Charm Learning Shard (Worm/Exalted) (COMPLETED)

[Requiem_Jeer]

Probably that Lunar healing charm, Flesh-sculpting prana or whatever it's called.

Of course, it really depends on what part of Panacea's power Taylor focuses on. They could also get a diagnosis charm, or Immunity to Everything Technique (or a derivative/lesser version) if she focuses on the passive 'neutralize bioagents' aspect.

 

[Frakir's brother]

First you need to pick up a Master power that removes any and all traces of self-respect, with a Manton limit of 'self only'.

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So I wonder who could give her Tragic Love Amusement? It's a lot less useful without Freedom Lets go and the Adorjan Excellency, but it fits this situation exactly, even if it wouldn't be useful in others. Can she create new Charms the way actual Exalts can?

 

[Stanley_Jeb]

Jesus christ, man, is it too much to ask that an actual anti-racist character who's broken away from a racist upbringing would actually have well-thought-out points? Look some up online if you can't think of any.

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Unfortunately, Theo is Theo, and if I remember correctly the only reason the kid makes ANY decision, on ANYTHING, is because he's a teenager and teenagers want to be rebellious against their parents. As someone who had the misfortune of having grown up around kids with racist parents who then decide to be anti-racist just to spite them, it's unfortunately also rather accurate, at least for what little my anecdotal experience counts. To the point that one of them deciding that racism has to be wrong not because of the sheer lack of evidence for it being anything but wrong, but because evolution is "obviously nazi propaganda."
It is sad, but some people trying to convince racist people not to be racist make such bad points the nazi they try to convince would probably end up MORE racist rather than less...

My little rant aside, I would prefer some kinda counterpoint to Theo being... Theo as well.
Unfortunately, I can't really think of a character who could fill that role well. I guess one of the Wards might try and bring some actually good points, but it can't be Vista since she probably doesn't want to risk what she perceives as "respect."
The funniest person to fill the spot, to me, would be an ABB cape, since they are also rather heavily race-based. Preferably Oni Lee, just to drive the point home that even an almost braindead person would make better points than Theo.

 

[Seidr]

It's human nature for people to be affected by what they read, at at least a subtle level. Constantly presenting racist arguments which are superficially plausible and which come from characters shown in a positive light, and never presenting effective counters to those arguments, while also often presenting ineffective counters to those arguments coming from characters shown in a negative light, is naturally going to make readers feel more positive about racism. It takes effort on the part of the reader to counter this influence: to constantly remind yourself why these arguments and the people making them are wrong because the author isn't making it easy.

This is surely going to be especially true for readers who haven't encountered similar racist arguments in the past and might think, "you know, that seems pretty reasonable. Maybe there's a point to it." And that's a problem, because prevalence and acceptance of racism has very concrete and very significant bad consequences for individuals and society as a whole. I shouldn't need to belabor these.

I don't think it's too much to ask that a story not make the world a worse place for having been written and published.

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At this point I just switch by brain off at those parts and refuse to even consider those arguments .It's served me well during my times looking through chinese xianxia webnovels ,
and this wouldn't be the first fic with a good concept ruined by an authors racism

When SBr's first started calling out this fic for the nazi racism ,I thought they were over reacting ,that and that there was nothing wrong about nazi's acting realistically ,and that we'd only get a few scraps of racism for realism ,but the bullcrap just kept increasing and increasing ,until right know were in seems at least half of every chapter is dedicated to explain how the Nazi's and KKK were right all along ,especially THIS chapter ,I agree with the fact that Theo is a spineless idiot with daddy issues who's only reason for being not racist is that his dad is racist ,but Taylor's little mocking monologue about how he is a idiot for buying on social propaganda without any rational arguments behind them really hit me badly ,because honestly :no one should need an argument to decide that persecuting others because of skin colour or ethnicity is wrong .

The chat seems to have this theory that this is a symptom of Taylor adopting a exalted's view that every thing in creation is lesser than them ,I'm very sure that that isn't the case ,but I'm holding out hope about it and wishing that the fucking empire arc just ends one way or other.

 

[Mentos]

firearms license

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Oh those poor, poor city folk

You're a genious! Could also deligate it to the prime minion, Aisha, considering the stack of master powers she's under.

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Eww, that'd get loser-stink on her minion, not cool

Or maybe he actually didn't even have good personal justifications and was just rejecting racism because he decided, atypically, to side with the norms of society over his own family without carefully considering the merits of those points.

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Is it really atypical for a teenager to reject their parent's political beliefs purely because they're their parent's? I mean, sure if you ask them they'll say something different, but...

I'd actually been looking forward for a long time to Taylor pulling the rug out from under the Empire: the moment when she lets them know they're horrible people, and she's been using them all along, and they fell for it.

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See, I was never expecting that. I'm expecting her to get the last E88 power and just peace out. Just stop showing up, destroy the appropriate phone, completely forget about the lads, off to the next power.

 

[Waterfly]

Of course, it really depends on what part of Panacea's power Taylor focuses on. They could also get a diagnosis charm, or Immunity to Everything Technique (or a derivative/lesser version) if she focuses on the passive 'neutralize bioagents' aspect.

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That raises another question. What if she feeds Panacea to Echidna(Traveller's leader what's her name) and studies the clone's powers? Would she be able to get all the variations or just the one because they came from the same shard?

 

[Gallyrat]

I do think that this story is lacking convincing characters with non-fascist perspectives but c'mon guys, are you seriously expecting any version of Theo to have the experience, rhetoric and intellect to fill that role? Theo?

Taylor's gonna get her cosmic (or given the earlier poem, divine?) comeuppance when Coil leaks the E88 cape identities, or possibly sooner if something she's done in one identity bites another. Tbh I prefer the former option, I reckon the shitflinging that's gonna emerge in this thread between NPC Taylor-defenders and NPC future Coil-defenders will be a funnier read than the story.

 

[Zxzx24]

You know the other just barely manages to keep the finger hold of the entire focus not being a mazi wank fest about how noble and upstanding the empire is, but like...

Look at how much of the fic it's taken up? The Nazis were actually the heroes all along isn't even an arc anymore its the entire story.

Though it is validating to see people in the comments saying "Wwhhhhaaaaat. Noooooo. Cmon guys Taylor isnt a Nazi!"

Since ya know. "Nobody in real life is dumb enough to think/act like that." Is a defense that gets bandied about a lot.

 

[Stanley_Jeb]

Cmon guys Taylor isnt a Nazi!

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See, the funny thing about that is that, if OP's profile pic is to be any indication, Taylor's a Solar. So while it's up in the air if she's a nazi, she's pretty much confirmed to be much worse than that.

 

[R.A.G.]

So if/when Theo pops a power would she bite the bullet and pimp out Aisha?

 

[zapking5]

Taylor's gonna get her cosmic (or given the earlier poem, divine?) comeuppance when Coil leaks the E88 cape identities

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Pretty sure Tattletale did a lot of the work regarding that, so Taylor probably wouldn't be caught off guard.

 

[omni001]

See, I was never expecting that. I'm expecting her to get the last E88 power and just peace out. Just stop showing up, destroy the appropriate phone, completely forget about the lads, off to the next power

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Or if the whole Armsmaster killing Kaiser during Leviathan's attack thing happens again she might just end up passively taking control of one the splinter factions and rebranding them into a non racist authoritarian faction.

 

[Stanley_Jeb]

Or if the whole Armsmaster killing Kaiser during Leviathan's attack thing happens again she might just end up passively taking control of one the splinter factions and rebranding them into a non racist authoritarian faction.

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Hell, she could take over what remains of the ABB and the Empire. Rebrand it as the "Union Of The Rising Sun" or something like that. The call to explicitly Japan alongside with the Neo-Nazis and the sun motif makes perfectly clear just how fucked up and related to the Solars the operation is.

 

[PlasticSoldier]

Theo wants to lose his virginity.

Right, you're stupid. Teenage loser, male. What the hell did you expect? It goes in the 'achievable' bin, you suppose, but you don't have the power to grant it right now. Some would argue that you're equipped to grant it at any time, but they'd be wrong. First you need to pick up a Master power that removes any and all traces of self-respect, with a Manton limit of 'self only'.

Oh god, is he trying to convert you because he sees you as a potential mate? Do you have enough residual loser-stink on you that he can spot you in turn, and thus considers you attainable? The part of you that delights in misleading people with the truth suggests telling him 'I regret every decision that led me to this point', but the thought of letting this kid believe he succeeded at anything fills you with revulsion.

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Can't Taylor use her Othala-power to make Theo someone worth sleepy with? I guess, Aisha could also work as a backup.

 

[Anonymous Brainwash]

You know the other just barely manages to keep the finger hold of the entire focus not being a mazi wank fest about how noble and upstanding the empire is, but like...

Look at how much of the fic it's taken up? The Nazis were actually the heroes all along isn't even an arc anymore its the entire story.

Though it is validating to see people in the comments saying "Wwhhhhaaaaat. Noooooo. Cmon guys Taylor isnt a Nazi!"

Since ya know. "Nobody in real life is dumb enough to think/act like that." Is a defense that gets bandied about a lot.

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To be fair Taylor is in fact not a Nazi. We know this. We have her POV. She doesn't really give a shit about about race. She only joined the Empire for the sake of convenient Cape access.

The argument, at least the most recent one anyway, was over whether or not the author was a racist/close-racist. Which is a bit more fair considering how much of the fic has been focused on Taylor's interactions with the E88.

But what I find to be overlooked is that Taylor tries to get the Nazis to not be Nazis. It's not a lot, but she pushes here and there. Her "joke" with bringing the Italians in, getting the rank and file to think, "Kaiser is definitely tapping the twins", and her first attempt to logic bomb one of the mooks.

Not to mention the fact that she looked into the E88s crimes and found proof of an inexcusable one.

The way this fic is set up, it's going to be a slow burn until something pushes Taylor away from the Empire. Which is most likely going to be during or after the Bakuda bombing, which we are currently in, the reveal of the E88 identities, or the Leviathan attack.

Dealing with Nazis and Racists doing their shit is annoying, I know. But what do you expect when a main part of the MC's plan is entering a racist organization, while the MC is a Solar Exalted who's opinion on all mortals is dirt.

 

[bornagainpenguin]

I choose to trust the author to tell their story. There have been plenty of breadcrumbs along the way to hint heavily at certain things and this is Worm with all that implies. The other shoe will be dropping sooner or later. We know this.

I don't need to be spoonfed. I don't need the author to drop anvilicous hints every five minutes that the Nazis are nazis and thus evil in everything they do. I trust them to tell me a good story.

 

[Alucard 109]

Or if the whole Armsmaster killing Kaiser during Leviathan's attack thing happens again she might just end up passively taking control of one the splinter factions and rebranding them into a non racist authoritarian faction.

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Definitely Hookwolf's group. It can even keep the name

 

[Akuma-Heika]

He is tired, your power whispers. You know. He's always tired, he's working so hard. To keep the union alive in a dying city... and to provide for you, despite the way you've been acting recently. You wish you could contribute some of your ill-gotten gains to the household budget without blowing everything up even worse... but there is something else you can do. He has never tried to hide how life wears on him, at least not very well.

So you give him an unsolicited hug, and supernatural stamina.

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Wasn't it a requirement that they have to express a personal dislike in the scene? Also, guessing that at least some of the expansion Charms are included to both give him multiple dots of stamina (since I doubt he was at peak human physiology) as well as push it beyond 5 dots.

You're not compelled to obey, but if you don't, something terrible happens to you."

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You got it mostly right Lisa, so we will give you a smiley face

 

[Edifier]

Imo, it absolutely is a great story.
The comments of the readers however are super weird.

 

[Jannika]

The weirdest thing about the comments is that people are still reading what they think is a racist author.
I'll just say that if he is, he's incredibly self-aware of why it's a bad thing, more so than any comment so far.

Heres a hint people, being against racism is a moral/ethical position, not one based on evidence.

 

[Daniel Snuts]

I want to see Rune power, it have to be epic if it is so difficult to get

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The biggest determining factor of charm learning times is actually whether it's infernal or not, because infernal charms only have Essence requirements, no stat requirements. So on average an infernal charm takes less than half as long as a comparable non-infernal charm.

I don't mind this odd wrinkle, as infernal charms tend to be the coolest ones anyway.

Can she use VEE to give Bitch an extra dot or two of Socialize to fulfill her soul price by letting her understand normal people?

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No. It requires the target to express discontent with the state of their character sheet, whereas Rachel is a doggy supremacist who firmly believes that it's everyone else who's doing Socialize wrong and need to change.

Very fucking weird, author.

A bit SUS really.

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I admit that Taylor's homeroom is mildly unusual, in that 70% of classes at Arcadia has a token asian and hers doesn't.

Does buying him a prostitute count as getting his soul's price?

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You're a genious!
Could also deligate it to the prime minion, Aisha, considering the stack of master powers she's under.

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From Taylor's planning document way back in S.01:

----stop making plans that hurt innocents

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Deliberately inflicting Theo on other people? No.

Wait doesn't Purity's power adsorb sunlight when she's not in her Breaker form to "charge" her power, does that not count as power use?

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She was indoors, though.

Wasn't it a requirement that they have to express a personal dislike in the scene? Also, guessing that at least some of the expansion Charms are included to both give him multiple dots of stamina (since I doubt he was at peak human physiology) as well as push it beyond 5 dots.

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No, there is no expiration date there either. They need to have expressed discontent where the exalt could hear ever - in this case, long before she even got the charm. And no, she only gave him one dot. She's using "Brute 0" here in the sense of "technically magical but not worth mentioning", not "peak human+".

 

[ses]

I admit that Taylor's homeroom is mildly unusual, in that 70% of classes at Arcadia has a token asian and hers doesn't.

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The Italian jokes were top tier, I laughed my ass off at the "count the Italians" joke and immediately sent the passage over to a friend of mine who is also Italian. Don't let any readers give you shit for anything that was necessary to set that up.

 

[Doc Sithicus]

Personnaly knowing some people who have become less racist over time, its usually a result of interpersonal experiences, not logic or rationality.

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Unfortunately, it works both ways.

 

[eeda]

Deliberately inflicting Theo on other people? No.

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Kek this right here make Theo sound like the second coming of Greg, like if those two ever get together you have a Kenan & Kel or a Drake & Josh kind of deal out of it.

 

[Alucard 109]

Kek this right here make Theo sound like the second coming of Greg, like if those two ever get together you have a Kenan & Kel or a Drake & Josh kind of deal out of it.

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Aren't they both moderately overweight blond nerds?

 

[Anonymous Brainwash]

Aren't they both moderately overweight blond nerds?

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Greg is barely a nerd, Theo is just uncool.

What can you remember about Theo's interests? He babysits Aster, and tries to not be like his dad. That's it.

Greg, as much as he is a loser on the bottom of the social totem poll, has interests. He regularly posts conspiracy theories on PHO, and he's a fan of gaming.

Everything about Theo, relates to somebody else. There isn't ever a "just Theo" thing.

Everything about Greg, is him being an uncool nerd, but at least we get personal interests out of him.

Of course overall neither are that great. Greg's biggest moments is helping out when Taylor is outed (and I don't even know for sure that happened, it's been so long since I've read Worm). Theo was effectively a protagonist for the Slaughterhouse 9000 arc and we still didn't see much of him as a person.

Realistically speaking you can role swap Theo and Aster and the story wouldn't change. You can replace Greg with any spineless introvert with morals/loyalty and the story wouldn't change.

But because they are so little, we can do so much with them. Stories with Greg as the main character, stories of Theo and dealing with his father. It's like that Phineas and Ferb episode where they made the Platypus toy, since they don't do anything, they can do everything.

 

[lurkinglurker]

Greg is barely a nerd, Theo is just uncool
Greg, as much as he is a loser on the bottom of the social totem poll, has interests. He regularly posts conspiracy theories on PHO, and he's a fan of gaming.
Everything about Theo, relates to somebody else. There isn't ever a "just Theo" thing.
Everything about Greg, is him being an uncool nerd, but at least we get personal interests out of him.

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Greg is now an Exalted. Nobody ever questions anything he does because the pattern spoodlers dodge them around him.
He has immense knowledge to share about the neverweres which is why his theories seem implausible to those not attuned with the great loom and formertime, and without the favor of the fate spinners mortals are blinded by only thinking in a measly four dimensions.
Out of all the endbringer attacks, the only one to come near him was drawn to Hebert's massive plot magnetism like an oxygen tank to a supercooled superconducting electromagnet doing a resonance scan on an unsuspecting cancer patient.
It even explains why we missed him being one until now. Snuts has been gooped up in the strands of sticky spider secretions, with every attempt at telling us about what is right in front of the narrator just turning into neavaux nazi antics leaving us like a very nearsighted person whose spectacles fell off and unable to see the writing on the wall telling us "Keep off the tracks, 500 dollar fine; also Greg is a Sidereal BTW".

It's so obvious in retrospect that you can feel the spiders trying to convince us it's never been true at all.

 

[Dakkah]

Or if the whole Armsmaster killing Kaiser during Leviathan's attack thing happens again she might just end up passively taking control of one the splinter factions and rebranding them into a non racist authoritarian faction.

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TBH while amusing I don't believe that people are going to give the "Psychobitch" any actual leadership role, she may have shown wit and the occasional cunning moment (like her "Birdcage lung plot", "keeping quiet about her Tinkertech knoife" etc)

Hookies crew still pretty much see her as a retarded puppy with a severe learning disability.

 

[Amberion]

It's interesting that people are calling Taylor a Solar. She isn't. She's a parahuman. If anything, her shard is a Solar.

 

[Waterfly]

It's interesting that people are calling Taylor a Solar. She isn't. She's a parahuman. If anything, her shard is a Solar.

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My working theory is that her shard is emulating exaltation for her. So she's a Solar by proxy?

With what little I know, it kind of helps making sense of Taylor's character change. In cannon her shard put some heavy influence on her, but add to that a shard's understanding of the great curse and the 180 regarding her morals gets more plausible.