"There was no long-term, and trying to cling to one would only spoil it all."
This article contains spoilers regarding the ending of Worm and plot of the sequel.
| “ | Just saying my group won’t be getting directly involved in this without a reason. We won’t be going after the ABB unless they get in my way or someone pays my rates. It’s the only workable policy when you’re a cape for hire. And just so we’re clear, if it’s the ABB paying, my team’s going to be on the other side of things. | ” |
Faultline is the leader and eponym of Faultline’s Crew.
Personality[]
Faultline prides herself on her intelligence and her reputation as a mercenary, and tries to maintain her mercenary activities with a code. She is well aware of the need for misdirection, and employing facades when dealing with people who can be more individually powerful than she is.[citation needed]
She was known for her intelligence and skill as a leader, even by her enemies.[7][8][9]
Has some sort of feud with Tattletale.[7][9]
Whether accidentally or on purpose her crew became a family.
Many people consider her arrogant, such as Tattletale.
Appearance & Equipment[]
Faultline is twenty-something and sharp-featured with long black hair. Her costume blends 'dress', 'martial arts gear' and 'riot gear', including a skirt and a bulletproof vest. While in costume, she puts her hair into a bun and wears a detachable hairpiece filled with thorns as a 'ponytail'.[1][3] The costume has a lot of thought and effort put into it, and was designed for practicality over looks.[10]
She carried a semiautomatic pistol and a flare gun, hidden beneath the flowing parts of her costume.[10]
In civilian guise, she wears a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and black slacks tucked into shiny black riding boots with steel toes. She has "sharp" features.[11]
Abilities and Powers[]
Faultline has the ability to separate molecular bonds in any non-living material to make holes or cuts by touching it.[9] she is extremely adroit with her power, able to use it strategically and in concert with others.[12]
It seems that her power does not have a visible effect unless she is using it on things she is Limited to.[13][14][15][16][17]
History[]
Background[]
Faultline owned Palanquin and several other cover businesses across Brockton Bay.[4]
She and her team had performed perhaps three times as many jobs as the Undersiders at the beginning of Worm, but had only failed at one or two of them, a fact the Undersiders attributed to her leadership.[8] At some point, she toppled a building on someone.[18]
After the Undersiders failed to recruit Spitfire, Faultline recruited her instead,[19] possibly as part of her feud with Tattletale.[8]
Start of Worm[]
Participated in the meeting at Somer's Rock and subsequent war on the ABB, but ensured that her team was paid by Coil for doing so.[20]
Post-Leviathan[]
Faultline led an assault on the newly resurgent Archer's Bridge Merchants.[21]
Post-Slaughterhouse Nine[]
Faultline and her team infiltrated Madison, looking for more clues into Cauldron. They recruit a new member- Matryoshka. Shortly after, Faultline receives a call from Tattletale asking for their help, and the team is attacked by Contessa.
The team arrives to help with Echidna in Brockton Bay. Tattletale leverages Scrubs and Labyrinth's abilities to create portals to other worlds.
Post-Echidna[]
The crew travelled around the world opening portals to other worlds.
Gold Morning[]
Faultline and her team participated in Gold Morning. Faultline survived.
Ward[]
Post-Goddess' Takeover[]
Helped Tattletale fight off March.
The Ice Breaks[]
Faultline accompanied her people to emergency testing for Case 53s. She discussed Contessa with Weld, Sveta, and Egg while there.[22]
Chapter Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- Some early drafts of worm give Faultline's name as Melanie Fitts, there has been no independent verification on this however.
- Like many characters in Worm, Faultline took her turn as the protagonist for one of the stories many drafts.[23] She was known as Disaster Area, or Disaster for short.[24]
Fanart Gallery[]
_Hand_Drawing.jpg "Faultline Worm (Cleaned up) Hand Drawing.jpg (45 KB)")
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Faultline. I knew of her from my research. She was twenty-something, and her straight black hair was in a long bristling ponytail. Her costume was weird, approximating something like a blend of riot gear, a martial arts uniform and a dress. - Excerpt from Hive 5.1
- ↑ Aegis is 17, very nearly 18, old for his grade level, he's already graduated high school and is taking prelim college courses (not the same courses as Faultline & Glory Girl). He triggered at 15. - Private conversation with Wildbow, archived on Spacebattles
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Faultline – Leader of a mercenary team, Faultline wears a costume with body armor, a skirt and a welding-mask-like face-cover. Can destroy inorganic matter by touch. - Cast (spoiler free)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Faultline, owner of Palanquin and several other cover businesses across Brockton Bay, was seated at a large oak desk. - Interlude 5
- ↑ Rogues are, by definition, not heroes or villains. A rogue is someone who doesn't identify with the cops and robbers game, encompassing those who utilize their abilities for business, personal, societal or neutral reasons, and those who strive not to use their abilities at all. To a reasonably strict extent, there is no 'in the field' for rogues.
I say reasonably strict because there's mercenaries like Faultline's crew, but there's pretty much a 'you fuck one goat' attitude toward mercenaries who deign to work with villains... they just get the 'villain' label slapped on them and that's that, mostly. - Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles - ↑ Which meant that Tattletale and the rest of the Undersiders, Rachel excepted, were here in Faultline’s territory. Blocks of an out-of-the-way coastal city that had been put up in anticipation of a rush to get property, with the company going bankrupt after people had been warned to stay away. Plumbing so faulty that there were rooms the water ran down the wall from ceiling to floor, no insulation in many buildings, and, as was the case with many ghost towns, the lack of residents had meant that businesses opted out of setting up, and without amenities and businesses, the residents had become even more scarce.
Faultline was laundering mercenary money through the area, and was inadvertently revitalizing portions of it. The boom of people needing to get out of tents and into warm places helped. - Interlude 10.x II - ↑ 7.0 7.1 I was surprised when Faultline deliberately walked by our table on her way to her seat, taking the long way around. As she passed us, she looked over Tattletale and me and sneered a little before taking the chair to Kaiser's right.
"I'm going to go before all the seats get taken, if that's cool?" Grue spoke, and the rest of us nodded. Grue sat between Faultline and Coil.
"What was that with Faultline and you?" I murmured to Tattletale, "History?"
"Nothing important," she replied.
Regent leaned forward. "She and Tattletale have been feuding a little. Faultline upped the ante when she poached Spitfire from us when we were in the middle of trying to recruit her. Can't say why Faultline doesn't like Tattle, but I know Tattletale hates it when people act like they're smarter than her, and Faultline is smarter than her. Ow. Fuck, that hurt."
Tattletale had kicked him under the table. - Hive 5.1 - ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2
Tattletale nodded, "Faultline's crew does anything short of murder. You can say her personality sucks, you can say her powers suck, but I'll admit she's very good at finding hidden strengths in the people that work for her. See those two guys? When it came to powers, they got a bad roll of the dice. Became freaks that couldn't hope to pass in normal society, wound up homeless or living in the sewers. There's a story behind it, but they became a team, she made them effective, and they've only messed up one or two jobs so far."
"Gotcha," I said, "Impressive."
"Keep in mind, though, we haven't screwed up any. We're 100%."
"They've done something like three times as many jobs as us," Regent pointed out.- Hive 5.1 - ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Faultline – Noted as a capable leader, has a feud of sorts with Tattletale. Her power enables her to cut through any nonliving material with a touch. She is currently searching for means to extend her ability to living materials as well. - Cast (in depth)
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Faultline was a believer in doing things right. Image came secondary to effect, and doing the job right was better for image than having the best costume. Her own costume blended several functions. A bulletproof vest, lightweight, with a stylized exterior, formed the most expensive single component of the outfit. She tied her hair back into a crude bun, then gingerly drew the ‘ponytail’ from the side of the suitcase. Unfolding the surrounding cover, Faultline slowly and carefully used her fingers to comb the fake hair onto a semblance of order. The bristly hair extension masked a thin, flexible rod in the core, with painted spikes protruding at various angles. It was all too common for an enemy to reach for the ponytail in an attempt to get her. Their hands would be impaled on the waiting spikes, if they weren’t invulnerable, and the hair extension would come free, giving her a chance to escape.
She checked her semiautomatic, then slid it into the holster at her left hip. A flare gun went into the holster at the right. Flowing sleeves that would mask the belts and their contents were buckled on next, followed by a dress with a side pocket that would let her access the gun in a pinch. The buckles meant that anyone pulling on the fabric would pull it free rather than get hold of her.
Faultline donned her mask, more a welder’s mask with a stylized crack to see through than anything else. - Excerpt from Interlude 18.f - ↑ Faultline was in her professional clothes; a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and black slacks tucked into shiny black riding boots with steel toes. Her wavy black hair was tied back in a ponytail. She wore no mask – those employees of Palanquin who ventured as far as this office were too well paid to turn on her. Her features were perhaps too sharp to be called conventionally attractive, but Gregor knew she was certainly more attractive than Newter or himself. - Excerpt from Interlude 5
- ↑ - Excerpt from Infestation 11.7
- ↑ As Gregor watched, she closed her eyes, then swiped her hand across the top ends of the rods. Red and blue energy crackled, and coin-shaped pieces of wood, metal, stone and plastic fell to the desktop. Other rods, several of which were green wood, were untouched. - Excerpt from Interlude 5
- ↑ Behind Trainwreck, I saw a section of wall toppling, spotted Faultline dashing through the obstruction as though it were barely there. She ran up behind Trainwreck and slashed her fingertips across his heel as he was stepping forward.
As he set the foot down on the marble floor, his ankle shattered and his foot broke free of his calf.
He caught the ground with the stump of his mechanical leg, and she darted in close to cut through the knee of his other leg. He fell onto his back as she slipped between his legs, and she quickly turned to begin using her fingertips to cut down the wall, like a jungle explorer using a machete to hack through brush and vines. The red-haired woman joined her. - Excerpt from Infestation 11.7 - ↑ One powered Merchant charged Faultline and collapsed through the ground she had strategically weakened. She kicked him several times in the face before the next member of Skidmark’s group tried to take her on, drawing and pointing a gun. Faultline drew her feet apart, and then dropped through the floor of the platform in a spray of splinters. - Excerpt from Infestation 11.7
- ↑ Faultline had emerged from beneath the platform and moved around to the side, and using her power to draw hand holds into the side of the platform. - Excerpt from Infestation 11.7
- ↑ Faultline touched the wall. She felt her power magnifying around her fingertip on contact. She just had to will it, and her power would dance around the contact point, leaving a hole a third of an inch across. If she really pushed for it, it would extend several feet inside the object.
Her power worked better with multiple points of contact. She touched with her other fingertip, and felt the power soar between the two, running through the surface like a current.
She let it surge outward, and a fissure appeared.
She tapped one toe against the wall, and power surged from either fingertip to the point of her toe, drawing a triangle. Moving closer to the wall until she was almost hugging it, she moved her other toe against the surface. Four points of contact, six lines.
Then she pushed, literally and in the sense of using her power. The power surged into the object, the lines widening and she swiftly backed away as the resulting debris settled.
Once the dust had more or less cleared, she could make out a tunnel, roughly door shaped. Her power had destroyed enough of the material that there was barely any debris on the ground. - Excerpt from Interlude 18.f - ↑ Interlude 5
- ↑ "Uh, yeah," Brian looked a touch embarrassed, he rubbed the back of his neck, "It didn't go well. We tried with Spitfire, and she got scared off before we even got to the job offer. Our fault, for bringing Rachel along that time." "And then she got recruited by someone else," Alec added. "Yeah," Brian shrugged, "She got snagged by Faultline before we got a second chance. - Insinuation 2.6
- ↑ Hive 5.1
- ↑ Infestation 11.6
- ↑ Infrared 19.a
- ↑ Comment by Wildbow on Prey 14.8
- ↑ Before Worm - TELUTT
[]
| Leader | Faultline |
|---|---|
| Members | Gregor the Snail • Labyrinth • Newter • Scrub • Shamrock • Spitfire • Matryoshka • Whippersnap |
| Associates | Coil † • Tattletale ‡ • Dinah Alcott ‡ |