Charm Learning Shard (Worm/Exalted) (COMPLETED)

[Saltade]

....Yes it's obviously a "rush chapter" guys. Taylor is a pissed off sociopath that is happy to burn Sophia's life to the ground and roll around giggling in the flames. She's not going to go for the slow meticulous revenge and I don't know why anyone expected that.

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

Uh, considering Canary I don't think Lisa did anything useful on that front. Everything they did was still a Birdcageable offense and more likely to get caught than just Shoot Shovel Shut Up. In fact we know this is going to blow up because we got a content warning on promised grimderp, meaning there's only one reason SS still has a heartbeat.

Click to shrink...

The important part is that this way they won't get caught.

... for a while. Ideally the issue of "what happened to Shadow Stalker" is raised immediately after an Endbringer battle, and in a heated and emotional moment, Taylor tells the whole truth. Then she just walks off stage and nothing happens, because the scene is over.

I was not expecting a "canon rehash" of shadow stalker's puppetry. Neat and yet too neat. I would have expected a much higher and more volcanic reaction. On the other hand Taylor is going full on exalted/psycho crazy so there is that...

This chapter was a bit too rushed from an narrative perspective, though it fucks up Sophia in all the worse ways and now Taylor is pretty much free to disappear her completely. Neverthereless seemed like a rushed chapter truth be told.

Click to shrink...

I kind of figured the point was to deliberately touch on the stations of canon but subvert them, like with Bakuda. The fight with Bakuda involved Uber and Leet, but this time the bomb went off and almost everyone died. In this version of Alec's Night Out, everything is done with Taylor's knowledge (at her direction, even!), and probably as part of a long term plan to drag Sophia through the mud.

 

[ses]

....Yes it's obviously a "rush chapter" guys. Taylor is a pissed off sociopath that is happy to burn Sophia's life to the ground and roll around giggling in the flames. She's not going to go for the slow meticulous revenge and I don't know why anyone expected that.

Click to shrink...

I think people were expecting SS to get some dialogue where we could see Taylors enemies crushed before her and hear the lamentations of their women. Watch as the light dies in her eyes. I was personally expecting things to get shouty with the two of them screaming recriminations at each other. That's what I think was missing anyway.

 

[Zxzx24]

Oh hey Taylor is two for two on black parahuman slaves now. She should totally brag about this to the guys at the bar.

Click to shrink...

Bet you an internet cookie she enslaves Brian for sex

...Dont solars have a mind control sex charm?

....Yes it's obviously a "rush chapter" guys. Taylor is a pissed off sociopath that is happy to burn Sophia's life to the ground and roll around giggling in the flames. She's not going to go for the slow meticulous revenge and I don't know why anyone expected that.

Click to shrink...

I mean no. That's exactly what I was hoping for and didnt get! This was so... clean. Toothless. Even bloodless.

She didn't even kill Sophia's family! Come on! They were right there! What kind of half price bargain limit break is this?

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

Sure there is the whole E88/racisist/fascist plothook but that seems more like a "red herring" than anything else (if Taylor stays with E88 after she gets all their cape's powers then I'll change my opinion).

Click to shrink...

It could all be setup for a gag as well. Like, build up the Empire as a bastion of decency, but then have Taylor kicked out after Coil doxxes everyone and it's revealed that she has jewish blood. She protests that she didn't know, because she didn't, Danny tried to be everything his father wasn't, but nobody believes her because she introduced herself to them as a notorious shapeshifter.

 

[omni001]

Haha, this chapter is freaking great. I was hoping Taylor would enslave Sophia rather than outright kill her but I wasn't expecting a repeat of Regent's actions from canon, his full power doesn't get used enough in fanfiction.

So in regards to the PRT doing something about Sophia's kidnapping, why would they? I mean I expect they'll try to hunt down and arrest her, but in canon they ignored all sorts of stuff she did just cause she was a hero, and then the instant she became a liability after Regent mastered her they locked her in prison rather than transfer her to a different city outside his range based on evidence they were sent by a mastered Sophia of actions they blatantly ignored when Shadow Stalker was still useful.

So yeah, even if they do capture Sophia and find out about the mastering I honestly don't think the PRT will care about helping her.

 

[Frakir's brother]

Bet you an internet cookie she enslaves Brian for sex

...Dont solars have a mind control sex charm?



I mean no. That's exactly what I was hoping for and didnt get! This was so... clean. Toothless. Even bloodless.

She didn't even kill Sophia's family! Come on! They were right there! What kind of half price bargain limit break is this?

Click to shrink...

In 3e they do, Husband Seducing Demon Dance.

 

[Paralein]

Not sure about Solar limit breaks, but being very goal-oriented in her revenge absolutely fits this story's Taylor.

She cares almost nothing about people who aren't useful to her, why would she go after Sophia's family? They're inconsequential mortals, her beef is with Sophia herself.

Although there's plenty of Lisa's handwriting here - most likely she convinced Taylor that burning Sophia's life to the ground (and making her a slave? Sceptical about that one) is a better revenge than simply killing her. Especially when there's ways to get money out of it, considering Taylor will need a lot of it.

 

[zapking5]

Looks like the plan is simply to get Sophia labeled as a villain, so that Taylor can then get her revenge without the retaliation involved in targeting a Ward.

Hopefully Taylor isn't dumb enough to let Regent have her permanently or otherwise leave her alive.

 

[Placeholdername]

Does this mean that Taylor has Sophia's soul price as long as she keeps her from being caught and sent to prison?

Click to shrink...

It also neatly gets Alec a slave puppet, which should be enough to fulfill his soul's price as well if Taylor lets him keep her.

 

[Dakkah]

Hopefully Taylor isn't dumb enough to let Regent have her permanently or otherwise leave her alive.

Click to shrink...

She's leasing her, though judging by the Fancy cuff and chain, soul price, and likely that other mastery charm she is going to keep her. (Hell, chances are, that she is going to learn Regents charm too and slap that on ontop.)

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

Looks like the plan is simply to get Sophia labeled as a villain, so that Taylor can then get her revenge without the retaliation involved in targeting a Ward.

Hopefully Taylor isn't dumb enough to let Regent have her permanently or otherwise leave her alive.

Click to shrink...

It also neatly get Alec a slave puppet, which should be enough to fulfill his soul's price as well if Taylor let him keep her.

Click to shrink...

It might not be safe, or a good idea, but it sure does meet Alec's soul price. Taylor is even thinking ahead and leasing rather than selling, so the relationship she establishes with him isn't based on something flimsy like gratitude.

Open question is, how do the various favors and deals stack up between Taylor and Alec? He dumped a bloody car for her without even calling the Wolf, she got him a first rate meat puppet, he did some serious wrongdoing with it on Taylor's behalf, and now Taylor is offering a lease. I'll admit, I'm sort of hoping for the derpiest arrangement possible.

 

[Akuma-Heika]

What is this amateur hour? Why would you leave evidence of her own lawbreaking?

Click to shrink...

Why would Vista not collect black mail/redirect the blame material on someone who has pissed her off for years?

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

Bet you an internet cookie she enslaves Brian for sex

Click to shrink...

I'll take that bet. One internet cookie says Brian opts in for stat buffs to advance his career, and so he'll be hitched to the same cart as Aisha.

 

[gustyeagle]

Why would Vista not collect black mail/redirect the blame material on someone who has pissed her off for years?

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Why would Vista have evidence that specifically implicates herself?

 

[BigBnana]

You know, this is actually a decent point to retire low-key as a cape persona. Really give some versamillitude to the lie that is the truth.

 

[w34v3r]

Why would Vista have evidence that specifically implicates herself?

Click to shrink...

Because she has eyes, and used them.

She just didn't bother turning shady in because if they didn't do anything about it when Sophia messed around in front of other people why would they suddenly care when Vista was the sole witness?

 

[Daniel Snuts]

Does this mean that Taylor has Sophia's soul price as long as she keeps her from being caught and sent to prison?

Click to shrink...

That soul price changed right around the time a giant wolf invaded her magical safe space (shadow form) and hurt her worse than she has ever been hurt in her life. She really thought she'd accomplished it on her own when she went to bed, too.

I kind of figured the point was to deliberately touch on the stations of canon but subvert them, like with Bakuda. The fight with Bakuda involved Uber and Leet, but this time the bomb went off and almost everyone died. In this version of Alec's Night Out, everything is done with Taylor's knowledge (at her direction, even!), and probably as part of a long term plan to drag Sophia through the mud.

Click to shrink...

I maintain that you cannot get rid of Lung without Bakuda going nuts, so that part was inevitable (that my brain came up with a Taylor/Lung showdown at roughly the correct point in the timeline and wouldn't be budged, I blame on a Simurgh plot). But her fate was a reaction to the amount of 'someone jiggles Bakuda's elbow, everyone holds their breath, everyone breathes a sigh of relief' comedy scenes I've read. By the numbers, there should have been one without the 'sigh of relief' part by now.

Similarly Lisa wasn't going to look at a Regent-controlled Ward and not go "say, that's really useful for this thing I wanted to do". But what happens after... probably not going to resemble canon that much, eh?

 

[Whitesnake Pelinal]

That soul price changed right around the time a giant wolf invaded her magical safe space (shadow form) and hurt her worse than she has ever been hurt in her life. She really thought she'd accomplished it on her own when she went to bed, too.

Click to shrink...

I suppose Taylor will just have to use a different master power to make her safe.

I maintain that you cannot get rid of Lung without Bakuda going nuts, so that part was inevitable (that my brain came up with a Taylor/Lung showdown at roughly the correct point in the timeline and wouldn't be budged, I blame on a Simurgh plot). But her fate was a reaction to the amount of 'someone jiggles Bakuda's elbow, everyone holds their breath, everyone breathes a sigh of relief' comedy scenes I've read. By the numbers, there should have been one without the 'sigh of relief' part by now.

Click to shrink...

Bakuda is like Yugoslavia: once she escapes the grip of the tyrant, everything catches fire.

Similarly Lisa wasn't going to look at a Regent-controlled Ward and not go "say, that's really useful for this thing I wanted to do". But what happens after... probably not going to resemble canon that much, eh?

Click to shrink...

Hopefully she's smart enough to have Shadow Stalker pretend to keep the stolen info private, to blackmail the PRT into pretending she turned 18 or some shit. Though after putting piggy in ICU that may be a stretch.

 

[w34v3r]

I mean... it's Sophia.
Would it be all that out of character as far as her 'coworkers' know?

 

[Daniel Snuts]

You're just standing around minding your own business and looking like someone else when Shadow Stalker phases through the wall next to you. You jump, and almost stab her to death with mind-hands before you can get control of yourself. She doesn't even acknowledge your presence, just runs across the street and phases into the building opposite. You take deep breaths and try to stop shaking. Calm down. You knew that would happen. It was part of the plan. The plan that didn't take into account that Future-Taylor (you) would get a face full of surprise Shadow Stalker. Your plans suck.

You remain for a few minutes, before nodding to yourself and walking away. You're pretty sure no one is following her, partly because no parahumans came anywhere near you, and partly because a note appeared in your hand, that said 'no one chased her' in a cypher only you know. You have no idea how you accomplished that second part, but your working hypothesis is that at some point in the future you learn how to time travel.

But never mind that for now. You call up Alec, and have a conversation consisting of two words: "You're clear." Then you stroll towards the designated meeting point - a secluded spot in a local park - where Sophia is waiting for you in civvies. She's yours now, you remind yourself again. That's Alec behind her eyes, you need to remain calm. Alec himself is keeping out of sight - you can tell which direction he's in from the tendril of power connecting them, but you haven't studied it enough know his range.

"So what's next?" he/she asks.

"Nothing much until Lisa comes through with my new lair," you say. "Part of the lease agreement is going to be me studying both your powers, and we can't exactly activate hers in public. So I'm just going to stare creepily at you for a while."

"'Kay."

For a while Alec amuses himself by making Sophia make sexy poses and kissy faces at you, but he eventually gets bored of that and just has her stand there slack-jawed.

"Sophia?" someone says from behind you. Crap. In a city this size, what are the odds of randomly stumbling across someone who'd recognize her? Fortunately you also recognize that voice, it's someone you both know.

Thinking quickly you shift back into Taylor's face before turning around. Your hair doesn't match, but that can be blamed on barbers and dye.

"Well if it isn't our old pal Emma," you say cheerfully, speaking quickly to hide how winded you are from the rapid transformation. "How you doing these days?" You move next to her and throw your arm around her shoulders, none too gently.

"T-Taylor?"

"In the flesh. Did you miss me?"

"Uh, I, uh..." Her Loyalty is long gone, but that just means there's no complicated friendship feelings getting in the way of how terrified she is of you. When Alec/Sophia follows your lead and puts an arm around her shoulders from the other side she freezes up completely. "I..." Oh yes, this was her greatest fear, wasn't it? That Sophia would switch sides, and team up with you against her.

"What's the matter little mousey?" Sophia asks. "Cat got your tongue?" Alec knows roughly what's up here, you briefed him on what you know about Sophia to help him sell the act, and he's studied the message history on her phones.

You don't say anything, but you're grinning so wide it hurts. You had been fine with calling it quits between you, but if she insists on blundering back into your life... Watching her face as her entire world crumbles into nothing is like the sweetest ambrosia.

"See, me 'n Taylor was having a private conversation, so if you could scurry on out of here, it'd be 'preciated." Sophia removes her arm from Emma's shoulders and gives her a bit of push on the back. You do the same, except you also stick out your leg in front of her. Sophia laughs when she faceplants on the ground.

Emma doesn't even try to get up. She just starts crying, great heaving sobs. Mm. It's so- she's- you grab Sophia around the waist and squeeze, hard. You don't know what to do with all these feelings.

Sophia nudges Emma with a foot. "Scurry, scurry," she says. Emma does just that, scrambling away on all fours for a while before she manages to get her legs under her.

"Wow," Sophia/Alec says once she's gone. "We destroyed that girl. She's probably gonna go kill herself now, if I'm any judge." She looks down at how you're still squeezing her, a smile quirking her lips. "Did that turn you on?"

You quickly let go of her and step away. Did it? Is that what you- "It's complicated," you say.

"Sure pissed her off, though," Alec/Sophia says. "She got so angry I almost lost control for a moment there."

"Wait, she's awake in there? Seeing everything that happens?"

"Yes? Thought you knew that. You seem to know everything else."

"Damn. So if you were to, say, go up to Panacea and hug her, she'd be less 'yay, hugs' and more 'oh sweet Jesus what's up with your stress hormones?'"

"I guess, why?"

"Just an idle thought." You stiffen as a considerably less idle thought occurs to you. "Did you run into Gallant back there?"

"Didn't see him. Again, why?"

"That fucker can sense emotions."

"Oh."

Sometimes you really wish you were a worse person, because then you could identify a threat like that and simply eliminate it without remorse. This is the second time you escape his notice through nothing but pure dumb luck.

---

Lisa eventually comes through with an address - you could, you suppose, just pick an abandoned property, kick out any squatters and install new doors and locks. But since you'll be working with Alec, you'd really prefer for your base of operations to have decadent luxuries like electricity and plumbing. He strikes you as the pampered sort.

"Swanky," Sophia/Alec says, looking around the completely bare room.

"It's a work in progress," you say. "For now..." You really should get started on studying her power, but with the revelation that she's aware... "Hold still."

You materialize your knife and step into her personal space. Without charging it, you place the tip just below her left eye, and carefully cut a shallow line down her cheek.

"That stings, you know," she says calmly.

"Hush." You position the knife for another cut.

"That's kinda fucked up," Aisha says (the note wasn't time travel, you realize). "I mean, I guess we're already kidnapping and enslaving her, but still."

Oh right, you never told her what Sophia did to earn this treatment. You rectify that.

Aisha is silent for a while, mulling things over. "...give me the knife," she says eventually. You do, and she cuts a matching line down Sophia's right cheek.

"Could you maybe chain her up instead, so you're not torturing me?" Alec complains through her mouth.

---

Without Alec controlling her she obviously turns to shadow the next time you try to cut her. Which is why you suspended her chains from the ceiling. Shadowy feet barely even sink into the floor as her immaterial form dangles from your magical manacles.

You could always use mind-hands to cut her instead, but... it's not like she's going anywhere, is it? If she wants to let you study her power without Alec's help, that's fine too. You just hold the knife inside her, following her motions as her shadowy form twists and kicks in an attempt to get away. You wonder how long she can keep it up.

The answer is 'slightly less than a minute', but that's not the interesting part. Judging by how she screams and convulses when she finally reforms (without making any sound, due to the enchantment on the collar), phasing into a solid object is much more painful than being stabbed the conventional way (well, either that or her pain tolerance is much lower than yours). She turns back into shadow to escape, but she can't even hold it thirty seconds the second time. Interesting.

She barely manages ten seconds on the third go, and spends noticeably longer screaming afterwards before turning into shadow once more. You take a deep, satisfied breath, but pull the knife away - god only knows what will happen if the knife is still in there when she finally runs out of shadow juice completely, but it can't possibly be healthy. And you're very concerned about her health, because you're going to keep her around forever.

She reforms the moment the blade is clear of her flesh. The defiant stare she gave you after Alec released her is nowhere to be seen, she just hangs limp in her chains, panting. You hold the knife in front of her face so she knows what's going to happen next, before slowly moving to cut her again.

She turns into shadow again.

It must be a reflexive response to pain, you suppose. You wonder how long it will take to train that out of her.

---

Watching her scream is so satisfying, that for the longest time it doesn't even occur to you that you could combine business with pleasure - okay, studying her power could be considered business, but you meant torturing her for information. You carefully wipe the tears and snot from her face, disable the silencing effect on the collar, and wait. It takes a while.

"Where is my costume?" you ask when her eyes finally focus on yours.

"I burned it," she gasps.

You shake your head sadly. "Wrong answer." Does she really expect you to believe that she wouldn't keep it as a trophy? When you know each other so well? You silence her again and resummon your knife. "I'll let you sleep once you tell me."

---

The lair may have plumbing and electricity, but that's all it has. So the next day (Sunday) you go shopping for other decadent luxuries, like chairs and tables and beds and a couch and a TV and a gaming console. And a fridge and an oven and plates and cutlery and a dishwasher and... It takes you several trips to get everything you need, because furnishing a decent lair is basically indistinguishable from furnishing a home. It also puts an uncomfortable dent in your funds, but that's not going to be a problem for long.

Thankfully stores selling such things have plenty of muscular men eager to help a big spender (who also happens to be a not too unattractive young woman) load up her truck, and Aisha is there to help you unload - by which you mean she keeps a lookout for witnesses while your mind-hands do all the heavy lifting. It's just sensible division of labor. The power-based cheating doesn't end there, either.

"Really?" Aisha asks when she sees you take out the paper strips.

You shrug. Just because you normally use this power to create wonders of orichalcum doesn't mean you can't use it to install a kitchen and assemble flat-pack furniture. The blood loss is negligible.

Aisha once again insist on having you translate a piece of verse.

Spoiler: Sutra of the Fleeing Maiden

Once there was a maiden...
...whose family was not so great.
So she ran away from home, though she had nowhere to go.
Her siblings pursued her, enraged that she would no longer share their suffering.
She kept running and hiding, until one day she met a wizard.
"What's up?" she asked, and the wizard showed her what was up.
"Huh," she said. "Neat. What's the gobbledygook say?"
"Psyche," said the gobbledygook, "I was talking about a boy all along."

"That makes even less sense than last time," she complains.

Soon afterwards Alec arrives. "What's up?" he greets you.

You just tilt your head towards the coffee table that's currently floating in midair and assembling itself. The current state of affairs is fairly self-explanatory, you feel.

"Huh," he says. "Neat." Just like Aisha did, he leans down to examine the writing on the paper strips hovering around your wrists. "What's the gobbledygook say?" he asks.

Aisha's expression is priceless. "I- you- what?" She points an accusing finger at Alec. "You're fucking with me, aren't you?"

"Huh?" Alec, of course, has no idea what's going on.

Aisha throws her hands in the air in disgust. "Let me guess, you haven't even told anyone you're on the run from your family."

"Who told you that?" Alec snaps, instantly defensive.

"A fucking wizard apparently."

Alec groans and shoots you a disgusted look. "I need fewer Thinkers in my life."

"Tell me about it."

It's nice that they're bonding, but now that everyone is here you should send Aisha out to get food while you finish up with the furniture. Alec stays to help you out - by which you mean he unpacks the console and plugs it into the TV.

"No games?" he asks.

"I don't know what's good," you say. "I was going to leave that part to you."

"Hint: It's not this," he says, holding up the soccer game that came with the console. Then he inserts the disc and starts playing it anyway, because apparently it's better than being useful.

You have Alec grab Sophia, and release her from the chains. Once she's out of the way you remodel her room for permanent occupancy by a chained, immaterial being. An elevated bed, so she can lie down without giving her enough slack in the chains to phase through the floor. Plumbing options slightly more dignified than soiling herself. Et cetera. You even construct a stereotypical 'secret door disguised as bookcase' to hide the room itself, just because you can.

"This is not mint condition," Alec complains after examining the merchandize.

"She's fully functional, and her costume doesn't show any skin," you counter. Towards the end there she managed to suppress her reflexes more often than not, but she did finally tell you where she stashed your costume. Like every sensible person who can turn immaterial she hides things by sticking them inside other things, but when she does it they become solid again once she lets go. The space she used was too small for Fenrir to fit inside, so you had to use the charm of unmaking to make a hole.

When Aisha returns, the four of you sit down around the newly-assembled kitchen table.

"The first step of the plan is done," you announce. "Shadow Stalker has betrayed the heroes, and is now a fugitive." The others nod. "But that isn't enough on its own."

"Oh my god," Aisha exclaims theatrically, "what if she was Mastered into doing that? She might be innocent, you guys!"

"Exactly," you say. "The next step is for her to have a long and prosperous career as a villain, to remove all doubt about her culpability. Thus, I call the first meeting of villain team BITN to order."

"Hell yeah," Aisha says. "Let's be bad guys." Her second soul price remains in place - she might technically be a badass villain now, but no one respects or fears her yet.

"You realize I already work for the Undersiders, right?" Alec says.

"Regent does," you agree. "But Ghost here-" you gesture towards the former Shadow Stalker "-has nothing to do with Regent, now does she? If devilishly handsome civilian Alec occasionally comes over to hang out in our lair, that's an entirely unrelated matter."

Alec nods slowly, pursing his lips. "I guess I wouldn't mind a second paycheck," he says. He's playing it cool, but sorcerer's sight shows the Loyalty forming as he accepts your offer of a full-time slave puppet.

"Bitten by who, though?" Aisha asks.

"What?"

"You said villain team Bitten."

"Bee Eye Tee Enn," you enunciate. "It's an acronym. See if you can figure it out, Imp."

"That's my cape name? Guess I can live with that. Ghost, Imp, and..?" she gestures towards you.

"Poltergeist," you say, grabbing a fork with a mind-hand and holding it above the table.

 

[ses]

Holy shit I fucking died laughing so many times this update. This was amazing, sweet sweet ambrosia on the revenge fantasy front, and holy shit Taylor what is wrong with you. You actually managed to make me feel a pang of uncomfortable there for a hot second.

Man, Emma got cucked so hard not having a Corona. She fucking deserved to trigger there with a bud from either SS or Taylor. She's had three top-tier Trigger worthy events.

Alec nods slowly, pursing his lips. "I guess I wouldn't mind a second paycheck," he says. He's playing it cool, but sorcerer's sight shows the Loyalty forming as he accepts your offer of a full-time slave puppet.

Click to shrink...

Huh, I thought the Fleeing Maiden sutra and the interaction with Imp was put there on purpose to violate his soul price due to the "Not revealing his identity" clause. I'd have ruled against Taylor if I was DMing that. (Let alone the fact that his soul price had a plural on puppets, I didn't consider that worth quibbling)


Also shouldn't Taylor know Emma is a potential information leak if Shadow Stalker rebrands as a villain in a team with another female cape? Emma knows Sophia's identity and just saw the two of them hanging out being buddies immediately as SS rebrands villain.

 

[zapking5]

I will be surprised if this plan works out in the end. Emma knows some stuff and the PRT will likely interview her, Gallant could run into Sophia while Regent is controlling her, the PRT could just be feeling suspicious and ask for some thinker analysis, etc.

I am really looking forward to Taylor, Aisha, and Alec puppeteering Sophia having villainous adventures together though haha.

 

[GAMB42]

And after more than 60 chapters we finally have an adventuring party! Sure it's a evil villainous adventuring party hellbound for crazyness and bad jokes but still... Now all we need is some much needed quests!

Also this actually managed to make me feel sorry for Emma and Shadow Stalker even though they are getting some poetic and brutal "justice". Wonder what's gonna be their ultimate fate. Nothing good from all that's happening so far.

 

[Dakkah]

ses she's also terrified of SS, likely in the middle of a total mental breakdown, and according to Alec* on the verge of killing herself.

*A connoisseur when it comes to emotional abuse


zapking5 OP already said that this fic will pretty much end as happy as Canon did for Tay. (Plus that first Poem was also rather ominous about Low keys way of life.)

 

[goricnac]

Ok we have gone from murderize Sophia to use her as a guinea pig for stacking Hearts Desire and prob turning her into a fully brainwashed slave by the end or just getting rid of her once shes outlived her usefulness. Nothing too wild for a revenge focused Taylor in QQ, I do think its hilarious this Taylor suffers from the same issue Tattletale does that shes a fucking moron that gets by on her thinker power but still forgets the glaringly obvious and people go along with her cause Thinker.

 

[Zxzx24]

This is... acceptable.

It's not great, but it's a big upgrade.

The rape was completely glossed over as anything but an excuse to act out. As I figured following the standard mary sue formula.

Let's see where this goes. Taylor probably isnt actually interested in doing crimes. Shes all about them powers yo.

There is still a certain lack of visceral feeling from Sophia being tortured. I would recommend reading some of the more popular torture porn on this website for reference.

 

[Waterfly]

This is sick, twisted and reminds me so much of cannon worm. Neat.

 

[bornagainpenguin]

The rape was completely glossed over as anything but an excuse to act out. As I figured following the standard mary sue formula.

Click to shrink...

It's been what two? three? chapters since it happened.

Yes the author skimmed over it here. And you condemn him for following the mary sue formula. If the author had belabored the event and explained in detail to Aisha why do I suspect you'd declare that too a part of the mary sue formula?

 

[Rask]

Let's see where this goes. Taylor probably isnt actually interested in doing crimes. Shes all about them powers yo.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, this is a Taylor I could honestly see team up with Trickster once she learns what Noelle's power does. Or who'd go to the Birdcage with a big grin on her face.