Charm Learning Shard (Worm/Exalted) (COMPLETED)

[Daniel Snuts]

Jesus, bit out of the blue if I say so myself.

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Indeed, there was no foreshadowing that something terrible would happen to Taylor, such as completely failing to spot or escape an ambush.

"A friendly duel, no more, with the loser walking away free and without further harm."

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Luckily(???), eclipse caste solars also have a pact-sealing power

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If you break such an oath, you incur the wrath of heaven and suffer (pact-sealer's Essence) automatic critfails. But not right away, oh no, those critfails will hang around waiting for "the worst possible moment".

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"What do you need?"

"The time and route of Lung's Birdcage transport."

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Not having an equal-and-opposite effect would make her more able to fly, not less, since she wouldn't have to worry about range limitations of pushing off the ground and can just directly lift herself. That said clearly the DM rules otherwise so it's moot.

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Ah, didn't consider 'bootstraps' type flight. But yeah, that doesn't work because, uh, cape reasons.

Sometimes Horses Fly Approach would be my top guess if it's useable on Fenrir, but I don't think the charm allows that.

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I say that that's worth a small cookie at least. The charm does have verbiage intended to prevent you from granting flight to your buddies by having them give you a piggyback ride, but Fenrir's spiritual nature is very much 'riding beast', despite being fully sapient.

Ne, author-san, we never got soul prices for U&L. That's pretty out of the ordinary since Taylor usually uses it reflexively on all parahumans she interacts with. I assume Leet was just to stop being such a shit-tier tinker, but what was Uber's?

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You're right, it completely slipped my mind while writing. I might go back and edit something in.

As hilarious as the Brian-o-vision epilogue was, why did Lisa not get Taylor's mastered minion Aisha to do that instead?

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Because when Lisa asks herself "who can I get to do stuff for me?" she thinks of the Undersiders first and foremost (but mostly because it's funnier this way).

 

[OldSpartan]

Damn, I didn't catch that Taylor actually broke the oath she made to Lung. Hopefully she doesn't go around breaking anymore oaths.

And yeah, I believe that Sophia expected Taylor's rapists to kill her when they were done. Even if they didn't, it isn't like Sophia expects Taylor to actually know that she is actually Shadow Stalker. So Sophia expects that Taylor, if she survived, wouldn't be able to get back at her in her civilian identity. And attacking a Ward lethally is also a dangerous game to play. I don't expect that there will be a big fight over this though. Most likely, Sophia disappears mysteriously in the coming days. Hard to stop a wolf that can track you invisibly and a shapeshifter that can pick parahumans out from a crowd.

Edit: Also, that got really dark. Glad that Taylor at least has Lisa there to help her pull through.

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

Man, this chapter probably means there will be no Shakespearean romantic hijinks in search of powers, like the way things were shaping up with Luke. And.. if there is, it'll be more grim than derp, pure manipulation-5.

 

[space turtle]

Well fuck.
Shit got real bad real fast.
I don't know if Tay being up and moving around is worse than her going catatonic.
Hopefully collateral casualties are kept to a minimum….

 

[ses]

Ah, didn't consider 'bootstraps' type flight. But yeah, that doesn't work because, uh, cape reasons.

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It's funny because the E88 has a cape, Crusader, that flies through that exact method.

Changing my Glory Girl guess to Adamant Skin Technique btw. I'll even go for the extra large cookie and predict the Temperance Flaw of Invulnerability to make it unusable against GG's master aura.

That would be because she's stark naked and covered in blood from head to toe, and - fairly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but someone also wrote 'NAZI' on her forehead with a marker pen. There are indeed ABB people here, three of them to be precise. But I don't need to worry about them, because they're where the blood came from. I quickly avert my eyes from the gruesome sight, but my power goes off regardless, telling me things I didn't need to-

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I'm surprised this didn't go with the full Inglorious Basterds reference with a knife carved swastika rather than marker pen. It could have even been a hortler to create a brick joke from earlier in the fic.

 

[ruryrury]

I know it was announced as a "grimderp work" from the beginning, but I never imagined it would be this direction.
I liked the somewhat messy but cheerful atmosphere of this story, so this sudden change of direction killed my joy sadly.
I've had a lot of fun in your works. I hope you will continue to write great stories in the future.
Thank you for all the time.

 

[Edifier]

So in a way both Leet and Uber being Gibbed and failing the Shadow stalker encounter are both the consequences of breating the exalted oath Taylor made.
Tho I wasn't aware she had such a power. I suppose that's part of the dragon package.

 

[ses]

So in a way both Leet and Uber being Gibbed and failing the Shadow stalker encounter are both the consequences of breating the exalted oath Taylor made.
Tho I wasn't aware she had such a power. I suppose that's part of the dragon package.

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There's no way Uber getting gibbed was due to the wrath of Heaven. Taylor didn't fail at anything to cause it to happen.

She's only at 1 botch out of 3 by missing the Awareness check. Maybe it could be argued that she burned a botch on the Resistance check considering her Ox-Body charm, but I doubt it. Sophia's tranqs are rated for Brutes and Ox-Body is a fairly weak Brute rating even though it's good against poisons. If the resistance check had been Heaven's punishment she wouldn't have woken up in time to fight against the rapists. Same argument with Fenrir losing the fight against her: probably just a case of SS managing to win a fight on her own merits at that point.

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

There's no way Uber getting gibbed was due to the wrath of Heaven. Taylor didn't fail at anything to cause it to happen.

She's only at 1 botch out of 3 by missing the Awareness check. Maybe it could be argued that she burned a botch on the Resistance check considering her Ox-Body charm, but I doubt it. Sophia's tranqs are rated for Brutes and Ox-Body is a fairly weak Brute rating even though it's good against poisons. If the resistance check had been Heaven's punishment she wouldn't have woken up in time to fight against the rapists. Same argument with Fenrir losing the fight against her: probably just a case of SS managing to win a fight on her own merits at that point.

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Wasn't the outcome of the attempt to resist the drugs the worst one possible for Taylor? A success would have been "didn't pass out" or perhaps "woke up before being assaulted", failure encompassed everything after that, but what Taylor got was "unconscious long enough to be raped repeatedly, but not unconscious long enough for them to stop doing it while she woke up".

That seems to fit the terms of the charm, and that Taylor woke up and (predictably) immediately created a bloody disaster only made the whole thing worse for Taylor in the long run, and the rapists being fought and killed didn't matter to the charm because they had already meted out punishment on the oath-breaker. That could be the three crit-fails: trying to avoid ambush, trying to resist tinkertech drugs, trying to maintain composure upon waking up mid-gang-rape.

...

If Taylor keeps stacking these traumas, she's gonna need to find a charm for fixing them.

 

[ses]

Wasn't the outcome of the attempt to resist the drugs the worst one possible for Taylor? A success would have been "didn't pass out" or perhaps "woke up before being assaulted", failure encompassed everything after that, but what Taylor got was "unconscious long enough to be raped repeatedly, but not unconscious long enough for them to stop doing it while she woke up".

That seems to fit the terms of the charm, and that Taylor woke up and (predictably) immediately created a bloody disaster only made the whole thing worse for Taylor in the long run, and the rapists being fought and killed didn't matter to the charm because they had already meted out punishment on the oath-breaker. That could be the three crit-fails: trying to avoid ambush, trying to resist tinkertech drugs, trying to maintain composure upon waking up mid-gang-rape.

...

If Taylor keeps stacking these traumas, she's gonna need to find a charm for fixing them.

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You make a fair point, I was mostly convinced by the line in liso-o-vision "She was drugged. Brute powers let her regain consciousness earlier than expected, while they were still-" but since ox-body is just extra health levels it could be argued that Tattletale's conclusions aren't incompatible with botching the Resistance roll. I absolutely refuse to buy Taylor's reaction on waking up not being all natural however. I'm pretty sure oathbreaking doesn't even apply to virtue rolls for one thing, and for another it's perfectly in-character. There's just no way to count to three here. Yeah maybe Fenrir botching his dodge right at the end but I just don't see three botches when it's perfectly believable that this could have all happened with only one. Part of the whole "worst possible moment" thing is that it's a moment where that crit-fail leads to something terrible happening, it generally doesn't need 3 critfails in a row for something terrible to happen to you otherwise the critfails would have picked higher impact moments instead. 1 terrible thing happening per critfail is the exchange rate, not one-third.

 

[Alucard 109]

You make a fair point, I was mostly convinced by the line in liso-o-vision "She was drugged. Brute powers let her regain consciousness earlier than expected, while they were still-" but since ox-body is just extra health levels it could be argued that Tattletale's conclusions aren't incompatible with botching the Resistance roll. I absolutely refuse to buy Taylor's reaction on waking up not being all natural however. I'm pretty sure oathbreaking doesn't even apply to virtue rolls for one thing, and for another it's perfectly in-character. There's just no way to count to three here. Yeah maybe Fenrir botching his dodge right at the end but I just don't see three botches when it's perfectly believable that this could have all happened with only one. Part of the whole "worst possible moment" thing is that it's a moment where that crit-fail leads to something terrible happening, it generally doesn't need 3 critfails in a row for something terrible to happen to you otherwise the critfails would have picked higher impact moments instead. 1 terrible thing happening per critfail is the exchange rate, not one-third.

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To be fair, more than one terrible thing happened in that span. Shadow stalker did also learn her identity, after all

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

You make a fair point, I was mostly convinced by the line in liso-o-vision "She was drugged. Brute powers let her regain consciousness earlier than expected, while they were still-" but since ox-body is just extra health levels it could be argued that Inference Engine's conclusions aren't incompatible with botching the Resistance roll. I absolutely refuse to buy Taylor's reaction on waking up not being all natural however. I'm pretty sure oathbreaking doesn't even apply to virtue rolls for one thing, and for another it's perfectly in-character. There's just no way to count to three here. Yeah maybe Fenrir botching his dodge right at the end but I just don't see three botches when it's perfectly believable that this could have all happened with only one. Part of the whole "worst possible moment" thing is that it's a moment where that crit-fail leads to something terrible happening, it generally doesn't need 3 critfails in a row for something terrible to happen to you otherwise the critfails would have picked higher impact moments instead. 1 terrible thing happening per critfail is the exchange rate, not one-third.

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To be fair, more than one terrible thing happened in that span. Shadow stalker did also learn her identity, after all

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That's what I theorize as well.

Botch number one betrayed Taylor to the mercy of a personal enemy with a hateful heart.
Botch number two allowed Taylor to both be gang-raped and wake up at the worst possible time.

For the third botch, I point to what Lisa's power said when she saw the scene:

Marks around their throats - held down by telekinesis and repeatedly stabbed. Mixed stab wounds, both direct telekinesis and knife. Kept stabbing after they died.

-things I probably did need to know, because they relate to Taylor's mental state. That would be the knife she is still clutching, unsurprisingly also covered in blood. Blood doesn't stick to the edge. Edge is not metal. Tinkertech. She drops the phone - taken from one of the corpses - when she sees me, but keeps hold of the knife. She doesn't say anything.

"Hey," I say softly as I walk closer - but not too close, because the way she's more interested in holding on to that knife than covering herself up is concerning. "Let's get out of here, yeah? I've got a car."

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Botch #3 was on Taylor's attempt to process and respond to the traumatic situation she woke up in, the failure being that she went and made it all much, much worse, because now she created a lurid crime scene with her DNA on it, and remembers herself stab-stab-stabbity-stabbing the shit out of several people, both alive and dead, leaving her naked and covered in human blood.

Edit: mind you, I don't think that's an unnatural response, but from the range of responses Taylor could have had it was among the worst for her.

 

[Daniel Snuts]

I rule that your familiar is part of your character sheet, and that Heaven's punishment may thus apply to it as well. The three botches were Taylor's spot check, Fenrir's spot check (he has the spirit charm version of sorcerer's sight, higher Perception and higher Awareness), and Fenrir's counterattack (didn't realize that she phased her bolts into shadow-state, so going immaterial to dodge wouldn't work).

The Brute powers Lisa picked up on are part of the standard exalt package - they have -2 difficulty to resist drugs/poisons compared to mortals. Not enough to just shrug off a Brute-rated tranquilizer, but enough to throw off the expected incapacitation period.

 

[Rerororororororororo]

Indeed, there was no foreshadowing that something terrible would happen to Taylor, such as completely failing to spot or escape an ambush.

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Thought she was going to lose an arm, have Fenrir killed or get outed. Very rarely are characters raped and it wasn't really the tone of the story. Though I did not realize that Taylor broke a pact against lung.

 

[ses]

Thought she was going to lose an arm, have Fenrir killed or get outed. Very rarely are characters raped and it wasn't really the tone of the story. Though I did not realize that Taylor broke a pact against lung.

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Let's be real here Fenrir getting killed would be so much worse than what actually happened.

 

[Alucard 109]

Let's be real here Fenrir getting killed would be so much worse than what actually happened.

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Plus, there's no way Sophia hasn't seen John Wick

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

So ... did Good Guy Simurgh try to do Taylor a solid by sending her a nice normal guy to fool around with before her ass received its fated spanking? Ballistic's Simurgh hallucination warned her it was coming, albeit in the typically cryptic verbiage of a blind seer.

Plus, there's no way Sophia hasn't seen John Wick

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John Wick was released in 2014; the Current Year is 2011.

 

[lurkinglurker]

So ... did Good Guy Simurgh try to do Taylor a solid by sending her a nice normal guy to fool around with before her ass received its fated spanking? Ballistic's Simurgh hallucination warned her it was coming, albeit in the typically cryptic verbiage of a blind seer.

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Ziz is a great wingman to bring with you on barcrawls. You just have to know how to listen well, since she's a bit socially reclusive and awkward when talking to others.
Even as Taylor gets her ass pounded by fate (and some assorted youth club members) Simmo is lining up Daddy and his allegedly-nonsexual group of "very good friends" to come and hook up with Taylor for a playdate under the supervision of one of Simmo's younger brothers who between them are world class experts at drinks and grilling.
I'm going to guess that it's not Leviathan like in Classic Worms but instead Behemoth at the Orichalcum Lab up in Canada using his energy-zap-pew-pew-kinesis to overcharge the solar array and forge himself a giant suit of armor.
Yeah he might not have the Charms for it normally but he can fake normal gold being unreasonably damn tough by holding the electrons of the metal in place and perhaps giving it just a little tickle so it has a proper golden glowing radiance to wow anyone watching. Same for the crafting, kinetic energy is energy too.

 

[GiantAnteater]

That was dark. Seems like that Limit Break timer just got extended, hard - and Contessa has had nothing to do with that, of course. Real shame, too, I was looking forward to see the author's take on sane Taylor engaging in normal, non-psychopathic human interactions once she moves past the acute trauma of her trigger event.

 

[goricnac]

Yikes, ok so murderizing sophia, i guess the only question is whether or not Taylor brings forth accusations to justify the killing or does it in a throwaway identity to avoid blowback, depends on how much she wants to hurt the heroes

 

[Daniel Snuts]

Aegis stands up to confront Shadow Stalker when she enters the common room.

"You're late," he says.

"Yeah well excuse me for being jumped by Low Key on my way to work."

"An unprovoked attack? By an Empire cape, outside their territory? That's not their M.O."

"Fuck their M.O., that bitch has it out for me!"

He shakes his head. "You went after her, didn't you? Into Empire territory, on your own."

"I'm fucking telling you she went after me."

"And I'm calling you a liar."

"What are you, a spic nazi sympathizer?"

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that. Look, we all know you hold a grudge over the ha-"

"Don't fucking talk about my hand! My hand is fine!" She tries to push past him - and when he doesn't budge, turns into shadow and passes right through.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Gonna take a piss. Why, did you want to watch?"

"This conversation isn't over," he says, but he makes no further move to stop her from leaving.

"Careful," Clockblocker says. "You might get jumped by nazis if you go on your own."

"Suck my dick!" She throws a middle finger over her shoulder.

She strides down the corridor and enters the men's room without hesitation - startling Kid Win, who is washing his hands in there.

"Wha- Sophia?"

Another finger is all the communication she offers as she walks past him and enters the furthest stall. Locking the door behind her, she activates the scanner in her mask and checks the floor. She doesn't spot any electrical wiring below her, and so turns into shadow and falls through. The room she lands in is dark, but the warmth, soft humming and smattering of blinkenlights identifies it as a server room.

"I'm in," I say. "But which machine do I stick the dongle in?"

"Do they have labels?" Lisa asks. "Describe them to me."

Shadow Stalker takes out a flashlight and starts looking around.

"Any alarms?" I ask. I don't really pretend to understand how the computer stuff works, but apparently she has hacked the PRT enough to be able to tell when an alarm goes off, but needs me to stick the dongle in the right machine in order to hack them more? Something like that.

"None so far. They don't have any cameras in the server room, and I guess your act passed muster."

Spoiler: Clockblocker-o-vision

"What's taking her so long?" Carlos asks rhetorically.

"Maybe she was jumped by nazis in there after all," I suggest.

He just shoots me a look. "If she was in a fight, she might be hiding injuries. Missy, could you go to the ladies' room and check on her?"

"Actually she went to the men's room," Chris says.

"What, why?"

"She didn't say."

"She did tell me to suck her dick," I muse. "Do you think she maybe-"

"I'll go check on her," Carlos announces, rather than engage in this line of conversation.

"Would you still do her if she was packing?" Chris steps up to the plate in his stead.

"I dunno. Are we talking 'secretly a man all along' or, like, Case 53 girl-dick?"

"Whatever helps you rationalize your decisions."

"I mean... yeah, I'd probably suck her girl-dick if she reciprocated."

"Gay."

"What, no. I'm not gay. C'mon man, we just established it was a girl dick."

"Sucking a dick is still pretty gay, bro."

"I'm leaving," Missy announces.

"No wait," I call after her. "We need your female perspective to settle the argument: Would you suck a girl-dick?"

"No, because I'm not gay."

"Uh, which side of the argument does that support?" Chris asks. But she has already left without elaborating.

"Are we there yet?" I ask for the third time.

"34%" Lisa answers, steadfastly refusing to be annoyed. "Oh crap, that's the alarm. Get out there and cause a ruckus, distract them while the download finishes."

"Can do."

"If I could shoot one person on my way out, who would it be?" Shadow Stalker asks herself. Never let it be said that I'm not a magnanimous host. Or, well, it's more like she's the host. Never let it be said that I'm not a magnanimous parasite?

"Aegis. No, Piggy. Aegis wouldn't really mind." She answers the instant I cede control of her vocal cords. No struggling, no pleading. Whatever else you might say about her, the girl certainly has her priorities in order (one of the other things I might say is 'are you my long-lost half-sister?', because I did not think this level of fucked up occurred naturally).

"Who's 'Piggy'?" I ask.

"PRT Director Emily Piggot?" Lisa suggests.

Yeah, that'd cause a ruckus alright. And I do have instructions to thoroughly burn her bridges with the heroes before the day is over. Looks like everyone can get what they want, how nice.

"It's going to be such a pain to start over when they find the device and change up all their security," Lisa grumbles, because some people are just born grouchy. She was the one who wanted to double-hack the PRT in the first place!

"How do I get to the director's office?" I ask the sourpuss, gesturing towards the map on the table.

Spoiler: Regent-o-vision

...was what that entire thing was. But you figured that out already, didn't you? But did you figure it out early, or did you assume that I had come down with amateur-writer-itis and forgotten which perspective I was supposed to be using?

I'm sure you can also figure out roughly what happened between the last chapter and now, but let's go back to second person, and back in time...

---

So what did Shadow Stalker do after leaving you in that alley? She went home and went to bed. You don't know if she expected you to get your throat cut before waking up, or if it simply never occurred to her that you might know her identity, and that the address of one Sophia Hess is publicly available.

Fenrir reports that Sophia is asleep and the house is otherwise empty, so you just pick the lock and let him lead you to her room. Her costume and gear is just sitting there out in the open. Or rather it's tucked into a gym bag, which is just sitting there out in the open. But then she is a Ward, isn't she? Her parents already know.

It certainly makes things convenient for you, as you just grab one of her tranquilizer bolts and stab her with it. The effect isn't quite instant - she has time to startle awake from the pain, and see who is leaning over her. You're wearing a throwaway face in case anyone spots you around her house, but you also brought one of your spare Low Key masks that you put on before stabbing her, for exactly this moment. Her expression as she realizes what is happening is everything you could have hoped for.

She can't cry out, because your hand is over her mouth. But she can turn into shadow and fall through the bed - and right into the mind-hands you deployed underneath it to catch her.

"Excellent reflexes," you compliment her as you drag her out, but she's already unconscious, and solid once more.

With that taken care of, you pack up a bunch of her clothes and personal effects - she is running away from home, after all. Oho, what's this tucked away in the back a drawer? Broadhead crossbow bolts? You're pretty sure heroes aren't supposed to use lethal ordnance like that. Naughty, naughty.

You also go through her equipment with sorcerer's sight and industry and forge wisdom. Two tinkertech crossbows - one spare for when the other is getting maintenance, you guess. Some sort of scanner built into the mask, and some light armor integrated in the costume. No tracking devices. Well, the comm gear can probably be tracked, it'll have to go. You toss it under the bed.

With the gear sorted out, you turn back to the parahuman. You brought a bag of your own, one large enough to fit a teenage girl, if properly folded. You didn't bother with padding, so perhaps she gets a bit banged up as you drag everything out into the street and get it loaded into your freshly stolen car (can't use mind-hands in public, have to use your Brute 0 muscles). But that's not exactly a downside, is it?

Your destination is another abandoned property, that Lisa identified as having suitable criteria for the next step. She promised she'd have a more permanent place for you by tonight, for a suitably hefty commission.

You didn't try to haggle. 'By tonight' is ridiculously fast for this kind of thing, but Lisa clearly has all the best shady contacts, and you shouldn't be too surprised that people who own real estate in Brockton Bay would be willing to work weekends and cut corners to move it.

---

Alec stops in the doorway and takes in the scene before him. His eyes move from the materialized Fenrir, to the unconscious Sophia held in the wolf's jaws, to you. He raises one elegant eyebrow.

"She took what I said about getting invited to the good parties to heart," is all he says.

"I heard you were in the market for slave puppets," you say, your tone equally casual. "I have a Shadow Stalker I'd be willing to lease at reasonable rates."

"That's her? And you're..." He considers the situation for a moment. "It takes several hours to make a puppet, and she needs to be awake - and restrained - for a good part of it."

"Magic shadow-biting wolf teeth."

"Ah, that makes sense. I'll just get started, then."

You nod, and take your leave. As much as you'd like to stay and watch his power at work, you have things you need to do. While your mind-hands and Fenrir's teeth can both hold her shadow form in place, and Alec will be able to puppeteer her soon enough, it would be unreasonable to expect the three of you to sleep in shifts forevermore. No, you're going to have to smith a set of shadow-binding restraints.

You consider the pile of materials Fenrir fetched before he materialized. You've been lax about gathering reagents lately, but this is the last of your orichalcum anyway. You should be able to salvage enough rare earths from Leet's leftovers to make do. You reach for the paper slips...

Spoiler: Sutra of the Hunting Maiden

Once there was a maiden...
...who considered herself a predator.
She declared that to a predator, all the world was prey.
For years she hunted as she pleased, until one day she made a mistake.
What she thought was a sheep, turned out to be a wolf hiding beneath a sheepskin!
The wolf devoured every part of her, until not a single speck was left.
"This just proves me right, you know," she said with her last breath.

It's a simple enough enchantment, all you need to do is to make it solid in the immaterial realm. You have less than a kilogram of orichalcum to work with, but the nice thing about indestructible materials is that you can make them as thin as you want. Let's see, a pair of manacles, connected to a neck shackle, and a generous length of chain that can be looped around a pillar or otherwise attached to the environment. No locks or clasps, you'll attune it to yourself so you can fuse it closed with a touch. Get that vial of Aisha's blood (foresight!) and work it in, so your minion can do the same in your place.

You didn't get any blood from Alec, but you are after all leasing, not selling. A sudden scream from the other room tells you that Sophia just woke up and found out about the magic shadow-biting wolf teeth. Hm, yes. You etch a second set of circuits into the throat shackle, that can be activated to prevent the wearer from making any noise. The whole point of it is to let people sleep, after all.

Even after the artifact itself is done you keep working, carefully coating everything in a thick layer of rubbery black plastic. Can't have anyone spotting that golden glow, because there's no way an upstanding citizen like Smith would ever get mixed up in business this unsavory. You even make a little box full of tinkertech circuitry (also salvaged from Leet's stuff) and attach it to the neck shackle. Literally the only thing it does is make a red LED on the outside blink once per second when the shackle is closed, but it serves to further hide its nature.

With that done you finally let the paper strips burn away, and catch the finished restraints as they fall out of the air. There hasn't been any screaming for a while now, which means that Alec is probably done as well.

Sophia is giving him a shoulder massage when you return, which indicates that this is indeed the case.

"I like it," she says. Or he does, through her mouth. "How much did you want for it?"

"One thing at a time. First she needs to betray her comrades, and become a fugitive villain."

"I like the way you think."

---

Spoiler: Armsmaster-o-vision

"Will Piggy- will Director Piggot be alright?" Kid Win asks.

"Her condition is still critical," I say.

"Can't you have Panacea-"

"The director has apparently signed a form refusing all parahuman treatment, even in life-threatening situations."

"What?" Vista exclaims. "Why?"

"She has not chosen to share her reasoning with me. However, we are here to discuss Shadow Stalker." I look around at the assembled Wards (and Triumph, who is here because he was the Ward leader when Shadow Stalker was recruited). "Tell me what happened today."

They relate what happened, little as it is, from her arrival until they discovered her missing.

"She said she was attacked?" I ask. "By an E88 cape?" It's an obvious red flag: Cape gets waylaid while alone, later attacks her allies due to post-hypnotic command - but the E88 doesn't have that kind of Master, nor does it fit their M.O. More likely she was simply lying, trying to direct our attention away from whoever her real paymaster is. Probably Coil, it wouldn't be the first time he tried to sneak an agent into the PRT.

"Yeah," Aegis says. "We didn't really believe her, though. We thought maybe she had gone looking for trouble on her own, but..."

"Everyone knows she was freaking out over the hand thing," Clockblocker chimes in.

I nod. She had even gone so far as to track down and confront Panacea over it. Panacea's report on the matter was admirably succinct: "It's psychosomatic. I don't do brains."

"Do we know what she was after?" Aegis asks. "I mean, if she only wanted to shoot P- the director, she could have gone straight to her office."

"Yes. We discovered that the secure mainframe was tampered with, and forensic data analysis indicates that her co-conspirators were able to download the entire PRT database. Including the confidential, secret and top secret sections."

"The entire- our names are in there!" Kid Win says.

"Yes. It's the worst data breach in the history of the institution." I'm personally more worried about the information on the security measures of the various containment zones throughout the country. Everyone knows that the response to breaking the unwritten rules is swift and terrible, but if some fool were to get it into their heads to poke at Nilbog...

"I can't believe she'd do this to us," Clockblocker mutters.

"She may have been coerced, or-" Aegis starts to say.

"Oh please," Vista interrupts him. "Are we really pretending that she wasn't an awful person? How many times did she violate her parole but was let off with nothing but a warning, if that?"

"None that I am aware of," I say sternly. "Triumph? Aegis?"

"Uh, I'm not saying it never happened, but-"

"Maybe once or twice, but-"

"Twenty-three times that I'm aware of," Vista interrupts them again. Lie. I'm taken aback as my lie detector pings for the first time during the briefing. Has Vista been compromised as well?

"Look, we all know you two didn't get along," Aegis says. Truth. "Now you claim to know that number off-hand-"

"I don't," Vista bites out. "I reviewed my diary prior to this meeting, because I knew it contained relevant information. Some of us are fucking professionals." Truth.

"It wasn't twenty-three times," I say.

Vista looks at her feet. "Twenty-six if you count the times I was the only witness and didn't tell anyone." Truth.

 

[Edifier]

O god, this is awesome!

 

[gustyeagle]

Spoiler: Armsmaster-o-vision

"Twenty-three times that I'm aware of," Vista interrupts them again. Lie. I'm taken aback as my lie detector pings for the first time during the briefing. Has Vista been compromised as well?

"Look, we all know you two didn't get along," Aegis says. Truth. "Now you claim to know that number off-hand-"

"I don't," Vista bites out. "I reviewed my diary prior to this meeting, because I knew it contained relevant information. Some of us are fucking professionals." Truth.

"It wasn't twenty-three times," I say.

Vista looks at her feet. "Twenty-six if you count the times I was the only witness and didn't tell anyone." Truth.

Click to shrink...

What is this amateur hour? Why would you leave evidence of her own lawbreaking?

 

[ses]

Does this mean that Taylor has Sophia's soul price as long as she keeps her from being caught and sent to prison?

Sophia wants to be able to leave the Wards without going to prison.

Click to shrink...

 

[eeda]

Wow Taylor just make vengance an form of art

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

Lisa sighs. "I don't suppose there's any way I could talk you into a course of action that won't immediately land you in the Birdcage?"

"I don't know, Thinker. Is there?"

Click to shrink...

Poor Lisa, knowingly manipulated into providing Taylor with some sort of "fate worse than death" for Sophia, so Taylor won't go out and faceplant herself into the American legal-judicial prison complex.

Sophia is giving him a shoulder massage when you return, which indicates that this is indeed the case.

"I like it," she says. Or he does, through her mouth. "How much did you want for it?"

"One thing at a time. First she needs to betray her comrades, and become a fugitive villain."

"I like the way you think."

Click to shrink...

And soon she'll have to live with the weird in-house.

 

[Zxzx24]

Well that was entirely unsatisfying. Hopefully were building up to something.

With the gear sorted out, you turn back to the parahuman. You brought a bag of your own, one large enough to fit a teenage girl, if properly folded. You didn't bother with padding, so perhaps she gets a bit banged up as you drag everything out into the street and get it loaded into your freshly stolen car (can't use mind-hands in public, have to use your Brute 0 muscles). But that's not exactly a downside, is it?

Click to shrink...

You know good thing this is Brockton Bay. Otherwise someone might have felt the need to do something about this blatant kidnapping.

Once there was a maiden...
...who considered herself a predator.
She declared that to a predator, all the world was prey.
For years she hunted as she pleased, until one day she made a mistake.
What she thought was a sheep, turned out to be a wolf hiding beneath a sheepskin!
The wolf devoured every part of her, until not a single speck was left.
"This just proves me right, you know," she said with her last breath.

Click to shrink...

Indeed. She is right.

"She said she was attacked?" I ask. "By an E88 cape?" It's an obvious red flag: Cape gets waylaid while alone, later attacks her allies due to post-hypnotic command - but the E88 doesn't have that kind of Master, nor does it fit their M.O. More likely she was simply lying, trying to direct our attention away from whoever her real paymaster is. Probably Coil, it wouldn't be the first time he tried to sneak an agent into the PRT

Click to shrink...

...Wow.

He literally called every obvious red flag and then deliberately ignored them.

I have seen some amazingly stupid depictions of Armsmaster but this... this is a while new level of idiot ball.

Also insanely disappointing. Hopefully someone with a brain does something soon. Coil maybe?

"Yes. It's the worst data breach in the history of the institution." I'm personally more worried about the information on the security measures of the various containment zones throughout the country. Everyone knows that the response to breaking the unwritten rules is swift and terrible, but if some fool were to get it into their heads to poke at Nilbog...

Click to shrink...

Hah.

There are many lies in this paragraph.

Glad for the update though.

 

[Logos01]

Does this mean that Taylor has Sophia's soul price as long as she keeps her from being caught and sent to prison?

Click to shrink...

Unless it's changed since the enslavement, that's exactly what it means.

Of course, given Taylor's agenda of tearing Sophia down to the last brick, burning the bricks into ash, salting the earth of the foundations, and firing it all into the sun to die a thousand fiery deaths...

And then and only then allowing Sophia to die ...

I'd say any Loyalty that Soul's Price earns her would get used up pretty quickly.

 

[ses]

Poor Lisa, knowingly manipulated into providing Taylor with some sort of "fate worse than death" for Sophia, so Taylor won't go out and faceplant herself into the American legal-judicial prison complex.

Click to shrink...

Uh, considering Canary I don't think Lisa did anything useful on that front. Everything they did was still a Birdcageable offense and more likely to get caught than just Shoot Shovel Shut Up. In fact we know this is going to blow up because we got a content warning on promised grimderp, meaning there's only one reason SS still has a heartbeat.

You know good thing this is Brockton Bay. Otherwose someone might have felt the need to do something about this blatant kidnapping.

Click to shrink...

Blatant kidnapping? Nabbing a lone victim asleep in the dead of night isn't exactly something that requires a Stranger 8 rating. The grand theft auto was probably a riskier heist to pull off.

...Wow.

He literally called every obvious red flag and then deliberately ignored them.

I have seen some amazingly stupid depictions of Armsmaster but this... this is a while new level of idiot ball.

Also insanely disappointing. Hopefully someone with a brain does something soon. Coil maybe?

Click to shrink...

Idiot ball? Armsy is absolutely correct to see the "SS got hit by a Master 8" hypothesis to be less likely than the null hypothesis. It's certainly still possible but he's right that it's less likely than Coil. Heck, if we count the number of fanfics where SS gets mastered vs the number of fics where she actually does go villain and do exactly this sort of nonsense we can see that, let alone actual logic. Regent was doing an excellent acting job, even rereading the chapter afterwards I couldn't find any tells that the Wards could conceivably notice. Mostly due to the no-cameras-in-the-server-room thing causing the convo between regent and SS to be private.


I do agree that my lust for fictional vengeance is pretty un-fed though, this update didn't give the sort of red meat terms of enrampagement vengeance fantasy we were expecting, mostly due to lack of dialogue from SS where we can hear the lamentations. Maybe next update. Hopefully we get some before it inevitably goes tits up.

Unless it's changed since the enslavement, that's exactly what it means.

Of course, given Taylor's agenda of tearing Sophia down to the last brick, burning the bricks into ash, salting the earth of the foundations, and firing it all into the sun to die a thousand fiery deaths...

And then and only then allowing Sophia to die ...

I'd say any Loyalty that Soul's Price earns her would get used up pretty quickly.

Click to shrink...

Oh hey Taylor is two for two on black parahuman slaves now. She should totally brag about this to the guys at the bar.

 

[GAMB42]

I was not expecting a "canon rehash" of shadow stalker's puppetry. Neat and yet too neat. I would have expected a much higher and more volcanic reaction. On the other hand Taylor is going full on exalted/psycho crazy so there is that...

This chapter was a bit too rushed from an narrative perspective, though it fucks up Sophia in all the worse ways and now Taylor is pretty much free to disappear her completely. Neverthereless seemed like a rushed chapter truth be told.

At the rates thinks are going I'm just waiting for even more horrible things to happen to horrible people, including Taylor, and for some long term direction since the fic seems without an long term narrative goal. Sure there is the whole E88/racisist/fascist plothook but that seems more like a "red herring" than anything else (if Taylor stays with E88 after she gets all their cape's powers then I'll change my opinion). As it is Taylor is a straightup sociopath who "imitate" her surroundings & colleagues in her search for more powers. She literally does not care about anything else.