Editing Jack Slash (section)

===Shard===
Jack's powers are the result of receiving a crippled [[List_of_Shards#The_Broadcast_Shard|Broadcast]] [[shard]] from [[Scion]].<ref name="26.x e1">The ability to communicate and receive signals is unnecessary now.  To transmit signals across wavelengths.  It, too, is intentionally crippled as an ability.  It would not do to have that one being used with regularity.  Such would be distracting for the entity and its counterpart. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/10/interlude-26/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 26]]</ref> In its non-crippled form, the Broadcast shard was originally used to manage communication between the [[Entities]].<ref name="26.x e2">All around the entity, there were shards in varying states of maturation.  The female’s was among the most mature.  Seasoned by conflict, heavy with information, lessons learned, tactics, applications, organization.<br>[...]<br>A confrontation had started between a young male and an older one.  A fragment of a shard against a very mature shard.  The most mature shard in this area, at a glance.<br><br>The more mature power was unleashed.  A wavelength power, a kinetic transmission.<br><br>The entity watched, and it recognized the shard at work.<br><br>The broadcast shard.  One that had been crippled, just like the shard of the female that floated before the entity now.  The same shard that had managed communication between the entity and its counterpart. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/10/interlude-26/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 26]]</ref> Although crippled to not work on Scion and [[Eden]] so that they can kill Jack without issue<ref name="Reddit experiment">This isn't a controlled, everything-in-isolation 'fair' experiment. This is very much a hot mess, everything-playing-off-of-everything type experiment. They're looking for interplay, interactions, invention in response to specific stimuli, and to pit unreasonable forces against others. If you have something as important as executive function and communication, or your best version of invincibility, or a '[[perfect]]' set of powers that should be unbeatable? You can throw it out there into the wild, with a species given strong incentive to hack, test, or break your best, and find the holes that need to be patched (or the tools/combination of factors that can unravel something you thought was decided/perfect). Push comes to shove, you've got a Scholar and a Warrior ready to step in to fine-tune or wipe the slate clean, so to speak.<br><br>So it's fine to have a Jack out there, as a chaotic pollutant, especially when his cape kill count isn't ''that'' high, all considered. - Wildbow on Reddit, [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/72724278 archived on Spacebattles]</ref> and to avoid distracting them,<ref name="26.x e1" /> the Broadcast shard still retains its executive function for communication between shards.<ref name="SB eExecutiveFunction">Broadcast is executive function. It ''is'' communication between shards, by definition and by name. Breadth and depth, as stated by Bonesaw in her interlude, are factors where a longstanding parahuman develops a closer connection to their shard. More experience = more leeway. Jack's been at it long enough to have a really good arrangement going, and they get more interesting stuff through Jack staying active than they do through letting him die. - Wildbow on Reddit, [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/72724278 archived on Spacebattles]</ref> When deployed during a [[cycle]], Jack's shard in the [[shard network]] is analogous to an executive officer or CEO for the other shards.<ref name = "MegacorpJack" /><ref name="reddit eCEO" /> According to Scion, the Broadcast shard is not particularly aggressive in comparison with the typical shard.<ref name="26.x eFutureVision" />

Because of Jack's close connection with his [[shard]],<ref>Jack had a different kind of connection.  A ''deep'' connection.  He was in alignment with the particular nature of his passenger.  The passengers naturally sought conflict, and Jack had fed that need from very early on, and he had sustained it for years.  The line between the two was so thin as to be impossible to mark, but Jack’s personality remained his own.  Altered, but not subsumed. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/interlude-25/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 25]]</ref><ref name="SB eShallow">'''Pyrde:''' So I heard that Jacob guy got a bit of fleshing out with a back story. It makes one wonder though, after all the shit he was put through, how did he become one of Worms greatest capes?<br><br>'''Wildbow:'''  Breadth and depth.<br><br>Which is ironic given how shallow he is at the core. - [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/15074640 Wildbow on Spacebattles]</ref><ref name="Reddit Shard">Except he [Leet] can't really seem to catch a break. He doesn't know it, but he's basically doing the opposite of Jack Slash and Taylor. He's explicitly out of tune with his power, he doesn't nurture it the way others do, even by general conflict - he's a little too cowardly, a little too ''safe,'' in large part, because he's hedging bets as often as not, and it's an unsatisfied shard, more prone to cause chaos for him rather than set him up to pursue it. It's trying to actively disrupt or kill its host so it can move on to greener pastures. - Wildbow [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/13876454 on Spacebattles]</ref> it believes an active Jack is preferable over letting him die.<ref name="SB eExecutiveFunction" /> Behind the scenes, Jack's shard specifically utilizes the [[shardspace|shard network]] to sabotage [[parahumans]] who work against him.<ref name="Reddit network">'''shadowmist321:''' Jack slash's power lets him send popup ads that influence the users behavior, such as being really into body modding (panacea?) or skeptical about using something they have access to (skitter: maybe I shouldn't choke him to death with bugs)<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' Jack Slash's power specifically utilizes the ''network'' side of things to sabotage the people who'd work against him.<br><br>It's largely defensive, but his personality (goes back to breadth, he grew up with this power and filled in the blanks around it) lends itself to being manipulative and finding weaknesses. It's him as a human that gets to Panacea in a weak moment, while the broadcast part of things utilizes the network to hold her at bay and keeps her from going on the offensive. There's no real influence or push here and (I feel the need to stress) her decisions over the following days and weeks are hers and hers alone. - Conversation with Wildbow [https://redd.it/nt15eg on Reddit]</ref> By interacting with other shards, these other shards may choose to favor Jack instead of their owner in subtle ways:
* Most likely of all, unconsciously alerts Jack to a potential attack from the hostile parahuman and grants him really good instincts against them.<ref>Jack gets tipped off, element of surprise is gone. Bear's throat gets slashed or it gets blinded or both.<br>[...]<br>Or, most likely of all, Jack gets an 'instinct' that someone's out there and after him and when you're just about to try and put 200 grizzly bears in Jack's neighborhood to flood him with the things, he steps out of cover, slashes you across the eyes, and you have no line of sight to anything anymore. - Wildbow on Reddit, [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/73903345 archived on Spacebattles]</ref><ref name="SB1">A combination of what Jaki said (Imp gets nudged away by her shard, she gets a bad feeling as she prepares to attack, and if and when she does attack her attack is off-target, or she hesitates, creating a window), intuition on Jack's part (suspicion, a hyperawareness of odd details, the movement of air in the room, 'it's too quiet', etc., happening to move to another location just as Imp strikes out), and leverage of the broadcast... Crawler wakes to initial commotion, he uses his full senses with his shard happening to kick into full gear (a la Skitter and her varying range) and/or moves across room, forcing Imp to back up from Jack, Shatterbird lashes out in a blind attack that happens to connect.<br><br>On that last point, the Nine can be considered to be an [editing to add 'unconscious'] extension of Jack for all intents and purposes. To Imp, it's just a 'This feels like a bad idea, I'm going to do it anyway! Fuck, missed! Oh shit, ow! Well now I'm bleeding and, it's pretty damn serious. That must be why it felt like such a bad idea!'<br>[...]<br>Take note of Jack's discussion of keystones in his first appearance. He's getting help in identifying points to manipulate, and then those points are getting nudged further in the broadcast. Communication is a two-way street. - [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/20250752/ Comments by Wildbow on Sufficient Velocity, archived on Spacebattles]</ref><ref name="reddit eTrack" />
* Attempts to dissuade parahumans from targeting him.<ref name="Reddit interact" /><ref>'''ADioFangirl:''' So me and my friend have been bickering over a debate and they just don't seem to understand the truth. Could someone with a deathnote power kill Jackslash? My friend started this debate asking if someone with a "Deathnote power but with shard" could kill Jackslash and I said no.<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' Even with the Shinigami's eyes, it wouldn't work if it were shard derived.<br><br>His full name isn't really known or publicly available, but even if it were, you've got a shard and the shard nudges you, playing on fears and concerns. You find you want to be ''sure''.<br>[...]<br>His name/history isn't publicly available, so you go looking for him with the Shinigami eyes. You browse the web looking for a good photo of Jack because obviously you don't want to go see him in person to check, right? That's too dangerous. So from halfway around the world you search for him online, and the Nine don't ''tend'' to get a lot of photos taken of them so it takes some digging. And while you're digging you get nudged. The shard reaches across the shard network to other powers which use internet and are tapped into the web or searching similar sites and you take longer than you should to find a clear photo.<br><br>It takes a long time to find a good photo because of this. You find yourself back at the same galleries of images of the same incidents, going in circles. You wonder why are there so many of the back of his head? Here's one but his face isn't visible. At the same time you're sorting through a lot of stuff about the S9 and the horrors they perpetrated. In the midst of it you find one picture of Jack but... it doesn't work - it's a person with Jack's face from that time Bonesaw made a bunch of people look like S9 members in Brockton Bay. You learn that in your haste you killed an innocent dude.<br><br>After taking a break, frustrated and mentally ''fucked'' by the accidental killing of the guy with Jack's face, you hear about another S9 attack on the news and go hunting again. Again, you're reading about the horrible S9-perpetrated attacks, but your feelings about the recent incident, how you ''should'' have been able to prevent it, and guilt over killing the guy who had Jack's face plastic surgeried on are all messing you up and throwing you off your game.<br><br>And because your shard has had time to play on you, and because you're a Stranger-class parahuman with a covert power and it's rooted in persecution, notions of execution, and some pretty intense stuff from your trigger, and the fact you gave up half your lifespan to better the world and you're fucking up this badly, it feels very, very natural that your frustration peaks, and you decide to go face him down and see his face for yourself. You're going to get that bastard, make it up to the innocent guy you killed, and then turn yourself in. You're going to get ''justice'', damn it!<br><br>And that obviously doesn't go well.<br>[...]<br>Re: shards connecting to the internet, 11.h has Bonesaw talk about how shards reference out to the broader shard network to analyze the world - some thinker shards tap into the same for general understanding or to scaffold their precog, and some clairvoyants use it to pick up information. Tinker shards that work with databases will have stuff extended out to track internet and help with that connection, there are thinkers who pick up signals or keep tabs on information, roving tinkered AI who are tapped into the shard network. - Conversation with Wildbow [https://redd.it/n4p5pe on Reddit]</ref> The hostile parahuman's shard might nudge their host away from targeting Jack,<ref name="SB1" /> keep them from going on the offensive until it is too late,<ref name="Reddit network" /> or give them a bad feeling as they prepare to attack so that if and when they do attack, they are either off-target or hesitate which gives Jack a window of opportunity.<ref name="SB1" /> Examples include [[Imp]],<ref>Jack was the key figure.  Aisha knew she could attack him, knew she maybe ''should'', but would she succeed any more than she did against Bonesaw?  Cherish might be able to lash out with some kind of blind fire, affecting the emotions of everyone nearby.<br><br>No.  Cherish was the newest member, wasn’t she?  There were better odds that Cherish didn’t have the protections that Jack and the others did. - [[Interlude 13.5 (Donation Bonus)]]</ref><ref name="SB1" /> [[Panacea]],<ref name="Reddit network" /> [[Damsel of Distress]],<ref>She focused on her end-goal.  To get Jack to let own his guard.  To blast him and then either get away or get Bonesaw too.<br>[...]<br>She thought about agreeing.  The end-goal remained the focus.  Get close, destroy him.<br><br>Ashley had a hard time responding.  She was tempted to do something suicidal and she only barely held herself back.  “You’re not convincing me, Jack.”<br>[...]<br>The goal.  She needed to keep it in mind.<br><br>Her emotions were getting away from her.<br>[...]<br>She’d hesitated, and it had cost her.  When dealing with people like this, like Accord, she couldn’t afford any weakness, and yet the weakness was built-in.<br><br>Jack drew and swung a cleaver of his own. - [[Eclipse x.8]]</ref> and [[Taylor Hebert]].<ref>I needed to signal someone about what was going on.  I was woefully underequipped, and I doubted my ability to win this alone, especially when my opponents weren’t as disadvantaged as I was.<br><br>I ''could'' use something like a giant nine crafted out of bugs floating over the school to signal that the pair was here… but there was no guarantee that someone would come.  There was also the possibility that it would lead to the good guys dropping another bomb on us.  That would get the healer and maybe even me killed.  Panacea ''had'' to survive, or everyone in the city would die in the aftermath of Bonesaw’s miasma.<br>[...]<br>I paused outside the bug-killing zone.  Flies had ferried spiders to me, and I started organizing them to produce lengths of silk cord.  I left them behind while I creeped closer and listened in.<br>[...]<br>I didn’t like the way this was going.  I looked down the hall to see the doors.  Each door had once had a window on the upper half, but there were only slivers left, the rest scattered over the floor.  In an ideal world, some distraction would present itself, or the conversation would become a heated argument and they would distract each other.  I could rise from my crouching position, step forward, aim my gun and fire.  Unload the gun’s clip on Jack and Bonesaw.<br><br>Or I’d miss, resulting in the messy deaths of Panacea, her sister and I.  I really needed that distraction if I was going to do this. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/prey-14-10/ Excerpt] from [[Prey 14.10]]</ref><ref>Jack probably had a rebuttal to my question, but I wasn’t about to speak up to hear it, and Panacea didn’t ask.  She fell silent.<br><br>I was tensed, ready to move and shoot the second an opportunity arose.  Anything would suffice.  Anything would do.<br><br>I visualized it, the steps I’d take to open fire, and I realized that the shards of glass on the ground between me and the door could provide them with a half-second of warning.  Slowly, carefully, I began brushing the shards aside, keeping my ears peeled for some clue about a key distraction.<br>[...]<br>I almost stood right then, to open fire before she [Amy] made a decision one way or another.  I had to convince myself to wait, that no matter what they were saying, they wouldn’t leave right this instant.<br><br>Then I heard the sound of glass crunching in time with someone’s footsteps.<br><br>With the length of time I’d waited for an opportunity, I was going to take what I could get.  My heart pounded, my hands shook even as I gripped the gun as hard as I could, but I let out a slow breath as I drew myself smoothly to a standing position and stepped into the doorway, pointing the gun through the window frame in the door.<br><br>They hadn’t heard me move.  It left me a second to take in the scene and make sure I was shooting the right people. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/prey-14-10/ Excerpt] from [[Prey 14.10]]</ref><ref name="14.10 eShootJack" />
* If Jack is isolated, the shards of the other members of the [[Nine]] might nudge their hosts to move towards the location of the hostile parahuman.<ref name="Reddit eIsolated" /><ref name="SB1" />
* Powers of hostile parahumans might not work optimally.<ref>Power pushes bear into our reality/creates a bear, but the process is rougher than usual (parahuman blames it on tension, bad shard connection, etc). So the bear just happens (via. power interference) to be more bewildered and sluggish than usual, heart skipping a beat, not enough air in its lungs. Jack gets tipped off, element of surprise is gone. Bear's throat gets slashed or it gets blinded or both. The parahuman finds they needed a bit more concentration or they're caught off guard by the bear acting weird and they miss the fact that if they have line of sight to Jack then Jack has line of sight to them. Or line of effect for the blade's edge. Jack whips out his knife and cuts their throat from a distance.<br><br>You can qualify, you can quibble, you can tack on extra powers, but Jack doesn't lose to parahumans. The shard that gives the bear summoning could easily have something in its back pocket for if the parahuman decides the bear summoning is too inconvenient and decides to never use her power again. A way the power can act up, that it can get accidentally used when the parahuman is anxious & distracted (summoning a bear in close proximity), new uses that emerge at the worst moment, etc. And through communication with the Broadcast shard the Goldilocks shard may throw a wrench into the works in the midst of whatever you're trying to pull against Jack.<br><br>And even if he's isolated in the moment, that same aspect of Jack's shard (Broadcast reaching out to shards) can bring the S9 over to you. The power isn't going to work optimally, or accurately, or you're going to find out your power has a subtle weakness or chance of backfiring at the worst possible moment. Or, most likely of all, Jack gets an 'instinct' that someone's out there and after him and when you're just about to try and put 200 grizzly bears in Jack's neighborhood to flood him with the things, he steps out of cover, slashes you across the eyes, and you have no line of sight to anything anymore. - Wildbow on Reddit, [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/73903345 archived on Spacebattles]</ref><ref name="reddit eCEO">Because they're boomers they don't really understand the tech and a lot of it is screened off from them, right?<br><br>Boomer has an app that mail orders feral bears? "I guess we have to deliver, but let's just order some really shitty bears and have the driver honk his horn to alert the CEO, and if our boomer makes any mistakes in the ordering and isn't focused then we'll just empty the truckload of bears right in front of him." - Wildbow [https://redd.it/n4p5pe on Reddit], [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/worm-quotes-and-wog-repository.294448/page-24?post=91563426#post-91563426| archived]] on Spacebattles</ref><!-- Spacebattles link broken? Remove | at end of url --><ref name = "MegacorpJack"/> To favor Jack, the hostile parahuman's shard might liberally interpret existing drawbacks.<ref>'''Infinitron200:''' What the fuck do you mean by "half your lifespan is all your lifespan". Shards are not that fucking dumb. They are literal organic supercomputers with more processing power than we will ever have, and you are telling me that it can interpret half of something as ALL OF IT? Ok, so in your universe, if I cut a cake in half, and give half to someone else, I actually still have all the cake. If someone would normally live 100 years, taking half their lifespan is 50 years gone. So, your Shards can calculate the ending of the universe and generate numerous possible solutions, but they can't do simple math?<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' If you have 4 minutes left before a theoretical stroke and the shard cuts your time down to 2 minutes, and you die before you can get around to reading Jack Slash's details and writing Jack Slash's terms of death, who's going to argue the point or argue that stroke wasn't going to happen? You're dead and shards can move on. The mechanism is there for shards to use. Your drawbacks, whatever else, can be tweaked or liberally interpreted. Leet's misfires, Rachel's dog-minded thinking, Damsel's dangerously light trigger on her power. Eden as the thinker would have been doing this a lot more, fogging perception and drawing on/manipulating drawbacks. - Conversation with Wildbow [https://redd.it/n4p5pe on Reddit], [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/worm-quotes-and-wog-repository.294448/page-24?post=91563426#post-91563426| archived]] on Spacebattles</ref><!-- Spacebattles link broken? Remove | at end of url -->
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Jack has a much more subtle secondary power grants him enhanced intuition regarding parahumans, as well as an ability to unconsciously influence the emotions of anyone connected to a shard, along with the shards themselves to influence their own hosts' actions to his advantage, and that not only does his power help identify weak points in parahumans for him to manipulate, but also that those points are further agitated by his power.
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Note that his [[shard]] is better at sabotaging [[parahumans]] such as [[Ash Beast]] and [[Khepri]] whose loss of self gives their shards more of a say.<ref name = "MegacorpJack">'''Depression-the-Game:''' Alright so, Jack Slash doesn't lose against parahumans. What about shard controlled Parahumans? Like Ash Beast or Khepri.<br><br>'''Wildbow:'''For an analogy, think of boomers trying to use an app a bizarre sci-fi megacorp designed to kill an executive officer of that megacorp's company. ''And'' that megacorp is monitoring them ''and'' they control their internet, the data they see, and you're tracking them. The boomer, for whatever reason, can't ditch their phone (In setting, it's stuck to their brain).<br><br>Because they're boomers they don't really understand the tech and a lot of it is screened off from them, right?<br><br>Boomer has an app that mail orders feral bears? "I guess we have to deliver, but let's just order some really shitty bears and have the driver honk his horn to alert the CEO, and if our boomer makes any mistakes in the ordering and isn't focused then we'll just empty the truckload of bears right in front of him."<br><br>App to get someone killed? They hook it up to your boomer's pacemaker and reserve the ability to stop his heart when his lifespan (going by compiled insurance data from up to 150 providers) is halfway up, in exchange for giving him data to call in accurate hits. He just made that install and your tracking indicates he's intending to call a hit in on your CEO? Use just the two providers that give the shortest lifespan, cut that in half, (he should be in 4 minutes, according to sketchy companies A and B? hit that button to stop our boomer's pacemaker!) Or lean on your megacorp's subsidiary companies and track what he's doing on the internet to slow him down. Mess with his head.<br><br>Utilizing a shard-controlled parahuman is getting ''deeper'' into the megacorp's control.<br><br>The way it works is that you want to rely on someone who isn't using the megacorp's tech or who isn't tracked and monitored by the megacorp. Anything else is going to see the executive officer getting a courtesy phone call and your tech guys are going to do everything they can to mess with your potential threat.<br><br>Anything else is liable to be a "Gee, why can't I use my app from megacorp to destroy a megacorp executive officer?" - Conversation with Wildbow on Reddit, [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/worm-quotes-and-wog-repository.294448/page-24?post=91563426#post-91563426| archived]] on Spacebattles</ref><!-- Spacebattles link broken? Remove | at end of url --><ref>Many breakers can go permanent breaker. Shadow Stalker, for example, doesn't have any strict forces in play that forces her to conserve the breaker state or balance her living & breaker state.<br><br>But it's still bad times for those who go that route, because they're forced to or because they prefer life in the breaker state to their ordinary life. Breakers have a closer connection to their passenger than any cape, and in the course of diving deeper into their breaker state and not, for lack of a better phrasing, surfacing for air, they begin to lose themselves and the shard gets more of a say. This is, very obviously, not a good thing. We see this sort of mentality in Khepri, and we can assume something like it in Night Hag.<br>[...]<br>The breaker document includes some examples (the Atropos breaker, the consequences for death breakers in general) of ways the passenger might seep in or that life might suddenly get harder, when one lapses fully into a breaker state.<br><br>So just wanted to point out that this is a thing that happens - and ego death often goes hand in hand with it. By the flip side of that same coin, to finally get around to answering your question - ego death, momentary, partial, or permanent, would destroy the Self and insert more Breakerness into the void that's left behind.<br><br>Most of the time they rampage - Ash Beast and Night Hag and the like. But if the shard isn't equipped to take advantage of the opportunity (Cauldron shards, Eden shards in general), maybe the self comes back and you get a Grumman. - Wildbow on Reddit, [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/35365744 archived on Spacebattles]</ref>

Although Jack's [[shard]] can only sabotage for defensive purposes<ref name="Reddit network" /> to protect only Jack,<ref name="reddit eTriggerDeath" /><ref name="reddit eSecondTriggerDeath" /> it allows him to generally triumph over [[parahumans]] in a fight where possible and instinctively avoid situations where he cannot beat the parahuman opposition.<ref name="R1">Jack's dynamic hinges on the fact that he surrounds himself with members of the S9, which are effectively a wrecking crew vs. the unpowered, he has a great deal of clout when it comes to raw intimidation, and his power makes it so that he generally triumphs over powered individuals where possible, and instinctively avoids situations where he can't avoid the ones he can't beat.<br><br>The situation as you portray it is essentially, "You have to capture Taylor, there are no bugs in the area, her friends aren't nearby and don't know her situation, and she's hogtied in the basement without any ability to undo the bonds herself." - [https://redd.it/3lmco6 partial comment on Reddit]</ref><ref name="II12.x e1" /> Thus, parahumans cannot kill him [[Jack#Vulnerabilities|without outside interference]].<ref name="Reddit interact">'''A)''' Broadcast would reach out to the shard well before the point of that other shard triggering. His very shard interacts with others to dissuade things that would target him. Parahumans don't kill Jack, as a firm rule. This isn't an arbitrary protection. It's an in-story protection that got a fair bit of time and focus in the narrative, toward the end. - Wildbow on Reddit, [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/72724278 archived on Spacebattles]</ref><ref name="Reddit eIsolated">You can qualify, you can quibble, you can tack on extra powers, but ''Jack doesn't lose to parahumans''.<br>[...]<br>And even if he's isolated in the moment, that same aspect of Jack's shard (Broadcast reaching out to shards) can bring the S9 over to you. - Wildbow on Reddit, [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/73903345 archived on Spacebattles]</ref> This secondary power allows him to effectively beat powerful parahumans such as [[Citrine]], [[the Siberian]], [[Gray Boy]], [[Number Man]], and arguably even [[Contessa]].<ref name="Reddit Beat">'''ReekRhymesWithWeak:''' He still gets wrecked by trumps like citrine, and there are some capes that just completely destroy him such as The Siberian, Grey Boy, Number Man (can dodge Jack's attacks), and so on<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' Jack beats Citrine, Siberian, Grey Boy (until interfered with by outside sources), Number Man and arguably Contessa. - [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/32xu26/_/cqfzv58|Reddit Comment]] by Wildbow, [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/19115968|archived]] on Spacebattles.</ref> It also allows him to avoid dying to an unexpected [[trigger event]] or [[second trigger|second trigger event]].<ref name="reddit eTriggerDeath">'''B)''' Trump triggers are rarer, and triggers where the victim murder-suicides immediately after are vanishingly rare. It's just not part of their design. You'd need a specific Eden shard broken in a specific way, in a specific time and place. A trump trigger that would die immediately after doing its job (of killing a target; Jack is out, but let's say we changed it to Bonesaw or Siberian) is, well, a fraction of vanishingly rare. - Wildbow on Reddit, [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/72724278 archived on Spacebattles]</ref><ref name="reddit eSecondTriggerDeath">A second trigger is a very rare event with, what, three that happen over the course of the various Parahumans stories? This is why she's excited and wants her data, and why she's more off guard than she'd be otherwise. Could he have killed her? Yes. But it's (IIRC) a first for Bonesaw and a thing that's happened maybe 1-2 times (counting Brian) with the Nine as a whole. Jack is always going to be ok, for reasons previously stated. A couple of members of the Nine may die along the way, but stuff like that's so uncommon it's not really worth diving into.  - Wildbow on Reddit, [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/72724278 archived on Spacebattles]</ref><ref name="Reddit interact" />

As Jack triggered at a young age, he expanded the breadth of his power as he grew up. His close connection and personality led to his [[shard]] also giving him enhanced intuition regarding [[parahumans]]; this allows him to better manipulate them and find their weaknesses.<ref name="Reddit network" /><ref name="27.2 e1">Tattletale nodded, “Thought so.  So let’s think about that.  He’s got a thinker power that lets him manipulate parahumans, or read them, or gauge how they’ll react.  He uses it, probably unconsciously, to constantly maintain the edge.  And he gets ''bored''.  You’ve seen him get bored, haven’t you, ''Riley''?”<br><br>“Yes.”<br><br>“Yes.  And when he gets bored, he sets up scenarios like the game in Brockton Bay, the test with Golem coming after him, whatever else.  It usually falls apart before it comes to a head, because Jack is chaos incarnate, people cheat, Jack cheats, and so it goes.  So tell me, do you really think he wouldn’t let you have a little slack to see how you’d operate?”<br><br>Bonesaw didn’t respond.<br><br>“Yeah.  ''Exactly'',” Tattletale said.  “Your art?  It’s ''his'' art.  Your power and everything you do with it, it’s stuff he’s shaped.”<br><br>“That’s not true.  I come up with my own ideas,” Bonesaw sounded almost defiant.  She’d also, I noted, forgotten the original message, saying her art wasn’t important to her.<br><br>“His ideas.  Everything’s tainted with ''Jack''.  And you know it better than I do.  You can think of all the little scenes and conversations.  How your favorite projects were the ones your ''family'' applauded.  The ones ''Jack'' praised, above all.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/extinction-27-2/ Excerpt] from [[Extinction 27.2]]</ref> For example, he had better control over [[Gray Boy]] compared with [[King]] because he intuitively knew how other parahumans operated, their weak points, and their motivations.<ref name="SB eGrayBoyKing">King had a flimsy hold, Jack had a stronger hold. The former Gray Boy was closer to a Labyrinth in full-on powers mode than anything else. Using powers indiscriminately, staying within an area. King was effectively immune to him, and used this to introduce himself and start leading him around.<br><br>Jack cheats. He instinctively, intuitively knows how other parahumans operate, their weak points and their motivations, and was able to leverage original Gray Boy in this way, and the new Gray Boy in a similar way. - [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/13172170 Wildbow on Spacebattles]</ref> However, Jack can be misinformed. He erroneously believes [[Skitter]] triggered because of [[Annette Hebert|her mother]]'s death.<ref>“Alas.  Well, while I’m interpreting you two, I’d say Skitter is ''driven'' by guilt.  What makes you feel so guilty, bug girl?”<br>[...]<br>“There’s always ''some'' guilt related to family.  Tell me, what would your mother think, to see you on an average day?  Or can’t you remember her with the miasma?  I’d almost forgotten.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/prey-14-10/ Excerpt] from [[Prey 14.10]]</ref><ref>“You’re too big for your boots, Weaver,” Jack said.  “You had a few critical successes and you’ve run with them.  Earned yourself a reputation.  But at the end of the day, you’re still the same pathetic bug controller who got her powers because her ''mommy died''.” - [[Sting 26.6]]</ref> He also had no clue [[the Siberian]] was a projection until [[Manton]] told him.<ref>Siberian was tricky.  He doubted anyone else in the group was even aware, but their most feral member harbored a fondness for Bonesaw.  Siberian had little imagination, and was perfectly comfortable rehashing the same violent and visceral scenarios time and again, but she nonetheless enjoyed Bonesaw’s work.  She saw a kind of beauty in it.  Even more than that, he sometimes wondered if Siberian didn’t reciprocate Bonesaw’s desire for family.  Bonesaw alternately referred to Siberian as an older sister or the family pet, but Siberian’s fondness for Bonesaw bordered on the maternal, like a mother bear for her cub.  Did anyone else in the group note how Siberian seemed to keep Bonesaw’s company, to assume she would accompany the young girl when she went out, and carefully kept Bonesaw in sight at all times?<br><br>Siberian’s stick was Bonesaw, the possibility of losing the girl’s company in one way, shape, or form.  Threats against the girl would be met with a fury like no other.  Boredom, similarly, would see Siberian stalking off on her own to amuse herself, a scenario that grounded the group until Siberian’s return hours or days later.  Such usually meant a hasty retreat as the heroes who had realized that they could not defeat Siberian came after the rest of the group. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/interlude-12/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 12]]</ref><ref>Lisa nodded.  “Sure.  What if she’s like Genesis?  Or Crusader?  What if Siberian has a very real, vulnerable human body somewhere nearby, always has, and the body she’s using is a projection?  Maybe it’s something even Jack doesn’t know.” - [[Prey 14.1]]</ref><ref>“''He finds the Siberians boring, I imagine'',” Tattletale commented, over the channel.  “''Before, they were an enigma.  Now they’re just… the same thing, over and over.  Tearing people apart.''” - [[Sting 26.5]]</ref>

Jack's [[shard]] does not give him mind control. When he tried to recruit [[Panacea]], he and his shard had no real influence or push on her (i.e., what she did to [[Victoria]] was ultimately her decision alone).<ref name="Reddit network" /> He failed to convince [[Harbinger]] to stay with the [[Nine]],<ref name="II20.e3 eVision">''Jacob has his vision of the future.  Bloody and ruined.  Us as Kings.''<br><br>''I don’t know how to tell him I find his idea dull.''<br>[...]<br>''The world is expanding, new things are happening.  Nicholas made mention of people who know how to hand out powers and the others don’t seem to care.  Not enough.''<br><br>Things were happening, ''changing''.  He’d been drawn here and drawn to accept King’s offer in part because he wanted to be at the center of the change.  Now he knew that the center lay somewhere else. - [[Last 20.e3]]</ref><ref>“I’m… no.  I won’t.”<br>[...]<br>“No.  That’s just it.  I don’t want to keep doing this.”<br><br>“You said it yourself.  You feel the rush, like you’re on the cusp of something greater.”<br><br>“I do feel it, but I think I can get there by walking a different road,” Harbinger said.<br><br>He could see the disappointment on Jack’s face. - [[Interlude 21.x]]</ref> get [[Marquis]] to break his rules,<ref>"It's the name you were born with.  Imagine my surprise when I found out your relation to Marquis.  In my last visit to Brockton Bay, I crossed paths with each of the major players.  I met the man.  I must tell you, Amelia, he was a very interesting character."<br><br>"I don't really want to know."<br><br>"I'm going to tell you.  And I have another motive, but I'll get to that in a moment.  Marquis was a man of ''honor''.  He decided on the rules he would play by and he stuck to them.  He put his life and limb at risk to try to keep me from killing women and children, and I decided to see if I could use that to break him.  I admit I failed."<br>[...]<br>"No.  What I'm saying is that Marquis would not have killed the girl, even under duress; that was one of the rules he set for himself.  If he was going to violate that rule, he would have done it when I'd tried to break him." - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/prey-14-10/ Excerpt] from [[Prey 14.10]]</ref> or get [[Skitter]] to kill [[Battery]] even with the help of [[Bonesaw]]'s [[agnosia plague]].<ref>I stared at the bound woman who was prone on the ground, half-covered in my bugs.  She was looking in my direction.<br><br>“It bugs me.  This is too easy.  If the Nine were this easy to take out, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”<br>[...]<br>“Then ''end'' this.”<br><br>I shook my head, as if I could clear it.  It wasn’t that I wasn’t thinking clearly, necessarily.  It was that my thoughts kept hitting that dead-end where I couldn’t reach back for context about people, about Tattletale and Grue and the Nine.  I was in the dark.<br><br>What I did know was that I’d done too many things I regretted.  I wasn’t about to add something as serious as murder to the list.<br>[...]<br>“I care.  More than you know.  But you told me, not long ago, that I should follow my heart, trust my gut.  Fine.  That’s what I’m doing.  You attack her, I’ll fight to save her.”<br>[...]<br>“It was fun.  I almost wish I’d nominated you for the Nine.  You’re versatile, and there’s so many weak points I could have exploited if I’d had more time.  If Cherish’s information on you wasn’t so misleading, I think I could have made you shoot the heroine.  To corrupt you like that, it would have been amusing.” - [[Prey 14.9]]</ref> Jack specifically asked Bonesaw to only clone one [[Gray Boy]] as he did not know if he could manage more.<ref>It would be like Gray Boy to use his power and take out someone in the room, just because he ''could''.  Jack had only wanted one, and the unspoken reality was that he only wanted one because he could only ''control'' one. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/interlude-25/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 25]]</ref>

The secondary power provided by his [[shard]] is so subtle that Jack himself is unaware of it.<ref name="IRC eSubtle"><Olivebirdy> Nice.<br><Olivebirdy> He's good at reading expressions and tones?<br><Wildbow> The broadcast aspect of the shard builds on Jack's natural ability to read people. So it blurs the line and makes it so that even he can't see when & where the shard has stepped in to inform him - Conversation with Wildbow on IRC, [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/26923135 archived on Spacebattles]</ref><ref>“You sound like Tattletale.  That’s not a compliment.”<br><br>“My ability to read people is learned, not given, I assure you.  Most of the conclusions I’ve come to have been from the cues you’ve given me.  Body language, tone, things you’ve said.  And I know these sorts of things and what to look for because I’ve met others like you.  ''That''’s what I’m offering you.  A chance to be with similar people for the first time in your life, a chance to be ''yourself'',  to have everything you want, and to be with ''me''.  I suspect you’ve never been around someone who actually paid attention to you.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/prey-14-10/ Excerpt] from [[Prey 14.10]]</ref><ref name="27.2 e1" /> Handing out this shard is standard procedure because it gives [[Scion]] and [[Eden]] the opportunity to see how the host species interact with a seemingly unbeatable secondary power.<ref name="Reddit experiment" /><ref>The others hurried to confine the broadcaster.  They were apparently aware of what he could do.<br><br>''Interesting''. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/10/interlude-26/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 26]]</ref>

====Vulnerabilities====
To neutralize or kill Jack Slash, one must rely on an individual who is not part of the [[shardspace|shard network]], as they are effectively a blind spot to the [[List_of_Shards#The_Broadcast_Shard|Broadcast]] [[shard]] and cannot be sabotaged.<ref name="26.x eUnaware">The entity observed as the fight concluded elsewhere.<br><br>The broadcaster remained unaware as an individual without any attachment to shards at all entered the confined space, unloading a vaguely familiar substance over the group.  Something the entity might recollect if it had access to all of its memories.  A technology.<br><br>It didn’t matter.<br><br>The entity watched as the broadcaster was sealed in a time distortion. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/10/interlude-26/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 26]]</ref><ref name = "MegacorpJack" /> When [[Golem]] figured out Jack's secondary power,<ref>''What does Jack do?''<br><br>He grasped for a thought and failed.<br><br>No.  He needed to think about it from a different angle.<br><br>What does ''Weaver'' do? - [[Interlude 26b]]</ref><ref name="27.2 eSurround">“You thought Jack had a thinker power.  Why?  What?”<br><br>There was a pause.<br><br>“Because he’s like Weaver.  He reacts like someone that is way too aware of what’s going on.”<br><br>''Acts like me?''<br><br>I’d made the comparison myself, but I’d tempered that, held back as I formed that conclusion.  Hearing it in such a blunt way stung as much as a slap in the face.<br><br>“And you sent in the D.T. guy because-”<br><br>“Because Weaver surrounds herself with bugs, and Jack surrounds himself with capes.  The non-cape is the only variable we haven’t seriously tried.  The ''competent'' non-cape.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/extinction-27-2/ Excerpt] from [[Extinction 27.2]]</ref> [[Dinah]]'s power successfully confirmed that Golem's plan to send in a [[Dragon's_Teeth|D. T. officer]] against Jack was the right move.<ref>“Dinah.”<br><br>“''Three questions left.''”<br><br>“What’s the chance?  For what I’m thinking right now?”<br><br>“''Allowing for the fuzz I’m getting from Scion’s presence above you?  Seventy.''”<br><br>Seventy.<br><br>“''The numbers are better,''” she said.  “You’re on the right path.”<br><br>“I know,” he said. - [[Interlude 26b]]</ref> Golem then ordered a D. T. officer to distract Jack.<ref>“Okay,” Golem said.  “I’ll get you that distraction.”<br><br>“Was going to use my bugs, get Clockblocker.  With him, ''maybe'' we can take out both at once.”<br><br>“Don’t,” Golem replied, tensing up despite himself.  He’d nearly raised his voice to the point that Jack could hear.  Foil’s continued screaming drowned him out.<br><br>“I… won’t.  What are you thinking?”<br><br>“That there’s an answer.  A stupid, silly answer.”<br><br>He stood, resisting the urge to groan, and he approached the end of the rooftop closest to the heroes who were defending the areas outside of the alleyway.<br><br>He gestured, signaling to one.  When they didn’t move, bewildered, he created a hand, pushing them.<br><br>Others, he stopped.  A shake of his head.  Clockblocker was out.  So was Imp.  Grue, Vista, Kid Win, Cuff and Grace wouldn’t do.<br><br>Only this person would serve. - [[Interlude 26b]]</ref> Despite Dinah's power providing an optimal path and timing,<ref>Two more questions?”<br><br>“Yeah.”<br><br>“Left or right?”<br><br>“''Right.''”<br><br>''The long way around.''  Not the way he would have expected.<br><br>“Now, or wait?”<br><br>No response.<br><br>He gestured, and he created hands pointing the way.<br><br>“''Now'',” she said. - [[Interlude 26b]]</ref> and Golem's power pointing the officer in the right direction and moving him into position,<ref>This would be the moment everything fell into place.<br><br>The man made his way down to the end of the alley, and Golem created more hands;  six hands in a matter of seconds, sticking out of the wall.  Each pointing in the direction they needed.  He created a platform and started raising it.  Raising their potential savior up towards the top of the wall of looped time. - [[Interlude 26b]]</ref> Jack was completely unaware of the incoming distraction.<ref name="26.x eUnaware" /> Lacking a shard, the officer armed with tinkertech successfully distracted Jack by spraying [[containment foam]] in his direction.<ref>The man leaped down from the top of the wall.  His light armored suit absorbed his fall, made it quiet.<br><br>The D.T. uniform.<br><br>He sprayed containment foam at both Jack and Siberian. - [[Interlude 26b]]</ref> Although the containment foam did not actually reach Jack, this distraction was more than enough for [[Tecton]] to punch Jack in the stomach and escape being held hostage.<ref>Nothing.  It wouldn’t achieve a thing.<br><br>But Tecton took the moment of Jack’s blindness to duck, to strike the ground.<br><br>The Siberian wasn’t immune to gravity.  She fell, and just for a moment, she broke contact with Jack.<br><br>Tecton slammed his fist into Jack’s stomach. - [[Interlude 26b]]</ref> [[Gray Boy]], disgusted by this weakness, turned on Jack and looped him;<ref>The Siberian leaped out of the fissure, then paced towards Jack.<br><br>Her hand stopped an inch away from him.  She lowered it.<br><br>Jack had turned gray.  Trapped, looped.<br><br>“Pathetic,” Gray Boy said.  “Stupid, useless.  I thought you’d do something ''interesting'', but you made yourself prey, instead of the predator.  If you’re going to be prey, I want you to be ''my'' prey.”<br><br>It dawned on Golem.  Gray Boy ''froze him''. - [[Interlude 26b]]</ref><ref>“You cannot hold yourself straight.  You are weak enough that to be alongside you would bring me lower than I stand now.  You understand?”<br><br>''Like Grey Boy, turning on Jack because Jack failed and showed a degree of weakness''. - [[Venom 29.8]]</ref> the D. T. officer's interference meant Jack could no longer beat Gray Boy.<ref name="Reddit Beat" /> This resulted in a genuine defeat for Jack,<ref name="reddit eJackFall">The big plot point around Jack's fall is "how could he have made it this far without getting killed? His power isn't that good. Oh, there has to be something going on." It's established early on from the earliest commentary by Grue and stressed several times before the final explanation. It's, in the overall narrative and in the in-story justification, a big factor in framing who Jack is and how he functions.<br><br>It just feels to me like having a murder mystery where a hitman deploys a hard to obtain explosive device, someone remarks at the outset: "that's expensive! He shouldn't have that much money." Readers throughout remark on how it tests suspension of disbelief that this disheveled hitman has all these resources. Then at the end, things tie together with him being funded by a foreign government. Once our protagonists find that out, they can catch him.<br><br>...And there's a group of readers saying "Yeah, but how did he pay for his ''hotel''? He didn't have a job."<br><br>I'm not trying to fire shots, no. If I didn't convey the plot point well enough, or it didn't land for a given reader, that's fair and fine. S9000 arc wasn't me at my best. But if it's readers taking a circuitous route and settling on "this was a plot hole" instead of drawing a short line between a big plot point and the thing they're trying to resolve, that's exasperating. - Wildbow on Reddit, [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/72724278 archived on Spacebattles]</ref> whose shard wanted him to stay active,<ref name="SB eExecutiveFunction" /> and ultimately led to his death.<ref name="II20.e3 eCollapse" />

Although [[Scion]] can successfully kill Jack if needed, Jack's cape kill count is not high enough to merit his interference.<ref name="Reddit experiment" /> However, Scion did see a possible future where he stood over Jack's corpse.<ref name="26.x eFutureVision">The entity looked to the future, looked to possible worlds, and it saw the ways this could have unfolded.  It burned a year off of the entity’s life, but he had thousands to spare anyways.<br><br>There was a scene where the entity stood over the broadcaster’s corpse and ruminated on what had driven the male to such extremes.  The shard wasn’t a particularly aggressive one.<br><br>A scene where the man died, and years passed, the entity slowly coming to the same conclusions as it observed the rest of the species. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/10/interlude-26/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 26]]</ref>