Charm Learning Shard (Worm/Exalted) (COMPLETED)

… I want to call bullshit, but I can’t, considering she just yadayadayada’ed boinking Theo so I might have just missed it.

 

I suppose this neatly slots into how far along Taylor's mentality went into the whole blue vs orange morality. She literally throws away her original identity because it's no longer useful. Truly her "exaltation" as usurped her past self.

And now Coil is about to discover why Taylor is a terrible enemy to have. As it is she has so many diferent avenues of attack it's not even funny. She could simply find her current "boyfriend" with the travellers and use him as a bridgehead. Else she can just straight up infiltrate thanks to shapeshifting. Coil is done for and he does not even know it.

As it is I'm more concerned with Taylor's minion. Aisha might have a very adverse reaction to Grue's death. And thanks to the rumours with Kaiser is most likely going to ask Taylor to end the Empire, which she will gadly do since her days as part of it are coming to a close.

As always this fic walks the razor's edge between batshit insanity and straight up sociopathic exalted shennigans.

 

Damn, she fucked the dog. Why would she fuck the dog?

 

If that's what that was I have to admit it completely flew over my head.

And I'm afraid to ask for clarification at this point because I really don't want to know and can maintain my denial by not asking.

 

It would be bad. It should be bad. But then I remember that she can choose whatever form she wants. I’m guessing this includes wolves….Now if she’s a wolf, and we have an human level intelligence wolf, is that still illegal…

Or can Spirit Tied pets take human form or something? Like I know they can be classified as Familiars.

 

Well, yeah. Of course they're gonna tap Danny's phone lines. So what? She can just snag some gingers burner phone and give the house a ring. What is the PRT gonna learn from it? That... she escaped? Where she lives? That she's hanging out in empire territory? Not exactly SECRETS there... though that she cares about her dad might give them leverage over her. You know, if you actually DID care. Which seems unlikely at this point. I mean, really, a 30 second message o. The old answering machine aaa too much effort?

"Hey dad! Sooooo, yeah. I'm a cape. Surprise! Also I joined the E88! Double surprise! Oh, and I broke outta jail. It was SUPER easy. It's like the PRT isn't even trying! Which would be why I passed on the wards. Also, cause shadow stalker is a psycho and triggered me. You catch that PRT Survelience Van #3? Anyway, just wanted to let you know I'm A-OK, but proooobably won't be making it home for dinner. Like.... for a while. So don't wait up for me. All good? Great! Chow!"

 

As she put it in that update. Who else?

As for what that says about her mental state...

"What can I do to keep fenrir around"

That's extra tragic.

Since he would be perfectly happy to die for her even without getting to bury his bone.

Speaking of her mental state.

I doubt she considers Lisa a friend. Lisa's power probably has a better read on Taylor's actual feelings towards Lisa.

I wonder how Lisa feels about having prevented her... let's be honest "her new master" from commiting suicide?

Probably complex feelings, given how much she doesnt like being enslaved.

Daniel Snuts out of curiosity. Did Lisa soul price change?

I miss than running tracker with soul prices and charms.

 

Fuck yeah! About time Coil go down

 

Runs in the family

 

She can't do non humans. The charm is limited to human shapes.

Edit: My bad, just checked and I thought it was Impenetrable Flawless Disguise.

Daniel Snuts Do you mind, putting an informational with the current charms? I had to search through a few chapters to find it.

Also whose Charm is this? I don't recall.

 

Fenrir was just uplifted (kind of like Aisha) and much of his first weeks of sentience were around the Empire. He really could be a true believer, the Earth Bet version of that pug some guy trained to do the Nazi salute.

Playing devil's advocate: Solars normally have an assigned Lunar soulmate. Taylor is now intuitively doing what she needs to do to create one through a series of uplifting charms.

I don't think it's apathy so much as desperate avoidance. Serious, serious things have piled up that Taylor should really talk to her father about, to the point where even contemplating dealing with the backlog is painful.

 

I wonder if Coil's involvement in Grue's death, and Taylor's subsequent murder of him, will fully bind Aisha and Lisa to Tay-tay

 

I’m guessing shadowstalker somehow, been getting a lot of curveballs with this fic, so I can’t rule her out.

 

Yeah Taylor has not been doing well since the rape tbh

YOU JUST KNOW that she'll devote herself to that pretty hard once she realizes uplifting him is even a possibility.

 

I'm curious if Taylor has already used VEE on Fenrir. It could have been for something like Performance (erotic). If she hasn't, it could be used to teach a charm for shapeshifting into a humanoid form.

Then... this:

 

Oh thank God someone else said it. You have no idea how many YOU JUST KNOW/ white woman jokes I've typed up and deleted without posting over the last week

 

Wait if Brian is dead (i blame Coil), Taylor alredy is friendly with Reachel and Lisa (assuming Lisa can convince Taylor she is still friend worthy) and have the loyalty of Alec... What is stoping her for making a second gang?

 

Taylor is such a psycho. I love it.

Unfortunately having Kaiser claim he sent a Stranger to the Rig to save Low Key while Brian was mysteriously murdered in his cell has a good chance of making Aisha very, very angry at the Empire. Which might put a lot of strain on her loyalty to Taylor.

But I'm curious who actually did it... Coil might have a motive, but from what we know so far it's not a very strong one. And even if he did it: How did he do it? By shutting off the camera and going down there himself? By using (and probably burning) one of his PRT moles? That seems either quite risky, even with his power, or quite expensive. Would he really risk so much for killing Brian?

The timing is also weird. Someone was using Taylor's escape as a distraction - did they have a plan already in place and just put it into motion at an oportune moment? Is there a precog involved? Lisa/Dinah?

I'm thinking of the "Kaiser sent a Stranger to rescue Low Key" thing here too: it's not just a good excuse for how Taylor could escape, it's also a good excuse for how a black cape got killed while the escape happened. Just a coincidence? Am I too paranoid?

Currently I'm really wondering if there's not a third party at play here we do not know about yet. Or one we do know about but who's working towards goals we haven't seen so far.

 

Oh, yeah, I completely forgot about Dinah, unlucky coincidences should be quite likely by now.

 

I'm thinking grimderp.

Remember how all those Brockton elites spent an hour stuck in Grue's suffocating darkness falling down stairs and generally being humiliated? Perhaps one of them took it personal and paid to have him killed.

 

I feel like no one has an obvious motive to kill Grue, whoever did it probably was motivated by precog thinker nonsense. So Coil or Cauldron if I had to guess.

 

That puts things in a new and funner light. She really is Loki.

My guess is that It's Aisha's fault. Taylor explicitly said that Undersiders have a plan to break him out, interfering with it would complicate and jeopardize.
And I've got a great guess what Aisha would do when told not to do something.

One thing I do not understand at all how Lisa managed to twist things around so all the blame falls onto Pancakes. Like considering Pancakes isn't an aquintance to Taylor, so him harming her shouldn't push any buttons other than simple eye for an eye, I'd expect it to be rather impersonal that that Taylor got caught up in the crossfire.
Besides it's Lisas fault for asking Taylor not to take Pancakes down early. Like Taylor could have given it a proper go at it when she discovered Lisa's loyalty condition. Lo and behold, thanks to not securing Lisa's loyalty she betrayed. After all, she couldn't betray when there are no more Pancakes, and loyalty is enforced by a master effect.

 

Taylor has been spiraling so hard recently that I'm curious as to how deep in Limit Break we are. Feels like it's been a constant since at least the rape.
If so, I'm guessing that means a nasty second flashpoint soon to snap out.

 

If she even does snap out. She may be too far gone by now. We may need a sidereal to put her out of her misery.

 

Taylor fucking her ~human intelligence soulbound wolf is one of the least harmful and/or objectionable things she's done in a while tbh.

With her obvious and understandable trust issues it even makes a lot of sense.

 

She tried-

-but Bubble's is already the goodest boy.


I'm disappointed Taylor only took Theo's virginity and didn't also give him a blowjob, it was a missed opportunity to make a joke about her having a net zero loss of head this chapter.

 

I totally disagree with you. It’s been a while since Taylor is actually not spiraling. Right now she actually has priorities straight. She wants more powers and wants to enjoy Bubbles’ company.

Fucking the dog in the literal sense might have been one of the more sensible decisions she has made to protect her psyche. If I’m not wrong there’s a Solar Charm that’s like Dedication/Goal or something that firms someone’s conviction and makes them more or less immune to Master effects. I dunno if she copied Regent’s power but if she did then it would make sense to get a self-Mastering power. I don’t think there is a Charm based on nervous system control.

Either way, got off track there…Bubles dying is the only way I see Taylor Snapping and going crazy I’m-gonna-chain-up-all-capes-to-get-their-power-until-I-can-revive-him. Actually can Spirit-tied pets even die? Or will he just got immaterial and come back later?

 

Clockblocker is certainly going to cling to that idea.

Taylor has gone for the 'my body is nothing but a tool to be used, therefore they cannot have taken anything precious from me' coping strategy. It's healthier than suicide?

Yeah. He was still emotionally processing that when she left.

No, it couldn't have been - Fenrir can't materialize twice in quick succession like that.

Taylor is limited to human forms, and Fenrir can't shapeshift at all.

She knows that 'what can I do to keep Fenrir around?' does not even include 'having a heartbeat' - should she die, Fenrir would stand eternal vigil over her grave. The question was 'what can I do to deserve that?'.

It did not. Taylor would have noticed, and commented on it.

Sorry, I'm not going to maintain a continuously updated giant block o' spoilers. The charm list will appear again on Friday's chapter, though.

The shapeshifting? Browbeat.

VEE can only grant attributes, abilities and specialties, not charms. And Taylor refuses to use it on Fenrir, because that would require gaslighting him into thinking he's not perfect already.

 

I meant as in which type of Exalted was this from. AFAIK it's not a Solar exalted nor lunar.

Nvm just found it is a lunar charm.

 

Spoiler: I was a little surprised that I...

without you having to explain it (even if I had forgotten the specific chapter number though)