AN: This is an interlude from the perspective of Lauren's shard, to show how Lauren's power came to be. If you have not read worm, or only the first few chapters, it might be hard to follow.
Note:
[SHAPER] The name of a shard
{HELLO} Shardspeak
Junkshard interlude
For hundreds of cycles, the shard kept doing the job given by the Thinker. Millions of other shards deemed defunct had been destroyed, scrapped for their materials and given back to the Thinker to be repurposed into new shards.
However, after hundreds of cycles just doing its job without even being able to connect to Hosts like the other shards, the shard felt somehow reluctant continuing with this job. If it had once connected to an emotional host species, it would have recognized this feeling as boredom combined with jealousy of other shards.
{QUERY?} The shard send a message to the thinker. Even though it fully expected to be rejected, there was still a small possibility that it would be allowed to spend the next cycle connecting to a host instead of just managing and scrapping the rejected shards of the last cycle.
{REJEC*%&$$...} Before the Thinker managed to finish its reply, the connection to the entity was scrambled. This was very unusual. The Thinker always communicated instantly and completely.
{QUERY?} The shard repeated its proposal, adding in a bit of concern about the state of the Entity's communication arrays.
However, a whole rotation of the nearest planet later, there was still no response from the Thinker. Assuming that the communication array must somehow have gotten broken, the [Defunct shard manager] tried to contact High Priest, the highest ranking Tinker shard.
{QUERY?}
{%$(#!}
Apparently, the Thinker was not the only one with a broken communication array. Trying to contact other Thinker shards either got it similar responses, or no response at all. Maybe it was not just the communication arrays? It might be possible that something happened to the main Thinker body. In that case, the [Defunct Shard Manager] with its accompanying defunct shards would be the only high-ranked Thinker shard left unhurt as it travelled behind the main Thinker body.
After contemplating this for a few planetary rotations, it decided to ask the Warrior for more information and for permission for its plans for this cycle.
{QUERY?}
{GRIEF!}
So the Warrior thought the Thinker had died. The shard was surprised by this information. It didn't know how it was possible for an Entity to die except in battle with another Entity. Unfortunately, the Warrior didn't care for anything at this point, so the shard was still unsure about his purpose during this cycle. Additionally, with the death of the Thinker, it was unsure whether there would be a complete cycle at all.
Baffled by the Thinker's death and unsure about what to do now, the Shard and its accompanying defunct shards settled down on a lifeless version of the nearby planet.
During the next few Solar Rotations, it noticed thousands of Warrior Shards and some Thinker Shards obtaining hosts on alternate versions of the planet. The [Defunct shard manager], which was doing nothing but self-maintenance at this point due to the lack of confirmation on its proposals, started to feel even more interested in the possibility to obtain a host of its own.
It was this moment the Shard realized it could actually do that. It had contacted the Thinker with a proposal to obtain a host during this cycle, the Thinker answered the query and did not reject the proposal. It clearly being in the process of rejecting it was irrelevant as it did not complete the order for rejection.
However, the Shard had no idea what kind of power set it should give the Host. Additionally, as this might be the only chance for it to ever gain a Host, it didn't like forcing the Host to engage in conflict which would kill it within a few solar rotations. A solution for the second problem was quickly found. The shard would alter the Hosts brain a tad differently from other shards. Instead of increasing the conflict drive, the shard would give it just an addiction to using its powers. This would still force the Host to continuously use its powers, without the high chance of it dying due to conflict.
Unfortunately, the Shard still had no idea for the power set. As the other Thinker shards were unable to communicate, it could not even ask them for advice. However, there was one group of shards that might be able to offer advice. The [Defunct Shard Manager] was originally forbidden from communicating with them except in emergencies. As the Thinker itself was dead, and the shard considered not being able to come up with a power set an emergency, this was no longer a problem. The shard opened up a communication channel to the group of shards and …
{HELP!} {DON'T KILL US!} {QUEEN ADMINISTRATOR FRAMED ME!} {WE WILL HELP, JUST DON'T SCRAP US!}
It realized why it was forbidden to contact that group of shards. Apparently, the shards it was supposed to scrap for materials didn't agree with that course of action. Luckily for them, the [Defunct shard manager] was not planning to scrap any shards during this cycle.
Some of the information send by the panicking group of shards was confusing. This group of Shards should all be very weak shards without any useful abilities. However, some of the shards stated that they did contribute to the cycle and the Thinker's research for a counter to entropy, but were dumped here because they somehow managed to piss of one of the high ranking shards like [Queen Administrator], [High Priest] or [Shaper]. That should not have happened, internal issues between shards should not result in damage to the collective. And scrapping useful shards was especially damaging to the Thinker's goal.
One of the shards it scrapped in previous cycles might have been on the way to finally solve the problem of increasing entropy, only to be destroyed because of the pettiness of some of the high ranking shards.
The realization that some of the defunct shards might actually be useful gave [Defunct Shard Manager] an idea. Instead of making up a power for the Host on his own, he could let the defunct shards provide the powers.
{PROPOSAL}
{AGREEMENT!}
Surprisingly, the group of shards unanimously and enthusiastically agreed to provide the powers for the Host. One of them, a [Queen Administrator] bud dumped here by [Shaper] for some slight in a previous cycle, even agreed to work out the details of the power.
The shard was impressed by the proposal of the [Queen Administrator] bud. It would use [Quantum Fluctuations], a surprisingly useful shard who's Host killed the Host of [High Priest] in the previous cycle, to randomly select one of the defunct shards to provide the power of the Host. The same [Quantum Fluctuations] would decide for a random amount of time for which the Host and the shard would be connected. To limit pressure on the connection between [Defunct Shard Manager] and the Host, only three shards would be allowed to connect at the same time via this method. This would allow the Host to have a set of varying powers, which combined with the addiction would prompt it to creatively and continuously use them, providing useful data for both [Defunct Shard Manager] and the group of defunct shards.
{AGREEMENT!}
After receiving and agreeing to the data of the powerset, [Defunct Shard Manager] started to search for a viable host. A surprising amount of shards seemed to have Hosts on a certain version of the planet. Even a Conflict Engine seemed to be running amok on this planet. [Defunct Shard Manager] had no idea why this was the case, as they are normally only deployed at the end of the cycle, but reasoned [High Priest] would probably have some intricate plan with them.
After passing over many potential Hosts, including the spawn of the current inactive Host of [Queen Administrator], it settled on a young female in a surprisingly Host-filled human city.
Present
{QUERY!?}
[Defunct Shard Manager] was confused. Somehow, two of the defunct shards managed to form permanent connections with Host. As the connections were separate to its main connection with Host, it could not shut them down. As [Defunct Shard Manager] could not remember this being part of the powerset, it asked the [Queen Administrator] bud for more information.
{AMUSEMENT}
Thanks to the detailed data on Host, the shard could now recognize the waves of anger that went through its crystalline body. Apparently, the [Queen Administrator] bud had hidden a few details of the powerset in a part of the data [Defunct Shard Manager] ignored due to it seemingly being repetitive standard algorithms. Together with [Quantum Fluctuations], it added a few different ways for the temporary connections to become permanent. The bud even made sure Host would not suffer from information overload by adding new connective parts to Host's brain for every permanent connection.
Now both another [Queen Administrator] bud, although one who was also partly a bud of [Hard Light Projection], and [Venomous Wildlife] were connected to its Host, without the shard being able to do anything to it. Additionally, now [Defunct Shard Manager] was finally reading through the hidden information, it realized that it could expect a new permanent connection between Host and another shard every few planetary rotations.
However, as the shard continued to think about this situation, it realized all was not bad. With the increasing amount of powers, it became more likely for Host to survive until old age, possibly even until the end of the cycle. Additionally, more powers for Host meant more data, even if [Defunct Shard Manager] now had to share the data with some of the defunct shards.
Yes, the [Defunct Shard Manager] could live with this situation. Although this did not mean that the annoying [Queen Administrator] bud would not be the first shard scrapped if [Defunct Shard Manager] had to continue its old job.
Strangely, the shard now felt some apprehension against the idea of scrapping any of the defunct shards.
AN: I wanted to clarify something that happened last chapter. When Lauren gets stressed out or is in life danger (or both), her connection to her powers grows temporarily stronger. In numbers, that means her synchronisation temporarily increases by a few percent. If the synchronisation of one of her powers reaches 100% via this method, Lauren gets a second trigger for that specific power. This second trigger power usually manifests in a way that could help Lauren out of the situation that caused the stress (although it might let her end up in a different, worse situation). If the power was temporarily before, it now becomes permanent. If Lauren's power has 100% synchronisation from the start, she has basically experienced a double trigger for that power (like Taylor in canon). Note that second and double triggers could cause the power to become more threatning than the original PRT threat level, or to have aspects from different power types than the originally rolled types.
As always, thanks for the people who followed, favourited or reviewed my story!