily just areas which are geographically vulnerable. There’s places where there’s ongoing conflict (like we might point to the middle east over the past decade), places where it takes little effort on the part of the Endbringer to deal maximum devastation (ie. a nuclear power plant, military bases) and spots where a great many resources are invested (be they great minds collected in one place or major projects like Dr. Gramme’s major projects in trying to save the world). Did anyone else catch the mention of the water crisis? Leviathan isn’t always attacking cities, and the world has only so much accessible freshwater. - Comment by Wildbow on Colony 15.5
  87. “He became newsworthy when he took on a project to build self sustaining biospheres on the moon. He had ideas on solving world hunger, and building aquatic cities near cities plagued by overcrowding. And he was putting it all into effect. Until-”

    “The Simurgh,” Colin finished. - Interlude 11d
  88. 88.0 88.1 88.2 88.3 She had other drives. To go to war against her creator. To these ends, she created a nemesis. She made him better. He freed people, upset the system, disrupted the process, and in that, he created the chaos that would keep her simulation from being too sterile. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.z
  89. 89.0 89.1 89.2 89.3 She was built out of greater structures intended to salvage a situation where the species eliminated itself. Future-looking, she would create a forced simulation. It was worse than an organically emergent simulation, but in a process that saw the planet revolve three hundred times around its star, it could be necessary in the final years, consolidating and sorting information, forcibly exploring the resources the planet had to offer.

    That was her drive, as much as water and food were necessary for this life she farmed out and put to task in a greater system. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.z
  90. 90.0 90.1 90.2 This whole plan, the idea was to give them exactly what they wanted. The Simurgh wanted a fight, wanted conflict, everyone on the planet pushing themselves to the limit, testing a system she’d set in motion.

    Well, she’d got that. Contained to this one facility. With her as our primary enemy, more than each other.

    Now Fortuna wanted to end the world. We needed to help her do that. If we balked, if we stopped… we lost. Hesitation when parrying an incoming strike was death. My early sparring with Manpower had taught me that much. It was especially true when your opponent was a hundred times stronger than you, if not stronger. - Last 20.8
  91. 91.0 91.1 Three or four billion years would pass before one of the entities returned to this world. In the interim, she would keep this world alive, and she would glean all knowledge that the minds of this world could produce. Every means of suffering, every desperate solution, every invention and inspiration. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.z
  92. 92.0 92.1 92.2 But she faces an obstacle that she is utterly blind to, now. No apparent past or future. In interacting with it, she is limited to context. She sees not the obstacle, but she can see things that are set in motion around it. She cannot see it strike, but she can see the reaction, the aftermath.

    She sees the stone fly out of the darkness, and she can determine where it was thrown from.

    There is a task to be completed, but things must be set in place first.

    An obstacle must be removed. This is critical, but she is blind to it. This is the greatest problem she faces. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  93. “My agenda is and always has been what’s best for humanity. I predicted the end of the world. I positioned the right people in the right places. Khepri.” - From Within 16.3
  94. “This isn’t a solution,” she said, without looking up. “You said a second trigger wouldn’t work. This is… it’s so crude you couldn’t even call it a hack job.”

    The Simurgh’s screaming continued.

    Dinah had left me two notes.

    The Simurgh had reminded me of the second.

    ‘I’m sorry.’

    It wasn’t an apology for the consequences of the first note. No, Dinah hadn’t approached me since. She hadn’t decided I’d fulfilled the terms and deemed it okay to finally contact me again.

    Two words, telling me that something ugly was going to happen. Directed at me.
    [...]
    But there was a possibility that it referred to me. That it was tied to our ability to come out ahead at the end of all this. To some slim chance. - Venom 29.9
  95. Wildbow: That wasn't the Simurgh apologizing. It was her reminding Taylor of what Dinah wrote.

    Doctor Mod: Best Girl my blind eye! Thanks for the insight. Seeing that and even seeing Dinah in the final chapters I never thought of that. It feels like so long ago she got that note. Literally and in story!

    Wildbow: What do you think Dinah was apologizing for, if not for Khepri? - Conversation with Wildbow on Sufficient Velocity, archived on Spacebattles
  96. The cycle had failed. If left to go on its own, the world would be shattered. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.z
  97. It felt bad. I was aware of the running clock. The countdown Dragon had provided had shut off when she’d gone dark, but that was for Simurgh exposure. We had another countdown- the time before she merged with Titan Fortuna and enacted her plan. - Last 20.2
  98. 98.0 98.1 98.2 “Let’s assume they have clear goals. The Simurgh wants… that. Whatever that was. Humanity under her sway, her with Titans, Endbringers, and an army of capes brought back from the dead to protect her. Titan Fortuna wants to bring about the end of our world so their species can try their hand at replicating. Both have similar endpoints. But those are just that. Endpoints. What happens after the end?”

    “The world is enslaved, or the world blows up,” Byron said.

    “Immediately?”

    “The slavery, it seems like. The world blowing up… don’t know.” - Infrared 19.10
  99. Logic told me that this was one of our last shots. We had to hurt her, take her down a peg so she couldn’t win that tug of war against Titan Fortuna and take over the entire system. - Last 20.3
  100. The reality we saw. She connected to Fortuna and she screamed, and the world screamed with her. We were entirely at her mercy. - Last 20.6
  101. Elsewhere, other pieces of the same machine were being programmed with the impulses, needs and courses that would slot them neatly into the superstructure. There were researchers, theorists, civil managers, stables, farms. Populations were bred to bring out traits that would fit them to their role, refine their ability to think the way they needed to think for their roles. Controlled randomness threw wrenches into the works, keeping minds agile and forcing them to adapt. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.z
  102. Thirty years in the future, a child was programmed. Messages, impulses, and a noise that ears weren’t receptive to reached into a pregnant belly and they filled the child with rage.

    The mother held her belly with both arms as the child thrashed and kicked within its hot bath of amniotic fluid, smiling.

    Every living thing was an extension of a greater machine. These children would be trained, weeded out, honed, and made into exceptional weapons, before being flung at one another. Powers would be distributed by a system, utilized against one another, analyzed, and broken down. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.z
  103. The baby here, when born, would join a caste of the population driven to find the worst and most inventive ways to hurt one another with the tools and powers they were provided with. Brother against sister, kin against kin, in a ceaseless struggle from birth to deathbed that spanned generations. Other segments of the population were made to work harder by the fear that they would be in the bottom seven percent of their caste, given over to people like the torturer this baby would grow up to become.

    The mother felt pride that she herself had been programmed to feel, imagining the monster her child might become. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.z
  104. But she had to ask: how long had the sheet been there? Had the answers been tampered with? Were there details that needed investigating?

    She could check of course. The answer to that question was on the sheet. But in the time it took to find it, there could be more tampering, more details changed.

    She already had the answer, that the silver woman had tampered. But where? She checked, and she found the answers.

    A path that began with Auger fighting that was intended to end with her networked to all titans, ready to end this world and scattered haphazardly and limping to other stars and planets… instead ended with this silver woman in control of the network, humanity mad and savage.

    A path that began with the host Valkyrie being made Titan, intended to end with the network largely complete, the silver woman dead, and the scattering due to happen in ten years… instead ended with the silver woman in control of the network, half of humanity deranged and fighting the other half. To investigate why took time that the silver woman could use to gain purchase elsewhere.

    A path that began with humanity devastated and dying of plague, the silver woman denied her pawns, the Titans assimilated into a greater cluster where Titan Fortuna herself was not in charge… instead ended with the silver woman in control of the network, a new, artificial humanity being created as playthings.

    She checked again. A path that began with physically attacking the silver woman… ended in the silver woman in control of the remainder of the network, humanity in tatters.

    Every route she investigated was seeded with false data, poisoned fruit, and patches of shadow that lay over the path, the far side of those patches ruled over by the silver woman. - Radiation 18.z
  105. “It’s Gimel’s apocalypse,” Antares said. “Everything the agents were set up to do after Scion won or rounded up this cycle, they’re doing it now. Cast aside the humans, accumulate raw power, then use that power to blow it all up and cast fragments of themselves in every direction.”
    [...]
    Antares cut in, “Nobody interrupted anything. We disrupted it. They’re staggering forward instead of doing this in a clean way. Processes conflict, they can’t organize, so they’ll just steal energy and materials from us, wiping us out, then destroy what’s left when they try and probably fail to make a coordinated exit. We threw a wrench in the works, but the machine is still trudging forward, smoking and doing a lot of damage in the meantime.” - Interlude 17.z II
  106. “Actually, no. I had suspicions, but the Endbringer making a baby wasn’t one of them.” - Teneral e.5
  107. A glass tube, three feet across, seven and a half feet long, capped in metal at either end.

    This will be step six in a nine step process. For now, she puts it aside, buries it in a larger weapon, forming a decorative gun barrel around the glass. The weapon will fire through other means.

    The ones who observe her through cameras and with their own eyes will not report this. They lack the background to know what this tube might be, and this event will be dismissed as unimportant or they will leave it to someone else to report. The events are entered into a log, and the subjects overseeing the logs are either asleep or preoccupied. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  108. The tube is fully encapsulated, hidden.

    Cradled. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  109. 109.0 109.1 He hit her, and he sent her flying through the crowd. Capes were turned into bloody smears as she collided with them, and the Simurgh was driven to the very far edge of the settlement, to the beaches at the edge of the bay. The countless guns were pulverized.
    [...]
    The Simurgh held one gun. A single weapon she’d salvaged and sheltered with her body and wings in the instants before Scion had attacked her. - Venom 29.2
  110. “A quarantine area. That was the weapon the Endbringer was using.”

    A gun. It was dark gray with a faint green speckled coating on it, where one material had been broken down and incorporated into the outer coating. There was a gouge in the side where a feather had cut the housing, but it was otherwise intact.

    Over and over, the Simurgh had protected the weapon. He’d seen it, had checked the footage, had seen her go out of her way to shield it with her wings. She’d done it subtly, most of the time, events contriving to make it look more accidental than anything. - Teneral e.5
  111. The weapon had been lost in the course of the battle, and the heroes had decided to minimize contact with the thing, locking it away. - Teneral e.5
  112. 112.0 112.1 112.2 He was all too aware that he could be walking into her trap. He had enough precogs around himself and, in that video, around Lung, that the Simurgh shouldn’t have been able to leverage her full power against them, but she could have put things in place, not knowing exactly who, but still knowing it would be bad. - Teneral e.5
  113. The light caught the glass, at first, obscuring the contents.

    A baby. Male. With large ears and a large round nose. Not attractive, as babies went.
    [...]
    Lung touched a burning hand to the glass, melting it. Water steamed on contact with his claw.
    [...]
    The water was crimson and boiling by the time Lung withdrew his claw. - Teneral e.5
  114. “The… incident?” Teacher asked.

    “Ten minutes from now,” a student said. “He growls a bit, but there isn’t anything we can make out. He was just walking, and our camera follows”
    [...]
    He stepped up onto the surface, his clawed feet sliding where they were too long and wide to fit on one..

    The Simurgh was waiting.

    Lung was her height, bristling with scales. She looked more human of the two, pale, her hair blowing a bit in the wind, unreadable.
    [...]
    “She returned to orbit.” - Teneral e.5
  115. “Things are better this time,” Sveta said. “We’ve learned from mistakes. It’s a fresh start. The Endbringers are dormant, we’re finally building things without them being torn down all the time.” - Flare 2.6
  116. 116.0 116.1 “The remaining Endbringers are quiet,” Capricorn said. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.12
  117. 117.0 117.1 117.2 117.3 Khazit: Clearly, the best choice is to build a bunch of Leviathans (the spaceship) and evacuate Earth :p
    [...]
    Wildbow: If she tries to build leviathans to leave Earth, Ziz is probably going to catch wind of it (people on other side of the planet would probably hear about it, ziz passes overhead...) and send some heat seeking missiles Taylor's way (if she doesn't think she can go after Taylor specifically).
    [...]
    Wildbow: When I say guided missiles I mean more subtle ziz-tweaked individuals, set up to topple those dominoes and turn Taylor into a problem rather than an escape route, or just destroy Taylor. - Wildbow on Spacebattles
  118. 118.0 118.1 118.2 118.3 118.4 Her creator was an administrator of the highest order, and she had been selected out of a pool of emergency resources. All of her kind had. Behemoth had been created to break stasis, Leviathan to take away resources in space and land, forcing communities into conflict as they were made to relocate. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.z
  119. HighSlayerRalton: Taylor is Eidolon's 'reflection'. Or rather, the Queen Administrator is the High Priest's reflection.

    Taylor gets to administrate bugs, because Scion damaged and limited his Queen Administrator shard before distributing it.

    Eidolon gets to administrate the pool of shards Eden was reorganising when she crashed (including the power-drawing ability), because Eden was still using her Queen Administrator counterpart to do that at the time.

    The kid who controls bugs and the world's most powerful superhero are two sides of the same coin.

    Wildbow: Yeah, pretty sure I already confirmed this elsewhere, but this is a great summary of it. - Conversation with Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  120. 120.0 120.1 Medium-term consequence: the shard network begins producing Endbringers that Superman can't stop that Eidolon could. - Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  121. 121.0 121.1 If people start forming alliances/peace and Eden sees it as too much trouble to sabotage, then she sics an Endbringer Lite on them, and then works with the remains. - Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  122. Assuming that Cauldron's operatives maybe killed Eden but then just sat on their hands/died, the Endbringers don't exist, the cauldron vials aren't spread out, and there's less of the really powerful parahumans here and there who're capable of acting decisively. - Wildbow on Spacebattles
  123. It was hard to think of the terms that applied to Bohu alone. Tohu and Bohu were usually referred to as the Twins.

    But Tohu was nowhere to be seen.

    And Bohu had situated herself in the middle of a field. The ground was only beginning to reshape beneath her, twisting into structures, walls, a maze of stone, soil and grass, of arches and pillars without anything to support.

    She simply loomed, her impossibly long arms hanging at her side, head slightly bowed, her eyes shut.

    The other images showed the same thing from different angles. One from the other side, then another from directly above, showing the alterations to her surroundings as concentric circles.

    It was daylight. Going by the times of the photos, she was on the opposite side of the planet, roughly, from the Simurgh.

    “Holy fuck,” Canary murmured. “Two at once?” - Cockroaches 28.2
  124. Defiant scrolled through the images of the Simurgh, floating in the air above the ocean in the middle of the day. The last one was from just an hour ago, showing her in early evening, utterly still. - Cockroaches 28.2
  125. The Simurgh, was the reply.

    Almost instinctively, another spirit deep inside her shifted, agitated. Eidolon. David. The man’s battery was nearly spent, and the cost of replenishing it was high.

    Stirred to life by the mere mention of his long-time opponent. - Excerpt from Interlude 9 II
  126. The remaining three Endbringers [...] were created for a different paradigm and purpose. - Wildbow on Reddit
  127. TheAnt: Was Brockton Bay built on an Indian Burial Ground? Because damn, this city is cursed. ABB bombings, Leviathan, The 9, Coil, Echidna. I would honestly not be surprised if the next Endbringer attacked the city again. It might actually have been a good idea to condemn it.

    wildbow: It’s more that a lot of things led to the others coming to pass. The two primary threads are:
    ABB-> Leviathan attacks city in conflict -> The 9 hit vulnerable target

    And Travelers are invited to Brockton Bay by Coil -> Coil provokes/takes advantage of disasters to seize city -> Coil dies -> Noelle goes free.

    There’s crossing-over of threads (Leviathan hitting city in part because of potential of contact with Noelle, Coil causing conflict with ABB that led to disaster) - Comment by Wildbow in Scourge 19.5
  128. Asmora: Just thought I’d point this out, since no one else has mentioned it: Lyon was attacked twice. Is this an editing error on Wildbow’s part, attributable to the fact that he was rushed in writing this monstrously huge (and yet it felt like one of the shorter reads to me) chapter? I sincerely doubt it, given that Lyon is the last entry. Thus, we require WMG as to what the deal is there. Was there something in Lyon that interested Behemoth, but he was driven off before he got it on the first trip, so he came back for it? Did he decimate the city the first time, then get upset because they rebuilt it too quickly and thoroughly?

    wildbow: Lyon is an area with a great many nuclear plants in the vicinity. - Comment by Wildbow in Interlude 24.x
  129. “Nothing’s truly random,” Colin explained, his voice tight, “Any data shows a pattern eventually, if you dig deep enough. Dragon started work on an early warning system for the Endbringers, to see if we can’t anticipate where they’ll strike next, prepare to some degree. We know there’s some rules they follow, though we don’t know why. They come one at a time, months apart, rarely hitting the same area twice in a short span of time. We know they’re drawn to areas where they perceive vulnerability, where they think they can cause the most damage. Nuclear reactors, the Birdcage, places recently hit by natural disasters…”

    He clicked the mouse, and the image zoomed in on a section of the coastline.

    “…Or ongoing conflict,” Hannah finished for him, her eyes widening. “The ABB, Empire Eighty-Eight, the fighting here? It’s coming here? Now?” - Interlude 7
  130. November 2nd, 1999
    [...]
    Eidolon was fighting now. He hurled globes of energy the size of small houses at Leviathan, and each one was sufficient to knock the creature away, flaying away the thing’s skin and simultaneously slowing it. The hero’s own hydrokinesis deflected the lizard’s ranged attacks, diverting them skyward or off to one side. Leviathan couldn’t attack from range, and couldn’t get close without getting pummeled. He attempted to run, only for Japan’s foremost team, the Sentai Elite, to step into his way, blocking his progress. - Interlude 22.y
  131. In this setting, for example, Japan isn’t a world power and it’s still dependent on international assistance 12 years after Leviathan’s visit to Kyushu.

    But even there, where do you say, “Ok, that’s the sum total of the damage done”? The disaster at Kyushu, the number of refugees seeking living space/work and the pressures on the rest of Asia’s pacific border might have led to some more unrest and tension. Some friction, some ‘small’ wars, infighting and intermingling. Refugees and immigrants. Many settle in major cities across America because President Bradley’s Preservation Act gives them a hand in getting on their feet.

    Do you factor that last point into the damage as well? Lung comes to Brockton Bay in part because of the booming population of Asian immigrants (which hasn’t yet set down roots). Bakuda was born to a Westerner mother and Immigrant father. Do you count the damage they’ve done? - Comment by Wildbow on Colony 15.5
  132. 132.0 132.1 Put all of that aside and look at his fighting ability, the highest end of what he's done (punch the planet buster [surface wiping] beam, nullify/exceed that energy and have the force of the punch still affect the landscape halfway across the world) puts him on a level equal to or surpassing String Theory's Drive weapons. Could a hit from that heavy a punch conduct enough force through Behemoth to get to the Endbringer's core? I think it's likely/possible and would have to, barring extraordinary evidence to the contrary popping up in OPM, say 'definite kill'. [...] (Or, as in the case of String Theory, Endbringer cooperation/timing would keep her from ever being able to set up a proper hit). - Wildbow on Reddit
  133. She must be unmolested. This is given freely to her.

    She operates alongside the subjects. This serves her aims on several fronts. She communicates when she can with the others. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  134. Which was the moment the Endbringers made their move.

    The Simurgh plunged from the clouds, hitting Scion.

    Leviathan, healed a touch, emerged from the water.

    Bohu rose from the earth, going from a human sized head and shoulders at eye level to a tower.

    Tohu, for her part, had Glaistig Uaine, Eidolon and Myrddin’s faces.

    The Endbringers, come to the rescue. I wished I could have felt relieved. It was a reprieve, a chance to get our footing. But there was an ominousness to it. - Speck 30.5
  135. For the time being, we were holding fast. Scion was still engaged with the Endbringers in Gimel. We had seconds, a minute or two if we were lucky, to catch our breath, to think, plan and communicate. - Speck 30.6
  136. I could remember the files, the information only for team leaders and Wardens. Information on the Endbringers, provided in retrospect, only after Gold Morning when the Endbringers cooperated against Scion and the attacks stopped. - From Within 16.9
  137. One window showed the various Endbringers, all of them motionless, but for the Simurgh, who was airborne. The last of the original three. - Interlude: End
  138. 138.0 138.1 There were other things. News. Status of Class-S threats…
    Sleeper; active
    Machine Army; 4.83% growth since last check, active
    Endbringers; one dormant, one active, others dead or unknown locations.
    Active Endbringer. She zeroed in on that. A few mouse clicks brought her to a site that tracked the Simurgh.

    The activity was only a renewed cluster of sightings. Not an attack. The Simurgh was somewhere near Bet’s Indonesia. Not flying as she’d once done, either. Floating around. Facilities and factories in the area had been repurposed into accommodations. People in the area were hunkered down, enduring life on new Bet instead of moving on to new places, leaning on some risky non-tinker tech advances. Going the sci-fi route in tackling what Bet was going through. Those same people were responsible for the flurry of reports about the Simurgh, which had led to her being flagged ‘active’. - Excerpt from Interlude 10.x II
  139. 139.0 139.1 139.2 139.3 The benefit of using this weapon was that it didn’t require exceptionally good aim.

    An area of the city a fifth of a mile wide and a mile long was pulverized. Buildings were driven into ground, and broke into chunks no larger than a human head. The wavelength of the beam let those chunks lift up for a fraction of a second before the next wave of the beam thrust them down again with the same force as before.

    The Simurgh was almost, almost out of the path of the beam. He clipped her, and she reoriented, pulling out of the way even as she was hurled back and down.

    Much of the lower body she had been building broke away from the force of the impact. A wing shattered. The remainder was lost in the plume of smoke that rose from the tract of land he had blasted. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  140. A great, long-fingered hand of silver with bone-white nails reached out. The shadow of Eidolon stepped down onto the fingertip.

    Titans appeared from clouds of darkness, arranging themselves in a formation around their new center and commander.

    Other things stepped out of clouds of darkness.

    Not Titans, but scary enough in their own way. Especially considering what all of this meant.

    Endbringers. One tall and narrow, of a size to rival any Titan. One small, a knot of formlessness, with faces periodically flashing out. One with a great chrome orb for a midsection, a black, whiskered head, arms, and feet mounted at different positions around that orb. There were other shapes that stood in the dark clouds, but they didn’t emerge or seem consistent. Still taking shape. - Infrared 19.9
  141. 141.0 141.1 She seemed human, but fifteen or so feet tall, waif-thin, and unclothed. Her hair whipped around her, nearly as long as she was tall and platinum-white. The most shocking part of it all was the wings; she had so many, asymmetrical and illogical in their arrangement, each with pristine white feathers. The three largest wings folded around her protectively, far too large in proportion to her body, even with her height. Other wings of varying size fanned out from the joints of others, from the wing tips, and from her spine. Some seemed to be positioned to give the illusion of modesty, angled around her chest and pelvis. - Excerpt from Migration 17.1
  142. 142.0 142.1 142.2 She turned to one side, and Krouse could make out her face. Her features were delicate with high cheekbones. Her eyes were gray from corner to corner. And cold. There was nothing he could point to, no particular feature or quality that could help him explain why or how, but seeing her face made it harder to ascribe any kind of human quality to her. If he’d been thinking she had a sense of modesty before, he didn’t now. - Excerpt from Migration 17.1
  143. 143.0 143.1 Beautiful in every conventional sense, in that every classically attractive feature was there, from the delicate, thin frame to the high cheekbones to the luxurious hair… horrifying in the manner it was all framed. - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.4
  144. The Simurgh twisted in the air, staring at us with eyes that had nothing to them. One silver eye, and one perfect silver orb in a badly tarnished silver skull framed by wisps of hair. - Excerpt from Last 20.7
  145. 145.0 145.1 It was the hair that got me. Gossamer-fine, silver-white, straight, it blew in the wind as if each strand were a separate entity. Not in clumps or locks, but a curtain of strands ten times as dramatic as something one might see in a digitally altered hair commercial.

    Artificial. - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.4
  146. A single crack at the lattice at one shoulder widened, inching down toward one nipple-less breast. Just from the stresses.
    [...]
    She was blocking more of what we were putting out. Her chest gaped open, the laser had flensed away flesh, revealing more of the feather-lattice across her arm and upper body, half of her face was damaged, revealing bone like dark, tarnished silver, and her wings were, by contrast, mostly intact. - Excerpt from Last 20.7
  147. 147.0 147.1 Simurgh – A creature that appears as a freakishly tall woman with a countless number of wings fanning out from her body, some fanning out from other wings. A precognitive, telekinetic, clairvoyant with a psychic scream. - Cast (spoiler free)
  148. 148.0 148.1 She was already healing. Missing wings were growing back, and her lower body existed as a series of feathers, touching end to end, or end to middle. Like she was the thinnest of lace, formed of feathers harder than steel. It gave her legs, and suggested she was hollow, where Behemoth had had a skeleton and a core. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  149. 149.0 149.1 She is utterly blind in the present, with no eyesight or other senses to perceive things in the now. No sight, no hearing, no touch or taste. Not a crippling flaw, and a difficult flaw for others to use against her. The present is only a fragment in a long span of time when one can see the past and future both. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  150. 150.0 150.1 150.2 Study, analysis.

    An impulse, something that couldn’t be tracked with any conventional devices, then a steady feedback. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  151. 151.0 151.1 151.2 151.3 151.4 Her hibernation state serves to allow for collection of low-feedback information about the environment. Feedback that cannot be tracked or sensed, collecting information over a series of passes. The stone can be a series of billiard balls instead, one striking another, striking another in turn. Diminishing returns with each target struck.

    With study and careful precision, each ball can find its pocket. Spheres of synthetic resin meet the furthest point of a ledge covered by woven wool, perching on the edge as they spend their momentum. Almost, they remain there, not enough energy to pass over the precipice. Then they fall. Three disappear into oblivion in perfect synchronicity. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  152. 152.0 152.1 152.2 152.3 152.4 152.5 152.6 152.7 The Simurgh is the third. She's only 15 feet tall but has a massive wingspan. The key to understanding her is her psychic 'scream' - this is basically a kind of psychic echolocation allowing her to scan her surroundings while exerting a psychic pressure to alter behavior, implant messages or create compulsions. She has precognition, perfect awareness of the immediate future, and the more she sings/scans the further it reaches. The byline for dealing with the Simurgh is that you'll probably win the fight but you'll lose the war. She uses these scans to make long-term predictions of behavior and activity (in the order of months and years) to turn human beings into rube-goldberg devices, with whole streams or strings of horrific events occuring in areas she's been active. This includes laying the groundwork for major heroes to be attacked at the opening of a future crisis, or the creation of supervillains of international notoriety. - Wildbow on Reddit
  153. 153.0 153.1 153.2 153.3 Pretercognition. Spread out over several targets at once, it serves as her primary sense. Each target is conceptualized in the context of twelve to eighty years of history. More time, more feedback from the steady feed of information, and the images clarify. Discard the useless elements, maintain the pivotal ones.

    Deciphering, searching for the fulcrum points.

    Focus on one target, and the decoding is faster, but this costs her the ability to sense other things in any detail. Necessary, in most cases, to form a distraction, or to strike hard enough that she can take advantage of the enemy’s preoccupation.

    This was made easier by another sense. Another power extends in the other direction, and this is not one that can be sensed by most. Possibilities, as another jumble of images. These clarify as the others do, as eventualities are discarded, the targets around her coming into focus. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  154. 154.0 154.1 154.2 154.3 It’s not just that she drives you around the bend, I thought. It’s that she’s constantly gathering information. Constantly refining that ability to drive you crazy, and refining her precognition, so you’re less and less effective against her in a fight. - Last 20.3
  155. 155.0 155.1 155.2 155.3 155.4 “She doesn’t have her hooks in you, but she-” Tattletale’s voice was cut off as she got clear of a cascade of bits of ceiling, high above us.

    The environment.

    Tattletale had been telling us that yes, we were free of the Simurgh’s influence, but that didn’t extend to the facility.

    She supposedly screamed to gather data, and she used the data to inform her precognition. We momentarily had the edge because everything about our movements flowed from Dinah and Dinah being a blind spot. But the environment… she’d already worked out those calculations, already gathered the data and knew the ins and outs of cause and effect here.

    The entire facility around her was putty in her hands. - Excerpt from Last 20.7
  156. Krouse stood as the man in armor walked up to him. Walked past him as though he weren’t even there.
    [...]
    There was a tink and she was set on fire, head to toe.

    The flames were hot enough and close enough to Krouse that they could have burned him, should have burned him. But he barely felt the warmth of them. Barely felt anything. The Simurgh’s scream had faded, and his own wounded hand was little more than a dull throb. - Migration 17.4
  157. Krouse quickened his pace. He didn’t like the idea that the others were doing that poorly. He’d had three breaks from the screaming, with whatever power Myrddin had used to shunt him halfway into some other dimension, and the two flashbacks. Cody seemed functional, if vaguely unhinged, but he’d had the flashbacks as well. - Migration 17.5
  158. She watched cracks spread further.

    The cracks found their next launching off point. A woman with awareness extending everywhere. Each line of awareness was a weak point, like lines scored into rock before that rock was cracked. The cracks stretched easily along those efficient lines.

    The woman in the suit, now locked in place, caught by her own well of power.

    Because she’s her own blind spot, like Withdrawal said, much as any of us are blind to our own selves.

    She was too interconnected. Her power tied to too many things too constantly, and that power formed bridges. Connected everything, in a way. - Interlude 17.y II.
  159. Where enough different strikes intersected enough times, that which lay within broke away, falling back to reveal something else on the other side. The Cheit portal was the biggest case of it. The border between Gimel and Cheit broke away, and as it did, buildings from that other Earth were revealed, intersecting with facets and slices of Gimel. Some small, some vast.
    [...]
    Near the portal, at the worst of it, more was falling away. Gimel revealed Cheit, Cheit revealed Gimel, and when both fell away, there was a landscape of black crystal that seemed to connect to this new titan.
    [...]
    At the center of that new manifestation of cracks and destruction, a purple bubble with a triangular point extended down. The icon, a stylized woman in a fedora with tie, minimalist face, marked it as Contessa. The purple served to label her as a special case. - Interlude 17.y II
  160. 160.0 160.1 160.2 160.3 She shrieked in silence, every one hundredth of a second of imagined sound a test of every possibility and detail in her surroundings. A machine testing every possible password before the right answer was found, except the system being broken into was reality, and ‘every’ encompassed multiple dimensions and millions of people.

    And that silver woman was so much weaker and smaller than the Titan she faced. Titan Fortuna, named such so that the little girl who had found the forward-looking eye could fulfill her promise to herself, that when all of this was over, she could be Fortuna again.

    If the silver woman could cheat her way to the answers, then the Titan had the answers on a sheet in front of her. - Radiation 18.z
  161. No scream from the Simurgh. At least, not one I could detect. It would fit her to keep it beyond our notice, influencing us, the sort of card she would keep up her sleeve. To make the psychic scream ‘audible’, for lack of a better word, purely for spreading fear, then use it subtly at a time when she wasn’t attacking. - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.4
  162. 162.0 162.1 As I see it, the Endbringers have the attacker's advantage. Assuming the two sides don't have prior knowledge of one another, the Simurgh can use the same tactic she used in Lausanne. Be benign.
    [...]
    Lay groundwork for maximum amount of time allowed, psychic scream not audible, read the future, turn a city of people into individual rube goldberg devices. More time = more people and more complex machinations. - Wildbow on Reddit
  163. 163.0 163.1 She swept her wings out, and across this stage she’d created inside the ring of broken buildings, snow and dust picked up, with a gravely sound as it pulled free from ground, debris that hadn’t been picked up clattering back down to earth.
    [...]
    The tracker Dragon was providing me with fritzed, going dark, showing a vague Simurgh silhouette in the cloud, then another, a hundred feet away.

    After that second guess, there was nothing. Only the cloud of cover she’d made, labels and indicators for where people were being tracked by the phones or other devices they carried, and alerts for distant battlefields.

    The battlefield went still, quiet. A few powers flickered and flared, but the dust hung in the air.

    The screaming I’d come to take as steady background noise ceased. My brain felt like my body did in the stillness after a hard workout, blood pulsing through it, shaky, and a bit vulnerable.

    I flew down to be closer to my team. Just in case. - Last 20.1
  164. 164.0 164.1 164.2 164.3 164.4 But he had to stay out of the Simurgh’s range. She was weakened, he was relatively clear of her scream, and that weakened her predictive power. It meant his shots landed, and she was forced to choose between destruction and a grazing hit, instead of destruction and a miss. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  165. Kyakan: (for full context, this is for an AU where Morrigan was viable and able to save Blasto from Bonesaw in his interlude)
    [...]
    Pointy: Morrigan could probably use her powers to help [clean up a Bonesaw infection], too.
    Fib: [...] I don't see how Morrigan could help?
    Wildbow: I don't think I could see how she could help either.
    Kyakan: even if her power allowed her to clean off Blasto magically, would the PRT trust that?
    Wildbow: Keep in mind she'd need to do as Simurgh does and scan thoroughly (over days, weeks, months) before really grokking a subject - and would likely have limited range, focusing more on dimensions and energy/material/effect transfers between shardworlds and the real world. - Conversation with Wildbow on Discord, archived on Spacebattles
  166. 166.0 166.1 166.2 166.3 166.4 166.5 It did not matter that she couldn’t see the remainder of that meeting in the lobby of the headquarters. Were she to fly closer and gather information by emitting her signal, she might be able to piece together the events, but it did not matter. She was entirely assured of Cryptid, Chris Elman’s trajectory. There was no reality she could interpret where the result wasn’t entirely to her favor. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.z
  167. 167.0 167.1 By another mechanism she would employ in three minutes, accessing a computer in a house her signal told her was a quarter mile away, she would shut off communications at a critical time. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.z
  168. 168.0 168.1 “She’s modest,” Oliver suggested.

    Krouse twitched with irritation. He wanted to stab his finger in Oliver’s face, growl, you don’t know her.

    He bit his tongue and kept from reacting, reminded himself that he was under the influence of that incessant screaming in his head, a constant pressure on his psyche. If he let himself slip, he knew how easily he could transition into tearing into Oliver, expressing all the frustration he had over how passive and submissive and fucking whiny he was. The guy wouldn’t even fight back.

    Noelle’s not modest. She’s damaged, Krouse thought. He glanced at Marissa, and he didn’t say anything. - Excerpt from Migration 17.3
  169. 169.0 169.1 The heroes had been working in waves, because apparently too much exposure to her, to this fucking screaming in their heads that never stopped or let up, it was dangerous somehow. Only a few heroes fighting at a given time, enough to maybe try to disrupt whatever it was she was up to. Staying for an allotted amount of time. - Excerpt from Migration 17.2
  170. 170.0 170.1 170.2 170.3 170.4 170.5 170.6 170.7 170.8 Images of the Simurgh appeared on the screens.

    “Her precognition gets better at assessing targets and threats the longer they are in range of her scream. The initial attack is key. She will not dodge everything we throw at her. You may feel the attacks don’t matter. They do! Our initial approach will emphasize chaos and disturbance. This delays the point in time where she has the ability to see everything! We will rotate people in and out, minimizing exposure. Past a certain ‘code yellow’ point you’re an increasing danger to others. Past a ‘code red’, you become her weapon to use against humanity. Play it safe, taper off, be prepared to back out, or know who you can go to to get a ride or evacuation. We will have resources as we split apart the teams.” - Last 20.1
  171. 171.0 171.1 171.2 171.3 171.4 The lights came back on, bright, with a fluorescent whine that became a scream, one sound in a chorus. Human screams came from upstairs, and my eyes strained to adjust and see what might be causing the screaming. Was it someone on our side? Someone hurt? Someone who’d snapped and become hostile?

    The Simurgh wasn’t necessarily flipping people to ‘red’ with a new, unprecedented speed. This was part of any fight against the Endbringer. In a given population, there were bound to be people who were on the edge, vulnerable, needing only the right prompt. As she kept screaming, she kept gathering data, and she used that data to find better prompts for more people who were on a ledge, on the cusp of losing their minds.

    The very second my vision was clear and focused enough to see the details in the bright white hallway, half the lights went out again.

    The danger we were facing, the hazards of this particular battlefield, were those people who had been on the cusp of breaking down and who were now putty in the Simurgh’s hands. - Excerpt from Last 20.4
  172. It took maybe a minute before Krouse could be sure it was happening, but the screaming began to fade. Two more minutes passed before it was gone in entirety.

    Silence. Absolute silence, without any screaming in their heads, rumbles of destruction miles away, or ambient urban noise. - Migration 17.5
  173. The screaming in our heads was fading, now. This time, I was pretty sure, it was because she was leaving. Escaping. - Excerpt from Last 20.7
  174. “What happened with the Simurgh?” he asked.

    “Answer my questions first.”

    “The scream tapered off. I don’t think she died. She left. From the state of you and your focus on this, you did enough damage to her that you’re fairly confident she’s not about to pull off her endgame - Last 20.8
  175. The screaming was a roar in my ears, like the adrenaline in my ears when I’d been trapped. - Last 20.3
  176. 176.0 176.1 This time I hit the plunger.

    The veil fell yet again. This time for real.

    The screaming picked up, faint at first, and then a roar. It was all an illusion. All a mind-fuck.

    She was here, perched. Fucking with us all the while. - Last 20.5
  177. 177.0 177.1 They took a path that kept the fence to their right. It meant they stayed on the fringe of the Simurgh’s power, the volume of the keening song as low as they could hope to keep it, and it meant there was one less cardinal direction that any creatures could approach them from. There were soldiers stationed at the far end of any roads, a ways back from fences, but they weren’t taking shots at them. If the soldiers happened to shout at them through a loudspeaker, he considered it a bonus, something to draw others closer.

    He cursed the heavy clouds of fog and dust that were resulting from the ongoing fighting and the snow that had evaporated or scattered on a massive scale. It wasn’t bad enough that there were monsters prowling around the city, but his key senses were being obscured. He couldn’t see more than one or two hundred feet ahead of him, and the noise… there was no absolute quiet. The screaming in their heads continued without end, low in volume and apparently low in effect, but there. Always there. Just as distracting and nerve-wracking were the rumbles and the sounds of gunfire, of distant explosions, of buildings collapsing, and of city streets being blasted to shreds. - Migration 17.4
  178. The screaming, at the very least, didn’t feel that bad. Was the Simurgh further from the building? That wasn’t necessarily a good thing, as relieving as it felt right this minute. It meant she might be getting away. - Excerpt from Last 20.4
  179. themanwhowas:
    6.How large are the zones? A mile in diameter? Five? Ten? Is it as far as the Simurgh's psychic scream, and if so, what is that range?
    Wildbow:
    6.Scream's rage varies. Fight took place over hours and covered an area of the city. Covered roughly the following area: http://i.imgur.com/sRbKrDI.png - Conversation with Wildbow on Reddit
  180. 180.0 180.1 180.2 There was a distant rumble. The Simurgh ascended from the skyline a mile away, a half-dozen uprooted buildings orbiting lazily around her. As chunks of concrete came free of the ruined ends of the structures, they too orbited her, a protective shield.

    Or a weapon. Each of her wings curled forward, and the smaller pieces orbiting her went flying ahead, simultaneously striking a hundred targets Krouse and his friends couldn’t see. Scion fired one beam, and she moved one of the apartment complexes she was lifting to put it between herself and Scion. The goal seemed to be less about blocking the attack and more about hiding herself from Scion’s sight so she could take evasive action. - Excerpt from Migration 17.3
  181. One by one, they each came to a complete stop. Krouse noted how the screaming in his head seemed quieter. Were they almost out of her range? - Excerpt from Migration 17.2
  182. But no sooner had Canary’s Song gone away than the Simurgh began screaming.

    Not as intense as I’d heard it described. Barely audible.

    More ominous than anything.

    Not full strength,” Miss Militia’s voice came over the comms. “I give us five minutes. Wrap this up.”
    [...]
    “She’s singing,” Tattletale said. “So that’s either a good sign or a very bad sign.”

    Going by the numbers,” Miss Militia said, “If we assume it’s half strength, I’d say three minutes before we have to abort.” - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.4
  183. She sings, and subjects stationed here are immediately on guard.

    Adjusting the song, then. Something else. She looks forward to see what she’ll need. Something that will encourage rest.
    [...]
    No need to draw on the full force of her feedback when she already has the key elements deciphered. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  184. 184.0 184.1 184.2 184.3 184.4 Dragon’s spherical craft was crackling, sending out spherical waves that rippled over the crowd, over parts of the battlefield. A whole section of the dust cleared away, stripped of the Simurgh’s telekinetic hold.

    She chose that moment to emerge, while our eyes were searching the gap for any sign. She wasn’t even that far from me. From Breakthrough.

    The scream tore through my senses, everyone’s senses, delaying our response. The countdown timer in the corner of my vision whirred, a speedometer flying by, costing me tens of seconds with every moment.
    [...]
    The Dragon craft drew nearer. The Bakunawa Zero, with its pulses that disrupted powers and power effects. I knew the idea was to throw as much chaos as possible at the Simurgh, to disrupt her reads, to scramble her signal and her information gathering as she screamed. - Last 20.1
  185. “Defiant!” I called over. “Are the labs clear?”

    “Only if you help to clear them! Sixth floor, feel free!” he barked. He looked like he was going to say something else, then stopped.

    He turned, raising his head to look up.

    The ceiling caved in. A plume of dust, concrete-

    Simurgh.

    I thought at first that it was just a psychological tactic. Telekinetically controlled dust, to scare us, remind us we weren’t safe anywhere here.

    Then it screamed. - Last 20.3
  186. 186.0 186.1 A flash of golden light signaled Scion’s return to the scene of the fight. With one attack, he severed the halo in half, but the portal didn’t disappear. Instead, like watercolor paint, a different perspective began to bleed into the surrounding sky, too bright, too blue a sky, with pale, squat buildings almost glowing in the comparative absence of clouds. Larger chunks of buildings, massive rocks, and even chunks of earth with several trees rooted in them began to spill out and plunge to the ground.

    Scion held back on shooting again, instead charging himself with power. When he released it, it manifested as a slow radiance, a sphere of light that expanded from him in slow motion. The tear in reality dissipated, and everything the light touched stopped. Shifting clouds went still, objects that were flying through the air ceased moving and simply fell, and the ambient noises of destruction, fire and fighting was replaced by an all-too brief silence. Even the Simurgh’s song, Krouse realized, had momentarily stopped. - Excerpt from Migration 17.2
  187. On the battlefield, the Bakunawa Zero was her tool against Pouffe, a ship loaded down with ten different disruption factors. EMP, a gravity disruptor that had been converted from a failed attempt at making an antigravity device capable of lifting a town, an engine modified from the work scavenged from the Thomais Fallen that would push time manipulation attempts off by microseconds, forward, back, or to either side. The list went on. Temperature, radiation, causality, biological signals…

    Her plan had been to try to scramble the signals the Titans were exchanging, or, should the situation become dire enough that she had to fight the Machine Army, it would disrupt their interlinked communication across the 15.9 million kilometer square network, allowing her to portion off sections for elimination.
    [...]
    Dragon’s approach was to use every system she could that could disrupt time, space, temperature, gravity, even by the smallest degrees. Titan Cinereal was halfway through the cloud-portal when the mist shifted abruptly and the portal distorted.

    Sheared by the distortion, Titan Cinereal left a quarter of her body, mostly lower body, behind, the rest of her dropped off near Gimel’s analogue to Boston. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.z
  188. 188.0 188.1 One target comes into full focus, and their existence is now visible, from the moment of their birth until the time they disappear from sight. Often, this is the point of their death. Other times, they disappear into darkness, obscured by another power. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  189. 189.0 189.1 Often, this is not a true obstacle, if she has had time to look. There are the fulcrum points. Crises, themes, decisions, fears and aspirations are clearly visible. The individual is understood well enough that their actions can be guessed after they disappear from view.

    A stone is thrown into darkness. It can be safely assumed that it will continue traveling until it hits something. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  190. 190.0 190.1 190.2 190.3 He kicked every thruster into action. Spearing down toward Fortuna.

    His trajectory carried him past Dauntless. Dauntless, who had endured the Simurgh’s company for as long as just about any person who hadn’t lived in Lausanne, the unwitting audience for her very first appearance.

    Dauntless, who had every reason to hate and resent him.

    He could only trust. That Dauntless was a better man. Trust that the Dauntless who they’d discovered had spent years trapped in time with only his own thoughts could somehow hold out against the Simurgh’s influence. She had two vectors of attack, with one being prediction, the other being the ways she could grind down a man’s sanity.

    The prediction would be weak right now. As for the other part… Defiant trusted that his old teammate had held onto that sanity.

    No choice but to trust. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  191. Call the Number Man, keeping myself alive with an escape route afterwards, she didn’t even form the phrase as a complete thought. It was an idea, formed in a fraction of a second.

    The path appeared before her. - Interlude 29
  192. Coil paused to let that sink in, then looked up at us, “She calculates possibilities, we think she does it by seeing all the potential outcomes of an event in a fraction of a second. Her power categorizes these outcomes and helps her to figure out the chance that a given event will come to pass. It isn’t easy for her, and I try not to tax her abilities, but you can surely see why this is so valuable.” - Buzz 7.11
  193. The Simurgh was there in the distance, taking roost in the middle of a clearing, ringed by a crown-like circle of ruined and toppled buildings. It had been a park, once, but there was no grass, no water, there were no trees.
    [...]
    Rewording: She had a tendency to position herself like this. Waiting for people to come to her, while she remained still. - Last 20.1
  194. I could hear it now. The scream.

    In red-edged letters, a countdown began rolling down in the corner of my vision. Exposure.
    [...]
    Two threats to overcome, and I had a maybe idea for the second.

    The first had just ruined any hope we had at reclaiming Gimel, and she was in her warm-up phase. - Last 20.1
  195. The Simurgh played a defensive game.

    This too, was a… I changed my mind from saying habit. It was a tendency. Better to think of her like a natural disaster. The water receded before tsunami. The calm in the midst of a hurricane indicated you were in the midst of it, and that more was to come. - Last 20.1
  196. 196.0 196.1 “The Simurgh! Pay attention, even if you won’t be fighting her. You can’t know what will happen!” Legend announced, and he was confident, assured. If the head injury had impaired his faculties any, it didn’t show. “Our analysis of the Simurgh comes from years of experience! I can tell you, don’t let your guard down. She will surprise us. She will throw curveballs at us. In all the times we’ve engaged with her, she has had new tricks. Stay the course! - Last 20.1
  197. The early part of the fight was supposed to be the crucial part, where we did as much damage as possible. I could liken it to how Contessa got fatigued and needed to devote more resources to staying on task, but again, always, this Endbringer that wasn’t brutish and noisy, not feral and animal-like, but graceful. There were times she moved like a dance with wings would move. Not so much spinning and leaping, but moving in measured ways, with a full awareness of her body and an audience in mind.

    The early phase of the fight was passing. In my vision, people and the powers they were using were being marked out in a dim yellow. We weren’t doing a lot of damage.

    Yeah, panicking a little. - Last 20.1
  198. “No, listen. The Simurgh? This guy said she has a weakness. Two ways where she can’t see the future. Two ways to break free of her cause and effect.”

    Noelle didn’t say anything.

    “The first way, you’ve got to be basically immune to powers. Scion is. He’s immune to precognition, throws everything out the window when he shows up. I saw it when he fought the Simurgh. She couldn’t automatically dodge his stuff, because she either couldn’t read his mind or she couldn’t see the attacks before they happened. So he hit her, a bunch of times. I saw it.” - Migration 17.8
  199. “Against the Endbringers, there are really only two individuals who can stop them, drive them away. Scion is one. I’m another. Each of us is worth a hundred other capes, if not more. I’m not boasting when I say this. But my powers are getting weaker every day, little by little. Whatever vast, improbably deep well parahumans tap into to use abilities, I suspect mine is running dry.”
    [...]
    “When I fight, Mrs. Yamada, I feel as though my lost power is somehow within reach. Reserves I have not yet touched, maybe. Or a fresh well. It is something, but it is there. The problem is that I rarely get to truly fight. Do you understand?” - Interlude 18.z
  200. The Doctor spoke, “I should have listened to her sooner, but there are too many blind spots around this situation. The Endbringers, the End of the World, the formulas. Things she can’t see. I held on, told myself I wouldn’t cut you off until we had another Simurgh attack, to ensure you could minimize the damage, that you’d be able to recuperate and adjust for at least a few months before she showed up again.” - Interlude 27.x
  201. Running an Endbringer fight

    Wildbow: As Wrandm suggests, I'd treat this as a mass combat - except against one foe. The objective as GM isn't to drop a huge unkillable monster on the board and expect them to kill it, but to have a list of objectives and scenarios.
    [...]
    Hit them with a briefing, and outline the rules for what's going on. Win conditions: get through to the end. There's no guarantee the major players (like Scion) are going to show up, but after X segments there's a d20 die roll: on a 20+ Scion shows. On a 18-19 Eidolon shows.

    Rule for Eidolon - Survive through 3 objectives from the time he arrives to win. If an objective is completely failed, doesn't count for progression. Continue to roll for Scion.

    Rule for Scion - survive for two more 'rounds', no more objectives except for surviving. - Wildbow on Reddit
  202. Mantellum Case 53. Blocks out sensory aspects of powers progressively more with proximity. Irregulars - Parahuman List, bolded edit by Wildbow
  203. ReekRhymesWithWeak: Edit: Can we also have clarification on whether Mantellum could beat Cherish or not?

    Wildbow: Mantellum operates in a different way than Hatchet Face, blocking all power use into or out of his radius. It becomes a contest of strength. Make your decision accordingly. - Conversation with Wildbow on Reddit
  204. Torrieltar: How do you nullify a power in Wormverse? Would any old power nullifier from another universe work, or does it need to be done in a specific way? Similarly, what would it take to duplicate a Wormverse power?

    Wildbow: Depends, really. Mantellum was a power nullifier who basically blinded shards. He arguably wouldn't have any effect on a sensory power that wasn't a Worm power. - Conversation with Wildbow on Reddit
  205. Fog approached. A wall of it, moving down the corridor. She could see normally, but the effect on her powers was absolute. It was impossible to make out any steps that moved within the fog.
    [...]
    She ducked. “-have a perception blocker, beware.”
    [...]
    “Cornered. They’ve got a thinker, I think, they planned this ahead of time, knowing I wouldn’t pick up on their presence.”
    [...]
    This ‘Mantellum’ had been close enough that he should have been able to block her power. He hadn’t.

    Because he’d been on the other side of the portal. The power didn’t cross dimensional boundaries.

    She’d been lucky. - Interlude 29
  206. 206.0 206.1 Torrieltar: How fast can Path to Victory react to unforeseen changes?

    Wildbow: All changes are foreseen, as a rule. Can't cite anything, but there's a line that sorta appears in the story, where you run into the perfects (perfect defense, perfect offense) and stuff gets fucky - and the rule of thumb is that 'unless your ability beats -everything-, it doesn't beat this'. For processing power Contessa's ability would be on this level (as with Flechette's Sting, Clockblocker's inviolability, Siberian's invulnerability). - Conversation with Wildbow on Reddit
  207. “We’ve heard of incidents where one person became a very large-scale effect. The kind that would cover this whole colony, and then some,” I said. “I think the catch is that most precogs and danger sensers can’t see triggers coming, even broken ones.” - Gleaming 9.12
  208. Better not to move. To wait.

    It took nearly eight hours. But Dauntless’s son came. The boy drove in a truck, and he reached the perimeter that capes and other forces had gathered as a just-in-case measure.
    [...]
    After a couple of hours, they decided to leave.
    [...]
    It remained where it was, waiting. It waited and watched even as the forces arrayed around it readied for an assault, panicked, then retreated.
    [...]
    The reason for the panic and the imminent assault hadn’t been him, but another guest. She settled on one arm, comparatively tiny, a weight on one arm and on one shoulder. Feathered wings draped his arm. - Heavens 12.none
  209. 209.0 209.1 209.2 hitherbydragons: I think the interference works like this:

    When a precog sees the future, it changes how they act. That change in their actions changes the future.

    Each future-seeing power has a way of solving for that—a way of bringing that to a point of convergence.
    [...]
    But when you get two different modes of prediction interacting, then there’s a feedback effect. Let’s say that Simurgh and Contessa are fighting over the Precog Prize, a marvelous blue ribbon that goes to the precog of the year. (Next year, to be precise.) [...] Only, Contessa isn’t actually going to do all of these things: it’s just that she’ll do those things _in the world where the Simurgh is doing that plan._ So her power becomes a shape, a shadow, over the set of futures that the Simurgh can build. And normally vice versa, except that Contessa’s power apparently wins.
    [...]
    wildbow: That is pretty much exactly right. - Conversation with Wildbow on Crushed 24.4
  210. Krouse was getting more excited, had to press his hand flat against the floor to stop it from shaking. “And the other way? There’s thinker powers that mess with her ability to influence events. If another precog gets a hand in events, the Simurgh automatically shuts them down and vice-versa. The way this guy said it, the precogs get overloaded with the second-guessing the other precog, on top of having to figure out all the quantum possibilities and split paths. And this guy? He has a power that messes with precogs some, and the precog working for him has a power that will help circumvent the Simurgh’s power. Get it? So long as we work for him, we’re free of it. No more cause and effect. No more feeling like we’re doomed no matter what choice we make. We go from that kind of safety to home. To our world.“ - Migration 17.8
  211. 211.0 211.1 She can see the events as they would unfold, and carries out her activities in plain sight. Another subject, having left earlier, is going to finish her routine. Most likely sequence of events, accounting for future-viewers obscuring possibilities, is that she finishes her journey in the ensuing ten minutes. Unclear whether she finishes her note or writes something lengthier. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  212. 212.0 212.1 In the lobby of the headquarters, before Dinah Alcott’s use of her power made deciphering the following events difficult, before the heroes started strategizing about this battle, he would watch Dragon offer a helping hand to a heroine he had bumped into. It would cross his mind that if circumstances were different, he would be attracted to someone like the heroine, followed by the thought that he could think that way because his -or Lab Rat’s- sister was as different from the heroine as was possible, while still being a girl.

    He would wonder momentarily at his place in the world, then dismiss the thought, pushing it away by filling his head with resentment. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.z
  213. 213.0 213.1 213.2 213.3 She can’t see Dinah. She can’t see us if we interact with Dinah.
    [...]
    “That’s why I could get the syringe to the giant,” I said. “She didn’t see me to stop me?”

    Tattletale nodded. “Think so.” - Last 20.6
  214. “Why are you here? You’re insane, coming to a place like this. You know what the Simurgh does.”

    “We do,” Faultline said. “But we have a friend, she’s got a bit of precognitive talent. Enough that it should clear us of any schemes the Simurgh is pulling.”

    Eyes went wide.
    [...]
    “A thinker power. Precognition? No, that wouldn’t work with your power. Fuck!” - Interlude 18.f
  215. Her power looks like luck manipulation but is actually microtelekinesis and precognition/butterfly effects at work. - Wildbow on Reddit
  216. Shamrock – A case-53 (typically monstrous parahumans, amnesiac, with a specific tattoo) with no monstrous features. Combines microtelekinesis and an unconscious precognition into an effective ‘luck’ manipulation, altering outcomes on a subtle level. - Cast (spoiler free)
  217. She requires access to particular information. This can be arranged by positioning targets carefully.

    She requires resources. This requires patience. She will have access to them soon enough, provided things aren’t cast into darkness by the obstacle. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  218. “Scion sees the path to victory?”

    “Or something close.”

    “You’re sure?”

    “The evidence, his attitude, as far as he has any attitude at all… yeah. None of the limitations like Contessa has, I don’t think. No blind spots. Just… yeah.” - Cockroaches 28.6
  219. “Right. He’s using supercharged gravity to try to pin her down and simultaneously take out any of the clones she spits out. He’s staying out of reach with flight, and he said something before about a danger sense. Precognition, I guess?” - Queen 18.7
  220. His powers were adapting. He’d been holding on to them, but the anger and circumstances were apparently enough to force a shift. A perception ability, an offensive ability that would let him move objects violently along strict paths that were dancing across his field of vision, and a future-sight ability that was making the world change colors, identifying points of high future stress and danger with colored blotches.
    [...]
    The telekinetic smash would let him move her aside. Contessa… he couldn’t beat Contessa. The precognitive power he’d gained wasn’t one he’d used before, but he knew. - Interlude 27.x
  221. Then she fired the guns. Hers and Kid Win’s.

    The shotgun approach. Cover as wide an area as possible, cover as many bases as possible, in the hopes that something hits. - Venom 29.2
  222. “It’s not that easy. She knows she’ll be blind, here and there. She collects and stacks the pieces. At a certain point, she’s got so many factors on her side she can make blind moves and still win. That’s where she’s at now. There’s no king for us to take, no weak point to capitalize on, no silver bullet or special trick,” Tattletale said. - Last 20.6
  223. Not so much that precogs are rare, but that they’re limited. The future is awfully big.

    Look at Dinah – her ability crippled her early on, and if Coil hadn’t kidnapped her, she might have abandoned it, avoided using it, because it was that hard. As it stands, she has to search the myriad futures to prune away realities until she finds the answers to very specific questions. AND she’s the third most powerful precog in the setting. - Comment by Wildbow on Prey 14.1
  224. 224.0 224.1 The child refused to be a slave again. The Titan refused to be a slave for other reasons. But they were able to think and act in concert.

    A path. One that most likely ended in a desirable outcome. To investigate too much would leave it on the table long enough for the silver woman to get silver fingerprints on it.
    [...]
    As if sensing the resolution, the silver woman turned and levitated herself away. Ceding the battle, or taking her own initial steps. - Radiation 18.z
  225. 225.0 225.1 What question!?”

    “Kick her ass, or kick her ass more?” I asked, quiet.

    There was a pause.

    “Just kicking her ass will suffice.”

    I used my aura, putting every iota of violent, righteous, angry sentiment I was feeling and transmitting it to every cape present. Dinah directed, it gave us what we needed to make a final set of moves without her seeing them coming. - Last 20.6
  226. 226.0 226.1 There was no scream in my head. For the moment, for this final batch of attacks, she wasn’t fighting, she was barely trying to defend herself, and she was taking a lot of punishment. To see it, I could imagine the Simurgh had vacated the shell of her body, and this was a Simurgh-shaped statue we were so focused on taking down. - Excerpt from Last 20.7
  227. 227.0 227.1 The screaming was finding its way back into my head. Small, slow, steady, but it was creeping in, building up, and it was doing it faster than it had initially done.

    Our window is closing. - Excerpt from Last 20.7
  228. 228.0 228.1 “Come on,” I murmured. The screaming was getting worse. I saw the Simurgh block Crystalclear’s thrown crystal with a bit of debris. She wasn’t even facing him, though I wasn’t sure how much that mattered. Had he been here when I’d used my power? Or was she getting to the point where she was one step ahead again? - Excerpt from Last 20.7
  229. The Simurgh was blocking three out of four of our moves now. We had enough big guns that she was still taking a beating, but it didn’t feel like enough. I could believe she was one or two steps ahead of us, but it didn’t feel like we were fighting a sea of toppling dominoes, wondering where they went or what the end result would look like.

    Not yet. - Excerpt from Last 20.7
  230. “That music,” Marissa complained. “Driving me crazy.”

    “Music?”

    “Like an opera singer singing a high note and never stopping for breath. Only it changes a little if I pay attention to it.”

    The scream.

    “You hear it too?” Krouse asked. He pressed his hands to his ears to warm them.

    “I thought it was a siren,” Oliver said.

    “It’s not,” Krouse replied. “It’s in our heads. Try covering your ears.”

    One by one, they did.

    “What the hell?” Luke asked. - Excerpt from Migration 17.1
  231. The scream filled my head, impossibly high and drawn out, cold and changing just often enough that I couldn’t anticipate it or get used to it.

    My teeth were clenched so hard that the sides of my face hurt. - Last 20.1
  232. Before anyone could come looking for him, he grabbed a flower vase and started rinsing it out in the sink. He tried not to think too much on the subject of what he’d seen, but was unable to break his train of thought any more than he could free himself of the steady, endless screaming in his head. There were enough notes to it now that it almost did sound like singing. Something a few notches above soprano in pitch, holding long notes that stretched on just enough for him to get used to them. Then they changed, jarring his thoughts, never settling into a pattern. It was as if it were designed to rattle him. - Excerpt from Migration 17.3
  233. 233.0 233.1 233.2 233.3 There were five capes who hadn’t been flung. Five capes who’d done the sensible thing and worn bodysuits instead of armor, to get the most bang for their buck when it came to the Manton effect. - Last 20.5
  234. 234.0 234.1 Frame a situation to put a target under optimal fear and stress. Hormone secretions increase. Manipulate situation to a position where they will connect familiar visual, olfactory and auditory cues to their immediate environment. Place, smell, degree of stress, sights and sounds match fulcrum point. Hormone secretions increase further.

    The result is hallucinations, momentary or sustained. Hearing sounds, seeing things, smelling something, where none truly exist. Fight or flight response feeds need for escapism. A hallucination serves as the first step into a daydream.

    The stone is thrown.

    She does this with people and the various secretions within their bodies, with machines and data, with the elements and simple cause and effect. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  235. Miss Militia shook her head. “There’ll be doubts, it’s not enough. Behemoth can generate electromagnetic waves that wipe out electronics. Even many reinforced electronics, if he’s close enough. The Simurgh can scramble coding. We don’t just have to convince the public. We need to convince the heroes, and they know these things.” - Excerpt from Cell 22.6
  236. “How are we for exposure?”

    You two are good for another seventeen minutes at the exposure you’re facing. Twenty if we push it. I can have a flight unit to you shortly.” - Migration 17.4
  237. The screaming was getting worse. Warbling, with highs and lows. It snagged on my attention, making it harder to maintain a train of thought. - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.4
  238. They warn you that you’ll do things that seem callous or inhuman. That she’ll make you do those things as one of her one hundred ways of getting to you… - Last 20.6
  239. The preparation material said we’d fail, we’d be whittled down, and it would perpetually feel like we could do more, if only we were at our best, while she guaranteed that we wouldn’t be at our best… - Last 20.6
  240. 240.0 240.1 Saw Sveta’s hurt, as she held one arm to a bicep, where tendrils were especially active.

    “Sorry,” I told her.

    “It’s fine,” she said, in a tone that suggested it wasn’t, with a faint look of betrayal on her face.

    The procedures for these missions suggest we’re supposed to avoid holding grudges, avoid blame, for ourselves and for others. Mistakes happen when you’re pushed to your limit by a psychic scream.

    But that felt like shallow justification. - Last 20.6
  241. Long seconds passed. The screaming in my head was thin, faint.

    Sister.

    My sister was at the bottom of the hole. Maybe. All I had to do was look.

    Would I be more at peace if I could verify her as dead or if I could verify I wasn’t a killer?

    It made it so tempting. But it also meant risking having to set eyes on her, which meant facing dark thoughts, which meant- - Last 20.6
  242. Something grabbed me, and my first thought was Panacea. I grabbed it back, hard, with forcefield.

    The moment I realized it was Sveta, I let go, guilt washing over me.

    I followed the hand. - Last 20.6
  243. She really hoped nothing had happened. The command center was vulnerable to threats like Skadi, and the latest reports were that the Titan Fortuna was getting more focused, after a spell of stillness. If she was anything like the Simurgh, then anyone or anything could become a guided missile, capable of striking right at the heart at the command center. - Interlude 19.e II
  244. 244.0 244.1 The one thing that made it possible to even think about defeating the Simurgh was that it took her time to get her hooks in. She was subtle. - Last 20.5
  245. 245.0 245.1 245.2 This was planned from some time ago. I knew that Cody was the most affected by the Simurgh (after Noelle), as, like Noelle, he was already unstable/in an emotional state before the whole business started out. I knew he was in the Yangban, and that this would be his moment to act. As for what his action was, that was what was decided late, on little sleep. - Comment by Wildbow on Interlude 23
  246. Shadow Stalker - She wasn't kept around because she's useful against Endbringers. She isn't. Look at that scene again. She's forced to get too close and she gets creamed. She's super vulnerable to energy in her shadow state (nix Behemoth), can't really close in vs. a fast or mobile target (nix Leviathan for the most part, Simurgh), is emotionally imbalanced (nix Simurgh) and doesn't do any meaningful damage.​ - Wildbow on Spacebattles
  247. I’d been unable to participate when the Simurgh had attacked flight BA178. When she’d attacked Manchester, I’d been barred from joining the fight by bureaucratic red tape. I had a bad history and I was still on probation. Too likely that I was mentally unstable.

    When the Simurgh had hit Paris, I’d gone to Mrs. Yamada, hoping for a therapist’s bill of clean mental health. Or, if not quite that, then at least a go-ahead.

    She’d advised me to see it as a good thing, instead. That my participation would be another black mark on my record, another reason for people to be suspicious of me or second guess my decisions.

    She’d also very elegantly avoided spelling out that she wasn’t willing to give me that clean bill of mental health. I’d noticed, but hadn’t pressed her on it. She would have been forced to say it straight, and I would have had to hear her say it. - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.4
  248. The forcefield grabbed the woman by the waist, still holding her arms. I lifted her. She shrank to tiny size, and I shifted my grip, still holding her. She grew again, and I didn’t lose my grip.

    Her screaming became a kind of screaming-sobbing.

    Who was she, and how had she been this close to the edge, that she was this badly off now? - Excerpt from Last 20.4
  249. 249.0 249.1 There was someone in costume sitting on the stairs in the dark, hands over his ears, rocking a little. I landed next to him while I waited for others, checking him over, but he barely seemed to recognize I was there. The hallways- I checked both, and both were lit. There was one dead body in the hallway, either a ‘red’ by Defiant’s system or a victim of a red, but no apparent threats.

    I used my aura, reaching out for calm and relief and pushing it out there.

    In a way, I was glad that I could. The process of connecting to the Fragile One and her origins, realizing she wasn’t the enemy and letting her connect to me… it had opened doors both for the shaping of my forcefield and for my emotion control. It felt right that the emotion control was letting me help and soothe, now.

    The cape stopped rocking and looked up at me. - Excerpt from Last 20.4
  250. “Do we need to worry?” Clockblocker asked.

    “Addendum to that thought,” I said. “Fuck her, and no, it’s not working like she wants it to. She’s poking at obvious weak spots I’ve been dealing with for years. I can take it.” - Last 20.3
  251. “I-” I started. “I’m fucking annoyed with this. I’m spooked about what comes next, and if we can even beat her. But I don’t feel like she’s getting to me. It’s distracting and there’s probably a point to it. Put me down as a seven.” - Last 20.3
  252. 252.0 252.1 He could only remain where he was.

    The reason for the panic and the imminent assault hadn’t been him, but another guest. She settled on one arm, comparatively tiny, a weight on one arm and on one shoulder. Feathered wings draped his arm.

    And she cried, and the cries were pitched to pull at the heartstrings and to tug at the mind. He couldn’t step into another room or walk away to leave those cries behind to find a chance to breathe.

    And he was tired, in that way that would have made it so easy to believe anything anyone told him. He dwelt on that weight on his arm, his power illuminating every world around him, some occupied, many not. There was no more power inside him to give. For now, he could only wait, endure as he’d endured for four years. He had his son and all the people he’d come to love, who’d loved him and visited him in his bubble, and that was the most significant thing. - Heavens 12.none
  253. 253.0 253.1 He turned his eyes to his left, where he should have been able to see terminals. There was only a wall of electrical ruin, blinding a cyborg eye that was supposed to be able to see in any combat scenario.

    I didn’t deserve this, he thought.
    [...]
    The electrical ruin to the left of the Pendragon was Dauntless’s shield, raised between the Marduk and the Simurgh. But for that shield, the Simurgh would have crashed right through him on her course to Titan Fortuna.

    Dauntless had saved him, and it felt like the man shouldn’t have. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  254. “Brace yourselves, aura!” I raised my voice.

    I pushed out with my aura. It was a shot in the dark, in more ways than the obvious one, that I couldn’t see the murder pixie I was trying to slow down, but because I was reaching for feelings I’d never used before. Fear and awe was a dichotomy I’d come to understand early on. I’d hit my parents with it in sparring, and I’d seen the varied reactions in reality.

    I could choose what emotions I put out there, now, but it wasn’t as simple as choosing from a tidy little list. Just the opposite. I dug into memories and the rawest, deepest feelings I had. A moment of clarity midway through therapy at the hospital. Moments, my thoughts wandering at night, where I’d jolted awake with a realization. The feeling after I’d smeared my mother against a wall, and realized it was my fault. Each of those memories was like an exposed nerve, and the screaming in my head was salt on those nerves.

    I’d wanted ‘wake up’ but the feelings I dug into as I broadcasted weren’t quite that.

    It did give her pause, but she was a tiny figure in the dark, in an unfamiliar environment, so it was hard for us to take advantage of her being delayed. - Excerpt from Last 20.4
  255. I walked her further up the stairs, and then used my aura, keeping the range contained to a matter of feet, the effect the closest thing I could approximate to calm.

    “Using my aura, keep your distance for a sec,” I said.

    “Your powers changed, again,” Sveta said, behind me. “Your forcefield held your gun with you nowhere near it. You just did something else. Your aura…”

    “Flavors of ‘rah rah’ and ‘fuck off’ in the fight earlier,” Rain interpreted. “Then just now it was a big slap in the face of ‘holy shit’.”

    “Courage, righteousness, and just now it was a feeling of realization. I hoped it would wake her up.” - Excerpt from Last 20.4
  256. Floating in the air, I curled up, knees to chest.

    Fuck that. I straightened, tall, eyes wide.

    I used my aura. The briefest of pulses. A push, taking that ‘fuck you’ and broadcasting it for the extra emphasis.

    She was there, crouching, her wings around her. The aura didn’t touch her. I couldn’t even be sure she registered it happened.

    But for everyone else, it was a nudge, a slap in the face, a bit of fuck you to shake them from anything they might be thinking or feeling that was similar to what I was experiencing. - Last 20.3
  257. The endless loop of trying to logic my way through emotional issues and emotion my way through logic, when neither would serve. Being caught by Ophion.

    She’s fucking with us.

    Putting us in a lose-lose, demoralizing, psychologically assaulting us.

    Because it served her goal.

    Because she needed to, I told myself. If we could push through this, it’d inconvenience her.

    Fuck you! I willed. I pushed again. Tried to feed courage and outrage out to the crowd on a level that would serve the people who needed it.

    I’m not who I was when Ophion got me.

    I’m changed. - Last 20.3
  258. Others jumped in. Helping. When I saw people losing courage, I gave pulses of courage. When I saw them succumbing to the fear and head-fuckery, I gave them a taste of righteous ‘fuck you’. - Last 20.3
  259. 259.0 259.1 Protikon: The difference would be whether or not powers that somehow protect your brain make you immune or not.

    Wildbow: Some do, some don't.

    Alexandria's power offloads processing power to the passenger, because an unchanging brain as a part of an unchanging body is a recipe for brain death. It isn't 100% effective - her brain remains her Achilles heel, but she's at the very least immune to the Simurgh. - Conversation with Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  260. <keyonte0> Why is Alexandria immune to Ziz, exactly?

    <Wildbow__> Her mental processes are offloaded to shard - Conversation with Wildbow on IRC, archived on Spacebattles
  261. “I’m an eight or a nine,” Cryptid said. He gave his sash a pat. “I have vials, including one for dealing with mind control. Doesn’t scare me.”

    “The bird one. You could have used it already,” I noted.

    “Maybe someone else will need it,” Cryptid said, narrowing his eyes at me. He looked away. “Works better if I have a mission in mind.”

    “Nice to have in the back pocket,” I told him.

    “It is,” he replied, before his ear twitched and he looked away. - Last 20.3
  262. “Answer the questions, Chris,” Sveta said.

    “I don’t trust the people out there. I do trust the Simurgh’s malice. That world she wants to create? Where everyone’s screaming? I can deal. I can keep my mind intact. A world with nobody to bother me, I can read books, comics, and catch up on old games for as long as I want.” - Last 20.8
  263. The Fragile One held one of the syringes I’d had her knock to the floor in the first move. Sveta’s, the one that was supposed to give her a body, left deliberately behind.

    Poised, ready to stab Chris, and to take away his new, Simurgh-immune body.

    “You think I’m scared?” he asked. “Do you think I’m surprised?”

    He reached out, grabbed the syringe, and pulled it toward himself. The needle punctured his body.
    [...]
    -But he pressed the plunger.

    The shedding of his monstrous form was as fast as the adoption of it had been. Feathers began to fall away. Pressed against him, I could feel him shrinking.

    “I’ll get the immunity I need before she gets to me,” he said. “I’m not worried.” - Last 20.8
  264. These events would precipitate a thought, minutes after the conversation with Riley Grace Davis. Cryptid would remember his bird forms, chosen with a bird aesthetic because they each had a form of disconnection, akin to a bird leaving the world behind by taking flight. These forms involved detaching mind from body, or vulnerable parts of the mind from other parts of the mind.

    He would think he was not a part of society, he offered no helping hands and he needed none.

    What if, then, the world went mad under the Simurgh’s rule? He could remain perpetually in a bird form, disconnected from the madness. The world would continue on indefinitely. He was fine being alone. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.z
  265. “Anyone else?” Rain asked, hopeful.

    Torso put out both hands, all fingers extended.

    “Ten,” Hookline said, unnecessarily.

    “Good for you!” Finale said.

    “Even with the crotch shot?” Win asked.

    Torso pulled his hands back. He swayed for a second, then put them out again, pinky finger and thumb on one black-gloved hand tucked in. Eight.

    “His skull is too thick for her to get to him,” Gibbet said, giving Torso a knock on the head. Torso, in turn, gave her a thumbs up. - Last 20.3
  266. “My team was just trying to ballpark how we’re doing,” I told him. “Rating from one to ten. Ten being fantastic. One being that we’re a danger to others. Where are you at, Gilpatrick?” - Last 20.3
  267. helljack666: Torso is an Armor+Negate+Immortal Brute by Weaverdice Logic, right?

    Wildbow: I wouldn't normally mix three together.
    Shield rather than armor, since it's partial protection only protecting against hits to certain parts.
    Shield x Negate. - Conversation with Wildbow on Reddit
  268. The key here isn't the Flash, or Superman, or Batman. What helps the Justice League get the edge is the Martian Manhunter. There is no strict telepathy in the Wormverse, and the Manhunter gives the JL a way of responding. He can probably detect the scream, and he can probably undo the damage for critical individuals. - Wildbow on Reddit
  269. 269.0 269.1 She couldn’t make tinker devices herself. She had to copy the designs of tinkers near her. He’d found who she’d copied, a now deceased cape from Brockton Bay, and he’d found the designs.

    There were discrepancies. - Teneral e.5
  270. Tattletale was caught up in a conversation with Knave of Clubs, and fell under the Simurgh’s shadow. The Simurgh, for her part, seemed to be busy building other tinker devices, drawing on the abilities of tinkers in the immediate area. - Venom 29.3
  271. 271.0 271.1 “Way I understand it, she needs to have a tinker in her sphere of influence to borrow their schematics, or a specific device, if she wants to copy it. - Venom 29.1
  272. 272.0 272.1 272.2 272.3 She's a telekinetic capable of tossing buildings, she flies, and her scanning ability lets her borrow and copy techniques and mental powers from others - including the power of tinkers (essentially scanning Iron Man and gaining the ability to make what he can make, then telekinetically pulling together a macro-scale version of his devices from surrounding materials). - Wildbow on Reddit
  273. Either way, she didn’t have schematics or anything she’d need to modify the guns.”

    “Or she can modify them, and it’s a card she’s been keeping up her sleeve for the last while. I mean, it was only three years ago or whatever that she really showed off her ability to copy a tinker’s work wholesale.”

    Tattletale nodded. She frowned. “I don’t like being in the dark. But that’s the gist of it. She made cosmetic changes because she couldn’t make concrete ones.” - Venom 29.1
  274. A vault holding the equipment of now-deceased supervillain ‘Professor Haywire’ was accessed by the Simurgh. Shortly after, the source alleges, the Simurgh activated a large-scale replica of the devices, depositing large amounts of foreign bodies in the heart of the city. - Migration 17.6
  275. The Simurgh had crafted another gun. They floated around her like satellites, firing only in those intermittent moments when she’d formed and loaded the necessary ammunition.

    Those are my guns,” Kid Win reported over the comms. “Bigger, but mine.“

    I didn’t like that she was screaming. It set an ugly tone to this whole venture. - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.4
  276. One or two years old? Accelerated aging? Where had the Simurgh been in contact with a tinker with that particular knowledge? Bonesaw? - Teneral e.5
  277. Lung tore into the casing, much as he’d torn through the vault door.

    There was a scratch as Lung’s claw touched glass.

    He tore at the metal, peeling it away while preserving the glass.
    [...]
    The monster turned to leave, the polluted water still popping behind him. - Teneral e.5
  278. Defiant’s head turned, as if Tattletale had said something.

    “Yeah,” Tattletale said. “Nanotech. Why do you think the fins were turning water to mist?”

    My tech?” Defiant asked.

    “Among one or two other advancements. If the density rules are in effect, I’d bet those fins are just as hard to cut through as Leviathan’s arm or torso. Disintegration effect, maybe something else.” - Cockroaches 28.5
  279. He wrenched it free, and tore out chunks of his own chest in the process. There was little left but the handle and the base of the sword. Needle-like lengths of metal speared out from the base, but the bulk of the sword’s material was gone. - Cockroaches 28.5
  280. Thinkers, too, I think she borrows their perception powers as long as she’s tapped into them. Might be why she’s attached to me. - Venom 29.1
  281. The Simurgh, for the time being, came part and parcel with Tattletale. When she wasn’t fighting, she was a distance away from my teammate and friend. - Speck 30.2
  282. “She skipped ahead. We thought we had a bit longer,” Tattletale said. “She jumped to going after Fortuna ten minutes early. We didn’t do enough for your plan.”

    “No.”

    I looked.

    Dinah had spoken. Now she pointed, one hand held to her head, grimacing.

    I looked, and I saw the syringe, empty.

    I grabbed it.

    There was only one valid target. - Last 20.5
  283. The Simurgh was perched on her shoulder. The video feed fritzed momentarily, and I could see faces in the crowd flinch. - Radiation 18.2
  284. Three buildings floated in mid air, a distance away, the lower floors ragged where they had been separated from the ground. One by one, they were hurled through the air like someone might lob a softball. Even with the impact happening half a mile away, the ground shook enough to make them stumble. - Excerpt from Migration 17.1
  285. The Simurgh lifted Lucas’ apartment building into the air and tore it into shreds. The various fragments, the little things, the bodies and pieces of furniture, they became part of a protective maelstrom around the Simurgh, orbiting her and blocking the barrage of long-range fire that the good guys were directing at her. - Excerpt from Migration 17.2
  286. Telekinesis. She’d created a false image of herself out of snow and ice, baiting Scion away. Judging by the sound of Scion’s continued onslaught, she was still controlling it. Controlling it even though there was no way she could see what it was doing by eyesight alone. - Excerpt from Migration 17.2
  287. I looked at her, at Bastard, who barely seemed to be breathing anymore. In the distance, Scion followed up his attack on the Simurgh. She continued to focus on defending herself, raising sand in false Simurgh decoys, manipulating water, all to misdirect, as she kept her wings folded around her like a shell. - Venom 29.2
  288. I’d thought he was perceptive enough to see through the decoys, but he was the golden fool. The Simurgh had deceived him before.
    [...]
    He was an alien combatant, a stranger from another world, who saw the world in an entirely different way from how we did.

    But there was a pattern.

    I divided the swarm decoy in two.

    Divided each of those two into two more.

    He’d stopped the spirit from spreading across the sky, and had made a concerted effort to eliminate Glaistig Uaine’s spirits. He’d eliminated Eidolon’s illusions.

    Whether the creations were concrete or otherwise, it was something that seemed to provoke him.

    Was it something instinctive? A part of his species? Something he watched out for in enemies, in threats or competition?

    Scion turned and blasted the swarm out of the sky. - Extinction 27.5
  289. “There are options. There are always options. Ways to circumvent powers, ways to trip him up. He really didn’t like it when I created multiple swarm decoys. When anyone duplicated. Maybe there’s a clue in there.” - Cockroaches 28.6
  290. Gibbet was cloning the painted bits of wall and floor that Withdrawal had covered with the stuff that made the rubble too slick for telekinesis to grab, walling off sections and piles so the Simurgh couldn’t grab as much. - Excerpt from Last 20.7
  291. 291.0 291.1 The chemical in his syringe turned yellow. Veins crawled across his costume, yellow, and the fabric turned yellow where it had been pink. The lenses shifted color too, to orange.

    He couldn’t lift his own syringe on his own, but he stood it on end, then stepped on a jutting bit at the side.

    The spray rained down over himself and his frame. - Excerpt from Last 20.7
  292. 292.0 292.1 Withdrawal was back in his frame, now, covered in yellow that looked like he’d sloshed a bucket of paint over himself. As a chunk of broken concrete platform floated near him, he sprayed it with a gush from the syringe.

    The platform hit ground.

    I could see as he did more, spraying more things, hitting the tinkertech the Simurgh was using, and causing it to fall. Everything he sprayed came free of her telekinetic grip, and none of it was getting picked up again. - Excerpt from Last 20.7
  293. Chevalier was here, and put his sword out like a wall, some of his squadron gripping the channel that bifurcated the two great blades.

    The screaming in my ears reached a new pitch, the Simurgh unfurled her wings and raised one long, thin arm, and the blade twitched, the blade turning so it was no longer perpendicular to the ground. The material of his costume and the blade seemed resistant to her efforts… good thing, because if it hadn’t been, she might have turned his weapon so the blade was poised to catch anyone and everyone she threw. - Last 20.6
  294. Cords became elastic, and the thing that had been Hunter let herself tip forward, then snap toward the Giantess, a rubber band fired from a hand. She was deflected, struck by thrown buildings, and those buildings crumbled with the impact more than she did. - Radiation 18.z
  295. The Simurgh lifted a length of metal that might have been part of a crane, once. A second later, it was slapped down to the ground. The Goddess Giant, countering her. - Last 20.1
  296. The armband beeped, then beeped again a second later. There was a steady repetition, beep, beep, beep.

    Grandiose turned his head, “Why are you…”

    Beep.

    “…Still here!? Run!”

    Krouse grabbed Marissa and turned to run, barely managing to keep his feet under him with the uneven ground and Noelle’s weight. He glanced over his shoulder to see the cape pressing the armband against his collarbone.

    They weren’t four paces away when the armband detonated, a small, localized blast that didn’t even consume him in entirety. It did take his head, most of his upper body and his left arm. The remainder of him was scattered around the surrounding area.

    Krouse stared. - Excerpt from Migration 17.2
  297. “I can’t promise it would work, but hair can confuse the Manton effect. It might be that the power gets confused because it’s a part of your identity and a part of you, but it’s not alive either. There are parahumans who impregnate their costumes with hair to make them resistant to their own powers. There are some who have costumes that are just hair, or mostly hair, but those are pretty scanty, as you can probably imagine.” - Shade 4.6
  298. 298.0 298.1 298.2 The impact to the side of his Marduk drove him off course.

    He corrected.

    It was telekinesis. A chunk of building.

    He descended, placing himself between the two most dangerous things in existence, at least as far as humanity was concerned. A ship a little larger than a house placed between an Endbringer and the queen of the Titans. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  299. Defiant was plugged into the Marduk. Its sensors were his eyes, its air intake his lungs, its considerable power source his heart. Sensors tracked the movement of air along the Marduk’s exterior, and he felt it much as he would feel the wind over his own skin, where his present body still had conventional skin.

    It came to him in data, each block of data represented by a three-dimensional arrangement of numbers and letters. A part of his brain that he had modified with Dragon’s help read that data, processed it.

    While he was plugged in, he was the Marduk. It had been his go-to ship in the months immediately following Gold Morning, and it was his backup ship now, while the Uther was replaced by several of Dragon’s A.I.. The landscapes of then and now were not so different. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  300. I could feel her grip, taking hold of my hood, the ends of the spikes at my shoulder, the ends of my coat. Parts of my outfit that weren’t close enough to my skin to be considered an extension of me. I tried to fly and I couldn’t. I could use my strength and try to tear free of my costume, but I couldn’t get my hands to where I could grab it. My forcefield-

    -couldn’t. As she expanded around me, she started at my costume. Her own body blocked her ability to claw off my costume.

    Open! I told her. Cocoon! Reach in-

    Too late. The Simurgh flung me. Us. Everything. Directly away from her. - Last 20.5
  301. They ran, putting distance between themselves, Grandiose’s remains and the fighting with the Simurgh. One wave of capes was retreating, backed up by another squad. A woman with a black costume, a heavy cape and straight black hair flowing from the back of her helmet led the charge. Alexandria.

    The heroine dove at the Simurgh, and the Endbringer was quick to fly to one side, reaching out to catch Alexandria with her telekinesis and use her momentum to force her into the street. The road caved in, sections of pavement with accompanying drifts of snow falling into a sewer or storm drain beneath the street. - Excerpt from Migration 17.2
  302. She gave no sign she’d listened. Her telekinesis grabbed four members of the Yàngbǎn who’d gotten too close, lifting them by their costumes or by some other debris that had surrounded them.

    As if launched by catapults, they flew straight up, where they disappeared into the clouds above. - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.4
  303. Withdrawal moved close to the tinkertech, reaching, but failed to grab it, not that it looked like he was really trying. He landed, hugging his syringe, and rolled with the landing, before crouching, both hands at a terminal on the syringe’s side.

    The problem was, he had extremities that weren’t covered by the manton limit. She got a grip on the extended limbs with telekinesis, and pinned him. - Excerpt from Last 20.7
  304. Breathing hard, wincing, I pulled off the decorations at my shoulders. My coat. Fuck. I shrugged it off, knowing I’d pay for it later. - Last 20.5
  305. I felt telekinesis roll over me, grabbing at parts of my sleeve that stuck out, a prong at my shoulder where the decorations attached, my hood.

    With flight, a wrenching of my body, and my forcefield gripping the floor and hauling me to one side, I tore myself free of that faint grip, getting some distance from the Simurgh. - Last 20.6
  306. Withdrawal disengaged from his tinkertech frame, and he held his hands over his head, pointing up at Byron’s stone. It looked like he was holding a remote control.
    [...]
    Withdrawal went back to his syringe, slipped something into a chamber, oblivious to his surroundings as more debris fell around him. - Excerpt from Last 20.7
  307. Withdrawal’s trick with the paint was great, but it was defensive. For our offensive tricks, our heavy hitters were out. Dragon’s mech was in pieces. Chevalier appeared to be out of ammunition. Damsel was injured and uncooperative. Torso was running around like an idiot. - Excerpt from Last 20.7
  308. 308.0 308.1 She rotated in the air, holding her position, wings flat at her sides. The wings were purely ornamental, much as Behemoth’s bulk and musculature had been. She used telekinesis to move, and she used it now to keep herself oriented in the air, rotating so she matched our orbit around her, her eyes and attention fully fixed on the Dragonfly. - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.4
  309. She accelerated, hurtling through the air, every wing pointed directly behind her, as though she were diving.

    She flew to the Machine Army.

    Heroes fought the Machine Army, and Legend had yet to arrive.

    The Simurgh swooped down onto the defensive perimeter, one of her feet crushing a heroine into pulp that bubbled up between her toes. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.z
  310. Our ability to fly comes from the waste common to most of our kind, because we had to fly to get to our destinations. We had to fly to reach barren versions of this Earth, where we form our structures and our routines so we can conserve and distribute energy, process, and provide the mechanisms for power. For capabilities. - Heavens 12.all
  311. The Simurgh rose up, toward the hole in the ceiling. I flew us to meet her. The golden beam lanced out beside me, carving out a line in the Simurgh’s leg.
    [...]
    The ceiling, the wall, and pieces of everything around us pulled away, reoriented so the most ragged, pointed parts were poised toward us.
    [...]
    The Simurgh lunged, but not for the hole in the ceiling. For the floor.

    I dove, with enough force that I thought my collarbone would tear free, or that lightheadedness I was feeling might cause me to black out.

    The telekinetically poised debris collapsed in on us, barred the way.

    I didn’t flinch, didn’t waver.

    Someone shot one chunk. Others warped, veering out of the way.

    A pillar of black-blue Capricorn stone speared out below us, more a barrier than the chunks it shoved out of the way, then dissipated into motes of light a second later.

    We closed the distance, and the blade met the Simurgh’s silver flesh, carving out a shimmering silver line, so close in color that it looked like there was no line at all. From shoulder to back, to hip. - Excerpt from Last 20.7
  312. A train came, traveling west-to-east. I knew Sveta and Tristan would be boarding it. Had I been on foot, it was the one I would have caught.

    When the other train came, traveling the opposite direction, I followed it.
    [...]
    The train was old-fashioned in look, cars linked by couplings, and passengers could move between cars, with the space between each car being open to the air. Periodically passengers would step out to smoke or get fresh air. Most were parents with kids.

    At the caboose, a figure had stepped out onto the back. Rain.

    He climbed over the railing and jumped, while the train was going well over a hundred miles an hour. - Glare 3.5
  313. The Simurgh had approached from the far side of the moon and descended to hover just above the tallest building in Lausanne. - Scarab 25.4
  314. “Then go get Ingenue. Let’s get this started.”

    As Legend departed, Chevalier’s eyes didn’t leave the objects.

    One of the Simurgh’s severed wings. The largest wing, since regrown.

    Behemoth’s severed leg.

    They warped space for optimal density, were unbreakable with conventional means. Scion had taken seconds to obliterate Behemoth. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  315. “Could it be an Endbringer?” Rain asked.

    “Jesus,” Byron said. “Don’t even joke. They’ve been dormant.”

    “They can’t be predicted easily with danger sense either,” I said. - Gleaming 9.12
  316. It wasn’t Jeanne who answered. Cinereal gave me my reply. “Thinkers say no. They’re either drawing blanks or they don’t like what they see.”

    “Nothing specific? No details?”

    “No,” Cinereal said. “But if you look at some of the other major thinker blind spots, you’re going to find yourself running into topics like Eidolon, Sleeper, the Endbringers, Valkyrie, the Island-state, the Pastor incident…”

    “Concentrations of power,” I said.

    Jeanne shook her head. “Complexity of power, most often. Whatever thinker powers come into play, with these cases, there’s often too many variables to fully consider, thinkers report that their powers are fuzzy, inconsistent, or blacked out.” - Blinding 11.4
  317. “Right, that wasn’t my second question. What I want to know is why the hell you haven’t used a power like yours to figure out how to beat the Endbringers.”

    “My power is a form of precognition,” she said. “Unlike most such powers, other precognitive abilities do not confuse it. That said, there are certain individuals it does not work against, the Endbringers included.”

    “Why?” Tecton asked.

    “No way to know for sure,” she said, “But we have theories. The first is that they have a built-in immunity, something their origins granted them.” - Crushed 24.2
  318. Not as I or my power understand circumstances, and my power understands everything outside of the blind spots that are Teacher, Valkyrie, the Simurgh, and two broken triggers that authorities aren’t aware happened.” - Dying 15.7
  319. 319.0 319.1 Radiation 18.z
  320. Tons of people gathered. Then she… sang? Screamed? Whatever this is.” - Excerpt from Migration 17.3
  321. Cell 22.2
  322. Plague 12.7
  323. 323.0 323.1 Doctor Foster had been asked to keep an eye on those being released from the city’s quarantine. Each individual got a tattoo of a bird on one hand or on one arm, marking them as someone affected by the Simurgh.

    It had been a short-lived policy, covering only two of the Simurgh’s visits to America in the span of four years. Shortly after the second event, the idea was abandoned. The idea, that people could take extra caution around anyone with a tattoo of a white bird, only generated prejudice. The affected individuals couldn’t find work, they were beaten and they had their lives threatened. - Interlude 18.f
  324. The outtake process, following from the now-defunct D.D.I.D. measure (revoked in Summer 2010), involves a long series of checkups by PRT staff and allowed staff within the quarantine zone. Individuals must maintain appointments with counseling services regularly over ten months, missing no more than ten out of eighty.
    [...]
    More severe and problematic measures under the D.D.I.D. act have already been removed from the process (including the tattooing of those leaving quarantine). - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  325. In the aftermath, he gets a lion's share of the credit in the Endbringer defeat like Eidolon did with the Simurgh in Madison. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit
  326. Scarab 25.6
  327. Interlude 26.x
  328. Wildbow:
    Think of it in terms of political context, the simurgh attack on Australia being recent & rather a loss for the good guys, her being a Simurgh-alike, news & public perception turning on her, and other factors playing in.
    For Canary's court case ending up an uphill battle.
    People are ~scared~ of mind/emotion control. - Wildbow on Discord, Archived on Spacebattles
  329. Interlude 16.z
  330. Paris, December 19th, 2012 // Simurgh
    Notes: Victory by Scion.
    Target/Consequence: see file The Woman in Blue. See file United Capes. - Excerpt from Scarab 25.6
  331. Cockroaches 28.4
  332. Speck 30.6
  333. Teneral e.5
  334. “This was easy,” she said. “A touch sad, but easy. You were dealing with the Simurgh.”

    “She was restless but we can’t figure out what she was actually doing. It was scary but it was easy, as you put it. You can’t keep going like this. Why don’t you go back to the city and relax? Sit around in your comfortable clothes and watch movies. Go hang out with friends- I know you have a standing invitation from an old friend of mine.” - Excerpt from Interlude 9 II
  335. Sundown 17.6
  336. Radiation 18.2
  337. "Tattletale said the thinkers are analyzing Titan Fortuna and the Simurgh. With those two you can never be sure, but it looks like they aren’t aligned. The Simurgh is interfering with the information Fortuna is trying to transmit to her network.” - Excerpt from Radiation 18.9
  338. Last 20.1
  339. Last 20.3
  340. “Be careful going there,” Chastity told Sveta. “Half these guys we caught were heading there like they were given orders. We’ve been holding them off but…” - Excerpt from Last 20.4
  341. Last 20.5
  342. Last 20.7
  343. Defiant steered a careful course around the cluster of Titans, mindful of the Simurgh’s plotted course, as she tried to stay away from Dauntless and the attacks the Titan made with the spear of light. He watched Dauntless, studying the Titan, trying to gauge. He thought of the recording he’d seen of the Titan turning to look at the boy. What had his name been? Addison? - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  344. Dauntless fought the Simurgh, striking out, over and over again, every time she pulled out of cover. The Titan was relentless, and stopped only when Fortuna’s group made its move. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  345. Now he worked to do something similar to the Machine Army, which was effectively in service to the wounded Simurgh.

    As that thought crossed Defiant’s mind, he saw the Simurgh change direction.

    In service to the wounded Simurgh… because she spent long enough in their proximity. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  346. “She’s moving.”

    “I noticed.”

    The Machine Army lurched out of chasms. They’d traveled across the crystal landscape, and now they rose up, flooding out onto the ruined cityscape around them. As they got their footing, they oriented, then opened fire. His Marduk’s sensors tracked the lasers, even though they were invisible to the naked eye. His naked eye, singular, could see the damage each of those lasers was doing. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  347. 347.0 347.1 347.2 Defiant’s thoughts were interrupted as he was struck again. The Machine Army this time. The first blow had come from Fortuna’s group. There was no logic with these opponents they were fighting. Each acted according to self-interests. The Machine Army had decided it wanted what he had, half of the machines that had reached this particular battlefield scuttling over to the tract of devastated land, pausing as if staring at it. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  348. The Simurgh used the opportunity to soar, rising up above the buildings she had been perched behind.

    Defiant brought the Marduk around, aimed, and switched the channels on the power core. For this weapon, he could only hover while the weapon primed. There was a countdown.

    Dragon moved in sync with him. Her crafts protected him, there were forcefields erected to keep him from being knocked off course. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  349. As if to punctuate the statement, the Marduk was hit from the side. An attack that bypassed the forcefields. It knocked his shot off course- brought his nose around toward Dragon’s craft.

    He steered hard, compensating. He’d anticipated this. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  350. Dauntless, too, was in the path of the beam. He had his shield, and he was rooted into the ground in a way that resisted being thrust away with the kind of power that could push a moon out of orbit, but the grazing hit still demolished one of his arms, tore out a chunk of the Titan’s side.

    For long moments, Dauntless didn’t move. Defiant fought to reorient, switching systems around so he wasn’t so vulnerable, and so Dragon could do what he needed.

    Was that what she put in your head? Defiant thought. When the Simurgh roosted on you, was she thinking of this moment, reminding you of the times I exerted authority to take away your time with your son?

    Are you aware enough to realize I didn’t mean to do that to you? Or is resentment building? Are you reaching a point where you serve her instead? - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  351. Dragon changed tasks, shifting to a full-on offensive, unloading every weapon she had into the dust cloud.

    This was the danger, the fact the Simurgh could use to manipulate them. That they were forced again and again to make sacrifices today, to save tomorrow.
    [...]
    Dragon focused on keeping the machines from collecting the Simurgh’s parts. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  352. He took evasive action as more of the Machine Army’s lasers sought to cut him to pieces. Where he could, he flew back, kept his distance, even though it made his effective responses worse. When he fired his own energy weapons, the sheer distance between himself and the robots added a time lag. The lasers didn’t really face the same lag.
    [...]
    He was watching the dust cloud, and he was ready when the Simurgh emerged. Lasers raked him, and systems failed, but he was ready and able to open fire. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  353. He focused on the Simurgh, watching the countdown.

    Simple math told him that the numbers didn’t add up. The Simurgh was making her move. Seeking Fortuna. He could do the math. It took her thirty seconds to get to Fortuna. He needed forty to shoot again. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  354. One of the monitors on his console flickered, then showed a pair of hearts, a curved line between and below them, a smiley face.

    He smashed his hand into the top of the console, shattering the glass of the monitor, the crack running through one of the heart-eyes. “No!” - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  355. “Defiant!” Lookout’s voice came through the console.

    “Not the time!”

    “It has to be! Dauntless-”

    “I know!” he roared.

    “Tell him we have plans-”

    He hit the console again. He disconnected the breaker. He didn’t need to be told. He’d followed that conversation, read the transcript as they discussed. A part of his brain had recorded it without him needing to. That part had come directly from Dragon. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  356. The Marduk roared, the velocity causing hull to peel away, where the lasers had caught it. He swept past Dauntless, bracing himself for a shield to come between himself and his destination, or a spear to strike the side of his Marduk. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  357. 357.0 357.1 357.2 The Simurgh crashed into him. Damaged parts of her body were like the teeth of a saw, her feathers sheared through parts of the Marduk like blades longer than he was tall, passing into the very chamber he sat within.
    [...]
    The Marduk couldn’t fly. Defiant did what he could to disengage from his chair, and ran up a sloped deck that was partially obstructed by feathers. He grabbed a spear and an old halberd he’d kept for posterity. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  358. Fire, he thought. He couldn’t see the countdown, but he knew it should be time.

    The signal was distorted. He could hear the scream, and in that three dimensional sprawl of data, that part of his brain that he’d replaced with technology was parsing the data as corrupted. Out of his reach.

    He reversed course, his feet shifting, the treads in his boots relaxing, letting him slide down the sloped deck toward the console. His combat program helped his movements to coordinate.
    [...]
    He reached the space next to his chair, the wall of that crackling shield illuminating everything, until his surroundings looked like ninety-nine percent white, one percent almost-white. The trajectory and his program-coordinated movement saw his hand meet the button. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  359. G-driver, second shot.

    He could see it in his readouts from the console. Disruption in the power supply. The signal wasn’t getting through from button to weapon.

    He checked. Reading transcripts. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  360. Dauntless moved, the spear sweeping to one side, striking the Simurgh.

    Defiant, at the very front of his ship, nose pointed almost at the ground, almost everything illuminated by brilliant white light, could see the Simurgh’s upper body, and part of her face. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  361. 361.0 361.1 The Titan Dauntless moved again, the spear sweeping up.

    The data readouts warped. The electricity was its own distortion, its own interruption.

    Defiant hit the button for the manual instruction to fire, but the timing was wrong. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  362. “Dauntless!” he called out, at the top of his lungs.
    [...]
    “They’re saying they’ll help you!” he bellowed. “After! But we need you to do like we discussed before!”
    [...]
    “Connect to Fortuna!” Defiant called out. “She knows what to do!” - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  363. Titan Skadi was there too, her blade-hand at the Simurgh’s back. Digital readouts read that the Custodian Titan was active in the area.

    All dogpiling the Simurgh, who struggled to make contact with Titan Fortuna. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  364. 364.0 364.1 Dauntless’s spear moved again, and this time, Defiant simply held the button down. When the spear’s disruption overrode the Simurgh’s signal, the signal got through.

    Simurgh, Titan Skadi, Custodian, and Dauntless were all flung back. The Marduk ripped in half from the strain of firing- - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  365. 365.0 365.1 The Simurgh lay prone within the storm that was the Sleeper. Unmoving. That hadn’t been him. That had been Dauntless, acting with the benefit of Titan Fortuna’s sight, guiding the direction of the blast.

    The storm crackled, boiled, popped, the colors taking on a rainbow sheen that somehow felt it shouldn’t make sense with the way the colors unfolded.

    That would be enough to take her out of the picture. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  366. “I am fucking open to better ideas, anything,” I told her. “But I’m worried the Wardens’ contingency plans won’t work-”

    “They aren’t.”

    “They…”

    “Sleeper has been baited in. No luck. Saint had a trick up his sleeve when it came to dealing with A.I., in case his big red button for dealing with Dragon didn’t work. He’s trying it on the machine army.” - Last 20.9
  367. 367.0 367.1 “First of all, the Sleeper is retreating. He is not an immediate danger, and we will let you know as soon as we can, if that changes.”
    [...]
    “The Sleeper was lured to the city specifically to slow down the Titans and was used to trap the Simurgh. Some of our best minds and strategists are confident the Simurgh is dealt with.”
    [...]
    “Didn’t you want to be a lawyer?” Presley asked, leaning onto the snow-dusted railing. In the distance, Sleeper’s cloud was receding. - Last 20.b
  368. Sleeper’s storm was creeping forward.
    [...]
    Sleeper was at the horizon, south of the Simurgh and Titan Fortuna’s small army of Titans. Thirty-five titans now, and the number was growing, the accumulation speeding up, not slowing down. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  369. The Simurgh was out of action. Sleeper had her. - Last 20.10
  370. I'm a huge fan of this rendition, because it really does have the sheer intensity and scale of the wings that many other images have lacked. Nice work, damien. - Wildbow on DeviantArt

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Endbringers
Behemoth Leviathan The SimurghKhonsu *Tohu *Bohu *
S-Class Threats
Endbringers Behemoth Leviathan The SimurghKhonsu *Tohu *Bohu *
Titans The Kronos Titan Titan Eve Titan Fortuna The Nemean Titan Titan Arachne Titan Oberon The Ashen Titan Titan Skadi The Ophion Titan The Strange Titan Auger Titaness Amenonuhoko The Flowing Titan Drillbit The Liminal Titan Pouffe Valkyrie  • Morgana  • Yakshini  • Ashoka  • Ghast 
Groups The Slaughterhouse Nine Three BlasphemiesThe Machine Army
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