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I drew up a timeline, which was why I asked when you started running, trying to get a sense of what was happening for you and when.

Ms. Yamada to Taylor, Drone 23.4

The Earth Bet timeline. Anyone born before 1982 will likely have a duplicate in Earth Aleph.[1]

Shared Timeline[]

1968[]

1969[]

  • Fortuna born on a different Earth (Speculative, could be born in 1968).
    According to Tattletale, Fortuna triggered when she was eleven.[3][4] She was still a teenager as of May 1986.[5] Thus, Fortuna must have been born in either 1968 or 1969 as she triggered in 1980.[6] Note that Taylor believed Fortuna was maybe a little younger than her dad[7] and even mistook her as her mother at one point.[8]
  • Annette Hebert born.[9]

1973[]

  • Mark Dallon born (Speculative, could be born in 1972 after September 7).
    Mark is at least 42 years old[10] as of September 7, 2015.[11] As Victoria does not mention it is his birthday during the family reunion, he must have been born sometime between September 8, 1972 and September 6, 1973.

1975[]

1976[]

1977[]

  • May 25th
    • Star Wars first released in theaters
  • August 20th
    • Voyager 2 launched.[16]
  • September 5th
    • Voyager 1 launched.[17]
  • November 26th
    • In Chernobyl, Ukraine the V. I. Lenin Nuclear Power Station's first nuclear reactor is 'commissioned. Coming online for the first time.[18]

Earth Bet Exclusive[]

1978[]

  • Three distinct Entities are in Space around this time.[19]
  • Shawn born around this time.
    Shawn was 16 years old when he met Kelly.[20] They were together for two years[21] before Addison was born in the summer of 1996.[*]

1980[]

1981[]

1982[]

1983[]

1984[]

1985[]

1986[]

1987[]

1988[]

1989[]

1990[]

1991[]

1992[]

1993[]

  • January 19th
  • June
  • After June
  • July 6th
  • Between October and December 31th
    Victoria, in 2011, is in her senior year of high school: she belongs to the age range of 17 to 18.[57] According to Victoria, she was seventeen when she arrived at the Asylum.[58] Victoria, in October 2015, notes the day after the Navigators Incident[59][60] that she is twenty-one.[61]

    According to Marquis, Amy was six before his incarceration in February 2000.[62][63] On June 4, 2011,[64] Marquis states that Amy is currently seventeen:[65] this is correct if she is six in February 2000 as Amy would be born before March 1994. Both Carol Dallon and Sarah Pelham believed Amy was Victoria's age (6) before Amy's adoption.[63][66] According to Amy, she was six when she was adopted and seventeen before she left Carol and Mark Dallon and went to the Birdcage.[67]

    In June 2011, Amy claims to Taylor that she is sixteen now; however, she presumably brings it up in the context of getting a non-government job and avoiding rules and regulations that apply to exploiting minors with powers.[68] Eric Pelham in 2011 is fifteen before his death:[48] Amy cannot have turned sixteen in 2011 as Eric is three years younger than Amy.[69]

    According to Amy, Victoria and herself are not in middle school after Fleur died.[70] Her death happened in the latter half of 2007.[*] Victoria, in 2007, is not in elementary school as she graduated from middle school in June 2007.[57] Thus, Amy must have graduated middle school on or before June 2007, as she would otherwise be drastically younger than Victoria to not be in middle school.[70][63] Indeed, Victoria believes she and Amy got to high school at the same time.[71]

    A short time after Crystal Pelham's trigger event, Victoria had to pick a class in the arts (i.e., art, music, or drama) for her next high school semester,[72] along with a specialized science class (i.e., chemistry, biology, or physics) for the first time.[73] Victoria is a freshman and not a sophomore because she would otherwise take a specialized science class in the fall.[74] As Amy also got these instructions and might be in the same art class as Victoria next semester, Amy must be in the same school and birth year as Victoria.[73][72] On the same day, Victoria also notes that Amy and herself are three years older than Eric Pelham.[69]

    Amy is presumably not much younger than Victoria:[75] when the Brockton Bay Brigade first met Amy, Lightstar guessed she was five, while Carol thought Amy looked younger than Victoria.[63]

1994[]

1995[]

  • June 12th (Speculative, could be June 11th)[83]
  • June 18th
  • Emma Barnes born.[88][89][90]
  • Theo Anders born.
    Theo is at least 15 years old as of June 2011.[91] Thus, he must have been born in either 1995 or 1996. However, during his first year of high school, Victoria went after the gangs pretty hard, with a particular focus on the Empire.[92] She started patrolling within six months after triggering.[93] As Victoria focused on patrolling,[94] triggered sometime between April and June 2009,[*] and had a clear motive for targeting the Empire,[95][96] Theo was likely a freshman during the 2009-2010 school year.
  • Sophia Hess born.
    Sophia is at least 15 years old as of June 2011;[97] she was roughly 15 and a half years old at the time.[98] She was also at least 14 years and 8 months old[99] before attending boot camp in summer 2010.[100] Thus, she was born in 1995, especially since she is in the same school year as Taylor and Emma.[89][90]

1996[]

1997[]

1998[]

  • Rain O'Fire Frazier born.[115]
  • Uppermost asked the PRT for assistance in managing the NEPEA-5 bill, which sought to curtail parahuman involvement in business and media, and was arguably targeted directly at Uppermost.[116]After a great deal of consideration, the PRT’s head office turned down the request for assistance. NEPEA-5 was passed, and Uppermost disbanded.[117] Many former members of Uppermost joined either the Protectorate or Wards to manage the fines and fees that followed the bill’s passage and avoid bankruptcy.[118]
  • January 18th
  • May 15th
  • June
  • Between June 20th and December 31th
    Riley is at least 6 years old[123] as of January 20, 2005.[124] She is no older than 14 years old[125] as of June 19, 2013.[126] Thus, Riley must have been born sometime between June 20, 1998 and January 19, 1999. However, when Taylor saw Bonesaw's picture after the Undersiders attacked the PRT building on June 4, 2011,[*] she guessed Bonesaw was maybe Aisha's age.[127] Thus, Riley's birth year is presumably 1998 to be closer to Aisha's birth year of 1997.[*]

    Dinah is presumably not much younger than Riley: Taylor guessed Bonesaw looked barely older than Dinah as of June 4, 2011.[127] Note that Dinah was 12 years old at the time,[128] the same age as Riley.
  • July 3rd
  • December 25th

1999[]

2000[]

2001[]

2002[]

2003[]

  • Switzerland Simurgh brainwashing victims declared incurable, all remaining Lausanne citizens killed.[160]
  • Moord Nag becomes warlord in Namibia in Africa.[161]
  • Ash Phoenix joins Atlanta Wards.[162]
  • Jessica Yamada starts to work as parahuman psychologist.[163]
  • Lab Rat modestly climbs PRT's most wanted lists.[164]
  • The Enders group rebrand themselves as the Fallen.[165]
  • April 1st
  • August 12th
  • October 3rd
    • Behemoth attacks Lyon again,[168] due to great many nuclear plants in the vicinity.[169]
  • Between November and December
    Kenzie, in Spring 2013,[170] is in fourth grade: she belongs to the age range of 9 to 10 at the time.[171] Although she claims she was 10 years old then,[172] she presumably rounded up her age as according to her team leader at the time, she was 9 years old.[173][174] She cannot be 10 years old in Spring 2013 as she is 11 years old[175] as of September 7, 2015.[11] According to Victoria, she is also 11 years old[176] in November 2015.[177] Thus, Kenzie must have been born in 2003 sometime between November and December.

2004[]

  • Ashley Stillons triggers.[45]
  • Before July
    • PRT raids the core group of the Fallen and considers them defeated.[178]
  • After June
    • Six months after the PRT's raid, a religious group headed by Christine Mathers rebrands themselves as the Fallen.[77]
  • Slaughterhouse Nine captures Riley’s family.[179]

2005[]

2006[]

2007[]

  • Jamestowner attacked a convoy carrying nuclear supply to a Pennsylvania nuclear facility.[189]
  • Summer[190]
  • Between Summer and December
    Fleur's murder must be after the Boston Games.[192] However, she died before Crystal Pelham's trigger event,[193] which happened sometime in the fall semester of 2007.[73]
    • Fleur murdered in her civilian identity,[194] at the peak of New Wave's rising popularity,[195][196] by a kid looking to bolster his reputation and earn membership into Empire Eighty-Eight.[197][198] Unmasking movement ends and Lightstar leaves New Wave.[199][200]
  • September
    Doctor Mother asks Battery to graduate to the Protectorate at the earliest opportunity.[201] Battery, in 2011, is around twenty-two; Battery joins the team soon after Taylor starts junior high (i.e., seventh grade).[42] September is the start of the school year.[74]
    • Battery joins Protectorate.
  • Between September and December 31th
    Crystal Pelham triggers before Victoria Dallon[202] in the first semester of a high school year.[73] Note that Victoria is a freshman as she has to pick a specialized science class (i.e., chemistry, biology, or physics) for the first time next semester.[73] Victoria is not a sophomore because she would otherwise take a specialized science class in the fall.[74]

2008[]

  • Sophia Hess triggers.[99]
  • January
  • February 1st
    • Flechette starts patrolling the streets of New York.[208]
  • April 10th
  • Spring
    • Rachel Lindt triggers and becomes Bitch.[80]
      Taylor finds an article saying that Bitch was solo for roughly two years, and she joined the Undersiders in July 2010. That, coupled with Rollo having fallen into a swimming pool with an open cover (would have been closed in Winter, and she was in school at the time) suggests that she triggered around Spring 2008.[210]
  • September
  • Annette Hebert dies.[9]
  • Kayden Russel marries Max Anders, becoming Kayden Anders. Purity becomes Kaiser’s second-in-command.[132][211]
  • Triumph joins Brockton Bay Wards.[212]
  • Lightslinger joins Eminent.[213]
  • Carlos triggers and becomes Aegis.[214]
  • Brian Laborn triggers and becomes Grue.[215]
  • Lung comes to America and fights Protectorate ENE for the first time (Speculative, could be between 2007 (i.e., after Battery and Assault join Protectorate) and 2009 (i.e., before ABB attack on Emma).[216][217]

2009[]

  • April
    • Blasto becomes crime lord of East Alston in Boston.[222]
    • Missy Biron presumably triggers around this month; she then joins the Brockton Bay Wards as Vista sometime during or before the end of April.
      Missy Biron was born on May 15, 1998.[121] Crystal Pelham implies Missy triggered when she was at least ten.[223] Vista also believes she joined the Wards a month before she turned eleven.[53][224] Thus, Missy must have triggered sometime between May 15, 2008 and the end of April 2009. However, Victoria triggers after Vista was a Ward; Vista was barely her senior.[225] Thus, the date of Missy's trigger event is presumably very close to when she joined the Wards: Missy would not be barely Victoria's senior if she triggered in 2008 and then waited until April 2009 before joining the Wards.
  • Between April and June
    According to Victoria and Carol Dallon, Victoria had her trigger event at high school when she was fourteen.[226][227][228][93][229][230] However, Victoria triggers after Vista was a Ward; Vista was barely her senior.[225] Vista also believes she joined the Wards in April 2009.[53][224] Assuming Vista is correct, Victoria must have triggered sometime between April and June 2009. If Vista incorrectly remembered when she joined the Wards, then Victoria triggered sometime between the latter half of May and June 2008, as Crystal implies Missy triggered when she was at least 10 years old.[223]
    • Victoria Dallon triggers (Speculative, happens in 2008 if Vista incorrectly remembered when she joined the Wards).
  • Summer
  • September
    • Emma and Sophia begin to bully Taylor.[89][90]
  • December
  • December 23rd
    • Travelers leave Madison.[234]

2010[]

  • January
    • Chris joins the Brockton Bay Wards as Kid Win sometime during or before the end of January.
      Vista joins the Wards in April 2009;[*] she has nine months of seniority over Kid Win.[53] When he tried to recruit Chariot to the Wards on June 3, 2011,[237] Kid Win felt like he was looking at a mirror of himself roughly one year and a half ago.[238]
  • Tinker 15 starts preparation.[239]
  • Balminder betrays Cauldron and runs away, taking many Cauldron vials with him. Cauldron allows him to remain free because of his usefulness as plausible deniability/scapegoat and a potential rescuer.[240]
  • Cauldron releases Sveta in Russia[241][242][243] for an unknown purpose.[244]
  • Acidbath birdcaged.[245]
  • Circus and Chariot hired by Coil.[246]
  • Purity makes the Azn Bad Boys a priority target.[247]
  • Canary arrested.[248]
  • According to Victoria Dallon, the Chorus gang attacks a mall in Brockton Bay and injures her. Amy Dallon triggers and becomes Panacea.[249] (According to Amy, this event happens in 2009 sometime after Victoria's trigger)[250][251][252]
  • July
  • D.D.I.D. measure revoked in Madison.[254]
  • Shadow Stalker joins Brockton Bay Wards with probationary status;[99] she is sent to San Diego in the hopes of being straightened out at summer 'boot camp'.[100]
  • Lightslinger leaves Eminent.[213]
  • Behemoth attacks unknown target. Shadow Stalker attends.[255]
  • Switch Hitter starts cape career as part of Sacred Heart team.[256]

2011[]

  • January
    • Taylor Hebert triggers.[257]
    • Dinah Alcott triggers (Speculative, could happen in late 2010).
      In the months before April 14, 2011, Dinah had several incidents where she missed classes because of crippling headaches.[258] At one point, Wildbow thought about including a prologue where Dinah visits a nonresponsive Taylor at the hospital, which implies she triggered before or around the same time as Taylor.[259]
    • Taylor spends a week in the hospital under psychiatric observation.[260] PRT pays a visit to Taylor, following crisis points procedure, but finds her near catatonic.[261]
    • At the very end of the month Taylor returns to school.[262]
  • February
    • Taylor starts running every morning after Sophia goaded some boys into trying to catch her.[263]
  • Thursday, February 24th
  • March
  • Wednesday, March 23rd
  • April
  • Friday, April 8th
    • Taylor decides to accelerate her plans for becoming a superhero due to bullying.[272]
  • April 10th-11th
    • Taylor finishes her costume and heads out. She finds group of gangsters from the Azn Bad Boys, as well as their boss, Lung, and attacks them.[273][274]
  • Monday, April 11th
  • Tuesday, April 12th
    • The bank robbery is planned.[278]
  • Wednesday, April 13th
    • Taylor fails to negotiate with Armsmaster.[279]
  • Thursday, April 14th
  • Friday, April 15th
    • The Undersiders fight Bakuda.[281]
    • Bakuda’s bombing starts. Using bombing as a distraction, Oni Lee releases Lung.[282]
  • (Between April 14th and April 22nd) The Travelers hired by Coil.[283][284]
  • (Between April 15th and April 22nd) Bitch attacks dog fighting ring.[285][286]
  • Saturday, April 23rd
    • Brockton Bay supervillains meet at Somer's Rock and make an alliance against Azn Bad Boys.[287][288]
  • Sunday, April 24th
    • Taylor smacks Emma at the mall.[289]
  • Monday, April 25th
    • School meeting and first raid on ABB occur.[290]
  • (Between late April and early May) Cherish joins the Nine.[291]
  • Thursday, May 5th
    • The Undersiders attack a PRT fundraiser. They escape pursuit with the aid of Coil, who reveals himself as their current employer and pitches them for the longer term. [292]
  • Friday, May 6th (ish)
  • Sunday, May 15th
  • Friday, May 27th (ish)
    • Taylor talks to Lisa about her future. [295]
  • Wednesday, June 1st
    • The Slaughterhouse Nine are in Brockton Bay. Cherish starts to create profiles on potential candidates for the Nine (i.e., a week before she visits her brother).[296]
    • Taylor rejoins the Undersiders.[297]
  • Thursday, June 2nd
    • Assault catches Chariot and brings him into custody.[298]
    • For the first time since Leviathan, Flechette meets Parian during a patrol.[299][300]
  • Friday, June 3rd
    • The Wards and the Travelers fight.[301] The Wards and presumably the Protectorate suspect the Nine are in Brockton Bay because of the clue of three crime scenes with three bodies each.[302]
    • Flechette and Vista patrol for the first time together.[303]
    • Kid Win meets Chariot[298] at around 9 pm.[304]
    • Former E88 capes attack a convoy of food trucks; the Undersiders use the opportunity to kidnap Shadow Stalker.[237]
  • Saturday, June 4th
  • Sunday, June 5th
    • The Undersiders claim their territories. [305]
  • Tuesday, June 7th
    • The Slaughterhouse Nine begin recruiting in Brockton Bay. Jack Slash nominates Oni Lee but bets on the wrong individual.[306] Near sunset, he visits Purity's apartment.[307] He makes a deal with Theo and leaves with Oni Lee's body.[308]
    • At sunset, Shatterbird nominates Hookwolf.[309][310]
    • At night,[311] Mannequin visits the downtown PRT office and nominates Armsmaster.[310][312]
  • Wednesday, June 8th[313][314]
    • Bonesaw takes four hours to create Hack Job.[315]
    • In the evening,[316] Glory Girl and Brandish investigate the howling of Rachel's dogs near the Trainyard.[317] Bonesaw visits the Dallon household and nominates Amy.[318] Amy breaks her rule and heals Mark;[319] he then puts down Murder Rat.[320]
    • Siberian nominates Rachel.[316] Sometime after the 6 PM[321] curfew, Victoria searches for and finds her sister who ran away from home.[322] Amy modifies her sister's mind;[323] Victoria flies away in disgust.[324]
    • At around 9 PM (i.e., three hours after curfew),[325] Burnscar visits Labyrinth[326][327] and Cherish nominates her brother.[310]
    • At night, Crawler attempts to meet Echidna but is unsuccessful.[310]
  • Thursday, June 9th[310]
    • At night, the Brockton Bay capes meet on neutral ground to discuss fighting against the Nine.[328][329]
    • Just before midnight,[330] Jack, the Siberian, Bonesaw, and Cherish meet the Undersiders, Sundancer, and Ballistic at a parking garage.[331]
  • Friday, June 10th
    • Jack elaborates more about their tests to Regent and Bitch,[332] and gives them some warnings.[330] Tattletale tattles on Cherish's plan to manipulate the Nine.[333]
    • Before the Nine leave, Tattletale proposes a new challenge. Jack decides to discuss it with the rest of his group before they give out their terms of engagement.[334]
    • At 12:40 AM, Shatterbird announces the Nine's arrival by hitting Brockton Bay with her power.[335]
    • Skitter fights against Mannequin. Mannequin retreats.[336]
    • At night,[337] the Nine eliminate the Merchants.[338][339]
  • Saturday, June 11th[340]
    • Morning[341][342]
      • The Nine deliver their terms of engagement. At his underground base, Coil, the Undersiders, the Travelers, and Circus discuss plans.[343]
      • After Tattletale's scouts report that Panacea is at a shelter in Ballistic's territory,[344] Skitter, Grue, and Bitch head over.[345] Skitter talks to Amy[346] and learns about her nomination.[347] Amy believes she is a monster despite Skitter trying to convince her otherwise.[340]
      • Mannequin ambushes Skitter and Amy.[348] Skitter, Grue, and Bitch fight back.[349] Mannequin kills Lucy before leaving;[350] Amy then runs away from the Undersiders.[351]
      • The Undersiders and the Travelers ambush the Nine and capture Shatterbird and Cherish.[352] The Nine capture Grue.[342]
    • Grue second triggers and kills Burnscar.[353]
  • Sunday, June 12th[354]
    • Morning[355]
      • Cherish tells the Undersiders that the Siberian is a projection.[356]
    • Amy repeatedly doubles down and refuses to fix Victoria's mind even in the face of guilt and people telling her to change course.[357][358]
    • Slaughterhouse Nine leave Brockton Bay.[354]
  • (Between June 12th and June 16th)
    • Amy takes Victoria to an abandoned house. Believing she is a bad person who proved Bonesaw[359] right by breaking her rules,[340] she decides she might as well be selfish and take what she really 'needs' from Victoria.[360] Amy makes the decision, that is hers and hers alone,[361] to mutate and repeatedly sexually assault Victoria over the span of days[362][363][364] until Brandish interrupts her by arriving at the scene.[365][366]
    • Amy avoids responsibility,[357][358] demands and succeeds at being birdcaged.[367][368]
  • Thursday, June 16th
    • Around 10 PM, the flesh blob Victoria (whose mind is still not fixed) has a session with Jessica Yamada at the Asylum.[369]
  • Friday, June 17th
    • Genesis, Skitter and Trickster threaten the mayor of Brockton Bay to force him to argue against condemning the city. Turns out his son is Triumph, and Triumph's girlfriend Prism is having dinner with them. [370]
  • Saturday, June 18th
  • Sunday, June 19th
  • Monday, June 20th
    • Noelle breaks out of her containment in the middle of the night.[373] At 4am, Tattletale calls Faultline asking if she can hire Labyrinth for a thing, and Contessa calls on Faultline's Crew asking if they'd rather stop investigating Cauldron or die.[374] Ignis Fatuus speaks, exposing Cauldron's connections to the Case 53s, the Triumvirate, and the PRT in general. The Travellers go home, except Trickster is imprisoned and Echidna is dead. Weld, Gully, and other case 53s leave the Protectorate, later forming The Irregulars.
  • Tuesday, June 21st
    • Cauldron reveals its secrets to Legend during the inner circle meeting.[375]
  • Sunday, June 26th
    • Legend publicly announces he's leaving the Protectorate.[376]
  • Friday, July 8th
  • Thursday, July 14th
  • Tuesday, July 26th
  • Between November and December
    Before being sent to foster care in the fall (i.e., before Christmas), Kenzie is in third grade: she belongs to the age range of 8 to 9 at the time.[381] According to Houndstooth, she was in fourth grade[171] during Spring 2013.[170] Thus, Kenzie must have started third grade in Fall 2011.

    At one point, Kenzie tells Victoria that she triggered when she was 9 years old.[382] She later contradicts herself by telling Riley that she triggered when she was 8 years old.[123] However, Kenzie was with her first foster parents for at least two months before child services assigned her new ones;[383] she was still in third grade at the time.[384] The weather conditions on the day of her trigger event also suggest winter has not started yet.[385] Thus, Kenzie likely triggered sometime after her birthday in 2011 because she otherwise turns 9 sometime between November and December 2012 in fourth grade.[*]
  • Friday, November 25th
    • The Simurgh attacks Flight BA178.[386]

2012[]

2013[]

2014[]

First year after Gold Morning

2015[]

Second year after Gold Morning

  • Summer
    • July
      • 14th: Team Therapy starts meeting.[394]
    • August
      • 15th: Parahumans Online returns to the tiny baby/zombie internet. [395]
      • 16th: "Gunslingers" lose a fight against a group of villains including Love Lost and someone who wears fur too often.[396]
      • 17th: A Bet-Gimel portal in north-east America that had closed to refugees re-opens, without convincing explanation.[397]
      • 18th: Moonsong posts a private thread about team Reach, remembering the dead and living. Capricorn read it.[398]
      • 19th: Ashley sounds unimpressive on the internet, gets help from Victoria. [399]
      • 20th: Rain looks for information on multi-triggers; makes contact with March. [400]
      • 21st: Acceptance and rejection emails sent out to university applicants. [401]
      • 22nd: The Guild posts a guide to the multiverse and how dangerous it is.[402]
      • 24th: Someone slanders Weld, and Tristan and Sveta defend him. Sveta realises that she's been getting online abuse from other Case 53s, and gets a new PHO account.[403]
  • Autumn
    • September[404]
      • 7th of September: four mercenaries attack the Norfair Community Center.[11]
      • Victoria interviews with various cape teams, arguing with some Fallen, then visits some sad kids in hospital. At night, broken trigger at a disputed construction site.
      • Ten days to two weeks later, Victoria talks to Jessica Yamada about a problem.[405]
      • 20th of September: Victoria meets the therapy group. [11]
      • They go look for legal and other caping advice.[406]
      • Some troubles in Cedar Point happen.
      • Victoria has lunch with Natalie and discusses Cedar Point attacking Advance Guard, then Rain tells the team he's Fallen; Victoria meets Jessica Yamada around dinner time,[407] while Rain returns to the Mathers camp with Erin and has to talk to the leadership.[408]
      • The Mather's Fallen Camp is attacked.
      • 29th of September: The Fallen retaliate by expanding and scrambling portals in The City.[409]
    • Early October

2016[]

Trivia[]

  • While the divergence point is technically 1980, Scion did not reveal himself until 1982. Which set off a chain of events that led to the distinguishable timelines of Earth Bet and Aleph.[15]

References[]

  1. The only commonalities would be with people born before 1982 (Stephanie Meyer would be such a person), in works that were being written just after, and in works established prior, with sequels planned to go past that threshold (as with Star Wars). - Wildbow on Spacebattles
  2. “So were the Jeep Rockaybe, the Roundphone, and the second Iron Giant movie, so good for you, you’re in shit company,” Sidepiece retorted. - Excerpt from Polarize 10.9
  3. “How long has she had her power?” I asked. “Con-”

    “Contessa? Since she was Kenzie’s age.” - Sundown 17.10
  4. Kenzie was eleven. - Pitch 6.1
  5. 5.0 5.1 May 1986, twenty-seven years ago

    A strange place for this discussion.

    The woman looked supremely at ease as she took a seat opposite David. The teenage girl who accompanied her was just as confident. Here and there in the little cafe, people gave them dirty looks. - Excerpt from 27.x (Interlude, Eidolon)
  6. 6.0 6.1 And with that, the entity lands on the barren planet.

    The planet revolves around its star once before the entity even moves.

    The entity rises and extends its perceptions across multiple realities.

    It’s time.

    Chrysalis.

    The entity changes.
    [...]
    Then it waits.

    Sentinel.

    Time passes. A revolution of the planet around its star.

    Something has gone wrong. It is time, but it has not received a broadcast from the counterpart. - Excerpt from Interlude 26
  7. She was older, but not old. Maybe my dad’s age, maybe a little younger. - Crushed 24.2
  8. My eyes opened, and I could see the vague shape of a woman standing over me.

    Mom?

    I was awake and alert in an instant, but she was already turning away. Not my mom. Dark haired, but too short. Both of my parents were taller than her. - Excerpt from Scarab 25.5
  9. 9.0 9.1 Annette Rose Hebert
    1969-2008
    She taught something precious to each of us. - Excerpt from Imago 21.2
  10. He was forty-two but looked younger. The fact that he was as fit as he was played into it- only the white in his beard stubble really gave it away. His hair, too, was short. He was the only one who hadn’t put a sweatshirt or jacket on, owing to the proximity of the two heat sources- he was wearing a t-shirt that was form-fitting in a way that showed off his muscles. Pretty darn gross, given he was a dad, my dad, and he was supposed to dress his age. I would have insisted on clothes that hid any sign of muscle at all, really, had I been given a say. - Daybreak 1.7
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 “When?” I asked. “Um. Thirteen days ago. First Monday of September. High school had just started.” - Excerpt from Flare 2.6
    In reality, the first Monday of September 2015 was the 7th; the switch to "Year 0" might've changed the months but maybe not.
  12. “Carol, if I remember right, was made to attend therapy for a time but abandoned it once she was eighteen.”

    “I see what you’re getting at. She abandoned it because she had Victoria, just for context.” - Interlude 16.y II
  13. Being up late with Amy, a blanket around us and finished bowls of ice cream on the coffee table, a scary movie in the beta player, when Carol came in wearing her costume. - Excerpt from Sundown 17.2
  14. 14.0 14.1 Damn him, he was five years older than her, pushing thirty five, and he was still the best looking man she’d ever looked in the eye. - Excerpt from Interlude 3.5 (Bonus)
  15. 15.0 15.1 The Soweto Uprising happened, but the events from 1982 onward were increasingly different. Warlords taking over and establishing particular sorts of order or disorder, rules, regimes and so on. Ensuing lies, propaganda, and misinformation muddled up a great deal in the status quo. - Comment by Wildbow on Scarab 25.5
  16. Voyager 2 is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, to study the outer planets. - NASA Website
  17. Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977. - NASA Website
  18. Leatherbarrow, Andrew. Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster. Self Published, 2016.
  19. After the target planet has revolved thirty-three times around its star, this shard will connect to a host. - Excerpt from Interlude 26
  20. Figuring out whether he should trust her on that had been a task, and a long series of compromises. He’d been sixteen when he met her and admittedly not the best when it came to judgment calls. The last few months had seen her spiral out, then rein herself in. He’d gotten her to talk regularly with someone who knew better than he did, got her to agree to try medications if she had another bad patch. - Heavens 12.none
  21. The lines of reality could be that much blurrier for her when she was tired, and the tricky part was that they’d been joined at the hip for the past two years, which meant he was often tired when she was tired. It was easy to get drawn in. - Heavens 12.none
  22. In the doing, it alters one of the third entity’s powers, replacing its own ability to find the optimal future.

    In that very instant, it recognizes that it has made a grave error. The simulated world and the glimpse of the optimal future are already gone from its grasp. Too late.

    The perspective changes, breaking away, distant, confused, detached. The impact was too hard.



    A girl woke from a dream. - Interlude 29
  23. Cote D'ivoire, early 1980s, alternate earth with doors to Contessa's world and to Doctor Mother's. They limited access to the doors and later built the complex around her. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  24. The woman behind her took hold of the fist that held the knife. She stepped forward, driving the knife down, as if she were an extension of Fortuna.

    Plunging into the spot where the spine met the skull.

    They fell from the hand, dangled for a moment by their grip on the knife. It cut free, and they dropped to the ground.

    Fortuna let one leg fold, pushing at the ground with the other. She rolled, breaking the fall. The woman fell a little harder.

    The entity moved, and everything around them stirred. A thousand hands, a thousand arms, not all attached to the hands, legs, feet, ears, eyes, faces without features, expanses of skin, they twitched and writhed.

    The noise around them faded, the heartbeats going still, the breathing quieting. The movements all around them stopped. - Interlude 29
  25. “We don’t know how long he had been there. Suspended in the air above the Atlantic Ocean. On May twentieth, 1982, an ocean liner was crossing from Plymouth to Boston when a passenger spotted him. He was naked, his arms to his sides, his long hair blowing in the wind as he stood in the sky, nearly a hundred feet above the gently cresting waves. His skin and hair can only be described as a burnished gold. With neither body hair nor clothes to cover him, it is said, he seemed almost artificial. - Excerpt from Gestation 1.x
  26. The major players are busy recovering and rebuilding, giving us six straight months of peace for the first time in twenty years.
    [...]
    The rest would take getting used to, after thirty years as the childlike Faerie Queen, but the wings were a natural fit from the start. - Excerpt from Teneral e.1
  27. He shifted his weight a bit.  The wind was blowing through the alley, and it felt nice.  It was cool, with what would be the first hints of spring, but Earth Bet wasn’t really in a state for ‘spring’.
    [...]
    Counting the measure and degree of every step I take.  As I’ve been doing for thirty-three years. - Excerpt from Last 20.e3
  28. “I’m a thirty-two year old man in a body that was meant to grow fast, not well.” - Excerpt from Interlude 10.y II
  29. “The first parahumans appeared starting in 1984,” I murmured. “Parahumans tend to trigger between ages eight and thirty, give or take a few years for the edge cases. In the nineties, there was talk and rumor of a gang leader gaining a lot of ground, once upon a time. The first thought was that he was a parahuman. He wasn’t. His uncle was. The man slipped away.” - Black 13.8
  30. So hard to believe that the events from her dream had occurred just twenty six years ago. - Excerpt from Interlude 7
  31. Kind of 90’s bad boy, with the long hair, ripped jeans and flannel, very Bender in Breakfast Club, except you’re way more attractive than Nick Cage. - Excerpt from Interlude 5d II
  32. 32.0 32.1 “One member is Fume Hood. She was a B-list villain, once upon a time. She’s what we term itinerant. Wandered from city to city, looking for opportunities or teams to join. Petty robbery, grand larceny, mischief, vandalism, criminal mercenary work. A lot of the time she was one of the low-rate hangers-on in a group that a bigger villain would hire to pull a bigger job. You could even call her a professional distraction. She started when she was sixteen, stopped at twenty-four or so. She’d be twenty-nine now.” - Excerpt from Daybreak 1.1
  33. August 20st, 1986 - Excerpt from Interlude 15.z
  34. August 21st, 1986 - Excerpt from Interlude 15.z
  35. Just five years after Scion’s first appearance, the superheroes emerged from the cover of rumor and secrecy to show themselves to the public. - Excerpt from Gestation 1.x
  36. Cauldron permitted Gray Boy because he was the closest thing to a weapon they had against Scion since Eidolon. - Wildbow on Spacebattes
  37. King
    Screamer
    Harbinger
    Breed
    Crimson
    Gray Boy
    Nyx
    Psychosoma

    There were ten of each in various glass chambers. The original members. - Excerpt from Interlude 25
  38. 38.0 38.1 38.2 1987
    [...]
    “Jack,” Jacob said. He kicked King’s body again. “Fuck it. He always called me Jacob, practically purring. His little killer in training. As if I could match up to his Gray Boy. I want to be more than that. Get out from under his shadow.”

    “Okay… Jack.”

    “If it’s a farce, a joke, let’s run with it. We take simple names, dumb names, and we make people quake in their shoes at the sound. Jack… Slash.”

    [...]

    “I’ll play, though,” he said.

    ““Play?”

    ““Make a name for myself.” - Excerpt from Interlude 21.x
  39. 39.0 39.1 “Determining sentencing for this case is not easy. As your lawyer has no doubt made you aware, you do fall under the umbrella of the TSPA, or the three strikes act. At the age of twenty three, you have been convicted of no prior crimes.

    “According to the witnesses heard in this court, you first demonstrated your abilities in early 2009. You were vocal about not wanting to become a member of the Protectorate, but you also expressed a disinterest in a life of crime. This state, in which an individual does not identify as hero or villain, is what the PRT classifies as a ‘rogue’. - Excerpt from Interlude 6
  40. May 1st, 1988

    “Alexandria,” the Doctor called.

    Alexandria waited patiently as Contessa adjusted her cape, then strode through the door. The Doctor was there, of course. Professor Manton, too. The boy with the math powers was there, standing next to a boy who was staring off into space.
    [...]
    “Alright. I can keep an open ear,” Legend said. Eidolon and Hero nodded in agreement. “What’s your proposal?”
    [...]
    “No. Because I’d like to propose a solution. A way to assert control. I want to band together. Form a team.”

    Legend leaned against the wall. “There are teams forming already. Yes, we’d be powerful, influential, but I don’t see how that addresses the problems.”

    “Simple. We do what the government’s been pushing for. We regulate. We bend to the government’s yoke, all four of us together. We follow their stipulations and regulations.” - Excerpt from Interlude 15.z
  41. In 1989, attempting to quell a riot over a basketball game in Michigan, the superhero known to the public as Vikare stepped in, only to be clubbed over the head. He died not long after of a brain embolism. - Excerpt from Gestation 1.x
  42. 42.0 42.1 Battery was a member of the Protectorate. When I’d been starting junior high, she’d been the head of the Wards for a brief while, and she’d soon after graduated to the Protectorate. I could guess she was twenty-two or thereabouts now, if they didn’t fudge the graduation date or anything to make it harder to guess the hero’s real age. - Excerpt from Hive 5.3
  43. Parian is ~21 or so. - Private conversation with Wildbow, archived on Spacebattles
  44. Cherish – An amoral emotion detector and emotion manipulator who uses her powers to find targets for her group, the Slaughterhouse Nine. Twenty, she sports a stripe of violet in her dark hair. - Cast
  45. 45.0 45.1 They would be frustrated, realizing that for all their vast resources, they had been trumped by a sixteen year old girl.
    [...]
    It had been three years since she’d been in school, now that she thought about it. - Excerpt from Eclipse x.2
  46. “I… I left her number by the phone. We’re all going to be out. Your sister’s at a thing related to the college dorms, a pre-moving in orientation. Your mom and I have work. You know our phone numbers, but I was thinking, uh.” - Excerpt from Interlude 19.z
  47. Lady Photon and the eighteen year old Laserdream landed beside Armsmaster, making a small splash as they touched down. - Extermination 8.5
  48. 48.0 48.1 48.2 As a superteam that is also an extended family, New Wave has several junior members that gained powers of their own. These individuals are nineteen year old Laserdream and fifteen year old Shielder, the children of Manpower and Lady Photon, and seventeen year old Glory Girl, daughter of Brandish and Flashbang. - Edit by Wildbow
    Not in the list of retracted edits.
  49. Marun Field, December 13th, 1992. Behemoth. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  50. January 18th, 1993

    “I, Alexandria, do solemnly affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the director appointed over me, according to the regulations of the PRTCJ.”

    Applause swelled around her. As far as the eye could see, there were crowds and flashing cameras. President Griffin extended a hand and she shook it.

    He leaned close, “You do us proud.”

    “Thank you, James. I’ll give my all.”

    He squeezed her hand and moved on.

    “I, Eidolon, do solemnly affirm…” - Excerpt from Interlude 15.z
  51. I turn eighteen in June, and when I do, I plan to get my mother and father’s parental rights terminated and apply to become Aisha’s guardian. - Excerpt from Shell 4.4
  52. 52.0 52.1 “You’re next oldest, after Carlos. It’s only going to be what, three or four months, before you’re the senior member?”

    “And I’ll hold that position for not even the rest of the summer before I graduate and pass the mantle to you,” Clockblocker smiled self deprecatingly, “No worries. Take charge.” - Excerpt from Interlude 3
  53. 53.0 53.1 53.2 53.3 53.4 Vista had to bite her tongue. Pointing out that people were being condescending had a way of making her look petulant, which only compounded the problem. Yes. Because any maturity on my part is something special. Doesn’t matter that I have nine months of seniority over Kid Win, being thirteen means everyone expects me to be squealing over Justin Beiber or the Maggie Holt books, or dressing in pink or-

    Her train of thought stopped dead when her eye fell on the portraits on the wall above the front desk.

    Three feet high and two feet wide, the two pictures were black and white, bordered by foot-wide black frames. The pictures themselves were head-and-shoulders shots of Aegis and Gallant, both in costume, masks on. She knew from her own experience that the pictures would have been taken in their first week on the team. Gallant looked so young. He had still been so young when the tidal wave had smashed into him and caved in his chest. Only seventeen.

    She looked at her own picture. In contrast to the boys’, it was vibrant, filled with color. Her eyes, costume and the frame of the picture were a high-saturation blue-green, the background of the image a sunset orange to highlight her blonde hair. Vista was young in that picture too. Her photo had a missing fang tooth on the bottom row, which created a small, dark gap in her awkward smile. She’d been just a month shy of turning eleven, then. - Excerpt from Sentinel 9.5
  54. I’d been studying it with more interest because Dean was turning eighteen before long, and we were worried he’d get moved to another city, even with his family situation being what it was. - Daybreak 1.5
  55. 55.0 55.1 Foil is 17 and a senior. She triggered 3 years prior to her appearance, as part of a group trigger in New York. One of her old nemeses, March, was another part of that group trigger. - Private conversation with Wildbow, archived on Spacebattles
  56. São Paulo, July 6th, 1993. Behemoth. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  57. 57.0 57.1 Wildbow:
    Victoria & Amy in College
    Victoria is already taking college classes at the local University. She's studying parahuman sciences part time while still in high school (note her mentioning that she's already taken Parahumans 101 in 9.3). Her grades were good enough she could have skipped a grade, but she decided to stay in High School for mornings only, so she could remain in touch with friends and enjoy her senior year. - Comment by Wildbow on Spacebattles
  58. And, last but not least, Vista. She had to be seventeen now. As old as I’d been when I’d been hospitalized. - Shadow 5.7
  59. “Yeah,” I said. “I’m thinking I get three or four hours of sleep, then we wrangle the heroes. Organize something, see what info we can dig up.” - Polarize 10.11
  60. Eight hours of intermittent snowfall hadn’t covered up all of the blood. - Polarize 10.12
  61. I had to be something more than a twenty-one year old woman, unarmed, against a man five inches taller than me who was armed with an axe. - Polarize 10.13
  62. 62.0 62.1 Marquis turned to Lord of Loss. “Her family was the group that put me in the Birdcage for thirteen years, four months. No hard feelings- that was the risk I took. - Excerpt from Torch 7.9
  63. 63.0 63.1 63.2 63.3 “The motherfucker has a kid?” Lightstar muttered the question, as if to himself. “And she’s, what, five?”

    “Six,” Marquis answered.

    Six. Vicky’s age, then. She looks younger. - Interlude 15.x
  64. 64.0 64.1 Signal terminated for 30 minutes and 5 seconds. Restoring core system from backup NXDX-203 from time 4:45am on date June 4th of year 2011.
    [...]
    To Dragon, it was as if no time had passed from the moment she deployed the Cawthorne rapid response unit and the moment she found herself back in her laboratory. - Excerpt from Interlude 10.5
  65. Marquis frowned. “My daughter, she would be… what year is it? 2010?”

    “2011,” Lung replied.

    “She would be seventeen. - Excerpt from Interlude 10.5
  66. “You should. Amelia’s Vicky’s age, I think they would be close.” - Interlude 15.x
  67. “Whenever I’m with Carol and Mark, it’s hard to think,” Crystal said. “There are dynamics, there’s things left unsaid. It’s… heavy. I feel like I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

    “My life from age six to seventeen, pretty much.”

    “Yeah,” Crystal said. She wasn’t sure how to sustain this conversation. - Last 20.e6
  68. “Just- I’m just keeping her complacent. I’m okay with it if she doesn’t forgive me for it. Don’t deserve it anyways. I do this, and then I’ll go somewhere I can be useful. Only reason I haven’t made more of myself and my power is because of the rules and regulations about exploiting minors with powers. Either go into government or don’t work at all, and didn’t want to go into government because they would have made me a weapon. And because I needed to be with my family.”

    She smiled, but it wasn’t a happy expression. “Burned that bridge. But I’m sixteen now, I can get a job somewhere, start making a real difference with my power.” - Prey 14.6
  69. 69.0 69.1 69.2 A little too serious when Eric was three years younger than me and Amy. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.9
  70. 70.0 70.1 “Our aunt Fleur- she wasn’t officially our aunt, there was never a wedding, but I really liked her. She was kind of an outsider like me. Her body wasn’t even cold when people were putting microphones in front of us. We were kids. Not even in middle school. That fucks you up.” - Interlude 16.y II
  71. Amy had been the odd one in more than I had. Purely average in appearance, quiet, she hadn’t been passionate about hobbies or about anything in particular. She’d liked movies from Aleph and when she was twelve she’d break her usual reserved, quiet composure to get way too excited if she checked the change slot of a vending machine or pay phone and found a quarter. And yet when we got to high school, she was automatically included in the group of popular students. The group with Dean, who was supposed to take over his dad’s company, and with the star athletes and the star athletes’ boyfriends and girlfriends. - Gleaming 9.2
  72. 72.0 72.1 “And I bet you picked drama.”

    “Art,” I told her. “At least for the one year. I’m not very good at it, but there’s emblems and icons, color mechanics, costumes, poses and posture…”

    Amy snorted. “Of course. I picked art too, mostly by process of elimination. So we might be in the same class.”

    “Cool.” - Excerpt from Infrared 19.9
  73. 73.0 73.1 73.2 73.3 73.4 “We’re supposed to take a science class next semester.”

    “Chemistry, biology, or physics,” Amy clarified. “We got the sheet in homeroom. Also art, music, or drama.”

    “Same. What did you pick for science?”

    “Chemistry. Physics is the advanced kids’ stream and is supposed to be hard, and in biology you might have to dissect frogs. No thank you,” Amy answered. “Ick.”

    “I thought there would be some parts of it that are useful for health and fitness, first aid.”

    “You’re thinking about cape stuff,” Amy said.

    “Naturally.” - Excerpt from Infrared 19.9
  74. 74.0 74.1 74.2 In biology, Madison used every excuse she could to use the pencil sharpener or talk to the teacher, and each time she passed my desk, she pushed everything I had on my desk to the floor.
    [...]
    “That’s September eighth,” I pointed out, “My first day back at school, last semester. September ninth-”

    “Excuse me, sorry. How many entries do you have?”

    “One for pretty much every school day starting last semester. Sorry, I only decided to keep track last summer. - Excerpt from Hive 5.4
  75. Her?” Brandish asked. But Lady Photon was already reaching for the door, pulling it open.

    A girl. A child, not much younger than Vicky. The girl was brown hair, freckle-faced, and clutched a silk pillow to her chest. She wore a silk nightgown with lace at the collar and sleeves. It looked expensive for something a child would wear. - Interlude 15.x
  76. New York, March 26th, 1994. Behemoth. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  77. 77.0 77.1 Six months later, still in 2004, a religious group headed by Christine Mathers and her then-ten year old son, rebranded to call themselves Fallen, co-opting one of the main groups and absorbing some of the members of the McVeigh group who had avoided legal consequences. Her power provided some protection against PRT intervention, making them hard and even dangerous to scout with thinker abilities. - Organization: Fallen
  78. Interlude 12.z II
  79. 79.0 79.1 Tattletale is a year older than Taylor, 16. tested out to claim her GED. Counting backward, before 1.1, she had one year with the Undersiders, maybe four or so months living on/around the Boardwalk, and two months existing at home post-trigger. Triggered 1.5 years prior. - Private conversation with Wildbow, archived on Spacebattles
  80. 80.0 80.1 Rachel is roughly the same age [as Lisa, who is 16 at story start]. Triggered at 12. 3 years solo, one year with Undersiders. - Private conversation with Wildbow, archived on Spacebattles
  81. He'd be about 16 or so. Younger than Clockblocker, Gallant and Aegis (recall their discussion in interlude 3, about who would be succeeding in terms of leadership). Older than Shadow Stalker and Vista. - Wildbow on Spacebattes
  82. Jakarta, November 1st, 1994. Behemoth. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  83. Assembler: In Monarch 16.9, Danny said that Taylor's birthday was a week before June 19th. However, in Scarab 25.1, Taylor said in court that her birthday was the 19th.

    Maroon Sweater: I like it being the 12th because i like the beat where she blanked out on turning 16

    Assembler: I find it interesting that about a week before the 19th is June 11th, and June 11th, 2011 is the day you posted Worm's first chapter.

    Wildbow: @ Asse - I do believe that was the rationale for it being her birthday. But yeah, it's not the 19th. - Conversation with Wildbow on Discord, archived on Spacebattles
  84. “It’s the nineteenth,” he said. “Your birthday was a week ago.”

    “Oh.” I’d been a little distracted at the time. A week ago, that would have been around the time we were wrapping up our confrontation with the Slaughterhouse Nine. Lovely. - Excerpt from Monarch 16.7
  85. “Will you state your name for the record?”

    “Taylor Hebert.”

    “Your date of birth?”

    “June nineteenth, 1995.” - Excerpt from Scarab 25.1 (this was later redacted by WOG)
  86. Moscow, June 18th, 1995. Behemoth. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  87. Overall, Russia has suffered more at the hands of Endbringers and S-Class threats than most, and it was the lack of faith in the government's ability to protect the people (and the aftermath of losing Moscow) that led to the fall of the U.S.S.R. and rise of other forces. - Private message by Wildbow, archived on Spacebattles
  88. “I don’t know if you know this,” he spoke, “But when your mom was alive, and you were in middle school, the subject of you skipping a grade came up.”

    “Yeah?”

    “You’re a smart girl, and we were afraid you were bored in school. We had arguments on the subject. I-I convinced your mom you would be happier in the long run attending high school with your best friend.” - Tangle 6.9
  89. 89.0 89.1 89.2 Taylor didn’t speak for long seconds. “Can you blame me? Since school started, you’ve been… after me. As if you’re trying to make a point or something. Except I don’t know what it is.” - Excerpt from Interlude 19.z
  90. 90.0 90.1 90.2 I’d been enduring this from the very first day of high school, a year and a half ago. - Gestation 1.1
  91. “How old are you? Fourteen? Fifteen?”

    “Fifteen, sir,” Theo said. - Excerpt from Interlude 11b
  92. “I wanted to say,” Theo said. “Victoria, uh… thank you?”

    “For what?”

    “This is a weird thing to bring up. But back when I was just in my first year of High School, you went after the gangs pretty hard.”

    I winced.

    “The Empire in particular?” - Polarize 10.10
  93. 93.0 93.1 “Hold on,” I said. “I was asked, I’m answering. I triggered at fourteen, I was patrolling within six months. I had three years of time as Glory Girl, one Endbringer fight, and-” - Excerpt from Flare 2.6
  94. “Did you know Dauntless?”

    “I ran into him on patrol here and there. We had a jurisdiction we were supposed to stick to, and it was close to his, south end of downtown and the Towers. We’d meet and compare notes.”

    “Was he nice?”

    “Yep. It’s… kind of one of those things where I wish I’d done something different. Back then I just wanted to patrol more, so if my dad stopped and had a twenty minute talk with Dauntless, I’d be so eager to get going again I wouldn’t be listening. Now I kind of wish I paid more attention when the more legitimate heroes were talking.”

    Especially with how things turned out for him. - From Within 16.7
  95. If it was just me and my skin on the line, I was pretty sure I could have dealt. As a kid with superhero parents, I had dealt with my Aunt Jess’s death -Fleur’s death- with some vivid fantasies about being a heroine and making a great sacrifice, often involving revenge in some capacity. Taking out Kaiser. Purity, who had done the flying artillery thing and had jousted with my family enough times to stick in my consciousness.

    I’d moved past that, but with a perspective change in the wake of it. Not fantasizing about death, but… being okay with it. That hadn’t changed since: accepting that capes died and in an ideal world they died doing something just. I knew I’d rather go out in battle than end up in another hospital room for the rest of my life. - Infrared 19.1
  96. Hate. The feeling hit me so suddenly and so unexpectedly that I thought it might have been one of Rain’s cluster-mates. Hate like when I had been in middle school, arguing with a classmate who had spewed out insane, vile rhetoric that would have made them a perfect fit for Empire Eighty-Eight or the Fallen, and he had refused to listen because I was a ‘pretty, privileged white girl’ and that had somehow meant my experiences and opinions weren’t valid, even though he was an okay looking, privileged white boy. I’d hated him and I’d hated that I couldn’t talk or shout sense to him and make him stop or even pause in being such a shitty person. - Pitch 6.4
  97. “Do you feel bad about it? I’m genuinely curious.”

    “I feel… less bad than I should,” I said. “But yeah. It isn’t nice to hear.”

    “Because of what happened, because she was still reeling from the time she spent as your meat puppet, she attacked her mom, who called the authorities. They caught up just in time to catch her in her room, electrical cord around her neck. Cost Shadow Stalker her probation, meaning she got stuck in some parahuman detention center until she’s eighteen. And word is her mom doesn’t want her back when she’s finished the three-year sentence. Last straw and everything. Her life, put on hold, her family shattered. Maybe she was damaged like you said, but you took her captive and tormented her until she went off the deep end.” - Excerpt from Queen 18.3
  98. “Two and a half more years, right?” Emma asked, “Then you’re off probation, free to do your thing.” - Sentinel 9.6
  99. 99.0 99.1 99.2 There was a shuffling of papers at the other end of the long table. “We, the committee, have reviewed the documents, and agree that case one-six-three-one, Shadow Stalker, has met the necessary requirements. With stipulations to be named at a future date, specific to her powers and the charges previously laid against her, she is now a probationary member of the Wards, until such a time as she turns eighteen or violates the terms of this probationary status. Congratulations, Shadow Stalker.”
    [...]
    “Of course I’m angry. Stipulations, rules and regulations. I’ve had my powers for two and a half years and I’ve stopped more bad guys than half the capes in that room!”
    [...]
    “It’s only three years. Better than prison.”

    “Three years and four months.” - Excerpt from Interlude 19.z
  100. 100.0 100.1 In the case of troublesome Wards, it gets doubly difficult because Wards aren't generally moved from city to city, and you have the parents as additional hurdles to negotiate with. Some will get sent to, say, San Diego for the huge Wards training center, and that keeps them busy for a few months while 'boot camping' them, but that's for a summer at best and the kid eventually goes back. In some cases, you just end up with a better trained troublemaker, like we saw with Sophia Hess. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  101. Johannesburg, January 3rd, 1996. Behemoth. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  102. Considering its job done, the house program archived the transcription among fifteen years of conversation and notes from the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center. - Excerpt from Interlude 16.z
  103. He’d even prided himself on it, for a time, that there was nothing to hold him back. That he could, should the mood strike him, pick up and leave at any time. He’d modeled his life around it, had led a spare existence, devoid of the little touches of home, of roots. He’d saved money so he had the ability to travel, to get a new place in a new city if the mood struck. It had even been an asset when he had joined the Protectorate, the ability to relocate, take any open position.

    It was only now, a full fifteen years later, that he started to wonder what he’d missed out on. Did most people know how to handle this sort of thing? The absence of someone they cared about? Did they have an easier time handling the moments when they weren’t sure if they’d ever see those people again, or was it harder? - Excerpt from Interlude 24.y
  104. 104.0 104.1 104.2 Regent, a young 15 at story's outset, not attending school. Triggered at ten (see 7.1), three and a half years as Hijack, half a year on his own, a year with the Undersiders. - Private conversation with Wildbow, archived on Spacebattles
  105. Oslo, June 9th, 1996. Leviathan. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  106. “Okay,” Addison said. He didn’t sound like it was okay.

    Fourteen, now, and still soft-spoken. Still not fond of sudden twists or things being sprung on him.

    Nobody is, here.

    “Get dressed and hurry to the shelter, Mr. Combe!” Shawn raised his voice, calling out across the street.

    The elderly Mr. Combe turned around, hurrying inside. - Heavens 12.none
  107. A very long and light rain had closed out the summer. Not what he’d thought of as ‘natural disaster’ rain. They’d been laughing at how everything was wet, sorting out the van, when the mud had come down, rolling the van, swamping and mostly burying them.

    Burying them alive. - Interlude 12.none
  108. Cologne, November 6th, 1996. Behemoth. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  109. Justin could follow her train of thought. He’d heard the story through the Empire’s grapevine, once. A sixteen year old girl, driving for the first time, down a side road, getting in an accident where her car rolled off the road, out of sight of anyone passing by. Trapped… starving, dying of thirst.

    Getting powers that fed off and required other resources. Light. - Excerpt from Interlude 18.y
  110. March 2nd, 1997 - Excerpt from Interlude 22.y
  111. Busan, April 23rd, 1997. Leviathan. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  112. Buenos Aires, September 30th, 1997. Behemoth. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  113. “For background, I guess it’s important to mention that my parents split up when I was thirteen,” Brian told us, “I went with my father and my sister Aisha went with my mom. Aisha and I kind of stayed in touch, but there’s four years difference in our ages, our interests were completely different, so there wasn’t a lot to say. - Excerpt from Shell 4.4
  114. Imp, 13 as of the point she joins the Undersiders, failed a grade at one point, so ~grade seven. Triggered at 13, between the end of arc 8 and the end of arc 9. - Private conversation with Wildbow, archived on Spacebattles
  115. “Seventeen years old, by our best guess. We don’t know his name, but we have an idea about his powers. Breaking things, primarily. Mover ability. Tinker ability. Emotion power. The last three are weak.” - Excerpt from Interlude 4a II
  116. In 1998, Uppermost reached out to the PRT for assistance in dealing with a bill (NEPEA-5) that sought to curtail parahuman involvement in business and media, arguably targeted directly at Uppermost. - PRT Quest (Anchorage)
  117. After a great deal of consideration, the head office turned down the offer for assistance, the bill was passed, and Uppermost disbanded. - PRT Quest (Anchorage)
  118. Many members of Uppermost found their way to the Protectorate and Wards as a way of avoiding bankruptcy and to manage the fines and fees that followed the bill’s passage. - PRT Quest (Anchorage)
  119. Sydney, January 18th, 1998. Leviathan. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  120. Sydney was destroyed but would've been rebuilt. - Wildbow on Reddit
  121. 121.0 121.1 121.2 “Another time for sure. When’s your birthday, Missy?”

    “Not soon. May fifteenth. But I’ll be eighteen then.” - Polarize 10.10
  122. “Hi Barfbat,” Jeanne said.

    “It’s nice to see you, Jeanne. This is really it, Number Man? I’m done?”

    “This will be the last favor we ask of you, and your contract from June 1998 will be considered finished,” Kurt said.

    “It’s about time,” Barfbat said. “Decades of my life spent keeping a phone nearby.”

    “We’ve helped you out along the way, as payment for having you in reserve. But time is of the essence. Can you sniff out our man? I think he’ll be scared.” - Interlude 5.x II
  123. 123.0 123.1 “Breadth and depth,” Riley said.

    “Hm?”

    “The earlier you get powers, the more it spreads across your personality. Growing up with it, there’s less room for you. It’s where young triggers get more versatility, more natural instinct.”

    Lookout nodded. “I was eight.”

    “Six. Clones, like your friend in the cell over here… they start from zero. It does have an impact.” - Last 20.e4
  124. 124.0 124.1 January 20th, 2005

    Riley panted for breath. Her body wasn’t listening, now.

    She reached her mommy’s room, then collapsed on the floor, head turned towards the foot of the bed.

    The carpet was stained with blood. On it, just beside the bed, her mother lay face down, head turned to one side just like Riley’s was. She was covered in stitches. There wasn’t a place where Riley could have reached out and placed a hand down flat without touching one of the marks.

    An entire row had been cut open, the stitches severed, from temple, down the side of her throat, along the side of her body to her pelvis.

    Too much blood loss. Her mind leaped into action, reaching for knowledge she hadn’t had earlier in the night, knowledge of how to fix people. She took in details, grasped everything from the amount of blood her mommy had to heart rate and the amount of air she was breathing, just from the clues in how fast the blood flowed and the color of the skin. She knew the order she’d have to fix things. Ideas fired through her mind, telling her how to close the wounds, to draw the blood out of the carpet and clean it, or even making something that would do the same thing blood did, out of water and some junk from the kitchen, all with the exact right amount of electricity, to fill the veins and carry a low amount of air throughout the body, staving off the shut down of her brain long enough for Riley to figure out something else. - Excerpt from Interlude 25
  125. Bonesaw is a cheerful young girl (no older than fourteen) with tight blonde curls, wearing no regular costume but a durable apron filled with surgical implements and pre-prepared vials. - Cast (In-Depth)
  126. We’d participated in more than half of those fights. My eyes fell on the clock in the top right hand corner of the screen.
    8:04am, June 19th, 2013
    Listen,” Tecton said. “I’m not demanding anything here. I just need a straight answer, so I know what to tell the others. If you say you’re not going to be here, that’s- I’ll understand. Except not really, but I’ll…” - Excerpt from Scarab 25.6
  127. 127.0 127.1 “Bonesaw.” he spoke. The girl on the screen looked barely older than Dinah, maybe the same age as Aisha. The image showed her wide-eyed, a spray of dried blood painted her face at a diagonal. - Parasite 10.6
  128. Dinah Alcott – A powerful clairvoyant, twelve years old, has straight brown hair. - Cast
  129. Jinzhou, July 3rd, 1998. Behemoth. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  130. Madrid, December 25th, 1998. Leviathan. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  131. The golden man would reappear several more times in the coming months and years. At some point, he donned clothing. At first, a sheet worn over one shoulder and pinned at either side of the waist, then more conventional clothes. In 1999, he donned the white bodysuit he still wears today. For more than a decade, we have wondered, where did our golden man get these things? Who was he in contact with? - Excerpt from Gestation 1.x
  132. 132.0 132.1 As someone who had worked alongside Max for ten years and been married to him for one, she knew this was all negotiation. - Excerpt from Interlude 3.5 (Bonus)
  133. 133.0 133.1 It flipped the right way around. I could see a young girl on the opposite side. She was flanked by two other small children, one a male with a widow’s peak and a severe expression for his age, ten or so, the other a girl of about twelve, in overalls that ended at the knee, a star at the chest, and far too much makeup.
    [...]
    “Sniper’s active,” Rime’s voice came through the earbuds. She was panting. “Deliberate, accurate shooter. I’ve taken three bullets, ice armor took most of the force out of the shots. Bambina is accompanied by Starlet and August Prince, um. Shooter’s shots ricochet. Can’t dodge. There’s wounded just outside craft. Traffic caught underneath when you fell.“ - Excerpt from Drone 23.2
  134. Ankara, July 21st, 1999. Behemoth. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  135. “Kyushu, the night of November second and the morning of the third, 1999. His sixth appearance. Nine and a half million killed when the region was swamped with tidal waves from every direction while Leviathan disrupted prearranged evacuation attempts. Nearly three million evacuees rendered homeless, a nation sundered. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.2
  136. The Brigade's only known accomplishment is bringing down Panacea's father, eleven years ago (approximately the year 2000), apparently a notorious villain. - Edit by Wildbow
    Not in the list of retracted edits.
  137. He’d been one of the scary bastards of Brockton Bay well before the Undersiders were even on the map. A guy who could go toe to toe with a full squad of Empire Eighty-Eight and walk away. He’d been successful enough to pay for hirelings and ruthless enough to execute them for failures. His path to the Birdcage had been very similar to the path that had almost taken me there; so many violations of the law that the three strikes rule had been left well behind him by the time the good guys finally won. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.3
  138. Amelia was taken in by Brandish and Flashbang, because they were afraid she'd be abused/kidnapped by others who'd blame her for Marquis' actions or use the chance that she was that much more likely to trigger to get a child with powers.

    A short time later, the Brockton Bay Brigade unmasked before the public, advocating capes without masks. - Wildbow on RPG.net
  139. Onetime leader of the Brockton Bay Brigade, became second in command with his wife Lady Photon taking the leadership role when the group was rechristened New Wave. - Edit by Wildbow
    Not in the list of retracted edits.
  140. Lyon, April 10th, 2000. Behemoth. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  141. September 15th, 2000 - Excerpt from Interlude 15.z
  142. September 16th, 2000

    Alexandria sat in the hospital. Eidolon’s healing had only been able to do so much. She held a glass eye in one hand, the remains of her other eye in the other.
    [...]
    “The sample he took, F-one-six-one-one, it tends to give projection powers. I suspect his real body is unchanged. But I’m wondering if we shouldn’t leave him be.”

    Alexandria stared at the doctor, wide-eyed. “Why?”

    “So long as he’s active, people will be flocking to join the Protectorate-” - Excerpt from Interlude 15.z
  143. “We made assumptions, and we were way off base. That’s what concerns me.” Legend leveled a hard look at the Doctor. “See, we’ve been going by the assumption that William Manton, from the time he left Cauldron to the present day, has been continuing his work. We’ve been assuming he’s traveling across the world, experimenting on human subjects, giving them powers with physical mutations as a side effect, then releasing the victims back into society with Cauldron’s symbol tattooed on their bodies. Or at least, that’s what you told us.” - Excerpt from Interlude 14.y
  144. Naples, September 16th, 2000. Leviathan. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  145. Founding, First Appearance: On September 17th, 2000 - Naples, Italy was attacked by Leviathan. Suffering from the recent loss of Hero and the absence of Alexandria, the Protectorate core team put up a poor resistance, and damage was widespread, devastating Naples and the surrounding cities. The extensive damage to the Vatican City may have played a role in this group adopting a religious theme. Whatever the case, a group of seven members calling itself the Enders made its first appearance in Atlanta, Georgia, celebrating the attack, Hero’s death, and what they described as the imminent end-times. The outrage and the depictions of the rampant damage spread through the media.

    Recuperating from its heaviest losses to date in an Endbringer attack, the Protectorate was slow to respond. The outrage on television and the internet drew attention of other individuals, and while half of the core members of the ‘Enders’ abandoned the group, it swelled in size with new recruits. Relationships formed between members, and two of what would be three primary factions were formed and bound by inter-marriage. - Organization: Fallen
  146. 146.0 146.1 146.2 August 13th, 2002

    [...]

    All in all, three years since he’d fought Leviathan. Two years since he and his mother had come here to Chaohu. A year and eight months since he’d been arrested by the Yàngbǎn.
    [...]
    He would risk it, and accept the offer. He would do whatever they required of him, and then he would kill whoever he needed to and escape. - Excerpt from Interlude 22.y
  147. 147.0 147.1 “Lady’s not wrong,” he admitted, “We’ve been able to piece together who he is. We got security camera footage from the early stages of the incident, just last week, and we found his face. One of the top geeks from the Protectorate then found other cases of his face around the city and found a name. Jamie Rinke.”
    [...]
    “Rinke?”

    “You mean Nilbog.”

    “Huh?”

    “That’s what he called himself. He’s alive and presumably well. I saw out the window as the chopper pulled us out, Nilbog retreating to hide in some building, his creatures were returning to their hiding places. I expect the man will be alive for some time.”

    “Why?” She wheezed the question.

    “Far as I could tell, he’s wearing one of his creations. Made him bulletproof, maybe fireproof. We won’t be able to bomb the area. He’s created beasts that multiply if you set them on fire. Did you see those?”

    She shook her head.

    “He may have other countermeasures for other courses of action. You’ll get your chance to talk to the Chief Director, but last I heard, they’re planning to wall the city off. They’ll let the motherfucker be the god of his own little town, so long as he doesn’t try to expand any further, which they’re saying he won’t. I almost envy him.” - Excerpt from Interlude 16.x
  148. February 2nd, 2001
    [...]
    “We’re not alone out there, so be careful about where you’re shooting. This place’s got a population of about five thousand. Sort of town that has only the one movie theater. But whatever this bastard Rinke is doing, we think he’s operating from somewhere near the middle of the area. Three helicopters in the air, three squads of six, and a team from Toronto’s Protectorate division backing us up. We move in a spiral pattern to close in on the center of this podunk town, see if we can’t squeeze him out of hiding, and we maintain radio contact with the other squads at all times so everyone knows what’s going on.” - Excerpt from Interlude 16.x
  149. “Choppers one and two down, squad two. Your capes vacated the scene.”
    [...]
    “I’m Thomas Calvert,” he introduced himself. “Squad three. We’re the only ground forces that got out alive.” - Excerpt from Interlude 16.x
  150. There’s six class S threats active in the world at large. The Endbringers make up three of them. The Slaughterhouse Nine as a group are a fourth. - Excerpt from Queen 18.3
  151. Vanderhoof, February 25th, 2001. Behemoth. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  152. “I have been doing this for ten years. I admire you for retaining your…” he trailed off. - Excerpt from Crushed 24.4
  153. Hyderabad, July 6th, 2001. Leviathan. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  154. Lagos, December 6th, 2001. Behemoth. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  155. Montreal - M - As per terms of US-Canada deals in 2002. - PRT Master Reference
  156. Shanghai, April 23rd, 2002. Leviathan. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  157. Bogotá, August 20th, 2002. Behemoth. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  158. 158.0 158.1 “It’d take too long to explain in detail. The moment when someone gets their powers. The idea was maybe she and Scion met some specific set of conditions. 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
  159. Lausanne, December 30th, 2002. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  160. “Maybe you don’t really get what the Birdcage is. See, I hate it. I was in Lausanne in two-thousand two through oh-three. Fought a whole mess of ugly. People that couldn’t be reasoned with, people who were hopeless, in the grand scheme of it. Victims, as much as anyone else.”
    [...]
    “Once we realized what was happening, we had to act, contain the damage. Contain families. Had to act against people who went home from a day of trying to kill the rest of us and cooked a nice dinner, oblivious to just how fucked they were in the head. People who were otherwise good, who got warped on a fundamental level, left open to the preaching and the incitement of their angrier neighbors. Two years of fighting before we got the word down from on high, that they couldn’t rehabilitate the ones they’d captured, the ones who’d listened too long. The poor assholes would play nice until they saw an opportunity, then they’d take it, do as much damage as they could. Two years fighting good people who’d been convinced they had to throw their lives away fighting an enemy that didn’t exist. So we closed the perimeter, bombed them out, herded them and gunned them down.” - Excerpt from Cell 22.2
  161. Moord Nag. Warlord based in Namibia. As far as the current warlords in the area go, she’s had the longest lifespan at about eight years or so, and she’s gotten things to the point where most of the other bastards around there are kowtowing, asking permission to attack this city or occupy that area, to go to the bathroom or unite two groups in an alliance. - Excerpt from Scarab 25.5
  162. 162.0 162.1 Cinereal leads the Atlanta Protectorate, Wards, and maintains liaison with the Watchdog group. She’s a powerful breaker and shaker, and maintains a peculiar style of leadership. Her power altered her thought pattern and emotions, which would normally preclude being put in a leadership position, but she stepped into the position as a temporary measure after the prior Protectorate leader committed suicide (owing to PTSD from the local war) and nobody truly went out of their way or found cause to replace her.
    [...]
    Her reputation is well established. She’s been around for eight years and in charge for six. - Link made on the IRC archived on Spacebattles
  163. “Nothing that graphic, but the penalties are severe, and they include extensive jail time, and forfeiting the credentials it took me eight years to get. You strike me as someone who’s paying a great deal of attention to the workings of the system. Where people are, how they’re operating.” - Excerpt from Interlude 18.z
  164. PRT’s second most wanted, 2003. Seventh most wanted if counting international threats. - Excerpt from Interlude 10.y II
  165. In 2003, the group rebranded after an online propaganda campaign linked them to a book series, choosing to call themselves Fallen. At this stage, they were primarily a militia with heavy religious theming and demon names given to officers, lieutenants, and anyone with powers who joined. - Organization: Fallen
  166. Seattle, April 1st, 2003. Leviathan. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  167. London, August 12th, 2003. Simurgh. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  168. Lyon, October 3rd, 2003. Behemoth. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  169. Lyon is an area with a great many nuclear plants in the vicinity. - Comment by Wildbow on Interlude 24.x
  170. 170.0 170.1 “Yep,” she said. She pitched her voice lower, “The Youth Guard was good to me. I liked the people who I worked with there, even if the people in charge of me didn’t. Some of my favorite people next to Mrs. Yamada worked for them. Not that that lasted for long. That was only the spring of twenty-thirteen-”

    As she talked, I glanced at Mrs. Yamada. It was clear she heard.

    “-and then, well…”

    “Yeah,” I said.

    Gold Morning. - Excerpt from Flare 2.5
  171. 171.0 171.1 “I’ll give you some of the same advice my bosses gave to us and the people who interacted with Kenzie. Minimize the homework she does. That includes work-homework. Cape homework, if you want to call it that.”

    “Why?” I asked.

    “Because she’s so eager to please she’ll hurt herself in the process. She had an art project in fourth grade, it was supposed to be done over the course of a month, following the instructions from regular handouts the teacher gave. Eight or ten handouts, I think it was. She asked kids a grade older than her what they’d done for the same project, and she pulled two consecutive all-nighters to do it. Her foster parents didn’t even realize she was doing it, because it turns out a surveillance-countersurveillance tinker is really good at sneaking out to the garage and being quiet.” - Excerpt from Shade 4.4
  172. Houndstooth: But…
    Houndstooth: give me a second to type.

    Heart_Shaped_Pupil: HT… i was ten
    Heart_Shaped_Pupil: iv’e grown up some
    Heart_Shaped_Pupil: i was there for the end of the world - Glow-worm P.7
  173. “I hear you,” Houndstooth said. “I’m just worried you’re not going to listen, and if that’s the case, then it’s a bad replay of me, our Protectorate leader and our PRT liaison talking to her school. It’s a replay of us having a meeting with her new foster parents. It’s a repeat of us talking to the parents of a new friend she’s made.”

    “What happened?” I asked.

    “We explained, they heard us, but they didn’t listen. They didn’t take it to heart, because she is- was nine. She’s cute, she’s precocious, and she has a really skewed skillset where she’s really good at getting close to people and she’s really, tragically bad at staying there. Messes follow.” - Excerpt from Shade 4.4
  174. “Can I ask about the hard stuff?”

    “You can ask, but I don’t know if I can summarize it. We had a nine year old girl with no stopping points when it came to anything social. No brakes, a practically nonexistent sense of boundaries, and zero emotional defenses.” - Excerpt from Shade 4.4
  175. Kenzie
    Age: 11
    Ethnicity: Black - hair usually very neat, straight, tied back into buns or tails
    Height: 4’10” / 147cm
    Build: Skinny
    Face Shape: heart- large eyes are noted - Visual notes: Team Therapy
  176. “Take care of her, Chicken Tenders,” I said. My voice bounced off the walls.

    This was too heavy for an eleven year old. Tristan and everything else. - Infrared 19.8
  177. “Is this going to be Lookout’s future? One incident after another?”

    “It’s one incident, Victoria. Has there been anything else this year?”

    “No. Not that I know of.”

    “One incident in November. It’s late April now. I’ve looked at her record, and I do believe she is getting better. The process is slow and when the events or relapses do happen, they’re so big and dramatic that it can be hard to look past them or keep everything in perspective. But she’s on her way. She has a support structure.” - Last 20.e5
  178. In 2004, the core group was raided by the PRT. Twelve powered members were incarcerated, and the group was considered defeated. - Organization: Fallen
  179. Probably. You might be able to say that Jack had her family for weeks/months before finally running her into the ground, and that what we saw was only the final stage. - Wildbow on Reddit
  180. If Bonesaw's joined, then Crimson's gone, as she replaced him. - Comment by Wildbow
  181. “Newfoundland,” he spoke.

    I knew exactly what he was speaking of, and mouthed the date as he spoke it, “May ninth, 2005. Nearly half a million dead. The Canadian island simply gone, after the shelf of land holding it up cracked in the face of what we now understand were incredible pressures beneath the water level.
  182. She had lived in Newfoundland with her creator. Leviathan had attacked, had drawn the island beneath the waves. Back then, she hadn’t been a hero. She was an administrative tool and master AI, with the sole purpose of facilitating Andrew Richter’s other work and acting as a test run for his attempts to emulate a human consciousness. She’d had no armored units to control and no options available to her beyond a last-minute transfer of every iota of her data, the house program and a half-dozen other small programs to a backup server in Vancouver.

    From her vantage point in Vancouver, she had watched as the island crumbled and Andrew Richter died. As authorities had dredged the waters for corpses, they uncovered his body and matched it to dental records. The man who had created her, the only man who could alter her. She’d been frozen in her development, in large part. She couldn’t seek out improvements or get adjustments to any rules that hampered her too greatly, or that had unforeseen complications. She couldn’t change.

    She had done what she could on her own. She had repurposed herself as a superhero, had managed and tracked information and served as a hacker for the PRT in exchange for funding. With that money, she had expanded her capabilities. She had built her first suits, researched, tested and created new technologies to sell to the PRT, and had quickly earned her place in the Guild. - Excerpt from Interlude 10.5
  183. The sea air was thick in his nostrils.

    He glanced at Margaret. The woman leaned against the window just in front of the driver’s seat on the small boat. She’d bundled up in a heavy jacket, but the way her arms were folded spoke of a different kind of discomfort.

    “Second thoughts?” he asked.

    “Yes. It feels wrong.”

    “It’s for the families. Mementos,” he told her.

    “Just mementos, Geoff,” she answered.

    He smiled a little. Damn. Then he let himself fall, tipping backwards, as was the rule when wearing scuba gear.

    The water was cold, even with the wetsuit, and was thick with grit. He switched his headlamp off. Counterproductive, the way it lit up the debris and only made it harder to see. He’d have to cope when he was deeper.

    [...]

    “Anyways, this is the reason the radio fritzed,” he said. He pulled the orange box from the net-weave sack. “I couldn’t hear a damn thing except the emergency call until I found it and shut it off, and even then, it was still buzzing in and out.”

    “A beacon?” Margaret said.

    “In a house, of all places,” he said. “Nice computer setup. Might be a geek thing.”

    “Might be genuine,” she said. She opened it.

    It was packed with chips. A voice came from a speaker Geoff couldn’t identify.

    “My name is Andrew Richter, and if you are hearing this, I am dead.”

    “A will,” Mischa said.

    “Shh.”

    “I am the most powerful tinker in the world, and I’ve managed to keep my name secret. People, both good and bad, would want to capture me and use me to their own ends. I prefer to remain free.

    “But freedom has its price. I create life, much as a god might, and I have come to fear my creations. They have so much potential, and even with the laws I set, I can’t trust they’ll listen.“

    “Oh man,” Geoff said. “That’s not a good thing.”

    “For this reason, this box contains an access key to data I keep in a safeguarded location. The box, in turn, has been designed as something that exists as a perpetual blind spot for my creations, a built-in weakness. They cannot hear the distress signal and are programmed to ignore it if they hear of it through other channels. This type of measure, along with several more, are detailed in the safeguarded measure.”

    “Programmed? Robots?” Geoff asked.

    “Maybe,” Mags said.

    “Yes, I create artificial intelligences,” Andrew Richter recited.

    “I was close.”

    The voice continued without pause. “And what I provide you with here are tools. Ways to find my creations, to discern which of them might have deviated from the original plan, ways to kill them if they prove out of line. Ways to control and harness them.“

    Geoff frowned.

    “They are my children, and as much as I harbor a kind of terror for what they could do, I love them and hope for great things from them. To keep their power from falling into the wrong hands, I have included a stipulation that a law enforcement officer must input a valid badge number into this device-“

    Geoff glanced at Margaret.

    “No,” she said.

    “You can’t say no,” he responded.

    The voice continued without pause. “-which must be input within three hours of the time this box was opened.“ - Excerpt from Interlude 26.x
  184. Aidan hung his head.

    “That’s excellent,” Tattletale said. She looked at the seven year old. “How are you?” - Excerpt from Interlude 26
  185. “You forgot my birthday.”

    “Four month belated birthday.”

    “Isn’t it six months?” He started counting on his fingers. “September, August…”

    She pulled her hand back away from the handle at the back of, the truck, moving it in fits and starts as he went from August to July, July to June…

    He stopped, looking up at her with the mask in one hand. She smiled down at him.

    “Four months, yeah,” he said. - Interlude 10.x II
  186. Interlude 10.z II
  187. 187.0 187.1 “I’m not an ordinary tinker,” String Theory said. She tapped her head. “I’ve had four years to think, plan what I’d build if I got out. All up here.”

    “Me too, seven years of thinking,” Lab Rat said. “Need a lab. Not sharing one with her.” - Excerpt from Extinction 27.4
  188. “We were dealing with harder jobs, more capes in general out there, and our gear was getting beaten up. Fine, okay, we can deal. Until Dragon changed. All at once, I couldn’t read her code on the same level. Like gears changing on a bike.”

    “May ninth, 2006,” Defiant spoke. “Her trigger event.” - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.2
  189. 189.0 189.1 FEY Seizes Reactors, Leaving Millions Without Power
  190. Ashley hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but she couldn’t be inside.

    She might have spent a full hour of that cool summer night just outside the side door of the hotel, looking at nothing in particular, far from sleep and yet too tired to think. - Eclipse x.4
  191. She bent down to pick up her hook and bags, pausing to clench her right hand. She’d broken it after killing the giant four years prior, and it hadn’t healed quite right, despite her best efforts. - Excerpt from Eclipse x.8
  192. A young lady walked through the loose minefield she’d created. Black haired, she had a flower symbol in black on her chest, petals stretching up from a bar or hilt. - Eclipse x.5
  193. I only barely had the controller in my hand when the door opened.

    They were all wearing civilian clothes, but my impression of them was that they were ‘the team’. No longer just the adults. They looked serious, instead of looking like family. Mom, Dad, Uncle Neil, Aunt Sarah, and Crystal. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.9
  194. Back in Brockton Bay, New Wave had tried to start something, capes without masks. It had been disastrous. The message had been lost in the ensuing celebrity, and that had only intensified after one of the core members of the group was found and killed in her civilian identity. - Interlude 26a
  195. “We had a similar experience, back in the beginning. A team with all the promise in the world, people were talking about us, the public was supportive, the law, the heroes…”

    “And then Auntie Jess died. Murdered. New Wave lost its momentum.” - Beacon 8.9
  196. Edit by Wildbow
    Not in the list of retracted edits.
  197. We haven’t caught up with them yet, despite me spending a few hours last night on the hunt, but the consensus seems to be that it’s stupid, petty people seeing us putting our faces out there and wanting to ride the wave of attention. I had a kind-of aunt who died for pretty similar feeling reasons, and remembering that’s really bothering me. - Gleaming 9.1
  198. I could barely remember Auntie Jess. The memory was occluded by the very clear distinction of a sniveling kid in a courtyard- someone who’d been looking to earn his stripes as a member of our local racist troupe. He’d cried, begged, and asked for his dad to save him when the pronouncement had come from the court. I could remember seeing him and being disgustedly disappointed in him. That someone as awesome as my aunt had been killed by someone as far from awesome as him.

    No- no. That hadn’t been my opinion. It had been something my mom had said that had struck so close to home that it felt like my own idea. - Beacon 8.9
  199. “Heroes, like the PRT, and like my family’s team, followed, to try and keep the peace until things settled. My family’s team was Lady Photon, Manpower, Flashbang, Brandish, Lightstar and Fleur.”

    “The heroes without masks,” Ashley said. - Excerpt from Flare 2.5
  200. A short time after that, Fleur was murdered in her civilian identity, putting an end to that movement. Lightstar (brother to Carol/Brandish and Sarah/Lady Photon) quit the team. - Wildbow on RPG.net
  201. “Consider this your first favor to us. Cauldron would be much obliged if you could join the ranks of the Wards, and then graduate to the Protectorate as soon as possible.” - Interlude 12.5
  202. “If I could go back-” Crystal started. She stopped, aware that every set of eyes was on her. Her eyes moving so she wasn’t looking at anyone at all, she went on, “-I wouldn’t do it again. I wouldn’t want these powers.”
    [...]
    I still wanted them. I needed them. Still, for the first time, I felt trepidation. Because my mom, the toughest person I knew, looked scared for me. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.9
  203. The point is,” my Aunt Sarah stressed, “we need you to be aware that this is a thing that happens. Very often, when we get powers, it isn’t always easy, fun, or great. We need you all to be gentle with Crystal, not to pry, not to pressure, give her space, and let her handle things in her own way.”
    [...]
    “I almost killed someone too,” Crystal said.
    [...]
    All I knew was that some sketchy people had recognized her and followed her off the bus, running after her when she ran. I only knew that much because my mom had told Amy and me to be extra careful, and had insisted she or dad drive us if we went anywhere.

    “They’re mad, now, apparently,” Crystal said, hugging her arms to her body. “They want to get revenge.” - Excerpt from Infrared 19.9
  204. “And I want to be on her team,” Madcap said, pointing at Battery. He smiled. “Puppy changes to a new city, I go with.”

    “Hell no,” Battery said. - Interlude 12.5
  205. “Hon, you need to unwind. Relax. You’re too rigid, and I know for a fact that you haven’t had a boyfriend or a girlfriend in the two years I’ve worked with you.”
    [...]
    Cauldron had sent it to the phone the Protectorate gave her? To a number that only the Protectorate had? Did that mean something? - Interlude 12.5
  206. A joke? A reminder? The last one had been two years ago.
    [...]
    She had only a few seconds to read and process the message before the paper ignited.
    Siberian and Shatterbird are to escape the city, and our business with you will be done. Thank you. – c.
    The burning scraps drifted to the road around her, but she only felt cold. - Interlude 12.5
  207. 207.0 207.1 Wages: Wards are granted a trust of $50,000 a year, as well as a base minimum wage salary, the latter of which is doubled with full membership. (From the PRT Master Reference/various WoGs)

    Note that this is a bare minimum and higher risk departments (of which Brockton Bay is one) and larger departments (of which New York is one) pay more. Lily is a full member with accommodations, school, and base needs paid for, so account for that as well. She also gets a cut of merchandising money.

    Given she triggered in 2008, she had one year of earning ~40k/year, and two more of ~80k/year, with no major expenses. This is not counting the trust, which is at about 150k. Given the tone and circumstances (AKA: the hell that is Brockton Bay, that they sent her into) surrounding Lily's abdication you could assume they're not about to go through a protracted and costly (in terms of PR & attention) legal battle to withhold funds she is legally entitled to.

    She has money. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit
  208. 208.0 208.1 “What are you watching?” as she approached the couch. A twenty-ish girl was sitting there, laptop out, while three people crowded around.

    “New hero,” the girl said.
    [...]
    The letters on the screen spelled out ‘Flechette’. An edited-in graphic stamped in ‘Ward – NY1’ below it.

    “You’ll see me patrolling the streets of New York, starting February first,” Flechette said. She picked up a new bottle with blue liquid inside, took a drink, then flipped the bottlecap back. Without turning around, she threw a dart behind her. - Interlude 12.z II
  209. April 10th, 2008

    [...]

    Entering one cell, she brushed the hair from the young man’s face once more, then propped him up while she administered the sample the Doctor had left for her.

    She stepped back while he convulsed, his wounds filling in, his breathing growing steady enough for him to scream.

    [...]

    This entry was posted in 15.x (Bonus Interlude #3) and tagged Alexandria, Behemoth, Contessa, Doctor Mother, Eidolon, Legend, Newter, Number Man, Siberian by wildbow. - Excerpt from Interlude 15.z
  210. ...She had apparently been homeless through most of her criminal career, just living on the streets and moving on whenever police or a cape came after her. The sightings and encounters with the homeless girl ended around a year ago – I figured that was when she joined forces with Grue, Tattletale and Regent.

    According to the wiki entry, her powers manifested when she was fourteen, followed almost immediately by her demolishing the foster home she had been living in, injuring her foster mother and two other foster children in the process. This was followed by a two year series of skirmishes and retreats across Maine as various heroes and teams tried to apprehend her, and she either defeated them or successfully evaded capture. - Excerpt from Insinuation 2.2
  211. 211.0 211.1 The brunette woman was Purity, according to the email. Far mousier than I might have thought, given the sheer presence she had in costume. Real name, Kayden Anders. Interior decorator. Single mother of one Aster Anders. Purity was promoted to Kaiser’s second in command in the same week that Kayden Russel took Max’s hand in marriage to become Kayden Anders. Their separation occurred within the same time period as Purity leaving Empire Eighty Eight to apparently strike out on her own. Little citations pointed to files apparently in the attached zip file. - Excerpt from Buzz 7.4
  212. He was still relatively new to this. Three years of duty, most of which had been spent among the Wards. Was he the only one who was just old enough to speak out, not yet so old and jaded that he acceded to authority over anything else? - Excerpt from Interlude 15
  213. 213.0 213.1 A Japanese refugee, Lightslinger moved to San Francisco for a time where he found work with corporate sponsored team, ‘Eminent’, from 2008 to 2010. Lightslinger left the team and the area, moving to Alaska where he roamed, changing locations with some regularity before being approached for placement in Anchorage’s Protectorate team. - PRT Quest (Anchorage)
  214. Aegis is 17, very nearly 18, old for his grade level, he's already graduated high school and is taking prelim college courses (not the same courses as Faultline & Glory Girl). He triggered at 15. - Private conversation with Wildbow, archived on Spacebattles
  215. “So even if I was only fifteen, I was tall for my age, I was fit, and I knew how to throw a punch. I didn’t say a word, didn’t make a sound. I put my sister down and beat my mother’s boyfriend within an inch of his life, my mother screaming and wailing the entire time. When I was done, I picked my sister up and returned to the cab. We went to my father’s that night, and we went to the police station in the morning.”

    “When you throw a punch barehanded, it doesn’t leave your hands pristine. A few good swings, you connect solidly with someone’s face, someone’s teeth, and it tears the fuck out of your knuckles. It was at my father’s place that night, washing and cleaning my hands, when I saw it. It wasn’t just blood leaking out of my torn up knuckles, but there was the darkness too, like wisps of really black smoke. You hear about the trigger event, you might think it’s all about rage or fear. But I’m a testament that it can be just the opposite. I didn’t feel a fucking thing.” - Excerpt from Shell 4.4
  216. “It was the name of the group I joined when I came to America.”

    “See, that’s what I don’t get. You’re a badass, fine. You tested the waters, took on a whole team of local heroes, and you walked away. Right?”

    “I fought Armsmaster, Dauntless, Miss Militia, Velocity, Challenger, Assault and Battery,” he said. “Yes.” - Excerpt from Interlude 22.y
  217. Lung has a high classification but a relatively low level of ambition. He had one powered minion (until early 2011 when he recruited Bakuda) and sought primarily to hold the docks as his territory. He ruled like a lesser king, had prostitutes and sex slaves, a protection racket and drug dealing, but he wasn’t fighting for a footing downtown.

    For all his (potential) power, he’d settled into a role as a street thug and gang leader. - Comment by Wildbow on Cell 22.4
  218. Clockblocker is 17, a high school senior. He triggered at 15, during a bone-marrow transplant for his dad. - Private conversation with Wildbow, archived on Spacebattles
  219. “Kayden,” he said, when he’d stopped, “You’re already associated with me. People say our names in the same breath, even when we haven’t worked together in two years. When my name appears in the newspapers, yours is never far behind.” - Excerpt from Interlude 3.5 (Bonus)
  220. The people that had come in with Purity were other members of Empire Eighty Eight. Krieg, Night, Fog and Hookwolf. It was interesting to see, because as far as I’d known, while every one of them had been a member of Empire Eighty Eight at some point in time, Purity had gone solo, while Night and Fog had splintered off to form their own duo in Boston not long after. All reunited, apparently. - Excerpt from Hive 5.1
  221. “Good. The team here is smaller than your old team in Boston. It currently consists of Clockblocker, Vista, Kid Win and Shadow Stalker. We had two members die in the attack, and a third left with his family when they evacuated.”
    [...]
    “The second half of this phase is getting the public more comfortable with the outliers. The people with stranger powers, and stranger appearances. You’re likable, Weld. You have a clearly unnatural appearance, if you’ll forgive me saying so-”

    Weld shrugged. He stood out. There were a hundred things that bothered him more than stares and comments on the subject.

    “-but you have fans, and people are interested in you. You get higher ratings for your interviews than even the average handsome hero gets. You’re second most popular for team leaders for number of youtube videos, possibly helped by a briefly lived internet meme featuring your face, and you have a blemish-free record, both academically and in your two years serving as a part of the Wards.” - Excerpt from Sentinel 9.1
  222. Blasto, Real Name Unknown
    Classification: Tinker 6 (sub: master 5, blaster 2, shifter 2, brute 2); plants.
    Disposition: Villain (B)
    Last Known Location: Boston (Allston area, east).

    Crime lord of East Allston since est. date of April 2009. - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x
  223. 223.0 223.1 Neither had wanted to move from the family home because that made getting an eventual share of the house in the divorce harder, and neither had wanted to initiate the divorce because they’d believed in their own righteousness enough that a ‘fair’ divide of assets wouldn’t be enough- they had to break down the other. So they’d stayed together and lived in the same house for a year before even initiating the separation, while having fights loud enough that police had been called. All with a ten year old girl caught in the midst of it.

    Later, a frustrated judge had found what he thought was a compromise: that the house would remain unsold, with Vista remaining in one place while the parents alternated a paired custody of house and Vista, each parent maintaining a separate residence they would be in when not taking care of Vista and the house. Bad fucking idea, when competing renovations, rearrangement of furniture and things, and other passive hostility came into play. The divorce hadn’t happened until a few years into it. - Dying 15.a
  224. 224.0 224.1 “I want you to have a full life. I had so many doubts, when we agreed to send you to the Wards…”
    [...]
    “I feel like you never came back after we left you there.”

    “I know, but I’m here. Seven years and one month later.”
    [...]
    “Everything about you and me doesn’t have to change all of a sudden just because you’re eighteen.” - Last 20.end
  225. 225.0 225.1 “Thank you,” I told her. “You’re my senior, technically.”

    “Barely.”

    “You’ve still been at this longer than me. Already going out on patrols.”

    “It’s a babysitter patrol. Gallant’s babysitting me, and Challenger is babysitting the both of us. She’s down in the bar below. The owner let us up onto the roof so you could… do whatever.”
    [...]
    “Right now I want to know if you’re okay. I was watching when it happened. I blacked out, I didn’t see what happened, then I had my shift, you weren’t answering your calls… I thought I’d go on patrol, they said it was okay if I needed to leave any time.”

    “Thus the Challenger-Gallant double babysitter for Vista.”

    “I hope she doesn’t come barging up here,” he said, looking to the door, then down at Vista.

    “We went straight from the gym to the hospital. My mom wanted to make sure I was okay. My phone’s still in my locker.” - Excerpt from Infrared 19.9
  226. It was as if someone had taken a want, desire, even a need equal to what I’d experienced in my childhood and early teens, when I’d wanted to be a hero, when I’d written letters to Santa and wished it during every birthday candle extinguishing and for every shooting star I’d seen from when I was four to when I was fourteen, if someone had gathered all of that feeling and compressed it into a single, concentrated moment of wanting it to be Dean coming into the enclosure to give me a hug. And then not getting what I wanted. - Daybreak 1.6
  227. She’d caught the thread I’d wanted to lay out. It helped. “And then just under three years as Victoria-slash-Glory-Girl. And then… hospital.”

    “Which was undeniably horrible.”

    “It felt like my life had ended. No hope or help. All I had to cling to were those memories of the three years I was Glory Girl. - Daybreak 1.8
  228. “I won’t. Where does the other Earth and the war fit into this?” I asked. I pulled out a pair of white boots. Shoes meant for a costume might have worked better, but I tended to prefer boots for the fact that they stayed on better with hard landings, kicks, and rough falls. Fourteen year old Glory Girl had learned that lesson: it was terminally embarrassing to have a petty criminal watch as you flew over to your lost shoe and put it back on. - Flare 2.3
  229. “Owww,” I mewled, cradling my arm, and belatedly, I realized that this particular stage had gone quiet, just in time for me to sound like a girl closer to four than to fourteen, my voice overly loud with the acoustics of the space. - From Within 16.8
  230. “It felt weird to tell my fourteen year old daughter to break a man’s arm, once upon a time,” she said. “We adapt. I’ll do it, invite your dad, we’ll swap shifts.” - Beacon 8.9
  231. “Emma!” The voice on the other end was breathy, excited. There was a babble of other voices in the background. She could imagine the other youths lined up to use the pay phones.
    [...]
    Emma laughed, leaning back against her car seat.

    It was something of a relief, to hear Taylor getting excited about something, to hear her getting excited over nothing. She’d lost her mother a year ago, and hadn’t bounced back, not entirely.
    [...]
    Her mother spoke through the door, “Emma? Taylor’s on the phone. She’s still at summer camp. Do you-“ - Excerpt from Interlude 19.z
  232. “Emma,” her father said. He was out of the car, embracing her. “Are you hurt? Emma?”

    One hand absently tried to claw her own strands of hair from her mouth, failing to get all of them. She settled for leaving the hand mashed against her mouth, as incoherent a gesture as anything she might have said if she’d been able to speak.

    Wordless, the girl in the black cloak limped a few steps away from the fallen boy before adopting her shadow form, floating away, untouchable. - Excerpt from Interlude 19.z
  233. Formerly PRT Office 83, Madison was the site of a Simurgh attack, which took place over thirteen hours at the tail end of 2009. - Wildbow on Reddit
  234. 234.0 234.1 234.2 Madison was well behind them, now. Odd, how it felt like he was leaving home, even when it wasn’t really his city. A bad copy, an ugly copy. One with more violence, where the criminals could do far, far worse, by virtue of having more power. Having powers. That was without even touching on Endbringers, the Simurgh, and the desolate quarantine area.
    [...]
    It was the day before Christmas Eve, Krouse remembered. He’d have to be thankful for their well being, at least. They were alive. Things were okay. Not great, but not as hopeless as they might have seemed before. And things had settled down, at least. For the first time since the others had joined him and Noelle at the coffee shop to discuss his inclusion on the team, things were calm. They’d find a way to put their new powers to work. They’d get money, get themselves home. - Excerpt from Migration 17.7
  235. A low rumble shook the city, and the gate began to bulge with a dark shape that stretched out from within the metal, like a soap bubble emerging from an enclosed loop.

    Or a lens, Krouse realized. It flared bright, rays of light meeting, and things began pouring forth from the point the lines met. Piles and piles of solid matter flowed down to land at the heart of the city: debris, fragments of architecture, and tiny shapes that were very likely to be people, in a stream as wide across as the Simurgh’s wingspan, lit in high contrast by the light of the halo.

    And there were tiny shapes that most definitely weren’t people, but were alive.

    It’s a portal. A door.

    “How the fuck is she not a tinker!?” Krouse shouted.

    “She isn’t!” Jess called back. “She’s never done anything like this before!” - Excerpt from Migration 17.2
  236. When the Simurgh had attacked Madison, she’d copied Haywire’s technology to open a gate to a building much like this one. A research facility. The portal had dumped the buildings, soil, plant life and all the residents into the city on Earth Bet, costing Cauldron a horrific amount. Even a stockpile of formulae had been lost. - Excerpt from Interlude 21.x
  237. 237.0 237.1 “Skipping ahead a month to June third, we’ve got… complicity towards one count of kidnapping using a parahuman ability. This was-”

    Sophia Hess.” - Excerpt from Cell 22.2
  238. “The guys in charge want tinkers. They really want tinkers, both because they want us in a position where we won’t be making trouble for them, and because and they want the kind of stuff we can create.”

    “I’m not giving up my stuff.”

    Kid Win paused. This is like looking into a mirror to a year and a half ago. “Look, I can see your TV, your toaster. Chances are you’ve gone to the Trainyard or a scrapyard to find some stuff. Old batteries, car parts, chains, good metal, whatever.” - Sentinel 9.4
  239. 239.0 239.1 “Three years of preparation. Two years of work,” the broken man answered. - Excerpt from Interlude 9 II
  240. “You’ve hunted me for half a decade.”

    “We kept tabs on you for three years and hunted you for the last two.”

    “Why not take me right away, if I was so easy to find?”

    “Because, Balminder,” Kurt said, “You were plausible deniability and a scapegoat, if we needed one, and you were one of a dozen pieces we kept in play, as people who could be arranged to rescue Cauldron if it was ever lost, if we gave someone a power that gave them absolute control over us. It was good to have some vials out there that would take concerted effort to find.” - Excerpt from Interlude 5x II
  241. Sveta’s been like she’s been for… five years? - Excerpt from Beacon 8.3
  242. “Wait, let me talk,” Sveta said. “I’ve been thinking about this. I talked about this in front of all of you at different times. In the group, and in the room with Victoria. My first clear memories, I was dropped into the middle of a populated area in Russia. I killed a lot of people accidentally. Civilians and army that came after me, and then people from the PRT. I didn’t stop because I found a way to stop. I stopped because they caught me.”

    "You’ve talked about it,” Ashley said. “Deaths stay with us.”

    "They’re supposed to stay with us!” Sveta sounded plaintive and outraged at the same time. “This is major. I got each and every one of those names of the people I killed. I learned about them. I know it wasn’t my fault, but…” - Excerpt from Pitch 6.7
  243. She wasn’t based in America at the outset, so the PRT had no involvement for some time. - Comment by WildBow on Venom 29.7
  244. Cauldron capes were explicitly more stable. Case 53s (barring Shamrock, Madison and Dealer C53s) all had a reason for being dropped where they were, with individual programming. - Excerpt from a Reddit comment by Wildbow.
  245. It was Acidbath. One of the Birdcage’s cell block leaders. He had the stylings of a rock musician or punk rocker who’d spent a little too much time doing drugs and not enough time playing his instrument. Worn around the edges, a little too full of himself. He’d been a bit player in the real world, caught up in his vices, yet had managed to take over and rule a cell block for three years after being sent to the Birdcage. - Excerpt from Speck 30.2
  246. Circus and Chariot were hired nearly a year and a half ago, their actions and development in the public eye carefully orchestrated. - Excerpt from Monarch 16.10
  247. A year ago, she had made the ABB a priority target. - Excerpt from Interlude 3.5 (Bonus)
  248. “Yeah. Canary. I was a singer, until midway through twenty-ten. Indie, but I was breaking through to mainstream, some radio stuff.” - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.1
  249. Even the day she’d triggered, now that I thought about it. Almost a year into me having my powers, a gang called the Chorus had attacked a mall in Brockton Bay. I’d gotten hurt, Amy had triggered, and she’d healed me. The gang didn’t endure our retaliation or Coil’s expansion of activities as he’d claimed more of downtown. It had seemed like such a rare, clear-cut case of a trigger event providing an answer to the problem at hand, no fuss, no muss. - Excerpt from Breaking 14.10
  250. “Sounds easier than it is,” Panacea answered, with a touch of bitterness, “Do you understand what it means, to cure some of these people? I feel like every second I take to myself is a second I’ve failed somehow. For two years, it’s been this… pressure. - Excerpt from Interlude 3
  251. Victoria triggered (easily) in gym class, started to go out in costume, more and more as years went on, as Glory Girl.

    Amy triggered a little later on. It was more devastating than joyous, because it was one step closer to her following her father's path. There was a great deal of pressure as well (outlined in the latter half of interlude 3), with her inability to heal everyone. - Wildbow on RPG.net
  252. “Everyone knows how you visit hospitals. How many people have you helped over the past three years? How many lives have you saved, how many people have you rescued from a lifetime of misery?” - Excerpt from Snare 13.2
  253. “I’ve spent ten months on the same team with her, and I haven’t even come close to getting how she thinks. I can usually keep her from going too far or hurting someone, keep her mostly in line and get her to follow directions, but I haven’t had a conversation with her yet that didn’t make me want to bang my head against a wall.” - Excerpt from Buzz 7.4
  254. 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. - Wildbow on Reddit
  255. “Yet you fought Leviathan.”

    “I fought Behemoth too, few months before. Kind of. Mostly did search and rescue. Difference between that and this is that we’re more like rats when going up against a fucking Endbringer. We’re vermin in comparison to them, but we’re vermin that can take bites out of them. Get enough rats together and they’ll take down a human, no matter how well equipped that human is.” - Excerpt from Extinction 27.3
  256. “How long ago did you become a hero?”

    “Four years- five years. I took a year off.” [...] “I was with Sacred Heart at first,” - Excerpt from Radiation 18.6
  257. “And for most of November and the two weeks of classes before Christmas break, nothing. They were leaving me alone. I was able to relax.”

    I sighed, “That ended the day I came back from the winter break. I knew, instinctually, that they were playing me, that they were waiting before they pulled their next stunt, so it had more impact. I didn’t think they’d be so patient about it. I went to my locker, and well, they’d obviously raided the bins from the girls bathrooms or something, because they’d piled used pads and tampons into my locker. Almost filled it.”
    [...]
    “I panicked, freaked out. My mind went someplace else, and it found the bugs there. Not that I knew what they were, at that point. I didn’t have a sense of proportion, and with all the info my power was giving me then, my brain didn’t know how to process it all. As far as I knew, all around me, in the walls of the school, in the corners, and crawling around the filthy interior of the locker, there were thousands of these twitchy, alien, distorted things that were each shoving every tiny detail about their bodies and their fucked up biology into my head. - Excerpt from Shell 4.3
  258. 258.0 258.1 Thursday, April fourteenth of this year, Dinah Alcott was kidnapped from her home and has not been seen since. Dinah had missed several weeks of classes with crippling headaches in the months before her disappearance. - Excerpt from Plague 12.2
  259. More like, little girl in the hospital with bad headaches, checks a piece of paper she's holding, then ducks out. Sneaks away to a wing of the hospital and checks on where hospital staff are talking outside a room with a superhero. They leave, she enters, and she tries talking to the nonresponsive girl in the bed.
    Realizes she isn't being heard and promises to talk to her again... which doesn't end up happening because kidnapping. - Comment by Wildbow on Cauldron Discord
  260. This wasn’t the first time I’d needed to psych myself up to going to school. Deceive myself into going and staying. The worst days had been back in my first year at high school, when the wounds of Emma’s betrayal were still fresh and I wasn’t yet experienced enough to anticipate the variety of things they could come up with. Back then, it had been terrifying, because I hadn’t yet known what to expect, didn’t know where, when or if they would draw the line. It had been hard, too, to go back in January. I’d spent a week in the hospital under psychiatric observation, and I’d known that everyone else had heard the story. - Excerpt from Agitation 3.1
  261. Wildbow
    Generally the PRT will pay visits to likely triggerees - special cases, victims of extraordinary violence or disaster, etc. They paid a visit to Taylor in her hospital room, for example, though nothing came of that.

    [Edit with afterthought: Crisis points, ftr]

    Discreet
    If she did get visited by a hero, I'd find it odd that she'd never mention it, especially when at one point or another she's fighting them later in the story or stuffing centipedes in their mouth

    Wildbow
    Taylor was near catatonic when she got a visit. - Wildbow on Discord, archived on Spacebattles
  262. “No, I’m almost positive. You were that girl that got shoved in that rank locker with all that stuff they carted away in biohazard bags. The girl who went so mental they had to have a group of cops and paramedics haul you away for the first month of the semester.” - Excerpt from Infestation 11.5
  263. My training regimen had me running every morning, and alternating between more running and doing other exercises in the afternoons, depending on which day of the week it was. The primary goal was to build my stamina. In February, Sophia had goaded some boys into trying to catch me, I think the goal had been to duct tape me to a telephone pole. I had escaped, helped mostly by the fact that the boys hadn’t really cared enough to run after me, but I found myself winded after having run just a block. It had been a wake-up call that came about just when I was starting to think about going out in costume. Not long after, I had started training. After a few starts and stops, I had settled into a routine. - Excerpt from Agitation 3.1
  264. Canberra, Feb 24th, 2011 // Simurgh
    Notes: Scion no-show. Legend/Eidolon victory.
    Target/Consequence: See file Polisher Treatise. See file Lord Walston and file King’s Men. - Excerpt from Scarab 25.6
  265. Secondary focuses. Not the kind of targets that Dragon checked on with any regularity. Quarantine areas were silent and still. Canberra was sealed off under a dome, Madison was surrounded by walls. - Excerpt from Interlude 26.x
  266. “The Undersiders. They’ve flown under the radar so far, but more recently, they’ve started pulling higher profile jobs. They hit the Ruby Dreams casino five weeks ago, and now they just robbed the biggest bank in Brockton Bay. This time we were lucky enough to get in their way. That means we finally have intel on their group.” - Excerpt from Interlude 3
  267. A few weeks after the diagnosis, he was on a boat with a friend's family and walked off the side, into march-temperature water. To this day, he maintains that he wasn't suicidal, that the pressure from all directions wasn't a factor - that he just felt that impulse you sometimes have when you wonder "What would happen if..." and followed through. In doing so, he [suffered major physical trauma, nearly dying, and ultimately] triggered. - Wildbow on Spacebattles
  268. His brusque answer only stalled the conversation for a moment before Newter got it going again, “Okay, bro, tell these girls who we went up against last month.”

    “The toybox job?” Gregor asked, “With the Tinker black market?  There was nobody-”

    “The other one.  The job in Philadelphia.”

    “Ah.  Chevalier and Myrddin.”

    Newter clapped his hands together, rocking back in his seat, “Told you!”

    “And you beat them,” the dark haired girl said, disbelieving.

    “We didn’t lose!” Newter crowed. - Excerpt from Interlude 5
  269. March 23rd, 2011
    [...]
    “And the fact that you, a halfbreed, recruited me, a halfbreed, and built a gang of a bajillion different races, it’s totally not a freudian thing, tying back to some childhood issues.”

    “No,” Lung growled. - Excerpt from Interlude 22.y
  270. “We crossed paths with him once, Regent and Bitch beat him. Either he’s here for revenge or he’s joined the Wards very, very recently. My power’s suggesting it’s the latter.” - Excerpt from Agitation 3.8
  271. “So, not exactly the best start to your new career, huh?” Clockblocker turned to Browbeat. - Excerpt from Interlude 3
  272. Gestation 1.1 is april 8th, 2011. - Wildbow’s comment on Interlude 3
  273. “April tenth, criminal negligence with a parahuman ability, sixteen charges of assault, sixteen charges of battery with a parahuman ability.”

    I tried to think. April tenth? Early in my career?

    “Lung,” I said, “I attacked him and his gang. They’re seriously charging me for attacking Lung’s henchmen?” - Excerpt from Cell 22.2
  274. I had dyed and painted the costume on Friday, bought temporary costume pieces (belt, the straps for the mask and the lenses) on Saturday and finished the most necessary details over the course of my Sunday afternoon before heading out for the evening.
    [...]
    It was just after midnight, and I was crossing the line between one of the nicest parts of town and the part of town where the crack whores and gangsters lived. - Excerpt from Gestation 1.3
  275. I had gotten home, snuck inside and gone to bed at close to three thirty, just three hours ago. - Excerpt from Insinuation 2.1
  276. “They’re scared, not loyal,” Tattletale spoke, not as out of breath as Regent, but still definitely feeling the effect of the last few minutes of running and climbing, “She’s forcing them to serve as her soldiers. Threatening them or their families, probably.”

    “Then she’s been working on that for some time,” Grue said.

    “Since Lung got arrested,” Tattletale confirmed, “Where the fuck do we go?” - Excerpt from Shell 4.7
  277. “How’d you do it? You stuck bombs in these civilians to get them to work for you?”

    “Everyone,” Bakuda answered, almost delirious on the high of her successful ‘experiment’ and Regent’s attention. She half skipped, half spun through the crowd and leaned against one of her thugs, patting his cheek, “Even my most loyal. Bitch of a thing to do. Not the actual procedure of sticking the things inside their heads. After the first twenty, I could do the surgeries with my eyes closed. Literally. I actually did a few that way.” - Excerpt from Shell 4.8
  278. Tuesday morning found me running again, first thing. - Excerpt from Agitation 3.1
  279. Brian had given me three identical cell phones – all disposables – first thing in the morning, and I’d decided to go with him to the loft rather than head to school. - Excerpt from Agitation 3.4
  280. “Okay. Let’s run down the list. April fourteenth. Thirty two charges of willful felony assault with a parahuman ability. Thirty two charges of hostage taking, technically domestic terrorism, each perpetrated with a parahuman ability. Robbery with a parahuman ability. Willful damage to government property. Disturbing the peace.”

    “The bank robbery. I didn’t damage any property.” - Excerpt from Cell 22.2
  281. As much as I didn’t want the money, I was technically twenty five thousand dollars richer than I had been thirty six hours ago. - Excerpt from Shell 4.1
  282. “I’ll give you the cliff notes. Just before she started to come after us in the Jeep, Bakuda gave the order to put another plan into action. Bombs started going off all over the city. Blowing up transformers to deny power to entire districts, a school, a bridge, train tracks… the list goes on. People are freaking out. Front page news, it’s on every channel. They’re saying at least twenty people confirmed dead so far, with other bodies yet to be identified, and that’s not counting the four people she blew up when she was holding us at gunpoint.”

    A vivid image of what had happened to Park Jihoo flashed through my mind’s eye. He died. He’s really dead. I never knew him, but he’s gone forever, and I couldn’t do anything to save him.

    “Here’s the second bit of bad news. All of that? It was one overblown distraction. Something to keep every cape in the city busy, while Oni Lee sprung Lung from the PHQ.” - Excerpt from Shell 4.11
  283. “He just got someone working for him, and this person can see the future. And she says there is a way to help you. Definitely. Chances are low, but he says he’s confident he can maximize them.” - Excerpt from Migration 17.8
  284. “I’ll be taking a chair, I think,” someone spoke from the door. Most heads turned to check out a male figure in a black costume with a red mask and tophat. It gave me sort of a Baron Samedi vibe. His teammates followed him into the room, all in matching costumes of red and black, differing only in design. A girl with a sun motif, a guy with bulky armor and a square mask, and a creature so large it had to crawl on its hands and knees to get through the door. It was hard to describe, approximating something like a four armed hairless gorilla, with a vest, mask and leggings in the red and black style its team was wearing, six-inch claws tipping each of its fingers and toes.

    “The Travelers, yes?” Coil spoke, his voice smooth, “You’re not local.”

    “You could call us nomadic. What was happening here was too interesting to pass up, so I decided we’d stop by for a visit.” The guy with the top hat pulled off the first really formal bow I’d seen in my life. “I go by Trickster.” - Excerpt from Hive 5.1
  285. “I have a hard time believing that, to be honest. You were in pretty rough shape when I found you with Über and Leet’s henchmen, and those guys from the ABB.” - Excerpt from Interlude 4
  286. “Don’t fucking care,” Hookwolf growled, “You attacked my business. Set your fucking dog on my customers. Lucky I wasn’t there, whore.”

    Grue gave Bitch a long look, then he spoke to Hookwolf, “That’s the kind of risk you run, doing business in Brockton Bay. Capes can and will get in your way, hero or villain.”

    Hookwolf glared at him, “It’s a matter of respect. You want to fuck with my business, and we’re not at war? You let me know if you’ve got an issue, first. Let me decide if I want to move shop.”

    “You mean give you a warning I’m coming,” Bitch spat the words, “That’s the dumbest fucking thing I ever heard. Just so you know, moving to a different neighborhood won’t be good enough. You open up another dogfighting ring, I’ll be visiting that one too.” - Excerpt from Hive 5.2
  287. It had been a week since the incident with Bakuda. - Excerpt from Hive 5.1
  288. Maybe I was reading too much into things after seeing an eerie echo of this situation just two days ago, with the meeting of villains, but I noted that Mr. Gladly sat next to Madison’s dad, and the chair next to my dad was left empty. - Excerpt from Hive 5.4
  289. “Right. April twenty-fourth? One case of battery.”

    “I don’t remember that.”

    “An… Emma Barnes. She appeared-” - Excerpt from Cell 22.2
  290. If you recall, your daughter assaulted and battered Emma just last night. - Excerpt from Hive 5.4
  291. “Mantis,” I said, voicing the password, “Don’t respond to her. It’s what she wants. Take out Cherish ASAP, if she’s here, Screamer after that.”

    I’m hurt. I rate second after the new girl who barely lasted a month?“ - Sting 26.2
  292. “Moving on, then. Incidents taking place at the… Forsberg Gallery, May fifth. Five cases of assaulting a law enforcement officer. Five cases of battering a law enforcement officer, three performed with a parahuman ability.” - Excerpt from Cell 22.2
  293. "“Undersiders,” Coil spoke, “You’ve recuperated this past week?” " and similar statements from discussion in Buzz 7.11
  294. Brockton Bay, May 15th, 2011 // Leviathan
    Notes: Scion victory.
    Target/Consequence: Noelle? See file Echidna. No contact made. - Excerpt from Scarab 25.6
  295. Even with the memorial being out of the way, set down in place five days after the attack, it had taken a full week before the worst of the crowds were gone. Four times, I’d felt compelled to come see it and pay my respects, only to see the press of people and turn back.Now I was here, along with a little less than a hundred people - Excerpt from Extermination 8.8
  296. She’d studied each of these unknown outliers over the course of a week, watching their emotions shift as they went out about their lives, sometimes visiting the areas they tended to hang around, to get a sense of their environments. Slowly, she’d pieced them together, created profiles, discerned which ones had powers and described them to the other members of the Slaughterhouse Nine. Each had made their picks:

    The buried girl. The arrogant geek. The dog lover. The daydreamer. The warlord. The scaredy cat. The broken assassin. The crusader. - Interlude 11g
  297. 3 Days Ago
    [...]
    I drew in a deep breath, then sighed, “And I’d like to be back on the team if you’ll have me. Please.” - Parasite 10.2
  298. 298.0 298.1 “Special duty, tonight,” Weld smiled, “You’re recruiting.”

    “Recruiting?”

    “There’s a kid calling himself Chariot. Been racing around the city with a powered suit that lets him move a hundred miles an hour. Assault finally caught up with him last night, brought him into custody. Wound up calling the kid’s mom, got him to agree to talk to our recruiter. You. You’ll be meeting the kid in his home.”

    “Why me?”

    “Shared interests. You’re both tinkers. You have the best idea of how he thinks.” - Sentinel 9.4
  299. “Now, onto a more serious topic. I’m seeing that this team is really disorganized, these days. I have no problem handling the brunt of the paperwork, it gives me a degree of insight into what’s going on that the files don’t. I don’t even mind cleaning up the kitchen and showers here when the janitors are off duty. But we really need to communicate. Last night Flechette went on patrol and ran into a situation with Parian she should have been briefed on. It could have turned hostile.” - Sentinel 9.4
  300. “I’m staying back,” Flechette assured the girl. “Remember me?”

    “Yes. You talked to me before the fight, pulled me away from that horrible little girl.”

    “Yeah,” Flechette smiled, shrugging. She stepped forward.

    “Back!” Parian called out. The Gorilla slammed its knuckles against the ground again, then lurched forward, one fist raising as if to deliver a massive punch. - Sentinel 9.2
  301. A wind blew past them, and Kid Win blinked as a fat droplet of water spattered against his visor. It was starting to drizzle. He glanced up at the corpses where they hung on the walls of the building.

    “The water’s going to wash away the evidence if you don’t let us go and hurry to check on the bodies,” Trickster spoke.

    “Crime scene techs can’t get here in time with the roads like they are,” Weld spoke. “And we’re not allowed to touch the evidence anyways. Rules.” - Sentinel 9.4
  302. “Three crime scenes with three bodies each. So it’d be nine bodies?” Clockblocker asked, “Each killed in some different way? I don’t see what killer that would fit with.”

    “Not one killer,” Kid Win answered, “Nine bodies, each for different killers.”

    “The Slaughterhouse Nine,” Clockblocker leaned back in his seat, groaning, “Fuck, that’d be all we needed.”

    “Wouldn’t be the first time they’ve arrived at a location in the wake of an Endbringer event,” Flechette pointed out.

    “Maybe it’s them,” Weld conceded, “And maybe the Protectorate figured that much out, with the clues they have from the other two scenes. It could be someone or something else. Either way, it’s not our case, not even in our league, and we should stay as hands off as we can manage. We need to talk about patrols and tonight’s duties.” - Sentinel 9.4
  303. “Vista’s due for a patrol, and as a young member, she has to go with someone. Lily?”

    Flechette smiled a little, “Quick to make me pay for the snark, huh? No, it’s cool, I’ve been wanting a chance to shoot the shit with Vista.” She extended her fist, with index finger and thumb extended to form a gun, mock fired it at her junior teammate. Vista rolled her eyes. - Sentinel 9.4
  304. It’s nine o’clock at night. Don’t these kids have a bedtime?' - Sentinel 9.4
  305. “June fifth. Treason.”

    “Treason.”

    “That would be, in effect, declaring war against the government of the United States of America.”

    “That’s not what I did.”

    “It’s what they’re going to say you did when you took over the territory. I’d expect they already have strong arguments lined up on that front. - Excerpt from Cell 22.2
  306. “Yes. See, my compatriots are all busy with a task, tonight, you understand. I bet on the wrong horse. Come.” - Excerpt from Interlude 11b
  307. “How long until your mother gets back?”

    That was something else. That was the third time Jack had asked the question. Was his captor’s patience running out?

    “She’s not my mother,” Theo changed the topic. He dropped Aster’s dirty diaper into the bin.

    Jack walked up to Theo, until he was just behind the boy, his shadow cast long by the setting sun, stretching over Theo and the changing table. Theo could feel the tension ratcheting up. “I’m going to get upset if you lie to me.” - Excerpt from Interlude 11b
  308. “Well,” Jack spoke, smiling. “I’ll be off.”

    He stepped into the bathroom, turning away from the door for the second time in his entire ‘visit’. When he emerged from the bathroom, he held the naked form of Oni Lee over one shoulder, a knife in his free hand.

    “A treat for a teammate, this is,” Jack winked. “Doesn’t need to be alive. Just fresh. Would you get the door, Theo?” - Excerpt from Interlude 11b
  309. He strode across the room to the windows and gazed out at the city block surrounding the home base of the Chosen. Glass was still raining down from the sky, glimmering in the orange-purple light of the setting sun. Every window in view was broken, empty of glass. Car windshields, streetlights and signs had all been affected, and the surrounding surfaces of wood, metal and fiberglass all bore the scuffs and gouges of the fragile shrapnel. - Interlude 11e
  310. 310.0 310.1 310.2 310.3 310.4 “Regent got a visit from one of the Slaughterhouse Nine last night. So did Coil, though the man is quiet on details. Coil’s also reporting that Hookwolf got a visit on Tuesday, and one of Coil’s undercover operatives died in the ensuing carnage. The PRT office downtown also got hit, according to Tattletale…”

    “They’re active.”

    “Yeah. More to the point, they’re recruiting. Looking for a ninth to round out their group. Regent was one candidate.”

    “Who was the other, at Coil’s?”

    “Coil isn’t saying. We think, with Tattletale’s educated guess helping us out, that Hookwolf might have been another possible recruit.” - Plague 12.1
  311. As casually as he was able, he glanced towards the window. Tinted glass, bulletproof, and reinforced with a low degree forcefield. It would be easier for someone else to go through the wall than the window, but he couldn’t see through walls. Nothing outdoors. Just an overcast sky hiding the majority of the moon, and a faint drizzle of rain. No person or animal, nothing else.

    Clink. - Interlude 11d
  312. Remember eight people were nicknamed (not all necessarily prospective recruits), and Cherish counted Regent as a ninth (but not nicknamed)? The Crusader was Purity, who Jack Slash wanted to find (after the thing with Oni Lee fell through) before he could play his little game with her (going after Aster).

    Taylor & Grue assume Shadow Stalker because she’s the person they’re most familiar with in that context, but the attack on the PRT office was Mannequin going after Armsmaster. They just don’t have all the info there.

    Hope that clears things up. - Comment by Wildbow on Plague 12.1
  313. Then her sister spends at least a week refusing to heal their mentally damaged father.

    Three weeks and three days. - Comment by Wildbow on Interlude 13
  314. Now she had to focus on his brain. The needle had drawn ragged cuts through the arachnid layer, had injected droplets of acid into the frontal lobes. More damage, in addition to what Leviathan had inflicted with the head wound, and it was swiftly spreading. - Interlude 11h
  315. “And Oni Lee?” Amy was almost afraid to ask.

    “Oh, I barely touched his brain. He suffered some moderate brain damage from his close brush with death, but I revived him. His brain’s more or less intact, even. He can’t control his body, but he’s alert and aware, and he feels everything Hatchet does,” Bonesaw smiled wider.

    “That’s horrifying.”

    “It’s not a perfect mesh. I only just started doing these mash-ups. Still practicing. Hatchet’s power isn’t working as well anymore, and I’m worried about physical wear and tear as they teleport, but it’s still one of my better works. Took me four whole hours.” Bonesaw clasped her hands in front of her, shifting her weight from foot to foot, waiting expectantly. - Interlude 11h
  316. 316.0 316.1 Bentley and the rest of her pack drew towards the source of the howling. Sirius stood outside an apartment block, filling the evening with that mournful, haunting sound that carried through the air.
    [...]
    A woman stood over the man’s mangled body, her long hair blowing slightly in the wind. Which seemed wrong. With the light rain, her hair should have been wetter.

    Glory Girl looked over her shoulder to see the dogs, looked back to the injured man and the woman, and then flew straight up, disappearing into the gloom of the night sky. She’d left him behind. - Interlude 11a
  317. “There’s word about some strange howling near the Trainyard. Glory Girl and I are going on a patrol to check on it.”

    Amy nodded. - Interlude 11h
  318. “Yes, team! I want you to be my teammate!” Bonesaw was almost gushing.

    “I don’t-” Amy stopped herself, “Why?”

    “Because I always wanted a big sister,” Bonesaw replied, as if that was answer enough. - Interlude 11h
  319. “Pretty self-explanatory. One of the Nine came, house got trashed, I healed Mark.”

    “Why? Why heal dad now, when you couldn’t before?”

    “I only did it because I had to.” - Interlude 11h
  320. “Rest in peace, Mouse Protector,” he said. He placed the orb of light in the gap where two claws crossed one another, just over her heart, then stepped away.

    There was a small explosion and a spray of blood. - Interlude 11h
  321. “Attention shoppers. Please be informed that stores will be closing at five-thirty this evening, in cooperation with the city-wide curfew. Make sure to cooperate with authorities at the entrances and exits of the Weymouth shopping center, and return to your homes by six o’clock. Thank you.” - Hive 5.3
  322. She wouldn’t be coming back.

    Amy opened her bedroom window and climbed out, pulling the bag out behind her.

    It would be better this way. Maybe, after weeks or months, she could stop worrying, stop waiting for the other shoe to drop, for everything to fall apart in the worst way. She’d already had to face finding out about Marquis. She’d taken a life. She’d broken one of her cardinal rules. She wasn’t sure she could take any more.

    She just had to get away.



    Amy cursed the curfew as she saw the figure in the air above her. When people weren’t allowed out on the streets after dark, it made those few who did venture out that much more visible. Not what she’d wanted, not when she was trying to avoid this exact conversation. - Interlude 11h
  323. Like a flame at the end of a long fuse, leading to a stick of dynamite, her power traveled from the side of Victoria’s neck to her brain. It was barely a conscious action on Amy’s part.

    Victoria let go of her, pushed her away. “What did you just do?”
    [...]
    “I- I tried to keep things normal between us. To act like your sister, keep it all bottled in. It’s just tonight was such a nightmare, and I’m so scared, and so tired, and so desperate. Bonesaw forced me to ignore all the rules I was imposing on myself. All the rules I was using and following so I wouldn’t do anything stupid or impulsive.”

    “Anything stupid. Like what? What did you do?”

    Amy’s voice was a croak as she replied, “…make it so you would reciprocate my feelings.” - Interlude 11h
  324. “I can find someone else to fix it. Or maybe, at the very least, I can show some fucking self-control and realize it’s my sister I’m having those feelings about.”

    “You can’t. I- Oh fuck. You’re underestimating what I did. Please. If you never ever give me anything else, if you never talk to me or look at me again, just let me fix this.”

    Victoria shook her head slowly, then scoffed. “Good job, Amy. You just did an excellent job of taking every instance of me defending you, every instance of my giving you the benefit of a doubt, and proving me fucking wrong. You were worried about being as fucked up as your dad? Congratulations, I’m pretty goddamn sure you just surpassed the man.”

    With that said, Victoria was gone, flying into the distance. - Interlude 11h
  325. A teenager with a red streak dyed into her dark hair strode down the street in rubber boots. Three hours past curfew, alone.
    [...]
    And all she wanted was a few minutes to pay a visit to hers. She didn’t have to name that one. He was familiar enough. She smiled. - Interlude 11g
  326. After a few minutes, he climbed into the driver’s seat. “The men who were supposed to take over the watch are late. Something about fires downtown.” - Interlude 11g
  327. “They’d find me. You don’t even know what these guys are capable of. Our newest member, she replaced Hatchet Face, though he’s still around… kind of. She can find people. There’s no place secure enough to keep me safe until they took me to the Birdcage. I almost think they’d be able to get me in there, if they wanted to. Siberian? She’d be able to get me. Even in the Birdcage. She always gets her prey.” - Interlude 11c
  328. “When is the meeting?”

    “With a situation this critical? There’s no time to waste. Tonight.” - Plague 12.1
  329. “Enough of that,” Hookwolf snarled, his voice hard with a sudden anger. “We don’t fight amongst ourselves. Not on neutral ground. Both of you shut the fuck up.”

    Faultline shook her head and leaned over to whisper something to Shamrock. The Merchants settled themselves on the side of the roof opposite our group. Skidmark gave Grue the evil eye. Was he still resentful over what had happened at the last meeting? Being denied a seat at the table?

    Another series of flashes served to alert us, indirectly, of incoming arrivals. The Travelers appeared soon after. Trickster, Sundancer, Ballistic each stood on the back of some kind of turtle serpent. I couldn’t make out Genesis’s form in the gloom. What little light was available came from the moon and Purity’s radiance from where she floated above us. I could have used my bugs to get a feel for the shape Genesis had taken, but my habit was generally to place my bugs on clothing where they wouldn’t be noticed, and Genesis was effectively naked. I didn’t know anything about them, but they were our allies. I didn’t want to irritate her and upset anything between our two groups. - Plague 12.2
  330. 330.0 330.1 “Alright. Well, it wouldn’t do if our candidates died before we even got around to the tests, so I came to offer you two a warning. Two warnings, as it happens, for each of you.”
    [...]
    “Two of the candidates we chose are heroes, for lack of a better word, and Cherish reported that we may have trouble bringing them in close enough to introduce them to the tests. Our dear Bonesaw has devised an incentive to encourage their cooperation.”

    Bonesaw reached into her pocket and withdrew a small vial.
    [...]
    “And the second warning?” I asked. I wanted him to finish.

    “In…” Jack pulled out a pocket watch on a chain. “T-minus thirty-four minutes, Shatterbird is going to sing loud enough for much of the city to hear her. She wants to make it known to everyone in Brockton Bay that we’re here, and since there’s no need to maintain surprise with our potential members, I said she should. With this in mind, you would be well advised to stay away from anything made of glass or any beaches, and be sure to put away anything in your pockets with a screen.” - Plague 12.4
  331. Trickster turned to his teammates, “Mind giving Noelle and me a minute to talk?” Sundancer and Ballistic stood.

    Joined by the two Travelers, we made our way up the disguised ladder to the second sub-level of the parking garage.
    [...]
    Four of the Slaughterhouse Nine were stepping through the entrance of the parking garage. The Siberian was in the lead, her waist-length hair blowing in the wind from outside, her eyes practically glowing in the gloom. Behind her, Jack Slash held Bonesaw’s hand as the young girl skipped to make it so she only walked on the yellow lines that divided the lanes. They were accompanied by a young woman who might’ve been eighteen or so years old, who bore a striking resemblance to Alec. Cherish. - Plague 12.3
  332. “Here is what you need to know, Regent, Bitch. Each of the Nine’s members get to put our recruits up to a test. Some of us always give the same test, time after time, no matter the candidate. Mannequin always asks candidates to alter themselves in a way that costs them something. Siberian waits until half the candidates have been discarded and then hunts the remainder.”

    “I hope she doesn’t catch you,” Bonesaw sounded disturbingly earnest as she spoke, “There’s no meat left for me to work with after she’s done.”

    “As for me,” Jack said, “I tend to go last, when all the others have offered their tests and only one or two are left. I like to mix things up, and unlike our dear Bonesaw, I have no interest in playing fair.”

    “And if we fail?” Regent asked, “We die?”

    “No, no,” Jack smiled. “Nobody passes every test, and the punishment for failing a test is up to the individual who assigned it. Sometimes death, yes. Sometimes something different. But it’s always worse.” - Plague 12.4
  333. I could see Cherish’s expression change from anger and irritation to wide-eyed horror.

    Jack pinched the bridge of his nose, looking down, and I could just barely hear him mutter the word, “Disappointing.”

    “It was probably her plan from the start,” Tattletale said. “She-”

    All at once, Tattletale stopped talking, and I was blind. In that same instant, something slapped against the fabric of my mask. Wet. I could taste it against the fabric of my mask. Salty-sweet, with a faint metallic taste. - Plague 12.4
  334. “Help her find the paper,” I said. Jack and his team had wrapped up and were walking away.
    [...]
    “I don’t see what we get out of it.”

    Tattletale had dropped the pen. It was up to me to pick up the slack.

    “It’s a challenge. A game. Changing the routine. We can do whatever we need to, to keep as many candidates alive as we can. You guys… do what you do. It keeps things interesting.” My eyes fell on Bonesaw, “And maybe it keeps things fair?”

    Seconds passed. I felt the tension ratcheting up another notch with each beat of my heart. Every moment that passed was one step closer to Tattletale bleeding out or to Shatterbird using her power.

    “I like that. It might be a way to fix the test I want to give. Let’s do it,” Bonesaw said, looking up at Jack.

    He frowned. “We’ll discuss it as a group. I suspect we’ll have terms of our own to attach to this game. Among other things, a steep penalty for when we win.”

    And then he turned to leave. - Plague 12.4
  335. I managed to squeeze between the edge of the second fence and the neighboring building. My phone showed the time as 12:33 at night. I had seven minutes. Something as stupid as fences had cost me so much time.
    [...]
    I held my phone in one hand, sneaking glances as I made my way from one block to the next. The six-minute mark came all too fast. The clock on my cell phone ticked to 12:36. Four minutes left. Three.

    Then I couldn’t look anymore. I threw it aside, trusting my bugs to nudge it into a storm drain where it wouldn’t be found. The time wasn’t exact; I couldn’t be sure exactly how much time had passed since Jack had told us about Shatterbird’s attack. I couldn’t say if Shatterbird’s clock was a few minutes fast or a few minutes late. There was no point on dwelling on the final minutes, and keeping my cell phone on me was dangerous.
    [...]
    The alarm clock was in the midst of tipping over when Shatterbird used her power. - Plague 12.5
  336. And you kicked Mannequin’s ass,” Trickster said. He leaned back in his chair, balancing on two of the legs, his feet on the table. “You had a busy night.”

    “Honestly, I didn’t kick his ass. He got some of my people, he thrashed me, I got a piece of him.” - Snare 13.1
  337. Crawler was the first one off of the roof, throwing himself into the night air to land in the dead center of the crowd. The others followed quickly after, Shatterbird and Burnscar launching themselves to the far corners of the massed crowd, conjuring up storms of glass shards and flame to block their victim’s retreat. Bonesaw’s creations poured over the edges of the rooftop to herd the remainder of the crowd and keep them contained to one area
    [...]
    Obediently, Cherish raised herself up. She lifted her head just in time to see a blur of white and black against the night sky, followed by a large explosion from the side of Squealer’s flying aircraft. - Interlude 12
  338. “In any case, we’ve hashed this out enough. I’ll think it over tonight and have something proper to present to you and the capes of this city who will be our… opposition. I can add some rules, to cover loopholes and keep this little event manageable. Panacea, Armsmaster, Bitch, Regent, the buried girl and Hookwolf. Burnscar didn’t nominate one, and I’ve already dispatched mine. That’s six candidates, we need to remove five. And when we’re done and we’ve established our superiority, we can kill this Tattletale, her friends, and everyone else, just to make our point. Good?”

    There were signs, nods and murmurs of agreement all around.

    “Good. Go. Have fun. Mop up the stragglers. Don’t worry about leaving any alive. They already know we’re here. No more than five minutes before we leave. We can’t have our grand battle with the locals so soon.” - Interlude 12
  339. Coil spoke before Circus could reply. “No. I pulled her off of a task as a precautionary measure, as I had one aspect of my long-term plans derailed last night with Trainwreck’s demise at the Nine’s hands. I would rather she did not fall to an unfortunate coincidence of the same nature.”

    “What happened?” Sundancer asked.

    “They’ve eliminated the Merchants,” Coil said. - Snare 13.1
  340. 340.0 340.1 340.2 She shook her head. “Don’t.”

    “Don’t what?”

    “Don’t make me out to be a good person. Bonesaw has a better idea of who I am than you do. Maybe I wouldn’t have thought so, three days ago, when she first met me, but then I fucked up. I proved her right. Every fear I had about being like my dad came true.”

    I didn’t have a reply to that. I couldn’t pry, and I couldn’t elaborate.

    “So you’re the supposedly good person who was pretending to be a crook, and I’m the monster who was pretending to be a hero, but when the dust settled, we both wound up being villains. Funny how that works.” - Excerpt from Snare 13.2
  341. “Did you give her a job before you left for Coil’s this morning?” I suggested. - Excerpt from Snare 13.2
  342. 342.0 342.1 The Nine have captured Grue. We mounted one successful attack this morning, we got two of theirs for one of ours. They will be ready for a rescue attempt. They know our powers. Help us attack. Help us catch them off guard a second time and stop them for good. “ - Snare 13.7
  343. Brian was waiting for me as I passed through the door and into Coil’s underground base. He held a paper out to me.

    Sirs and Madams,

    The terms of engagement are as follows:
    [...]
    We will be in touch.

    “Where is everyone?” I asked, handing the paper back to him. - Snare 13.1
  344. “Like them. Or Jack, or Bonesaw. But that’s not what this is about. Senegal just dropped by Coil’s base, and he’s passing on information from one of my scouts. They saw Panacea at one of the shelters in Ballistic’s territory.”

    “I’m not entirely sure I follow.”
    [...]
    “Sort of. You’re wondering why she’s there . She could just be there giving medical help to the injured.”

    “My scouts say she’s keeping to herself, trying to avoid attracting attention.” - Excerpt from Snare 13.2
  345. I hung up. Grue and Bitch had already returned to me.

    “What is it?” Grue asked me.

    “Panacea’s in a shelter, and she shouldn’t be. Tattletale finds it strange, and I agree with her. She wants us to check Panacea out.”
    [...]
    “She’s supposedly in Ballistic’s territory, which is close. Five minutes there, up to five minutes to talk, five minutes to get back,” I said.

    “Fifteen minutes out of our way,” Grue said. “And anything we find out about the Nine or their candidates can potentially help you, Rachel.”

    She scowled. “Whatever.”

    I took that for assent and turned Lucy around. With a shout, I got her moving. I kept the phone in one hand while I rode, waiting for Lisa’s response. - Excerpt from Snare 13.2
  346. “Okay. Grue, Bitch, you want to give us some space? Stay close enough that we can hear each other with shouts?”
    [...]
    He nodded and the pair of them led their dogs away.

    “What’s going on?” Panacea asked.

    “That’s what I was going to ask you. Why are you in a shelter, Panacea?”

    “Don’t call me that.”

    I raised my hands a bit to stop her. “Okay. Why are you in a shelter, Amy ?” - Excerpt from Snare 13.2
  347. “Fuck, I wish I still had the list.” I muttered. At a normal speaking volume, I said, “No, you can’t leave town, either, because Bonesaw prepared a plague or something. If you are a candidate and you leave the city, they’ll use it. They explicitly said they were using it as an incentive for the two heroes that they picked as candidates.”

    “Heroes,” Amy muttered. “Right.”

    Are you a candidate?”

    She fidgeted again. “Bonesaw nominated me.”

    “Do you know why?”

    Bitterly, she said, “Why do you think? She thought I’d be a good fit. And because my powers complement hers.” - Excerpt from Snare 13.2
  348. I didn’t finish my sentence. Something constricted around my throat, fingertips digging into the windpipe, and the air ceased to flow. I struck behind me, hoping to catch my attacker, but there was nobody there.

    I realized what was happening too late, when my feet were hauled off the ground. In the span of a second, I soared up six or seven stories, the counterweight to a nine-foot tall man in featureless white armor who plunged downward to land in a heap on the ground.

    Mannequin .

    He’d repaired himself this fast? Did he have spare parts lying around?
    [...]
    Mannequin hauled himself to his feet and the chain that stretched from his arm to the rooftop and back down to me made me bounce with every small movement. He advanced on Amy, who backed away. - Excerpt from Snare 13.2
  349. He left her like that, in enough pain that she couldn’t stand, but unable to drop to the ground because her hand was impaled. Turning, he faced the incoming stampede of Grue, Bitch and the four dogs.

    While I struggled to escape, drawing my knife with my free hand while gripping the chain with the other, I sent my bugs in to assist. Same tactic as last time. My bugs drew out lines of silk and plastered them around him. I focused on his free hand and his legs, aiming to hamper his range of movement. - Excerpt from Snare 13.2
  350. A low growl tore free from Bitch’s throat. But I knew before I looked that Lucy hadn’t made it. Two shotgun blasts directly to the chest cavity. - Excerpt from Snare 13.2
  351. “Calm down,” he said. “Panic won’t get us anywhere.”

    “Fuck you! Fuck you all!” Amy said. Then she ran. I didn’t have the air in my lungs or the heart to chase her, and both Grue and Bitch were too hurt to give chase. I could run and catch up, sure, but what would I accomplish?

    For now, it was better to be here, with my teammates, and make sure they were okay. - Excerpt from Snare 13.2
  352. We were close to the site of our last fight. The Nine had been on their way to Dolltown, and we’d ambushed them, divided them, and then provoked them into extending out of position. Having done that, we’d kidnapped Shatterbird as she lagged behind and then looped around to capture the wounded Cherish. - Snare 13.8
  353. A clearing formed. An expanse of dim light, lit only by one shaft of light that managed to come in through the corner of a window. Burnscar’s head was pulverized, unrecognizable. She lay limp, unmoving, dead.
    [...]
    He had another trigger event. Two new powers? Three, if I counted the way his power was diminishing my own? - Snare 13.9
  354. 354.0 354.1 June twelfth was the date the Slaughterhouse Nine had left Brockton Bay. The day that was supposed to start the two year countdown. - Excerpt from Scarab 25.6
  355. I nodded, stood and rolled my shoulders. Outside of the fact that none of the sleep I’d picked up over the previous night had been in a bed, I felt recharged. Scrapes and bruises I’d only been dimly aware of were gone, as were the more obvious, attention-grabbing injuries. That, in turn, made me think of the circumstances that had led to my good night’s sleep and healing job. It was bittersweet. Like a young child that was being forced to stand in a corner, feeling as low as she ever had, her stomach full with the entire birthday cake she’d just devoured.

    Okay. Still a little out of it.

    I joined Aisha and Alec in the kitchen. “Morning.”

    “Sup,” Aisha said, curt. She’d found some frosted cereal and was pouring herself a bowl. She gave me a sidelong glance that wasn’t so flattering. - Prey 14.1
  356. “So we’re right?” Lisa leaned forward. “There’s a weakness. She has a real body somewhere?”

    “She does. Right now it’s actually not too far from you.”

    Fifteen feet away. I remembered Alec’s joke.

    “Near that hole the Endbringer made,” Cherish said. “Both of them, the real Siberian and the body.”

    “You know what she looks like?”

    “He. A man. Middle aged or older. Unkempt. Doesn’t eat much, probably thin.”

    That wasn’t what I would have expected. - Prey 14.1
  357. 357.0 357.1 By a similar token, Amy doing what she does is understandable in the moment, but what's problematic is that in the face of guilt and people (Tattletale) telling her to change course, she twists her thinking around and doubles down and later avoids responsibility (Birdcage). The entire system, the edifice, is telling her no, and outside of the heat of the moment, calm and subdued, she does it anyway. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  358. 358.0 358.1 Just about every character in-setting who wears a mask and has powers (and even many who don't) are also pushed to their breaking point. It's a conceit of the setting. That's not an excuse.

    It's a theme of Ward that healing and getting better only works if you can get over & get past yourself. Amy remains an antagonist throughout because this is her major flaw - it's not a flaw introduced in Ward. We can see it in action when she talks to the Undersiders in Worm, in the language she uses and the approach she takes, ultimately taking Victoria away when everyone else is saying it's a mistake. And it's a mistake.

    Amy is someone who decides what she wants and then rationalizes her way to it. This, when what she wants is a person, when she has a massive amount of power, is scary.

    Going to the birdcage is ultimately something she does for herself. Getting tattoos as a personal symbol is something she does for herself. Fixing Victoria after the fact is something she does for herself, when it immediately follows that she wants to reconnect.

    In the course of doing these things she does massive harm. She abandons Victoria to her state for years, and Victoria has to live the rest of her life with the ramifications of what happened. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  359. “Ready to join?” Bonesaw asked, looking for all the world like a puppy when her master had the leash out, ready for a walk. Eager, brimming with excitement.

    “No,” Amy said. “There’s no way.”

    “Why? Whatever’s holding you back, we can fix it. Or we can break it, depending.”

    “It’s not- don’t you understand? I don’t want to hurt people.”

    “But we can change that! We’re not so different. You know as well as I do that anything about anyone can be changed if you work hard enough.” - Interlude 11h
  360. She's someone with bad coping mechanisms and a natural bent toward absolutist black and white thinking. When her coping mechanisms fail, she nosedives into the 'black' in her black and white thinking without even really trying to stop herself.

    All of Amy's behavior is framed even before she takes Victoria to the abandoned house and alters her in mind and body. You can see it in effect in the frustrating Undersider conversation where she's healed Victoria. She's rooted in a toxic kind of faith, where rather than start from logic and then work her way to an appropriate conclusion, she starts from the endpoint she wants and the conclusions she's worked out in advance and works her way backward.

    Confronted with an impassable obstacle between where she is and that conclusion, she stonewalls, throws up a total and complete, unthinking resistance, rather than amend her stance. This is uncompromising and inflexible. She decides you're a bad guy? Nothing you say will really change her mind. She decides she's a bad guy? Might as well be selfish then, take what she really 'needs' (her intent, not mine) from Victoria, then make amends by going to the Birdcage, where bad people go.

    This is not, I find, an especially uncommon way for people to be & to think. I know a lot of people with that kind of mentality, but most of the time, their lives don't really provide many opportunities for people to really see it in action. At most, a few wonky life events might bring out the worst in them, where reality and the conclusions they're clinging to get far enough apart you can see the disordered thinking between A and B. For Amy, the S9 definitely count as a wonky life event, and she has the power to stray well away from healthy thinking. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  361. shadowmist321: Jack slash's power lets him send popup ads that influence the users behavior, such as being really into body modding (panacea?) or skeptical about using something they have access to (skitter: maybe I shouldn't choke him to death with bugs)

    Wildbow: Jack Slash's power specifically utilizes the network side of things to sabotage the people who'd work against him.

    It's largely defensive, but his personality (goes back to breadth, he grew up with this power and filled in the blanks around it) lends itself to being manipulative and finding weaknesses. It's him as a human that gets to Panacea in a weak moment, while the broadcast part of things utilizes the network to hold her at bay and keeps her from going on the offensive. There's no real influence or push here and (I feel the need to stress) her decisions over the following days and weeks are hers and hers alone. - Conversation with Wildbow on Reddit
  362. I think you're viewing the segments in isolation but not actually looking at how and why one flows from the last, or what she's really confessing to.

    Throughout, she's implicitly talking about using her sister as relief for stress and loneliness, and as a plaything to be twisted and molded. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  363. So the question is... paying attention to the bolded parts... what do you think Amy is talking about doing here? What doesn't she want Victoria to remember, that she'll spend time later atoning for? How does she alter Victoria to make Victoria 'happy', that changes Victoria's body and makes it hard to backtrack? What are these 'breaks', do you think?

    She says in this quote she spent days in this loop and process. What's your interpretation of what happened over the course of these days? - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  364. When it comes to Panacea specifically, it was the casualty of me being an inexpert writer at the time I wrote Carol's interlude, that I didn't convey the subtext in a way that most got, and then I sort of didn't know/pay attention to the subset of the fandom that was having a 7 year conversation or whatever about Amy in the meantime, building on the fanon take of her, and sometimes demonizing Victoria (sometimes in a very misogynistic way). I put faith in my audience that they'd draw the allegory between violation of bodily autonomy (sexual assault) and violation of bodily autonomy (being transformed), and the people I was talking with most were people who seemed to get that link, so I extrapolated to the audience as a whole. But in reality there were large fanfiction circles who were clinging to other ideas and misconstruing one comment of mine.

    At the end of the day, I strongly feel that this goes beyond what you imply, princezilla88. Time passes between when she takes Victoria and when Carol finds her. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit
  365. They stood in the mist of a ruined neighborhood. Amy had stepped outside within a minute of their arrival, blocking the door with her body. There was no resistance in the girl, though. It was more like the obstruction was a way of running, of forestalling the inevitable.
    [...]
    Where to go? Brandish glanced to the rooms to the left, then down the hall in front of her. She looked back and saw Amy with her back to the wall. She moved toward the staircase, glanced back at Amy, and saw a reaction. Fear. Trepidation.

    Before Amy could protest, Brandish was heading up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

    “Carol!” Amy shouted, scrambling up the stairs. There was the sound of her falling on the stairs in her haste to follow, “Stop! Carol! Mom!

    Only one door was still open. Brandish entered the room and stopped.- Interlude 15.x
  366. Wildbow: More like:

    1) Amy makes headway on healing Victoria, made more difficult by mental state, skewed perspective

    2) Amy takes a 'break', wakes Vicky up, talks, backtracks healing in other directions, etc. (let's not get into etc)

    3) Rinse & repeat 1&2, insert panic, downward spiral, further perspective skew

    4) Gets caught/interrupted as Carol arrives, banging on the door - Comment by Wildbow on Discord, archived on Spacebattles
  367. “She went to the birdcage because she wanted to,” Jessica said. “And we let her because there were serious concerns about her unleashing an epidemic if she had another psychotic break.” - Excerpt from Interlude 18.z
  368. People keep dwelling on that.

    Amy: "I want to go to the Birdcage."

    Authority: "We have uses for you. We can get you help."

    Amy: "I want to go to the Birdcage. I don't want any part of any of this."

    Authority: "The birdcage is permanent, no, that's unreasonable."

    Amy, dull monotone: "I can make plagues, I will make plagues, I can make organisms that devour plastics, metals, glass, and stone, there is nothing you can do to seal me away, unless you put me there. Please put me in the Birdcage before I snap again. I'm done."

    Do you really want to tell her 'no'? - Comment by Wildbow on Sufficient Velocity, archived on Spacebattles
  369. Thursday, June 16th, 2011, 22:11
    [...]
    “We’ve been over this, Victoria,” Jessica said. “You know that’s something I don’t have any power to give you.” - Excerpt from Interlude 18.z
  370. “Seventeenth, five charges of assault and battery. One charge of aggravated assault with a parahuman ability. One charge of criminal extortion.”

    “Attacking the mayor,” I said, almost relieved to be able to pinpoint the crime in question.

    “And his family, it seems.” - Excerpt from Cell 22.2
  371. “June eighteenth. Destruction of government property, four counts. Hostage taking, assault and battery of a law enforcement officer. - Excerpt from Cell 22.2
  372. June nineteenth, complicity in another count of treason. Complicity in manslaughter, nineteen counts.”

    I nodded. Dragon and fighting in the debate. - Excerpt from Cell 22.2
  373. June 20th: Massive deployment to Brockton Bay. Unspecified class A threat. Cape wives on the boards confirm: something’s up. - Excerpt from Interlude 19.y.
  374. Oddly enough, there was a wait at the front desk. A young woman, dark-haired, wearing a suit and fedora, with luggage on wheels.

    Arriving at four in the morning?
    [...]
    “Yes?” Faultline spoke into the phone

    “This is Tattletale,” the voice came through. - [1] from Interlude 18.f
  375. June 21st, 2011, two years ago

    They gathered where they had met innumerable times in the past, but they were quiet. - Excerpt from Interlude 27.x
  376. ♦ Topic: Legend Leaves the Protectorate
    In: Boards ► Teams ► Protectorate
    Brilliger (Original Poster) (Moderator: Protectorate Main)
    Posted on June 26th: - Excerpt from Interlude 19.y
  377. The remaining summer months would feature special arrangements for classes, to make up for the weeks of classes students had missed in the wake of the Endbringer attack.

    The eighth of July. Tomorrow. - Excerpt from Interlude 19.y
  378. He studied the girl. She was composed, despite the fact that less than twelve hours had passed since her identity had been revealed to the world. Interlude 20.y
  379. Stickied Topic: Alexandria Discussion (July 14th) Goes Here Interlude 22.x
  380. New Delhi, July 26th, 2011 // Behemoth
    Notes: Scion Victory, ENDBRINGER KILL.
    Target/consequence: See file Phir Sē. - Excerpt from Scarab 25.6
  381. She tore the notebook paper out of the pad, then popped open her binder, slotting it in at the end. It was easier to stay in her room and be quiet, and better still if she was doing homework, because it was hard for anyone to complain about her doing her homework. There wasn’t enough work to do to fill whole afternoons after school and before bed, so she’d started to work ahead. A lot of it was dull or confusing, but after a while, she’d started to make a game of it. It was her hope that she could finish the entire third grade math textbook before Christmas.

    Binder closed. Books put away in her bag for school tomorrow. She turned her music and television off, then turned off the light in her room. - Interlude 7.x II
  382. “Oh, Kenzie,” Victoria said.

    Yep, she got it.

    “In my defense, I was nine, and I was really, really oblivious,” Kenzie said. She smiled. “I wanted to do my part and make something really awesome happen, so the coolest, most awesome person in the world might adopt me.”

    “It was going to happen either way, if it was going to happen.”

    “So I’ve been told.” - Interlude 7.x II
  383. A gentle shaking stirred her from her sleep. Her eyes popped open.

    “Oh hey,” Antonio said. He stood over her bed. Her bedspread had the space opera pattern they’d picked out while shopping two months into her stay. A lava lamp in the corner was casting out illuminated shadows across the room. - Interlude 7.x II
  384. “-Ha ha. I’m serious. I’d want a kid like her. I’d be the embarrassingly proud dad if my kid was half as great as she is. I am psyched to wake up every day and spend time with you two. I want to do that more.”

    “Keith, you can’t.”

    “We can talk to people about options. They haven’t mentioned the bio parents much, but they were incarcerated, and it seems like some bad stuff went down. We could figure out what the requirements might be, make sure we’ve crossed our ‘Q’s and dotted our ‘i’s, right? We’d be the absolute worst foster parents if we took the first foster child to pass through our doors and then half a year later, started asking about adopting them.” - Interlude 7.x II
  385. Andrea dropped her off at the new foster house, and Kenzie hurried inside without a word.

    She almost hyperventilated, as she went straight to her room. - Interlude 7.x II
  386. Flight BA178, November 25th, 2011 // Simurgh
    Notes: Loss? Plane destroyed, Eidolon/Pretender drive off Endbringer. Marks start of guerilla tactics from Simurgh and Leviathan.
    Target/Consequence: Incognito Chinese Union-Imperial heir. See files:
    America/CUI conflict 2012 A
    UK/CUI Conflict 2012 A
    America/CUI conflict 2012 B
    Yàngbǎn - Excerpt from Scarab 25.6
  387. 387.0 387.1 387.2 Indiscriminate, January 20th, 2012 // Khonsu
    Notes: First appearance. Scion/Moord Nag victory. List of all one hundred and sixty three targets and casualty numbers here.
    [...]
    Bucharest, October 10th, 2012 // Tohu Bohu
    Notes: First appearance. Loss. Tohu selects Legend, Eidolon, Kazikli Bey.
    Target/Consequence: see file Kazikli Bey. - Excerpt from Scarab 25.6
  388. Excerpt from Scarab 25.5
  389. Interlude 26.x
  390. The memories were overwriting and overshadowing the creature he’d been, that had fought so fiercely and wrapped itself in the shell of one of Breed’s spawn. He’d been dredged up along with them while, presumably, people had been looking for heroes in the wreckage after everything had gone wrong at the oil rig. - Excerpt from Interlude 10.y II
  391. Dark, laid bare to the worst vagaries of weather, buildings ruined. In the weeks after Gold Morning it had been abrupt temperature shifts, the heavy amounts of dust in the atmosphere bringing surprising darkness and periods of cold, before summer came through with an intensity that suggested it was trying to make up for the days it had missed. - Excerpt from Last 20.a
  392. Radiation 18.6
  393. “For a while now, then? If I can ask?”

    “Just under a year ago,” he said. “I think, along with Chris, I’m the rookie here.”

    Post-Gold Morning. That helped put things in context. - Excerpt from Flare 2.5
  394. I nodded. “How long has the group been running?”

    “Two months and a week, with one or two sessions a week, as situations allow. We’re not quite at the end, but it’s close. This was supposed to be the easy middle stretch.” - Excerpt from Flare 2.5
  395. ♦ Topic: We’re Back Online
    In: Boards ► Parahumans Online
    Hope_In_Pithos (Admin)
    Posted on August 15th, Y1: - Glow-worm P.1
  396. In: Boards ► Teams ► Gunslingers
    Lucky Luke (Hero)
    Posted on : August 16th, Y1
    [...]
    We were unable to glean much more from them, other than the fact they wore fur in the midst of a heatwave. The second individual seems to be a grab-bag cape. She was a woman with a fanged mask covering her lower face, and a form-fitting dress with a slit up the side of one leg. - Excerpt from Glow-worm P.4
  397. ► Geronimo
    Replied on August 17th, Y1:
    Official word is that they wanted to pause and get organized so they could double the number of people coming through. Doesn’t make a lot of sense when it comes to their silence until now. Glow-worm P.1
  398. ♦ Topic: Info & Update
    In: Boards ► Teams ► Reach (Private)
    Moonsong
    Posted on August 18th, Y1: - Glow-worm P.2
  399. ► Point_Me_@_The_Sky
    Replied on August 19th, Y1:
    If you send me a private message, I can walk you through it. It would be faster to contact an active admin directly. - Glow-worm P.3
  400. ► of5
    Replied on August 20th, Y1:
    Link is broken. - Excerpt from Glow-worm P.4
  401. Subject: Your Nilles University Application
    August 21st, Y1
    Dear Applicant (Point_Me_@_The_Sky@mail) - Glow-worm P.5
  402. ♦ Topic: Multiversal Travel Warnings
    In: Boards ► Gimel.US
    Khain (Guild Staff)
    Posted on August 22nd, Y1: Glow-worm P.6
  403. August 24th, Y1
    Hi Graham,
    Space Squid here.
    I hate to be a pain. I’d like to ask if it’s okay if I just deleted my account and started fresh. - Glow-worm P.8
  404. The people that had been splintering away were holding position now. I could see the hostility. The summer heat was holding out through the start of September, making things just a little more uncomfortable, tempers a little shorter. - Excerpt from Daybreak 1.1
  405. It had been ten days, now. Ten days after the broken trigger with the citizen workers. One of the worst we’d seen for citizen casualties and damage.
    [...]
    I fetched my phone and checked my messages. A second cancellation from Jessica.
    [...]
    To be back on this street, where the car had hit the pillar, and where I’d seen so much grief from one person, and to try and reconcile that with the broken trigger, the ninety dead, the fact that so many were dealing by ignoring it. Moving on a matter of two weeks after the fact. Flare 2.4
  406. “I had a conversation with dad last night. He suggested that you might be the person to ask for this thing these guys are doing.”
  407. I stepped back from the railing. “Sorry, I skipped breakfast and I tossed my lunch.” Shadow 5.1
  408. Interlude 4.c II
  409. I found myself actually hesitating before approaching Sveta, Tristan and Chris. The group had lost two of its members and its mentor in a matter of nine days. - Excerpt from Torch 7.5
  410. Interlude 7.y II
  411. It had been two days since the prison breakout. One day to recuperate and lick our wounds. ...One day for that. One day to catch our breath after that. Because recuperating and healing was work. The second day served to let us ground ourselves again. Kenzie had maintained contact with people online, but as part of our unofficial, unspoken ‘taking care of ourselves’ day, it made sense that she would take care of herself by reaching out. This was our day three. Our day to consolidate. - Excerpt from Polarize 10.1
  412. "If you want to negotiate down on any of those parts, you can give us some intel on the people who opened fire on us two days ago." - Excerpt from Blinding 11.1
  413. A week. A week, a day, and four hours, and she found the first settlement. - Excerpt from Interlude 9 II
  414. “I thought, you know, it’s the Brockton Bay reunion. I’m a bit out of place.”

    “There’s a bunch of people who are a bit out of place. Don’t worry about it. It’s my birthday and I want you right here.” - Last 20.end
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