Editing Taylor Hebert (section)

===[[Shard]]===
Taylor's powers are the result of receiving a crippled [[List of Shards#The Administrator/ Queen Administrator|Administrator]] [[shard]] from [[Scion]]. In its non-crippled form, Scion uses the Administrator to coordinate and control his shards such as deciding their configurations before handing them out.<ref name="26.x eScionCripple">When it knows the configuration is absolutely decided, it reaches for the last fragment it will cast off.  This one, too, it cripples, even largely destroys, so as to limit the host from using it in the same fashion.<br>[...]<br>It could see the connection to the female’s shard, the activity as it broadcast signals, reaching out to contact lifeforms throughout the area, coordinating them.<br>[...]<br>The entity recognized her shard.  The last one that had split off before the entity took on this form.<br><br>''Queen.'' - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/10/interlude-26/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 26]]</ref> Unlike [[Eidolon]]'s shard (i.e., [[Eden]]'s [[List_of_Shards#High_Priest|counterpart shard]] to the Administrator) which can administrate shards,<ref name="reddAdmin">'''HighSlayerRalton:''' Taylor is Eidolon's 'reflection'. Or rather, the Queen Administrator is the High Priest's reflection.<br><br>Taylor gets to administrate bugs, because Scion damaged and limited his Queen Administrator shard before distributing it.<br><br>Eidolon gets to administrate the pool of shards Eden was reorganising when she crashed (including the power-drawing ability), because Eden was still using her Queen Administrator counterpart to do that at the time.<br><br>The kid who controls bugs and the world's most powerful superhero are two sides of the same coin.<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' Yeah, pretty sure I already confirmed this elsewhere, but this is a great summary of it. - Conversation with Wildbow on [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/qhhdwy/eidolons_reflection/hicr972/ Reddit]</ref> Scion intentionally cripples Taylor's shard before handing it out and even largely destroys it to completely prevent its host from using it in this fashion during the [[Cycle]].<ref name="26.x eScionCripple"/>

After being limited, the [[List of Shards#The Administrator/ Queen Administrator|Administrator]] [[shard]] explicitly specializes in coordinating control over large numbers of smaller lifeforms.<ref>In devising the actual trigger, we actually figure this out in a way like we would a Cauldron vial. We know what the shard does, and the key thing to figure out is how that shard expresses its power and how it manifests.<br><br>The QA shard specializes in coordinating control over large numbers of smaller lifeforms. We see it in Skitter (bugs), we see it in Aiden (birds) and we see it in Chitter (rats). - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles</ref><!-- https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/21336894 --> Thus, the powers that it hands out will generally have some [[Master]] element of controlling many minions.<ref>'''Dwood:''' Wildbow: can the QA shard add brute flavors to its triggers?<br><br>'''Wildbow:'''Generally QA is going to operate around the fulcrum point of being a 'controls many minions' master trigger and is going to seek out hosts that hit that note. In the most forced context, you'd probably get a 'mass/tower of rats' brute body. - Conversation with Wildbow on Discord, archived on Spacebattles</ref><!-- https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/37436294 -->

Like Taylor, the [[List of Shards#The Administrator/ Queen Administrator|Administrator]] [[shard]] has a drive for control:<ref>I watched that crowd with one eye.<br><br>Some of them would kill me the second they thought they could get away with it.  Others would be scheming.  I had power, they wanted that power for themselves.  They’d take it like my portal man was taken from me.  They’d take ''all'' of it.<br><br>My hand was clenched so hard I thought something might break. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/30-7/ Excerpt] from [[Speck 30.7]]</ref><ref name="30.7 eBargain"/> it desires to dominate all [[Earths]] and control everyone completely,<ref>A doorway opened beside her.  She floated away a touch, as if inviting me through.<br><br>I hesitated, at first, because of suspicion.  I had ''worlds'' filled with enemies, worlds I needed to bring under my thumb if I was going to be able to relax for even a moment.<br><br>I forced the worries aside.<br><br>I felt another stab of that not-fear sensation.  That balking on the part of my passenger.<br>[...]<br>I stared at the portal.  A point of no return.  I could pass through, and I’d be able to take steps to get control, to carry out my plan.<br><br>-Again, that dissonance.<br><br>It was uncomfortable, distracting.  I wanted to be able to pursue my goals unmolested. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/30-7/ Excerpt] from [[Speck 30.7]]</ref> including Taylor.<ref name="30.7 eClaimTaylor">“''Because I think you have a chance to come back from this.  Not much of a chance.  Part of that rides on me.  I could help you, or I could stop you from troubling anyone ever again.  Part of that?  It’s up to you to win the fight, to take control and keep the administrator from claiming everything you have, leaving you a shell''.”<br><br>I felt a chill.  Was part of it my passenger?  Both of us? - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/30-7/ Excerpt] from [[Speck 30.7]]</ref> Similar to the typical shard,<ref>“It isn’t human, and it never was,” she went on. “Don’t expect it to have human rationales. Do expect it to have a program it follows, a set goal that may or may not be one hundred percent clear. It’s going to be somewhat predictable, but powerful enough that the predictability isn’t reassuring or an easy answer.” - [[From Within 16.8]]</ref> the Administrator shard follows a set goal<ref name="30.7 eControlMission">I needed to escape, I needed time and resources to analyze what I was up against, frame it all.  I’d stabilized, I’d stopped degrading, now I could start building- ''rebuilding'' my knowledge base.  Put everything into a context that I could grasp, with my mind working in a different way, with different priorities.<br><br>''Then'' I could take control.  ''Then'' I could eliminate the problematic elements.<br><br>''Then'' everything would be peaceful.<br><br>A mission.  I functioned best with a mission.  My thoughts and actions had always processed best when I had a mission, a ''task''. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/30-7/ Excerpt] from [[Speck 30.7]]</ref> and is intrinsically conflict-oriented:<ref>''Con- conflict''.  I could function so long as there was conflict, so long as I was creating it or resolving it.  Given the choice between paralysis and conflict, I wondered if anyone would really choose the former, committing to it over time.<br><br>Paralysis was a scary thing.  There were a lot of forms of it, and they ranked up there as far as fates worse than death.<br><br>Conflict was better.  Familiar. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/30-7/ Excerpt] from [[Speck 30.7]]</ref> it typically frames situations in context of violence.<ref>It had started.<br><br>The outcry was picked up by others.  People grabbed one another, arms were thrown around necks, fingers dug into costumes and skin.  They whimpered, screamed, shouted.  I could see tears in eyes, faces contorted in emotion.  Groups turned inward, focusing on one another, loners backed away, positioning themselves where they had space to maneuver.  Madness, hysterical, chaotic.  Grown adult and child alike, costumed and uncostumed, individuals dressed in white or in bright colors, individuals in black, they were part of the riot.<br><br>They held nothing back, emotionally.  I saw fireballs explode in midair.  People streaked into the sky, lightshows following after them.<br><br>But the yelling, the echoes of that first cry, they were what shook me, what shook ''everything''.  The only thing around us to block the sounds were people, and those people were making ''more'' sound.  Thousands echoing of that one cry.<br><br>None of this surprised me, that they’d turn on each other the moment the real threat was gone.  It was the way our species operated.  A reality that had been writ over and over again in my experiences.  I couldn’t remember the specific cases, but the lessons remained with me. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/30-7/ Excerpt] from [[Speck 30.7]]</ref><ref>I heard the voice in my ear.  It was ''trying'' to sound soothing, gentle, but it was failing.  I heard the fear in it.  That fear was reassuring in its own way.  It told me I was right.  That the world ''did'' revolve around fear and violence. That I was doing the right thing, standing guard, being ready for a fight at any moment.<br><br>The madness around me continued unabated, the shouting fading, then starting anew, picked up by others, different factions, fresh sets of lungs.<br><br>I wasn’t going to listen to the voice. Not with all of the powers arrayed against me.  it would be idiotic and foolish if I did listen, whether I understood or not.<br><br>The others, they were arguing amongst themselves, barking out insults, yelling, pointing at me.  I’d taken control of them, and that was a ''fresh'' wound. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/30-7/ Excerpt] from [[Speck 30.7]]</ref> As a result, Taylor losing herself à la Khepri and giving the Administrator more control over her actions is ''not'' a good thing.<ref name="reddit eEgoDeath">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, archived on Spacebattles</ref><!-- https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/35365744 --> After [[Scion]]'s death, Taylor's shard agrees to release its remaining thralls because it realizes that acquiescing here would give it more control over Taylor and grind away at Taylor's sense of self.<ref name="30.7 eBargain">I reasserted control.<br><br>Again, I tried to let my passenger take control, to set things on autopilot.<br><br>''Again'', the others began to descend.  This time, the forcefield woman remained where she was.<br>[...]<br>I’d have a harder time taking control of things in the long term, but I was okay with survival.<br>[...]<br>Others were placed indiscriminately in the crowd below me.  My swarm, returned to the place they came from.<br><br>I turned to go, and there was far less resistance.<br>[...]<br>Before it could go any further, I wrested control for myself.  Easier.  It was like it was weaker with every set of actions.<br>[...]<br>It kept wanting sacrifices in the short term.  Responding to its desires had left me feeling more secure, made the ensuing resistance weaker.  The implicit promise was that acquiescing would be rewarded with a surer footing.  Footing that I could ''use''.  There were doors open to every world.  If I could take time to heal, to build my strength.  Eating well, resting… I could move on, carry out my plan.<br><br>The question was whether the cost was too high.<br><br>It was a gamble.  I was risking myself, setting myself back.  People would come after me.<br><br>But it meant more control, and it all came down to control in the end. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/30-7/ Excerpt] from [[Speck 30.7]]</ref> Indeed, had [[Contessa]] done nothing to Khepri or someone else (e.g., [[Defiant]]) had the final conversation with Khepri and then that individual failed to, as an example, kill/place Taylor in a coma, Taylor would have fully lost control: the Administrator would completely subsume Taylor's mind and then resume its plan to put everyone under its thrall.<ref>'''Wildbow:''' What's the context of the Colin talk though?<br>[...]<br>Or subject, or how do you lead from that to an ending?  Do you have him shoot her two times to be sure she's dead?<br>Or dead/in a coma?<br><br>'''Kaisheng21:''' i guess<br>well in the hypothetical where i were writing worm, which is just mad to think about<br>i'd have taylor just sorta fade out from accumulating brain damage<br>and colin's there holding her hand<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' It's not really brain damage though. And he'd need an inspector-gadget style robo-arm to hold her hand because her revised QA power is still active at that point.<br>[...]<br>She doesn't fade out so much as she goes full Khepri again.<br>[...]<br>Or rather, Taylor does fade out, but simultaneously, QA fades ''in''. - Conversation with Wildbow on Discord, archived on Spacebattles</ref><!-- https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/93419616 -->

[[Scion]] refers to Taylor's [[shard]] as Queen<ref name="26.x eScionCripple"/> or the administrator shard.<ref name="I26e1">The female with the administrator shard had long since fled, covering the retreat with her small army of lesser lifeforms, more traps snapping into place in her wake. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/10 Excerpt] from [[Interlude 26]]</ref> [[Contessa]] similarly calls this shard the administrator.<ref name="30.7 eClaimTaylor"/> [[Glaistig Uaine]] refers to Taylor's shard as queen administrator.<ref name="25.5 eQueen"/> She also claims that this shard was on par with [[Glaistig Uaine#Shard|her shard]] as a [[Shard#Noble Shards|noble]] along with other shards such as those possessed by [[Amy_Dallon#Shard|Amy]] and [[Eidolon]].<ref name="27.4 eOtherNobles">“You view us both as queens, Faerie Queen?”<br><br>“I do.  But let us drop the titles when we talk.”<br><br>“Okay… Glaistig Uaine.  Anyone else?”<br><br>“There are others who stand shoulder to shoulder with us, but queen is the wrong word, Administrator.  The champion, the high priest, the observer, the shaper, the demesnes-keeper.  Why do you ask?” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/22 Excerpt] from [[Extinction 27.4]]</ref><ref name="Ciara">“The ''high'' priest,” Glaistig Uaine admonished me.  “You and I may be doing without the titles, but we mustn’t offend the others.”<br><br>“Right,” I said.<br><br>“As for his role, well, you should know.”<br><br>“I should know?”<br><br>“Yes.”<br><br>I could only think of one powerful individual who was on a par with the others she’d named.  Contessa and Glaistig Uaine were easily twelves or higher on the power-ratings scale, and I could look to others with powers in that neighborhood to figure out who she was referring to.  Panacea, Labyrinth…<br><br>Which raised two questions.<br><br>Why the hell was I on that list, for one thing?<br><br>And was Eidolon the high priest?  He was the only one I could think of to fit the role. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/22 Excerpt] from [[Extinction 27.4]]</ref>

[[Chevalier]] sees Taylor's power as a bright glowing membrane or network of cells surrounding her person, with an uncountable number of tendrils extending out. These tendrils were only made distinct by highlights rushing down them as she gave conscious direction to her bugs.<ref>His eyes settled on Weaver, surrounded by the nimbus of her power, which glowed with an intensity that surpassed any and all of her teammates.  When she stepped forward, it was like she was pushing against a curtain, only it was a membrane, a network of individual cells, each with tendrils extending out, so thin he couldn’t make them out, except by the highlights that seemed to rush down them as she gave conscious direction to her bugs. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/06/22/interlude-24/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 24.x]]</ref>