"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.
| “ | Every time you think of me or mention me, I will be there. I will know where you are and see what you are doing. I will take stock and I will make my judgments. You will think of me, while saying your prayers on waking and on retiring, kneeling by your bed. Before each meal. | ” |
—Mama Mathers to Rain, Interlude 4c II | ||
Christine Mathers,[8] Mama Mathers to outsiders and her kin, or just Mama[1] to Fallen respectful of the Matriarch.
Personality[]
Even among her fellow Fallen she is described as "off", despite her obvious intelligence.[9]
She is, by all accounts, a true believer in the ideology of the Fallen, and willing to kill members who disappointed her[10] and their families. Mama Mathers did not permit Valefor to use his power to force everyone in her group to follow her ideology; she wanted to exercise power over people without it feeling hollow.[11]
Mama Mathers is not a warrior or a general; she is a subtle player and would likely not be part of a headlong rush.[12] She values her safety; she acquired[13] or traded and paid[14] for multiple capes who could be her bodyguards if needed.[15][13] However, Mama Mathers was unable to acquire a Healer despite her best efforts and wishes.[13]
She has a extremely regressive view of gender roles, while at the same time a surprisingly progressive stance. Anyone can occupy any position within the family they want as long as they are dedicated to the "cause" and have powers.[16] Everyone else is disposable.
After gaining her power, Mama Mathers was grateful for the ability to hold Valefor without being his slave. Cauldron asked her for favors; she did do some of these favors as she pleased.[17]
Appearance[]
Mama is an emaciated woman, heightened by her thin face and long hair that bleaching has rendered frayed and silver. This gives her the presence of an older woman, despite the fact that she is in her thirties, and makes her look fragile enough she could break. However, to people that were affected by her power she felt 'heavy'.[18][19] She generally wore white, as did every other close family member of hers.[20]
Abilities and Powers[]
With the potential to be an S-class threat,[21] Mama Mathers' exceptional power gives the Fallen some protection against PRT intervention[22] and singlehandedly allows her branch to form whole communities while still eluding the authorities.[23]
Primary Ability[]
For lack of a better term,[24] her power effectively gives her "quantum tripwires" that trigger in response to any sense that perceives her.[25][26] When a tripwire is triggered, she establishes a connection to the offending sense and infects the subject with a "fragment" of herself: this fragment immediately manifests itself[18] and stays until a short time after Mama Mathers is no longer being perceived. While a fragment is manifested, Mama Mathers can do the following:
- Perceive everything that subject perceives with their infected senses.[27][26][28]
- Affect and alter what the infected senses perceive. The nature of these hallucinations depends on the sensorium through which she was perceived. Most often, this involves auditory and visual hallucinations, but physical contact with her can result in her inflicting excruciating pain at will on her victims.[29] Since sight is the most common method of perceiving her, hallucinations can often manifest as if they have a Dybbuk of her imprinted on them, like a phantom image that appears in their field of view and can take in the surroundings. This dybbuk can interact with the imprinted person through the infected senses.
- If willing, she can also choose to share with a subject (via their infected senses) what she perceives.[30]
The potency of an infection (e.g., strength of effect, degree of control over that sense, infection duration) depends on how long and clearly the sense perceived her.[18][31] Indeed, if a subject gets more exposure to her, it strengthens the connection and gives her more of a foothold.[32] For example, people who only fleetingly register her in some way are still affected if only nominally,[33] though this can still be enough to play tricks and distract people.[34][35] With more exposure, she can cause powerful and disabling hallucinations.[29] She can even carry on whole conversations without needing to speak.[10] Note that if a subject heard her voice but has not yet talked to her actual self, she can strengthen the connection if they talk back at her.[36]
She can create an ad-hoc communication network between those she has affected.[37][38]
Connection Multitasking and Awareness[]
Mama Mathers can feel a connection to every subject that is currently infected. Each subject has their own fragment which all have a separate instance of her attention. Behind the scenes, Mama Mathers' shard presumably handles this multitasking so that she, as an example, can independently control hundreds of thousands of fragments simultaneously without issue.[39]
Fragment Remanifestation[]
For even the most basic of connections, if an infected subject later refers to Mama Mathers by name with the infected sense (e.g., saying or writing her name),[31] this action invokes her fragment and allows Mama Mathers to remanifest her fragment for some time.[28] The stronger this connection, the more easily the fragment will remanifest. For example, if a subject gets more exposure to her, then this fragment can remanifest if they think about her or refer to her in abstract.[40]
As a reward for good behavior, Mama Mathers can choose to have a fragment remanifest itself in limited ways when invoked (e.g., Rain for an evening only heard the sound of wings when he thought of her) and not share what it perceives with herself.[41]
Affecting Esoteric Senses[]
Mama Mathers' "quantum tripwires" also apply for any senses derived from powers.[26][23] Her power acts as a harsh anti-Thinker ability that allows her to keep her kin covered from snooping eyes.[42] The effect of her power is more intense if you use enhanced perception powers on her.[43]
- Valkyrie could not engage Mama Mathers and her group,[44] presumably because Mama Mathers would affect Valkyrie's power vision and any senses from Valkyrie's shadows that perceived her.
- After Chevalier sensed her with his power vision, she invaded that seeing and took hold of it. As Mama Mathers wanted Chevalier to join her side, she made him see specific memories of herself as well as specific visual representations of feelings.[45]
- When a nearby Love Lost searched for her feelings with her emotion sense to act as bait, Mama Mathers' eyes could detect and track the source of this power through a wall.[46] She reached back before Love Lost could find her and adjusted the feelings Love Lost sensed[47] until she found the exact feeling to cause Love Lost to reel with emotion and possibly start crying.[48]
- According to Dinah, if she looks at her future, then Mama Mathers starts appearing in all futures Dinah can see for some time. Dinah could not act against Teacher as long as he had Mama Mathers; however, with a lot of effort, she was still able to slow him down when she could.[49]
- She is immune to Valefor's power,[17] presumably because affecting his senses can allow her to evade his power.
- Although Mama Mathers is not on the list of blind spots for Contessa as of the Attack on Teacher,[50] according to Tattletale, she could be considered a soft blind spot as Contessa can look but generally does not want to.[51] However, Contessa is still capable of creating a path that involves Mama Mathers: she specifically sent Rain, Love Lost, and Colt to confront Mama Mathers' group with instructions to follow[52] while also arranging events elsewhere so that they could successfully defeat[53] Mama Mathers and rescue Chevalier's group without being stopped by Teacher.[54]
- If a clairvoyant perceives her, she could affect their power to such a degree that they could end up in a brief coma and remain infected for months afterward.[42] As temporary loss of sanity and being strapped to a hospital bed are severe problems, these capes avoided scanning for her and her group.[55][23]
- Wildbow speculates that if Screamer or Skitter perceived Mama Mathers, she would break them by affecting their senses.[56][57]
Even technology can trigger these tripwires.[58][23] For example, a fragment manifested itself as a "ghost in the machine" when Lookout's flying camera perceived Mama Mathers.[59]
Other Abilities[]
According to Rain, Mama Mathers monitored the Crowley clan for years, twenty-four seven: she presumably does not need to sleep.[7] She is also immune to standard tranquilizers,[7] though the Wardens did find a way to sedate her.[60]
Vulnerabilities[]
Her connection to an infected sense is not permanent[61] and will slowly degrade and weaken over time if a subject has not recently perceived her.[62][63] All manifested fragments also feel what Mama Mathers is currently feeling. For example, when Victoria Dallon, who does not have an emotion sense, got close enough for her aura to extend through some hostages to a hidden Mama Mathers, Mama Mathers affected the hostages in turn.[64] The hostages' brief change in screaming gave away her location to Victoria.[64]
Infected subjects are unable to transfer their infection to other subjects (e.g., a non-infected individual that sees her in the video feed of an infected camera will not be infected).[58]
- Lookout's flying cameras themselves were affected if they looked at her.[59] However, Lookout was able to send the camera (without being infected herself) a slice of program with facial recognition that told it to center itself over Mama Mathers and then drop itself when the effect became worse.[65] The resulting drop knocked Mama Mathers unconscious.[66]
- Lookout built eye lens cameras resistant to her profile. They automatically blurred Mama Mathers,[67] preventing Mama Mathers from establishing a connection to any eyeball with this tech.[68] When Rain looked at her, Mama Mathers could only detect a vague buzz of technology; she noted that she had no way into his eyes.[69]
The Graeae could swap body parts out so that if someone perceived Mama Mathers with a body part (i.e. eyes, ears), Mama Mathers is only able to establish a connection to that body part's original owner.[70][71] When outside shardspace, Mama Mathers, despite her connections, was unable to apply her power on Rain while he was in the dream room.[72][73]
Hallucinations do not persist while Mama Mathers is unconscious.[66]
Chasmal could partially phase Mama Mathers out of reality.[74] According to Tattletale, that should break her connections as long as it lasts and is maintained. It could even possibly force her to reset all connections.[7]
History[]
Background[]
She was abandoned by her family because of her teen pregnancy. Her kid was an exceptionally early trigger, manifesting powers before he started walking. She was somehow found and saved by Cauldron, which offered her a deal. She was lucky enough to gain power that allowed her not uphold her side of the deal, unless she wanted to.[13]
Joined the Fallen and presumably founded the Mathers family. Had several children from multiple different fathers, such as Valefor and the one who called himself Lionheart. She also traded children to other branches in order to get firepower back.[42]
Mama Mathers attempted to kidnap and brainwash several Wards. One of the first of those was Sunflower, brought in by Valefor.[13] However, Sunflower was successfully rescued by the heroes.[13]
Post-Echidna[]
Her son, Valefor, attempted to claim Brockton Bay for the Fallen.[75] Elijah failed and was blinded by the cities warlord, Skitter, in the ensuing battle.[76] It is unknown how she reacted to this.
Timeskip[]
She lost another of her sons in a more permanent fashion[77]
Mama, along with other Fallen group leaders, sent out several family groups throughout the North America after she heard about the End of the World prophecy.[9] In order to prepare for it.
Gold Morning[]
Presumably participated, willingly or otherwise.
Early-Ward[]
With the amnesty Mama found herself in Earth Gimel with a large collection of fallen.
She was mentioned as one of main villainous influencers in the new multiversal human society.[78]
Mama had an interview with Rain where she made sure he kept the faith and that he was staying the course with his project to kill his other trigger mates.[79]
She was a major factor when the Fallen compound came under attack.[80] She was captured, escaped custody, and was captured again.
Post-Fallen fall[]
She was being isolated in undisclosed location.[81] Later she was freed by Teacher.[82]
Post-Time Bubble Pop[]
Under Teacher's grasp, her health improved, and she actually started to look her age.[2]
Teacher used Madam Mathers ability to entrap a large crowd of people in Earth Cheit, including local leaders.[83] She was given free reign over them. She used her abilities to shape their beliefs in the ways of the Fallen.[13]
During the assault on the Teacher's Compound, she was tasked with capturing Chevalier's squad, but was thwarted after her victory by Precipice, Love Lost, and Colt.[13]
Post-Attack on Teacher[]
Christine Mathers had returned to The Wardens' custody.[60]
Fanart Gallery[]
Illustration by FunkyTK1
Trivia[]
- Wildbow had Mama Mathers planned for awhile.[84]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 “Mama,” he said.
She wasn’t his mother, but it was how she was addressed. - Excerpt from Interlude 4c II - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 William, Scapegoat, was catching up, drawing nearer to the Thomais Fallen. Elijah, Valefor, walked arm in arm with his mother, Madam Mathers, who wore an ethereal white gown with a shawl around her shoulders. Her health was better since coming here, since she’d been… helped, with firm boundaries. She looked closer to her actual mid-thirties than the weary young crone she’d been before.
“This will be preparations for your moment,” Teacher told the woman.
Madam Mathers curtsied, supported by her son. - Excerpt from Black 13.x - ↑ “Calling her a dictator would be giving her too much respect. This blue woman reached out to Monokeros. It’s part of why she wants to come here. She wants her, and she wants some specific others- all of us, I’m sure, if she can get us, but she was apparently asking if the Mathers bitch was at this prison.”
“Shit,” Rain said. “No. Mama Mathers?” - Beacon 8.7 - ↑ “The Wardens will strike in a matter of minutes. They’re partially protected from me, so timing will be critical. Teacher will also time his attack, delivering the Mathers woman, in the hopes I stick my hand into the trap. Be ready. Maybe you could die in the fighting and simplify things.” - Gleaming 9.15
- ↑ She actually did you a huge favor, Precipice, getting involved when she did, providing sanctuary, and saving you from the Mathers witch. - Polarize 10.6
- ↑ The idea of losing my mind like that terrified me, to the point I felt like my gut and my brain were bound in knots. I tried to focus that terror into a cold, rational look at what I needed to do. Mama Mathers was the biggest danger. Valefor was the second. They were Masters and Strangers, the PRT classification for those who controlled others or minions, and the classification for those who infiltrated or deceived. Mama Mathers and Valefor were squarely in the overlap between the two. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.12
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 “Speaking of,” Tattletale said, perking up and looking past Looksee to Capricorn. “She’s dead? No. Contained?”
“She’s contained with physical constraints and some power stuff,” Capricorn said.
“Partially phased into another reality,” Rain clarified. “I talked to the heroes. She’s kept an eye on the Crowley clan for years, twenty-four seven. She might not sleep.”
“Tranquilizers don’t work, she’ll fake it,” Tattletale said. “You figured that out. Good. Phasing her out should break the connection as long as it lasts, if it can be maintained. It might even force her to reset all the connections.” - Pitch 6.8 - ↑ Interlude 12.e II
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 The end is coming. The godless don’t get it. The rumors are out that the world ends in a matter of months - one of the family elders even brought an ex-Ward into the fold, and she says they believe it too. They might be faithless, but they know their shit.
Mama Mathers is a little off in some ways. Smart as shit, but off. When she wanted to send members of the family to every place with ‘fall’ in the name and a lot of places with religious names, it was an excuse for some milder parts of the family to congregate. Fall River was one. Massachusetts is a little ways beyond where the Fallen usually meet and gather, but there aren’t many who are complaining. - WD Fall River - ↑ 10.0 10.1 “Rain,” she said. “Look at me.”
[...]
“I will have you killed if you do not,” she said.
He looked.
He’d only seen her leg and foot, and she’d jumped into his head, tactile, audible, present, impossible to ignore.
[...]
“Why would you leave, when we haven’t talked?” she asked. “You’ve been standing there, talking to yourself.”
“Sorry, mama,” he said.
He knew how she worked, but he couldn’t ignore the apparition in situations like this, because ignoring her and having her turn out to be real was the sort of thing that got him killed.
“Everything I said to you before now, it came from within you. I saw and heard much of it,” she said. - Excerpt from Interlude 4c II - ↑ arandomperson1234: Why didn't Mama Mathers just make everyone in her branch of the fallen absolutely loyal with Valefor, and then make them forget it? It seems like that would tie the group together much better.
Wildbow: Because there's no surer way to show that your ideology is hollow than to have to use powers to force people to follow it.
They're people, including the people at the top, and they have their own ideas and motivations. I think they key distinction to make is that you can have power over people, and you can exercise power over people. Absolute power with no exercise is disconnected in a way that (less than absolute) power with the active exercise and control (and ego) is involved in. It'd feel hollow and horrible if you weren't really doing anything and didn't exercise the power yourself.
Having Erin approach Rain of her own will and knowing just what you're doing to the both of them is something entirely different from just having your kid say things to both of them and having them entirely under your thumb.
Besides. Having Valefor step in to that degree is the equivalent of the Dictator handing over all of the military power, economy, legal power, and procedural power over to the (purportedly loyal) son that's acting as Vice President. - Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles - ↑ No green, no black, no white. I wasn’t even sure if it was that hard-set, or if my speculations were off-point, but it helped on a level. It helped validate my assumption that Mama Mathers wouldn’t be part of a headlong rush, and I liked even the idea that my enemies’ costumes might be conveniently color-coded.
Valefor and Mama Mathers were scary, or Valefor had been scary, but they weren’t warriors, and they weren’t generals. Their weakness in this was that they were subtle players and the small-scale war wasn’t subtle. - Excerpt from Pitch 6.2 - ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 13.7 Interlude 15.z
- ↑ Pitch 6.1
- ↑ Pitch 6.4
- ↑ Her fingers traced his shoulder-length hair. “I told you to grow your hair long, back then.”
“Yes, mama,” he said.
“Do you remember why? Any boy of mine that does anything to catch my eye, good or bad, I have them do it.”
[...]
“The girls know it, but the boys sometimes need to learn it. I’m content to let either be my soldiers, but that requires zeal. Not everyone has it. Not everyone cleaves to their role and position. Everyone has responsibilities, and it takes a soldier to obey.”
Rain nodded again.
Her voice took on a different tone. No less ethereal, but haunting-ethereal, now. “The hair is to remind you that if you won’t be a soldier for the families, we’ll have you be a slut. We’ll get children out of you. If you fail at that, if they’re sickly or disobedient, we’ll geld you like we would any of the farm animals.” - Excerpt from Interlude 4c II - ↑ 17.0 17.1 It had not been easy. It had been the stark opposite of easy.
Particularly when her child, still suckling at her breast, had looked up at her with eyes that flashed, and had asserted his will over hers. Blessed child. Cursed child. One in a million, among those who were one in thirty-thousand.
She had been saved by people who had worked at this facility before. They had given her power and then by faith or by fortune her power had outstripped their ability to deal with her. They had asked her for favors and she had done only some of those favors, as she pleased. They had, after all, enabled her to hold her Elijah without being his slave. - Interlude 15.z II - ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Rain averted his eyes, but he could see the white drape of the nightgown, the feet on the floor. She was sitting so the post and the sheer drape kept him from seeing a lot of her.
But he saw some. Her presence jumped into his head. He looked away, but it didn’t help.
Mama Mathers. Taller than him, gaunt, wispy of hair. She wasn’t old, but she had the presence of an old woman, thin enough that it seemed like she would break or crumple into a heap if struck. She stood right next to him, leaning over him. She touched his face, and he flinched.
[...]
He’d only seen her leg and foot, and she’d jumped into his head, tactile, audible, present, impossible to ignore.
Now, seeing her in full, it was more pronounced, heavier, insofar as the frail woman could be ‘heavy’. Her hair was long, bleached silver, and frayed. Her face was thin enough that it appeared older. - Excerpt from Interlude 4c II - ↑ Coronzon would be the senior member of the Fallen group when Mathers was captured. From what little I’d seen of him earlier, he’d been someone who was very like Mama Mathers in how he’d moved. She had been so thin and malnourished that she’d looked like she would creak when she moved, a wisp of a person who came across as old when she definitely wasn’t. - Sundown 17.8
- ↑
- Loose color scheme: white is leader/important Mathers
Rain nodded, then typed. - Excerpt from Pitch 6.2 - ↑ Leadership figures with exceptional powers and following. Include Fallen A-listers and one possible S-class threat (Christine Mathers) - WD Organization: Fallen
- ↑ In 2004, the core group was raided by the PRT. Twelve powered members were incarcerated, and the group was considered defeated.
Six months later, still in 2004, a religious group headed by Christine Mathers and her then-ten year old son, rebranded to call themselves Fallen, co-opting one of the main groups and absorbing some of the members of the McVeigh group who had avoided legal consequences. Her power provided some protection against PRT intervention, making them hard and even dangerous to scout with thinker abilities. - WD Organization: Fallen - ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 It is through use of her power that the Mathers Fallen can gather in larger numbers, form communities, and still elude the PRT and other authorities. Whatever powers or technology one uses to scout out or find them, there’s the very real danger that the observers will find Mama Mathers staring back at them, before she takes their sanity, possibly on a permanent basis. - WD Organization: Fallen
- ↑ “Imp here. I thought it was important to notify you that whenever Tattletale says ‘quantum’, she is talking out of her ass. Every last syllable is enunciation by way of butt.” - Sundown 17.9
- ↑ “For other blind spots? Teacher’s tech. His portals, a lot of the cracking, and a few traps he set using tinkered replications of Mama Mathers-”
“Using what?”
“Nothing like you’re picturing. He had tinkers scan her, copy her power, and work out stuff like… quantum tripwires, tripping when you look at them.”
[...]
“Quantum tripwires,” I reminded her of the conversation.
“Yes. Devices that trip in response to being observed. With big flashes that stick in your vision or mind’s eye. But mostly it’s the portals. Contessa is on her way back from Cheit. She’s got a captive Teacher with her. She led a group in there and leaned on them pretty heavily to get around the special countermeasures he put in place.” - Sundown 17.9 - ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 Rain typed out his message, and held out the phone for Sveta, Capricorn and I. Vista and Foil drew close enough, and so they got a look too.
- If you see mama you will start to see things.
- If you hear… start to hear things.
- Etc for touch/thinker senses
- She can see/hear/thinker through these things
- ↑ “Everything I said to you before now, it came from within you. I saw and heard much of it,” she said.
[...]
“Every time you think of me or mention me, I will be there. I will know where you are and see what you are doing. I will take stock and I will make my judgments. You will think of me, while saying your prayers on waking and on retiring, kneeling by your bed. Before each meal.” - Excerpt from Interlude 4c II - ↑ 28.0 28.1 All around her, Thralls paid her their worship, and they invoked her. She allowed fragments of herself to manifest, to look around, and she could see everything. - Interlude 15.z II
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 Byron spoke up, “Can you take a message back to her?”
“I don’t know,” the biker woman said, sullen. “I don’t-”
She paused.
“What?” Byron asked.
“She says no, no messages. Other stuff. She-”
Her eyes went wide. She looked around, her eyes not focused on anything in particular.
The woman’s voice carried forward, but it was an inarticulate sound, one that became higher, then a warbling shriek, followed by a gasp for air with a sound of its own.
She dropped to the ground, fingers clawing in dirt, twisting like she was trying to get away from everything at once. The noises she made were horrible, and I’d heard some awful noises in my life. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.8 - ↑ “…I’m so glad you could join us, Teacher.”
Heads turned, thralls and hostages alike. She smiled. Teacher was only here for her.
It wasn’t often that others were looking through her eyes. It required that she let them.
[...]
More than that, Teacher had given her a world of faithful, and for that, she was willing to let him share her eyes, share her awareness. - Interlude 15.z II - ↑ 31.0 31.1 The folded arms were to tip the other off that Mama Mathers was looking. It was more of a concern for Rain than for Erin. Erin’s introduction to the woman had been fleeting. New visitors that were brought in as serious residents were given a glimpse of her, and a bit of a listen of her voice. Most didn’t even realize what had happened, until they broke a rule.
The effect was weaker, only kicking in if Mama Mathers was mentioned by word, written or spoken, or possibly if she was thought about at the same time as a strong emotion was felt. - Interlude 5d II - ↑ “Give me a kiss, now.”
She didn’t bend down, so he had to raise himself up to give her a peck on the cheek. He hated the contact, he hated how large she loomed in his vision, how that would give her more of a foothold.
He hated everything.
“Go, now, it’s late.” - Excerpt from Interlude 4c II - ↑
- Looksee:
- Not peeking am reporting what others saying. Precog with me says Vista says that the hostages you want are toward south end of town. Map attached.
I flew skyward, looking.
A group. Valefor’s group, with Fallen civilians and others. The hostages.
We could figure something out.
White flickers danced in the corner of my vision. I looked away, but they persisted. Like the motes of dust in my eye, but akin to snowflakes.
If that was their anti-thinker measure, which might well be Mama Mathers, then even the thinker-esque advantage of having a bird’s eye view was enough to give them an in.
I grit my teeth.
I’d seen the building Looksee had marked on the map. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.10 - ↑ Don’t spend too long looking, Capricorn. They’ve got a fucky-”
I saw the camouflage distort as he brought his hands to his head.
“-power,” he said.
I thought about the visual ‘snow’ and it flared back into existence at the lower right corner of my eye.
“The anti-thinker measure,” I said. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.11 - ↑ The whispers I heard were indistinct, but they came with a return of the white snow in my vision, moving in my peripheral vision and creating shapes that weren’t really shapes, like the way faces could seem to stand out from a pile of leaves or the light and shadow in a cloud. - Excerpt from Pitch 6.2
- ↑ “Tell me, do you have a means of listening to others? Do you know if my Elijah lived?”
Chevalier was silent. He likely knew she could get a small foothold in the mind by being talked to. It was a benefit of small fractions for her, but he refused to grant it. - Interlude 15.z II - ↑ Shadow 5.9
- ↑ “Mama told you to help us,” Valefor said. “You didn’t.”
“We did,” I said, still looking down. “We got your people to safety and protected them.”
“I’ve been told there are Fallen casualties,” Valefor said. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.10 - ↑ Christine clasped her hands together and pressed them against her chest. She could feel her connection to more than two hundred and ninety thousand souls in the heart of Cheit. To each of those souls, she granted a small grace. A part of her watched each one with a separate eye and its own ability to judge and track their actions. Enough of them were believers that she could give them small blessings. She made the beautiful more beautiful, the holy more holy. Crosses on walls throbbed and glowed. Sacred hearts bled. Images of martyrs turned their heads to smile down at their blessed with love.
Here and there, she tested, and she judged. She could nudge, by giving grace to some and giving others a reason to doubt. Some of these denominations? No. For now, she punished those who preached too much peace, with glimpses of the holy that fled or walked away. She punished those who spoke of God but not of Jesus, or worshiped the Koran and not the Bible, by making certain books, icons and objects rot and twist like snakes, and by making shadows deeper. She gave them glimpses of hell.
They had only glimpsed her, so she could only touch their eyes. There would be more opportunities later. Over time, she would make what she knew replace their mere beliefs, and she would make their most zealous twice as earnest in that zealousness. She would make brown and black bend the knee to white, once they had served her purpose. But all of that would come later. For now she was content to work by increments, to use who she could. - Interlude 15.z II - ↑ If you see her, she can visually appear before you. The more you look at her, the easier it is for her to appear.
If you hear her, she can speak to you. The more you hear her, the easier it is to appear.
If you touch her, she can give you the sensation of touch. The more you touch her, the easier it is to appear.
When she appears, she seems to be able to sense things around her image. Sometimes it's not her, but other things, like a sound of beating wings, spiders, or blood.
At the most basic, she appears if you refer to her by name, in word or writing. As you get more exposure to her, it happens if you think about her, if you refer to her in abstract, or if you even think about her in general, like not wanting to think about her.
If you use a thinker power? Effect is stronger, and affect things other than sight/hearing/touch. - Wildbow on Reddit - ↑ The woman’s hand, spectral as it was, felt real as it touched Rain’s hair. He flinched, but she persisted. He remained where he was, head turned away, neck stiff.
“This was good,” Mama Mathers said. “I’ll reward you.”
He didn’t move a muscle.
“Enjoy your evening, my soldier. Tomorrow, we show them we’re not to be trifled with.”
Rain turned his head, to look for clarification, but she was gone. There was a distant sound, like a flock of birds taking off.
He’d slept on the train, but this whole scene was so surreal. She’d-
He stopped, bracing himself for her appearance. For the physical contact.
She hadn’t appeared. The sound remained. A thunderous flapping, far away.
Mama Mathers, he thought.
There was only the sound.
She’d freed him? For only tonight?
[...]
Mama Mather’s disconnected presence was like bird’s wings against the exterior of the house, rustling. - Excerpt from Interlude 5d II - ↑ 42.0 42.1 42.2 The Fallen are slippery, and the reason they haven't been wiped off the map is that they utilize a cell structure and have some cover from parahuman abilities. Valefor's mom in particular. A thinker doesn't want to go scanning tracts of rural/unpopulated area for missing kids if it means a chance of seeing her looking back at them. Because if they do, then they'll likely end up in a brief coma followed by a year and a half of something like being convinced the walls are bleeding spiders. She has kids with buds from the same shard and farms them out to other branches of the family in exchange for some muscle (Eligos being some of that). Not that same degree of punishment or screening, but stuff in that general vein. - Wildbow on Reddit
- ↑ chandra381: Honestly I think Wibblebub is wasted in any other genre than horror.
[...]
Quick q: is she the same person as Valefor's Mom that WB mentioned earlier while describing the Fallen, who had some kind of anti-clairvoyant countermeasure?
Wildbow: The effect is more intense if you use enhanced perception on her. - Wildbow on Reddit - ↑ “We’re not in a position to give you a lot of firepower,” Chevalier said, emphasizing ‘lot’. “Valkyrie cannot engage that group of Fallen, and I’m tied up elsewhere with diplomatic roles. Many other Wardens and subordinate teams are busy. Advance Guard is on standby. We’ll ask them to assist you.” - Shadow 5.6
- ↑ He’d looked at her earlier, and now she filled his eyes.
But more than anything, he had sensed her with something else, something beyond sight. He had seen her aura, and now she invaded that seeing, took hold of it. He could look at those blessed with power and know them on a profound level, see memories, history, feelings, and the nuances of power, often in abstract.
So she gave him that. She gave him herself. Memories of herself as a pregnant teenager, praying, praying for recourse.
[...]
With this and more, she assaulted Chevalier’s eyes with more deep truths that the eyes normally couldn’t see. With visual representations of feelings he would know to be her fact. What it felt to be worshiped, what it felt to give all of oneself up to faith. The security of giving oneself over. - Interlude 15.z - ↑ Her head turned as she felt a power reach for her and find her. Close by, someone searched for her feelings. Christine looked at a wall, and her eyes tracked the source of the power through that wall. - Interlude 15.z
- ↑ She reached back, faster than they could find her, and impressed her feelings onto them. She looked at them, and she found the emotional equivalent of frozen-over wasteland. She tested that wasteland, with a feeling of tranquility, and found little traction. She gave them hope, and there was something there, something that lingered, that stuck to the walls of the heart. She gave them a feeling of being loved, and found more ground.
Hope and love. She twisted at feelings and tried different variations. Romantic love. Not so important to this particular heart. Love for a job. More important, but not the most important thing. Familial love? There.
The woman slowed as the emotions swelled in her breast. - Interlude 15.z - ↑ It took only a few more adjustments before she found the right kind of familial love, and then found the exact feeling that struck closest to this wasteland heart.
The love of a mother for the daughter she had lost, and the certainty that she was loved back. Christine had felt it when Elijah had been days old, before his eyes had flashed as they had.
The woman had stopped. She might have been crying now.
[...]
Things gave way. An attack from below, cutting the floor out from beneath them. A furrow, cutting into the center of the room, ten feet wide.
Ala fired, but the tremor in the ground distorted her aim. Christine could feel the target was alive and well, still reeling with emotion. - Interlude 15.z - ↑ “Tell me about this noise.”
“Other thinkers, complicating factors, power-induced randomness, blind spots. An example would be how I couldn’t act against Teacher as long as he had Christine Mathers. If I look at her future then she starts appearing in all futures I can see. I slowed him down when I could but that was a lot of effort and a lot of risk he’d target me. There are a few things like that.” - From Within 16.3 - ↑ Not as I or my power understand circumstances, and my power understands everything outside of the blind spots that are Teacher, Valkyrie, the Simurgh, and two broken triggers that authorities aren’t aware happened.” - Dying 15.7
- ↑ “Okay, walk me through it. I’ll fact check. Blind spots.”
[...]
“Mama Mathers. Soft blind spot. She can look but doesn’t want to.”
“Yes.” - Sundown 17.9 - ↑ “You, Love Lost, and Colt, go that way, you’ll face the Fallen. Be aware of how far a voice reaches. Circle back toward Capricorn at the stairwell, then keep going forward. You’ll find the ones taking custody of Chevalier. Save him. Then go back to the stairwell.”
My heart sank.
“I-” Rain started, another question or statement.
Love Lost grabbed him, pulled him closer, then pushed him away, all in a fluid movement, managing not to shred him with her claws in the process.
They left. - Dying 15.8 - ↑ “You could really use my team on this,” I said, still quiet, subdued, like I was a lesser person in the aftermath of it all, despite my best efforts. “Holding them back doesn’t make sense. Lookout can keep an eye on Shin, and we really need one. Precipice has gotten past Mathers twice and he was the one who got her. Mathers is, I’m guessing, why the precogs aren’t on this.” - Sundown 17.5
- ↑ Teacher blinked.
“Five squadrons should converge on Christine’s position at Turbine Four.”
“I’ll arrange it,” his soldier said.
[...]
Then they saw Rain, with Love Lost and Colt. Colt was covered in dust. Chevalier and his team followed behind.
They ran into thralls, and found those thralls didn’t have much fight in them. As the music sounded throughout the facility, cutting in and out as Lookout managed to get her grips on a system, then was blocked or shut down, the thralls gave up their efforts.
“Is this A or is it C?” Imp asked.
“C,” Tristan said, trying not to think about what that meant. Two members of Breakthrough were supposed to die. - Interlude 15.z II - ↑ We had the details. Thinkers had always avoided scanning for the Mathers family because using a thinker power on or near them had a way of causing severe problems for the thinker. A strapped to a hospital bed screaming kind of severe. - Shadow 5.7
- ↑ Alison: Screamer would be a good hard counter to mama
Just steal her voice
Wildbow: Screamer would sense/hear Mama and can't steal voice without doing analysis, at which point Screamer is broken. - Conversation with Wildbow on Cauldron Discord - ↑ aeegoem: I mean, I can see why the Fallen were such a problem, pre-GM
When you have someone like her in your pocket
Wildbow: Someone posted on reddit asking if Taylor could take down this Fallen camp.
[...]
Even ignoring the fact that she's gone & never coming back... there's Mama. - Conversation with Wildbow on Cauldron Discord - ↑ 58.0 58.1 Dicho- | Unwormy: she can give multiple people hallucinations at once, so there's definitely a multitasking part to it, she could just use a livestream or something
Kyakan: there's still a couple seconds' delay with livestreams and 'live' broadcasting
with conventional tech, anyways
Dicho- | Unwormy: it screwed up kenzie's camera
Wildbow: It affects the camera because it's the camera looking
Someone looking at something the camera displays, barring thinker, tinker, or deeper analysis of some other sort, is just going to see the image.
Dicho- | Unwormy: interesting, so looking at her through a heads-up display flat out counters her then?
Wildbow: Many HUDs wouldn't work for the same reason glasses wouldn't work - Conversation with Wildbow on Discord, archived on Spacebattles - ↑ 59.0 59.1 “I’m getting footage of the Fallen evacuees, two cameras out there, one up close to get the people and one pulled back to track light sources and get another angle. My pulled-back is freaking out.”
“Freaking how?” Sveta asked.
“Literal ghost in the machine freaking?” I asked.
“Yes! Yes, exactly. I’ve never heard that term before but it fits exactly.”
“How has a tinker never heard-” Chris started.
“Don’t look at it, don’t dig into the code,” I talked over him.
“Wasn’t.”
“It’s Mama Mathers,” I said, loud enough for others to hear. - Pitch 6.3 - ↑ 60.0 60.1 The Wardens are considering discontinuing the sedation of the real Christine Mathers, but as you can imagine, that’s not an easy decision to make.” - Excerpt from Sundown 17.4
- ↑ She had been told of these things from a Ward named Sunflower, who had gone to meet a boy she had met online, and found that boy was named Elijah. He had brought her to Christine, and Christine had thanked her by arranging her a husband. A shame, that Sunflower had been stolen away by the heroes.
[...]
He was supposed to be one of hers. He had been one of the ones to get away, as Sunflower had, but his escape had been late. - Interlude 15.z II - ↑ Rain didn’t reply, focusing instead on the stairs, trying not to think-
Mama Mathers appeared at the bottom of the flight.
He’d gotten so good at controlling his thinking, and it was all for nothing, now. Even thinking about not thinking about her was now enough. It might be for weeks or months. - Excerpt from Interlude 4c II - ↑ “We want a full understanding of the situation,” Kimberly said. “She could have made you lose your mind, yes?”
“Not as much as some did back at the attack on the camp. I hadn’t talked to her recently, so it wouldn’t have been as strong.” - Torch 7.2 - ↑ 64.0 64.1 I changed course, flying back to where I’d been. I continued down the street. I was putting the bulk of the lopsided engagement behind me, passing by Rain, by two twenty-ish capes with steel-gray hair, and that meant I could fly faster. I kept my eyes on the people and goings-on behind me.
I found what I was hoping for. The screaming, just briefly, changed. The aura extended through the hostages to Mama Mathers, and she affected the hostages in turn. I had a sense of my range, and through that, I had a good sense of her location. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.12 - ↑ “Wondering… how? ”
“I dropped one on Mama Mathers and I dropped another on someone with a gun.”
“It worked,” I said. “I don’t know how you aimed that without looking through the camera-”
“I didn’t. My cameras were already fritzing out, so I sent them a slice of program, with facial recognition. I centered it over them, accounted for wind, and when things sounded worst I had my cameras stop hovering.”
“You weaponized… cameras? ” - Pitch 6.4 - ↑ 66.0 66.1 It was because I was at a weird angle and because my peripheral vision was untouched that I saw it. Two streaks from above, straight down.
I heard the metal crash, and saw circuitry and metal housing scatter.
[...]
The metal- pieces from Looksee’s camera.
One dropped from the sky to hit the gunman’s hand. The other-
Children and other unarmed individuals emerged from the trees. A wall of bodies. the woman behind them was supported by two Fallen.
The woman was bloody, a scrape down one edge of her forehead and a messy patch of skin and blood toward the top end, hair already matted into it. Blood streamed down her face.
The blood meant I hadn’t immediately recognized it as Mama Mathers. The moment meant I hadn’t even realized the hallucinations had stopped.
Kenzie had dropped one of her flying cameras on her. - Pitch 6.3 - ↑ Next monitor. Teacher was visible at the very edge, some others gathered near him. I recognized Ingenue. Ms. Webb. There was a blur on the screen that wasn’t resolving, but I could guess who she was and why Lookout had set her to be automatically blurred out. She stood next to Valefor.
It meant she was Mama Mathers, and, worse, Valefor had a jaw again. He had eyes. He was talking to her. - Dying 15.6 - ↑ Valefor.
He was there, giving instructions. He held a cane but didn’t move like he needed it. Beside him-
My vision in one eye blurred.
Automatic blurring, because Kenzie had tech resistant to Mama Mathers’ profile. I hurried to turn my gaze away, because I only had tech in the one eye. - Dying 15.8 - ↑ The order she had been planning to give fled her mind as she saw a figure scrambling up a section of floor.
He found his footing, backed up, until he was nearer the hostages. He turned his full focus to her, glowing eyes peering at her, and there was no connection, aside from a vague buzz of technology that her power reached into. She had no way into his eyes.
He was supposed to be one of hers. He had been one of the ones to get away, as Sunflower had, but his escape had been late. - Interlude 15.z II - ↑ “Immune?” I asked.
Rain indicated the two capes with gray hair, a young man and woman. Both had eyepatches, the steel-gray hair, and costumes with white and black. Chris’ age, or a bit older. “Dino and Enyo. They’re multi-triggers, and they’re also twin triggers. One of their powers is that they can transplant body parts, with some special rules. I’m borrowing someone else’s eyes and ears, and a few other bits, so she can touch me and make it hurt, but it’s dulled, and she can’t do anything else. The transplant recipient is back at our base, sedated.” - Excerpt from Shadow 5.12 - ↑ “Then, to go back to the timing of when you provided information about the Mathers, why the time provided?”
“I was sedated for a surgery, swapping my eyes and ears out. I started to provide information as soon as I was able. Before then, Mama Mathers was in effect.” - Torch 7.2 - ↑ Mama Mathers, Rain thought. He braced himself for the appearance, and saw nothing. He scanned the room, looking. Too much to hope that it would have brought her in, for the same treatment the one-toothed woman had been given. - Excerpt from Interlude 5d II
- ↑ “You’re trying to apply logic to dream, Lookout.”
“Yeah, uh, duh? Kind of! We don’t know what it’s going to be like in there, but the way you talked about the room, you don’t have powers in there?”
“Not really, no. And powers from outside don’t normally apply inside. I was haunted by Mama Mathers for a while, and she didn’t have any hold on me in there.” - From Within 16.8 - ↑ I saw the distorted space before I saw Capricorn, Vista, and Chasmal. Capricorn had one of his stone constructions over his shoulder, something that looked like a coffin, but was obviously made of Tristan’s power, with hooks and such. Interestingly, though it looked like the sort of heavy something that would have required Tristan’s attention, it was Byron in the blue armor who was hauling it, holding up the thicker, wider upper end, with the bottom end dragging in the path behind him.
Vista was shortening their path. Chasmal would be making the coffin and the person inside light enough for Byron to drag, while simultaneously phasing Mama Mathers partially out of reality. - Pitch 6.6 - ↑ Interlude 20.y
- ↑ Imago 21.3
- ↑ WD Lincoln
- ↑ “What about the ones who are hooked into bigger groups?” I asked.
“That gets more complicated, and it’s less about the places to watch and more about the names to keep an ear out for,” my dad said. “Marquis, Goddess, Lord of Loss, Mama Mathers, the Crowley brothers, Deader and Goner, Barrow.”
I knew the names and I knew where they were situated. No big surprises there. I nodded to myself. Marquis. So casually mentioned. - Excerpt from Glare 3.5 - ↑ “It’s been years,” she said. “You only think about me a few times a day. I thought it was time we were reacquainted. You have your mission.”
“I’ll kill my cluster.”
“And be a loyal soldier. Think of me,” she said. “If you don’t, you know what will happen.”
“Yes mama,” he said.
“Allie. Your aunt and uncle. Erin, her family. And you won’t see me. You’ll see other things.” - Excerpt from Interlude 4c II - ↑ Shadow 5.12
- ↑ Beacon 8.4
- ↑ Time is of the essence. In a day, things might be too far gone. Your Mama Mathers, Rain, is gone. They’ll find out soon. - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.2
- ↑ The Overseer watched as Madam Mathers had her moment at the front of the dais. Center of the stage, just behind a short, balcony-like fence, stairs covered in red velvet stretching down to the city street on either side of the dais. She watched as nearly every eye present looked at the woman.
With that, with one fell stroke, Teacher assumed the ability to cripple the capitol of Earth Cheit. - Excerpt from Black 13.x - ↑ Not sharing Valefor's mom's power, as she's interesting enough I want to keep her in my back pocket. - Wildbow on Reddit
[]
| Defiant • Doormaker † • Dragon • Gasconade • Mama Mathers • Miss Militia • Night Hag † • Noctis * • Weld | |
| Leaders | N/A |
|---|---|
| Members | N/A |
| Leaders | N/A |
| Members | Empusa • Vince Crowley • Teem ‡ |
| Leader | Mama Mathers |
| Members | Ahrima • Ala • Amaymon • Bamet • Chort • Coronzon • Eligos • Seir • Rain O'Fire Frazier ‡ • Valefor † |
| Civilians | Erin ‡ • Lachlan Hund |
| Leaders | N/A |
| Members | The Speedrunners (Secondhand • Last Minute • Final Hour • End of Days) |
| Leader | Teacher |
|---|---|
| Members | Saint • Dragonslayers • Ingenue ‡ • Satyrical • The Pharmacist • Moord Nag • The Speedrunners • The Fallen (Black Goat • Valefor † • Madam Mathers • Ala • Chort) |
| Thralls | Trickster † • The Leper • Captain Claw • Leister • Usher • Spawner † • Squad Yellow-Black (The Wasp Commander) |