Parahumans 2/Worm 2 has begun/Get Hype thread.

[Ifreann]

Victoria is the protagonist? Cool. I guess she got fixed by her sister. Guts and glory time!

Victoria post two years of therapy with Jessica Yamada. Hell of a difference between the Glory Girl who was tossing a Nazi around like a cat with a mouse and the Victoria who just wants to be rear echelon civilian cape expert to the Parahuman Response Teens until she can get into college. Can't wait until this family BBQ, which will totally happen because there won't be any problems at Fume Hood's press conference thing.

[Ostroeuropa]

Victoria is the protagonist? Cool. I guess she got fixed by her sister. Guts and glory time!

Victoria post two years of therapy with Jessica Yamada. Hell of a difference between the Glory Girl who was tossing a Nazi around like a cat with a mouse and the Victoria who just wants to be rear echelon civilian cape expert to the Parahuman Response Teens until she can get into college. Can't wait until this family BBQ, which will totally happen because there won't be any problems at Fume Hood's press conference thing.

Yeh she seems to have grown up a bit and mellowed out.

Oh god.
...
OH GOD IT WILL BE SO FUCKING AWKWARD.
I mean, now she *knows* Panacea has the hots for her. Even if they move past all the shit that happened with the powers stuff, that's still going to be cringeworthy.
There is no "We can move past this" for THAT, the other shit maybe, but...


Also, reddit comment:

Ahahaha. Guys. You know the speculation that Tattletale's going to be a major antagonist? Yeah.

Lol.

+

Oh, I cannot wait to see what Lisa starts with Victoria. Talk about bad blood.
If Vicky really wants to hold a grudge, she could still view Lisa as directly responsible for destroying her family and causing her to end up as a horribly mutated blob for a year.
Get the popcorn!

"Honestly, it wasn't me. I swear."

Glowworm:

_Point_Me_@_The_Sky: You’re asking me? Never.
_Point_Me_@_The_Sky: I don’t believe in forgive & forget. Not for the things I’ve done. not for what others have done to people I care about. Not for what’s been done to me.
_Point_Me_@_The_Sky: The moment we forget is the moment we allow those wrongs to be done again.
_Point_Me_@_The_Sky: Forgiveness is the easy way out. Less to carry.

Tattletale is in trouble.

[Ifreann]

I didn't notice it either, I saw it in the comments.

---

Also, protagonist isn't mlekk. 0/10, sandblasting off my bird tattoo.

You're not allowed to remove the tattoos, that's a paddlin'.

Also, maybe she IS mlekk, we don't know for sure. Perhaps victoria has a strange sense of humor.

So let's think;
She'll have the Awe/Fear aura, and her forcefields. Not as versatile, but we should get some interesting interactions.

She can punch things real good, too. And fly.

Perhaps Wildbow will even do what he originally planned to do if Taylor died in the leviathan fight, and have multiple protagonists this time around.

Maybe it really will be Guts and Glory and we'll bounce between Victoria and Amy/-elia.

She *might* have some augmentations courtesy of Panacea... or even Bonesaw.

Incidentally, I wonder what Bonesaw is up to. The anti-cape anti-amnesty sentiments would make her a priority target. ESPECIALLY if people know about Jack being the catalyst for the end of the world. She's probably laying low, or transforming herself into something too scary to attack.

My guess would be that Chevalier's Wardens are holding onto her. Maybe not technically keeping her in custody because of the amnesty, but keeping her on a short leash and out of the public eye.

Victoria Dallon is now in the banner for the parahumans reddit.
She looks pretty cool.

Quality.

---

Victoria post two years of therapy with Jessica Yamada. Hell of a difference between the Glory Girl who was tossing a Nazi around like a cat with a mouse and the Victoria who just wants to be rear echelon civilian cape expert to the Parahuman Response Teens until she can get into college. Can't wait until this family BBQ, which will totally happen because there won't be any problems at Fume Hood's press conference thing.

Yeh she seems to have grown up a bit and mellowed out.

Oh god.
...
OH GOD IT WILL BE SO FUCKING AWKWARD.
I mean, now she *knows* Panacea has the hots for her. Even if they move past all the shit that happened with the powers stuff, that's still going to be cringeworthy.
There is no "We can move past this" for THAT, the other shit maybe, but...

The mind boggles. Especially if Victoria realises that she may have struck first in the "accidentally made my sister gay for me" wars.

Also, reddit comment:

Ahahaha. Guys. You know the speculation that Tattletale's going to be a major antagonist? Yeah.

Lol.

+

Oh, I cannot wait to see what Lisa starts with Victoria. Talk about bad blood.
If Vicky really wants to hold a grudge, she could still view Lisa as directly responsible for destroying her family and causing her to end up as a horribly mutated blob for a year.
Get the popcorn!

"Honestly, it wasn't me. I swear."

Glowworm:

_Point_Me_@_The_Sky: You’re asking me? Never.
_Point_Me_@_The_Sky: I don’t believe in forgive & forget. Not for the things I’ve done. not for what others have done to people I care about. Not for what’s been done to me.
_Point_Me_@_The_Sky: The moment we forget is the moment we allow those wrongs to be done again.
_Point_Me_@_The_Sky: Forgiveness is the easy way out. Less to carry.

Tattletale is in trouble.

Times a million.

[Ifreann]

How will Victoria and the Parahuman Response Teens get out of this one? Will Victoria's clearly-not-secret secret identity be revealed? Will Jester get to keep his stupid callsign? Is Camisola actually a cape with underwear powers?

[Ostroeuropa]

How will Victoria and the Parahuman Response Teens get out of this one? Will Victoria's clearly-not-secret secret identity be revealed? Will Jester get to keep his stupid callsign? Is Camisola actually a cape with underwear powers?

Ima react to some choice bits.

1.2

Didn’t do anything to spare my ass from the warm faux-leather seat. I didn’t like being aware of my body to that extent.

Poor Victoria, still PTSD over her time as the hideous blob, probably being aware of her body makes her think it's still not her natural body, just an approximation, she's still mutated and bloblike, just in a more normal shape.

Speaking of which:

One blob around New York, one blob around the New Brockton settlement, clusters south of New Brockton, near what would or should be Boston, and everything had spread out or extended from there, mostly hugging the coast and connecting to one another.

I explained, “We’ve got these long narrow bands of mingled city and agriculture connecting the primary settlement points, to the point it’s hard to say where one thing starts and the other ends. And instead of building five big houses they’d rather build an apartment building that hosts twenty, which makes things fuzzy with the distinctions of urban and rural. So we get the ever-expanding megalopolis blob and we can’t figure out what to call it, even though it’s already this monster.”

PSYCHOLOGY!

The guy from right behind me said, “I don’t see why we can’t just give the individual areas names like they used to have. If it’s close to Norwalk, then we call it fucking Norwalk.”

“Hey,” I said. I gave a stern look to the guy who’d said it. “Swearing’s fine, but not if you’re getting heated. We’re chatting, not getting up in arms.”

“Right. Sorry,” the guy said. He didn’t look particularly sorry.

#Triggered.
Petty politics still exists, humanity hasn't changed.

I also note this naming convention pretty much means that if Earth Bet is recovered and Earth Gimmel is colonized, there's going to be major headaches and annoyance.
Nostalgia is going to fuck with people in the long run.
We can't have two Londons, both wildly different in culture, economics, population, etc, separated by mere miles when you factor in the portals.

ESPECIALLY as:

“It gets complicated,” I said. “Geography’s slightly different, they’re hardly checking longitude and latitude exactly when we settle in one place or another. They’re doing what the surroundings allow. Means the Norwalk we’re going to might actually be between two places, or off to one side.”

This sounds like a clusterfuck waiting to happen.

“Jester,” Jasper said. “And I swear, if people don’t start using it, I’m going to make it happen by getting a tattoo of a jester and ‘fool’ written beneath it, right on my bicep.”

The protests, naturally, started rolling in from the rest of the bus. He couldn’t decide his own callsign, why would he have it say fool if he wanted the callsign to be Jester, why even have it be Jester?

In the not so distant post-apocalyptic past, everyone is trolls. (From reddit on "The fuck kind of name is gilpatrick?")

"The kind of name you come up with after all records of your real name were destroyed by space whales just to fuck with people.
"My name is gilpatrick." Barely plausible enough to not cause people to reject it outright, but will drive people nuts wondering what the fuck."

Also, callsigns are a bad idea. The human parahuman control teams should retain human names. Callsigns are like cape names. It will confuse matters.

“Name sounds familiar,” the voice said, from the back. It sounded almost smug, knowing. “Can’t quite place it.”

Shut the fuck up, gawd. She wants her secret identity back.
(Though seriously, Victoria, what the fuck, that's never going to work.)

“That so?” Jasper asked. “Maybe keep it to yourself, then.”

“Is that how this is?”

“I think it’s how everything is,” Jasper said. “Not just this. When you’re bringing up the past, whoever you’re talking to, there are two likely possibilities. First, it’s good, and we miss the shit out of it, or, second, it’s bad and why would you bring up the bad except to be a tool?”

“It could be important,” the guy said. “It’s good to know who or what we’re dealing with.”

I agree with Jasper. Also "Who or what."
Dude totally fucking knows.

“I like looping through the crowds,” Jasper said. “We did that once or twice, when Gilpatrick was calling the shots, last year. People don’t see the face or the hair, only the uniform. If you loop back, it looks like there are more of us than there are.”

The old soviet strategy.

“Paranoia,” I said. I started to climb out of my seat. “Thanks for the backup back there. Jester.”

Jasper grinned as my face fell.

“I’m sorry, but it sounds bad,” I said. “I can’t make this a thing.”

“It sounds bad when you’re saying it as if someone’s pulling your fingernails out while you’re talking.”

That was kind of sweet Victoria.

“They might as well be,” I said.

“It’s good,” he said. “It’s cool.”

“It’s against everything I stand for,” I said. I climbed down from my seat.

“It’s great,” Jasper said, from the other side of the bus. He tossed the keys into the air and caught them.

Victoria hinting at possibly agreeing with my evaluation over callsigns, and also calling back to New Wave philosophy. Maybe she's even ditched Glory Girl as a name.

This was also covered by the We've Got Worm podcast, the notion that the cape names dehumanize people.

No police parked outside, at a glance. No barricades, either.

Inside, it was standing room only. Cheap plastic chairs were arranged in rows and columns, and there were many places where parent and young child shared chairs.

In terms of PR, this is advisable at this time imo.
With sufficient powers present, the capes are not in danger from the public, and keeping a lack of barricades and such would help present an open and more public-orientated cape community. Villains would not be stopped by barricades or cops, that's what the PRT is for.

“No,” she said. “We didn’t expect this many naysayers. With this many, they had to have come from outside the community.”

SOROS!

There was a man in a deep purple tank top and skinny pants with glass jutting from his skin at the elbows and hands, his upper face only a craggy mass of glass or jewel-like shards sticking out of flesh, just beautiful enough to not be macabre.

All I can think of is a shatterbird attack. Best hope those clones are all dead buddy, they weren't confirmed kills in the original story.

“Okay,” the painted woman said, again. She looked at the district rep. “We’re sorry. Can you have them disperse? Tell the protesters they win.”

This also might provoke more pro-cape sympathy, though it could just embolden the anti-cape protestors.

Seriously though, i'm betting the soros thing might be true. A villain could be bussing in protestors to holler whenever a new hero team gets going, and stoking anti-cape sentiment. Villains do not rely on public approval to operate, Heroes do however, it makes sense.
It's essentially an evolution of The Coil plan to "Embarrass" the protectorate and provoke a crisis of confidence in their policing, thus allowing villains to take control.

“Gut feeling sense or… power sense?” I asked.

I could hear the commotion as people started to leave. I could hear the complaining. Even before he answered, my gut feeling sense was that he wasn’t wrong.

“The latter,” Crystalclear said, corroborating.

Oh, fuck.

[Ifreann]

Didn’t do anything to spare my ass from the warm faux-leather seat. I didn’t like being aware of my body to that extent.

Poor Victoria, still PTSD over her time as the hideous blob, probably being aware of her body makes her think it's still not her natural body, just an approximation, she's still mutated and bloblike, just in a more normal shape.

I wonder how Panacea put her back together. She forgot what Victoria actually looked like pretty badly the first time. Two years in the Birdcage hardly improved her memory.

Maybe they had to scavenge a load of cape glamour magazines for reference pictures.

We can't have two Londons, both wildly different in culture, economics, population, etc, separated by mere miles when you factor in the portals.

Don't worry, London Bet is probably an underwater ruin. Thanks Scion!

[Ostroeuropa]

https://www.dalyplanetfilms.com/2017/11 ... xtinction/

27: Extinction is out iffy.

[Ifreann]

https://www.dalyplanetfilms.com/2017/11/16/weve-got-worm-episode-27-extinction/

27: Extinction is out iffy.

I know what I'm doing when I get home.

[Ostroeuropa]

https://www.dalyplanetfilms.com/2017/11/16/weve-got-worm-episode-27-extinction/

27: Extinction is out iffy.

I know what I'm doing when I get home.

Scary Clown Behind You

May have also worked.
Would have worked on me.

[Ifreann]

I know what I'm doing when I get home.

Scary Clown Behind You

May have also worked.
Would have worked on me.

The only power greater than Contessa's.

The power to make there be a scary clown behind someone.

[Ifreann]

“He has these crystals. He pulled one out of the top of his head earlier, and it made a wet sound. It was in so deep it should’ve been inside his brain.”

A tip of the crystal to you, m'lady.

[Ostroeuropa]

From reddit:

Glow-Worm 3:
If you stand at the bottom of a hill and a car starts rolling down it with nobody in the drivers seat what do you do?
The way some of you imbeciles are talking about this I can’t help but think you would stand there bitching about the situation until the car hits you.

Daybreak 1.3:
An eighteen wheeled logging truck was coming down the road. The front had been reinforced with metal braces. It was coming from the direction of the water, only four hundred or so feet of road between the waterline they’d started near and the community center, but it was going full speed, straight for the side door.
“Hit it!” I called out.


It's like poetry, it rhymes

Fume Hood seems okay.

[Ifreann]

After so long since the first time I read Worm, it's great to be getting introduced to new capes with new powers again. Wildbow makes the best superpowers.

[Ostroeuropa]

After so long since the first time I read Worm, it's great to be getting introduced to new capes with new powers again. Wildbow makes the best superpowers.

Yep.
Blindside is cool, seems related to August Prince.

Lord of Loss is also cool, and seems a decent villain.

[Ifreann]

After so long since the first time I read Worm, it's great to be getting introduced to new capes with new powers again. Wildbow makes the best superpowers.

Yep.
Blindside is cool, seems related to August Prince.

Yeah, similar sort of Stranger power, shutting down people's bodies if they try to act against him in different ways. I wonder if he can turn it off. His power kept working after he was knocked out, so maybe it's like Imp's, if he wants he can focus and let people look at him.

Man, Taylor would have taken this guy apart.

Lord of Loss is also cool, and seems a decent villain.

It's a bird! No, it's a tree! No, it's Lord of Loss! Faster than a speeding bullet, maybe! More powerful than a locomotive, eventually! Leaps tall buildings after talking a minute to flap his wings!

[Ostroeuropa]

Yep.
Blindside is cool, seems related to August Prince.

Yeah, similar sort of Stranger power, shutting down people's bodies if they try to act against him in different ways. I wonder if he can turn it off. His power kept working after he was knocked out, so maybe it's like Imp's, if he wants he can focus and let people look at him.

Man, Taylor would have taken this guy apart.

Lord of Loss is also cool, and seems a decent villain.

It's a bird! No, it's a tree! No, it's Lord of Loss! Faster than a speeding bullet, maybe! More powerful than a locomotive, eventually! Leaps tall buildings after talking a minute to flap his wings!

It would have the "Fuck you" irony of trigger events if he couldn't control it. "Wish nobody could see me, point to me, etc." -> "You got it!"

Seems like it doesn't necessarily shut down so much as control. He warns victoria to change her stance because her neck might snap if he moves to her right while its so far to the right.

Iiiidddkkkkk... Taylor had a little trouble with the August Prince encounter, and this seems slightly above it in power terms. She might have pwned him if she can just fly a web net between two bugs through the blindspot, like she did with the nano knife and Mantellum, but if his power covers that... she'd still have pwned him, who am I kidding.

It would make sense if the flying a net thing worked, as Victoria is able to pull the trigger near his ears to harm him, she just can't direct things at him, eyes etc.

[Ifreann]

Yeah, similar sort of Stranger power, shutting down people's bodies if they try to act against him in different ways. I wonder if he can turn it off. His power kept working after he was knocked out, so maybe it's like Imp's, if he wants he can focus and let people look at him.

Man, Taylor would have taken this guy apart.

It's a bird! No, it's a tree! No, it's Lord of Loss! Faster than a speeding bullet, maybe! More powerful than a locomotive, eventually! Leaps tall buildings after talking a minute to flap his wings!

It would have the "Fuck you" irony of trigger events if he couldn't control it. "Wish nobody could see me, point to me, etc." -> "You got it!"

That'd be pretty shit. Never gets to make eye contact with anyone for years. Can't touch anyone without them spasming away. Can't even have a pet doggo.

Seems like it doesn't necessarily shut down so much as control. He warns victoria to change her stance because her neck might snap if he moves to her right while its so far to the right.

Iiiidddkkkkk... Taylor had a little trouble with the August Prince encounter, and this seems slightly above it in power terms. She might have pwned him if she can just fly a web net between two bugs through the blindspot, like she did with the nano knife and Mantellum, but if his power covers that... she'd still have pwned him, who am I kidding.

It would make sense if the flying a net thing worked, as Victoria is able to pull the trigger near his ears to harm him, she just can't direct things at him, eyes etc.

He power doesn't cover objects, that's why the vest-flail worked. Taylor could have had him mummied up in web till he fell over then piled bugs on him.

[Ostroeuropa]

I didn’t like flying. I wasn’t confident in it like I had been. Two years had passed in the hospital, and my sense of flight had been as disturbed as the movement of my arm or my attempts at vocalization. It was supposed to be back, but it was a muscle I hadn’t exercised.

I wanted to fly, but it was tainted.

Definitely traumatized still.

I’d laughed at that, which had been the tip-off for Amy to realize something was up. She’d-

And I’d gone and done it. Let my guard down, tripped over the stumbling block, stepped on the emotional landmine. There was only the hurt, now, none of the mixed, warm feeling that came from thinking about Dean.

;(


Nursery is creepy as fuck.

“Wake up,” she said.

“What?” I asked.

“Wake up, sweetie.”

The crib, a little red wagon with blankets heaped over it, and a carriage nearby jumped, rattling as if something had moved within.

I heard wet sounds. Throughout the hazy altered space, the meaty squelching started to overtake the background hums.

I stopped in my tracks.

Things moved beneath the blankets. She still hadn’t budged.

I turned around and ran.

Fuck this.

Victoria is my spirit animal in this moment.

[Ifreann]

Dead babies Labyrinth is worst Labyrinth.

[Ifreann]

Today in Ward, Victoria's day goes from bad to holy fucking shit.

[Ostroeuropa]

No Victoria, you are the sleeper! dun dun duuuuuun.

Looks like her aura got buffed during her time as a jello.

[Ifreann]

No Victoria, you are the sleeper! dun dun duuuuuun.

Looks like her aura got buffed during her time as a jello.

Maybe its always been that strong, she just never had cause to push that hard that we saw.

I mean, I keep waiting for the reveal that she had a second trigger event while blobified, but she doesn't seem to have any new or improved powers, and I would expect more from a second trigger than just a high gear for her aura.

[Ifreann]

Aww yeah, barbecue. At last, something good will happen to Victoria.

[Ostroeuropa]

“Thank you for coming,” my mom said. “I know the family stuff is hard, after everything, but it means so much to me. To everyone.”

“I’m here for the desserts,” I said.

GJ victoria.

“You invited her,” I said. I wasn’t talking about Crystal.

Oh no.
Lesbian sister barbeque time. "Hey victoria, want a blob of meat?"

“You invited her,” I said, again. More emotional this time. “She’s in the house?”

My mother rallied, composing herself. Now she looked confused. “I told you I invited everyone.”

“She’s actually in the house,” I said.

Incoming cruise missile shaped like a person.

“I’ve made mistakes, as your sister has,” my mother said. “She’s been doing so well. I want to make up for past wrongs and be a mother to both of you, like I should have been from the beginning.”

I looked up, staring at her.

She might well blame herself for how things turned out, not without some cause.

“You’re kind of fucking it up,” I said, in the kind of whisper that was the only tone I could manage that wasn’t outright screaming at her. My hands were clenched at their sides.

“That’s not fair.”

“You’re kind of really fucking it up,” I said, in the same strangled whisper.

“Victoria-”

“You’re fucking it up, mother,” I said. “You’re fucking- you’re fucking- did dad play along with this?”

I guess. She probably should have been clearer, given you some time to prep. Especially as it meant you came on a Bad Day.

“You’re putting thoughts and conspiracy in my head,” she said. “I want you to be sisters again. I want us to be a family again.”

“That’s not for you to decide,” I said. “Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit.”

She's having a panic attack/flashback. This kind of was a shit idea.

“Please, don’t wind yourself up. You’re getting out of breath. Let’s communicate. Please.”

Oh god. Just... go call a Yamada and give the phone to Victoria.

(See, if you HAD to surprise her, invite Yamada too. Then it might be manageable.)

I was getting out of breath. I gulped in a breath of air. “You’re aware I can’t set foot in that house again, right? I’ll see her looming in the shadows, potentially another surprise invite.”

If she's this bad about it, then this was definitely a shit idea.

“I know it was hard, honey. I get it, I really do. But you can’t dwell in the past. It’s not good for you. You can’t carry that.”

“You say that, when you still sleep with the lights on,” I said.

It was her turn to not have words.

“That’s different,” she said, finally. She didn’t say how it was different.

Ehhhhhhhhh. Trigger events. Normally it wouldn't be different, but she's got a space whale in her brain preventing recovery, so it kind of is.

“Do not use your power on me, Victoria Dallon. That has never been okay, and it doesn’t work anyway.”

I drew in a deep breath. There were things I wanted to say to that, too.

I settled for, “Let me go. If you follow me, I’m liable to hit you with something harder than my aura. I’m pretty sure that would work.”

Dayum. Well, that's PTSD for you.

“Yeah,” he said. “You sure you’re okay? You’re not going to…”

He trailed off.

“If I was going to do anything, I’d take someone out with me.”

He scrutinized me.

“I’m worried here, for the record,” he said.

Yehhhh....
Still, Gilpatrick is a good dude.

I’d been that, the forcefield had adjusted, and that was the new upper bound of what I was, forever with me.

Holy fuck that's got to be nasty. Knowing that your forcefield still remembers the shape of you as the incredible blob.

The second theory was that it was the Manton effect, that broad-as-bells term for the built in protections and limitations of the power. The theory was that the built-in protections of the power only protected what I saw as a part of me, and it had taken some time before the costume was that much a part of my identity.

That that was me, now, as much as the costume I wore.

I couldn’t be that. I couldn’t sit still and be crushed under the weight of that thing.

God, even fucking worse.

I spun around in my seat, and I loaded up the webpage. Something to do. Methodically filling out details on the group I’d seen, researching, filling myself in, and letting others know what they were up against.

Something constructive to keep me occupied until the power ran out, or until I was so tired I had no choice but to sleep.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Victoria you were doing so well!
Don't dive straight into escalation and conflict just because you're traumatized!

[Ifreann]

“Thank you for coming,” my mom said. “I know the family stuff is hard, after everything, but it means so much to me. To everyone.”

“I’m here for the desserts,” I said.

GJ victoria.

“You invited her,” I said. I wasn’t talking about Crystal.

Oh no.
Lesbian sister barbeque time. "Hey victoria, want a blob of meat?"

My dad sat on one of the lawn chairs, fire pit in front of him with the fire having burned down to just glowing coals. The barbecue was to his right, lid open, tiny bits of meat clinging to the grill.

Symbolism? What's that?

“You invited her,” I said, again. More emotional this time. “She’s in the house?”

My mother rallied, composing herself. Now she looked confused. “I told you I invited everyone.”

“She’s actually in the house,” I said.

Incoming cruise missile shaped like a person.

Shock twist: The "her" they're talking about is actually Bambina.

“I’ve made mistakes, as your sister has,” my mother said. “She’s been doing so well. I want to make up for past wrongs and be a mother to both of you, like I should have been from the beginning.”

I looked up, staring at her.

She might well blame herself for how things turned out, not without some cause.

What the fuck must Carol Dallon's head be like? Oh wait, we know!

https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/1 ... ion-bonus/

“It’s not just that,” she said. “You know I have trouble trusting people. You know why.”

The change on Lady Photon’s face was so subtle she almost missed it.

“I’m sorry to bring it up,” Brandish said. “But it’s relevant. I decided I could have Vicky because I’d know her from day one. She’d grow inside me, I’d nurture her from childhood… she’d be safe.”
[...]
“She’ll be transported there and confined for the remainder of her life, barring exceptional circumstance.”

Carol nodded. “Two daughters gone in the blink of an eye.”
[...]
“You didn’t want to see Victoria off to the parahuman asylum?”

“Victoria is gone. There’s nothing of her left but that mockery. Mark and I fought over it and this was what we decided.”

Nearly everything in that interlude is relevant.

She chose to process what happened as Amy killing Victoria and then herself, she separates from her husband, one of the only people she trusts, probably over that disagreement, and then the world ends and Amy comes back, and then it ends even harder and Victoria comes back, and in the two years since she's gotten on speaking terms with Victoria, non-speaking-but-civil terms with Mark, and now Amy has stopped being a mind-raping Cronenberg-er and is willing to come to family BBQs, and she fucked the whole thing up, maybe drove Victoria away from her forever, because she didn't talk to her.

Laserdream, blast the liquor cabinet, fast!

“You’re kind of fucking it up,” I said, in the kind of whisper that was the only tone I could manage that wasn’t outright screaming at her. My hands were clenched at their sides.

“That’s not fair.”

“You’re kind of really fucking it up,” I said, in the same strangled whisper.

“Victoria-”

“You’re fucking it up, mother,” I said. “You’re fucking- you’re fucking- did dad play along with this?”

I guess. She probably should have been clearer, given you some time to prep. Especially as it meant you came on a Bad Day.

"BTW we invited your rapist to dinner, hope that's okay"

“You’re putting thoughts and conspiracy in my head,” she said. “I want you to be sisters again. I want us to be a family again.”

“That’s not for you to decide,” I said. “Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit.”

She's having a panic attack/flashback. This kind of was a shit idea.

“Please, don’t wind yourself up. You’re getting out of breath. Let’s communicate. Please.”

Oh god. Just... go call a Yamada and give the phone to Victoria.

(See, if you HAD to surprise her, invite Yamada too. Then it might be manageable.)

Does Yamada do family therapy? Because all these Dallons need some Yamada.

I was getting out of breath. I gulped in a breath of air. “You’re aware I can’t set foot in that house again, right? I’ll see her looming in the shadows, potentially another surprise invite.”

If she's this bad about it, then this was definitely a shit idea.

“I know it was hard, honey. I get it, I really do. But you can’t dwell in the past. It’s not good for you. You can’t carry that.”

“You say that, when you still sleep with the lights on,” I said.

It was her turn to not have words.

“That’s different,” she said, finally. She didn’t say how it was different.

Ehhhhhhhhh. Trigger events. Normally it wouldn't be different, but she's got a space whale in her brain preventing recovery, so it kind of is.

Do they know that?

“Do not use your power on me, Victoria Dallon. That has never been okay, and it doesn’t work anyway.”

I drew in a deep breath. There were things I wanted to say to that, too.

I settled for, “Let me go. If you follow me, I’m liable to hit you with something harder than my aura. I’m pretty sure that would work.”

Dayum. Well, that's PTSD for you.

Carol's shield is pretty invincible. I'd rate this as "Leave me alone or I will knock you on your ass so you can't follow me" rather than "Leave me alone or I will literally put my fist through your face"

Also, wtf, "That has never been okay, and it doesn't work anyway"? Amy said something similar way back in Victoria's interlude. Was Victoria just using her aura at home all the time? Bit weird. Hmm, unless they were all trying to get used to it, so being in awe of Glory Girl wouldn't trip them up during a fight.

“Yeah,” he said. “You sure you’re okay? You’re not going to…”

He trailed off.

“If I was going to do anything, I’d take someone out with me.”

He scrutinized me.

“I’m worried here, for the record,” he said.

Yehhhh....
Still, Gilpatrick is a good dude.

He's a big fuzzy teddy bear.

I’d been that, the forcefield had adjusted, and that was the new upper bound of what I was, forever with me.

Holy fuck that's got to be nasty. Knowing that your forcefield still remembers the shape of you as the incredible blob.

The second theory was that it was the Manton effect, that broad-as-bells term for the built in protections and limitations of the power. The theory was that the built-in protections of the power only protected what I saw as a part of me, and it had taken some time before the costume was that much a part of my identity.

That that was me, now, as much as the costume I wore.

I couldn’t be that. I couldn’t sit still and be crushed under the weight of that thing.

God, even fucking worse.

You were probably right about her aura getting powered up, though. Her aura adjusted to projecting awe/fear of a blob monster, just like her shield adjusted to protecting it.

I spun around in my seat, and I loaded up the webpage. Something to do. Methodically filling out details on the group I’d seen, researching, filling myself in, and letting others know what they were up against.

Something constructive to keep me occupied until the power ran out, or until I was so tired I had no choice but to sleep.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Victoria you were doing so well!
Don't dive straight into escalation and conflict just because you're traumatized!

I don't think binging on dial-up PHO counts as escalation and conflict. She's not researching a fight to pick, she's reading and posting about cape stuff and updating the wiki. That's how I read it, at least.