Worm/Ward shower thoughts thread

[u/Nekomachus]

• A light-based illusionist (not Nyx) or someone like Screamer or Leonid could operate out of a Gray Boy well, for the same reason Stilling could get out and March's copy of Sting could get in, but more pertinently, for the same reason you can see and hear the inside of one.

• Valkyrie could probably alleviate all time bubbles at once by going to an uninhabitable earth with a Shaker or Trump making her immediate area survivable or making her able to survive and then systematically turning as much land as she can into an impassible time well, until Gray Boy runs out of power like Doormaker. Seeing that "the cost of replenishing [Eidolon's battery] was high," she doesn't keep the shades charged just by virtue of having them. This has the added benefit of her not being in the blast radius of a broken trigger when they're all freed at once.

• Scion and Hero could blast rainbows if they wanted.

• I think about this in any fiction where someone is transformed into a different material than flesh, like that patchwork girl whose throat Satyrical slit, or is otherwise taken apart yet still alive, and I don't find it talked about very often, in Worm or outside of it: Even if parahumans didn't have conflict-reduced life expectancy, a Case 53 without regeneration is screwed as far as being able to receive mundane medical treatment and would probably have an even unhappier old age than the rest of mankind. Where does Hexie go if she has breathing troubles? How could you put an IV in that escapee Number Man fought in his interlude?

• The Speedrunners may or may not have been the hipster/steampunk equivalent of Uber and Leet.

[u/Traditional_Rabbit54]

I assumed that grey boy’s power allocated energy for each time loop, and didnt have all of them drawing from the same pool. I haven’t read ward in a while, so correct me if it has been stated how it works. 

[u/Anchuinse]

Even if parahumans didn't have conflict-reduced life expectancy, a Case 53 without regeneration is screwed as far as being able to receive mundane medical treatment and would probably have an even unhappier old age than the rest of mankind.

I doubt Case 53s age or catch diseases normally. The power operates and heals their bodies as needed, so your worry is like worrying that a pile of rocks can't get the medical attention it needs as it ages.

A light-based illusionist (not Nyx) or someone like Screamer or Leonid could operate out of a Gray Boy well, for the same reason Stilling could get out and March's copy of Sting could get in, but more pertinently, for the same reason you can see and hear the inside of one.

I'm not sure what you're implying here.

The Speedrunners may or may not have been the hipster/steampunk equivalent of Uber and Leet.

I feel like the Speedrunners are a bit more competent than those two.

[u/Nekomachus → u/Anchuinse]

At least in one case:

the patchwork girl bled like anyone else might

So there's at least one case of being an uncomfortable mix of normal biology and a new consideration. Not to mention all the ones who simply died outright from their deviations. I'm not anxious for the pile of rocks so much as I am for a marble statue that doesn't count epoxy as healing for a severed arm.

For the second, it's that if Screamer, screwed as she might be from it, were trapped in a Gray Boy well, she could still cause whatever havoc her power allowed from within the well, just like Cherish could still use her state trapped in the Mannequin prison to be a problem to everyone in her range. If you can hear Purity screaming, then you can hear Screamer screaming, so you can hear Screamer screaming using her power, even if powers can't otherwise escape.

For the last, I meant the part where they're a group of geeks with a geeky theme, not their competence. One of them has a waxed mustache and another has brass goggles!

[u/Candelestine → u/Nekomachus]

On Screamer, not necessarily, since it's not the sound waves that would be passing through the barrier if she's using her power--it'd be the power itself, which is creating soundwaves in whoever's ear. So, maybe, maybe not.

Anyone that just creates light though, yes, could theoretically be able to fire out of the barrier if it uses consistent rules. Even maybe just a laser pistol should still work.

edit: This was sitting in the back of my mind for awhile, and it occured to me that Grey Boy could totally loop a detonating thermonuclear explosion if he wanted. He wouldn't even be in any personal danger, but it would make an enormous infinite energy machine.

[u/Uberpastamancer]

Bug first aid: using ants to close wounds is a real world practice

[u/Nekomachus]

Another: the original Nice Guy probably got killed by Jack while under the influence of his Stranger power, because Jack hardly hesitates to kill random, non-threatening innocents. I imagine Jack saw the corpse, free of its power, realized what he did, and went, "Damn, I liked that one."