Charm Learning Shard (Worm/Exalted) (COMPLETED)

[Saltade]

...Just had a thought. Given how the author is all about "following" the stations of canon to subvert them...10 bucks says Taytay joins the S9 to study their powers and also maybe because she gets really pissed about Siberian not being readable to her powers (she doesn't know it's a projection obviously) and is determined to acquire her.

 

[Stanley_Jeb]

The rape was completely glossed over as anything but an excuse to act out. As I figured following the standard mary sue formula.

Click to shrink...

I gotta agree, this is odd to begin with. Because it's Shadow Stalker. She deserved to get fucked over anyway.
Then again, I suppose it was representing a crit fumble, but with how little it's being explored I do get the feeling that maybe you're right and this, strictly speaking, doesn't actually represent the worst time for a crit fumble.

 

[ses]

I gotta agree, this is odd to begin with. Because it's Shadow Stalker. She deserved to get fucked over anyway.
Then again, I suppose it was representing a crit fumble, but with how little it's being explored I do get the feeling that maybe you're right and this, strictly speaking, doesn't actually represent the worst time for a crit fumble.

Click to shrink...

Or, and hear me out here. This is crazy but it might be a thing... the author was willing to include rape as a topic but wasn't willing to go into graphic rape porn? We see Taylor is in fact traumatized at multiple points through the update. She literally flinches every time Sophia shows up unexpectedly.

 

[NotaWriter]

I feel stupid, but I don't get the name BITN.

The rape was sort of glossed over, but it has been repeatedly been shown Taylor was mentally fucked up by her powers, so I sort of found it in character that she would deal with it in the short term, though I expect consequences in the longer term.

That said the real problem for me is that Taylor is kind of becoming a character to cheer against rather than a true protagonist.
I mean what Sophia did was beyond the pale, but if you can't or won't retaliate legally, kill her and be done with it. Enslavement and torture are a bit much, IMO
Also, I can't believe I'm writing it, but poor Emma. I hope her breakdown forces her parents to give her the help she needs

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

Emma doesn't even try to get up. She just starts crying, great heaving sobs. Mm. It's so- she's- you grab Sophia around the waist and squeeze, hard. You don't know what to do with all these feelings.

Sophia nudges Emma with a foot. "Scurry, scurry," she says. Emma does just that, scrambling away on all fours for a while before she manages to get her legs under her.

"Wow," Sophia/Alec says once she's gone. "We destroyed that girl. She's probably gonna go kill herself now, if I'm any judge." She looks down at how you're still squeezing her, a smile quirking her lips. "Did that turn you on?"

You quickly let go of her and step away. Did it? Is that what you- "It's complicated," you say.

Click to shrink...

Oh my! Imagine if the Empire found out Low Key was perving on a black girl.

"You don't understand, she was really a white boy!"
"We don't do trans either."
"It's not like that! She was literally being piloted like a meat suit by a Caucasian male!"
"Didn't we already have this discussion about lolicon cartoons claiming to be a thousand years old?"

Sometimes you really wish you were a worse person, because then you could identify a threat like that and simply eliminate it without remorse. This is the second time you escape his notice through nothing but pure dumb luck.

Click to shrink...

Is that the sound of a gun being cocked?

You materialize your knife and step into her personal space. Without charging it, you place the tip just below her left eye, and carefully cut a shallow line down her cheek.

"That stings, you know," she says calmly.

"Hush." You position the knife for another cut.

"That's kinda fucked up," Aisha says (the note wasn't time travel, you realize). "I mean, I guess we're already kidnapping and enslaving her, but still."

Oh right, you never told her what Sophia did to earn this treatment. You rectify that.

Aisha is silent for a while, mulling things over. "...give me the knife," she says eventually. You do, and she cuts a matching line down Sophia's right cheek.

Click to shrink...

Judging by Alec's comment, they really got into it. Swastikas? Hortlers?

"Bee Eye Tee Enn," you enunciate. "It's an acronym. See if you can figure it out, Imp."

Click to shrink...

Bitches In The Nude
Bring In The New
Brockton Is Totally Nuts

 

[ses]

Oh my! Imagine if the Empire found out Low Key was perving on a black girl.

"You don't understand, she was really a white boy!"
"We don't do trans either."
"It's not like that! She was literally being piloted like a meat suit by a Caucasian male!"
"Didn't we already have this discussion about lolicon cartoons claiming to be a thousand years old?"

Click to shrink...

Please please please author add yet another incident to the list of hilarious misunderstandings about Taylor's sexuality. She honestly deserves this one.

Is that the sound of a gun being cocked?

Click to shrink...

I heard it too, but I don't see any gun except that one hanging above the fireplace...



Also, it's time to make Charm guesses. Sophia I can't imagine not being Seven Shadow Evasion (Valor flaw). That said it would put yet another wrench in my attempts to guess Glory Girl's charm, since two perfect defenses would be a tad redundant.

As for Regent, we have all sorts of Master effects to choose from. I'm specifically dis-guessing Hypnotic Tongue Technique, since that's obviously Valefor's charm. The most obvious place to look is Swillin's charm tree, specifically Will-Crushing Force. That's currently my guess. Other options include Impose Motivation from the Sid charms, and as a wild dark horse candidate I'd also bring up the possibility of Hollow Mind Possession for the sake of interacting with Dragon. There's a lot of Master effects among Exalted charms and it's hard to narrow down.

 

[Rask]

That said it would put yet another wrench in my attempts to guess Glory Girl's charm, since two perfect defenses would be a tad redundant.

Click to shrink...

My guess is Majestic Radiant Presence, because aura.

 

[Zxzx24]

It's been what two? three? chapters since it happened.

Yes the author skimmed over it here. And you condemn him for following the mary sue formula. If the author had belabored the event and explained in detail to Aisha why do I suspect you'd declare that too a part of the mary sue formula?

Click to shrink...

My secret is that I will literally never be happy.

Though this came close. Almost.

 

[Frakir's brother]

Also, it's time to make Charm guesses. Sophia I can't imagine not being Seven Shadow Evasion (Valor flaw). That said it would put yet another wrench in my attempts to guess Glory Girl's charm, since two perfect defenses would be a tad redundant

Click to shrink...

Could be the Ebon Dragon dodge. Weakness to Holy translates from Weakness to electricity well.

 

[omni001]

Still just really loving the Sutra's,

No idea what BITN is supposed to mean, was hoping it'd was the RWBY naming convention at first.

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

The rape was completely glossed over as anything but an excuse to act out. As I figured following the standard mary sue formula.

Click to shrink...

Give it some time. Once Taylor settles into a routine with the new side hustle, she can hire Alec to provide her with a particularly aggressive form of behavioral therapy, so her real first time with Luke isn't ruined by cold feet or flashbacks.

 

[space turtle]

Bump In The Night!!

Its time to get spooky yo!!


Also. Please have Taylor's not timetravel knowledge get wiped along with knowledge of Imp.
I want her to keep thinking it and decide it's some kind of fucked up groundhog time looping where every time she fucks up, she starts back over with an extra note from herself

 

[OldSpartan]

Wow, glad Taylor remembered Gallant. Totally forgot he was the one guy who could possibly suspect something weird was going on if he was there. Just have to hopefully continue avoiding him.

 

[Zxzx24]

Wow, glad Taylor remembered Gallant. Totally forgot he was the one guy who could possibly suspect something weird was going on if he was there. Just have to hopefully continue avoiding him.

Click to shrink...

Convenient how she keeps forgetting about someone who might be a problem, but is always lucky enough to avoid him anyway.

It's almost like she has a guardian angel watching out for her.

 

[Praetrunco]

Convenient how she keeps forgetting about someone who might be a problem, but is always lucky enough to avoid him anyway.

It's almost like she has a guardian angel watching out for her.

Click to shrink...

Since that guardian angel led her to being raped and all, I'd say it has nothing to do with mary sueism and more to do with a reality-warping power that fae geas cut their jibs to match to.

On top of you know, everything else she's failed to avoid of far more consequence than Gallant, given he might not even report it anyway on account of being a piece of shit whose own girlfriend wants nothing more than for him to actually represent his moniker.

 

[Edifier]

It seems fitting when the guardian angel has the moniker of hope-killer.

I'm loving it!

 

[Daniel Snuts]

Huh, I thought the Fleeing Maiden sutra and the interaction with Imp was put there on purpose to violate his soul price due to the "Not revealing his identity" clause. I'd have ruled against Taylor if I was DMing that. (Let alone the fact that his soul price had a plural on puppets, I didn't consider that worth quibbling)

Click to shrink...

Nah, that was just some sidereal fuckery comic relief - they still don't know which family. And the revelation that a parahuman had an exceptionally terrible home life isn't remarkable or suspicious, but rather met with a shrug: "Trigger events gotta come from somewhere."

Also shouldn't Taylor know Emma is a potential information leak if Shadow Stalker rebrands as a villain in a team with another female cape? Emma knows Sophia's identity and just saw the two of them hanging out being buddies immediately as SS rebrands villain.

Click to shrink...

Indeed, it was an objectively bad idea. But the temptation of making Sophia's last encounter with Emma a perfect mirror of her first encounter with Taylor was just too great.

Or, and hear me out here. This is crazy but it might be a thing... the author was willing to include rape as a topic but wasn't willing to go into graphic rape porn? We see Taylor is in fact traumatized at multiple points through the update. She literally flinches every time Sophia shows up unexpectedly.

Click to shrink...

I gotta admit, I kinda pussied out on L.40 - it was originally intended to have more Taylor POV. But when I sat down to write it I kinda went

"..."

"..."

"...I'll write 'Lisa and the aftermath' first."

Then when I realized that Lisa's power would be sufficient to inform the audience of what happened, I decided to not dash my abilities as a writer against the rocks of 'second person limited waking up from anesthesia mid gang-rape'.

That said the real problem for me is that Taylor is kind of becoming a character to cheer against rather than a true protagonist.
I mean what Sophia did was beyond the pale, but if you can't or won't retaliate legally, kill her and be done with it. Enslavement and torture are a bit much, IMO

Click to shrink...

Making Taylor an admirable person whose actions should be emulated is not exactly the purpose of what I'm doing here. Sorry if that's what you wanted to read.

Bump In The Night!!

Click to shrink...

Yes! Have a cookie!

Speaking of cookies, I think i've only seen a single guess for Ballistic's charm so far.

 

[ses]

Yes! Have a cookie!

Speaking of cookies, I think i've only seen a single guess for Ballistic's charm so far.

Click to shrink...

Candidates:
-Unconquered Might: Pros: Maintains the idea of "Enhances mundane action to amazingly lethal destruction" that Ballistic's pebble tossing does. The fact it's not useful for offense and is a bit redundant with Charm of Lesser Unmaking could be either a pro or a con.
-Lambent Bolt of Annihilation: Pros: The effect is a perfect match for Ballistic's power. Cons: Taylor is unlikely to use a bow and arrow. Slightly too low of a training time.
-Golden Artillerist Method: This is Miss Militia's charm, not Ballistic's
-Acuity of the Far-Flung Hand: Correct training time. Is a Solar Thrown charm. Combos with Industry and Forge Wisdom, fits with Taylor's usual Thinker/Master/Tinker modus operandi. Will really piss Taylor off that none of the lethality made the jump. Cons: So redundant with Mind-Hands that honestly it's not worth it at all to include even as a joke at her expense.
-Radiant Holocaust Flare: Slightly too low training time, but we haven't seen an Abyssal charm yet and the name makes me giggle inappropriately due to the idea of it showing up in this fic.
-Maelstrom of Celestial Dominance: Similar effects to Lambent Bolt of Annhilation, both filling the roll of "Great and lethal Blaster power", I find it more likely the DM will allow Lambent Bolt to stunt on attacks not bow-and-arrow based than that the statement of "Two 40-hour-weeks" was applying to a 96 hour charm, I can believe the charm being 1 point off of the Essence 5, Ability 5 foreshadowed, but not 2.

I suppose my guess is Lambent Bolt of Annihilation. Not confident at all in it though. I just realized his charm needs to not be a dud due to Simurgh matchmaking meaning it's probably actually really good, so Acuity of the Far-Flung Hand is out, as is Unconquered Might. I want it to be Radiant Holocaust Flare though. I want Taylor to name her new charm after the Holocaust so bad I can taste it and I feel only slightly guilty for that.

EDIT: OH FUCK she's stolen SS's tinkertech crossbows. Ok it's definitely Lambent Bolt of Annihilation now that she has a good reason to have access to Archery.

 

[Rask]

Speaking of cookies, I think i've only seen a single guess for Ballistic's charm so far.

Click to shrink...

Taylor would feel so trolled if it turned out to be Generalized Ammunition Technique.
Simurgh: "Turn random small objects into projectiles? Done! Oh, you meant firing them, not transforming them into arrows?"

 

[R.A.G.]

Think Taylor fucked up there showing her face to Emma, since any investigation will pull Sophia's friends at some point.

 

[Waterfly]

Speaking of cookies, I think i've only seen a single guess for Ballistic's charm so far.

Click to shrink...

Is it exalted cookie baking? One would indeed need a mighty power to bake the perfect cookie.

 

[omni001]

Think Taylor fucked up there showing her face to Emma, since any investigation will pull Sophia's friends at some point.

Click to shrink...

Will they? The PRT always seemed willing to ignore her civilian or out of office hours before, I'd honestly be surprised if they even knew about Emma or bothered to find out about the bullying now.

Also just had an idea, Snuts said they planned to have exactly one OC for the purposes of Taylor getting a specific Charm, I wonder if that will be the Cape identity of Emma with a Vial?

 

[zapking5]

I think Taylor is totally going to go to the Birdcage, get some powers there, and then escape using Hell-Walker Technique.

 

[Daniel Snuts]

You have so much to do, you can't believe you're still going to school. You have to make costumes for BITN, and plan an appropriately villainous debut for the team - you have an idea already, but it's dependent on the power you'll get from Shadow Stalker. And you won't find out how that goes for another twelve hours or so of intense study. Alec is already complaining about the workload. Mostly for the sake of complaining, you suspect - his Loyalty isn't fraying, and it's not as if he has to do anything except turn into shadow over and over again while his main body plays video games. If anyone should be complaining about their workload it's you.

But keeping up appearances is important. There's also the fact that you'd much rather work yourself ragged and collapse into bed every night than have any time for introspection. Even so, you had to tell Luke you're too busy to see him for a while. Just as well, considering- alright, that's enough thinking about things! You have a patrol to get to.

But of course Rune is late, as usual. You should get a new patrol partner, now that you finally have her power. Some might call the result a disappointment, but you have Luke lined up to hopefully take care of the 'Blaster by way of throwing rocks at people' fun you missed out on. No, don't think about Luke. You need a distraction.

"What's even worse, the faggots or the degenerates?" Alex is saying.

"Trick question," Mike says. "Name one faggot that isn't degenerate."

"I dunno, Legend?" Steve suggests. "Married, kids... He's actually doing the bit. For-"

"How the fuck would you know that?" you demand, inserting yourself into the conversation with the grace of a stampeding elephant. "You think the heroes are telling you the truth?"

"Well, he's... uh... huh." Steve trails off, looking thoughtful.

"She's right," Mike agrees. "He's the big gay icon of the whole LGBP movement, it's not as if they would ever print the story if he got caught doing what faggots do."

"He could be getting fisted by a hundred, a hundred twenty guys every weekend and we'd never find out," Sven agrees.

"Who's to say he's not fucking his kid in the ass?" Mike says.

"Okay, stop," Sven says. "That's just gross."

"Does he even have a kid? We don't know his secret identity, we don't know," Mike says instead.

"He could be spreading the Gift to everyone he arrests," Sven speculates, despite asking Mike to stop not a moment ago.

"Guys, guys," Alex says. "You're not thinking jewy enough: What if he's straight?"

There's a moment of silence as everyone digests this.

"Wow..." Mike says.

"Hey there goy," Sven says in the nasally 'I'm impersonating a jew' voice they use around these parts. "We're gonna need a faggot in the Triumvirate, see? Eheh. Eidolon refused and, uh, frankly he's a lot scarier than you are. So, uh, just suck it up, like all the dick you're going to pretend to suck from now on."

"That poor bastard," Alex says, shaking his head.

"Don't pity him," you say rather sharply. It's not that you believe this theory, but stipulating that it's true... "A good man would have refused. What were they going to do, fire a member of the Triumvirate?"

"Probably JFK him," Sven says. "I mean, that's what happens to people who go against the jews."

"...is that what happened to Hero?" Mike asks. "I don't want to be conspiratard here, but..."

Thankfully Rune shows up at this point, and you bail on the conversation as it goes off the rails completely.

---

Like most patrols this one is peaceful - which leaves you with nothing distracting you.

"What's wrong?" Rune asks.

"Nothing."

"Uh huh. If you want to talk about it..."

"I said it's nothing!"

She backs off. Objectively speaking you really should keep escalating, get into a proper pointless screaming row, burn bridges, get a new patrol partner. But somehow you can't bring yourself to do that, not when she's showing genuine concern.

"Everything is broken and I'm trying to live in the ruins," you say after a while.

"That's America for you," Rune agrees readily, though her tone is more commiserating than flippant. "It sucks."

"No, I- never mind."

---

Just as planned you collapse into bed completely exhausted. You let out a long breath, cuddle up to Fenrir and close your eyes. You... keep it together, during the day. You enjoy your time with Sophia. You're fine. You haven't cried since the first night. Not much, and Fenrir won't tell anyone.

You sigh again and cuddle closer. Sweet, perfect Fenrir, who doesn't mind if you get gross snotty tears all over his fur when you can't keep it together any more (it all falls off when he dematerializes anyway). You don't know want to think about what you'd do without him. You haven't had any nightmares so far, and maybe that's because you're a natural-born badass, but maybe it's because you're so undeniably warm and safe sleeping next to a giant wolf.

Poor Fenrir though. You have him, but all he has is you. What have you done to deserve him lately? Less than nothing, because you're making him unhappy by visibly hurting. Wouldn't he be better off without you? A thought occurs to you as you consider the question. A terrible thought that you'd normally dismiss out of hand, but... it's all ruined anyway, isn't it? What does it matter anymore? If not him, then who?

You lie there for a while, letting the idea bounce back and forth through your head. Perhaps it's not so terrible after all.

"Hey," you whisper to Fenrir. He doesn't open his eyes, or move at all beyond twitching one ear in your direction. But you can tell that he's fully alert, hanging on to your every word. Because you are the center of his universe.

---

It feels weird that you can just look up a map of every storm drain and sewer pipe in the city, and consequently which buildings they pass underneath. You'd think that'd be the sort of information they'd want to keep out of the hands of communist spies and terrorists - or domestic villains like yourself, whatever. But you guess that would just lead to a huge headache for the civil engineers, and sufficiently motivated bad actors would just infiltrate and/or hack things anyway.

---

"What do you think?" you ask. "I'm thinking this is going to be Poltergeist beneath the mask." You're shorter than your true form, and broader across the everything. Frizzy hair and-

"Seriously?" Aisha says. "You're doing blackface?"

You shrug. Out of everything you've done, that's what she objects to? "Thought the team should match."

"It's no fun when they don't squirm," Aisha complains, pouting at your indifferent reaction. "Forgot you were a nazi for a moment there."

"I need a new voice too..." you muse.

---

"Got it," you say. "We're done."

Alec doesn't react, focused on his video game, but Ghost holds her hand up for a high five. You stand up and move to return it, but just as your palms are about to connect, you turn into shadow. Tendrils of liquid darkness curl through the air and flow around her body before coming together and reforming behind her. You even manage to turn around while it's happening, so you end up still facing her - poised to strike, if this was a fight.

Ghost stands there with her arm in the air for a second before turning around. "Can't even be mad at being left hanging," he/she says, shaking her head. "So that's how you do your thing?"

"Yeah. I'll want Regent's power as well, later. But this will do for now."

"How many powers do even you have?"

"A dozen or so," you say, keeping things vague not out of distrust, but just to avoid having to explain the edge cases.

"Must have taken forever. Never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad I'm not the OP power-stealing Trump here." She pauses briefly, tilting her head to the side. "Well, I guess technically I steal their powers along with the rest of their bodies..."

You nod absently, your mind elsewhere. The 'pass through and hit them from behind' maneuver came to you almost instinctively, but something about it felt off (not that you could describe the sensation to anyone else if you tried). You turn around, and try to phase through the wall into the kitchen.

Instead you sort of wash up against it for a moment (definitely can't describe that sensation), before slinking off to the side and through the door. Ah. You're formless, but not immaterial. Unfortunate. Frowning, you close the door - and then turn into shadow and flow through the keyhole. You reform in the living room without issue - you don't even think it took any longer than flowing around Ghost, despite having to squeeze your entire non-immaterial body through a hole a quarter of an inch across. Okay. You can work with this.

"Aren't you worried about revealing all this?" Aisha asks from where she's sitting next to Alec on the couch. "I mean, if your Thinker bullshit says Alec 'n me are trustworthy that's fine and all, but what about her? What if she gets captured?"

You shake your head. You could have tried to limit the information she's exposed to, but to what end? She'd find out that Low Key has mind-hands and shapeshifting at the very least. Nor could you really hope to hide your Quicksilverian obsession with tedious power study, just in case anyone needed more hints about your true nature. Besides...

"How could she possibly be captured? Worst case she just dives straight into the ground and dies in indescribable agony as she rematerializes." You smile and stroke Ghost's cheek, trailing your fingers down the angry red scars you made the other day. "Isn't it lovely, having minions who would rather die than betray you?"

Aisha doesn't respond.

"But speaking of powers, that reminds me." You turn away from Ghost and towards Alec. "I can also make you better at things, if you want."

"Define 'things'," he says guardedly.

You shrug. "What do you want to be better at? I made her smarter-" you gesture at Aisha ("That's private!") "-but I can do strength and beauty as well." You purse your lips as you look him over. "Well, beauty might not work on someone who's already as pretty as you. Skills? I could do the Matrix thing. Say the word, and you'll know Kung Fu."

"I'm good, thanks."

"Okay." A shame, you guess you'll have to do with a single layer of Master effects on him. You sit back down.

"You made her smarter," Alec says after a while (Aisha mutters something inaudible). "Could you make people more emotional instead?"

He must be talking about himself, because your power reaches out and latches on when he says it. But it can't find anything to do - apparently 'emotions' do not qualify as an ability, or even an attribute - and retreats in confusion.

"'fraid not. Why?"

"Just an idle thought."

===

Spoiler: Updated status

Charms:
Taylor: All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight, ???
Tattletale: Know the Soul's Price
Bitch: Spirit-Tied Pet
Aegis: Ox-Body Technique
Browbeat: Shaping the Ideal Form
Dragon: Implicit Construction Methodology
Kid Win: Industry and Forge Wisdom
Lung: By Rage Recast
Vista: Mind-Hand Manipulation
Cricket: Mantis Form
Faultline: Charm of Lesser Unmaking
Labyrinth: Hell-Walker Technique
Othala: Verdant Emptiness Endowment
Rune: Sometimes Horses Fly Approach
Shadow Stalker: Bloodless Murk Evasion

Spoiler: Mechanics corner

"A perfect defense," I hear you say. "That's spicy. Doesn't she have infinite essence? Doesn't that mean she's completely invulnerable now?"
Yes, and no, to answer the questions in order. A) She can't dodge things she can't see coming (yet - there are charms for that too). B) This charm can't defend against 'Holy' keyword attacks. Won't it be fun to find out how that translates into Worm? C) In the Exalted cosmology, 'perfect defenses always trump perfect attacks' is a law of nature, but this is not the Exalted cosmology. In Worm, perfect attacks beat perfect defenses. Like a modern-day Odin, Alexandria gave an eye for this knowledge.

 

[ses]

"A perfect defense," I hear you say. "That's spicy. Doesn't she have infinite essence? Doesn't that mean she's completely invulnerable now?"
Yes, and no, to answer the questions in order. A) She can't dodge things she can't see coming (yet - there are charms for that too). B) This charm can't defend against 'Holy' keyword attacks. Won't it be fun to find out how that translates into Worm? C) In the Exalted cosmology, 'perfect defenses always trump perfect attacks' is a law of nature, but this is not the Exalted cosmology. In Worm, perfect attacks beat perfect defenses. Like a modern-day Odin, Alexandria gave an eye for this knowledge.

Click to shrink...

Took the words right out of my mouth when I saw she got the Ebon Dragon dodge. I was trying to figure out what the absolute fuck would count as Holy in worm powers. Super interesting take on the perfect attacks ruling. I wouldn't have thought of that change.

Interesting we're starting to see some chafing from Aisha, also uh, what was going on with Fenrir? I'm apparently too low INT to understand the horrible implications that were being implicated.

 

[Disminded]

On the plus side, "perfect attacks Trump perfect defenses" means she has a shot at killing off the endbringers if she can find a perfect attack power.

Also? I feel actively dumber for having read that first section. Like, brain cells were offing themselves with every word.

 

[Daniel Snuts]

I've gone back and edited L.37 and L.38 to make brief mention of Uber and Leet's soul prices - not that they're in any way relevant or interesting or worth going back to read about, but it was out of character for Taylor not to grab them.

I also inserted a brief snippet into L.32 while I was at it - I originally had a longer, funnier interlude planned there conveying the same (non-essential) information, but ultimately had to scrap it because I couldn't make it work (it's why that chapter is so short).

 

[Alucard 109]

Also? I feel actively dumber for having read that first section. Like, brain cells were offing themselves with every word.

Click to shrink...

Agreed, but I actually really liked that bit. The nazis actually being morons and objectively wrong without any kind of justification or excuses was a nice change of pace, and it definitely helps that it's something Taylor can't refute but we can.

 

[R.A.G.]

Wow, I can't believe Legend is straight and just pretending to be gay smh I fully expect the mooks to conspiracy their way into thinking of something along the lines of Cauldron but completely off somehow, lel

Also, I see Taylor is trying to think around the trauma (it's not working), and is now trying to embody her traumatizer via shapeshifting and power-copy.

 

[Stanley_Jeb]

The nazis actually being morons and objectively wrong without any kind of justification or excuses was a nice change of pace, and it definitely helps that it's something Taylor can't refute but we can

Click to shrink...

I mean...

"...is that what happened to Hero?" Mike asks. "I don't want to be conspiratard here, but..."

Click to shrink...

While he's got the wrong group, Hero's death IIRC was implied to be (part of) a Cauldron plot/path.

On the plus side, "perfect attacks Trump perfect defenses" means she has a shot at killing off the endbringers if she can find a perfect attack power.

Click to shrink...

Hmm... March?