Shamrock

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Shamrock</default></title>

<image source="Image"></image> <header>Basic Information</header> <label>Civilian Name</label> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Gender</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Age</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Relations</label> <label>Family</label> <header>Professional Status</header> <label>Occupation</label><default>Mercenary</default> <label>Occupation</label> <label>Alignment</label><default>Villain</default> <label>Classification</label> <label>Status</label> <label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label><default>Faultline’s Crew</default> <label>Previous Team</label> <label>Base of Operations</label> <header>First Appearence</header> <label>Web Serial</label><default>Unknown</default> </infobox>Shamrock is a member of Faultline’s Crew.

Personality

Shamrock had no compunctions about using her abilities to cheat casinos,<ref name="I5">Interlude 5</ref> though given her apparently religious upbringing and other erathly origin this may be due to culture shock. She grew close to Gregor the Snail and eventually began a relationship with him. She admitted that she was "a little claustrophobic at the best of times."<ref name="I18.f e1">Gregor and Shamrock were the last ones to exit the tunnel.

“All good?” Faultline asked.

“A little much,” Shamrock said. “Knowing how tall the wall is, how much pressure’s bearing down over our heads… I’m a little claustrophobic at the best of times, and that’s worse than the best times.” - Excerpt from Interlude 18.f</ref>

Appearance

Shamrock is an attractive, slender woman with red hair, older and taller than both Spitfire and Labyrinth.<ref name="11.7 e1">Not quite. Faultline and Gregor, yes. I didn’t recognize the other woman, and she was too tall to be Spitfire with her mask off. Red haired, slender, older than Spitfire or Labyrinth had been. - Excerpt from Infestation 11.7</ref> Despite having Cauldron's stylized-c tattoo, in her case on a shoulder blade, she does not have "strange features to speak of" common for a Case 53.<ref name="I5 e1">It was a grainy surveillance camera image. Shamrock was in the midst of changing clothes in what looked like an underground parking lot, and, though partially obscured by her bra strap, the tattoo was visible on her shoulderblade. A stylized ‘u’. - Excerpt from Interlude 5</ref><ref name="Cast2" />

Her combat gear includes a mask, a combat shotgun, and a bodysuit of skintight black leather with a green clover on the chest. She also has a "more concealing" variant on this costume that is not described further.<ref name="12.2 e1">Faultline’s group was gathered to one side. Faultline, Newter, and the new member Shamrock wore more concealing costumes than their usual. - Excerpt from Plague 12.2</ref> In warmer conditions, she wears her mask, a pair of black yoga pants, and a green sleeveless t-shirt with a clover-leaf symbol on the front in black.<ref name="I18.f"/>

Abilities and Powers

Shamrock possesses a subtle<ref name="I18.f e2" /> combination of microtelekinesis and similarly small-scale unconscious clairvoyance,<ref name="Cast1">Shamrock – A case-53 (typically monstrous parahumans, amnesiac, with a specific tattoo) with no monstrous features. Combines microtelekinesis and an unconscious precognition into an effective ‘luck’ manipulation, altering outcomes on a subtle level. - Cast (spoiler free)</ref> this gives her the ability to "affect small changes to create wider effects, essentially altering events in her vicinity" and making her seem exceptionally lucky.<ref name="Cast2">Shamrock – Shamrock is, like Newter and Gregor, a onetime subject of Cauldron, though she displays no physical side effects. Shamrock has a particular combination of microtelekinesis and clairvoyance/precognition that allows her to affect small changes to create wider effects, essentially altering events in her vicinity. - Cast (in depth)</ref> For example, she can fire bullets that hit exactly where they need to, barely dodge attacks such as thrown walls and Scrub's blasts,<ref name="11.7">Infestation 11.7</ref>. More mundanely it can be used to influence the results of numerous coin flips and dice rolls,<ref name="I11c">Interlude 11c</ref><ref name="I18.f e2" /> and to collect lost or scattered items.<ref name="11.7 e4">“Ah, Skitter,” he said. Apparently my having saved his life once and gifting him a paper bag filled with money didn’t do much to ease his wariness. He wasn’t any less guarded when he asked, “Why are you here?”

I pointed at the unconscious Bryce. “An errand. Didn’t mean to get in your way. I only grabbed the papers as a spur of the moment thing, and because they would’ve been ruined if they’d just drifted all over in there.”

“That wasn’t much of a concern. One of my teammates is collecting the papers as we talk, and I expect she’ll find nearly all of them. The ones that she could find with some luck, anyways.” - Excerpt from Infestation 11.7</ref> Because she is a Cauldron cape, it is highly likely that this power was specifically constructed to be such.

Faultline claimed that precognition "wouldn't work" with Shamrock's power in play.<ref name="I18.f">- Excerpt from Interlude 18.f</ref> The Number Man confirmed that Shamrock was invisible to The Clairvoyant backing up Faultlines statement,<ref name="I21 e1">A partner to the Doormaker, capable of granting clairvoyance, seeing whole other worlds at once. It left most subjects incapacitated for a week after use, and it overrode any other perception powers.

No use to the Number Man, but essential for Cauldron in vetting universes and finding individuals. Most individuals. There were some, like the Dealer, and triple-seven, who’d escaped. - Excerpt from Interlude 21.x</ref> it is unknown how it effects individuals like the Simurgh.

History

Background

Shamrock was kidnapped from another Earth and experimented on by Cauldron. She was subject number 777 and picked the name Shamrock after passing roughly a year of testing. Where her power was tested and trained.<ref name="I18.f e2">“Because we’ve been where you’ve been. These two don’t remember, they had their memories taken,” Shamrock said, “But I didn’t. I remember what it was like in there. And I get why you’re afraid.”

“You were in there?” Maddie asked, her eyes going wide.

Shamrock nodded. “One moment, I was going to bed in my temple-school. In another, I was in a cell. A cot, a metal sink, a metal toilet. Three concrete walls, a concrete floor and ceiling, and a window of thick plexiglass with a drawer. You might know the kind of cell I’m describing.

“They drugged me, then they waited until I started showing signs that something happened to me. It took them a while to figure out, because my power was subtle. When they had an idea of what I could do, they gave me a coin. I had to flip it when the doctor came. If it came up heads, I got to eat, I got fresh clothes, a shower. If it didn’t, I got nothing. I realized I was supposed to control it. Decide the result of the toss. When I got good at it, they gave me two coins, and both had to come up heads.”

“How long were you there?” Maddie asked.

“I don’t know. But by the time I saw the chance to escape, I had to roll twelve dice and each one had to come up with a six. And if it didn’t, if I got more than a few wrong, they found ways to punish me.” - Excerpt from Interlude 18.f</ref> Likely being prepared to be placed in some heroic team, in line with the organizations goals.<ref name="SB1">Cauldron's habit was to take all of the human experiments that turned out well, brainwash them, and then place them in larger organizations to support said organizations, fighting the natural tendency for parahumans to seek conflict (and thus making forming large committed groups hard). Shamrock could well have been slated for the Protectorate, Red Gauntlet, the Suits, or even the Nemesis program (being brainwashed with an auto-lose trigger against one client who paid a good sum, so that client could get a better position and climb faster in rep). - Comment by Wildbow on Spacebattles</ref><ref name="15.z">She was at the cloud-level when the door opened. She stepped into the brightly lit corridors of Cauldron’s testing laboratory and strode down to the cells.

Thirty cells, filled with subjects. Thirty-one now. The cells didn’t appear to have doors, but the individuals within were all too aware of the dangers of stepping beyond the perimeters of their cells, or of trying to harass Alexandria as she strode by.

Only two-thirds of them were monstrous, affected by the formulas. Others would go free with alterations to their memories. Some would have fatal weaknesses inserted into their psyches, reason to hesitate at a crucial moment against a certain foe. - Excerpt from Interlude 15.z</ref> After she had progressed far enough she was given the chance to pick her code name, she choose Shamrock.<ref name="I18.f e3">Maddie glanced around, then nodded. “When… when they tested you, did they give you a name?”

“They gave me a number at first,” Shamrock said. “I couldn’t use my real name or they’d punish me. When I passed a year of testing, they let me pick a codename. I picked Shamrock.” - Excerpt from Interlude 18.f</ref>

At an unknown point either before or during the events of Worm, she escaped Cauldron and found herself on Earth Bet. According to The Number Man, Shamrock is one of the only people to have escaped from Cauldron's custody.<ref name="21.x e1">No use to the Number Man, but essential for Cauldron in vetting universes and finding individuals. Most individuals. There were some, like the Dealer, and triple-seven, who’d escaped.

[...]

“That’s two escape attempts in two weeks. We had three in the last four years before that, only one successful,” he said. -

Excerpt from Interlude 21.x</ref> After finding freedom, she circulated through high-stakes gambling rings, leveraging her power to her advantage.

Story Start

Faultline became aware of Shamrock with the help of private investigators in the spring of 2011, and set out to recruit her.<ref name="I5"/>

Post-Leviathan

Shamrock accompanied her team when they crashed a Merchants drug party, using her power to avoid being hit by Scrub's blasts. During Burnscar's assault on Palanquin, Shamrock assisted Labyrinth in activating a mechanism that flooded the street, dousing fires.<ref name="I11c" />

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine

Shamrock became romantically involved with Gregor the Snail and was with the rest of her crew when they infiltrated Madison and convinced Matryoshka to leave with them in their search for answers. After returning to the hotel room she accompanied Faultline down to the lobby, but returned to the crew's rooms just in time for Contessa's attack on the team.<ref name="I18.f"/> Shamrock also attended the battle against Echidna along with the rest of her crew when Tattletale purchased Labyrinth's help opening the portal.

Gold Morning

In the final hours of Gold Morning, Faultline's Crew was relocated to Earth Bet. As the dying Khepri tried to rally the parahumans against the main threat, Shamrock temporarily disabled Narwhal with a single bullet.<ref>Speck 30.6</ref>

Trivia

• Shamrock's memory was not erased by the Slug. She retains memories of her life before her abduction, such as the fact that she went to a "temple-school". Shamrock also mentions that she comes from an earth that has more monarchies than Earth Bet or Earth Aleph.<ref name="R56">:Shamrock ( Part of Faultline's crew and it seems Girlfriend of Gregor ( Good for him ) )

Good for her.

Shamrock is one of the only individuals to escape Cauldron. Cauldron's habit was to take all of the human experiments that turned out well, brainwash them, and then place them in larger organizations to support said organizations, fighting the natural tendency for parahumans to seek conflict (and thus making forming large committed groups hard). Shamrock could well have been slated for the Protectorate, Red Gauntlet, the Suits, or even the Nemesis program (being brainwashed with an auto-lose trigger against one client who paid a good sum, so that client could get a better position and climb faster in rep). Beyond that, there's not a lot to say - she remembers who she is, and knows she belongs in another Earth, where there are no superheroes, and there are a lot more kings and queens than in our Earth. Her power looks like luck manipulation but is actually microtelekinesis and precognition/butterfly effects at work. - Wildbow on Reddit</ref>

• Like many characters in Worm, Shamrock took her turn as the protagonist for one of the stories many drafts.<ref name="14.8c1">Lucky Girl: Shamrock. I can note it’s only around here that the setting started coming together with a place for each of the major players. - Comment by Wildbow on Prey 14.8</ref>

References

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