Charm Learning Shard (Worm/Exalted) (COMPLETED)

[tronax]

but to say she got completely fucked with her power and circumstances ignores how many people died in GM. Hell, you could argue that, given how half of Bet was gone, she's above the 50% cut at the very least

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There wasn't much left of Taylor in the end, remember?

Besides, who's to say, that Sophia would even make Taylor's life hell, if it wasn't requested from her shard by some higher authority? Isn't it a bit too convenient for Administrator, that it was another Cape who finally brought her into more active role in the world? A sufficiently paranoid person might argue, that Taylor could be happy, if not for her shard meddling.

 

[TapTwice2]

I wonder if taylor will join the S9 to get their powers?

 

[ses]

Man just how many soul prices would be in the bag if she got Cash and Murder Games from Cherish? Author-san abandoned the quest log but there's a lot.

 

[Daniel Snuts]

Just thought of another question, is there any reason Taylor can't 5 dot in everything someone who she either doesn't care or actively wants to strip of their potential?

Like say for example Emma, is there any reason Taylor couldn't turn Emma into a hyper omni-competent braindead slave doll?

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Immediately spotting the (intentional) loophole like that deserves a cookie, I think.

Canonically Taylor had D to F grade Luck, and around B grade Intelligence. Just like most other fics, here it's the exact opposite. D to F grade Intelligence and B to S Luck. I just don't get the logic of doing it. Wouldn't it make more sense to use an OC, if you intended to alter her so much?..

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That's funny, I've always thought of canon Taylor as a bad decisions factory wrapped in plot armor.

BOOM! HEADSHOT.

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Nothing quite so satisfying as setting up for a punchline and having it pay off 60 chapters later.

Exalted does have at least one alignment mechanic: does the Unconquered Sun declare you a creature of darkness Y/N?

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Creature of Darkness is more of a physical property than a moral/metaphysical one, though. An erythmantos won't ever become not a creature of darkness no matter how many juicy orphans it refuses to eat, and if a passing infernal tags you with the 'you are now a creature of darkness' mutation you need a magical medical intervention, not a life of heartfelt piety and selfless charity.

Can Vista resign? As a minor I would assume such decisions would legally be in the hands of her parents, who both want her in the Wards so they don't have to pretend to care about her.

I can see her making the attempt, but I can't see the PRT taking it, or her seriously on the topic, further inflaming her grievance over their ageism.

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It won't come up in story, but Vista's approach was to a) just stop showing up, but also b) march into the Brockton Bay offices of Solid State Solutions, Inc. and say "Hi, I'm Vista. I'd really like to go corporate, but my parents want me to stay in the Wards."

The company rep took about 0.8 seconds to process this, before responding "Have a lawyer! Have all the lawyers!"

This fic is currently right on the cusp of 200k wordcount, which is less than that of the legal documents generated by the Missy Biron custody battle by the time it's over.

Just when I thought I couldn't love this fic any more than I already do, you go and do something awesome like this....

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"I can't draw for shit, though... Do I commission art of a pair of gloves giving the finger?"

"...not when I own a pair of black leather gloves. No one will notice that they're size man-hands, not size teenage girl."

(they're actually stuffed with wadded up toilet paper, because I didn't have any cotton)

Though if I could draw for shit, the first art I would create wouldn't be Low Key, or Smith or Quicksilver or Poltergeist...

"There's a-" crap, what's the PC term for monster cape again? "-a Case 63?"

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It would be the tomboyish Newtette and thicc (but still disturbingly translucent) Gregorina, Case 63s.

Perhaps rumors of the Human Master Low Key theory go around to save the PRT some face, would explain why two Wards gave info to an otherwise unrepentant Nazi villain.

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Not really following here. Low Key is the one person Vista didn't leak information to, because Low Key already knew about the gloves. In fact the opposite happened, with Low key leaking secrets ("New Wave has engaged in child kidnapping") to Vista out of friendship. Vista didn't tell the PRT about that, though.

I find it weird she didn't just default to finding some privacy and using mind-hands when trying to avoid nanite contamination.

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Using your gloved left hand to remove your right glove isn't really risking contamination, though? She's going to have to take them off at some point.

Question, how much of the exact wording of a soul price is determined by Know The Soul's Price interpreting the desire of its target into words and how much is determined by the thoughts of its target?

Basically was "Vista wants Gallant-sempai to notice her" just author humor or is Vista secretly a weaboo?

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That's author humor.

 

[ses]

Using your gloved left hand to remove your right glove isn't really risking contamination, though? She's going to have to take them off at some point.

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This was the exact video I thought of the second I saw it happening.



Is Solid State Solutions an OC law firm? I tried looking it up to no results.

And yeah I was super impressed by you just setting up an IRL photo, I was a little shocked seeing a real life picture but it was an inspired choice.

 

[tronax]

That's funny, I've always thought of canon Taylor as a bad decisions factory wrapped in plot armor

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Her decisions? Absolutely horrible. I pretty much hated her as a character. But her decisions weren't so wrong because she was dumb. From human point of view, it was a matter of strong convictions and average teenage wisdom combined with special circumstance. From shard point of view, 'mistakes' were not mistakes, but a matter of knowing the bigger picture.

Now, about plot armour. I don't equate it with luck. She had plot armour, but not luck. Which would make sense actually, as there is nothing that could explain luck, but plot armour can be explained away by her shard manipulating things. Her shard had rank to pull over most other shards AND could pretty much control everything in large radius around her body. That's a valid in-context reason.

 

[Aurora Raven]

I wouldn't be surprised if Cauldron intervenes to steady the ship for the Feudalism experiment in a less than pleasant manner for everyone involved.

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It's not a "Feudalism experiment", it's a 'what happens when Cauldron is dead' experiment.

The entire point is to see what happens to a city in the developed world when Cauldron is no longer able to prop up the government.

None of the Brockton Bay government organisations, heroes, or villains have Cauldron support.

 

[Zxzx24]

Yes, and if you stop reading Dune after the invasion by the Harkonens, Dune is the story of how evil wins by suborning Imperial Conditioning. If you quit reading Stranger in a Strange Land after Jubal's property is invaded by Special Service Troops you'd believe that the story is how introducing an innocent to sex kills everyone in the family. If you stopped reading the The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe at the death of Aslan on the stone table you'd believe it to be a story of how a traitor gets away with their selfish crimes. If you quit reading Worm after the meeting with Dragon and Defiant at Arcadia you'd think that the story ends in a very very different way than it actually does. Ditto if you stopped reading Pact after the trip to Toronto. Are you getting what I'm trying to say yet?

The story is not even half finished yet! Can you kindly allow the author to tell their story before we start hacking him up for lunch? Maybe he didn't reflexively genuflect hard enough or often enough in the direction of Jerusalem to beg for mercy before each chapter to suit you, but can we please at least let him finish before condemning him? Who knows it could be that by the time he actually finishes the story he's telling you might decide that killing him is unnecessary? That it might be possible to give more than a faint praise without damning him?

Jesus wept, people. Some of you would have caused Worm itself to die stillborn the way you carry on.

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A moving defense truly. And indeed, if snuts is actually going somewhere with this. Which I am currently on the fence about... well see I suppose?

I'm not extending credit for things he hasnt written however.

And intentional obfuscation on the authors part or not the empire is written blandly and boringly now.

And there is very little excuse for that, given how we have spent most of the story with them.

Bubbles isnt a complex or nuanced character either, but he is at least a dog.

 

[Flashbunny]

This is factually inaccurate, you claimed that blockbusting is a gentlemans agreement not to sell to blacks. The phrase "We do the same in reverse" is modifying the statement "Once the block is busted open everybody flees". There's no way to read the excerpt any other way. It's fairly plain English. It's not an implication that's just straight up what he's saying. There's no way in English to interpret the "same in reverse" clause as modifying any other part of his dialogue.

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I went and found the actual post, and you're right, I misremembered what was described.

 

[ses]

Everyone has guessed Deadly Beastman Transformation for Hookwolf, but I've been trying to figure out how to fit chainsaw monster into 7 points of mutations according to DBT's rules. I'm guessing:

0 pt: Cosmetic(Metallic skin)
4 pt: Natural Counterattack(Made of Chainsaws)
2 pt: Lethal Attack
1 pt: Blade Proof

Lethal Attack and Blade Proof are both pretty redundant with Mantis Form, and I'm stretching the rules of the 2 pt version of Lethal Attack a bit to let it apply to the Natural Counterattack as well as normal metal hook attacks, but I didn't want to spend her last mutation point on the 3 pt version and miss out on Blade Proof. I felt that Accelerated Healing didn't fit without Limb Regeneration and 4 pts dedicated to the regeneration aspect was just way too many compared to the offensive power of whirling death hooks. She'll have to get Terrifying Beastman Alteration somewhere for those. Kinda sad she'd have Lung AND Hookwolf's powers at that point and still not have either of their regenerations. I'm assuming the regen mutations are in her By Rage Recast library though, and she just didn't manifest them last time. EDIT: Ignore me I'm dumb. Regeneration functionality is already provided as an inherent aspect of DBT. Duh. That's just part and parcel of being a Lunar.

The 4 pt Natural Counterattack is just way too metal and the best way of giving her murderblender status I could find, emphasizing the blender part of murderblender as opposed to just giving her Wolverine claws. Honestly it's more likely author-san will just use Extra Arm to represent it and give bonuses to flurries to not deal with the necessity of getting hit, but the 4pt Natural Counterattack is way cooler in my opinion.

 

[NotaWriter]

It's a shame that you can't take advantage of the same power-based training regimen yourself. If you gave yourself this kind of boost you'd overdraw your potential for growth to the point that you'd never be able to learn anything useful for the rest of your life. So in Theo's case, there are no side effects.

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I'm not really clear on the mechanics, here the charms gives "soul strain" to simulate XP debt. If I undestand things correctly (never played, I know it only through fics and wikis) in exalted the xp debt can be paid back in time ( sooner if you do epic things I imagine). How does it work here? does the soul strain have a time limit?Is it affected by having adventures?(I mean cape life should give more experience than an office job) does it elapse when Taylor uses it up for the master effect?

Also I don't think someone who cannot learn anything useful is a "worthy heir"

 

[Edifier]

But... why seek a middle ground in a story that is explicitly advertised in the first paragraph as "grimderp"? That makes no sense, Nice Guy National Socialists add more flavor to the story than photorealistic textbook White Nationalists.

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I don't see a point in seeking middle ground either when a couple of readers are adamant on it purely to hate on it in the comments.

 

[Rask]

Everyone has guessed Deadly Beastman Transformation for Hookwolf, but I've been trying to figure out how to fit chainsaw monster into 7 points of mutations according to DBT's rules.

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I'm expecting something more along the lines of Viridian Legend Exoskeleton, because "cover yourself with metal" seems very in-theme for a Hookwolf derived power. Glorious Solar Plate could be an option too, if the armor it summons looks suitably spiky. Bonus: Taylor getting something akin to a magical girl transformation from Hookwolf would be hilarious.

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

Also I don't think someone who cannot learn anything useful is a "worthy heir"

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I'm guessing that as long as Max is convinced Theo has become a worthy heir, Taylor gets the loyalty until Max for some reason becomes un-convinced. With oratory and stateman skills, Theo should be able to fake it for a while.

Another option is that Theo isn't intended to be the heir. Taylor could have decided that making herself a legit heir in Max's eyes was easier or otherwise preferable to genuinely reforming Theo, and what's going on is she's marrying in.

Taylor really should have red pilled him before inflicting the supernatural learning deficiencies.

 

[Lis91]

For some reason I find myself enjoying this story immensely despite being a member of a 'lesser' race. The non-caricature non-SS neo-nazi philosophy portrayed here is fascinating. The rank and file really being good mates and neighbours is... I guess that's probably how real nazi guys saw/see themselves? Nobody is the villain of their own story and all that. This is the first fic I've found that has what sounds like a genuine nazi voice.

Fun premise, interesting plot, fresh perspective. Thank you for writing, Snuts!

 

[Vrenze]

There wasn't much left of Taylor in the end, remember?

Besides, who's to say, that Sophia would even make Taylor's life hell, if it wasn't requested from her shard by some higher authority? Isn't it a bit too convenient for Administrator, that it was another Cape who finally brought her into more active role in the world? A sufficiently paranoid person might argue, that Taylor could be happy, if not for her shard meddling.

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IIRC WOG is that Sophia is one of the least affected by the conflict drive, she's just a fucked up kid who is a stereotypical high-school teenage girl, that is to say sociopathic.

Also, by near default any person who is a main character in a story is ahead of the bell curve in luck in my opinion.

 

[NotaWriter]

Also, by near default any person who is a main character in a story is ahead of the bell curve in luck in my opinion.

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Anne Frank begs to differ

Jokes aside many stories are tragic/have tragic endings and Taylor endig is pretty tragic, I don't think you could call her "lucky"

 

[Daniel Snuts]

Fenrir returns from his scouting mission, and gives you a nod. It's not a trap.

"Let's go," you say. You don't tell Ghost or Imp that's it's safe, because it's not like BITN has any Thinkers that could know that, and a certain wariness adds verisimilitude. Who wouldn't be wary, when an unidentified person contacts them on PHO and requests a meeting in the bad part of town?

Poltergeist can't be seen playing twenty questions with someone invisible, so details beyond trap/not trap are left for you to discover on your own. That too is verisimilitude, you suppose. Waiting for you at the agreed meeting spot is one parahuman, female, dressed like a sad clown. No, really. A clown costume all in black and white, clown makeup likewise, except for a bright red teardrop under one eye.

"Circus," you say, tipping your head in greeting. "What business have you with BITN?" This is where knowing the entire local cape population by heart comes in handy. Astonishingly, her power doesn't register as active to sorcerer's sight. If you had enhanced reflexes and balance (that didn't force you to drop into a highly conspicuous and recognizable martial arts form) you'd be keeping them running at all times.

"Was wondering if you were recruiting, by any chance." Ah, that's why she's unusually monochromatic today: She's trying to fit your theme.

"Solo career not working out?" you ask.

She shrugs. "I've been doing well enough, but it's always better if you have someone to watch your back. There just weren't any local teams I'd fit into."

"Until we came along, huh?" Imp says.

Circus flashes a smile at her. "A bunch of sassy girls, robbing a bank on their first outing, and getting away clean? That's my jam, alright."

"Hm," you hum. You pull out your BITN phone and select the only contact not already present. You hold out one hand to Circus to forestall further discussion as you wait for said contact to pick up. Meanwhile, soul price!

Circus wants that one last big score, enough to retire on.

"Tattletale! How's my favorite information broker?" You can't see her power working over the phone, but you trust her to figure out what it means that you used her cape name. Risk of non-friendly people overhearing.

"What do you want, Poltergeist?" Yep, she's figured everything out.

"Tell me about Circus."

"Anything in particular about her?"

"Is she any good, for starters? I seem to recall that you hired her for the Forsberg job, and that didn't work out so well." Aisha growls a bit at the reminder and adopts a less friendly stance towards Circus, pointlessly giving clues about her identity like the rank amateur she is. Circus does not noticeably react to it, nor to you questioning her abilities.

"Ah, you're looking for references." Lisa says. "Did she give you a CV? 'Circus is a highly skilled and dependable contractor. She loves pancakes and long walks on the beach?' Well, she is. The Forsberg thing wasn't really her fault."

"Thank you," you say, your mind racing. So, it was a trap after all. Okay, so what are your objectives in light of this information? One, steal her power. Two, keep her out of BITN without making Pancakes suspicious.

"Tattletale speaks well of you," you say. "You'd need a new name, though. A circus doesn't exactly go bump in the night."

"Killer Clown," Aisha suggests. "That way she can keep the costume."

"Very well," Circus says, and your eyebrows shoot up behind your mask. She is very loyal to her employer.

"I would not be adverse to letting you join-"

"Great! I-"

"-provided you pass the tests."

"Tests?"

"Of course. Can't let you join unless you pass a test devised by each member. Think of it like joining the Slaughterhouse 9, except with more fun and games, less death and mutilation. The Laughterhouse 9, if you will. ...hm, that works better in writing, doesn't it?"

Circus does indeed appear to be quite the professional, because she takes this too in stride. "Very well."

"For your first test... The floor is lava."

That finally manages to break her composure. "Seriously?"

"Oh my god, how can you just stand there!?" Imp cries, instantly getting into the correct spirit without any prompting from you. "Can't you feel your shoes melting? The floor is lava!"

Circus grudgingly jumps up to cling onto a nearby lamppost. "Now what?" she asks.

"I think we're out of milk," you say. "Let's go buy some milk."

---

Watching Circus procure milk is a treat for the eyes - and would be even without sorcerer's sight, you suspect. She puts her enhanced balance to good use as she leaps from shelf to shelf towards the dairy aisle. Landing right on the edge of the cold storage compartment, she snags one foot through the handle of a milk jug before performing a backflip back onto the shelves. The jug goes flying as a result, almost brushing against the ceiling before falling back into her waiting hands.

"The shelves are lava too," you remark, and she quickly leaps off to land in an innocent bystander's shopping cart, surfing it all the way to the checkout.

The clerk seems to have trouble processing what's going on as Circus crouches on the conveyor to pay for her purchase, and stutters a bit on the company-mandated "have a nice day". But who's really going to complain, when four masked villains show up to not rob your store?

Because you've planned ahead, you have a spare lair to lead her back to, amidst much acrobatics and hilarity. You're going through real estate at a ridiculous rate, but it's better than letting your real lair turn into an IHOP. And money not spent is money wasted.

"Oh dear," you say as you deposit the milk in the fridge, "it looks like we're out of bread too."

Circus - who just ran up four flights of stairs along the banisters - slumps in defeat as she realizes how the rest of her day is going to go.

---

Circus lies flat on your kitchen table, panting for breath. For the last flight of stairs you declared banisters lava as well, so she had to ascend by repeatedly kicking off the walls of the stairwell.

"Weren't kidding... about being... Laughterhouse 9," she manages between breaths. "We done?"

"It hasn't been nearly 24 hours," you say. That's roughly how long it'll take you to gain her power, you estimate.

"...Jesus."

"Lava cools pretty slowly, you know" Aisha adds helpfully.

You give Circus a couple of minutes to recover, because you're merciful like that. But mostly because you need to duck out and call Ops to take the evening off.

"Got some business out of town I need to take care of," you tell them, because why not hit two birds with one stone? Clearly, this must have been when Low Key went to Vegas.

---

"What's with the Laughterhouse thing?" Aisha asks quietly, 5 hours in. You guess that's how long it took for your prank to stop being funny. "Didn't do that to us."

"What does your brand new smarts tell you?"

"Well, you're... I mean, you're obviously stealing her acrobatics power, right? Right. Which... means you're not going to let her join? But- ah shit you're a loyalty Thinker."

"Yeah, she's a spy," you confirm. It's funny, she literally saw you call Tattletale and she's still attributing your knowledge to your Thinker powers. Full marks otherwise, though. "Can't let on that we know, so your job will be to make a trial she'll fail."

"You can count on me, boss!"

---

The other members of BITN eventually beg off - unlike you they still need to sleep occasionally - and you keep going alone. You have to hand it to Circus, she's in way better shape than you are. If you had to abide by the same rules, you'd have collapsed long ago, but Circus keeps going all night long. It's a goddamn shame she's already a pancake person, because you certainly wouldn't mind an employee this reliable.

By the time dawn breaks you're well outside the city, with you walking on the side of the road, and her atop the power lines. Your creativity ran dry a while ago, so you just settled for something that would take a long time.

"Let's head back," you say eventually. "The others will be waking up soon." Circus doesn't respond, and keeps walking along the power line. "Hey. Hey? Hey!" Still no response, she just keeps walking.

You sprint after her. "Ragequitting? You realize that you need to get back to town anyway, right?" I'd be a shame to lose out on her power, but getting her to quit on her own is a good consolation prize. But as you overtake her and look up at her face, you realize what's going on. Her head dangles forward, lolling from side to side with each step. Her eyes are closed, her mouth open. A small rivulet of drool is smudging her clown makeup. She's fast asleep.

But clearly her balance power doesn't shut down just because the rest of her does, because she's still upright, still walking along. The flesh may be weak, but the spirit is awfully willing.

"Circus!" Ah, no, you can't shout so good with Poltergeist's voice. You poke her with a mind-hand instead.

"Bwuh!?" She jumps in place, but doesn't fall down.

"I said, let's start heading back."

"Okay."

She falls asleep again in less than a minute, but walking in the correct direction this time. You don't complain. She doesn't need to be awake for you to study her power.

She turns out be a very grouchy morning person once you get back to the city and she wakes up properly. Or maybe that's because of the contortions you have her go through to buy a coffee.

---

"It's been 24 hours," Circus complains.

"Not according to my watch," you counter.

"You're not wearing a watch!"

"Watches are also lava."

---

Aaaand there it is. Supernatural balance get. You turn it on right away - it's not permanent, despite her stunt with the sleepwalking - but don't notice much of a difference. Well, you are sitting down, not much call for balance right now. You'll test out applications more extreme than 'don't fall off the couch' later, with fewer spies around.

"Okay, the floor isn't lava anymore," you say, and Circus - who had been keeping off the ground by wedging herself into the corner between two walls and the ceiling - drops to the floor with a sigh of relief. "Congratulations, you passed the first test. Imp, you're up next."

"Alright!" Aisha jumps to her feet and turns to face Circus. "The Bootleggers are playing tonight, you have to streak across the entire field without getting caught."

"What?" Circus' voice is perhaps a little bit high-pitched and strangled.

"Oh, you can keep your makeup on. Wear a mask, even. I'm not trying to out you or anything. But below the neck? Zilch. Show those bootleggers a real booty legging it across the pitch!"

"I'm not doing that!"

Aisha just shrugs and sits down again. "Okay. Bye."

"...what?"

"You failed my test."

Circus stands there for a few moments before turning towards you, as if to appeal the decision. You just give her a tiny condescending wave. "Bye."

"After all that..." Circus mutters to herself. Her fingers twitch, as if she's contemplating pulling weapons from her personal hammerspace, or possibly throwing fireballs around (she's the most eclectic grab-bag cape you've ever seen outside a mirror). Ghost leans forward from where she was sprawled on the couch, getting her feet under her, ready to spring into action. You manifest a mind-hand to grab a pen from the table - nothing threatening, just a reminder that no one here isn't a living weapon.

After a few tense seconds, Circus holds up her empty palms. "I'll go," she says.

"Good luck finding another team," you say.

She nods stiffly, and leaves.

There's a note in the palm of your hand. It reads 'stay'. There's two notes in your hand. The second one reads 'silence'. Okay. You don't think you had anywhere in particular you needed to go right now, anyway. You are curious about the notes, though. You know you can trust them, but you have no idea where they're from. And there's no way you wouldn't try to figure out a mystery like this - so the fact that you don't remember doing that is very telling. There must be one hell of a shenanigan taking place.

You remain in place, and silent, until Aisha shows up and things make sense again.

"She really left," Aisha says, "didn't try to circle around to spy on us or anything."

Ghost stands up and stretches. "Let's go back to the real lair then," she suggests. "This couch is nowhere near as comfy."

"Yeah, let's." Aisha nods in approval, then turns to look at you. "Super acrobatics powers?" she asks.

"Super balance powers," you correct her. "The jumping around was all muscle-powered."

"Show us?"

You shrug, and place the pen you were still absently holding in your mind-hand upright on the floor. Then you jump on top of it. In mid-air, you realize just how preposterous an action that is. No matter how good your balance, what should happen is that the pen breaks under your weight, or spears straight through your foot, or some combination of both. Instead, neither happens, and you end up balancing atop it with no discomfort whatsoever. Power instincts, huh.

"That makes no sense," Ghost says, having picked up on the same anomalous physics you just did. "Circus couldn't do that."

"You know my powers mutate a bit from the originals," you say with a shrug. Then Aisha tries to push you off your perch, and you somehow manage to bend around it without falling.

"This is so dumb," Aisha says as she tries pushing you again, with no more success than the first time. "I love it."

You don't know who looks dumber, you for balancing with one leg drawn up and twisting around your inexplicably static center of gravity, or Aisha for repeatedly failing to push you over - but you love it too. You'll call it 'graceful crane stance', you decide. But you feel instinctively that you haven't plumbed the true depths of the 'balancing on fragile things' bullshit you're now capable of. You use a mind-hand to pluck single hair from your head, and hold it out to Aisha. "Here, hold this up for me."

"No way!"

===

Spoiler: Mechanics corner

Exalted learning times are denoted in days, and assume 8 hours of training/studying per day. You can't go faster by working harder than that - your brain needs some free time too! Of course, that's assuming 8 hours wasted on sleep.

I don't think it specifies anywhere, but I take the underlying rule to be 'half your awake time can be spent training', so Taylor can now do 12 hours of training and 12 hours of relaxing - improving her power acquisition speed by 50%, given a captive audience.

In this case, the DM lets her stunt the two 12-hour training passes of two consecutive days as being back to back, for a 24 hour marathon.

Spoiler: Updated status

Charms:
Taylor: All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight, Terrestrial Circle Sorcery
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
Miss Militia: Nightmare Fugue Vigilance
Circus: Graceful Crane Stance

 

[ses]

I'm not really clear on the mechanics, the charms gives "soul strain". If I undestand things correctly(never played, I know it only through fics and wikis) inn exalted the xp debt can be paid back in time ( sooner if you do epic things I imagine). How does it work here? does the soul strain have a time limit? does it elapse when Taylor uses it up for the master effect?

Also I don't think someone who cannot learn anything useful is a "worthy heir"

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It's not the kind of retardation that a person would notice. For one thing you only have to spend half the xp you earn on paying down your debt, for another XP doesn't exist. I figure that this will mostly manifest in Theo not getting the character development he got in Worm where he got a bunch of extra Willpower/Conviction/Valor. And no XP debt doesn't go away when she uses the master effect, it's XP debt because Training effects are no different than buying stats with XP normally, except you skip the training time and can go into the negatives.

Taylor really should have red pilled him before inflicting the supernatural learning deficiencies.

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Not being able to spend XP on Willpower and Virtues are not impediments to him being social-fu'd into accepting new Intimacies.

---

 

[NotaWriter]

Real nice chapter, poor Circus! Why is she so loyal to Coil though? wasn't she simply a mercenary in Canon?

Charms:
Taylor: All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight, ???

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Charms:
Taylor: All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight, Terrestrial Circle Sorcery

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Mystery revealed! Wonder how she will manage to use it, will it all be instinctual? It adds a lot of optios to her powerset though. Can she summon demons?

 

[Dakkah]

Real nice chapter, poor Circus! Why is she so loyal to Coil though?

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Money.

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

Not being able to spend XP on Willpower and Virtues are not impediments to him being social-fu'd into accepting new Intimacies.

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I didn't think about that, I'm so used to playing systems without social coercion mechanics I assumed it had to be more or less equivalent to teaching history. Always assumed Taylor could enforce compliance (she has multiple levers to tug on) but that it would be a matter of frustration that it didn't take and was a recurring theme. I guess in Exalted mechanics, you grind down their willpower, social-fu them into basic compliance, then arrange a situation where compliance is rewarded and nature takes its course?

Real nice chapter, poor Circus! Why is she so loyal to Coil though? wasn't she simply a mercenary in Canon?

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Coil's modus operandi is to find people with skeletons in their closet and make them silver-or-lead deals, like Mr. Pitter who needed his ex dead, or the kiddie-fiddler merc (Fish?). My bet is, if Tattletale's claim about her loyalty to Coil is true, Circus took the silver because Coil provides her with something perverse.

 

[Jannika]

Well Coil had a few inexplicably loyal capes on retainer, and we never find out why.
Trainwreck, Circus, Chariot, even Uber and Leet work for him at one point.

 

[ses]

Well Coil had a few inexplicably loyal capes on retainer, and we never find out why.
Trainwreck, Circus, Chariot, even Uber and Leet work for him at one point.

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Do we ever see them have their loyalty tested? I always thought their relationship was "Coil pays good money for merc work" not any sort of deeper relationship.

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

"Got some business out of town I need to take care of," you tell them, because why not hit two birds with one stone? Clearly, this must have been when Low Key went to Vegas.

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Heh, that'll go over like a lead balloon at first. But Low Key does have one secret argument that will 100% justify her actions under the fourteen words, a threat to the future she would naturally pay any price to counter, after which cosmetic mods would seem mere window dressing.

Terrestrial Circle Sorcery

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So... she sacrificed something notable. Her relationship with Danny? Her non-cape life as a whole? That line about how Taylor existed then she didn't kind of sounded relevant.

Now I'm imagining Tattletale as a sorceress, a consolation prize for that unfortunate IHOP incident.

 

[GiantAnteater]

So... she sacrificed something notable. Her relationship with Danny? Her non-cape life as a whole? That line about how Taylor existed then she didn't kind of sounded relevant.

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That should do it. Now the question is, when will she notice?

 

[ses]

So... she sacrificed something notable. Her relationship with Danny? Her non-cape life as a whole? That line about how Taylor existed then she didn't kind of sounded relevant.

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Her identity as Taylor Hebert was absolutely Sacrifice. I'm assuming Shadow Stalker showed her Fear, Hookwolf Humility, Four-Armed Scion was Tutelage, and Labyrinth/Cecelyne was her Journey.

Also can I just say I absolutely love how many creative ways the Pancakes name gets used? "Turning your lair into an IHOP" was a delightful turn of phrase

 

[OldSpartan]

So, as someone who doesn't know much about Exalted beyond the bare basics, what does Terrestrial Circle Sorcery do? I've tried looking it up and it is sort of vague. Is Taylor a Sorcerer now? And what caused it to appear now?

 

[ses]

So, as someone who doesn't know much about Exalted beyond the bare basics, what does Terrestrial Circle Sorcery do? I've tried looking it up and it is sort of vague. Is Taylor a Sorcerer now? And what caused it to appear now?

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The Terrestrial Circle Sorcery charm is just a tax on your character sheet that says "I'm allowed to use Sorcery"

A character that is initiated into sorcery can learn and use spells. Taylor obviously knows no spells and inventing her own would require months to years of intensive study and research, so she's shit out of luck unless she can get the hookup somewhere. Maybe spells will be acquirable like charms on the power lottery now? It certainly will help with the fact that Shaker and Blaster powers are a bit underrepresented among normal charms but are the bread and butter of Spells.

The most useful and commonly used spell is demon-summoning, and the fact that she accidentally Cecelyne earlier in the fic is a sure sign that she's going to end up learning how to do that at some point, since no author can pass up including all the extremely cool, flavorful and powerful demons available. Other common spells are Death of Obsidian Butterflies, a Blaster power that machineguns razor sharp butterflies at people, and Stormwind Rider which lets an entire group fly on the wind at high speeds. I literally cannot remember any of the other spells off the top of my head. She'll also have access to Emerald Circle Countermagic, though I don't know what powers will be counterspellable.

The reason she has it now is that in order to initiate into Sorcery you have to undergo five trials. Journey, Tutelage, Fear, Humility, and Sacrifice. The first four can be done in any order. Go on a vision quest, receive instruction from a sensei, conquer your greatest fear, learn humility. Sacrifice always comes last, like Odin sacrificing an eye for knowledge. Taylor accomplished her Trial of Sacrifice by giving up her identity and her relationship with her father, completing her initiation and making her a sorcerer now.

 

[nescafe]

So, as someone who doesn't know much about Exalted beyond the bare basics, what does Terrestrial Circle Sorcery do?

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Lots of stuff, but solving problems with demons is the fun stuff.