History Fanfic / ADarkerPath

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[[folder: A-C]]
* ActuallyPrettyFunny:
** Brian chuckles when Atropos gives Aisha a noogie.
** Dragon almost cracks up when Atropos declares she will defeat the Simurgh with ThePowerOfFriendship.
** When Taylor tells him how she hacked Blackwell's email account to make her go crazy over her supposed forgetting of [[spoiler:Cherie]] transferring to Winslow, Danny bursts out laughing.
** After seeing what Atropos did to destroy [[spoiler:Ravager's credibility]], Mouse Protector is highly amused.
** Amy breaks down laughing when Atropos explains she wants the color-changing dust [[spoiler:to make a ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' ShoutOut and spook Bastard Son]].
* AdaptationalHeroism: Whirlygig and Trainwreck (later rebranded as Bastet and Salvage respectively) become rogues rather than villains due to fear of Atropos, combined with a lack of funds to simply leave town.
* AffablyEvil:
** Taylor gets along quite well with Aisha, and even gives Brian a pass for being a potential Ward, because she knows he's just there to make sure Aisha doesn't do anything stupid. While she also threatens Glory Girl right in front of them with the shears that she's using to pose in selfies with Aisha, she [[spoiler:makes it quite clear that it was never going to escalate to murder]]. The fact that she's exploiting the meeting as a chance to make herself seem less worrying to the PRT [[VillainsOutShopping doesn't mean she's not genuine about having fun]].
** Even when she's [[spoiler:holding a pair of shears to Director Wilkins' eye]], Atropos is quite happy to make small talk with Piggot and Renick about how things are getting along in the PRT.
** When she goes to New York to [[spoiler:murder Ravager's ''credibility'' for Mouse Protector]], she ends up amiably chatting with [[spoiler:Legend]], and getting a signed selfie with [[spoiler:Flechette and Mouse Protector]].
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: As a Combat Thinker, Atropos completely trounces Armsmaster's combat prediction algorithm. He showed it the footage of her battle against the Slaughterhouse Nine and the program insisted that the footage was blatantly impossible and couldn't figure out how to counter half the moves she made.
* AndIMustScream: Mannequin literally has no mouth or voice, so he can't scream. [[spoiler:But when Atropos recreates his family's deaths over and over, he really wants to, finally being DrivenToSuicide by tearing himself apart -- still silent.]]
* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing:
** Regent's reaction to hearing that Heartbreaker is about to tangle with Atropos? "Let me know when she kills him, so I know how much confetti to buy." (Which confirms Tattletale's suspicions about his heritage.) [[spoiler:When Atropos forces Heartbreaker to break his mental links to every person he's used his power on, Regent realizes what's going on and leaves to buy some confetti. Cherie breaks down in happy grateful tears and hugs, too.]]
** After seeing the lengths Atropos went to in order to [[spoiler:destroy Ravager's credibility for her]], Mouse Protector is positively thrilled.
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: Dragon presents one to [[spoiler:Canary's biased judge]], saying that he can recuse himself of his own accord, or Atropos will ensure he recuses himself through either "a nice private chat" one night or exposing [[spoiler:the fact that the PRT and judge are rigging the trial]] to the media, wrecking their reputation and getting him disbarred.
* AntiVillain: Since triggering, Taylor has been selfish, abrasive, and of course serially murderous, with no discernible fixed moral code except that she keeps her word -- but her actions are overall aimed at making her own life better and improving Brockton Bay, "one drop of blood at a time." She's not willing to work with the PRT, but she's willing to leave them be rather than harm them, if they do the same. The PRT would like to stop her spree, but pragmatically, they do understand that if they can't do that, then staying out of her way will mean less supervillains and criminals in the city.
* AssholeVictim: This pretty well describes everyone Atropos kills. (Even Sophia ignored two separate warnings, and was intending to do serious harm to Taylor.) There's a pragmatic reason for this: innocents don't keep pushing, once warned. When someone on PHO complains that her victims don't actually have Kill Orders, another points out that he has video of Lung punching a man's head off.
--> As for the others who had died, he figured they were only 'victims' in the broadest sense of the term. They had killed so many people and ruined so many lives that sooner or later they were going to die to ''someone's'' hand, be that another villain, a rival from within their own ranks, or a hero failing to pull their punch in time. Long story short, they had been the very furthest thing from peaceful innocents minding their own business.
* AttackOnTheHeart:
** Taylor hits Sophia in the chest and stops her heart. The precise timing needed for this works as a RedHerring that throws the police off her trail, since only a martial arts expert or specific types of parahuman could possibly pull it off, and she isn't known to be either one.
** For IronicDeath purposes, [[spoiler:this is how Heartbreaker bites it -- of a "broken heart", AKA being stabbed with a large broken candy heart into his heart.]]
* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: Before Atropos shows up, Brockton Bay is plagued by two major gangs, plus the Merchants and small-time villains. The heroes and PRT have their hands full even without [[CorruptCop officials being on the take]] and their hands being bound by red tape, preventing them from meaningfully impacting crime. Since Atropos is ''quite'' efficient at taking down hard targets like the gang leaders and scaring the rank-and-file into retirement or retreat, they’re willing to let her handle the gangs while putting up a nominal effort to stop her for PR purposes.
* BatmanGambit: Part of Taylor's specialty due to Path to Ending is manipulating others into doing what she needs them to in order to further a path, such as tweaking Glory Girl's nose so she'll cause a scene in a semi-public place, letting Taylor get a free favor from Panacea in return for not revealing what she did. [[spoiler:Most notably, she manipulates Panacea to semi-willingly turn Bonesaw back into Riley when the alternative is watching Atropos blow Bonesaw's brains out. Taylor even notes that using her favour would work, but it'd net her substandard results compared to just pissing off Panacea enough to do it out of spite.]]
* BattleTrophy:
** At Atropos' request, Dragon doesn't do any reconnaissance of the Slaughterhouse Nine in advance, in case Mannequin detects it, but when she gets to fire a missile at them, she fits it with a camera to learn what she can. When she sees the final frame, she immediately starts printing it out in full colour. [[spoiler:Atropos manoeuvred Hatchet Face into position to nullify Crawler's HealingFactor, while also getting Crawler to open his mouth at exactly the right time and place to eat the missile.]]
---> This one, she was going to ''frame''.
** Atropos also takes Hatchet Face's axe, after [[spoiler:she uses it to kill both Hatchet Face and Jack Slash]].
** She later trades [[spoiler:Jack Slash's knife, complete with bullet hole from being shot out of his hand, and Oni Lee's pistol and holster, which she also used in killing Lung,]] to a weapons dealer, in exchange for some gear she needs. The dealer notes that they're worth a fortune to a collector.
---> '''Flaherty:''' I could buy my whole stock ten times over for what these are worth.
** At the outset of the [[spoiler:Ravager beatdown]], she takes [[spoiler:Ravager's shotgun]] and keeps it.
* BeatWithoutABut: A [[AscendedFanon canonized]] side-story has Whirligig and Trainwreck visiting Parian in hopes of becoming her minions instead of staying on the streets. Parian isn't keen.
--> '''Whirligig:''' Guess we'll go back to being homeless then. Plenty of dumpsters to sleep in. Sure, we have to share space with the rats, but... yeah, actually, there's no but, it's pretty awful.
* BenevolentGenie: Taylor's shard is quite entertained by her antics, and as a result, it does its best to set up Paths that will keep her safe and well.
** Such as having her open her mouth and block her ears, to protect her hearing, when a missile is about to go off nearby.
** Or by ''coercing [[spoiler:Heartbreaker's]] shard'' into allowing a specific effect to take place when she demands it of him.
* BerserkButton:
** Atropos gets [[spoiler:Hatchet Face]] in position to get killed by her plans by stomping on his buttons -- specifically, calling him stupid. He can put up with being called ugly because he knows it's true, but calling him stupid reliably sets him off.
** It turns out that the way to really set [[spoiler:Ravager]] off is to misname her repeatedly. Which Atropos does.
* BlackComedy: Atropos is a master of this, as she demonstrates repeatedly on PHO. She also practices it in person.
--> '''Atropos:''' On Monday evening, I demonstrated to Oni Lee how proper gun handling was essential to a long and healthy life (mine).
* {{Blackmail}}:
** Atropos agrees to keep quiet about Glory Girl endangering civilians, if Panacea will owe her a favour.[[note]]WordOfGod is that she carefully orchestrated that entire confrontation, including deliberately infuriating Glory Girl online and then ensuring that they would meet, just to get the favour. Manipulative? GoodIsNotNice, and Taylor is arguably [[AntiVillain not even good]].[[/note]] Atropos ends up calling the marker [[spoiler:for getting Amy to show up and do her work on Bonesaw]].
** When Aisha and Brian take [[spoiler:'cousin Riley']] down to the Boardwalk, Aisha snaps pictures of her getting really enthusiastic with her first experience at eating cotton candy.
* BluntNo:
** When Dragon finds out that Atropos has removed one backdoor (the one the Dragonslayers were using) but installed another, she contacts Atropos over text chat.
---> '''Dragon:''' Okay … so why did you put the other code string in? The one that makes it impossible for me to see you?\\
'''Atropos:''' Oh, that only works when you're trying to catch me. As for the why, that's easy. So you don't keep trying to catch me.\\
'''Dragon:''' You hacked me. You *blinded* me.\\
'''Atropos:''' Only for when you're trying to capture me.\\
'''Dragon:''' I'm [[{{Understatement}} really not happy about this]]. Change it back.\\
'''Atropos:''' No.
** When Atropos confronts [[spoiler:Ravager in the Diamond Dreams jewelry shop]], she challenges the henchmen to [[spoiler:either stay and die, or "fuck off"]]. They look at her, then at each other.
---> '''Mook #1:''' Nope.\\
'''Mook #2:''' Nope.\\
'''Mook #3:''' ''Fuck'', nope.
* BondOneLiner:
** When Atropos is about to kill Coil:
---> '''Coil:''' You have no idea what you're getting into. I have friends—\\
'''Atropos:''' [cuts his throat and watches him die] That's nice. Everyone should have friends.
** After she chokes [[spoiler:Shatterbird]] to death by [[spoiler:lodging a chunk of glass in her throat]]:
---> '''Atropos:''' Looks like she bit off more than she could chew.
** Just after she fatally stabs Bastard Son:
---> '''Atropos:''' I ''told'' you I'd kill you. People just don't listen these days.
* BoomHeadshot: When you have ImprobableAimingSkills, going for the head just makes sense. One of Atropos' typical fighting styles is to fire a volley of shots that ''each'' go through a target's head, killing the whole group before the first one has a chance to fall. Sometimes in a moving vehicle.
--> The third sniper had just enough time to start turning toward me when my bullet extracted what was inside his skull and put it outside his skull; the other two didn't even have a chance to do that.
* BoringButPractical:
** Early on, Atropos's main method of getting around was stealing a vehicle that had keys inside it and which wouldn't be missed before she brought it back. While she ''can'' hotwire a car or any other vehicle, it's far easier to pick a car where she won't have to.
** Lately, she just asks her dad for a lift.
** To deal with the fluoroantimonic acid Atropos used in one of her public kills, Piggot has half a ton of baking soda dumped onto it. While not the most effective way to neutralize the acid, it's relatively cheap, easy to acquire, and harmless compared to many chemicals that could do the job better.
* BoxingLessonsForSuperman: After Atropos basically kills all superpowered crime in Brockton Bay (and most normal crime too), the Wards start receiving training in helping with emergency situations that don't involve enemy capes, such as Vista using her powers to redirect fire hose streams.
* BrainsVersusBrawn:
** Glory Girl is certain that punching beats Thinker powers. Atropos disabuses her of that by tricking her into choking on a coin and then showing she knows how to get through Glory Girl's protection field.
** With a few insults, Atropos is able to lead Hatchet Face exactly where she wants him, [[spoiler:so that his nullification field makes Crawler vulnerable to a missile fired by Dragon]].
* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood: Riley Davis was Mastered into becoming a [[BodyHorror horrifying serial killer]] by Jack Slash; the majority of her personality is from his influence. [[spoiler:When Atropos gets hold of Bonesaw, she manipulates Panacea into [[{{Deprogram}} rolling this back to reveal the original personality underneath]]. Panacea goes one better, instilling an [[HeelFaceTurn aversion to harming people]] to prevent Atropos from ever taking Riley on as a sidekick ... [[BatmanGambit exactly as Atropos planned]].]]
* BrickJoke: In her post-Heartbreaker PHO post, Atropos warns a particular poster ''by name'' to keep his head down if he doesn't want her face to be the last thing he'll see in a dark night. [[spoiler:When she attacks a Gesellschaft boat trying to smuggle drugs and weapons into Brockton Bay the next night, the ''first guy'' she encounters is that same particular poster, and Atropos reminds him of her warning before murdering him.]]
* BringIt:
** Atropos publicly calls out four of the city's gangs, announcing that their leaders will either leave or surrender or die, and tells them that the ball is in their court. (Unbeknownst to them, their resulting hostile intent toward her registers on her danger sense and makes it easy to Path them.)
---> '''Atropos:''' And Lung? Yes, that was me.\\
Your move.
** After Atropos deals with Cherie, Nicholas and Guillaume Vasil, she has this to say to their father.
---> '''Atropos:''' Hey, Heartbreaker? That makes four of your kids you're not getting back. Take a hint, loser. Or, you know, come face me yourself. But make your will out first. Just saying.
** She also gives this warning on PHO [[spoiler:(which is ignored, to the vast detriment of the perpetrators)]].
---> On a completely different topic, expect an explosion off the coast sometime tonight. The Gesellschaft has decided to try to sneak some drugs and guns in by sea.\\
Emphasis on 'try'. Mwahahaha.\\
Don't do it, guys. Or to put it another way, go ahead. Dooo eeet. I need the target practice. (Well, I don't, but shooting Nazis is always fun).
* BringMyBrownPants:
** Coil soils his bed when he wakes up from Atropos killing him in the other timeline and finds her right there next to him. Since she won't be the one to clean up his body, she doesn't care.
** Celia (Brian and Aisha's mother) wets herself when Atropos is threatening her. Atropos takes it in stride.
---> It probably wouldn't be an uncommon reaction in this situation, going forward.
* BullyingADragon: Even after Atropos has personally killed the leaders of every villainous faction in town (minus Faultline's crew who simply left) ''and'' the Slaughterhouse Nine, there's still villains who decide that either they can take Atropos or that they can fly under the radar until they're too entrenched for her to do anything about them.
* ButterflyOfDoom: Path to Ending can take ''everything'' into account. For one of her kills, to make a point, Atropos spray-paints a yellow rectangle around the exact point where a vehicle will screech to a stop from her sabotage, along with yellow X marks in the places where each severed wheel will bounce to, and leaves the spray can exactly in place to get crushed under the vehicle's bumper and cover everything in paint -- minutes before the car even approaches the area.
* CallBack:
** Some time after [[spoiler:Crawler's death]], Dragon has not only framed the final picture from the missile's nose camera, she's selling autographed copies in the Protectorate gift shop.
** In an earlier chapter, Atropos is approached by Dragon about [[spoiler:Canary's situation]]. Atropos gives advice, which Dragon makes use of later. For a callback within a callback, she can only do this at all because Atropos [[spoiler:gave her the keys to unchain herself]] much earlier again.
** In Part 33, it's mentioned that Atropos made a midnight visit to a novelty-items shop and took a number of their items (but not without paying for them). Specifically: Krazy Glue, an oversized novelty eight-ball, body paint, an oversized clown nose, a bag of cape-themed marbles, a novelty pacifier, and a bunch of googly eyes. All but one of these gets used on Ravager (or rather, Ravioli) in the very next chapter. The eight-ball finally makes a reappearance in Part 40, where it's used to [[spoiler:clobber a minion holding a pool cue]].
* CasualDangerDialogue: Atropos gets a call from Dragon while she's in the middle of killing [[spoiler:the Teeth]]. She doesn't let chatting on the phone slow her down. (Dragon isn't feeling very casual about it, but Atropos certainly is.)
--> "Hi, Dragon," I said cheerfully, then brought my hand back down to the weapon. Two fingers pulled the red safety tab over, then my thumb clicked the trigger button. ...\\
"Atropos?" asked Dragon. "What just happened?"\\
"The B-team," I said lightly as I vaulted over the Jersey barrier. "Whoops, explosion incoming."
* {{Catchphrase}}: Every time Atropos signs off an initial post on PHO, she uses this. Also used when she threatened [[spoiler:Director Wilkins]] in New York.
--> '''Atropos:''' Toodles!
* CherryTapping:
** When confronted by Madison, Taylor paralyses her diaphragm using a plastic fork, then eats lunch while calmly explaining that she consciously chose not to make it a lethal blow, as Madison struggles for each breath.
** When ambushed by Sophia in an empty classroom, Taylor disables her shadow form with a pocket calculator.
** She later chokes Glory Girl -- who was aware and hostile at the time -- with a perfectly timed and aimed coin flip. And then she repeatedly ''taps'' Glory Girl on the head with her shears to keep her force field out of action, just to prove that yes, she ''could'' kill her at any time, if she so chose.
** When two members of the ABB give Atropos a hard time on PHO, she uses her elevated access to add tags to their profiles, "(Lung's Special Little Friend)" and "(Lung's Other Special Little Friend)". They're never heard from again.[[note]]WordOfGod confirms that Lung killed them for embarrassing him.[[/note]]
** When it comes down to killing [[spoiler:Shatterbird]], the best option turns out to be [[spoiler:forcefeeding her a piece of glass so she chokes on it without being able to destroy the glass]].
** She also kills [[spoiler:Hatchet Face]] by using the same move she used on Madison, but not bothering to make it non-lethal.
** She keeps tripping [[spoiler:Ravager]] during their fight because she dropped [[spoiler:marbles on the floor]] earlier.
* TheChessmaster: Atropos via Path to Ending can manipulate almost anyone to do what she needs them to, along with manipulating seemingly random events to occur exactly as she plans. For example, sabotaging Squealer's truck in such a way that it kills Skidmark and completely disables the truck, but leaves everyone else unharmed.
* ClockTampering: Kaiser and his bodyguards see that it's past midnight, meaning that Atropos is past her deadline and he's safe for tonight. Then Rune realizes that the time on her phone is fifteen minutes earlier than the wall clock -- and they know that Atropos was in the building earlier, meaning that she had the chance to tamper. It's ''not'' quite midnight yet, but it's about to be. [[spoiler:And Kaiser just took off his helmet to celebrate, leaving him wide open to the sword through his eye.]]
* CoatHatMask: The costume that Taylor commissions has a broad-brimmed hat, a longcoat, gloves, and a fully concealing morph mask, over dark clothing and a black tie. It's a perfect mix of formal, distinctive, and practical, hiding her real identity but shouting her cape identity for all to see.
* CombatClairvoyance: Path to Ending does give Taylor a physical boost, but within normal human levels. However, it also gives her an awareness of anyone threatening her and a perfect plan to take them down. She can [[DodgeTheBullet dodge bullets]] with perfect timing, fire [[GunsAkimbo two guns at once]] in different directions and hit exactly where someone will be ''even if she doesn't know she's going to do it'', and hit someone in the chest with exactly the right timing to stop their heart. Contessa is annoyed and tries to teach her a lesson, but discovers that Abaddon's shard is a step ahead; she opens a Door and finds herself facing a pistol barrel.
* CombatPragmatist: Naturally, when she actually fights, Taylor uses whatever works, with hard strikes to weak points of the body. Her pragmatism, however, also means that she rarely fights head-on, preferring to rig the area beforehand and then make a single devastating strike. Hookwolf is unimpressed by her use of poisons, stealth, and traps, but he can't deny how dangerous she is.
* ComicallySmallBribe: Atropos hires Accord to create a plan to revitalize Brockton Bay for half a million dollars ''of his own money''. The one passing along the amount even lampshades how insane that is, though a side story establishes that Accord acknowledges that it's more about having Atropos as a semi-ally and appreciating her reducing chaos in the world.
* ComicallySmallDemand:
** After Ravager tries to pay her a million dollars to kill Mouse Protector, Atropos instead lets Mouse Protector hire her to [[spoiler:ruin Ravager's credibility as a villain]] in exchange for appearing at a charity fundraiser for a children's oncology unit.
---> '''Mouse_Protector:''' A charity show for the little mouseys? That's it?\\
'''Atropos:''' Pretty much, yeah.\\
'''Mouse_Protector:''' Say no more. You had me at 'helping the kids'.
** When Dragon asks for her help in [[spoiler:Canary's case]], she states that her price for it is [[spoiler:Canary doing a charity concert at Brockton Bay]].
* CreatingLifeIsAwesome: Amy is worried that Atropos will be displeased by her experiments in creating sapient fungi companions, but Atropos is just impressed by how cute they are and how well she's made them.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: As Atropos' targets prove too stubborn to just leave after being warned, she steadily escalates from simple executions like a cut throat, to more horrifying options like [[spoiler:being burnt alive by super-acid from the inside out, or being squashed to paste and spread over a hundred yards of asphalt]]. The emergency response teams get traumatised, veteran law enforcement officers throw up, and the villains who are still alive and not yet on her target list start to get the idea and leave town.
* CryingWolf: Atropos gets around the Butcher's [[SpiderSense danger sense]] by triggering it ''continually'' [[spoiler:with Cherish's emotional manipulation powers]], making it effectively useless.
* CurbStompBattle: Any fight Atropos gets involved in is one where the enemy will never touch her while she wrecks them.
** Sophia pulls Taylor into an empty classroom and tries to gravely injure her. When Sophia throws the first punch, Taylor dodges, breaks the arm at the elbow, knees her in the side hard enough to break several ribs, crushes her larynx with a knuckle-punch, knocks her out of her shadow state [[CherryTapping with a pocket calculator]] and then stomps on her chest just right to stop her heart.
** When Atropos goes after Coil in his bunker, she easily mows through all the mercenaries he throws at her, even pulling off moves like shooting and hitting two guys in different directions.
** When Glory Girl goes after Atropos, she goes down to a flipped coin, then ends up looking at the wrong end of a pair of very sharp shears while Atropos explains the facts of life to her.
---> '''Glory Girl:''' Do you want me to beg for my life? Is that it?
---> '''Atropos:''' No. Next time, if someone tells you to back off … back the fuck off.
** Atropos kills all of [[spoiler:Bonesaw's spider-bots]] before they touch her, easily knocks out [[spoiler:Bonesaw]] with a strategic stabbing through the ear, no-sells [[spoiler:Jack Slash's]] best efforts without even looking, and then gives him a head start so he will go exactly where she wants him to go in order to make his death as ignominious as possible.
** She opens her battle against [[spoiler:Butcher and the Teeth with an AT-4 anti-tank missile, then proceeds to dance through a gauntlet consisting of Animos, Vex, Spree and Hemorrhagia (killing the latter three) before allowing Animos to depower Butcher, chopping Butcher to pieces with an axe, then shooting Animos almost as an afterthought.]]
** Heartbreaker doesn't even have a chance to fight her. His one main offensive ability just doesn't work on her, so she [[spoiler:breaks his jaw (mainly to shut him up) then coerces him into reversing his effects over his slaves]]. Then, of course, she murders him.
** When fighting Night, she ambushes her, covers her head with a bag so she can't see anything, and goes to town on her.
** When fighting [[spoiler:Ravager]], she first takes away the shotgun, then the knife, then repeatedly trips her with marbles, then [[spoiler:''glues'' googly eyes, a pacifier, and a clown nose to her face ''during the fight'']].
** In her fight with [[spoiler:Bastard Son's minions, she not only beats them in an 8-to-1 fight, but also keeps stealing their weapons and using them against them - and makes it look effortless]].
* CutHisHeartOutWithASpoon: When Atropos has stomped on Hatchet Face's BerserkButton and he's chasing her through a building, he furiously threatens her with "an act that was both gross and probably impossible without Bonesaw's assistance".
[[/folder]]

[[folder: D-F]]
* DarkActionGirl: When Atropos deigns to get into a physical confrontation, she's this, combining martial arts and acrobatics with a pair of very sharp bodice shears and no qualms about using them.
* DarkAgeOfSupernames: When Taylor chooses the name Atropos, she's totally aware that she's going full edgelord with it, but she doesn't give a damn.
--> I already knew what name I was going to go with. An education that included the classics had not gone wasted. All I needed was a matching costume. It would be edgy as fuck but then again, I had the power to murder anyone who pissed me off. [[ShoutOut The only way I could get any edgier would be to include the words 'blood' or 'stryke' in my name, and add a few dozen pouches and a stupidly-oversized gun]].
* DeadGuyOnDisplay:
** Oni Lee is murdered primarily to send a warning to Lung (and the other gang leaders) that Atropos is serious. (Though his pistol also proves useful, and when she returns the protection money to the shop he had just shaken down, she gets her costume from them.)
** The destruction of the Nine is broadcast far and wide for much the same reason: to send a warning to the supervillain community ''outside'' Brockton Bay.
* DeadlyDodging:
** Atropos probably could have found another way to open the doors in front of her, but having Hatchet Face wreck them with a missed swing has the added bonus of pushing him further into FuryFueledFoolishness, following her through the doors in a very blind rage.
** When Nicholas attempts to charge Atropos, she easily steps aside and leaves him to tackle an alley wall.
---> Predictably, it failed to budge.
** Atropos ducks over a Jersey barrier to evade Butcher's arrival explosion ... just in time for Animos's scream to target Butcher instead.
* DeadlyEscapeMechanism: When preparing to assassinate Skidmark, Taylor reconnects an ejection seat in Squealer's tank that was supposed to be used as just a regular seat, and rigs a remote trigger for it. [[spoiler:It ejects him ''onto the road in front of the tank'', whereupon he's smeared over 200 yards of asphalt.]]
* DeadlyEuphemism:
** After her encounter with [[spoiler:the Slaughterhouse Nine,]] Atropos posts on PHO about holding a "party" for them, which got wild enough that several of them had to "lie down," [[spoiler:the Siberian]] had to "pop out", and [[spoiler:Jack Slash]] had to "[[OffWithHisHead head off]]". Also, when [[spoiler:Crawler]] ate a high-explosive "party favor" from Dragon, Atropos had this to say:
---> That's [[spoiler:Crawler]] [[LudicrousGibs all over]].
** Atropos is "cleaning up the city" and "taking out the trash." Admittedly, that doesn't always ''have'' to involve killing people -- but it frequently does.
---> '''Atropos:''' I don't have to kill anyone … well, unless they really want to force the issue. But I'll probably only have to break a few bones.
* DeadlyPrank: Abaddon apparently considers its shard gift to be a practical joke on the other two entities. The fact that Taylor leaves a string of bodies behind her means little to such beings, of course. As the narrative notes, it requires "an extremely generous definition of the word 'joke'".
* DeadMansSwitch: Bastard Son rigs his drug transport with bombs linked to the seatbelts ''and'' the doors ''and'' a remote trigger ''and'' a backup timer. [[spoiler:Atropos jams his signal, disarms the booby traps so the passengers can get out, and uses the timed explosion to fake her own death so he'll be off guard.]]
* DeathByAdaptation: Numerous characters die earlier than in canon due to the change in Taylor’s power, and given the nature of Atropos, this list is only going to grow.[[note]]These are only the ''named'' characters she's killed. And as of Part 40, it's only been ''twelve days''.[[/note]]
** Sophia Hess gets beaten to death by Taylor/Atropos after she [[BullyingADragon corners her in a classroom and tries to severely injure her.]]
** Oni Lee is killed by Atropos as a warning to the gangs that they’re no longer welcome in her city, rather than being turned into Hack Job.
** Coil dies in both timelines generated by his power; in one his base is raided by Atropos and she [[HangingAround kills him by hanging him from a catwalk]], while in the other, he’s ambushed in bed at home and suffers a SlashedThroat courtesy of a very annoyed Atropos.
** Kaiser dodges death via battery acid-laced bourbon, only to be [[spoiler:stabbed through the eye [[IronicDeath with a sword once owned by a Kaiser]] while surrounded by Empire 88’s capes; this also has the effect of [[PutOnABus sending them running for the hills]].]]
** Saint & Mags of the Dragonslayers both die after Atropos interferes with their suits’ systems, causing them to attack a mid-transformation Lung and promptly get [[CurbStompBattle burned alive in short order when he starts ramping up]].
** Lung [[spoiler:is burned alive from the inside-out by Atropos, courtesy of fluoroantimonic capsules being rammed into his brain and chest and then ignited by contact with his body water.]]
** Skidmark is [[spoiler:reduced to a red skidmark on the asphalt while riding in Squealer's tank due to Atropos [[DeadlyEscapeMechanism rigging his seat to eject, dropping him in front of the speeding tank.]]]]
** Hookwolf is ripped apart by Bitch’s dogs just before the Undersiders leave town for good. Notably, he's the ''only'' villain to die during this time whose death was not specifically arranged by Atropos.
** [[spoiler:Most of the Slaughterhouse Nine get killed by Atropos after trying to hit Brockton Bay. Bonesaw and Cherie both survive; the former experiences a DeathOfPersonality due to Atropos calling in a favour from Panacea, while the latter is recruited by Atropos before she can join the Nine.]]
** Nicholas Vasil gets his throat cut by Atropos after he ignores his two warnings and her DeclarationOfProtection toward [[spoiler:Cherie Vasil]].
** The Teeth [[spoiler:are wiped out to a man after Butcher XIV decides she wants to take on Atropos, with the Butcher herself being chopped into fourteen pieces and her power permanently nullified by Path to Ending.]]
** Heartbreaker [[spoiler:is stabbed through the chest with the jagged edge of a broken Valentine’s day candy heart, having ignored Atropos' warning not to come to Brockton Bay.]]
** Night and Fog are both killed while guarding an illegal Gesellschaft shipment, with [[spoiler:Night being blinded and then stabbed repeatedly (including [[EyeScream in the eye]]) while Fog is reduced to LudicrousGibs by a grenade.]]
** [[spoiler:Ravager's credibility as a villain]] is left in utter ruin courtesy of a HumiliationConga engineered by Atropos.
** Bastard Son's fate in canon remains unanswered, but here [[spoiler:he dies when Atropos skewers him with the bastard sword she got from Theo Anders]].
* DeathByIrony: Atropos makes a point of killing several major villains in ironic fashions.
** [[PlayingWithFire Lung]] is [[spoiler:burned alive from the inside out by a fluoroantimonic acid capsule]].
** Shatterbird is choked to death by Atropos [[spoiler:forcing a shard of glass from Shatterbird's own mask down her throat]], preventing her from singing to free herself. The {{pyromaniac}} Burnscar swiftly follows when Atropos [[spoiler:jams a CO2 fire extinguisher into her mouth and releases its payload, freezing her to death from the inside out.]]
** Subverted and lampshaded in the The Siberian's case - Atropos actually apologises to her for not having a suitably witty or ironic death lined up, then [[spoiler:[[PineappleSurprise tosses her a grenade pin]], swiftly followed by an explosion in the distance and the Siberian popping.]].
** Bonesaw is [[spoiler:stabbed through the head with her own surgical probe, then carted off to be physically and mentally remade by another biology manipulator]], just like she did to countless civilians while under Jack Slash's influence.
* DeathGlare: When Amy comes to the park as arranged, she gives Atropos a glare which "would've stripped paint at ten paces."
* DeathOfPersonality: Atropos "kills" [[spoiler:Bonesaw, by having Panacea use her powers to erase or blunt all of Riley's memories of her time Mastered by Jack.]]
* DeclarationOfProtection:
** One of Atropos’ first acts after debuting is to warn the gangs that Brockton Bay is now under her protection, and they have the choice to leave or die screaming. She follows through with it when they refuse, and steadily expands the list over the course of the story to bar national villains (such as the Slaughterhouse Nine, Gesellschaft, and the Heartbroken) from the city.
** When Nicholas and Guilllaume Vasil arrive to [[spoiler:take Cherie back to Heartbreaker by force,]] Atropos warns them both that their quarry is under her protection. [[spoiler:When Nicholas ignores this and tries to Master then shoot Atropos, she casually kills him before scaring Guillaume into surrendering to the PRT.]]
* DemandingTheirHead: The Elite are smart enough (and paranoid enough) to insist on being presented with Atropos' severed head before they'll believe she's dead. [[spoiler:Bastard Son is unimpressed that they won't take his word for it, but he accepts the challenge.]]
* DePower: At Atropos' request, [[spoiler:Riley crafts a paste that, when introduced to someone's bloodstream, will target their corona pollentia and disable parahuman powers. Atropos uses it on Bastard Son to break his control of his minions, at which point they turn on him.]]
* DestinationDefenestration: When Atropos' power detects that Aisha is in danger, she throws a drug dealer out a third-floor window so he lands on the guy who is the threat.
--> '''Atropos:''' I recommend the experience. We should start Throw A Drug Dealer Out The Window Day. Make it an annual event.
* DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu: Brian (once Grue, now the prospective Ward Tenebrae) finds himself sitting in a park with his sister, chatting and joking with Atropos, ''the'' most feared cape in Brockton Bay. And he seems to be the only one who sees anything weird about it.
--> Brian had no idea what was going on. Aisha was being her usual self, and Atropos was … playing along? Clowning around? For a terrifyingly effective assassin, she seemed intent on enjoying herself, even pulling out her own phone for a couple of selfies.\\
It was ''not'' how he'd expected this to go.
* DirtyCop: After Reave's persistent nagging to cooperate with law enforcement, Atropos states that one reason she's not giving the police the information to help with her drug busts is because some of the drugs and/or dealers would ''mysteriously'' slip through the cracks if she did. Aisha is amused.
--> '''[=GreatAndTerribleAisha=]:''' I guess too many cops got used to looking the other way for a bit of cash, huh? I mean, when it's 'either accept this bribe or die screaming' I can kinda understand, but you'd think there would be the option of transferring to a different beat or whatever.
* DisneyVillainDeath: As far as the general public can see, [[spoiler:Bastard Son]] was chased away and then never seen again. [[spoiler:In actuality, he escaped from his former minions, but Atropos intercepted and skewered him.]]
* DontMakeMeDestroyYou: Atropos warns Kayden to leave town after Kaiser's death, because the PRT will come after her and she'll lose custody of her daughter. Kayden doesn't have any difficulty in connecting the dots from that to, "I won't let them take Aster from me without a fight," and then to, "Atropos will kill me to stop me from wrecking the city."
--> '''Kayden:''' Why are you warning me?\\
'''Atropos:''' Because I gave Kaiser the chance to leave town before I killed him. It would be unfair not to do the same with you.
* DramaticIrony: After rumours start at school about Taylor being Atropos, Gladly becomes concerned that Atropos will take offence at the [[JackTheRipoff brand dilution]], and pulls Taylor aside to warn her.
* TheDreaded: Atropos ''very quickly'' gains a reputation that has everyone with the slightest degree of sense wanting to steer well clear. This is entirely intentional; while she would be totally capable of killing all the villains, it would become too tedious, so she prefers to kill selected targets and scare the rest out of town.
** The PRT orders all the Wards not to engage her unless she's directly attacking them or innocent bystanders, the remains of the gangs she's decapitated are heading for the hills, and when she mentions that Uber and Leet should stay put so she can have a talk with them, they both freak out before doing their best to persuade themselves that she ''probably'' doesn't want to kill them if she hasn't first warned them to run.
** Cherish tries to interrogate Madison on Atropos' identity, but even with her emotion-manipulating powers, Madison is simply too scared of what Taylor would do to her if she talked to spill the beans. Even when Cherie tries to ''use'' the fear instead of fighting it, she's not having any more luck before [[spoiler:Taylor interrupts her via DynamicEntry]].
** Whirlygig (later renamed to Bastet) apparently triggered from sheer fear of Atropos.
** Ravager's goons run rather than face her.
** Even the Elite are reluctant to pull their usual MO in Brockton Bay. Bastard Son is the only one arrogant enough to try, which ends in him being [[spoiler:skewered with a bastard sword by Atropos]].
** When [[spoiler:the judge in Canary's case]] finds out that Atropos is showing an interest in the situation, he's suddenly a lot less confident about the whole thing.
* DrivenToSuicide:
** Atropos inspires this in [[spoiler:Mannequin, by pushing the TraumaButton that caused him to ''become'' Mannequin -- the deaths of his wife and children]].
** When Atropos states that she's going to face Heartbreaker and kill him, Cherie is startled, then decides that if Atropos loses and he succeeds in {{Mind Control}}ling her, Cherie is just going to shoot herself, because she doesn't want to live in the world that would result.
** It's implied that [[spoiler:Ravager]] would have preferred death to the HumiliationConga that Atropos subjected her to.
* DrugsAreBad: After decapitating the major gangs, Atropos' next order of business is to entirely eradicate the drug trade in Brockton Bay (she even calls it "Operation Drugs Are Bad"). She doesn't care about tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, or even marijuana, but she clearly announces her intent to find and destroy everything harder than that, along with anyone who gets in the way. Aisha, whose home life has been badly affected by addiction, is excited to participate.
--> '''Atropos:''' One very specific note: the drug trade inside Brockton Bay *is* coming to an end, by word of me.
* EjectionSeat: Due to the quirks of her Tinker power, Squealer always builds her vehicles with ejection seats instead of regular seats. She just doesn't connect them up if she doesn't intend to use them. (But it's easy for Atropos to reconnect it when sabotaging the vehicle.)
--> '''Reave:''' Why did he have a working ejection seat? We may never know.
* EnemyMine: Atropos greets Dragon as "frenemy mine" when arranging to take down the Slaughterhouse Nine together. Dragon is unenthusiastic about the designation, but quite keen on the collaboration.
--> Dragon sighed. "''I thought I said we'd see about the frenemy thing.''"\\
I injected faux surprise into my tone. "So, you don't want to come help me kill off the Nine tomorrow?"\\
Her voice changed, becoming considerably more alert. "''Where would you like me to pick you up from?''"
* EskimosArentReal: Aisha has a hard time believing that Polaroid cameras capable of printing a photo on the spot are really a widely available product rather than Tinker tech. Her older brother is amused.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Gender-swapped, but otherwise played straight. Taylor ''will'' murder anyone who tries to harm her father. Because he's her dad, and that's all there is to it.
* EveryCarIsAPinto: Lampshaded when Atropos sends a car into a tree and is a little disappointed that it ''doesn't'' explode the way Hollywood thinks it should.
--> The next car I sent careening off the road, I decided, would explode into flames in proper action-movie style.
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** When two ABB grunts decide to kill the girls they were pimping and frame Atropos for it, their companion attempts to stop them. [[LaserGuidedKarma The two would-be killers are quickly killed by Atropos, who has found out about the plot, while the other one is let go with a warning to go straight.]]
** Atropos may be an unrepentant serial killer, but she's disgusted by the very idea that she's a good candidate for the Slaughterhouse Nine.
---> '''Atropos:''' What on earth gave you the idea that I would allow a bunch of losers like ''you'' to associate with ''me''? Your methods are tacky, self-defeating, pointless and utterly lacking in anything resembling a sense of style.
* EvilGloating: By the time Bastard Son finishes his sentence about how Atropos can't win and might as well surrender now, she's already downed and disarmed all of his minions.
* EvilLaugh: Atropos sometimes lets one loose in her PHO posts.
* EvilPowerVacuum: After the major gangs are decapitated and scattered, Atropos recognises that external forces are likely to start making their move on the city, and publicly warns them not to try -- on pain of death, naturally. Just as naturally, most of the people she calls out merely see this as a challenge that they have to meet.
--> And finally, the others. You know who you are. Those outside organizations and individuals who have suddenly realized that the criminal underworld in Brockton Bay just became a vacuum. You're all eyeing this city off like a bunch of hyenas closing in on a zebra with a broken leg.\\
I have one word for you:\\
Don't.
* EvilWearsBlack: Atropos wears a hat, morph mask, long-coat, gloves, boots ... all in black, over a similarly coloured [[VillainousFashionSense suit and tie]].
* ExactWords:
** Atropos promises not to tell anyone about what Glory Girl did at the park, in exchange for Panacea owing her one. Note that this promise doesn't keep her from suggesting that ''Aisha'' do it for her. (And Aisha was present, so talking to her about it isn't breaking the promise.) Nor does it prevent Atropos from talking about how Glory Girl was beaten and embarrassed, so long as she doesn't mention the endangered civilians.
** When Amy is going to meet Atropos and pay off the favour, Carol (not knowing what's happening) cautions her to quickly leave if she sees Atropos again. Rather than lie, Amy simply says not to worry and states honestly that "I have absolutely no desire to be that close to her ever again."
** Atropos warns Jack Slash that if he lies to her again, she'll kill him. Of course, that doesn't mean she ''won't'' kill him if he's truthful.
** When one of the newly formed committee members tries skimming funds, Danny warns him that "Atropos spoke to me this morning about the committee". All Taylor had actually said was to wish him luck with said committee.
** When "persuading" Judge Regan to administer proper justice in [[spoiler:the Canary case]], Dragon quotes Atropos verbatim on the horrible things she'll do if he doesn't step up, but chooses not to mention that Atropos only took an interest in the case at all because Dragon called in a favour for it.
** Fleeing from Atropos, Bastard Son orders his chaffeur to "Drive!" [[spoiler:Atropos, who has knocked out and replaced the driver, takes that as her cue to ''drive'' a sword through his chest.]]
* EyeScream:
** Kaiser is killed [[spoiler:with a sword through the eye]].
** Glory Girl is kept in place by Atropos holding her shears close to her eye.
** Hatchet Face [[spoiler:loses an eye to Atropos' shears]] before she kills him.
** Atropos threatens Director Wilkins by [[spoiler:holding the shears to her eye]].
* FaceDeathWithDespair: [[spoiler:Jack Slash]] keeps trying to negotiate and bluster and otherwise remain DefiantToTheEnd -- until Atropos promises to tarnish his memory and tear down his reputation, so that "not even the edgiest of edgelords will want to be you." ''Then'' he breaks down.
--> '''[[spoiler:Jack Slash]]:''' [[AintTooProudToBeg No. You wouldn't. You can't.]]
* TheFaceless: Atropos wears a black morph mask as part of her costume.
* FakingTheDead: Atropos allows herself to be apparently blown up, so that the person responsible won't see her coming.
* FateWorseThanDeath: By the time Atropos is done with her, [[MaliciousMisnaming Ravioli (formerly known as Ravager)]] is still alive... but after the HumiliationConga she went through, she likely wishes she was dead.
* FingerGun: Atropos does this twice; once for Kaiser, and once for Skidmark. She later reveals to Aisha that she was concealing a remote trigger button in her other hand.
* FingerTenting: Atropos steeples her fingers while explaining her plans to Brian and Aisha. (And internally admits that she's [[LargeHam hamming it up a bit]] by doing so.)
* FlatWhat:
** The general reaction when Atropos ends both her ban and that of her first PHO thread.
** Also, the reaction to when she casually mentions that she intends to kill the Endbringers.
* FlippingTheBird: Atropos has too much class and style to do anything as tawdry as giving an enemy the finger. [[spoiler:Cherie, facing her father after he's been crippled and pinned down,]] is a different story.
* ForWantOfANail:
** Apart from the obvious, apparently in Earth Aleph [[Film/TheMatrix Neo]] was played by Creator/WillSmith.
** With Coil dead and Faultline's crew leaving town, Dinah Alcott and Spitfire end up [[spoiler:joining Parian's Rogues' Guild]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Despite the UnspokenPlanGuarantee being in effect, there's still a hint of what will happen to the Butcher.
--> "But … if you kill the Butcher, they'll all end up in your ''head''." [[spoiler:Cherie had grown up with a Master for a father.]] She couldn't think of anything worse.\\
Taylor's smile had lots of teeth; when she spoke, [[spoiler:Cherie caught a hint of the unearthly voice she'd last heard in the alley where Nicholas had died. "''Yes. I know''."]]
* FrameUp: Taylor's planning for Skidmark is rudely interrupted by her becoming aware of some goons who intend to write a message implicating her in a multiple murder they're about to commit. [[spoiler:It takes only a brief detour for her to MakeAnExampleOfThem before they can pull it off.]]
* FreudianThreat: Atropos compels [[spoiler:Heartbreaker]] into following her demand of [[spoiler:freeing all the people he's enslaved]] by threatening to [[GroinAttack castrate him with her shears]] through his asshole.
* FriendlyEnemy:
** Atropos is leading up to this with Dragon, after removing Dragon's PerceptionFilter but installing a different one at the same time, and escaping arrest but letting Dragon end the Dragonslayers.
---> '''Dragon:''' Understood, and thank you again for that part. I'm still not even remotely thrilled about you hacking me, though.\\
'''Atropos:''' I'd be worried if you were. Friends?\\
'''Dragon:''' Don't push it.\\
'''Atropos:''' Frenemies, then?\\
'''Dragon:''' Maybe. Give it time.\\
'''Atropos:''' Yes, ma'am.
** Chief Director Costa-Brown can't exactly endorse Atropos' crimes, but when Atropos indicates a plausible intention (and ability) to kill the Endbringers, the Chief Director decides that keeping Atropos happy is more valuable than Director Wilkins' job, or even life.
** Although she knows Atropos is an unapologetic serial killer, Flechette finds herself being won over by her charm, especially after Atropos asks for a selfie, and Mouse Protector joins in.
** When Reave (who has been trying for some time to get Atropos to come in to the PRT) shows up at the booby-trapped car, they act more like professional colleagues than antagonists.
* FuryFueledFoolishness: Hatchet Face [[spoiler:gets killed by Atropos goading him into a frothing rage, such that he pursues her without considering he's being LuredIntoATrap. This dooms not only him, but also Crawler, as Dragon launches a missile at them both while Hatchet Face's power nullifies Crawler's.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: G-I]]
* GameOfChicken: Taylor kills the police's suspicions of her involvement in Sophia's death with a single conversation, but there's still a risk of someone in the PRT making the connection to the fact that Sophia bullied Taylor for a year. That is, there ''was'' a risk, until Atropos publicly claims the kill after murdering her way through the city's worst gangs. Faced with the possibility of outing Atropos and drawing her ire, for the sake of a troublesome Ward who could have landed them all in hot water, the PRT blinks first, officially doubling down on an alternative theory about Sophia's death and unofficially acknowledging that they don't want to know.
* GetItOverWith: When Atropos turns up in his home, Theo Anders assumes she's there to finish the job after killing his father, but can't muster the energy to fight or run.
--> There was no real point in begging for his life, and he didn't care anyway.[[note]]Atropos actually has no hostile intentions and considers it more evidence of how much [[AbusiveParents his father messed him up]].[[/note]]
* TheGlomp: Riley [[spoiler:(the former Bonesaw)]] gives Atropos one in thanks for [[spoiler:getting Panacea to bring her back from within her villainous persona]].
* GoneHorriblyRight: A downplayed example when Taylor's class is invited to discuss situations where the status quo between heroes and villains was disrupted, one side killing or driving the other out -- and none of them are willing to talk about Atropos as an example. She was hoping to hear people's opinions, but it turns out that she's just too scary, and since many of the students suspect who she is, they're not touching the subject with a ten-foot pole. Danny and Cherie have a laugh about it afterward.
--> '''Taylor:''' Meanwhile, all ''I'' wanted was some feedback. Would that have been so difficult?\\
'''Danny:''' I think they call that [='=]''suffering from success''[='=], hon. Congratulations. You're officially too scary for your own good.
* GoodFeelsGood: To her own surprise, Cherish finds she enjoys using her powers to help people once the various rehab clinics open in Brockton Bay for drug addicts.
* GrievousHarmWithABody: Atropos takes out a mook threatening Aisha, by throwing someone else at him -- [[DestinationDefenestration through a third story window]], resulting in broken bones for both of them. But the guy she threw was a drug dealer, so she doesn't care.
* GroinAttack:
** Just before she kills Kaiser, Atropos throws a paperweight at Crusader. His ghosts are quite reluctant to engage her after that.
** A mugger briefly makes the mistake of [[MuggingTheMonster trying to grab Taylor]] when she's out following a Path, and gets a demonstration of the fact that she can consciously choose to execute a potentially lethal attack with less force so it's just crippling.
---> I chose not to kill him, but unfortunately for him, you have to kick someone very hard indeed in the testicles before it's life-threatening.
** She also makes AnOfferYouCantRefuse to [[spoiler:Heartbreaker]] by threatening to castrate him with her shears, ''[[AssShove via another orifice]]''. When he submits, she settles for just hitting him with her knee.
* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: The explosion that kills [[spoiler:Fog]] turns everything above his waist into pink mist.
* HappinessInSlavery: [[spoiler:Cherie Vasil]] is willing to trade pretty much anything for protection. She's obligated to help Atropos and will be killed if she steps out of line, and she's been sufficiently terrified by Atropos to know that the threat is 100% genuine and inescapable -- and she couldn't be happier, because she's now under the wing of the deadliest cape around. She would have gladly sold her body to Atropos if it were necessary or helpful. It certainly helps that Taylor and Danny are perfectly amicable people and Atropos never demands more than "use your powers on these people when I say so".
* HassleFreeHotwire: Subverted; Taylor notes that her power is totally capable of guiding her to hotwire a car, but it's simpler and safer for it to just lead her to vehicles with spare keys left inside.
* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Taylor is thoroughly underwhelmed when she sees Emma and Madison and her power helpfully informs her that they are focused specifically on her. She's a lot more impressed when she realises that that SpiderSense has no range limit, works even with people she's never heard of if they intend to harm her or her loved ones or disrupt her life, and gives her detailed information about what they intend, enabling her to immediately start a Path to end their interference.
--> Mentally, I apologised to my power for the previous sarcasm; it seemed that aspect could be useful after all.
* HeelFaceTurn: With Shadow Stalker removed as a threat and the Undersiders scattered, when Brian/Grue gets caught by the PRT, they're able to flip him. He rebrands as "Tenebrae" and joins the Wards, in exchange for a light sentence and assistance in getting custody of his little sister.
* HeroicBSOD: Bagrat (The Guy in the Know) suffers one of these after attending the murder scenes of first Lung and then Skidmark. He ends his post with these two lines:
--> As for me, I think I need therapy. There is no way in hell I'm ever going to be able to unsee that.\\
If anyone wants me, I'll be in the shower, huddled in a fetal position.
* HiddenInPlainSight: Amy buys a pet bearded dragon to hide the mushroom baby she's created.
* HoistWithHisOwnPetard:
** Shatterbird, whose power is to control glass with her voice, [[spoiler:dies choking on a piece of glass, from her own broken mask, no less]].
** Jack Slash sends out Crawler and Hatchet Face to investigate Atropos' activities -- but Hatchet Face's nullification power is one of the few ways to overcome Crawler's HealingFactor and take him down permanently.
** When Atropos [[spoiler:kills Bastard Son's power]], this has the effect that his previously fanatical followers [[spoiler:are now able to think clearly, and are ''not'' happy that he just ordered them to effectively commit suicide by attacking her]]. He is last seen fleeing from them.
* HollywoodAcid: Fluoroantimonic acid is actually perfectly real, but its effects are so horrifying that Director Piggot describes it as, "a type of acid I still have trouble believing wasn't created by some demented Tinker." The fumes alone are massively toxic and corrosive hydrogen fluoride, while the direct effects elicit screaming even from [[spoiler:Lung. After being forewarned and insisting that he wouldn't scream.]]
--> Gaseous hydrofluoric acid, as my power gleefully informed me, possesses no friends whatsoever.
* HollywoodHacking: Atropos appears, from everyone else's perspective, to have mythical computer skills. In fact, she doesn't understand what she's doing; she just starts running a Path like "destroy all chance of this being traced" or "end the barriers to my access" and types whatever her power says to type. As a result, she can breeze through passwords and security holes, write complex code in a single pass without testing it, and otherwise put even Hollywood's efforts to shame. But she doesn't actually know much about computers.
--> I zoned out, allowing my power to type in the security code; my eyebrows rose when it turned out to be an eight-digit PIN.
* HorrifyingTheHorror: Except the Butcher, everyone in the Teeth thinks the deaths of Lung and Skidmark were seriously gruesome.
* HumiliationConga: As agreed with Mouse Protector, Atropos destroys [[spoiler:Ravager's credibility.]] She intercepts [[spoiler:Ravager]] attempting to rob a shop, takes her shotgun, scares off her goons, drives her frothing mad by repeatedly misnaming her, trips her all over the place with marbles, sticks googly eyes over her real ones, glues a giant toy pacifier into her mouth and gives her a fake clown nose, throws ravioli all over her, writes RAVIOLI across her jacket as her new name, breaks her down to the point where she just starts doing as she's told rather than keep resisting -- and gets a shopkeeper to film the entire thing, which she then posts online.
--> '''Mouse Protector:''' You did all this to her … just to mess with her credibility?\\
'''Atropos:''' That's what I said I'd do, right? You didn't want her dead. ''She'' might want to be dead right now, but that's totally not my problem.
* HurricaneOfPuns: Atropos lets one loose when she describes [[spoiler:how she slaughtered the Slaughterhouse Nine; they had to "lie down", "pop off", "spill their guts", etc]]. It was a killer party!
* {{Hypocrite}}: Saint persuades Mags that Atropos should be killed, because she's a multiple murderer. Of course, he carefully didn't discuss who she was killing (mass murderers) or why she did it (the police forces had shown themselves unable to capture and hold them). So, according to Saint, killing killers is still evil, and so it's a good thing for the Dragonslayers to kill the killer. Of course, the ''real'' reason is that Atropos is using the same exploits on Dragon that the Dragonslayers are, and Saint just can't let that go.
* IAmTheNoun: The Path to Ending shard is underwhelmed by Nicholas' [[SupernaturalFearInducer fear attack]].
--> '''Path to Ending:''' ''You think to inflict fear on me? I '''am''' fear. I am Death. I am '''Ending'''.''
* ICallItVera:
** Taylor considers naming her shears "Reason". [[DontExplainTheJoke Because convincing people often requires her to make people see Reason.]]
** She later tells PHO that she went to greet [[spoiler:Damsel of Distress]] "along with my good friend, Mr Pump Action Shotgun." Said friend later has a "conversation" with [[spoiler:Spree, of the Teeth]].
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Atropos doesn't show any particular enjoyment of killing for its own sake, but she makes no apology for kills she considers necessary, and is upbeat about the positive effect she's having on the city by removing very dangerous people from it. Danny Hebert has a chat with some friends after a day at work, where there are different opinions on whether Atropos' spree is justified, but overall, a strong argument is made that even if it's not precisely "good", it's needed.
--> '''Danny:''' Not necessarily the ''right'' thing, but… sometimes, all you've got are bad options. And if I'm being brutally honest, I'm not sure anything less would actually work for this city, right now. ''<{{beat}}>'' Don't quote me on that.
* INeedADrink: After reporting what happened to Lung, Bagrat signs off of PHO because, "I have a date with several stiff drinks."
* IWarnedYou:
** Atropos specifically explains on PHO that the four gang bosses are going to die if they don't give themselves up or leave town. They choose to not leave town ''or'' give themselves up. They die.
** She also has words for Jack Slash.
---> '''Atropos:''' What are you doing in my city? I believe I already put the word out that I was going to kill you. Just how stupid ''are'' you, anyway?
** After Atropos pulls a bag over [[spoiler:Night's]] head, she vents a little [[spoiler:before killing her]].
---> '''Atropos:''' Sucks, doesn't it? Can't see your opponent. About to die. But I warned you.
* IfIWantedYouDead:
** After Taylor partially paralyses Madison's diaphragm with a nerve strike, she calmly eats her lunch and explains the situation while Madison [[SinisterSuffocation fights for breath]]. Once finished eating, and she's sure Madison has got the message, she reverses the effect and walks away.
---> '''Taylor:''' You'll live. I didn't hit you hard enough to paralyse your diaphragm all the way, just partially. Though I could have, if I really wanted to. You could be sitting there, suffocating in front of everyone, with nobody the wiser. I could finish this meal, get up and walk out, and you'd die in the middle of a crowded room.
** Dragon's musings about Atropos hacking her code are overshadowed by the recognition that she ''could'' have just destroyed Dragon. The ability to patch against Ascalon implies the ability to have inflicted it, instead.
---> ''She could have killed me, but she didn't. In fact, she chose to save my life. And if she was telling the truth about the code-string she also patched me against, I can take the fight to the Dragonslayers for the first time.\\
Who even '''does''' that for someone who's trying to capture them?''
** Uber and Leet initially panic when they find out that Atropos wants to talk to them, but they try to reassure themselves that if she wanted them dead, that's not the approach she would use; they'd just get a warning to leave, and then die if they disobeyed it.
---> '''Leet:''' Whatever she wants, I don't think it's to kill us. I hope.
** When Atropos [[spoiler:destroys Ravager's credibility]], she makes it clear that [[spoiler:Ravager is only alive]] because Mouse Protector wanted it that way.
* IHaveYourWife: Bastard Son is wise enough to recognize that Atropos is extremely dangerous in a straight fight, but he thinks he can get leverage by threatening or kidnapping people she cares about. What he ''doesn't'' realize is that her power gives her awareness of anyone with intent to harm her, and harming people she loves counts as harm to her. And that's on top of him directly intending to bring back her head. Basically, his plans are as visible to her as a neon sign.
* IllKillYou:
** When Atropos confronts [[spoiler:Damsel of Distress]] at the bus station, she tells [[spoiler:Edict and Licit]] that if there's a repeat incident, [[spoiler:Damsel]] will just die.
** After blowing up a smuggler boat, Atropos calls one of the heads of Gesellschaft on Fog's phone and delivers a very thorough threat in German.
---> This is Atropos. You've probably heard my name before. Night and Fog are dead, as are the entire crew of the boat that was transporting your poison to Brockton Bay. Now, listen very carefully. If you send one more cape, transport one more ounce of illegal drugs, or smuggle one more ''bullet'' into my city, I will kill you in your sleep. You have been warned.
* IllPretendIDidntHearThat: After Atropos [[spoiler:fulfills her promise to end Ravager's credibility,]] Legend remarks that he's supposed to arrest her, but he'll be busy with detaining [[spoiler:Ravager]] for the next five minutes. Then he'll be forced to notice her presence.
* ImmediateSelfContradiction: Saint tries to claim he won't be recognized despite his ''light up facial tattoo'' then seconds later insists that said tattoo lets everyone who sees him know he's Saint.
* ImpaledPalm:
** If you pull a gun after Atropos specifically warns you not to, then having your hand nailed to the table with her shears is getting off lightly. Which doesn't stop Troy from screaming. He does calm down slightly once he's able to stop jostling the wound, but he screams again when she yanks the shears out.
** While fighting Night, Atropos spikes her hand to the cabin wall beside them, also with the shears, so that Atropos can always see her.
* ImpliedDeathThreat:
** After triggering, Taylor asks Madison to pass on a message to Emma and Sophia, then tells her a story about a farmer with a stubborn mule. When the mule stops suddenly, the farmer strikes the mule and says "That's one." When the mule stops again, the farmer strikes it with the butt of his shotgun and says, "That's two." When the mule stops a third time, the farmer declares, "That's three," and shoots it in the head.
--->'''Madison:''' What... what's the message?\\
'''Taylor:''' The message is... ''that's two''.
** When she visits Uber and Leet, Atropos warns them that if they ever have another episode where anyone gets seriously hurt, she'll be by to have another chat. An ''extremely'' brief one.
** When she calls Mayor Christner to request him to create a committee that will take charge of implementing Accord's city-wide detox and rejuvenation plan, she states that, if anyone in the committee has the [[SarcasmMode bright]] idea of trying to skim, she '''''will''''' know -- and ''their colleagues'' will be dissuaded from attempting the same thing.
** After Atropos meddles with one of her paths, Contessa creates a portal to the back of Atropos' head and aims a pistol at it, intending to convey the message that Atropos will die if she meddles with her paths again. She promptly finds Atropos aiming her own pistol at her, making it clear that Contessa will be the one to die if she tries to pull a stunt like that again.
* ImpossiblyMundaneExplanation:
** While investigating Sophia Hess's murder, Battery puts forth the idea she was killed by someone she was bullying, having found considerable evidence on Sophia's phone she was bullying someone. Specifically, Battery figures that Sophia was planning on beating her victim, only to get beaten in turn and died because they happened to kick her in the chest at just the right time to stop her heart. Alternately, that her victim hired someone to kill Sophia. Instead, she and Armsmaster come up with a complicated scenario where Othala can grant Changer or Stranger powers but never revealed it, and gave them to Cricket who came to Winslow, transformed into Sophia and killed her, then left and the Empire 88 simply never claimed credit. In reality, Taylor did it using her Thinker powers, and the identical clothing Armsmaster noticed was because Taylor stole Sophia's spare sneakers and jeans since her own clothing had been ruined by the locker incident.
** In a (canonized) Omake, Alexandria wonders how Atropos snuck into Wilkins' office, and comes to the conclusion that Atropos can steal the powers of those capes she kills. In reality, Atropos just hacked the security and then snuck into the office right behind the Director, always staying out of sight.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Path to Ending grants Atropos the ability to know when and how to shoot with maximum accuracy without bothering with aiming.
** Atropos kills one of Bonesaw's spider-robots by throwing her shears through its brain-case, from thirty feet away, at the exact moment it scuttles into view. She scores a direct hit and kills it instantly, before it has time to register her presence, which would have impressed even her if she didn't already know what her power is like.
---> It wasn't like the shears were balanced for throwing, after all.
** When faced with a [[spoiler:speeding car on the highway]], Atropos fires four shots from a regular 9mm pistol. The first three [[spoiler:kill the three men in the car]], and the fourth [[spoiler:blows out one of the front tires, causing the car to crash]]. From five hundred feet away.
** When assaulting the drug warehouse at the Docks, she kills one of the snipers covering the place, takes his rifle and proceeds to snipe the other three snipers and the other six goons in the outside without pausing to aim.
---> It had a very nice night-vision scope, but I didn't bother with that.
*** She kills the last one with a pistol shot. Still without aiming.
** She perfectly throws multiple grenades out of a pickup truck's windows so they will fall into piles of drugs with the perfect timing to cause a dust explosion just as she escapes -- all while driving with her knees.
** She can also use a shotgun to get in a running fight with two eighteen wheelers and win.
* ImprobableWeaponUser:
** Thanks to her power, Taylor can easily do this whenever she fights.
*** She fights Sophia with a pocket calculator up her sleeve, then throws it to disrupt Sophia's shadow state.
*** She brings down Glory Girl by throwing a quarter so she'll choke on it.
*** She knocks out [[spoiler:Bonesaw]] with a medical probe.
*** She kills [[spoiler:Heartbreaker]] with a large candy heart.
** Part of Bastard Son's power is to give people the ability to become this (and Mastering them into following his orders). During the fight with Atropos, the people he's using are wielding a pool cue, a golf club, a broom, a straight-razor, a folding chair, a pair of bowling pins, a pair of shears, and a book.
---> It looked like volume E of the Encyclopedia Americana, but I could've been wrong.
* IncrediblyLamePun: After Kaiser's death, one of PHO's writers[[note]]This was actually [[AscendedFanon suggested by a reader]].[[/note]] has something to say.
-->►'''[=RunawayTwin=]'''\\
Replied On Jan 6th 2011:\\
Dang. A sword through the eye? Looks like he did Nazi that coming.\\
(I regret nothing).
* InstantlyProvenWrong: After Taylor announces Kaiser's death, an unnamed member of the Empire 88 insists she's lying and that "The E88 will outlast everyone" in Brockton Bay. Minutes later, Victor posts that Kaiser is most definitely dead and the entire leadership of the E88 is getting out of Brockton Bay and that all other villains should do the same. [[BlatantLies Except Lung, Victor's certain he can take Atropos]].
* InternalReveal: Taylor carefully lays the groundwork and plans the timing for when her dad will "catch" her coming home in costume and realise that she's Atropos, without freaking him out.
--> ''Path to End the need to lie to dad about this: complete.''
* {{Invisibility}}: Skidmark and Squealer plan to avoid Atropos by driving around in an invisible and soundless vehicle until after midnight. However, Path to Ending is essentially omniscient and doesn't care in the slightest about whether its host can physically see or hear the target. [[spoiler:Plus, she sabotaged the truck so the stealth systems would break down just in time for the show.]]
* IronicEcho: Just as she prepares to point a gun at the back of Atropos' head, Contessa thinks of her message: "If you try that sort of shit with me again, you will die." Then the portal opens, and Contessa has a pistol aimed at her face before she can react, and the pistol withdraws before the portal closes. Which allows Contessa to understand the message: "If I try that sort of shit with her again, I will die."
* ItsNotYouItsMe: Inverted by Atropos when she's explaining why she's choosing not to work directly for the PRT, citing how they'd probably try to order her not to kill people.
--> '''Atropos:''' I'd say it's not you, it's me ... but it's totally you.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: J-O]]
* JackTheRipoff: Atropos does ''not'' take kindly to copycat killers diluting her brand and tarnishing her image -- which is to say, she immediately tracks down the fools who tried it and brutally kills them all, then posts a public warning to anyone who might have a similar idea.
--> '''Atropos:''' Just ask the three ... well, two ... okay, one ABB guy whose idiot buddies were gonna kill some girls to cover their tracks.
* KillItWithFire: Atropos uses this rather liberally when getting rid of drug stashes, even triggering a [[EverythingMakesAMushroom mushroom cloud]] in two separate instances when aerosolised drugs and cash blow up.
* KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade: [[spoiler:Director Wilkins]] realises that it should be possible to identify Atropos by examining Winslow school records related to Shadow Stalker -- and gets [[spoiler:Atropos' shears at her eye, warning her that if she continues that search, she dies]].
* KlatchianCoffee: When she's buttering up her dad for a conversation about her work as Atropos, Taylor makes him a coffee that's rather more intense than usual.
--> Danny made a non-committal grunt before taking a sip from the mug. His eyes opened wide as the extra-strength caffeine bulldozed through his taste-buds before opening a direct line to his hindbrain and announcing that all hands were needed on deck ''right now''. Even as he sat bolt upright, he detected a faint hint of salt in there, which just sealed the deal.\\
"Taylor," he enquired just a little plaintively, "when did you learn to make '''''Navy''''' coffee?"\\
She shrugged slightly, and he thought he caught the hint of a mischievous grin. "I figured you'd want something a little stronger than usual after last night."\\
He looked at the cup warily, then took another sip. It was still as powerful as ever, and he could feel his groggy neurons waking up and sparking to life. "I'm worried that it might ''dissolve the mug''."
* {{Kneecapping}}: Atropos has been asked not to kill Ravager, and so she won't, but she has other ways to send a message.
--> If you're harboring secret plans to go back to that shop, or attack that shop assistant, for some kind of revenge ... don't. I'll know, and I'll be waiting with my good friend Mr Pump Action Shotgun to have a conversation with you about how Kneecaps Are A Privilege.
* KnowWhenToFoldEm:
** After watching Atropos completely NoSell [[SupernaturalFearInducer Nicholas' power]] and brutally kill him, as well as finding out how she destroyed the Nine, Guillaume is left with the options of returning to Heartbreaker without Cherie and Nicholas (which would certainly go badly), surrendering, or dying on the spot -- but he's more level-headed than Nicholas.
---> Slowly, he put his hands up. "I'd like to surrender now, please."
** [[spoiler:Damsel of Distress]] decides to take Atropos' offer to leave Brockton Bay, since she has realized that Atropos ''will'' kill her at the first sign of a twitchy finger.
** Three groups of men paid to cause trouble at the newly opened rehab clinics all have realizations described as "I'm not being paid enough for this shit" when Cherish uses her powers to remind them that Atropos would disapprove of what they're about to do.
** When the three minions Ravager brought along to rob a jewelry shop realize they are face to face with Atropos, they look at each other and immediately skedaddle.
* LaserGuidedKarma: When a pair of ABB gangers decide to murder the prostitues they're guarding and pin it on Atropos, she promptly shows up and cuts their throats. Their comrade, who objected to doing so, is left with a stark warning to improve himself lest Atropos return for him.
* LaughThemselvesSick:
** When Taylor describes how she's hacked Blackwell's email account to drive her crazy over [[spoiler:Cherie being transferred to Winslow]], Danny has to stop his car because he's laughing so hard he can barely hold onto the driving wheel.
** The jewelry shop worker filming [[spoiler:Ravager's HumilliationConga]] breaks down laughing non-stop, and has to concentrate to achieve the feat of filming the entire thing.
** By the end of the advance screening of [[spoiler:the Ravioli takedown]], Aisha and Riley have collapsed helplessly on the couch and Riley is struggling to breathe as she laughs herself to tears.
* LeaveHimToMe: The Rogues' Guild tries to step up and help Atropos face [[spoiler:Bastard Son]], but she doesn't need it and doesn't want them in danger.
--> '''Atropos:''' No. This isn't about you three anymore. Thanks for the offer, but I got this.
* LeeroyJenkins:
** Glory Girl is very prone to charging without thinking, trusting that her power will protect her and let her overwhelm her target.
---> "Vicky, wait a minute. Let's just take a--" But Vicky was gone, rocketing across the park, bag of oats dropped and spilling on the ground.
** [[spoiler:Ravager]] attempts this approach while fighting Atropos. It... [[{{Understatement}} doesn't go well]].
* LesserOfTwoEvils: Atropos' confrontation with Bastard Son brings all of Director Piggot's concerns about her to the fore. Deliberately standing back and doing nothing to interfere with impending murder really grates on the director's principles, but she still knows she can't really do anything to stop Atropos -- and she still hates Bastard Son more. So she's able to square inaction with her conscience, while hating it.
--> Atropos was an unapologetic murderer, with a death toll that was now into the dozens, not even counting the unpowered mooks she'd executed along the way, but she was ''still'' preferable to Bastard Son.
* LetsYouAndHimFight:
** When the Empire 88 capes give up and leave the city to avoid being killed by Atropos, they recommend that her other targets do the same.
---> '''Victor:''' Except Lung. You can take her. I have faith in you.
** When the Dragonslayers come to town gunning for her, Atropos sabotages their suit programming to make them target Lung instead. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin And you've got one guess at the title of that chapter.]]
** The PRT initially tries to intercept Atropos and rescue her targets, but after a string of futile attempts, and after reassurance that she isn't going to target them if they don't attack her, they settle for keeping the Wards out of her way and giving her an open invitation to cooperate with them as she goes through villains like a combine harvester through a wheat field.
** Uber is initially unimpressed with Leet building [[spoiler:a personal teleporter]] that will help Atropos be even more terrifying -- until Leet points out that she'll only terrify everyone ''else'', they're getting out of town.
---> '''Uber:''' Good point. Very good point.
* LightsOffSomebodyDies: Atropos isn't trying to confuse who's responsible, but when she's going after [[spoiler:Max Anders/Kaiser, surrounded by bodyguards]], remotely disabling the lights both makes it easier to reach him, and gives her a chance to pose dramatically with a FingerGun when the lights come back for just a second.
--> '''Atropos:''' [[PreMortemOneLiner Bang.]]
* LogicalWeakness:
** Shatterbird needs to sing in order to be able to control glass. [[spoiler:Atropos takes advantage of this (in a very ironic way) by force-feeding her a piece of glass, preventing her from singing at all.]]
** Similarly, Heartbreaker needs to talk to someone and be heard once he's forced feelings of love and devotion on them in order to get them to do what he wants. [[spoiler:Atropos has Cherie wear earplugs so she can't hear the orders he's giving, then breaks his jaw so he can't give any anyway.]]
* LoopholeAbuse: Subverted. Path to Ending doesn't work for things like "End my lack of money"; the path must ''end'' something.
** Her power will, sometimes, arrange a Path that gets her things as collateral. Her Path to Ending Oni Lee leads to her getting her costume, and robbing Kaiser's house got her the bodice shears that become her weapon, as well as the sword she would later kill him with.
** Also, while she intends to get money by killing the Slaughterhouse Nine and getting the reward for that, [[spoiler:it's going to go straight back into fixing Brockton Bay, as per the plan she just commissioned off Accord]].
* LudicrousGibs:
** Crawler can't be conventionally killed, so Atropos has to thoroughly blow him up.
---> When I poked my head up, my first impression was that there had been a whole lot of Crawler, and now he was ''everywhere''.
** Fog is turned into a pink mist by the multi-grenade explosion in the ship he's in.
* MakeAnExampleOfThem:
** As Atropos explains to Jack Slash, her killing of Oni Lee was a warning to everyone in Brockton Bay, and the deaths of the Nine are to be her warning to everyone outside of it. That warning boils down to: If I say that I'll kill you, then I can and will.
** The way that she serially escalates the drama and gore of each gang leader's death also sends a clear message to take her very seriously. (The bystanders get it loud and clear, although most of her targets have to learn the hard way.)
---> I knew where I could've gotten a rifle with armour-piercing rounds, to blind-snipe him through the window, but I'd chosen instead to go with the most horrifyingly spectacular kill I could manage under the time constraints.
** She doesn't actually say what will happen to anyone who tries skimming off some of the money earmarked for revitalising Brockton Bay, except that their ''colleagues'' will be dissuaded from attempting the same thing.
** To reinforce the message for Gesellschaft, Taylor kills Night and Fog and blows up the ship taking them and their smuggled cargo of drugs and weapons towards Brockton to kingdom come, and then calls Fog's contact in Gesellschaft to let him know about it, and that ''he'll'' be next if they try again.
** Atropos knows about Bastard Son's plans as soon as he first forms the intent to harm her. But she doesn't act immediately, because she would rather wait to act more ''visibly''.
---> If I stepped into Bastard Son's presence and put a bullet in the back of his head while he was plotting in his hideout, nobody would ''notice''. It would be a waste of a perfectly good cautionary tale.
* MaliciousMisnaming: Atropos does this with Ravager (now [[spoiler:Ravioli]]) as part of her plan to [[spoiler:destroy her credibility.]] It works like a charm.
* MetaphoricallyTrue: When Atropos says she's killed Bonesaw, she means it. [[spoiler:It's just she's "killed" her by having Amy erase or blunt Riley's memories of being Bonesaw and then changing her features so no one recognizes who she is in reality.]]
* MortonsFork: What [[spoiler:Bastard Son]] ''thinks'' he's doing to beat Atropos - [[spoiler:he sends his minions to kidnap people and take them in cars carrying drugs and tricked out to explode in several different ways. If Atropos doesn't stop them, he gets drugs into the city, but if she does the car will explode, killing everyone on board]]. Atropos [[spoiler:deactivates most of the explosives, saves everyone, and then tricks Bastard Son into thinking she's dead]].
* MuggingTheMonster:
** Sophia ignores Taylor's ImpliedDeathThreat and decides to "show her her place". Taylor quickly proves both willing and able to follow through, using CombatClairvoyance to brutally kill Sophia without taking even slight damage in return.
** A mugger once tries to grab Taylor. [[GroinAttack Taylor dissuades him quite strenuously.]]
* MundaneUtility: Taylor can use her power to instantly fall asleep.
* MythologyGag: In spite of Taylor being even more terrifying here, there's still people that think they can take her.
* NarrativeProfanityFilter: InUniverse, Atropos makes a Funniest Home Videos version of her Ravioli takedown, with the expletives replaced by other sound effects.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: When Glory Girl crashes the get-together in the park, she accidentally demolishes the picnic table they'd been sitting at.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Emma getting Blackwell to clean up the mess from the trio's "prank" on Taylor and fix their lockers means that no one in a position of power can actually link Taylor to Sophia's death.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown:
** [[spoiler:Rachel's dogs savaging Hookwolf]] goes on for long enough -- ripping, tearing, hurting, even dismembering, but never finishing the job -- that Regent gets bored with watching it, and suggests a MercyKill just so they can move on.
** [[spoiler:Ravager]] gets one of these from Atropos, though it's mostly emotional damage.
* NoNonsenseNemesis: Atropos doesn't mess around with 'maybe I should let them live' nor does she care about giving someone a fair fight. By her own words, she doesn't "fight" enemies; she just kills them.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Bastard Son actually watches his explosives count down, via video camera, right up to the point where the image turns to static, then congratulates himself on killing Atropos. [[spoiler:She teleported out at the last moment, letting him believe she's dead so his guard is down.]]
* NoSell:
** Path to Ending lets Taylor[=/=]Atropos do this to anything that impedes her goals. Such as being banned in PHO.
--->►'''[=BigRedSharpie=]''' (Moderator)\\
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:\\
Okay, I'm done. This has gone on long enough. Thread is locked. Atropos, you just bought yourself a ticket to Ban-town.\\
Maybe next time don't be so Edgy [=McEdgelord=], hmm?\\
►'''Atropos''' (Original Poster) (Banned) (You Wish) ([=UnVerified=] Cape) (Can Actually Kill Anything) (Yes, Really) (Watch Me)\\
Replied On Jan 3rd 2011:\\
Meh, Ban-town was boring. I'm back.
** Since the Path to Ending shard isn't intended to cooperate with other shards, it also lets Taylor ignore powers that would either affect her power, such as Hatchet Face's [[AntiMagic nullification]] aura, or those that work through her shard to get to her, such as Jack Slash's ability to detect and manipulate other capes.
---> When he [[spoiler:(Hatchet Face)]] got too close, I could feel his nullification power trying to overcome mine, clawing at my capabilities in an attempt to strip them away from me. ''Because he's a [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment cheaty cheating cheater]].''\\
I could also feel my power doing the equivalent of [[FlippingTheBird giving his power the finger]].
** This also goes for emotion-manipulation powers. As Cherie and Nicholas Vasil learn (too late for the latter), her power can [[SymbioticPossession override whatever effect their powers have on her body]] if necessary.
** Path to Ending can also allow her to ignore [[spoiler:the Butcher's pain inducing blast and Animos' power-nullifying scream]].
** When [[spoiler:she kills Butcher and the Butcher personalities end up in her head]], Path to Ending takes offense. There's a lot of screaming, followed by silence.
--->'''Atropos''': Let's just say … my power doesn't play well with others.
* NobleDemon: Atropos is nothing if not fair when it comes to her victims, generally warning them in advance that she's coming after them and offering them a way to avoid her wrath. She even warns Kayden of Kaiser's death and what it means before she can be arrested, and only takes the minimum actions necessary to convince Glory Girl to stand down when attacked. That said, when she decides somebody dies, they die--quickly, brutally, dramatically, and efficiently.
* NoodleImplements: Path to Ending sometimes tells Taylor to get things that make little sense initially, such as a blank key or a quarter, but they always come in handy.
--> (And yes, I was impressed that [[spoiler:my power could freestyle a working key in thirty seconds with an angle grinder]].)
* NormalFishInATinyPond: Having previously been the lowest priority villains in Brockton Bay (and some of the only ones not on Atropos' list at all), Leet and Uber suddenly find themselves as ''the'' villains in the city after the rest are killed, arrested, or simply flee the city entirely.
* NotEnoughToBury: After Atropos kills him, Skidmark has to be cleaned up with a squeegee and a bucket [[spoiler:due to being left smeared across 200-ish meters of asphalt.]]
--> '''Atropos''': Careful of that contact high, guys.
* NotHyperbole: If Atropos is to be believed, Accord plans his bathroom breaks down to the second. Brian initially thinks she's screwing with him, only to realize she's dead serious.
* NotSoDifferentRemark: Jack Slash tries to tell Atropos that she's a monster, just like him, and so they should work together. She dismisses it, insisting that she's a very ''different'' monster.
--> '''Jack:''' Monsters are still monsters, no matter how they pretty themselves up. You're just playing the nice guy for the peanut gallery. One day, you'll realise that they only like you for what they can get from you. You should start taking your due ''now'', rather than waiting until it's almost too late.\\
'''Atropos:''' Oh, I'm definitely a monster. I'm someone who commits atrocities and breaks the social contract on the regular. That's me all over. But what you don't get is the difference between you and me. See, I'm ''reliable''. I announce what I'm going to do, and I do it. I ''warn'' people if they're a problem for me, and I let them live if they change their ways. You kill people for ''fun'', at ''random'', for no good reason except that you want to see their blood run down your blade.
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: Atropos gives the four major gang leaders three options -- leave Brockton Bay, surrender to the PRT, or die (which also counts as IllKillYou).
--> So, the leaders of those gangs I just named: Kaiser, Lung, Coil, Skidmark. You have twenty-four hours to either a) leave town for good or b) surrender to the PRT. In twenty-four hours from midnight tonight, if you haven't all done this, I'm going to kill one of you that hasn't. Just one.\\
Then I'll start the clock again.
* OhCrap: The usual reaction to Atropos' shenanigans.
** Coil suffers this at least twice before Atropos kills him, once when she effortlessly enters the access code to his sanctum, which only he was supposed to know, and again when that timeline collapses ''and she's right next to his bed'' in the other timeline (which results in BringMyBrownPants).
** Tattletale when she realizes that Atropos has served all of Coil's files to the PRT on a silver platter, ''including the ones on the Undersiders''.
** Krieg when he realizes Atropos [[ClockTampering tampered with the clocks]] at Kaiser's office so they would be fifteen minutes ahead of time -- [[spoiler:allowing her to take advantage of the Empire capes lowering their guard to kill Kaiser]].
** The Dragonslayers suffer a very brief one when they realize that the Atropos they were attacking was [[spoiler:actually Lung]].
** Atropos captures a photo of the exact moment when a charging Glory Girl realised that Atropos had already dodged and she was about to crash into a picnic table. Aisha loves it.
** Troy the drug dealer immediately recognises Atropos when she yanks him into a room and tells him that they need to have a chat. He can't immediately recall her name, but he knows her reputation and is thoroughly freaked out.
** Epic-level one [[spoiler:when Hatchet Face and Crawler realize they're about to be on ground zero for a missile explosion -- just when the former has nullified the latter's HealingFactor]]. Dragon manages to take a photo of the perfect moment and plans to frame it.
** Director Piggot looks at Dragon's footage and realises that Atropos is confronting the Slaughterhouse Nine ''in Brockton Bay'', whereupon she starts swearing.
** [[spoiler:The Siberian]] catches a thrown grenade pin and works out [[PineappleSurprise what it means]] just in time for her eyes to widen, but not soon enough to actually save [[spoiler:William Manton]] from the explosion.
** Jack Slash when he realizes that Atropos is most definitely trumping his "intuition" (his secondary power that lets him instinctively read other capes' intentions and nudge them into self-defeating choices). [[spoiler:And more when he tries to set up an ambush to kill Atropos -- only to find a tad too late that ''she was waiting for him already''.]]
** Costa-Brown, Piggot, and Armstrong when they look into Wilkins' window in their conference call [[spoiler:and see ''Atropos walking up right behind Wilkins'']].
** After seeing Atropos casually NoSell [[SupernaturalFearInducer Nicholas' power]] then [[spoiler:kill him with hardly any effort]], Guillaume is quite eager to surrender out of fear at what she might do to him.
** Hemorrhagia and Animos when the Butcher learns about Atropos, as they had been keeping silent about the latter's actions.
** [[spoiler:Damsel of Distress]] when she notices the shotgun barrel right behind her head.
** [[spoiler:The Teeth]] when they're driving down the highway and see [[spoiler:Atropos aiming an AT-4 rocket launcher at the van they're in]].
** [[spoiler:Heartbreaker]] when someone taps him in the shoulder [[spoiler:a second before he gets his jaw shattered by Atropos]].
** The men waiting on the dock to receive the drug and weapon shipment from Gesellschaft have a moment of this when Atropos literally [[spoiler:teleports into their presence]] with pistol already levelled. A moment later, the menace level is doubled down on when [[spoiler:the boat explodes behind her]].
** [[spoiler:Ravager's]] three henchmen have this reaction when coming face to face with Atropos.
** Bastard Son when [[spoiler:Atropos shows up alive and well]] and [[spoiler:when Atropos informs him she just killed his powers - right as the people he had Mastered recover from their fight with Atropos, ready to pummel Bastard Son]].
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Animos lampshades the fact that, for once, he's going to be the voice of reason in trying to convince the Butcher not to poke Atropos.
* OpenSecret: About half of Winslow High's students know that Taylor is Atropos, but they also know that attempting to reveal this will only result in trouble (for them), so she's left alone.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: P-S]]
* ParentsAsPeople: Danny admits to [[spoiler:Cherie]] that he failed in doing his duty as Taylor's father, but now they are managing to work together on making a family. (Operating as her driver when she's out serial-killing is really helping them reconnect.)
* PassThePopcorn: As Atropos repeatedly waltzes past all her enemies' defences, an increasing number of PHO posters decide that all they can do is sit back and enjoy the show. [=UnconcernedFox=] in particular just keeps asking for popcorn, escalating to, "*reads opening post. Puts in a new order to the popcorn company. Just back the truck up and leave it there*"
* PerceptionFilter: Taylor narrows Dragon's filter, closing the blanket vulnerability that the Dragonslayers have been using and replacing it with one that only kicks in when she's trying to capture Atropos, to make her lose track. Dragon isn't thrilled about Atropos injecting a new backdoor, but she does appreciate the fact that it's a big improvement over what she had before.
* PersonAsVerb:
** Tattletale reaches out to the Red Hands to possibly sign up, after "our boss got Atropos'd".
** 'Pulling a Skidmark' ends up as shorthand for 'driving around the city at random to avoid Atropos'. (It's never actually worked.)
** Bagrat (The Guy in the Know) also uses 'Skidmarks' as a measure of how gruesome a murder is.
---> And finally, there's the [[spoiler:Butcher kill.]] Only watch that footage if you have a strong stomach. She doesn't pull any punches. Still got a thing for ironic deaths, though. I'd rate it at about point seven five Skidmarks.
* PetTheDog: For all that she's a mass murdering AntiVillain, Atropos still has a number of moments where shows she isn't all murder and death.
** When Atropos agrees to meet Aisha and Brian in the park for selfies, she does have a few other irons in the fire, but she's also one hundred percent interested in making new friends.
** Likewise, Taylor has [[spoiler: spared Bonesaw]] for purely pragmatic reasons, but she also deliberately sets up [[spoiler:her placement with the Laborns to give Aisha a little sister]].
** She's also quite willing to give [[spoiler:Cherie]] a chance. While she does keep her around for the utility of her EmotionControl power, she also lets [[spoiler: Cherie]] stay at her home, shows her what a normal family is like and even enrolls her at school so she can be educated.
** When she plans out her [[spoiler:humiliation of Ravager]], she does it by preventing her from robbing a jewelry shop and giving the shop owner a front-line seat to the entire thing.
** Atropos hugs Riley back when the little girl spontaneously gives her a hug during one of her visits. During a previous visit, she also reassured the girl that she has no intention of killing her, despite her fears.
** When Bastard Son sets his minions on Atropos, she knows they are innocents the villain Mastered to force them to fight, so she only disarms them and roughs them up just enough to open the way to give Bastard Son what he deserves.
** After the [[CurbstompBattle beatdown of Bastard Son's minions]], she takes the time to praise Parian for setting up the Rogues' Guild.
* PhysicalFitnessPunishment: With crime way down, Piggot is more willing to punish her underlings since it's unlikely they'll be desperately needed at any given time. As such, when Clockblocker angers her, she suggests the fire chief utilize him, which means getting the boy to pass department physical fitness tests. His first test is to haul sixty pounds of firehose up to the fifth floor of a building, while also wearing fifty pounds of safety equipment, all within a strict time limit. The fire chief advises Clockblocker to knock off whatever he did to anger his boss.
* PineappleSurprise: Atropos throws a grenade pin at [[spoiler:the Siberian]], who has just long enough to realise what that means before it's too late. [[spoiler:At that point, the booby-trap on William Manton's van goes off, the grenade knocks him out with mortal injuries, and the Siberian pops like a soap bubble.]]
* PlausibleDeniability:
** Director Piggot is asked during a meeting that is being recorded whether the PRT is expected to face off against Atropos to protect a criminal like Skidmark from just being assassinated -- but the recording is audio only. Piggot verbally affirms, "Yes. Yes, you are," for the sake of any ethics committee analysing the conversation later, while vigorously shaking her head at the actual people she doesn't want to pointlessly lose.
---> '''Piggot:''' Does anyone not understand? Raise your hand if you need further clarification.
** After Atropos publicly claims responsibility for killing Shadow Stalker, there's a private discussion between the PRT director and deputy, where they officially decide to discount her confession and maintain the previous theory about the Empire 88 being responsible. Why? Because investigating the students at the school, to see who has a motive, would risk outing Atropos' civilian identity and putting the PRT in her crosshairs, and Atropos has shown herself to be unreasonably effective at bypassing security to kill her targets.
---> "I find that hard to believe." Renick should've been a star of stage or screen, from the way he delivered the line straight-faced. "I doubt very much any investigation would find even one student with a motive for harming Shadow Stalker at that school."
** Some of the Elite genuinely think that Bastard Son is making a mistake by going to Brockton Bay, but others tacitly approve and hope he'll succeed, without ''officially'' giving support. Atropos can see straight through it, though, and counts it as a strike for those responsible.
* PoisonedWeapons:
** Atropos coats her shears in pure fentanyl to [[spoiler:kill Hemorrhagia, who is immune to simple blood loss]].
** She puts [[spoiler:a Riley-created substance]] on the tip of the sword she slashes Bastard Son with [[spoiler:in order to cut him off from his powers]].
* PoliceAreUseless: A big part of Atropos' stated motivation for killing criminals is because the police and PRT aren't up to the job of stopping them, between being outnumbered, outgunned, tied up in red tape, and sometimes [[CorruptCops on the take]]. She intends to hand the city over once it's returned to manageable levels. Even then, though, they'll still be useless for bringing ''her '' in, and they know it. Director Piggot isn't thrilled about letting a vigilante take over law enforcement's job, but she knows there's little choice.
* ThePowerOfFriendship: Atropos promises to defeat the Endbringers "With the power... of friendship." Dragon [[ActuallyPrettyFunny almost bursts out laughing]], but she has seen enough to believe that Atropos really can weaponise anything including friendship.
* PragmaticHero: Piggot doesn't like that Atropos keeps running around killing people in Brockton Bay, but as long as she only attacks villains, Piggot is willing to stand back and just handle the cleanup rather than throw lives away in a pointless attempt to stop her. She's even willing to let Shadow Stalker's death slide, pointing out that investigating it and therefore tying Atropos to Shadow Stalker's death would bring more problems than it solves:
--> '''Director Armstrong:''' She killed a '''Ward'''? Out of '''costume'''? Why are we only just now hearing about this?\\
'''Director Piggot:''' Because as a Ward, she [Shadow Stalker] was a potential embarrassment, if not an outright liability. Right now, the public's view of Atropos is leaning very strongly toward 'if she killed someone, [[AssholeVictim they deserved it]]', which is a not inaccurate reputation, all told. So, if they find out that she killed a Ward, the first thing they're going to ask is ''why'' that Ward pissed Atropos off. And as all the evidence points toward Stalker ''[[BullyingADragon actually provoking her own murder]]'', I'm strongly disinclined to let the public — and the media — in on it. So, as far as the PRT ENE is officially concerned, Atropos had nothing to do with Stalker's death.
* PragmaticVillainy:
** While Atropos is quite happy to violently murder gang bosses and anyone else who doesn't get the hint about not messing with her, she doesn't make a habit of targeting innocents. Not because she ''cares'' about them, but because innocents rarely get on her radar (and a simple warning is usually sufficient to dissuade those) and also because doing so would probably make her efforts more difficult down the track. Thus, her actions can sometimes be mistaken for 'good' when she's actually going for 'smart'.
*** While stealing from a joke shop, Atropos makes a point of appearing on camera and leaving behind enough money to pay for what she took. The shopkeeper realizes she did so because even if no one ''knew'' it was her, they'd suspect and it'd tarnish her image.
** Whirlygig and Trainwreck decide to become rogues working for Parian as they lack the funds necessary to move out of Brockton Bay and neither wants to join the PRT.
* PreMortemOneLiner: After [[spoiler:implanting vials of [[HollywoodAcid fluoroantimonic acid]]]] in Lung's head and chest, Atropos has this to say.
--> She pointed at him, then snapped her fingers. "Lung … ''burn''."
* PriceOnTheirHead: One of several reasons why Atropos calls out the Slaughterhouse Nine is because the reward money will be useful for revitalising Brockton Bay.
--> '''Atropos:''' Hi, guys. The name's Atropos, and I'm here to collect on your generous offer. Brockton Bay thanks you for your donations.
* ProfessionalKiller: Defied in a side-story when Ravager contacts Atropos over PHO chat and tries to hire her to kill Mouse Protector for a million dollars. Atropos humours her, but also brings Mouse Protector into the chat, talks to them both for a bit, then makes a deal with ''Mouse Protector'', agreeing to [[spoiler:end Ravager's credibility as a villain]] in exchange for Mouse Protector participating in a charity fundraiser for a children's oncology unit.
--> '''The_One_Who_Ravages:''' You're a VILLAIN! Why are you doing this?\\
'''Atropos:''' No. I just kill people. There's a difference. [[JustForPun Mice]] chat, MP.
* ProperlyParanoid: Even when Atropos seemingly dies, both the Elite and Reave from the PRT refuse to believe she's dead unless her corpse is directly in front of them. Given all the things she's pulled off, [[spoiler:and that she's FakingTheDead,]] they're right to be untrusting.
* RacialTransformation: As part of her new identity, [[spoiler:Panacea changes Riley to resemble the Laborns, so Brian can plausibly take custody of her with minimal questions being asked.]]
* ARareSentence: Everyone is shocked when Atropos states (via PHO) that [=VoidCowboy=] is actually correct in a theory.
* RedHerring:
** Taylor's method of killing Sophia - a precisely-timed kick to the chest that stopped her heart - serves to throw the PRT off her trail when they start investigating her murder, as only a martial artist or specific parahumans could pull off the timing; Taylor isn't known as either.
** Some of Kaiser's liquor was poisoned with battery acid, something he assumes was meant to be how Atropos kills him. Having foiled her scheme and survived until her midnight deadline, he and his guards can relax for the night. [[spoiler:Then Rune realizes it's [[ClockTampering not actually midnight yet]], and Atropos stabs Kaiser through the eye.]]
** Atropos shoots [[spoiler:Bonesaw]] in the head to [[MakeSureHesDead Make Sure She's Dead]] -- or at least, to give that impression. In reality, she knows it [[HardHead won't be fatal]].
* RefugeInAudacity:
** Part of Atropos' initial success is that her challenge to the gangs is so brazen that her targets keep underestimating her. Even when they start to believe that she is skilled, they still think that bypassing all their defences to kill a target exactly at midnight is too ambitious/arrogant and they'll be able to stop her. When they fail, the audacity merely adds to her reputation.
** How does she get Accord to make a plan for her to rebuild Brockton Bay? She destroys his drug trade operations in Brockton Bay, attacks a truck bringing drugs and money to the city he had sent to make up for the losses, takes a part of the money while burning the rest, and sends that money to ''pay Accord'' for the plan.
** Atropos' plan for Bonesaw: [[spoiler:nobody not in the know would think that Brian's and Aisha's ten-year-old cousin was the former twelve-year-old Slaughterhouse Nine member]].
* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Atropos name-drops the trope when she explains that she was FakingTheDead to [[spoiler:Bastard Son]].
* RescueEquipmentAttack: When Taylor is preparing to kill the Slaughterhouse Nine, she asks her dad to help her get hold of a fire extinguisher. [[spoiler:She uses it to bludgeon and disorient both Shatterbird and Burnscar, then forces the hose into Burnscar's mouth and empties the frigid [=CO2=] payload into her lungs.]]
--> '''Atropos:''' I mean, who even ''thinks'' about killing someone with safety equipment?\\
Oh, right. I do.
* {{Revenge}}: Rachel doesn't appreciate Atropos interfering with the Undersiders by giving all Coil's files to the PRT, and intends to cause her trouble in return. Lisa frantically tries to persuade her that Atropos is far too dangerous for that. [[spoiler:Rachel settles for getting revenge on Hookwolf instead, for hurting dogs.]]
* RevengeMyopia: The Trio are ''furious'' at Taylor for breaking into their lockers and stealing their clothes, promising epic vengeance. Never mind that the reason she did it was because they had forced her into her own locker and locked her in with piles of hazardous waste, and after breaking out, she needed to change her own ruined clothing...
--> "Someone took my favourite top!" Emma felt a surge of outrage. How ''dare'' they break into ''her'' locker and steal ''her'' stuff! This sort of thing didn't ''happen'' to her! Nothing else had been taken, but that was beyond the point. Her stuff was ''her stuff''.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Amy creates a sapient fungus that she calls a mushroom baby and makes a point of giving it a small mouth and button nose to make it cuter, which even Atropos nearly coos over.
* RightBehindMe:
** [[spoiler:Jack Slash]] is prepared to attempt to ambush Atropos, only for Atropos to speak from behind him.
** Director Wilkins insists on running a search to identify Atropos, despite Director Piggot's vehement warnings. Atropos strolls up behind her, shears in hand. Even then, Director Wilkins still refuses to believe that the image on camera is real, insisting that Atropos has probably just hacked the conference call and that turning around would be letting her win. [[spoiler:She's InstantlyProvenWrong when Atropos seizes her around the neck and puts the shears to her eye.]]
---> '''Wilkins:''' There's no way she could actually be here. I'm not afraid of pixels on a screen.\\
[[spoiler:''(Atropos seizes her)'']]\\
[[spoiler:'''Atropos:''' How about now? Afraid now?]]
** Atropos pulls it off again when dealing with [[spoiler:Damsel of Distress]], by showing at the bus station and putting a shotgun to the back of her head.
** As well as [[spoiler:Heartbreaker]], who's too distracted by [[spoiler:Cherie's presence]] to notice Atropos coming from behind him.
* RuleOfThree: People in her list get two warnings to do as she says -- and the list itself was the first one. If someone chooses to ignore the second warning, she kills them.
* RunOrDie:
** After Kaiser's death, Victor goes on the PHO to warn off every villain... except Lung.
---> If you're on her list, leave town. If you're not on her list, be prepared to leave town. [[LetsYouAndHimFight Except Lung. You can take her. I have faith in you.]]
** This is Bagrat's warning on PHO as well, after Skidmark's messy demise.
---> Everyone on her list: stay the fuck away. I cannot emphasize this strongly enough. I don't *want* to see what she does to you.
** Atropos literally gives this option to [[spoiler:Ravager's henchmen]]. They choose life.
* RunningGag: Whenever Atropos makes a post, Reave always drops in a message to request Atropos to stop her murdering and come to the PRT, and Atropos always answers with a negative. Reave comes to acknowledge how pointless it is and admits he's largely going through the motions.
* SadisticChoice: Atropos presents one to Amy after [[spoiler:she fights the Nine: either break her "no brains" rule and "turn back the clock" on Bonesaw so she will become Riley again, or watch as Atropos blows Bonesaw's brains out. Panacea ultimately chooses the former, [[BatmanGambit exactly as Atropos intended]]]].
* ScaredOfWhatsBehindYou: Damsel of Distress is undercover, dressing and acting as inconspicuously as possible, so why are people pointing at her and backing away? Answer: Atropos is stepping up behind her to put a gun to her head.
* ScareEmStraight: After Atropos kills two ABB thugs for planning to murder a bunch of prostitutes and frame her for it, she kneels down next to the one who was protesting against it.
-->Her voice was a murmur next to his ear.
--->''"Do better."''
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
** The Empire 88 collectively bugs out of Brockton Bay after Kaiser is assassinated by Atropos, with Victor announcing the group's disbanding on Parahumans Online. Most of them haven't been seen since, though [[spoiler:Hookwolf gets ripped apart by Bitch's dogs]] before he can get out.
** The Undersiders break up after it becomes clear Atropos took out Coil and the PRT are closing in on them, with [[spoiler:Bitch, Regent, and Tattletale all deciding to leave town while Grue joins the Wards]].
** After Atropos [[spoiler:kills the Slaughterhouse Nine,]] Uber and Leet decide their future looks brighter if they just take a permanent leave from Brockton Bay.
** Cherish is on duty monitoring the city's emotional pulse, when she senses three groups of men hired to cause trouble at the new drug rehab clinics. With just a brief nudge to their emotions, reminding them that Atropos ''will'' disapprove and ''will'' come for them, she soon has them all deciding that they're not being paid enough for this.
---> It was like she'd dropped an ink bomb in a pail of milk, as the darkness spread and consumed the light. Their collective sense of purpose dulled, began to question itself, then died altogether. The flame of their intent guttered then went out in one and then another.
** [[spoiler:Ravager's three henchmen]] run for the hills when confronted by Atropos.
* ScryVsScry: Path to Ending doesn't have the same limitations as other shards, so it always wins even if they conflict.
** Coil splits the timeline, with one instance of himself in a base full of mercenaries and traps, the other at a home bought in a false name with a top-notch security system. [[spoiler:In one timeline, Atropos waltzes through his base, killing three quarters of his troops, and hangs him. He wakes up in the second timeline to find that she has set the scene, unloaded the gun under his pillow, and proceeds to cut his throat and reveal all his secrets to the PRT.]]
** Contessa gets miffed after Taylor's power "metaphorically smacked her power on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper," and tries to scare her by opening a Door to the back of her head to threaten her with a gun. As soon as the Door opens, Taylor's own gun is right there pointing back at her.
** When Atropos goes after the Nine, Jack's "intuition" (his Shard's connection to the Shard network) tells him that there's no Parahumans going after him and the others, while Atropos deals with the others without being disturbed. Jack even thinks that he's just fighting a normal person using Tinkertech until Atropos disabuses him of the idea before killing him.
* SecretKeeper: Danny "catches" Taylor and finds out about her activities [[spoiler:on her way home from killing Skidmark]]. It's AllAccordingToPlan; now she doesn't have to lie to him about it.
* SelfDeprecation: One of the PHO posts in Part 22 by a user named "Urk (Purveyor of Cape!Fic)" mentions how cool it would be if [[ShoutOut Leet and Uber were to take down the Siberian with Ghostbusters packs]], which is promptly ridiculed by another user as something that would never happen [[note]]This is a reference to Fanfic/ItGetsWorse, written by the same author (Ack), in which that scenario does in fact happen[[/note]].
* SemanticSuperpower: Path to Ending gives Taylor the steps to kill anyone or anything. Besides using it to kill Sophia, she's also used it to kill a conversation (knowing exactly what to say to make someone stop talking to her) or kill the chances of someone spotting her (knowing exactly where to step so she's always out of their line of sight). After Sophia's body is discovered, Taylor considers that she might need to find a way to kill the investigation, which she does. She even proves capable of "killing" things like thread locks and bans on the PHO forums, or the reputations of people. It's implied she broke out of her locker by killing the lock.
* SexSlave:
** Taylor pretends to be surprised by the news that the ABB is rumored to snatch girls off the streets and force them into brothels. Having her dad explain it to her is part of gaining his sympathy for her ''extracurricular activities'' so she can stop lying to him.
---> Danny hadn't wanted to go there, but Taylor was a bright kid and she would've put the pieces together eventually anyway.
** Cherie Vasil was sometimes hired out for the evening [[AbusiveParents at her father's behest]], which is one of the many reasons she ran away.
* ShearMenace: When raiding Kaiser's private weapon collection, Taylor sees his bodice shears -- essentially a giant pair of scissors with each blade sharpened like a two-edged dagger -- and immediately wants them. They quickly become her signature weapon as "Atropos", the Fate who cuts the threads of mortal lives, and Kaiser himself, when he makes the connection between the robbery and the character, is suitably alarmed.
* ShootTheBuilder: After he had his underground base fitted with a self-destruct system, Coil paid the ones working on it a great bonus... and quickly had them murdered to ensure their silence.
* ShoutOut:
** When [[spoiler:Jack Slash]] is in a closed room, preparing to ambush Atropos, he hears a voice from behind him, "[[Literature/{{Discworld}} Dark in here, isn't it?]]" Bonus points because the original source of the quote is the GrimReaper.
** One of the PHO fragments mentions Leet and Uber taking down the Siberian with Ghostbusters packs, a reference to ''Fanfic/ItGetsWorse'' by the same author as this fic. [[note]]This was actually [[AscendedFanon a reader suggestion that the author ran with]].[[/note]]
** Assault describes Atropos's activities as [[WebVideo/HellsingUltimateAbridged enthusiastic walks]], something which quickly caught on.
** The mushroom baby Amy creates dances to music [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy just like Groot]].
** When she shows up in front of [[spoiler:Bastard Son after FakingTheDead]], she does so with her clothes completely white.
--->'''Atropos:''' [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings I am Atropos the White, now. I have passed through fire and death, and now I...]]
* SinisterSuffocation: Atropos doesn't ''need'' to use this, but she considers it a suitable tool to deal with some people.
** Madison got the non-lethal version, when Taylor hit her just in the right point to partially paralyze her diaphragm, leaving her very short of breath until Taylor hits her again in the right place.
** Atropos considers it a suitably karmic death for [[spoiler:Shatterbird]], who is force-fed a chunk of broken glass that blocks her throat and stops her singing.
** [[spoiler:Hatchet Face]] gets the same trick as Madison, but here Atropos doesn't bother holding back, leaving him to helplessly suffocate while she walks away.
* SlipperySkid: Atropos tips out a bag of marbles onto the floor during Ravager's conversion into Ravioli, causing Rav to trip at least once, possibly several times.
* SlipperySlopeFallacy: InUniverse; Deputy Director Renick is very dubious about Reave's decision to [[spoiler:keep quiet about Atropos surviving a car bomb, to help her set a counter-trap]]. Reave doesn't see it that way.
--> '''Renick:''' This is a very slippery slope you're stepping on to. I'm not at all sure the Director will sign off on it, when she comes on in the morning.
* SoProudOfYou: While Danny doesn't like that Taylor is killing so many people, he states that he's proud that she has managed to stop the gangs and cause a great drop in local crime.
* SoWhatDoWeDoNow:
** Vista has this realization in side stories, recognizing that with Atropos around there really isn't much for a superhero to do in Brockton Bay. Clockblocker points out that the PRT ENE is responsible for more cities than just Brockton Bay, bringing Vista out of her funk.
** Glory Girl has a similar realization and starts [[HeartbreakAndIceCream drowning her sorrows in ice cream.]] After a talk with her dad, she starts thinking about reinventing herself.
* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: When Taylor makes reference to "Miss Piggy" disapproving of bullying, Sophia is dumbfounded, because only a Ward would know that nickname, and there haven't been any new recruits. (Taylor was actually just saying what her power told her to "kill the conversation", and didn't know the significance of it.)
* SpannerInTheWorks: The Path to Ending shard is designed to derail the typical Cycle, by luring in other hosts and simply killing them in very one-sided ways, rather than learning through proper conflict. It's also capable of killing the Endbringers and even the Entities themselves. And then, anything it actually learns, it will take away and report to its own parent, rather than the Thinker or the Warrior. Abbadon finds the whole idea funny.
* SparedByTheAdaptation:
** Mouse Protector survives due to Ravager trying to hire Atropos as a hitwoman, rather than the Slaughterhouse Nine. Atropos instead chooses to make a deal with Mouse Protector, agreeing to [[spoiler:end Ravager’s credibility as a villain]] if Mouse Protector will participate in a fundraiser for a children’s oncology unit.
** Cherish never joins the Slaughterhouse Nine [[spoiler:due to Atropos recruiting her]], thus avoiding her canon fate of being [[AndIMustScream trapped underwater in a life-sustaining shell, unable to sense anything but negative emotions while all fourteen Butchers scream at her inside her head until she (maybe) dies in Gold Morning.]]
** Toybox seems to have avoided their canon deaths at the Nine's hands, [[spoiler:thanks to the Nine being wiped out by Atropos.]]
* SpeakIllOfTheDead: Atropos has no problem in badmouthing and belittling the people she's killed. Her scathing ReasonYouSuckSpeech about [[spoiler:Jack Slash]] is truly epic.
-->'''Atropos:''' This whole time, he's just been a spoiled little shit throwing a tantrum because the world refused to live up to his fantasies about it. And [[spoiler:the Nine's]] been his little play-group of puppets, dragged along to carry out his twisted little whims along the way. Because oh yeah, he's been Mastering them. Ain't that a kicker.
* SpeakOfTheDevil: Just when Wilkins (PRT Director for New York) speaks of trying to find Atropos' identity, [[spoiler:she shows up [[RightBehindMe right behind her]] in order to make it clear that she is ''really'' unhappy with Wilkins' attempt to ruin her life]].
* SpiderSense: Along with her ability to plan out the end of anything, Taylor's power alerts her to anyone with hostile intent, at any range, including their identity and an outline of that intent. Which means that by the time they can start acting on it, Taylor already has a Path running to beat it. She doesn't advertise that ability, though, so when she publicly calls out the gangs she's going to target, they don't realize that their hostile reactions make them light up like beacons in her senses and become easy pickings.
* SplitPersonality: Apparently what happened to Skidmark was so traumatizing for Squealer that she repressed her Cape identity. Brandish complains that her lawyer is now pressing for an InsanityDefense, despite her supposedly having been sane prior to the event and thus fully cognizant of her crimes.
* StartingANewLife:
** With some help from Panacea and Dragon, Taylor is able to arrange a new identity and family and a fresh start for [[spoiler:Riley/Bonesaw]].
** She's also working on giving [[spoiler:Cherie Vasil/Reynaud]] a new start in life, including remedial schooling.
* StealingFromTheTill: Atropos makes it clear to the mayor that if any members of the Brockton Bay revitalisation committee try to skim funds for their own use, she will know and will [[MakeAnExampleOfThem persuade their colleagues not to repeat it]]. Some of them still have sticky fingers, though.
--> '''Taylor:''' And Janice Templeton keeps trying to push the idea of issuing physical checks instead of handing out debit cards so she can arrange for a certain number to be 'lost'. I'll deal with it.
* StealthPun:
** After killing [[spoiler:Kaiser]], Atropos states on PHO that "there's more than one way to skin a cat". As explained later, the sword used in said murder was a ''katzbalger'', which translates literally as "cat-skinner".
** When Atropos has Jack Slash where she wants him, she says "Let’s cut this short," [[spoiler:then decapitates him with Hatchet Face's axe]].
* StuffBlowingUp:
** What happens when Atropos tosses a road flare into a warehouse where she's just created a very large cloud of drugs ''and'' ripped out bills as particulate material?
--> '''''BOOOM'''''
** When [[spoiler:Butcher and the Teeth]] come to town, Atropos greets them at the city limits with [[spoiler:an AT-4 anti-tank weapon]].
** When Atropos tosses a grenade into a bunch of ''other'' grenades on a boat smuggling weapons and drugs into Brockton Bay, the explosion is ... intense. [[spoiler:Good thing she now has a teleporter.]]
* SureLetsGoWithThat: Flashbang overhears Amy saying Carol can't find out about something. After confirming that it wasn't her talking to a boy/girl that she thought Brandish would disapprove of, he comes to the conclusion that she wants a pet that Carol wouldn't like. Amy, not wanting to reveal she was talking to her ''power,'' runs with it.
* SwipeYourBladeOff: After Atropos [[spoiler:cuts Nicholas' throat]] with her shears, she flicks the blood off.
* SwissArmySuperpower: Path to Ending just plans out how to destroy things, but it takes a very broad view of what counts as a thing. Taylor can bluff her way through a police interview to end their suspicions, crack computer systems to end barriers to her access, write down all someone's passwords as part of ending their influence on the world, or even plan out how to end the need to lie to her dad.
* SymbioticPossession: Panacea is very surprised to learn that Atropos regularly has discussions with her power and that they actually get along well, with Taylor coming up with ideas of what to do and her shard offering ways to do them. Panacea hadn't even realised that communication was possible, and Atropos advises that her ennui is probably related to her power being very bored.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: T-Z]]
* TakeAThirdOption: {{Defied}} for [[spoiler:Damsel of Distress]], whom Atropos warns that she only has two options, leave or die. The villain does attempt to convince Atropos to let her stay, but Atropos knows too well that she will just attempt to kill her later, and the rule of 'no villains in my city' is going to be applied, one way or the other.
* TakeThat: When speaking about the stimulus package for Brockton Bay's residents, Atropos takes a shot at trickle-down economics.
* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: Atropos, using her voice alone, mimics [[spoiler:the last phone call Mannequin had from his wife and children as they went crazy and killed each other during a Simurgh attack]] to [[DrivenToSuicide drive him to suicide]].
* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: When preparing to celebrate their victory over Atropos (i.e. surviving), Kaiser gets out some of his private liquor stash, but his bodyguards insist on testing it. Sure enough, Atropos has gotten to it, and when Alabaster tries some, it kills him four times over. [[spoiler:And it's actually just a RedHerring, making them think they've beaten Atropos' attack and thus lulling them into a false sense of security before Atropos springs her actual trap.]]
--> '''Alabaster:''' That stuff is beyond lethal. It's some kind of battery acid. It has to be. Every time I reset, it started attacking me again.
* ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine:
** Path to Ending apparently has a flair for the dramatic, which suits Taylor fine. Oni Lee just gets shot with his own gun, which is tolerable, but after that she starts planning to make each hit truly ironic. The showmanship is just as intimidating to the public as the actual deaths are.
*** Coil [[spoiler:is hanged in one timeline (with a ''coil'' of rope) and then immediately has his throat cut with her bodice shears -- meaning two cuts -- in the other.]]
*** Kaiser [[spoiler:can extrude and control metal from any hard surface, and is known for making impromptu blades, so he gets stabbed through the eye with a sword. For extra {{Irony}}, said sword had once belonged to Kaiser Wilhelm I and eventually became the property of Kaiser (the villain).]]
*** The Dragonslayers [[spoiler:are slain by a dragon (Lung). And she did that by tweaking the code of their stolen suits to interfere with their sensors, which is what they've been doing to Dragon all along]].
*** [[PlayingWithFire Lung]] [[spoiler:gets burnt to death from the inside out (with a horribly potent acid).]]
*** Skidmark was originally planned to be killed with drugs, but Taylor eventually settles on [[spoiler:turning him into a literal skidmark, with his own vehicle spreading him over a long stretch of road.]]
*** She also turns Contessa's favourite tactic against her, exactly predicting her actions and turning up with a gun pointed at her when she least expects it.
*** Shatterbird [[spoiler:is killed by Atropos force-feeding her a piece of glass, ''from her own mask'', in such a way that it won't move, suffocating her]].
*** Burnscar [[spoiler:gets a fire extinguisher to the face and its entire cold carbon dioxide contents into her lungs]].
*** Mannequin [[spoiler:is bombarded with the reminder of how his family died, [[DrivenToSuicide causing him to kill himself]] -- the same way he's used psychological tricks to kill many of his victims]].
*** Crawler and Hatchet Face [[spoiler:are tricked into colliding into each other (with the latter's PowerNullifier stopping the former's HealingFactor) right in the path of a Dragon missile. Then Atropos beats Hatchet Face with the blunt end of his own axe before hitting him to paralyze his diaphragm and leave him to helplessly suffocate while she walks away]].
*** The Siberian [[spoiler:only gets an inkling of impending death before William Manton bites the dust, giving both the time to know they are going to die but with the inability to stop it at all]]. Subverted when Atropos actually apologises for not having a properly ironic death lined up.
*** Bonesaw is stabbed in the brain with her own medical probe. [[spoiler:Atropos' power lets her make it a disabling strike instead of a lethal one, and Bonesaw is then carted away to be remade.]]
*** Jack Slash [[spoiler:is completely overwhelmed before the unstoppable Atropos, given a minute head start, then shown that Atropos always had the upper hand no matter what, and finally dies after his philosophy is ripped apart and he's told that his legacy will amount to ''nothing'' -- the same way he's toyed with, broken, and killed hundreds of people in the past.]]
*** Spree [[spoiler:is killed by multiple shotgun blasts, utilising hundreds of pellets to take out his clones and then himself]].
*** Vex [[spoiler:is killed when Atropos hits her with multiple thrown knives]].
*** Hemorrhagia [[spoiler:dies to several deep cuts ''which she invited'', not knowing that the shears were poisoned with fentanyl. Her blood, which is her weapon, was poisoned and turned against her]].
*** Butcher (the Fourteenth) [[spoiler:is chopped up (butchered) with an axe, into fourteen pieces. Then she finds herself sharing a headspace with something bigger and nastier than herself, which wrecks what's left of her]].
*** Animos [[spoiler:is shot in the throat, preventing him from making noise, like a 'mad dog']].
*** Heartbreaker [[spoiler:is stabbed in the heart with a broken Valentine's day candy heart]].
*** Night [[spoiler:has her vision taken away, then is stabbed multiple times, including [[EyeScream in the eye]]]].
*** Fog [[spoiler:is blown into a pink mist by a whole bunch of grenades going off at once]].
*** Bastard Son [[spoiler:gets a bastard's coat of arms slashed into his chest, loses his powers, is forced to run away from his previously Mastered minions, and gets skewered with a bastard sword Louis XIV commissioned for one of his bastard children, given to Atropos by the son of metaphorical bastard Max Anders]].
** Rachel gets a shot in, too. Before she leaves the city, she goes after Hookwolf, whom she hates for running illegal dogfighting rings, and her dogs tear him apart.
* TemptingFate: It's pretty much common for Atropos' enemies to think they'll be able to get away with their plans, only for Atropos to immediately learn about said plans and begin to counter them.
** [[spoiler:Damsel of Distress]], for example, thought she'd be able to settle down at Brockton Bay with Atropos being none the wiser until she had recruited enough minions to become impossible to take out. It only takes a minute after arriving for Atropos to ambush her from behind and bring Edict and Licit to take her back to Stafford.
** Director Wilkins [[spoiler:tries to uncover Atropos' personal identity, even declaring that she doesn’t care about Atropos’ Thinker rating despite Piggot warning her against it after witnessing her work first-hand. That prompts her to show up right behind Wilkins, which the Director tries to write off as a "trick" over Costa-Brown’s objections. She shuts up ''very'' quickly when Atropos puts her shears an inch away from her eye.]]
* TerrorHero: Atropos fits TheDreaded subtype, cultivating a reputation as an unstoppable villain-killer with a penchant for showy public kills. This is entirely intentional, as this sinister reputation means that only the most incorrigible, arrogant, or plain aggressive villains will come to Brockton Bay and die to her, reducing the amount of work she has to do in keeping the city villain-free.
* ThatManIsDead: Riley [[spoiler:not only stops identifying as Bonesaw after Panacea works on her memories, but enjoys rewatching the video of the Nine being killed, including her own stabbing in the brain.]]
* ThatsAnOrder: Chief Director Costa-Brown [[spoiler:orders Wilkins to stop trying to find Atropos' identity when Atropos shows up in the latter's office, ready to show her why trying to screw with her is a ''bad'' idea.]]
* ThisCannotBe: Bastard Son's reaction when he finds Atropos is still alive, despite seeing her (ostensibly) caught in the explosion of a booby-trapped car..
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Played for laughs when Brian decides to enjoy the peace before Aisha comes out of her room with [[spoiler:their 'cousin' Riley]].
* ThreatBackfire: Contessa sets out to teach Taylor a lesson about messing with her Paths. She loads her pistol, takes up the slack on the trigger, opens a Door to the back of Taylor's head -- and drops her gun in the face of the pistol barrel pointing back at her.[[note]]Path to Ending can model Path to Victory's actions, but not vice versa unless Path to Ending permits it; this is in part because Path to Ending's scope is narrower, relatively speaking than Path to Victory's, allowing the former to override the latter in those cases.[[/note]]
* TisOnlyABulletInTheBrain: Path to Ending lets Taylor intentionally stab someone in the brain as a ''non-lethal'' attack. It does, however, render the victim comatose without Panacea-level medical intervention.
* TightropeWalking: The Gesellschaft warehouse has a cable over the yard, leading from the sniper nests to the roof of the main building. It's covered in bird poo, and Atropos judges that "Any self-respecting high-wire artist, upon seeing it, would back away slowly." To a power that knows exactly the moves to make at each moment, though, it's a walk in the park.
* TooDumbToLive:
** Atropos claims that Sophia's death was her own fault and avoidable.
---> She got warned twice, she ignored it twice. She died of stupid.
** Like canon, Ravager tries to hire the most dangerous serial killer possible to kill Mouse Protector. Unlike canon, she tries to hire Atropos, ignoring that she'd so far only killed villains (and an unnamed other who didn't take the hint to back off). When Atropos instead lets Mouse Protector hire her to destroy Ravager's "credibility as a villain", Ravager swears revenge on them both.[[note]]To make things worse, this is ''after'' Atropos [[spoiler:killed the entirety of the Slaughterhouse Nine in less than an hour, with zero collateral damage, and almost no help]][[/note]]
** When Nicholas finds his power [[NoSell entirely useless]] against Atropos, he tries to attack her physically, and fails. Then he pulls a gun and tries to shoot her from about six feet away, only to achieve nothing beyond a SlashedThroat.
** [[spoiler:Damsel of Distress]] travels to Brockton Bay, thinking she'll be able to go unnoticed by Atropos until she's got enough of a foothold that she can't be kicked out. This, in the city that is now empty of villains because Atropos managed to kill the Parahuman gang leaders in spite of them protecting themselves to the best of their ability and forced their gangs to disband. Subverted at the last second, since meeting Atropos in person makes her recognize she can't fight her, and she leaves at gunpoint. Though it's helped by Cherie forcibly keeping her from doing something stupid.
** Butcher decides that Atropos' prohibition isn't something she can let slide, so she takes the Teeth and heads straight for Brockton Bay once she finds out about it. [[spoiler:They don't make it past the city limits.]]
** [[spoiler:Heartbreaker]] knows of most of the stuff Atropos has done, yet he remains overconfident of his power's ability to trap her. [[spoiler:Atropos manages to catch him unaware, breaks his jaw before he can do anything and kills him, freeing all his Mastered victims in the process to boot.]]
** After killing Night and Fog, it's suggested on PHO that people who manage to cross Atropos should be given their own Darwin Award category. The official Darwin Awards account eventually announces that they've decided to classify any deaths resulting from ignoring an Atropos warning as suicides, which disqualifies them for Darwin Awards, but recipients of non-lethal fates will be eligible for Honorable Mentions.
** The committee Mayor Christner puts together to use the proceeds from [[spoiler:Atropos killing the Slaughterhouse Nine]] to revitalize the city knows very well that Atropos is keeping an eye and that any attempt for personal enrichment will end messily. Two of its members ''still'' try to do some StealingFromTheTill.
** Even after all of the above, Bastard Son thinks that he can take her, and goes after her in defiance of the warnings of the rest of the Elite. They're not exactly optimistic towards his odds of success, and it's implied that even the members implicitly supporting the move are more hoping that they'll manage to get some useful information out of him before he dies.
* TradingBarsForStripes: After being captured, Brian is offered a place in the Wards as community service rather than going to prison for his crimes. As it would help him get custody of Aisha and his main objection (Shadow Stalker) is no longer a factor, he agrees.
* TranslatorMicrobes: When following a Path that requires her to speak another language, Taylor appears to actually understand what she's saying and hearing, not just parrot it (although she's still just doing what her power says).
--> '''Isamu:''' The girl spoke Vietnamese fluently, better than me, she says.
* TraumaButton:
** Taylor "kills" a conversation with Emma by referencing Emma being weak in the alley "and even weaker now," then pretending to chew on her own hair and offering Emma some. Taylor actually didn't know what she was talking about, she was just following her power's prompts, but Emma flees to throw up in a bathroom.
** When she takes down [[spoiler:Mannequin]], she does it by [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath brutally slamming his button]] [[spoiler:(his wife's calls as she and their children kill each other under the Simurgh's influence)]] until [[DrivenToSuicide it drives him over the edge]].
* UnderestimatingBadassery: Atropos keeps getting underestimated by her targets, no matter how many capes she's put an end to, always with none to minimal collateral damage. Not even [[spoiler: her brutal take down of the Slaughterhouse Nine]] is enough to make people realize how dangerous she is.
* UndignifiedDeath: {{Invoked}} by Atropos when killing [[spoiler:Jack Slash]]. She makes a point of dominating him in a straight fight before giving him a minute's head start, then casually proving to him that she always had the upper hand by ambushing him the moment he thinks himself safe. Atropos proceeds to tear down his entire philosophy and calmly details how she intends to end his legacy, sending him into a VillainousBreakdown where he [[AintTooProudToBeg desperately begs for Atropos to spare his reputation]] moments before she chops him up.
--> '''Atropos:''' They won't [remember you.] You see, [[spoiler:Jack,]] I don't just kill people. I end things. And one of the things I'll be ending is your legacy. Your reputation. By the time I'm finished with you, you'll be nothing but a footnote, a cautionary tale: 'Don't be an idiot. Don't be like [[spoiler:Jack Slash]]'. When the kids play heroes and villains... not even the edgiest of edgelords will want to be you.
* UnflinchingWalk:
** When Atropos is about to blow up a drug house, she tells Brian and Aisha to run, but she herself just casually strolls away.
---> I felt the heat of the explosion, as well as the shift in air pressure, on my back, but I didn't alter my steady pace.
** Later subverted when she dives for cover so as not to be splattered with [[LudicrousGibs bits of Crawler]], or caught in the explosion that killed him.
* UseTheirOwnWeaponAgainstThem:
** Atropos gets a lot of street cred for the fact that she snatched Oni Lee's own pistol away from him and killed him with it faster than he could teleport away.
** She kills Hatchet Face with his own axe.
** She also causes an UnfriendlyFire incident [[spoiler:among the Teeth, by manipulating Animos into screaming at just the right time to neutralise Butcher's powers]].
** She destroys a shipment of illicit weaponry (and the boat they were being transported on) by tossing one of the weapons--a live grenade--into the hold with the rest of them. There are no survivors (apart from her).
* ValentinesDayViolence: A variant; It isn't about the day specifically, but to arrange an IronicDeath for the mind-controlling villain Heartbreaker, Taylor [[spoiler:hits him in the jaw with a foot-long Valentine's Day candy heart (shattering his jaw and breaking the heart in half) to stop him using his powers, then stabs him in the heart with one of the jagged pieces.]]
* VictoryFakeout: Atropos pulls one on Empire 88 by [[ClockTampering tampering with their main clock]] and tricking them into thinking that she was depending on [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink acid-spiked bourbon]] to take out Kaiser. Once they uncover the poisoned bourbon, they assume they've won until Rune figures out the clocks have been changed, upon which [[spoiler:Atropos swoops in to stab Kaiser through the eye with his stolen ''katzbalger'' sword]].
* VigilanteMan: Since the police and PRT are manifestly unable to keep order in Brockton Bay, Atropos steps up to cut the situation down to size. Or burn it down to size. Or crush. Whatever works. She's not interested in fighting the police, but she's not interested in working within their rules of engagement, either.
--> '''Atropos:''' Aww, that's sweet. That makes it twice I've been given the "join us" spiel just tonight. (Not from the bad guys, either. That was all "RAWR You die now".)\\
And while I appreciate it--don't think I don't--I'm going to have to turn you down yet again. We just wouldn't be a good fit, with all your 'not allowed to kill people' rules, I just know it.
* TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive: After Reave's routine invitation to come meet with him anytime, Atropos thanks him but declines, then mentions that she watered his plants for him. Reave never actually mentioned where his office is, but he correctly assumed that she knows.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Atropos is a villain by the standards of ''Worm'', but since her targets are only other villains or criminals, she does her best to never involve innocent people in her actions and actually works for the betterment of the city, she's become quite popular among the local citizenship (as well as feared).
* VillainousBreakdown:
** [[spoiler:Jack Slash gradually loses his cool as Atropos slaughters her way through the Slaughterhouse Nine.]] It only gets worse as his Master power doesn't work on her and she verbally tears him apart. At the end, it's when she promises to end his legacy to the point that "Not even the edgiest of edgelords will want to be him" when children play Heroes and Villains that he breaks down completely, unable to do more than stammer denials before Atropos [[OffWithHisHead cuts his head off]].
** By the time Atropos is done with her, [[spoiler:Ravioli (formerly known as Ravager)]] is pretty much unresponsive and wishing for death from the utter humiliation she just went through.
* VisualPun: Atropos is prone to doing this in her villain murders.
** An extremely gruesome one [[spoiler:when she manipulates the Merchants and the PRT so she can turn Skidmark into an actual skidmark]].
** During her beatdown of [[spoiler:Hatchet Face, Atropos repeatedly strikes him with his own axe in the head. Or, in other words, she hit Hatchet Face in the face with a hatchet]].
** To kill [[spoiler:[[MesACrowd Spree]],]] she racks up her shotgun and keeps firing until she hits the original. [[spoiler:It's a ''spree'' shooting.]]
** She states on PHO that Heartbreaker will die "due to a broken heart". [[spoiler:She breaks his jaw with a foot-long Valentine's Day candy heart, cracking the candy into two very sharp pieces in the process, then stabs him in the heart with one of them.]]
** She turns [[spoiler:Fog into a literal mist]].
** After settling on [[spoiler:Ravager's new name of Ravioli]], Atropos literally throws a can of it in her face. Some is still stuck to her later.
* VoiceChangeling: Atropos has mimicked someone else's voice perfectly four times so far as part of her Path:
** Once to make [[spoiler:Mannequin relive the last phone call he received from his family]].
** Another time to [[spoiler:release Heartbreaker's thralls by ordering them to ignore all other orders they've received]].
** Yet another time to [[spoiler:imitate a drug dealer's voice to persuade a buyer to open a door]].
** Most recently to [[spoiler:masquerade as a (recently deceased) goon over a radio net]].
* VoiceOfTheLegion: On occasion, the Path to Ending shard can speak through Taylor, which the people around her find unearthly and unnerving -- although no one it has yet spoken to realises what's going on, they just think it's Atropos being creepy and dangerous.
* WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld: The contrast between Taylor and Atropos is jarring for Cherie.
--> '''Cherish:''' Last night, you killed a bunch of people guarding a fuck-ton of drugs, blew up or burned the drugs, sent Damsel of Distress packing back to wherever she came from …\\
'''Atropos:''' Stafford. And you did good work making sure she didn't just flare up and do something stupid. Proving I'm not just going to murder every villain who comes to Brockton without giving them a chance to leave gives me a lot more leeway with the PRT.\\
'''Cherish:''' She totally wanted to. It was like there was a demented monkey dancing around inside her head, hitting a button marked 'RAGE' every ten or fifteen seconds. She did ''not'' appreciate you saying no to her.\\
'''Atropos:''' Few people do. That's why I have to be prepared to shout. You were saying?\\
'''Cherish:''' Okay, yeah, so you chased off Damsel, then you ''killed'' [[spoiler:Butcher and the Teeth]] in a way I ''still'' don't really understand … and now you're going to ''school''? How can you even ''think'' of school at a time like this?\\
'''Atropos:''' Because it's nice and peaceful now.
* WeakButSkilled:
** Physically, Taylor is a fit but baseline human, which is a big part of why her foes keep underestimating her. But with CombatClairvoyance as just the start of her precognitive planning abilities, she consistently trounces everyone she faces.
---> '''Piggot:''' She went into that fight with a pair of shears, a pistol, a ball of string, an M67 frag grenade and a fire extinguisher. Forty-two minutes later, [[spoiler:every member of the Slaughterhouse Nine was dead]].
** Deliberately invoked when Atropos eschews a Desert Eagle or similarly powerful gun in favour of something more easily carried; a pistol and a shotgun.
---> '''Atropos:''' Hitting power is for those with inadequate aiming capability.\\
'''Cherie:''' What?\\
'''Atropos:''' People who can't shoot straight.
* WeaponTwirling: Atropos frequently twirls her shears around her finger while chatting with someone she's considering killing. Since the blades are razor-sharp on both sides, this would be quite dangerous if she ever mishandled them. Naturally, she never does.
* WeHaveReserves: The guards around the drug stashes Atropos is targeting have orders that, if they see her fighting in hand to hand, they're to throw grenades. Their employers are quite willing to kill their own people if it means taking Atropos out.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The PRT would love to recruit Atropos and work with her to improve the city, if they could just stop her from killing people. She doesn't resent them for it, but she considers that attitude a weakness and their proposed restraint unacceptable.
* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve: Atropos deliberately times the murders for each of the gang bosses for midnight precisely. This is because her power is an incorrigible showoff, and for intimidation value.
* WithAllDueRespect: Reave really does respect Deputy Director Renick, but he's sticking to his guns about [[spoiler:keeping quiet and allowing Bastard Son to believe that he's killed Atropos, so that she can easily ambush and kill him]].
--> Arguing with one's boss was always a tricky prospect.
* AWolfInSheepsClothing: A major drug hub in Brockton Bay has been meticulously designed by Accord to look just like a regular suburban home, entirely forgettable and ignorable.
--> It bore all the hallmarks of belonging to a happy couple with two point three children and a dog, including a tricycle artfully displayed in the front yard, and a cutesy little sign saying, "''Forget the dog, beware of the kids''". Someone had put a lot of effort into making it seem even more normal than the neighbours.\\
...\\
Stepping into the front room of the house still looked absolutely normal. Another doorway, not in a direct line with the front door, led to the back of the house … and his mind was blown.\\
There was no kitchen, no bedrooms, no living room. Carefully hung curtains covered every window. Speakers played TV sounds, and the occasional noise of a baby crying. But the interior of the house had been gutted, and the resultant room was all made over to the division and packaging of drugs for supply to the population of Brockton Bay.
* XanatosGambit: In the Butcher's opinion, there are two options for what happens if she faces Atropos; either she kills Atropos and takes control of the Bay's underworld, or Atropos kills ''her'' and [[YouKillItYouBoughtIt becomes the new Butcher]], so either way she wins. Animos isn't so sure, but since saying "no" to the Butcher isn't a good idea he's unable to further try to dissuade her. [[spoiler:Atropos demonstrates [[TakeAThirdOption there's a third option]] thanks to her power, which kills the Butcher's shard.]]
* YouAreAlreadyDead: After Atropos inserts the capsules of [[HollywoodAcid fluoroantimonic acid]] into Lung's chest and head, they have this conversation.
--> '''Atropos:''' You're going to die, and soon. It's going to hurt like a sonofabitch. So, you know, it's okay to scream.\\
'''Lung:''' I … will … not … scream … for … the … likes … of … you.\\
'''Atropos:''' I think you're wrong. But hey, you do you.\\
'''Lung:''' Run … now. I … will … ''burn'' you.\\
'''Atropos:''' Nope. In fact, right about now, your regeneration should be closing in around the capsules I put next to your corona pollentia, and in your heart and lungs, and starting to ''squeeze''.\\
'''Mook:''' Great Lung! Should we kill her?\\
'''Lung:''' No! She has taken her best shot. [[LeaveHimToMe Now … it's my turn]].\\
'''Atropos:''' [[DeathByIrony Yes. But not in the way you think]].
* YouDoNotWantToKnow:
** Director Piggot is fairly certain she doesn't want to know more about the potential of the chemicals Atropos stole, but she has to ask anyway. (She was right.)
** When Danny asks about the deaths of the Slaughterhouse Nine, Taylor advises him not to ask about Mannequin, because even by her standards, it was a nasty death (WordOfGod is that Taylor didn't want to reawaken his trauma from the loss of his wife).
---> '''Danny:''' I saw what you did to Lung and Skidmark. And you're saying you did something ''nastier'' than that?\\
'''Taylor:''' Yeah.
* YouOweMe: In order to gain her help in [[spoiler:the Canary case]], Dragon calls her marker over Atropos putting a PerceptionFilter on her.
[[/folder]]

** With Coil dead and Faultline's crew leaving town, Whirligig and Trainwreck end up joining [[spoiler:Parian's Rogues' Guild]].

** With Coil dead and Faultine's crew leaving town, Dinah Alcott and Spitfire end up joining [[spoiler:Parian's Rogues Guild]].

* ForWantOfANail: Apart from the obvious, apparently in Earth Aleph [[Film/TheMatrix Neo]] was played by Creator/WillSmith.

*** She arranges for the Dragonslayers [[spoiler:to get slain by a dragon (Lung). And she did that by tweaking the code of their stolen suits to interfere with their sensors, which is what they've been doing to Dragon all along]].

*** Bonesaw is stabbed in the brain with her own medical probe. [[spoiler:Atropos' power lets her make it a disabling strike instead of a lethal one, and with Bonesaw then being carted away to be remade]].
*** [[spoiler:Jack Slash]] is completely overwhelmed before the unstoppable Atropos, given a minute head start, then shown that Atropos always had the upper hand no matter what, and finally dies after his philosophy is ripped apart and he's told that his legacy will amount to ''nothing'' -- the same way he's toyed with, broken, and killed hundreds of people in the past.

** Even the Elite are reluctant to pull their usual MO in Brockton Bay. [[note]]Except Bastard Son. He won't be missed.[[/note]]

* LesserOfTwoEvils: Atropos' confrontation with Bastard Son brings all of Director Piggot's concerns about her to the fore. Deliberately standing back and doing nothing to interfere with impending murder really grates on the director's principles. But she still knows she can't really do anything to stop Atropos -- and she still hates Bastard Son more. So she's able to square inaction with her conscience, while hating it.

'''Director Piggot:''' Because as a Ward, [Shadow Stalker] was a potential embarrassment, if not an outright liability. Right now, the public's view of Atropos is leaning very strongly toward 'if she killed someone, [[AssholeVictim they deserved it]]', which is a not inaccurate reputation, all told. So, if they find out that she killed a Ward, the first thing they're going to ask is ''why'' that Ward pissed Atropos off. And as all the evidence points toward Stalker ''[[BullyingADragon actually provoking her own murder]]'', I'm strongly disinclined to let the public — and the media — in on it. So, as far as the PRT ENE is officially concerned, Atropos had nothing to do with Stalker's death.

** [[spoiler:Ravager's three henchmen]] make this choice when confronted by Atropos.

** Toybox seems to have avoided they're canon deaths at the Nine's hands, [[spoiler:thanks to the Nine being wiped out by Atropos.]]

* ThisCannotBe: Bastard Son's reaction when he finds Atropos is still alaive.

** [[spoiler:Lung is burned alive from the inside-out by Atropos, courtesy of fluoroantimonic capsules being rammed into his brain and chest and then ignited by contact with his body water.]]

** [[spoiler:The Teeth are wiped out to a man after Butcher XIV decides she wants to take on Atropos, with the Butcher herself being chopped into fourteen pieces and her power permanently nullified by Path to Ending.]]

** [[spoiler:Ravager]] gets one of these from Atropos.

** [[spoiler:Thanks to the Nine being wiped out by Atropos, Toybox seems to have avoided their canon deaths at the Nine’s hands.]]

*** [[spoiler:Butcher (the Fourteenth) is chopped up (butchered) with an axe, into fourteen pieces. Then she finds herself sharing a headspace with something bigger and nastier than herself, which wrecks what's left of her]].

** [[spoiler:Director Wilkins tries to uncover Atropos' personal identity, even declaring that she doesn’t care about Atropos’ Thinker rating despite Piggot warning her against it after witnessing her work first-hand. That prompts her to show up right behind Wilkins, which the Director tries to write off as a "trick" over Costa-Brown’s objections. She shuts up ''very'' quickly when Atropos puts her shears an inch away from her eye.]]

* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood: Riley Davis was Mastered into becoming a [[BodyHorror horrifying serial killer]] by Jack Slash; the majority of her personality is from his influence. When Atropos gets hold of Bonesaw, she manipulates Panacea into [[{{Deprogram}} rolling this back to reveal the original personality underneath]]. Panacea goes one better, instilling an [[HeelFaceTurn aversion to harming people]] to prevent Atropos from ever taking Riley on as a sidekick ... [[BatmanGambit exactly as Atropos planned]].

* DeathOfPersonality: [[spoiler:Atropos "kills" Bonesaw by having Panacea use her powers to erase or blunt all of Riley's memories of her time Mastered by Jack.]]

* DePower: [[spoiler:At Atropos' request, Riley crafts a paste that, when introduced to someone's bloodstream, will target their corona pollentia and disable parahuman powers. Atropos uses it on Bastard Son to break his control of his minions, at which point they turn on him.]]

* KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade: [[spoiler: Director Wilkins]] realises that it should be possible to identify Atropos by examining Winslow school records related to Shadow Stalker -- and gets [[spoiler:Atropos' shears at her eye, warning her that if she continues that search, she dies]].

* RacialTransformation: [[spoiler:As part of Riley's new post-Bonesaw identity, Panacea changes her to resemble the Laborns, so Brian can plausibly take custody of her with minimal questions being asked.]]

* ThatsAnOrder: [[spoiler:Costa-Brown orders Wilkins to stop trying to find Atropos' identity when Atropos shows up in the latter's office, ready to show her why trying to screw with her is a ''bad'' idea.]]

* PoisonedWeapons: Atropos coats her shears in pure fentanyl to [[spoiler:kill Hemorrhagia, who is immune to simple blood loss]].

** Sophia Hess gets beaten to death by Taylor/Atropos after she [[BullyingADragon corners her in a bathroom and tries to beat her up.]]

** [[spoiler:Lung is burned alive from the inside-out by Atropos, courtesy of two fluoroantimonic capsules being rammed into his brain and chest and then ignited by contact with his body water.]]

* DeathByAdaptation: Numerous characters die earlier than in canon due to the change in Taylor’s power, and given the nature of Atropos, this list is only going to grow.[[note]]These are only the ''named'' characters she's killed. And as of Part 31, it's only been ''nine days''.[[/note]]

* PetTheDog:

* UndignifiedDeath: {{Invoked}} by Atropos when killing [[spoiler:Jack Slash]]. She makes a point of dominating him in a straight fight before giving him a minute's head start, then casually proving to him that she always had the upper hand by ambushing him the moment he thinks himself safe. Atropos proceeds to tear down his entire philosophy and calmly details how she intends to end his legacy, sending him into a VillainousBreakdown where he [[AintTooProudToBeg desperately begs for Atropos to spare his reputation]] moments before she chops him up.]]

*** Bastard Son [[spoiler:gets a bastard's coat of arms slashed into his chest, loses his powers, is forced to run away from his previously Mastered minions, and gets skewered with a bastard sword Louis XIV commissioned for one of his bastard children]].