Editing Taylor Hebert (section)

===Control ===
She can make her minions do things that they would not normally do, and push them to the limit where they end up harming themselves with how much effort they put in.<ref>[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/lets-read-worm-finished.11460/page-239#post-2851377 Comment by Wildbow on Sufficent Velocity]</ref>She can make them destroy themselves to accomplish tasks,<ref>I sent the roaches after him, the PRT uniform.  They landed on him, individually squeezed into the pouches on his belt and bandoleer.<br><br>Found the keys on his belt.<br><br>Getting the keys out of the pouch was harder.  I had to be smooth, and the keychain was heavy enough that the roaches couldn’t pick it up with their mouths.  Instead, I tried lifting it up with the middle of a roach’s body, supported by the rest.  No luck, it slipped free off of the convex exterior of the cockroach’s shell.<br><br>I turned it upside down, instead, used the more textured underside to catch the loop of metal.  The rest of the roaches latched on, hauled the roach up and out of the pouch, squeezed it through the flap-covered opening, breaking it nearly in two against the metal of the ring as they drove it through the too-narrow gap.  One roach dead, but the keys were falling free of the pouch. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/extermination-8-6/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.6]]</ref> produce so much web silk that they physically couldn't produce any more<ref name="14.4c1">[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/09/15/prey-14-4/#comment-4228 Comment by Wildbow] on [[Prey 14.4]]</ref> or stinging while injecting little<ref name="15.9">[[Colony 15.9]]</ref> to no venom.<ref name="6.7">[[Tangle 6.7]]</ref> She doesn't require "organized" insects. Once they leave her range and she stops controlling them, her bugs revert to their normal behavior patterns.<ref name="12.1c1"/> However, if she has given a command to them while still in her range, she must intentionally dismiss the instruction she gave them or give them a new one, or else they will continue to fulfil their last command. This resulted in the accidental murder of [[James Tagg|Director Tagg]] when she was knocked unconscious, as her last order to 'sting him' was not interrupted by her, so her insects stung him to death without her able to stop them.<ref> - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/05/14 Excerpt] from [[Cell 22.5]]</ref>

Her power designates what classifies as a "bug", and thus what she can control, during her Trigger Event based upon her understanding of the term and the human knowledge of parahuman hosts within [[the Firmament|Shard Network]]. As such, Taylor's notion of a 'bug' is nebulous and sometimes inaccurate.<ref name="discordBreed"/> Her power doesn't work on creatures below a certain size, such as skin mites<ref name="15.1c1">It’s been stated in the comments, but Taylor’s power doesn’t let her control bugs below a certain size. It’s why she can’t sense skin mites. - 
[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/colony-15-1/#comment-5089 Comment by Wildbow] on [[Colony 15.1]]</ref> or nematodes, which prevents her from sensing people through the microsophic insects on or inside the human body, nor could her power affect squid.<ref name="Infest-11.7">[https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/06/09/infestation-11-7/#comment-2387 Comment reply] by Wildbow, [https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/worm-quotes-and-wog-repository.294448/page-3#post-14797607 archived on Spacebattles] - '''Questions''': A) Has she used her ability on snails or slugs? Probably not due to their lack of combat utility, but it would interesting as whilst still ganglionic, Mollusca nervous systems are a whole leap ahead of arthropods and annelids.<br><br>B) Trying to use her power on squid would be even more interesting as they have actual complex brains in addition to a ganglionic nervous system. If she can bypass their brains it would imply all sorts of things of what she could do to higher animals. What is the sinoatrial node of the vertebrate heart if it isn’t a very stupid ganglionic subbrain?<br>[...]<br>D) At the other end of the scale, can she pick up the signals of nematodes? They are more closely related to insects than insects are to worms, and they do have discrete nervous systems. If yes then she effectively has a ‘life radar’ as every single vertebrate has millions of the things in their gut all the time. Ditto every patch of soil and plant. Not useful offensively but would still be pretty amazing to have. Same question obviously with Rotifers, which certainly have as much brain as tapeworms and are near as ubiquitous as nematodes.<br>'''Wildbow ''': A) Yes. She can control them.<br><br>B) Squids are out of bounds.<br><br>D) Not stated outright in the story, but her inability to sense people suggests that she can’t sense/control nematodes (or dust/skin mites for that matter). Not saying it’s definitely for sure, but a probable reason would be due to size constraints. A minimum size.Not stated outright in the story, but her inability to sense people suggests that she can’t sense/control nematodes (or dust/skin mites for that matter). Not saying it’s definitely for sure, but a probable reason would be due to size constraints. A minimum size.</ref> At different times, she speculated that she could control anything with an exoskeleton or shell -- which wouldn't explain how she could control earthworms -- and that it was the subject having a non-complex nervous system.<ref name="3.1">“I used to think I could control anything with an exoskeleton or shell.  But I can control earthworms too, among other things, and they don’t have shells.  I think all it takes is that they have to have very simple brains.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/agitation-3-1/ Excerpt] from [[Agitation 3.1]]</ref> It's possible that she could control bugmen, depending on their brain makeup and chemistry.<ref name="I5c1">'''Um the Muse:''' Hmm, I wonder if Skitter could affect the various bugmen? I know that she said that it had to do with the size of the brain involved, but how certain is that?<br><br>'''wildbow:''' Probably would depend on their brain makeup & chemistry.<br><br>But I think the real concern wouldn’t be so much ‘Is it possible’ as the ethics involved. - [http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2011/12/10/interlude-5/#comment-485 Comment by Wildbow on] [[Interlude 5]]</ref> However, she could not control bug-like [[Case 53s]],<ref>'''thetntm:''' I don’t know if it was a word of god or a head cannon or something, but I remember reading that because Taylor’s power went off of her mental image of “creepy crawlers” when determining what counted as a “bug,” she could have controlled a sufficiently bug-like case 53.<br><br>My question is, could Aiden do the same, but with birds?<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' Bonesaw talks a bit in Worm 11.h about how the shard reaches out and uses hosts & hosts' connections to other hosts & the hub to suss out definitions and categories.<br><br>Aiden's (and the collective unconscious's) perceptions wouldn't include a part-bird, part-human because they wouldn't be familiar with such and it wouldn't be regularly in that initial, "Think about a bird!" instant connection.<br><br>For taylor, pulling more from the rest-of-the-world perceptions, crabs sorta kinda fall in that bucket, atlas falls in that bucket, while we aren't aware enough of skin mites or Hercules the beetle C-53 to really grok it. - Wildbow on Reddit, [https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/worm-quotes-and-wog-repository.294448/page-21#post-57716764 archived] on Spacebattles</ref><ref name="discordBreed"/> [[Breed]]'s creatures,<ref>“''Breed’s creatures.  Can you control them?''” this from Revel, taking advantage of the stunned silence.<br><br>I glanced up at the body the things had invaded.  I tailored my response so both Revel and the Undersiders could make sense of it.  “I can’t control those things, and I can’t sense them either.” - [[Sting 26.1]]</ref><ref name="discordBreed">'''Chiro:''' I was wondering as of late, why Taylor can't control Breed's parasites? Is it because they as lifeforms don't fall into the portfolio of creatures Taylor controls, or because Breed controls them already?<br><br>'''Kyakan:''' might be as simple as them not being around when Taylor's power was defining what counted as "bug"<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' Kyak has it right. Bonesaw talks about how shards conceptualize their idea of what X is when the trigger happens.<br>It's why Taylor's notion of what a 'bug' is remains pretty nebulous, including some things (crabs, earthworms, arachnids, insects) and bypassing others (skin mites, bug case 53s).<br>And it's not just Taylor- it pulls from the shard network of wider human knowledge across hosts. - Conversation with Wildbow on Discord, [https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/worm-quotes-and-wog-repository.294448/page-21#post-53539480 archived] on Spacebattles</ref> or any insects cloned by [[Echidna]].<ref>I might have missed it if I hadn’t had the bugs pressed together to contain the rats.  I ''had'' missed it already, countless times.  Wasps, hornets and cockroaches were crawling free of the slurry of flesh that Noelle had vomited into the building’s lobby.  They were attacking my bugs and any people they found.<br><br>I couldn’t sense them, and I couldn’t control them. - [[Queen 18.7]]</ref><ref name="18.8 e1">“She’s been absorbing my bugs.  She’s spitting out some, and I can’t control them.  They’re methodically destroying my swarm, and they’re hunting down people and attacking them.”<br><br>“She probably absorbed some before she even ran into us,” Tattletale said.  “And she just needs one of a given type to make copies.  I wouldn’t blame yourself.”<br><br>“Did she absorb hornets, black widows, brown recluses?”<br><br>“Maybe not,” Tattletale admitted.<br><br>“Okay,” I said.  “Because there’s homicidal hornets and spiders out there now.  Because of my fuck-up.” - [[Queen 18.8]]</ref>
At one point, Taylor attempted to distract [[Zion|a foe]] underwater by forming simulated bodies out of sea creatures.<ref name="Control">Simple lifeforms.  If there were none above the water’s surface, I’d use the ones below.  A glance above me showed one of the flying heroes above the water’s surface, watching.  Good.  We’d be able to coordinate an attack.<br><br>We were too far from the ocean floor for me to find crabs or lobsters, but there were others.<br><br>
Krill.  Two inches in length, at best.  But they were alive, and I could move them.  I could use them.  Another swarm decoy, another combination attack. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/24/extinction-27-5/ Excerpt] from  [[Extinction 27.5]]</ref>

She was able to control [[Atlas]], a horse-sized beetle, and have her range extended with relay bugs by roughly three hundred feet around each relay.<ref>[[Prey 14.3]]</ref> Both of these were courtesy of Panacea. Like all of her other bugs she saw them as tools, though Atlas did have some sentimental value.