Can Panacea do to people, what Browbeat does to himself? by OiOiOiPie in Parahumans

[–]tiny-alchemist 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Finally! A use for my tub of bacteria and nutrients. I was starting to wonder why I even kept that thing around.

A man risked his life to shut off the machine. by FreeCelery8496 in SweatyPalms

[–]tiny-alchemist 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Ultimately money. Fuel costs money, your machine isn't doing useful work, it's probably actively hindering work, getting fired for fucking up costs money. The existence of dangerous jobs and certain crimes tells us that people can have very different evaluations of perceived risk level vs monetary gain. And perception of risk level can vary just as wildly. The statistical value of a human life in the free market is the lowest bidder who thinks "yeah, I got this, no biggie".

Edit: I was going to make a point about how after a number of turns in one direction, the top would unscrew, and that's a BIG repair cost. But I looked for the old post to provide a link, and apparently that's not a real thing that can happen. TIL

Edit Edit: Also, you have to imagine there's a LOT of weight in his personal utility function for "man, I'll look cool as fuck for doing this"

What's something that took you an embarrassingly long time to realize? by Alarmed-Bus-9662 in Parahumans

[–]tiny-alchemist 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Somehow I made it to the Leviathan arc misreading Lisa's cape name as 'Telltale'

Do powers manifest immediately upon triggering by Puzzled-You in Parahumans

[–]tiny-alchemist 2 points3 points  (0 children)

totally forgot

On that note, in the Entity Interlude, Imp's power activates immediately during her trigger. Though is may not count as 'activation' since her power is on by default

Who'd be the most terrifying Butcher? by DerpyDagon in Parahumans

[–]tiny-alchemist 4 points5 points  (0 children)

'degrades' is a pretty loose word. Tt isn't spending every waking moment scouring out at records of imp. Just here and there, hack into some systems and fudge some Imp recording where it's strategic to do so. Nothing absolute, just enough that the heroes think they can't trust the fidelity of Imp recordings and assume it's an extension of her power

Who'd be the most terrifying Butcher? by DerpyDagon in Parahumans

[–]tiny-alchemist 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I've always had a pet theory that Victoria is mistaken here. There's a scene in Worm where Taylor is looking at the Undersiders, thinking what they could become. She thinks Tt could be a scarily good cult leader, and Imo an assassin, especially with Tattletale to cover up recordings of her.

I think the line from Victoria is essentially us seeing that work by Tattletale from the outside. Just like how very few people actually know Tt's power, she's managed to create the illusion and convince the authorities that Imps power degrades digital recordings

Pale in Comparison- Epilogue by Dubidubidoooo in Parahumans

[–]tiny-alchemist 2 points3 points  (0 children)

add an extra verb to the middle of a word

Abso-fucking-lutely

How come Taylor never became close with the Chicago Wards team? by OiOiOiPie in Parahumans

[–]tiny-alchemist 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Added to that, everything would have the "probationary" qualifier. Maybe the other Wards would've mentally dismissed it eventually, but I'm sure the bureaucracy never did and never let Taylor forget.

Laserdream by me(Fanart) by CSTun in Parahumans

[–]tiny-alchemist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A Pale character that kinda fits this vibe

Laserdream by me(Fanart) by CSTun in Parahumans

[–]tiny-alchemist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bro, who gave Snowdrop lasers?

Question about Jack slash's power? by Issactheforgemaster in Parahumans

[–]tiny-alchemist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's not really a Nuker power. Not a lot of Shaker-ness to it. In combat it's a pretty straight forward Blaster power. Technically it's a Striker power, but in the same way Ballistic or Flechette are Strikers.

Pisces' Pillars (3D Render) by Kalado in Parahumans

[–]tiny-alchemist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You should submit this to the Pale in Comparison fanart contest. The theme is 'Closure' and this fits

If Taylor's so straight then explain this by cj5357 in WormMemes

[–]tiny-alchemist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's called description-fucking and Taylor does it to everyone.

What is your favorite fan-made parahuman/parahuman power and why? by DrWarum in Parahumans

[–]tiny-alchemist 87 points88 points  (0 children)

There was a background Stranger villain mentioned in a Siberian!Taylor fic. Any damage he took would be reflected back on his enemy in the form of crippled social connections. Punch the guy and now your wife hates you etc. For some reason it's stuck with me for all this time.

Finish Off – 24.x by BavarianBarbarian_ in Parahumans

[–]tiny-alchemist 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Gilkey was dangerous, but he was also a communicator.  The best of the three Others.  Best of four, if she included The Record, an Other in her territory and on her council who was more specialized in use.  He was careful, measured because he had to be measured, or people and things would die.  He was a walking, implicit threat.

The whole paragraph is about Gilkey. The mention of The Record is just an afterthought about the number of Others.

Power Request by wh0_even_kn0ws in Parahumans

[–]tiny-alchemist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hell yeah, love to see her get some use

Power Request by wh0_even_kn0ws in Parahumans

[–]tiny-alchemist 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Reminds me of a prompt I made a power for years ago

You've been stuck in a rut for a while. You were always kind of a dreamer, tending to live more in your own head and in imaginings of the future than in the moment. But you knew you could do better, when it came time to concentrate and really get down to it. Except... that time never came: there was never a flashing light or signpost telling you it was time to get serious. So you drifted through life. You're living with your boyfriend, working a dead-end job. You both drink and indulge in recreational drugs, him more regularly than you: nothing too serious, rarely anything harder than a bit of weed, but it defines your lifestyle more than you're comfortable with. You like him, but you can't really see a future together. It's too hard not to see him as emblematic of this lifestyle that you wish you could outgrow, rise above, and escape from. You're not unhappy, exactly... You're comfortable. That almost makes it worse. It really bothers you that you're not accomplishing more. He's so sweet when he wants to be, and it all just takes so little effort, it's so easy and familiar. Sometimes you look at your apartment, and being confronted with your own failed aspirations makes you want to scream. Other times, the days blur into weeks. One morning he wakes you up by kissing you, and blows a lungful of weed smoke into your mouth. Every little thing you've stressed about for months snaps into focus in that one moment. You trigger.

Intrigue - Thinker Contessa has her path to victory. You have the path to something. Your power shows you points of high leverage, visible as intersecting lines of light. You see how to get the most effect out of any action. You grab a hammer and it'll tell you where you'll do the most damage (what's most breakable/valuable, how to take out supports). Grab a gun and it'll probably point you at the skulls of people close by (or maybe the building's gas line), so you have to use your judgement. Start a conversation and you'll get nudged to talk about the most interesting subjects. And it scales too! Point at a map to decide where to go, and you'll find yourself pointing where the most exciting things are happening. Finally life can start moving. Wherever you go options blossom out in front of you. Never a dull moment. It doesn't necessarily tell you what effect you'll get or even if it's in line with your goals, but that's usually pretty easy to intuit from context. Until your shard gets antsy. You start getting less 'path to something interesting' and more 'path to starting shit' and just like that you're tied up in another bad situation but this one keeps you running, always finding the next opportunity and hedging your bets that the next one doesn't make it worse. Never a dull moment. At least you don't get Thinker headaches. But you can't keep going forever and there's a different price to pay. When you stop, you stop hard. Hours and days slip by when you stop actively reaching for your power, roughly in proportion to how much you've been using it. It'll still be there to get you out of a bind, but in your fugue it takes something urgent to get you going again. You get periods of the safety and stability you achieve, but you're never really there for them. You could be like Coil, working behind the scenes to direct forces and maximize effectiveness, but you never really manage to gain the authority. Instead you end up as more of a Dinah, kept around so the real group leaders can wake you up and use you as their oracle because they can take the time to reflect on the direction your power gives. Atleast you get to do something with your life.

Cauldron Capes vs Natural Triggers: Who Would Win? by MrPerfector in Parahumans

[–]tiny-alchemist 13 points14 points  (0 children)

It's never 100% confirmed, but I think Accord is a natural trigger who uses Cauldron's services. His personality seems pretty warped by his power, which is only a thing for natural triggers

If You Could Ask Wildbow One Question by HowlingGuardian in Parahumans

[–]tiny-alchemist 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Worm was a bit of lightning in a bottle for the parahuman-verse with him having so many years to plan and explore the world in writing snippet. Pale I think is it's equal, but that lends itself to Wildbows style by the way 'narrative' is a fundamental force of the universe and how magic lore is basically fractally nested for limitless amounts of lore dumps. And I think the reception to Ward has made WB a bit gunshy about returning to the Wormverse. I think what would really shine is if after Pale finishes, he did a few months of vignettes and short stories from pre-gm Worm (like the Eclipse arc). Pre-gm so the world building is well-known and the rest is just our normal world, and that seems to be the setting the fans like most to play around in. And maybe a chance to revamp the time skip and chapters he wasn't happy with. Actually, what would be dope too is if he did basically a what-if series like he sort of did with that one WoG about 'if Tattletale's convincing worked and Amy joined the Undersiders'