Charm Learning Shard (Worm/Exalted) (COMPLETED)

[R.A.G.]

Is evil Taylor pregnant too?

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Huh, hadn't thought about that but no reason that bit of biology wouldn't be copied as well.

 

[JustCurious]

Probably realized that Taylors rape was because of "bad Karma", and that she wanted to gleefully rub it in her face.

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But what sort of thing has she done that could accrue bad karma? I thought the only mechanisms for that yet were Emptiness Endowment and breaking a sealed pact?

Also, am I seeing Taylor salivating at the idea of the Teeth? The gang with the body hopping maddening possessing entity?
... Oh boy, joining the Teeth could be hilarious or horrific, I don't know which. I don't think she'll risk becoming Butcher though.

 

[Fernando]

I don't think she'll risk becoming Butcher though.

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She joined the S9 just because they had funky powers.

I would not be surprised if she ganked XIV just for the lulz that is power studying.

 

[Dakkah]

But what sort of thing has she done that could accrue bad karma?

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As Druggy Dragon she made a pact with Lung, something along the lines of it only being a duel and afterwards there would be no further harm or actions against each other.

A pact she broke by intervening on his rescue attempt.

 

[JustCurious]

She joined the S9 just because they had funky powers.

I would not be surprised if she ganked XIV just for the lulz that is power studying.

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She'd probably be super happy to join Butcher in the Teeth, that's probably the easiest, or kidnap her if she manages to contain the explosive teleportation. But becoming the Butcher... I don't see her risking losing her mind before understanding how that power would affect her and if she has a chance to retain a sufficient proportion of her sanity.

On the other hand, making sure a Mastered minion inherits, now that's more likely.

EDIT: heeey, what'd do you think is the Butcher's soul price(s)? KILL BURN MAIM KILL? Do each Butcher have their own? What'd happen were Taylor to have 14 fulfilled soul prices on an individual?

As Druggy Dragon she made a pact with Lung, something along the lines of it only being a duel and afterwards there would be no further harm or actions against each other.

A pact she broke by intervening on his rescue attempt.

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Ooooh.
Did she get any feedback like that sense of Doom Evil Taylor mentions when doing it?

Panacea wants a loving family.

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If only that deception didn't require you to leave sorcerer's sight off while she touches you. Will you ever get to actually study her power, that is so much better than you initially thought? Stupid impossible soul prices.

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Ouch, that's now how people usually react in stories XD
Plus, it's perfectly doable (other than Vicky, I guess): grab Heartbreaker, Master him without being Mastered, have him Master Panacea's family, tadaa
Or grab Valefor. I guess that could work too.
As well as who know how many other Master effects, actually. Provided Panacea doesn't just detect that and goes berserk.

EDIT: Valefor arrived in BB approximately at the same time as Accord and the Butcher in canon. So he might already be here, and the risk posed by his power is minimal compared to Heartbreaker's.

As for Vicky... She spent who knows how long stalking her. Vicky was an extremely social person, if she really wanted she could go around interviewing people who knew her. Then it's just a matter of creating a convincing duplicate with Pattern Spider Touch, like she did with Noelle. Who knows, maybe the power will even come back and contribute a bit to her mind, like what happened with the clones in Ward.


Finally: poor Aisha... Why do I get the feeling that curing her insubordinate minion's arm is very very veeery low on her list of priority? And that Aisha can't do anything about it?
(Idea: capture Valefor and make her ignore the pain coming from Bonesaw's alterations.)
(... I hope at some point she gets a check-up. Tendrils borrowing in her can't be good)

 

[ses]

Ouch, that's now how people usually react in stories XD
Plus, it's perfectly feasibly: grab Heartbreaker, Master him without being Mastered, have him Master Panacea's family, tadaa
Or grab Valefor. I guess that could work too.
As well as who know how many other Master effects, actually. Provided Panacea doesn't just detect that and goes berserk.

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She's already broken her rules on not being Nilbog, just social-fu her into being okay with making people a la Wyld-Shaping Technique, and she can have as loving daughtermommies as she wants.

 

[JustCurious]

She's already broken her rules on not being Nilbog, just social-fu her into being okay with making people a la Wyld-Shaping Technique, and she can have as loving daughtermommies as she wants.

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... So, basically, Jack-Slash her some more? Or make her go full Nillbog?
I'm not sure that would fulfill her soul price. As I see it, there are three problems that should be addressed:
- Carol being a bitch of a mother because of her own trauma and projecting on Amy
- Mark being a depressed and absent father
- Victoria constantly Mastering her, being oblivious to her feelings and probably reacting badly once she learns about them. Oh, and being dead.

Creating minions would serve as company, but 1- it'll probably not be healthy (see Nilbog) and 2- it'll likely only remind her that she cannot have the above three points.

I could imagine, with lots of therapy and bringing in the Pelham, that she could come around to being with them instead of Carol and Mark (although I don't see how she could heal from Vicky's death). If it weren't for the fact that apparently the only way to approach her and not be killed on sight is to kill her sister's murderer, which seems awfully difficult to repeat reliably.

 

[ses]

Creating minions would serve as company, but 1- it'll probably not be healthy (see Nilbog) and 2- it'll likely only remind her that she cannot have the above three points.

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I was suggesting making free-willed humans as family, not mindless minions. It's not unethical as humans have been doing it literally as long as humans have existed. It's called pregnancy. What's unethical about using superpowers to accelerate the gestation time? Your adopted mother is a bitch? Make your own mommy figure who is technically your daughter. It's actually probably less unethical than the stunt Brandish pulled.

 

[JustCurious]

I was suggesting making free-willed humans as family, not mindless minions. It's not unethical as humans have been doing it literally as long as humans have existed. It's called pregnancy. What's unethical about using superpowers to accelerate the gestation time? Your adopted mother is a bitch? Make your own mommy figure who is technically your daughter. It's actually probably less unethical than the stunt Brandish pulled.

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I didn't say mindless, Nilbog's goblins aren't, for example.
And even if she created humans who genuinely love her, I think the only thing it would achieve would be to remind her of her loss, especially given her current isolation (except if she makes herself sink into a frankly worrying delusion that her minions are her true family, and that Vicky didn't die, which would make her more or less as barmy as Rinke). Might be worth trying to raise a baby and get attached to it, provided her power doesn't ruin the emotional attachment of motherhood for her.

 

[Edifier]

I didn't say mindless, Nilbog's goblins aren't, for example.
And even if she created humans who genuinely love her, I think the only thing it would achieve would be to remind her of her loss, especially given her current isolation (except if she makes herself sink into a frankly worrying delusion that her minions are her true family, and that Vicky didn't die, which would make her more or less as barmy as Rinke). Might be worth trying to raise a baby and get attached to it, provided her power doesn't ruin the emotional attachment of motherhood for her.

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It's not delusional to think of your creations as a loving family. Cough, children, cough. Espeshially when they are, or that you made them into, or more socially acceptably raised them.

 

[JustCurious]

It's not delusional to think of your creations as a loving family. Cough, children, cough. Espeshially when they are, or that you made them into, or more socially acceptably raised them.

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I'm not expressing myself correctly, sorry.

Yes. Having children and treating them as their own person is fine.

I was more thinking along the line of: make children or minions, give them the faces of your family, teach them to behave more or less like your family used to, and then convince yourself that these copies are, in fact, your original family and not duplicates playing a role. THAT is not healthy.

Given her past, although creating a family could maybe help her, I fear the less unfeasible solution to her soul price is about her existing family, that is the Dallons. She has much more emotional bagage with them, that she'd need years to build up with any of her new creations.

 

[ses]

I'm not expressing myself correctly, sorry.

Yes. Having children and treating them as their own person is fine.

I was more thinking along the line of: make children or minions, give them the faces of your family, teach them to behave more or less like your family used to, and then convince yourself that these copies are, in fact, your original family and not duplicates playing a role. THAT is not healthy.

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Who said to do that? Make a free willed semi-randomized adult with motherly instincts. Make fully randomized genetic offspring blended with someone else's DNA if you want to go full bioconservative. Making human beings cannot possibly be unethical because human being in the world that has ever lived is the result of another human being making humans.

Polka and Dot were only unhealthy because they were ill-made and there were severe shortages of food. Panacea doesn't have either of those problems (Having gone full flesh garden means she's not at risk of agent interjection randomly causing botches.) She's well within her rights to create completely genetically ordinary and average grizzly bears with no sign of parahuman interference

 

[JustCurious]

Who said to do that? Make a free willed semi-randomized adult with motherly instincts. Make fully randomized genetic offspring blended with someone else's DNA if you want to go full bioconservative. Making human beings cannot possibly be unethical because human being in the world that has ever lived is the result of another human being making humans.

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I see your point.
Still, a possibly problem: the S9 encounter happened differently than in canon. Bonesaw never got to Panacea before she cracked.

She never changed brains.

So, while she's definitely gotten over her "no doing anything else than healing" to go full "eldritch abominations", not to mention "not killing", she might still be holding onto her no-brains rule.
The result being, depending on the author's opinion, she might not be able to create a human brain from scratch (zero training), not to mention alter it to produce a specific personality. The easiest solution would be to recycle someone's brain. And the risk with this is that by altering that person's brain to love her and confort her, she might feel that this comfort and love are faked, undeserved, and empty.

 

[ses]

I see your point.
Still, a possibly problem: the S9 encounter happened differently than in canon. Bonesaw never got to Panacea before she cracked.

She never changed brains.

So, while she's definitely gotten over her "no doing anything else than healing" to go full "eldritch abominations", not to mention "not killing", she might still be holding onto her no-brains rule.
The result being, depending on the author's opinion, she might not be able to create a brain from scratch, not to mention a specific mentality. The best solution would be to recycle someone's brain. And the risk with this is that by altering that person's brain to love her and confort her, she might feel that this comfort and love are faked, undeserved, and empty.

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Having not broken her no-brains taboo is probably actually good for her mentally, since obviously a no-brains taboo doesn't apply to the implicit wholesale creation of brains inherent to creating new humans otherwise heroes would be going around lobotomizing all the fetuses in the womb, which would be a more extreme anti-natalist position usual. Having her taboo in place would be good for keeping her from going full Dollhouse.

Also I'm pretty sure dialing up capacity for familial love to the upper sides of human normal is about as easy as it gets if you're just growing randomized humans with minor edits. Even failing that simply drawing from the family gacha at random is almost guaranteed to get better pulls than fucking Brandish. Maybe instant adult is a bit too hard with zero training (doubtful but accepted for sake of argument) but accelerated growth certainly wouldn't be. I only fixated on daughtermommy because Rhea from three houses is my waifu, but she can still have ordinary daughters extremely easily.

Finally: poor Aisha... Why do I get the feeling that curing her insubordinate minion's arm is very very veeery low on her list of priority? And that Aisha can't do anything about it?
(Idea: capture Valefor and make her ignore the pain coming from Bonesaw's alterations.)
(... I hope at some point she gets a check-up. Tendrils borrowing in her can't be good)

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Aisha's stoicism due to the boss already "knowing about it" is certainly a mistake on her part. Taylor almost certainly doesn't actually realize it needs to be on her to-do list. She's always been very accommodating about employee morale, but things slip through the cracks when you're as busy as she's been.

 

[JustCurious]

Having not broken her no-brains taboo is probably actually good for her mentally, since obviously a no-brains taboo doesn't apply to the implicit wholesale creation of brains inherent to creating new humans otherwise heroes would be going around lobotomizing all the fetuses in the womb, which would be a more extreme anti-natalist position usual. Having her taboo in place would be good for keeping her from going full Dollhouse.

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But then, how can she create a sufficiently adult mind to be a comforting mother? That requires maturity, experience of the outside world, interaction with people. Heck, even learning to talk takes years.
I don't see how she could create more than pets without learning the nitty gritty of human brains. Not without spending years raising children. (Not that it wouldn't help distract her, mind, it's just that it'll take a huge amount of time and she'll never be anything else than their mother)

Also I'm pretty sure dialing up capacity for familial love to the upper sides of human normal is about as easy as it gets if you're just growing randomized humans with minor edits. Even failing that simply drawing from the family gacha at random is almost guaranteed to get better pulls than fucking Brandish.

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Can't argue with that, although Carol's problem probably comes from her trauma rather than any genotypic or phenotypic issue. I mean, even changing her hormones would probably have achieved nothing.

 

[Paralein]

Pretty sure a determined enough Taylor could social-fu Amy into first becoming friends, then Amy joining the gang. And once that's done, manipulating her into seeing them as some sort of surrogate family might be possible too.

But it would probably be quite time-consuming, and Taylor might have some hangups about the whole family thing.

 

[Edifier]

But it would probably be quite time-consuming, and Taylor might have some hangups about the whole family thing.

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Just cause all of her family died in like... the past week...

She'll get over it for the sake of more power and quality minions!

 

[Daniel Snuts]

Oh holy shit Taylor is Willpower 10? I thought she was only WP 8, maybe 9 max. Jesus.

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In the same vein as 'surviving an Endbringer fight gives a stat point', I've been running 'surviving a life-ruiningly traumatic event gives a WP point'. It's been accumulating.

Ooooh.
Did she get any feedback like that sense of Doom Evil Taylor mentions when doing it?

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The abyssal and infernal versions come with the sense of doom, but the solar version is so subtle that Taylor hasn't realized what happened (she doesn't remember what bargain she made with Lung). You'll note that she didn't know what pact sealing did until Evil Taylor explained.

It is indeed what Evil Taylor figured out there, having experienced the subtle version 'again'.

Aisha's stoicism due to the boss already "knowing about it" is certainly a mistake on her part. Taylor almost certainly doesn't actually realize it needs to be on her to-do list. She's always been very accommodating about employee morale, but things slip through the cracks when you're as busy as she's been.

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Yeah. Aisha's insecurities about being way less badass a villain than Taylor are telling her not to whine about little things like pain and mutilation.

Since she's not saying anything it must be fine, right?

Pretty sure a determined enough Taylor could social-fu Amy into first becoming friends, then Amy joining the gang. And once that's done, manipulating her into seeing them as some sort of surrogate family might be possible too.

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Ironically the simplest way to fulfill Panacea's soul price would be to toss her in the Birdcage, where a loving family member would eagerly embrace her. Simple but not easy, because there's an entire meat forest that would be very upset with anyone who tried.

 

[Paralein]

Ironically the simplest way to fulfill Panacea's soul price would be to toss her in the Birdcage, where a loving family member would eagerly embrace her. Simple but not easy, because there's an entire meat forest that would be very upset with anyone who tried.

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It also has the slight drawback of having your new minion where she can't really help you. Unless you're inside the birdcage yourself, of course.

Should Taylor ever run out of capes to study in Brockton, maybe she should let the heroes capture her together with Amy.

 

[Cosmic Dream]

Huh, hadn't thought about that but no reason that bit of biology wouldn't be copied as well.

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If that is the case then, since Evil Taylor is an Abyssal, the only possibilities for the fetus are 'dead and eventual rotting body horror' and 'undead abomination'.

Which I have to admit I have a morbid desire to see on screen, so to speak.

You know, I only just realized that this story is all about the Schadenfreude. Watch terrible things happen to terrible people. Then speculate what even more terrible thing is going to happen next .

 

[Daniel Snuts]

"It's a bit worse for wear, isn't it?" you say critically.

"You try dragging a grown man down two flights of stairs without a few bumps," Aisha complains. "Without your cheaty mind-hands, I mean. You could at least have booped me with strength."

"First you break the power nullifier I was studying, now you complain about having to fetch a new one?"

She grumbles a bit under her breath, but doesn't offer further argument - as well she shouldn't, considering the bounty she collected for Hatchet Face. She can deal with a bit of exercise, for that amount of money.

You consider the unconscious man. You could technically have gone about this differently, gotten into a big traditional cape fight, and all that jazz - if you were incredibly stupid. But since you're not, you instructed Aisha to follow Animos back to his home, stab him with one of your dwindling supply of Shadow Stalker's tranq arrows and drag him out in the middle of the night.

"Let's get him in the cage," you say.

---

"Good morning," you say. "You may have noted that you're in a cage in my basement."

"Let me out, you fucking-"

"You may also have noted that you're not alone," you continue over his little outburst. You gesture to where Sophia is chained up next to his cage. "Your job is to take away her powers."

At this, Animos breaks off his generic cursing in order to address your words directly: "You realize it wears off after a few minutes, right?"

"Yes. I expect you to keep doing it over and over again."

"...why, though?"

You shrug. "Cape reasons. Compliance will be rewarded with food and rest. Defiance will result in electric shocks." You wave towards Sophia. "You may begin."

Animos's power is a bit of an odd one. He can transform into a monster dog almost as big as Rachel's (which is why he's in such a big, sturdy cage). That on its own would make him a pretty good Changer/Brute, but his bark is worse than his bite - because it's a directed sonic attack that nullifies powers. Somehow.

His reaction to your words, rather unsurprisingly, is to turn into his dog form and bark at you.

Electric shocks are applied.

---

Because you paid attention as the power settled into place, you have a fairly good idea of what your version does: It has the 'channelled through a weapon' aspect of Jack's power, and lacks any transformation aspect like Lung's. Well, you happen to be holding an electric cattle prod, and be standing right next to two parahumans you don't particularly like.

You send a quick text to Alec: 'grab her'. Then you look expectantly at Sophia.

"Got her," Ghost says. "What's up?"

"Guinea pig," you explain succinctly. "Report the sensations." Then you poke her with the (deactivated) cattle prod, and channel your new power.

Nothing happens.

"Nothing happened," Ghost reports.

You frown. It definitely looked like it would be channeled through a weapon. And unlike what usually happens when a new power is uncooperative, you clearly felt it go off. It just... didn't do anything.

When in doubt, use more violence. You grab the prod in both hands, wind up and swing it like a baseball bat, activating the power again. And it works! As the prod bounces off her ribcage, sorcerer's sight shows Sophia's parahuman glow fade into mortal dimness - though the lesser glow of Alec's power-fingers all over her nervous system remains.

"Weird," Ghost says. "That didn't hurt at all."

"Try using her power," you say, already knowing the outcome.

"I- wow, yeah, I can't. So, you turn physical damage into power damage?"

"I guess?" You poke Animos, despite his best attempts to shy away from you within his cage. Indeed, with only a poke nothing happens to him. It's still quite tiring to use, you're discovering. You'll happily use, say, mind-hands all day long, but this? You have maybe one or two more shots in you before you need to stop.

"What happens if you hit someone twice?" Ghost asks.

"Let's find out."

You swing at her again - and Ghost collapses, sagging into her chains. She also turns completely dark to sorcerer's sight as Alec's power vanishes from her body. So, it cancels the effects of other powers, but only once they've lost their own powers? That makes even less sense than usu...

...she's not breathing.

Fuck! You didn't want it to end like this. If she was to die, you wanted her to see it coming! But do you really hate her enough to give her mouth-to-mouth?

Checking her pulse reveals the question to be moot. Not only is her heart not beating, her body is unnaturally cool to the touch. So... it turns parahumans into mortals, and mortals into corpses. You shall call it soul-cleaving, because you're pretty sure that's what it does.

While pleased with the power itself, you're quite upset with the results of the testing process. But you're not done quite yet. You turn back to Animos.

"I'll only hit you once," you promise. You need to know whether it's permanent.

---

24 hours later, Animos regains the use of his powers. The look on his face as you approach tells you that he is fully aware that he knows too much, and that he's no longer useful to you.

Oh, but he is still useful. You need someone to verify that the effect of double tapping a cape wasn't a fluke, after all.

---

Unlike every previous time, today your internet search for the word that will save your life gives you a result: 'The Chicago Wards welcome new member Cuff'. Turns out the reason you couldn't find anything the last time you searched the word was that the girl hadn't triggered yet.

Fucking precogs.

"Road trip!" you announce to the room.

"Shotgun!" Aisha calls instantly.

"Where are we going?" a more subdued Alec asks.

"I will pick the music," Nadia - that is, Banshee - that is, Shatterbird - declares. Two days of Aisha calling her 'Birdy' had been enough to make her reveal her civilian name, where mere supernatural Loyalty had failed.

"Nuh-uh," Aisha protests. "That's shotgun's job."

Nadia turns towards you. "May I remain here?" she requests. You don't think she even knows anything about Aisha's taste in music, she merely assumes she will hate it.

"No," you say firmly. She's Loyal, yes, but you're not trusting her not to go feral if you leave her on her own for a week. "And Chicago. There's a cape there whose power I must acquire."

"What happened to the Buddha sitting on the mountain?" Aisha asks.

You shrug. "Sometimes the mountain must go to the Buddha." It is weird, to have something important happen not in Brockton Bay. But there are at least two precogs involved in your life, and things get fuzzy when multiple precogs try to manipulate the same future.

---

As it turns out, Nadia does hate Aisha's taste in music. Stereotypes exist for a reason. You have to negotiate a compromise when Nadia threatens to sing at the car stereo, and the trip passes in a curious mix of gangster rap and Italian opera, with the odd piece of classical orchestra thrown in (though you personally veto the Ode to Joy).

Like all good compromises, it makes no one happy.

Eight hours in, Alec - the only other person present who knows how to drive - offers to take a turn at the wheel. You decline. It's not as if you need sleep, and you'd prefer to keep the person with the (fake) driver's license in the driver's seat just in case you're pulled over. You'd be fine, obviously, but some poor traffic cop just doing his job doesn't deserve to deal with half the remaining Slaughterhouse 9 resisting arrest.

---

"Thank the Lord that's over," Nadia says as she gets out of the car.

"Yeah, that sucked major nutsack," Aisha agrees. "How can you listen to that shit?"

"Perhaps I shall puncture my eardrums for the return trip," Nadia muses.

"...the one with the cannons was kind of cool, though," Aisha admits. For all that her favored musicians (you call them that, but Nadia would disagree with the idea that what they produce is music) went on at considerable length about their love for firearms, none of them hit upon Tchaikovsky's idea of using them as percussion instruments.

"Who's the target?" Alec asks you. "And how do we get to them?"

"Don't worry, I have a cunning plan."

---

"Quicksilver," you tell the receptionist at the Protectorate headquarters. "I'd like to arrange a meeting with Cuff of the Wards."

---

Just because Quicksilver's entry in their database lists no combat powers and no villainous deeds, and the meeting takes place in their own headquarters, and you were frisked on the way up (you obviously refused the metal detector, citing medical reasons), doesn't mean they trust you to be alone with a Ward. Even when the Ward in question does have combat powers, and her costume is armor.

"Revel," the chaperone introduces herself. Her mask is the opposite of yours - it covers the lower half of her face. Her eyes, hair and skin tone reveal her to be of asiatic descent, which she further plays into by having her costume be a kimono, and carrying a Japanese lantern on a stick (the lantern hides a giant tinkertech battery).

You skimmed the entries of the Chicago heroes in your stolen database before you left, so you know that her power is free-form energy manipulation - sort of like Behemoth. A power you certainly wouldn't mind having for yourself, but apparently not the one that will save your life.

Instead, you consider Cuff. Her costume is black and blue, and is, as mentioned, armor. But it is armor that makes your inner Smith shake his head in disgust. It's banded with metal in ways that would make it completely impossible to move in if not for her metallokinesis. It bends and stretches unnaturally as she shakes your hand. If she was just encased in a 'liquid' metal jumpsuit, that would be one thing. But instead, it is as if some utter incompetent drew a picture of 'cool-looking armor' without considering how it would work, and people just went with it.

She's also wearing a full-face mask depicting a generic female face, with tinted lenses over the eye holes. The only part of her that is visible is her platinum blonde hair, which hangs in three separate braids. What is it with Quicksilver and encountering fellow platinum blondes? Hopefully this goes better than last time.

It's the Simurgh's hair color

"Tell me about your power," you request.

Cuff fidgets before answering, and turns to look at Revel, who shrugs. "I control metal?" she says eventually. "I mostly use it to punch harder." She demonstrates by punching the air, using her power to accelerate the metal encasing her arm faster than her muscles could alone. Power armor, indeed.

"And?" you say.

A metal discus, also painted in black and blue, detaches from the back of her costume and floats over her shoulder to hover over her outstretched hands. "I can keep controlling it for a while after I stop touching it, so I've been training to curve projectiles in the air."

"And?" you repeat. If that was all it was, you wouldn't be here. If you needed metallokinesis to survive the note would have read 'AURELIUS'.

"...and I'm rated Brute 2, because I get stronger and faster for a while whenever I get hurt," Cuff admits. Well that fucking sucks.

Revel sees the lower half of your frown, and speaks up. "Why are you here? Is there some problem with her power?"

You shake your head, and force a smile back onto your lips. "I guess only half of my business made it into my PRT profile," you say. You know for a fact that this is the case, since you've stolen said database twice. "Sometimes people have problems, and pay me to study their power. But my job is also my hobby, and so on other occasions I seek out people with interesting powers, and pay them to be studied."

You turn back towards Cuff. "A Thinker of my acquaintance pointed me your way. Now that I know the details, I find myself agreeing with their assessment. I will pay you ten thousand dollars for forty hours of your time."

Cuff lets out a small squeak of surprise on hearing the amount.

"That's how long it takes you to study a power?" Revels asks.

You suspect that she's only trying to fill out your database entry, but answer anyway. "On average, yes, but it varies quite a bit. If it ends up taking longer, I can extend the contract at the same hourly rate."

"And if doesn't take that long?" Cuff asks.

"Then you may keep the full amount, and consider it your good fortune."

"All I need to do is sit around and use my power?"

"Yes. In most cases it would merely be boring... but in your case, I'm afraid it will also be painful."

Cuff slumps in her seat. "Because you'll need to activate my Brute rating," she says, her voice resigned.

"Yes."

"No," Revel says.

Cuff twists around to face her. "You can't decide what I do in my free time," she says with some heat. She turns back to you. "I'll do it. I need the money."

"Child soldiers are paid quite poorly, are they not?" you commiserate.

"Wards are not child soldiers!" Revel says, somewhat above conversational volume.

"Of course not," you say smoothly. "Employing child soldiers would be illegal." A deaf man could hear the subtext.

"I'll have no part in this," Revel declares, speaking to Cuff. "Invite her into your home if you wish, but she is not welcome in my building."

"I have an office," you say.

---

Your office sucks. It's small and cramped, the floor creaks, the door sticks, it smells like an ashtray and it has no air conditioning. It also came with some artwork already hung on the walls, that you promptly took down so you wouldn't have to look at it - and more importantly, so that no one else would see it, and associate it with you. You ran with the S9, and it still managed to make you uncomfortable.

The location sucks too, it being the converted attic of an old residential building. But the price was right. Yes, you did previously state that you had more money that you could possibly spend, but that sort of statement comes with certain implicit assumptions, like 'I will not try to rent the good sort of office space on zero notice.'

The landlord seemed almost surprised when you signed the contract instead of fleeing into the night. But it's not as if you need a glamorous and well-advertised location in the business district for anything. This run-down attic will do just fine, because as soon as you're done with Cuff you'll leave the city and never return.

Spoiler: Business-district-o-vision

The boss told us to go play tourist while she worked. Most of the city reminds me of home - it's a run-down shithole. But it's a lot bigger than Brockton Bay, which means that the shiny part where all the rich assholes have their fancy offices is bigger too.

I expected Birdy to be the least enthusiastic about the whole thing, but she's craning her neck like a yokel, fascinated by the mirrored skyscrapers around us.

"It looks so different when there's glass in the windows," she says musingly. "So much of it, just waiting for me to reach out..." She lowers her gaze to study the people around us. "No one is afraid of me."

"That's civilian identities for you," I say. She hums thoughtfully in response.

"No! Bad!" Alec exclaims as the nearest storefront window starts to vibrate. "No humming!"

Strictly speaking you don't need an office at all, but the desk and the little sign by the door that says 'Quicksilver Consulting' lends an official air to the proceedings that helps smooth things over somewhat. Cuff's handlers dislike you enough without you asking a minor to meet you in a motel room.

And yes, you do still need to placate the handlers. For all that Revel claimed to have washed her hands of the business, Cuff is accompanied by two PRT officers when she arrives. They loom menacingly as you carefully determine the minimum amount of damage that will trigger her Brute rating. They almost seem more upset by your failure to be intimidated than by the blood.

"This is going to suck," Cuff says.

---

You've heard somewhere that happiness is the absence of pain. You don't think it holds up as a general rule, but Cuff was certainly happy when you declared that you were done ahead of schedule. Now it's your turn to be unhappy.

First, you verify that you have no ability whatsoever to control metal. Good. If you had accidentally copied that part of her power, the whole business would have been in vain. To celebrate the good news, you will now engage in self-harm. You carefully do the minimum amount of damage required to activate Cuff's power.

Ow.

Nothing happens.

Of course your version comes with a higher damage threshold. Why wouldn't it?

Ow, again.

The power activates this time, but you don't feel stronger or faster. Physically, that is. Mentally, you feel as if you woke up from a good night's sleep, full of determination and ready to take on the world. You had all but forgotten what that was like.

So, to sum things up: Someone who can see the future told you that gaining Cuff's power will save your life. Cuff's power, that doesn't make you stronger, or tougher, or more dangerous. It doesn't make you immune to pain. All it does is make you more determined as a result of being wounded. What will save your life is raw willpower, forged of injury and tempered in pain.

Your future is going to suck, isn't it?

===

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
Ballistic: Crack the Sky
Crusader: Shell-Cracking Atemi
Purity: Eagle-Wing Style
Flechette: Pattern Spider Touch
Regent: Distracting Finger-Gesture Attack
Bonesaw (sort of): Subcutaneous Armor Plating x3
Jack Slash: Blazing Solar Bolt
Murder Rat: Unstoppable Lunar Wound
Siberian: ???
Animos: Soul-Cleaving Wound
Cuff: Willpower-Enhancing Spirit

 

[Vealie]

Being Tay is suffering indeed!

Does Taylor actually have some influence over which aspect of powers she derives a charm from or not?

 

[ses]

Wow that's an incredibly lame way of getting rid of Sophia.

 

[gustyeagle]

Being Tay is suffering indeed!

Does Taylor actually have some influence over which aspect of powers she derives a charm from or not?

Click to shrink...

She definitely thinks she does.

 

[zapking5]

Wow that's an incredibly lame way of getting rid of Sophia.

Click to shrink...

I actually quite like the sense of realism it gives the story when things seem to happen based on internal logic rather than storytelling rules.

I wonder what is going to happen to Taylor that would break her willpower if not for this charm? She doesn't have much more to lose.

 

[KyleDaScourge]

Wow that's an incredibly lame way of getting rid of Sophia.

Click to shrink...

I mean, yes, but it also makes total sense to me given the context of the situation and Taylor's powers.

She'd totally test things like that on her, and eventually she was gonna accidentally kill her that way.

 

[queermunist]

I wonder what is going to happen to Taylor that would break her willpower if not for this charm? She doesn't have much more to lose.

Click to shrink...

Bonesaw somehow makes a Lisa clone that Taylor has to kill? Or a Danny clone with the power to control rats? Dunno, she's barely human enough to understand what she would find demoralizing.

 

[Earth-Destroyer]

And we have our first Abyssal charm

Soul-Cleaving Wound is pretty good lowering essence shutting down parahumans is powerful. But it can also lower virtues changing a person personality for a time. Get rid of a person valor and they become a craven coward, you can easily force into compliance with oaths and VED.

Don't know where: Willpower-Enhancing Spirit comes from off hand.

 

[Rask]

Don't know where: Willpower-Enhancing Spirit comes from off hand.

Click to shrink...

Solar Resistance Charmset.


Now, Willpower is also useful as sorcery fuel. Maybe Taylor is going to learn some useful spells?

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

Wow that's an incredibly lame way of getting rid of Sophia.

Click to shrink...

Sophia was already reduced to the status of furniture, and Taylor literally beat the special out of her. I guess she could have had a joke arc where she was built up for something, but there's a steady stream of new characters on to the screen courtesy of the canon plot. Making space for them with one final punchline makes sense to me.

I actually quite like the sense of realism it gives the story when things seem to happen based on internal logic rather than storytelling rules.

I wonder what is going to happen to Taylor that would break her willpower if not for this charm? She doesn't have much more to lose.

Click to shrink...

Taylor doesn't seem particularly bothered by the Butcher being in town, and kidnap-murdered one of her capes. Perhaps Taylor ends up habitually cutting to gain willpower to make the voices in her head go away?