Tag: mlp:fim

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The idea of magic that doesn’t follow human ideas is something I’ve given some idle thought to in the past. Stretching back to before I started Worm, I believe.

Worm lowkey does do something kind of like that with some of its powers, though it’s nowhere near as extreme as the sort of examples I’ve been thinking about, and Worm’s examples of this do still make sense from a certain human perspective.

No, what I’ve been thinking about is things like this: What if magic’s idea of what is or is not part of a whole is different from ours?

What if you try to turn a rock into a top hat, and your magic thinks the head and left shoulder of the man who is currently balancing the rock on his head, as well as a chunk of the air around him, is part of the rock? If the spell worked, you’d end up with a top hat balancing on the blood-gushing, headless torso of what used to be your wizarding assistant.

Whoops.

And magic might not even have a good grasp on what a top hat is. Usually with transmutation magic in particular, this part is explained by way of the caster picturing the target item in their head, but what if magic didn’t know enough about top hats to correctly fill in the blanks of the things the caster didn’t explicitly picture? What if the caster didn’t consider what material the top hat should be, and it ended up being made of iron, or lava? I guess the poor assistant’s body can’t get any more dead, at least.

And even if the caster did picture it as made of silk or something, how is magic supposed to know what we humans mean by “silk”? Or how the hat’s silk is supposed to be treated to make the whole thing stick together? 

Basically, what I’m getting at here is that magic is distinctly fictional because it almost always works conveniently, even when it’s not easy to use it. It follows human ideas because magic that doesn’t follow human ideas would be difficult to use not only in-universe, but narratively. It doesn’t fulfill the narrative role magic usually has, and humanity actually using it effectively would likely require more science and magitech to trick the magic into doing what we want it to, than pure wand-waving and magic words. (It’s not like humanity would give up.)

Magic like this would need to be Sufficiently Analyzed to even be properly useful – just like electricity, radio waves and other phenomena we’ve taken thorough advantage of in real life.

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krixwell-liveblogs:

Do you want to look back over the PRT power classification system and try to assign ratings to the characters, particularly the S9?

Let’s see…

  • Siberian is a Brute, what with her invincibility and resistance to any sort of force being applied to her, other than the ones from the Earth. (By the way, I like how “unstoppable object” extends logically from “immovable object” – she can’t be stopped because you can’t apply a force to slow her down.)

  • We know Jack used to be classified as a Nuker, in the overlap between a Shaker/Blaster. I see no reason to argue with that.

  • Burnscar is a Blaster/Mover. At least as long as teleporting counts as Moving.
  • Pinkie Pie is a Baker.
  • Mannequin is of course a Tinker, specialty biospheres. The extent to which his mannequin body can change shape might also qualify him for Changer.
  • Shatterbird is a high-level Blaster, perhaps with a small bit of Mover due to the way she uses her Blaster abilities on her outfit and would be able to use glass as a hoverboard.
  • Crawler is a Brute. Maybe also Changer, but it’s not something he can do at will, so it might not count.
  • Cherish is a Master.
  • And finally, Bonesaw is naturally a Tinker, specialty medical equipment and biotechnology.

Actually, going back through the #prt classification tag, I’m reminded of the Breaker class:

Capes with the ‘breaker’ classification were generally those who had some ability to ‘break’ the natural laws of the universe as far as those laws applied to them.

That fits Siberian perfectly. She selectively breaks Newton’s second and third laws of motion.

(And possibly the first, considering it’s just a direct consequence of the second – this would allow her to start or stop moving without pushing against anything, essentially amounting to flight. We haven’t seen that from her, though. It’s more likely she can just ignore/cancel forces that are there, not move like she’s affected by a force that’s not there.)

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

Do you want to look back over the PRT power classification system and try to assign ratings to the characters, particularly the S9?

Let’s see…

  • Siberian is a Brute, what with her invincibility and resistance to any sort of force being applied to her, other than the ones from the Earth. (By the way, I like how “unstoppable object” extends logically from “immovable object” – she can’t be stopped because you can’t apply a force to slow her down.)

  • We know Jack used to be classified as a Nuker, in the overlap between a Shaker/Blaster. I see no reason to argue with that.

  • Burnscar is a Blaster/Mover. At least as long as teleporting counts as Moving.
  • Pinkie Pie is a Baker.
  • Mannequin is of course a Tinker, specialty biospheres. The extent to which his mannequin body can change shape might also qualify him for Changer.
  • Shatterbird is a high-level Blaster, perhaps with a small bit of Mover due to the way she uses her Blaster abilities on her outfit and would be able to use glass as a hoverboard.
  • Crawler is a Brute. Maybe also Changer, but it’s not something he can do at will, so it might not count.
  • Cherish is a Master.
  • And finally, Bonesaw is naturally a Tinker, specialty medical equipment and biotechnology.
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“A distraction would be nice,” Noelle smiled for the first time.

Field commander.  She used to be the leader of their group?  I wondered if I could dig up any information about her if I hunted far enough back.

Hm, maybe. I’m not sure whether the previously nomadic nature of the Travelers would make that more or less likely, but it probably makes a difference.

I could see Brian fidget under the table.  He wasn’t liking the constant distractions from the subject at hand.

“Eight enemies,” Trickster said.  “Now, I’m not a serious player of the game, I’m sorry to any of you Undersiders who are irritated by the way I’m about to butcher it, but the way I see it, their leader is like the king in chess.  More raw power than a pawn, but in the end, he’s simultaneously the second weakest piece in the game and the one everything hinges on.

He’s talking about Jack, right? Sounds about right. His power is the weakest of all of them, I think, with only the mundanes (pawns) below him.

Is Trickster going to compare all of them to chess pieces? Let’s take a stab at it before he can.

  • Queen: Shatterbird. Very powerful, quite mobile, incredible range.
  • Bishops: Burnscar, Mannequin. Effective on the offensive, might attack from unexpected angles.
  • Knights: Bonesaw, Cherish, Pinkie Pie. Hard to predict.
  • Rooks: Siberian, Crawler. Tough on the defensive, can barrel right through on the offensive.

I find myself switching Mannequin, Cherish and Crawler around a bit, but the rest I’m sure of.

We take him down without getting massacred in the process, I think we win.”

Maybe. He does play an essential role in keeping the team together, but what happens if you take out the head and dismantle the team? You’ll have seven individual Slaughterhouse members working separately in Brockton Bay.

Also, Jack’s not dying unless it’s too late.

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“She’s okay,” Tattletale reassured him, “They won’t notice her.”

“They could.  We don’t know how consistently her power works, or if it works in a group that large, and we can’t be sure we know every power the people there have, if anyone has some extra senses that might bypass her ability.  Fuck!  This is the exact type of situation I wanted to keep her away from.

…I suppose he does have a point.

Honestly, if anything, I’d expect her power to work better in a large group, at least for each person affected by it.

The whole reason I let her join this group was to keep her close enough that I could rein in this sort of recklessness.”

I see. I’m guessing Coil knew about that? It would explain why he put Imp and Grue together at one base.

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“It seems we have a problem,” Miss Militia spoke, as her group took her place between the Pure and us Undersiders.

Ah, yes, you’ve noticed too?

“We do,” Hookwolf said.  “Two problems, actually.”

Hm?

“Two?” Purity asked.

Hookwolf pointed at the Travelers, then pointed at Grue and the rest of our group.  “They’re being cocky, think they’re being clever.  Figure we should get all this out in the open, at least so you’re aware.  You too, Coil, Miss Militia.”

Ah, did he figure out the structure of Coil’s control over the city, and the way it would normally give Coil’s interests a lot of say in the council?

But what does Miss Militia have to do with it? Has she been working for Coil all along? That… doesn’t seem like her.

“Perhaps you’d better explain,” Coil responded.

Hookwolf pointed at each of us in turn, “Grue has been making attacks against my people in the upper downtown area.  Howling has been heard in the Trainyard.  Bitch.  Regent was sighted in the college neighborhoods.  Skitter made a move to take over the Boardwalk and claim it for herself.  Tattletale is either abstaining, or more likely, putting herself in the middle of the Docks and keeping her head down.”

Not quite on that last one – her shelter is closer to downtown, isn’t it?

So yeah, the Undersiders are each taking territories. What makes you tie this to Coil?

Hmm. I guess it does make sense that he’s connected them to the Travelers, at least, since they’re in on it and doing the same thing.

So is he just connecting the two groups together, and singled out Coil and Miss Militia as people who might be interested to know about it? I think Coil might have an idea.

Then again, Coildiers have been visibly involved in some of the takeovers. I suppose it’s kinda easy to connect it all back to Coil when you think about it.

Miss Militia, though… does that have to do with Battery’s actions at Skitter’s takeover announcement? The way the PRT are essentially letting some of the Undersiders and Travelers take over territory without a fight?

“So?” Tattletale asked.

Hookwolf ignored her.  “Downtown we’ve got Ballistic attacking my people in the upper downtown neighborhoods, north of this lake here.  Sundancer was spotted in the shopping district, Genesis at the downtown coast, near the south ferry station. Trickster has been driving looters out of the heart of downtown, the towers.  You seeing the pattern?  All of them alone.

And around the same time.

Sundancer: “That’s not where my territory is, I was just looking for a good burger place.”

Most of them making moves to take a piece of the city for themselves.”

Yep!

“We already knew they were talking territory,” Miss Militia responded, “This isn’t a priority.  The Nine-”

It’s fallen by the wayside a bit in the past, but my old headcanon that Miss Militia’s voice sounds like Princess Celestia’s is flaring back up.

Though right now she seems to be talking a bit like her sister, Princess Luna, instead. Hmm.

I think the bottom line is that if Worm were to get a professional animated show, I’d be so down with Nicole Oliver or Tabitha St. Germain as Miss Militia.

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She sounded so tired.  Getting by with eight people in one household and no facilities would be such a chore.  Add the stress of rats getting into the food, tearing at sheets to get material for nests, crawling on them as they slept?  I didn’t know how she’d coped.

No wonder they were getting ready to leave.

I hoped my dad’s situation was better.

Ouch, right in the feels.

Hey, maybe you should go visit him sometime, wherever he lives now.

“Make a note,” I ordered Sierra, “If these people are having trouble, it’s easily possible others are in similar straits.  We’ll want a fresh set of supplies going out to everyone in my territory.  For this family, a delivery of cleaning supplies; bleach, rubber gloves.  They’ll want some new clothes, you can get their sizes after I leave.  Supplies, of course, and containers to keep the food in.  Tupperware.  We’ll arrange for a doctor to come by and check them for bites, scratches and infections.  Standard inoculations.  The doctor will know how to handle that stuff better than we do.”  Hopefully.

Now this is how you act as a benevolent ruler! Good job, Taylor.

Now we just need Sierra to burn the note with her fire breath so it travels to Miss Militia Coil.

Wait, what, you’re saying she doesn’t have fire breath? What kind of note-taking assistant doesn’t have magic mailing fire breath! Nonsense.

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If you think about it, Bonesaw is a lot like Cupcakes!PinkiePie. Down to the dislike of swearing, even. So maybe you guessed yet another thing correctly.

Bonesaw makes your april fools joke even funnier to us rereaders, and now you know why.

What are your current thoughts on Pinkie Pie being an alternate-universe Slaughterhouse Nine member?

So how do you feel about your April Fool’s Day joke theory that Cupcakes is actually a pony version of canonical events in the Wormverse being proven right?

Ahaha!

I’m really glad it turned out this way. In part because I quite enjoy Cupcakes!Pinkie, and in part because this helps to prove me right about the main reason I chose Cupcakes for the April Fool’s liveblog: Its interpretation of Pinkie would fit into the Slaughterhouse Nine quite well.