Charm Learning Shard (Worm/Exalted) (COMPLETED)

That's another soul price moving into the 'never gonna use' column, you suppose. Which isn't to say that it hasn't been useful. Lung, who famously fought Leviathan to a draw, wants a rematch against someone else. If you ever see a parahuman woman wearing a fedora, you're turning around on the spot and running the fuck away.

But back to the present: After taking care of Lung - once again out-heroing the heroes, just as a side effect of being a sane person acting in your own self interest - the next item on the agenda is 'hanging out with Rune'.

"Since we have patrol tonight, I can't just dismiss Fenrir for the day," you explain, not entirely honestly. "I need somewhere a giant wolf can lay low until our shift starts."

Because you enjoy a certain amount of irony in your life, you suggest you hang out over the Medhall building - no one ever spots anyone up there. But almost as soon as you you get out of sight from the others you notice Rune's hands start shaking, prompting you to put a comforting arm around her shoulders.

"All those people," she says softly. "There were- I saw a little kid get caught in..."

"Yeah," you say, because there's little else to say. The suicide bombers were not defeated without collateral damage.

Fenrir tries to nuzzle her, but she flinches away from his bloodstained affections.

"How are you so calm?" she asks.

"Practice, I guess. Ottawa was worse, and hit me harder at the time."

"You were at- you never spoke about that."

"And I never will."

Rune nods.

Actually none of that happened, because Rune is a certifiable badass who would never show weakness in front of others - and if it did, you would have been sworn to secrecy about it. The next couple of hours are pleasant enough as Rune gradually calms down you sit around and talk about nothing in particular, only somewhat marred by post-traumatic stress the way you're sort of expecting to get called in and chewed out by your boss at any moment.

The conversation eventually circles around to the subject of boys, as conversations between teenage girls do (you know this from overhearing others - you yourself haven't exactly had friends since becoming a teenager).

Now as it happens, you did meet a boy yesterday - but Low Key can't exactly talk about what Quicksilver did, now can she? You have to fall back to the second-most-recent boy you met. And even with the cape-related details omitted that's still a risky thing to share. But mutually assured destruction through shared secrets is what friendship is all about, and Rune is being a friend.

"I did meet this one guy recently," you say. "Big, strong, handsome... a little older than me, but that's just the way I like them. He seemed nice too, but..."

"Taken? Gay?"

"Black," you sigh.

"Oosh. Better not go spreading that around."

"Yeah, I know." 'I'm trusting you to keep my secrets' goes unsaid, but not unheard.

"No worries," Rune says. "I've been there. This one time, one of my dumb friends from school sent me a picture of a some shirtless nigger - and wouldn't you know it, some rank and file asshole was looking over my shoulder right as I opened the message."

You cringe in sympathy as she continues, seemingly addressing the world at large as much as yourself. "It was just a fucking picture! I admit the dude was hella ripped, but you wouldn't believe the earful I got for noticing. It was just some random internet beefcake, it's not as if I could've fucked him even if I'd wanted to!"

"I have a dream that my children will one day live in a nation where my eye candy will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the definition of their abs?" you suggest.

Rune snorts. "It was like half a year ago, and they're still sending me stats on domestic abuse and single motherhood broken down by race!"

You laugh and roll your eyes. They are such fucking nerds. "It's nice to know they're looking out for you at least," you say.

Rune aims a swat at your head, but you dodge. "I'll forward the whole mess to you so you can feel appreciated too!"

The funny thing is, you do feel appreciated. Rune is looking out for you, and you're not even reverse blackmailing her. You might even keep hanging out with her after you've gotten her power. Which is going to happen any month now, Jesus Christ what is so difficult about lifting rocks?

---

You patrol, you sleep, you go to school, you go to the dojo - and still you don't get called in to answer for what you did. Over the course of the evening pretty much every single mortal at the dojo manages to catch your eye and give you either a respectful nod or a softly-spoken "well done", so it's not as if no one knows. Everyone knows.

But speaking of irony in your life, the very first session after having befriended(?) Hookwolf is when you finally get Othala's power down. Meaning you no longer have any reason to stick around. Well, you can work with this.

"Me 'n Krieg told Kaiser it was all our idea, and we press-ganged the two of you into helping out," Hookwolf tells you after everyone else has left, and suddenly everything makes sense again. And you're going to have to take the question mark off of 'befriended', because taking the fall for you like that was a seriously decent thing to do.

"'preciate it. How hard did you get reamed?"

"Eh." Hookwolf waves the matter away. "We had him over a barrel and he knew it. We're the only lieutenants he's got left."

An excellent point, that you hadn't thought of. It's easy to forget that Hookwolf is actually third in command in the Empire (with Krieg in second), because he comes off as a simple thug. But he really is a lot like Lung - you shouldn't be fooled by the way they habitually turn into giant monsters and wreck shit. That doesn't mean they're stupid: Turning into a giant monster is a very intelligent solution to a great many problems.

"So," you say, "now that we've gone through the classic buddy cop arc and become friends despite our differences-" Hookwolf snorts at that "-I've realized that the friendliest thing I could do would be to stop shitting up your dojo with my retarded presence." Crap, you called it a dojo to his face. He doesn't react to it, though.

"Will you be alright? You are shit at fighting still."

Oh sure, now he wants to teach you. You hold out your hand in front of you, and will the golden knife to appear in your grip. "I'll manage."

With that, the 'Hookwolf saga' part of your life story comes to a satisfactory conclusion. Oh, you're hopeful that some day you'll be able to parlay your buddy cop status into studying his power for real, and become a chainsaw monster too. But attending the dojo is not how you do that, and you need to free up time so that Quicksilver can hang out with Ballistic.

Yes, just as you were worrying about where your next power was going to come from, one of the most amazingly lethal Blaster powers you've ever seen practically dropped into your lap. You'd say someone must be looking out for you, except you really hope not because that someone would be the Simurgh. Quick, think about something else.

Like your new power. Gotta figure out what you did to this one. You'd call it a crapshoot, but to be honest only one power (Lung's) has given you any real trouble (one point five if you count whatever the hell Newter did to you). Sure, it could be argued that Labyrinth's power gave you quite a bit of trouble - but the power itself was easy to use and self-explanatory in its effect. The fact that said effect turned out to be 'stranding the user and any bystanders in a desert for the better part of a week' is a separate issue.

So, Othala. The power to grant powers. She has to touch people to do it, but some instinct tells you that you won't have to. You'd prefer a proper instruction manual, but vague nudges are more than some powers (Lung's!) have given you. So you try to reach your mind out to Fenrir, as he immaterially pads along next to you. Flight, you think as hard as you can. Because a magic wolf companion is awesome, but a flying wolf companion would be even better.

It doesn't work. Okay, what about powers you actually possess? You mentally flip through your (gratifyingly long) list of powers, looking for something that would a) be obvious if it worked, and b) Fenrir can be trusted with.

Oh, you're dumb, the correct answer is obviously mind-hands. A magic wolf companion is awesome, but a tentacled wolf companion..? No but seriously, mind-hands are ridiculously dextrous, and his biggest weakness is his lack of thumbs. Not to mention that they can cross the material/immaterial barrier. Mind-hands, you think at him.

It doesn't work either. If it only works on humans, you're going to be pissed - or realistically, mildly disappointed. Super strength? you suggest without much optimism, but it seems your power likes that better. You feel a connection form, above and beyond the ever-present connection of a spirit-tied pet. Your mind brushes against his, and you perceive... contentment? Your power can't improve Fenrir, because he is happy the way he is?

Really, subconscious? You gave yourself a power-granting power that only works on people with body image issues? Really? Could you maybe pretend to not be a broken person for just one single power? (trick question, you're a parahuman)

You put further experimentation on hold, because you're not about to try to convince Fenrir that he isn't awesome. He is awesome, but he also loves you enough that he might believe you if you told him otherwise. And you'd rather kill yourself than abuse his trust like that.

It's when you get home and see your dad that the last piece falls into place.

He is tired, your power whispers. You know. He's always tired, he's working so hard. To keep the union alive in a dying city... and to provide for you, despite the way you've been acting recently. You wish you could contribute some of your ill-gotten gains to the household budget without blowing everything up even worse... but there is something else you can do. He has never tried to hide how life wears on him, at least not very well.

So you give him an unsolicited hug, and supernatural stamina.

Not very much, yours is not a flashy power. Strictly Brute 0 territory. Not that you would inflict capehood on your old man even if you could. But enough to keep up with the demands he makes of himself a little better.

Not flashy, perhaps, but apparently permanent. Once given, you discover that you couldn't take that stamina back even if you wanted to. An interesting trade-off compared to the original power. You almost hope this somehow reveals yet another deep-seated flaw in your character, because the alternative is that you subconsciously made Othala's power more low key. Ugh.

You're going to call it 'emptiness endowment', you think. Because it can only fill up the holes in your spirit.

You shoot off a quick message to Lisa before bed - you are going to want to brag about this one. Of course it would be even better if you could use it on y- you can use it on yourself! As soon as you think of it, every single aspect of yourself that you've ever been dissatisfied with opens up for improvement. Ouch, it's a lot.

You're this close to doing something stupid, before you stop yourself. That thing can wait. That other thing too. You haven't discovered what limits this power has, if any. You should start with the most useful thing, and work your way down the list. But what would be the most useful?

Well, it sure would be nice to know some knife fighting techniques to go with your magic knife. Cutting through anything is all well and good, but you've heard that some people use weapons to parry things as well.

And just like that, you know. You summon your knife into your hand, and run through a series of attacks and guard stances. So that's what Cricket was trying to teach you. Ha. Now that you've left the dojo once and for all, you finally get it.

You straighten up and send the knife away again. You experience a mild mental hiccup when you don't forget anything of what you just learned - having gotten used to industry and forge wisdom, you sort of expected your sudden expertise to vanish the moment you let go of the implement. But no, this power is different. The knowledge is still there, even when you don't immediately need it. As is a faint ache that you recognize from when you created Fenrir, though nowhere near as bad. Hm. You recovered from that without ill effects, but still. Pain is generally your body's way of telling you to stop. And you're in a much less precarious position now than you were back then, you can afford to be careful.

You sit down on the bed, turn your sorcerer's sight inwards and study your new power as you meditate on the feeling. It reaches out like that, and injects... your internal monolog quickly degenerates into Thinker-language, but you think you see what's going on. Forcibly shoving foreign capabilities into your soul(?) damages your... potential for growth?

This is where a scientist would start making shit up in order to generate a physics- and biology-compliant model of what was happening, and start using words like 'brain plasticity'. As an old hand at unreasonable ontology, you don't make that mistake.

Instead you follow the warm glow of I'm sitting next to my Spirit-tied Pet back to the power in question, to see if your new perspective on things can give any new insights. Uh-huh. Yep. That thing was burning your potential to fuel his growth. Stick that in your brain plasticity model and smoke it.

Good call on not going nuts with self-endowment, though. Overusing that thing could seriously retard your ability to learn things naturally - and 'learning things' is the whole point of your main power!

---

"You'll love this one!" You reach out and boop Lisa on the nose with one finger, concentrating on bestowing a gift of intelligence. She's certainly complained enough about the flaky nature of her own power for it to count.

Her eyes go wide, and her power goes off - you're too busy getting your unfamiliar new power to work correctly to catch what it said - and she rejects it. Without a willing recipient you lose control and the gift fizzles out.

"For the love of god, Taylor. Could you please stop adding creepy Master effects to your powers?"

Yeesh, is she still sore about you having her soul price? Wait, Master effects?

"Master effects?"

"The fact that you didn't know is the only reason I'm not punching you in the face right now. Hm. It didn't feel like soul's price, though. Hit me again, I want to figure this out."

You roll your eyes, boop her again, and get rejected once more. Maybe if she'd been smarter, she could have figured it out in one go.

"Huh." Lisa leans back in her chair. "More Shaker than Master. Probability manipulation. You're not compelled to obey, but if you don't, something terrible happens to you."

That's... sort of awesome, actually. "See, I only make nice Master powers. I give you something nice, and all I ask is that you're nice back. Soul price is 'guaranteed gratitude', this is 'karmic justice.'"

Lisa sighs, but you like to imagine it's a fond sigh. "I'm still not going to let you do it."

---

"Stupid ungrateful Thinkers," you mutter to yourself as you prep the apparatus. One more session should lock in trusting the notes properly. A short session this time, to keep the permanent nerve damage to a minimum: Without the dojo as an excuse your access to Othala is more limited. And you do have a date with Ballistic later tonight.

"What did she do?" Aisha asks.

"I was going to use my new power to make her smarter. Lisa loves being smart, right? But noooo, she had to get all pissy about the Master effect. It's not like I would have asked her to do anything bad! We're friends!"

"Huh. So you're basically Teacher now?"

"I suppose."

"Hey. Um. You know..." When she doesn't continue, you turn away from the apparatus to face her. She's looking at her feet, and fidgeting. It's weird. You can't say you know her well, but you've never known her to be bashful. About anything.

"Yes?"

"Could I have her smarts? Since she didn't want them and all." Once she starts speaking, the words come out in a rush.

You raise an eyebrow. "You sure? The Master effect will fuck you up if you ever disobey me."

She snorts. "Yeah, like you wouldn't fuck me up if I disobeyed you regardless."

"An excellent point. Here." You boop her with smarts. You don't have to touch people, but it's funnier if you do.

"Holy shit," Aisha says. She blinks rapidly a couple of times, then looks around the room, wide-eyed. "Hit me with a math problem!"

You shrug. "9x - 12 = 51?"

"Uh... minus twelve, um, sixty-three... Seven? Holy shit, I just got that. Is this what smart people feel like all the time?"

"No," you tell her.

"Oh." Her shoulders slump a bit. "I suppose you get used to it?"

"I didn't give you that much," you continue as if she hadn't spoken. "That's what people of average intelligence feel like all the time."

She starts to give you the finger, but reconsiders it halfway through the gesture. "Could I have some more then? Please?"

She could, but... "Give it a couple of weeks to settle in. Could be side effects if I give you too much all at once."

"Yeah? What kind of side effects? Because-"

"Learning disabilities," you say.

"Never mind!" Yeah, you had a feeling she'd say that. Right in the insecurities. "But, uh, as soon as it's safe, yeah? I've been a pretty good minion, haven't I?"

===

Spoiler: Updated status

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

Spoiler: Mechanics corner

Taylor's new charm does exactly what Lisa describes it as doing. A deal with the devil, except you don't need to explicitly ask the devil for anything, just express discontent where the devil can hear. And the devil doesn't have to tell you that anything is happening at all. It can be refused, but unless the devil warns you ahead of time that happens on a purely subconscious level - the DM says "you're getting X as a Training effect, would you like to spend 1 Willpower to not have that happen?" but the character can't hear that.

Lisa is as usual using her power to cheat at the 'not knowing things' part.

Still not using XP because it's still not a Gamer fic, but respect for this very XP-debt-like 'soul strain' will keep things from degenerating into '5 dots in everything'.