Why do they have to call it a Worm. People already write like LN style in their fanfics half the time already.
Why do they have to call it a Worm. People already write like LN style in their fanfics half the time already.
He never sleeps. He never dies.
Battle doesn't need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose. You don't ask why a plague spreads or a field burns. Don't ask why I fight.
@ mAc Chaos: No idea what you mean?
Well Rune and SS are in rare form. =P
Originally Posted by Seika
F/GO SUPPORT
I see Archer's E Rank luck was something that he had from the beginning.
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His luck is "E"xcellent!
Well this is something I'll definitely be watching, though I wonder if Shirou's SA would work on Tinker tech.
Considering how superpowers are known and non-human beings can now hide in plain sight, how has this affected magecraft? Is it weaker here or anything due to wider knowledge of supernatural powers and beings?
I doubt it. If anything, the secrecy is stronger because instead of thinking "Wow magic is real" people assume "Parahuman" or instead of "Vampires" it's "Parahuman".
It doesn't matter what people see, it's what they believe.
Or something like that.
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The answer isn't quite so straightforward, though Fancy Face is roughly correct.
Widespread acknowledgement of the existence of abilities or paranormal phenomenon without capacity to justify the 'how' under conventional science or technology doesn't significantly change the viability of magecraft as a whole.
However, any principles that can be derived or bastardized to conventional science/technology from out of Tinkertech (for example) could go a ways toward reducing the magnitude or efficiency of specific magecraft covering a similar domain.
Last edited by fallacies; March 6th, 2015 at 12:12 AM.
Is Myrrdin a magus (or Zelretch considering his canon power is "something something dimensions") in this AU or is he not allowed to ever be an actual spellcaster?
I am of the personal belief that the Tsukihime Remake is two years from release. It will remain as such until a release date is announced, at which time its actual release date is 6 months after that date.
For the time being, Myrddin is Myrddin.
Relatedly, in current plans, Zelretch is Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Fic.
Last edited by fallacies; March 6th, 2015 at 05:42 AM.
Regarding the information in the beginning about parahumans, outside of capes and villains, how knowledgeable is the general public on groups like the Mage's Association here or magi in general?
Also having never read Worm, other than capes and villains, are other types of parahumans well known to groups like the PRT? Do they publish this information to academic journals or magazines? Is parahumans stuff typically public knowledge?
And regarding Rin since Kotomine isn't there to be her guardian and teacher ITTL, who is looking after her here? Did Kariya still cause brain damage to Aoi like he did in the OTL?
Last edited by warellis; March 8th, 2015 at 03:48 AM.
The Association and magecraft in general are not a matter of public knowledge, though individual magi sometimes pose as capes (an umbrella term for all parahumans) as a matter of convenience to their operations. Certain other elements of the Nasu setting masquerade are better known to the public -- for example, ghouls.
Capes (again, an umbrella term) are a matter of public knowledge, and have been a subject of research in academic journals, etc., though a certain powerful organization in the canon (Cauldron) imposes systematic concealment of specific details that may not be beneficial to their goals.Also having never read Worm, other than capes and villains, are other types of parahumans well known to groups like the PRT? Do they publish this information to academic journals or magazines? Is parahumans stuff typically public knowledge?
That said, information regarding the 'how' of parahumans -- specifically, the activity of the brain regions that engage in processing related to ability use -- are not really widely known among the general populace even in Worm canon, mostly because it's academic technobabble that the average person wouldn't care about. Furthermore, the 'how' of parahuman abilities themselves is not yet within the domain of modern science.
Nasu Psychics might be mistaken for parahumans if they aren't examined closely -- but in reality, they lack the brain regions that interface with parahuman powers. The same applies to magi and other special cases.
I haven't quite decided what to do with Rin yet, but in the immediate storyline of this fic, she won't be immediately relevant. Kariya didn't cause brain damage to Aoi, though. To be honest, at the moment, Tokiomi is more relevant to the plot than Rin is.And regarding Rin since Kotomine isn't there to be her guardian and teacher ITTL, who is looking after her here? Did Kariya still cause brain damage to Aoi like he did in the OTL?
Last edited by fallacies; March 8th, 2015 at 01:03 PM.
0.a
---
a.
Though it was irresponsible and highly unfair to the young man seated opposite of her, Hannah honestly didn't want to be the one to oversee his processing.
PRT and Protectorate intervention in any cape conflict wherein one or more combatants happened to be unmasked tended to precipitate in a disproportionately messy cleanup -- an after-action process that entailed careful observation of federal parahuman legislation and relevant right-against-self-incrimination rulings. Misstepping would in the very best case lead to a public relations disaster.
A clean and proper resolution required a good deal of finesse in handling, and Shadow Stalker's efforts earlier in the evening hadn't helped.
Uncharacteristically, Director Piggot had opted not to inflict Colin on the boy -- but as the questioning of any suspected parahuman was manditorily to be conducted by an individual with established means and capacity for self-defense, the duty had fallen to Hannah, the next most senior Protectorate cape in the city.
"I don't know how this works with the PRT," said the boy, "but assuming that Miranda rights still apply, I'd like to be granted access to legal counsel before we continue."
Hannah resisted the urge to sigh.
"I apologize if our personnel on site failed to communicate our intent, Mister Emiya," she replied, "but as a matter of record, you haven't been charged with anything, and we accordingly haven't placed you under arrest. We can still provide you with legal counsel if you wish, but I guarantee that you're free to exit this facility at any time without repercussion. I'm only here for basic fact confirmation."
For a very long moment, Emiya was silent -- but finally he nodded, as if he'd come to some internal conclusion.
"Fine," he said. "Ask away."
[Try to prioritize confirmation of the first five items on the list,] said a male voice from Hannah's earpiece. [The other information can be extrapolated from material evidence if necessary.]
Colin was a good man where it counted, Hannah felt, but his approach to people in general was far too confrontational. The first five questions he'd prepared amounted to an implicit accusation that Shirou Emiya had intentionally assaulted Rune on the orders of the ABB. It was probably the last thing the boy needed to hear from an authority figure at the moment.
"The parahuman that you fought tonight goes by the name of Rune," she said instead. "Were you aware of her affiliations before your encounter?"
"No," he said. "Never even heard of her before tonight."
[True,] Colin observed.
"I assume that you chose to incapacitate her in self-defense?" asked Hannah.
"Yeah. She might have seriously injured me otherwise."
[True.]
Self-defense, hm? But confirmation of that alone wouldn't dispel Colin's suspicions.
"Under what circumstances did you encounter her?" she asked. "Is there any motive you can think of for her attack on you?"
"She was injured before I got there," Emiya replied. "When I tried to help her, she might have decided that I was threatening."
[... True on both counts, as far as he comprehends,] said Colin, sounding reluctant.
Hannah nodded impassively, but steeled herself internally. The most difficult part of the interview was yet to come.
"For my next few questions," she said, "you have the choice not to answer. There won't be any consequences whether you do so or not, but I can guarantee right now that whatever you choose to say will be struck from the record."
Emiya stared at her -- and at her side, her Walther PP shifted involuntarily into a Smith & Wesson 460 within its holster.
"This is the part where you ask if I'm a cape, I guess," he said.
---
Colin and the Director were waiting for her on the other side of the one-way mirror. Seated in a leather armchair that seemed out of place in the dim, utilitarian chamber, the Director was the first to speak.
"So, what's the verdict?"
"He's not involved with the ABB, and he isn't a cape," said Hannah. "He acted in self-defense in response to an attack perpetrated on him by Rune. Face-to-face, I didn't notice anything that would indicate dishonesty, and Armsmaster's polygraph confirmed about as much."
"Armsmaster?" asked the Director.
Holding a hand partially over his lips, Colin continued to stare through the mirror at Shirou Emiya.
"There wasn't any dishonesty in Shadow Stalker's account of events either," he said. "Historically, she's proven herself a reasonable judge of parahuman powers, and if she believes beyond a reasonable doubt that Shirou Emiya deserves a low-level Thinker and Mover rating, I'm inclined to agree."
Hannah frowned behind her scarf. Colin seemed intent on finding fault with Emiya.
"You would have to reconcile that with the fact that Emiya wasn't lying," she said. "Eye-witness testimony is notorious for its fallibility."
The Director turned to regard the boy sitting in the interrogation room.
"Maybe he isn't aware of his abilities, then?" she asked.
"No," Colin stated. "That isn't possible."
Hannah raised a brow; it was the first that she'd heard of this. She was aware that her perfect recollection of triggering as a parahuman wasn't common, but she'd unconsciously presumed that there was somebody else out there on the opposite side of the spectrum -- wholly unaware of their trigger.
"You sound very certain of that," the Director noted. "What's your rationale?"
"Are you familiar with Manton's research into the psychogenic origins of ability limitations?" Colin asked.
"I've read the abstracts," the Director replied, "but I fail to see how this is relevant."
Colin leaned himself against a wall.
"At one point in the early nineties, Manton conducted an international survey of government-registered parahumans," he said. "Excepting a very small percentage of those incapable of normative social interaction, 99.7% of the study's subjects were conscious that their abilities were a deviation from common sense." He paused. "Shirou Emiya doesn't display any of the mental deficiencies associated with the remaining 0.3%."
"In that case," Hannah posed, "why not just take his word that he doesn't have powers?"
"Because he never explicitly said that."
What was Colin going on about?
"He said that he wasn't a parahuman," Hannah countered.
"Exactly," said Colin. "He wasn't lying, but he never stated that he doesn't have powers."
"What are you saying?" asked the Director.
Colin fixed Shirou Emiya with a glare.
"If the testimonies of both Emiya and Shadow Stalker are accepted as truth," he said, "there's a possibility that we have another Teacher situation on our hands."
---
b.
It was nearly twelve when he finally arrived at his building. Unlocking and opening the front door as quietly as possible, he winced at the wooden creak that it issued.
'Hope Mrs. Chen doesn't give me hell about this,' he thought, carefully making his way up the stairs.
There wasn't technically a curfew, but twice during the week since he'd moved here, his landlady had informed him with icy politeness that 'the other tenants' (most likely herself) didn't appreciate loud footsteps on the staircase in the wee hours of morning. Shirou figured that it was probably somebody else at fault, because he wasn't in the habit of coming home late. It /was/ true that the wooden walls and floors weren't designed to block out sound, though -- and so, for purposes of privacy, he'd worked out a very simplistic bounded field that mostly eliminated the transmission of noise from out of his studio flat.
"I'm home," he said tiredly, flopping down on his armchair.
Today had been a terrible day, in retrospect.
He'd had two overly greasy slices of New York pizza, and a Sloppy Joe for lunch; two embarrassing interviews with strong, beautiful, business-minded women -- the more important of which he'd probably failed; one attempt to prevent a sexual assault, concluding in a heroic effort to choke a teenage girl into unconsciousness.
"It's not like tomorrow could be any worse, though," he muttered.
On the coffee table before of him, a traced replica of his wind-up alarm clock ticked its way softly toward midnight. Shirou watched it in silence, counting the seconds as they passed.
This was the most complicated object that he'd been able to trace in a single instance to date, and he was unreasonably proud of it -- even acknowledging that the results his sister could achieve by alchemy outstripped his own in sophistication by several orders of magnitude.
The mysteries that capes wielded had always seemed far beyond even that -- or so he'd assumed.
"That was never really true, was it?" he asked the clock. "It was just an uneducated guess."
Occidental magecraft required the breeding of high quality circuits for communications with thaumaturgical foundations; alchemical transmutation was a skill prerequisited upon an inhuman grasp of structural detail. For the purpose of performing magecraft, there were in short countless conditions to be met; phenomena to be comprehended; genes to be had -- and at the end of the day, assuming favorable odds, first generation magi could still expend entire lifetimes merely to grasp the ground-up replication of a half-hearted display of parahuman power.
But ground-up had never been the proper way to go about things.
"Judging concept of creation."
"Hypothesizing basic structure."
"Replication of material composition."
"Imitation of craftsmanship."
Opening his eyes, he took stock of the Smith & Wesson 460 that had been extruded into the realm of phenomenon.
The metal felt solid in his hand; weighty; real.
And somehow, wrong as well -- as if he'd attempted to cut a sheet of paper with a left-handed pair of scissors. In physical structure, it was all but indistinguishable from the weapon that had formed in Miss Militia's holster within the interrogation room -- but the concept of creation was grossly incomplete. Clearly, he hadn't comprehended it in its entirety.
"Maybe I'm just not a gun person," he said. "But this is a start."
He held the pistol into the air, aiming it at the ceiling lamp.
"I think I've finally reached the starting line, Dad."
---
c.
The PRT employee who went by the name of Adrian Haverwood pulled up at a deserted McDonald's at one in the morning.
Dialing an unlisted number on his prepaid cellphone, he waited.
After one ringtone, the line picked up:
[You have some information for me, I presume.]
"Yes, sir," said Haverwood. "Regarding the matter of Rune's arrest ..."
Last edited by fallacies; March 10th, 2015 at 07:17 AM.
Sorry Shirou, your replica was perfect, but Miss Militia doesn't actually make real guns so much as forming a gun shaped Thing that runs on action movie rules.
And the PRT still has an eye on Shirou, even as Coil begins to worm his way into the story. Being a hero sure is tough!
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So wait her guns some sort of construct or replica?
Even so it's not like his specialization would fit with guns anyways
Has Kiritsugu attempted to help Shirou with his powers here?
Rereading page 2, were those gang members assaulting Rune from the ABB or connected with some parahumans gang?
Also who is Rina? Her description implies she's Bakuda?
Last edited by warellis; March 9th, 2015 at 06:39 PM.
Her weapons are projections by her power. They take the appearance of actual guns, and shoot the same things, but the imitation doesn't go beyond the surface. Hence why Shirou's replication was "empty" inside.
The gang members were from the ABB.
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Interesting. Her powers sound similar to Shirou's.
So they're not exclusively parahumans or anything? The ABB I mean. What about other gangs?
Also regarding the "transparent ceramic" in the Fortress Construction HQ, how widespread is more advanced tech here? Many superhero worlds have everything be the same as OTL even when their abilities or inventions should have changed daily life immensely around the world.
Last edited by warellis; March 9th, 2015 at 06:46 PM.
No, the ABB actually has the lowest amount of parahumans in comparison to the other gangs, having only three, one of those being a recent addition. Helps that their leader, Lung, is a game breaker.
For the most part, gangs are made up mostly of unpowered members, with the Parahumans filling the role of heavy hitters and elites. Everyone needs minions, you know?
It's variable. Tinkertech (the advanced technology created by parahumans specializing in that field) mostly is limited to being used by the creator, but technological advances can be derived from it through study. It helps that there are several Tinkers (the technology parahumans) who have talents relating to mass production/replicating tinkertech.
However, the PRT usually makes good use of it, what with having a shield generator around their base and having their troops being equipped with Containment Foam, which is tinketech specifically designed for restraining parahumans, to name two examples.
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Is such tech spreading outside the PRT or other parahumans enforcement groups? Like to daily life I mean.
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