Charm Learning Shard (Worm/Exalted) (COMPLETED)

[zapking5]

I don't know if Eidolon would outright block someone else from killing an Endbringer. Feels off to me.

Hah! All xp spent on looking like Glory Girl? All according to Kekakku, one step closer to being Panacea's family!

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I wonder if Panacea might end up mastering Taylor like she would have Victoria.

 

[tronax]

This is pretty much a goodbye to any chance of relative anonymity. The pace is going to be pretty different it seems in this new arc...

 

[Edifier]

I wonder if Panacea might end up mastering Taylor like she would have Victoria.

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"Ooops, I just couldn't help it, you look too hot!"

 

[Rask]

Now that Cauldron is aware of what Taylor can do, she's probably getting recruited one way or another. Which leads to her getting fed all the powers she can possibly want, until jealous Eidolon screws it all up.

 

[TapTwice2]

Now that Cauldron is aware of what Taylor can do, she's probably getting recruited one way or another. Which leads to her getting fed all the powers she can possibly want, until jealous Eidolon screws it all up.

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Funny thing is, if Taylor ever cut Contessa off from her power she would likely fall over and fail to remember how to breathe. Not to mention she wouldn't understand jack shit anyone is saying. In canon by this point she BARELY actually understands any english and still has the brain and learnset of some rando bronze age girl.

Her power has pretty much been puppeting her since day 1 and there's a good chance she has totally forgotten how to human by this point.

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

"Ooops, I just couldn't help it, you look too hot!"

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"I have never seen a power as sexy as yours," tilts head in consideration, "It fills the very air around you with light, even as it fills my heart with passion."

*glomp*

 

[John Doey]

I guess that was Eidolon's chosen one mentality coming out at the very end and possibly fucking things over for Cauldron.

 

[JustCurious]

EDIT: Wait a second, was that Valefor?

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What are you referring to?

 

[Fernando]

I wonder if they'll come to the conclusion that Smith was the late Danny Hebert and that Taylor was second-gen?

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Catching up on the thread and this sent me to the moon.

PRT: So hey, we understand that, err, your father had a challenging life and this may have resulted in your, let's say conversion to the Empire, but here in the Wards we can help you come to terms with the trauma that comes with being a second-generation-

Tay-tay: Are you comparing me to Glory Girl and Theo in terms of the trauma that led to me being a cape!?!

 

[Zax Zaubererglück]

I don't know if Eidolon would outright block someone else from killing an Endbringer. Feels off to me.

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Felt very 'Eidolon' to me.

Remember, Eidolon is a mentally very.... 'limited' person. He is deliberately kept this way, via Contessa pathing, to ease future pathing around him.
He has access to the unrestricted catalogue of the thinker entity. Including some command authority over endbringers. His thinker, master and stranger powers should be the most powerfull and prevalent of all his abilities. These powers would also be plain better, than anything most parahumans get.
Meanwhile, Eidolon cosplays as a blaster and ONLY as a blaster...

Eidolon is for me one of the biggest "WTF" parts in Worm. You give a character limited omnipotence, only to have said character being kept too retarded to use it.

Kicking Eidolon out of the story would make it better in my opinion. If you still want an "Eidolon" stand in for the Scion fight? Easy, take a dozen 'failed' cauldron victims, fuse them together via Bonesaw & Panacea, mind rape 'it' by a dozen masters to hate Scion >> Voila, you have something with about as much personality as the original Eidolon, but with a ten times bigger nightmare factor. Ideal for your deconstruction of the superhero genre.

 

[space turtle]

And the first one bites the dust!!!
Perfect attacks stacked with defence ignoring strikes.
Was bound to work out at some point.
But I'm gonna echo what was said already, zero chance for "Esper" to stay ignoble. Toppling the first nightmare tends to focus minds.

Taylor just needs to hope that cauldron aren't capable of keeping her sedated. Hell walking should get her out of any prison at least momentarily, but she needs to be conscious enough to use it.

Her enhanced Glory Girl-ish body should help with the five day route march.

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

A 'ninja' mask covers the lower half of your face, complemented by crimson eyes and long silky black hair. Yes, yes, you're shallow, whatever. What is even the point of playing dress-up if you can't indulge your vanity a little? Let's focus on the Endbringer in the room.

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The woman has a point.

"Esper," you say into your armband. "Blaster, unconventional. My power will either ignore Endbringer defenses entirely, or do nothing at all. Range, roughly 100 feet."

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"Does it have a soul?" is the new "Will it blend?"

You activate Crusader's power - to penetrate, however lightly, through any amount of armor - and layer it with that of Murder Rat - to insure an injury no matter what. You thrust, and use Jack's power to send your strike forward as a beam of golden fire.

(Turns out you misjudged Jack's power - it does come with a Thinker component, telling you exactly how to strike to prevent any chance of being blocked or dodged. You didn't notice until now because you only tested it on trees)

As the hit lands, you use Animos's power to turn physical injury into a wound on the soul, ripping away your adversary's power.

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Nifty combo, that.

"Door to Esper. Door to Sanctuary."

A portal appears before me, with Esper on the other side. Her flesh is blackening and cracking and there are flames shooting out of her mouth as she screams in pain, but she's not dead yet.

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And people says Ox-Body is a waste of a charm.

Panacea immediately closes her eyes and lays a hand on Esper's thigh, the other motioning me to lay her down on a cot. Though her eyes fly open again before I can even relinquish my burden. "Ilsa?" she squeaks. She shakes her head and closes her eyes again. "How is she- what is this? Fruit, I need all the fruit!"

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"What's the problem? What's the problem!? Her subdermal armor has melted. Melted and run and pooled and is now setting again, blocking things up and cooking her faster than I can heal her! You need a ferrokinetic, not a biokinetic!"

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Cute disclosures of personally identifying information you've got there PanPan.

"What did I do? I made him hurt. I made him scared. I made him stop sandbagging." You scrabble at the fingers around your throat, to no avail. "Let me go, I have to get out there. I have to hit him again!"

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You laugh and stab yourself again, and again and again. You laugh as Eidolon desperately flips through his power library looking for something that will keep you from bleeding out (little does he know). You laugh as Dragon's voice sounds from the armband, announcing "The kill aura has shrunk to 60 feet!" You laugh and stab and laugh and stab.

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Man, now I wanna see a dossier update meeting among Protectorate, Cauldron, or some group that knows.

Your eyes narrow. The reason Eidolon glows brighter than other capes is that he has no less than three powers active at all times. And right now, your problem is with... that one. Golden fire lashes out, searing away the telekinesis he used to imprison you - and is currently using to fly. He falls from the sky, and his knee twists the wrong way as he lands.

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Behemoth doesn't topple as your fire scourges away the last remnant of his soul. He simply grows still, and the baleful light of his eye dims. What remains is a basalt statue, caught in the act of scrabbling to escape a force it could not understand or resist. A fitting monument, and a message to his siblings regarding what is to come.

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In the next episode of Days of Cauldron Lives, can Eidolon put two and two together and get four?

 

[Daniel Snuts]

I don't prefer it.
But I will point out it is verifiable. If we see Blasto alive, then it's non canon

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You have that logic backwards. The author says it's unverifiable => the story will not feature an alive Blasto.

Hold on does that mean Taylor now has the body of Amy's glory girl living sex doll?

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Yes. Something a thoughtful reader might have deduced about Amy's homunculi: Why are they dressed in patient gowns? Because they showed up at the hospital naked.

Something people probably won't have considered: The two most trusted ones are named Alice and Bethany. They are the most trusted because they're the oldest. The other eight are named Cecilia, Daphne, Erica, Frances, Grace, Helen, Irene and Juliet. She has promised herself she will stop before (read: will have a catastrophic mental breakdown when) she reaches V.

Did Behemoth attack Brockton Bay aswell?

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Yes. The buddha sits on the mountain, and all things come to him.

Bye bye least interesting and narratively important endbringer.

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Ah, a man who has decided that Tohu and Bohu don't exist, much like Star Wars only has three movies. Excellent taste.

Her enhanced Glory Girl-ish body should help with the five day route march.

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No enhancements beyond Appearance, only one free stat point. But at least it has the same exalt-type Brute 0 rating as her old body, because Panacea has been copying what she saw of Ylva's god-blooded biology for her homunculi.

Nifty combo, that.

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It's called 'Behemoth-Felling Strike', because exalts are literally physically incapable of using multiple charms at once without giving the result a chuuni name. Shouting it as you attack is optional, though.

And people says Ox-Body is a waste of a charm.

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Most of the credit goes to Bonesaw, who Taylor really should send some flowers and a thank-you card. No genius even slightly less insane would have hit on the idea of deliberately melting everything below the neck as a last-ditch heatsink for surviving Manton-unlimited energy attacks, but every joule spent on turning metal from solid to liquid is a joule not spent cooking your brainmeats.

 

[space turtle]

Riley equals best girl shaped being confirmed?!!!

 

[zapking5]

Ah, a man who has decided that Tohu and Bohu don't exist, much like Star Wars only has three movies. Excellent taste.

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Tohu could be pretty interesting, doing weird stuff by combining 3 different powers. It wasn't interesting in Worm, but it easily could be.

 

[Alucard 109]

Tohu could be pretty interesting, doing weird stuff by combining 3 different powers. It wasn't interesting in Worm, but it easily could be.

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Tohu is just evil Eidolon. If Tay VEEs him some brains, they'd probably be a perfect even match.

 

[zapking5]

Tohu is just evil Eidolon. If Tay VEEs him some brains, they'd probably be a perfect even match.

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Eidolon can't pick 3 exact powers the way Tohu can. I think Tohu could in theory straight up copy Contessa for example.

It would be amusing if Tohu showed up and went full Trump in this story, picking Eidolon/Fairy Queen/Taylor for its power set.

 

[Zxzx24]

, a man who has decided that Tohu and Bohu don't exist, much like Star Wars only has three movies. Excellent taste.

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*groans*

 

[ses]

What are you referring to?

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White haired parahuman that was at Arcadia that Good(?) Taylor used to bait Taylor into showing up at school. Near white platinum blond wearing sunglasses indoors is a dead ringer for Valefor.

 

[JustCurious]

Eidolon can't pick 3 exact powers the way Tohu can. I think Tohu could in theory straight up copy Contessa for example.

It would be amusing if Tohu showed up and went full Trump in this story, picking Eidolon/Fairy Queen/Taylor for its power set.

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Taylor's power is quite useless in the context of an Endbringer fight, unless Tohu has a way to copy powers at a frightening pace.
I think a Cody/Eidolon/Mama Mathers combo would be much more frightening, especially if the time reset could be used to cancel the effect of Taylor's attacks.
(As a reminder, Cody is the time travel cape from the Travellers that was sent to the Yangban)

White haired parahuman that was at Arcadia that Good(?) Taylor used to bait Taylor into showing up at school. Near white platinum blond wearing sunglasses indoors is a dead ringer for Valefor.

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Nice observation. Snuts even compared his hair to the Simurgh! And the sunglasses!
Pity she won't be going back to school. Probably. Dunno if I should hope he survived.

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

White haired parahuman that was at Arcadia that Good(?) Taylor used to bait Taylor into showing up at school. Near white platinum blond wearing sunglasses indoors is a dead ringer for Valefor.

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First Taylor soft-touch warned him off the fight in Arcadia, then she went and killed an Endbringer. Talk about sending mixed messages!

Speaking of which, after two Endbringer battles plus the bombings, sapphire zone, and assorted other para-improvements, how much of Brockton Bay is even left?

 

[ses]

Nice observation. Snuts even compared his hair to the Simurgh! And the sunglasses!
Pity she won't be going back to school. Probably. Dunno if I should hope he survived.

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First Taylor soft-touch warned him off the fight in Arcadia, then she went and killed an Endbringer. Talk about sending mixed messages!

Speaking of which, after two Endbringer battles plus the bombings, sapphire zone, and assorted other para-improvements, how much of Brockton Bay is even left?

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Being the first place to ever get hit twice in a row as well as the site of one of their messiah's death? Brockton Bay is about to be Fallen holy land. Putting my chips down on Taylor attempting to infiltrate the Fallen. So far she's 1 and 1(?) on not getting major intimacies towards the Policy of groups she's "infiltrated", so 50/50 chance Taylor ends up becoming a Simurgh cultist. She did set her up with a bf after all. Also genuinely curious how Taylor is going to feel towards Valefor. Will her Nazi beliefs lead her to denigrating and hating him for being a femboy? Or is her desperation for new friends going to lead to the Taylor/Valefor rarepair? Will this lead to yet another entry into the "hilarious misunderstandings about Taylor's sexuality" album?

Also. Taylor just killed Behemoth. She's now one of the world's greatest heroes. The moment a reporter sticks a microphone in her face she'll have the biggest bully pulpit since Scion first appeared on the planet. She should totally use that once-in-a-lifetime chance to tell everyone to around blacks, never relax.

EDIT: If she publicly outs herself as Poltergeist and gives Jack Slash the credit for forging her into what she is in the wake of killing Behemoth, would that seal his soul price?

 

[JustCurious]

Being the first place to ever get hit twice in a row as well as the site of one of their messiah's death? Brockton Bay is about to be Fallen holy land. Putting my chips down on Taylor attempting to infiltrate the Fallen. So far she's 1 and 1(?) on not getting major intimacies towards the Policy of groups she's "infiltrated", so 50/50 chance Taylor ends up becoming a Simurgh cultist. She did set her up with a bf after all. Also genuinely curious how Taylor is going to feel towards Valefor. Will her Nazi beliefs lead her to denigrating and hating him for being a femboy? Or is her desperation for new friends going to lead to the Taylor/Valefor rarepair? Will this lead to yet another entry into the "hilarious misunderstandings about Taylor's sexuality" album?

Also. Taylor just killed Behemoth. She's now one of the world's greatest heroes. The moment a reporter sticks a microphone in her face she'll have the biggest bully pulpit since Scion first appeared on the planet. She should totally use that once-in-a-lifetime chance to tell everyone to around blacks, never relax.

EDIT: If she publicly outs herself as Poltergeist and gives Jack Slash the credit for forging her into what she is in the wake of killing Behemoth, would that seal his soul price?

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You've got the most delightful ideas. I like how you think.

 

[Dakkah]

Hmm since surviving a regular endbringer battle gives 1 WP, does surviving getting cooked/the Red queens ministrations count too? (Mostly wondering because apparently killing an Endbringer gives a pitiful amount of Exp.)

 

[Zax Zaubererglück]

No enhancements beyond Appearance, only one free stat point. But at least it has the same exalt-type Brute 0 rating as her old body, because Panacea has been copying what she saw of Ylva's god-blooded biology for her homunculi.

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If this were an RPG table, I would be having words with you after the gaming session. Mostly regarding rules, advancement consistency and how you want to handle this power gaming hole you just opened up.

Ah, a man who has decided that Tohu and Bohu don't exist, much like Star Wars only has three movies. Excellent taste.

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*groans*

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Snuts is on point here. I forgot about Tohu and Bohu too. What did they add to the story? Little of value.
The Star Wars comparision is apt because of that. If your sequel is bad enough, people will suddenly look fondly at the prequel. >> The Worm Behemoth 'fight' looks better, when compared to the Bohu appearances, instead of the Leviathan one.

 

[Daniel Snuts]

If this were an RPG table, I would be having words with you after the gaming session. Mostly regarding rules, advancement consistency and how you want to handle this power gaming hole you just opened up.

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I must confess I don't understand what the complaint would be. A faithfully recreated Glory Girl body has nothing besides Appearance to offer: Taylor is an exalt who spent weeks doing heavy physical labor in the wake of Leviathan, whereas Glory Girl had flight and superstrength - she never got a single lick of exercise more than she needed to look good.

Snuts is on point here. I forgot about Tohu and Bohu too. What did they add to the story? Little of value.
The Star Wars comparision is apt because of that. If your sequel is bad enough, people will suddenly look fondly at the prequel. >> The Worm Behemoth 'fight' looks better, when compared to the Bohu appearances, instead of the Leviathan one.

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Behemoth puts in a honest day's work being a chtonic magma beast. Not a patch on Ziz, but a solid, iconic role. Whereas it took me two tries to read Worm, and it was the sheer lameness of Tohu and Bohu that killed the first attempt.

It had become pretty rough going even before then, each interlude an oasis of readability in the wasteland of being Taylor, but their introduction dealt the final blow.

Being the first place to ever get hit twice in a row as well as the site of one of their messiah's death? Brockton Bay is about to be Fallen holy land. Putting my chips down on Taylor attempting to infiltrate the Fallen. So far she's 1 and 1(?) on not getting major intimacies towards the Policy of groups she's "infiltrated", so 50/50 chance Taylor ends up becoming a Simurgh cultist. She did set her up with a bf after all. Also genuinely curious how Taylor is going to feel towards Valefor. Will her Nazi beliefs lead her to denigrating and hating him for being a femboy? Or is her desperation for new friends going to lead to the Taylor/Valefor rarepair? Will this lead to yet another entry into the "hilarious misunderstandings about Taylor's sexuality" album?

Also. Taylor just killed Behemoth. She's now one of the world's greatest heroes. The moment a reporter sticks a microphone in her face she'll have the biggest bully pulpit since Scion first appeared on the planet. She should totally use that once-in-a-lifetime chance to tell everyone to around blacks, never relax.

EDIT: If she publicly outs herself as Poltergeist and gives Jack Slash the credit for forging her into what she is in the wake of killing Behemoth, would that seal his soul price?

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I love this post, it's a perfect yin-yang of right and wrong that manages to earn a cookie while being net 0 insightful.

 

[JustCurious]

Being the first place to ever get hit twice in a row as well as the site of one of their messiah's death? Brockton Bay is about to be Fallen holy land. Putting my chips down on Taylor attempting to infiltrate the Fallen. So far she's 1 and 1(?) on not getting major intimacies towards the Policy of groups she's "infiltrated", so 50/50 chance Taylor ends up becoming a Simurgh cultist. She did set her up with a bf after all. Also genuinely curious how Taylor is going to feel towards Valefor. Will her Nazi beliefs lead her to denigrating and hating him for being a femboy? Or is her desperation for new friends going to lead to the Taylor/Valefor rarepair? Will this lead to yet another entry into the "hilarious misunderstandings about Taylor's sexuality" album?

Also. Taylor just killed Behemoth. She's now one of the world's greatest heroes. The moment a reporter sticks a microphone in her face she'll have the biggest bully pulpit since Scion first appeared on the planet. She should totally use that once-in-a-lifetime chance to tell everyone to around blacks, never relax.

EDIT: If she publicly outs herself as Poltergeist and gives Jack Slash the credit for forging her into what she is in the wake of killing Behemoth, would that seal his soul price?

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I love this post, it's a perfect yin-yang of right and wrong that manages to earn a cookie while being net 0 insightful.

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Ooh! Now I want to try guessing the right parts.

Not certain on the Simurgh part, but if she does become a Simurgh cultist, it'd be more in the "I'm fucking scared of her" kind of way. She definitely wants revenge on Leviathan, but the Simurgh hasn't given her a reason to be killed, and every reason to be terrified, since Ziz is obviously paying close attention to her. I'd say if she does infiltrate the Fallen, it'd be to wipe out the Leviathan cultists, piss on the Behemoth cultists, and probably more or less go along with the Simurgh cultists like she went along with the nazis.

I think she'll be totally indifferent to Valefor's femboyness. Well, at least, not because of nazism and their hate of homosexuality or non-manly men. Maybe she'll hate him like she hated Theo, but somehow I doubt that. Probably, she'll just find his power interesting as another way to ensure that minions can't betray her. If there's one thing she'll never have enough of, it's ways to Master minions. I do NOT believe in a Taylor/Valefor pairing without her being Mastered, so far Taylor no longer sees other humans as even remotely deserving being noticed beyond their use for her goals (killing Leviathan and Jack). Even somethink like what happened with Ballistic is unlikely imo.

I don't know what's more likely between Taylor ensuring Valefor dies a gruesome death after trying to suborn her or one of her minions, Valefor becoming a minion himself (on a meta-level, he can't be a minion, at least not for long, he's a waaay too convenient way to gather further minions or to ensure other parahumans' cooperation), or something more complicated. Could be that, just as in canon, Aisha is the last shield against a Mastered Taylor. Would be really funny if Taylor gets Mastered by Valefor, Aisha goes dark to avoid being ordered to let Valefor Master her, Taylor happily goes along with the Fallen, learning all their powers and being mind-raped by Valefor, and ends up freed and a wreck after Aisha finds a way to free her with her new smarts after neutralizing all of Valefor's death-switches (at least those on Taylor). If that happens, I guess Shatterbird--sorry, Banshee--could find herself with a bullet between her eyes, since it's likely Valefor will want Taylor to order her to come and be Mastered and start acting nasty again. Although Regent could prevent Banshee to obey, which would maybe break Emptiness Endowment, which would still makes Banshee's life quite risky for a while.
Or, who knows, maybe Aisha doesn't manage not to be Mastered, and Taylor has to find another way to free herself. Like a convenient esoteric Brute/Master power with unclear activation conditions.
(I would actually love to see a Mastered Taylor arc. It's so rare! And there's so many cool and terrifying powers to collect in the Fallen. Especially given that, as ses said, BB is likely to be flooded in them. Hopefully they won't try to give Taylor children, as is Fallen policy with their captured female parahumans...)

Chances are, she can still be predicted by Contessa. So, she won't have the opportunity to send the PRT crashing on live TV. That goes double since she'll want to lay low for now, to avoid being smashed by a glory-hound Eidolon. However, I can definitely see her keeping this identity preciously in reserve until the next Endbringer battle or until she can utterly ruin the PRT with the same sadism Evil Taylor would feel to ruin Taylor. And what better place to do this than when Contessa can't predict her, in the next Endbringer battle? Bonus point if it's the Simurgh. Even more bonus points if she reveals Eidolon's link to the Endbringers (or at least the Simurgh) and people believe her.
Still, if she's reasonable, she'll probably wait until after Leviathan is dead. She might need Eidolon's help to survive, after all, given what happened here. I can totally see her be casually racist on live TV, though.

Jack's soul price... I'd like to see how she could fulfill it. Merely saying she could only do it thanks to him doesn't feel like enough. Sure, his name might become associated with Behemoth's death, but it won't be his crowning achievement, more something for which he's mentionned in passing. Ways to make sure he's associated to this victory is revealing she copied his powers (and EVERYONE will be after her head, no one wants another Fairy Queen), that she's Poltergeist (more or less the same effect), that Jack made her trigger (which doesn't give him much merit, since triggers and their results aren't controlled)... And after that, sure, he'd be loyal, but his power will still counter any order that results in endangering him, eating away at the loyalty in no time. Seems risky for no gain.


On another note, I wonder how her interactions with Panacea will change, now that she has her sister's appearance and just delivered on her promise to go to the next Endbringer fight in a spectacular fashion.

 

[Daniel Snuts]

What if I told you that wasn't Valefor in the school?

 

[Zxzx24]

What if I told you that wasn't Valefor in the school?

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Crossdressing Simurgh in a human suit confirmed.

 

[Cheiromancer]

What if I told you that wasn't Valefor in the school?

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I thought it was Scrub, myself, but I wasn't paying much attention, tbh.