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Charm Learning Shard (Worm/Exalted) (COMPLETED)

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omni001 said:
According to Ward he's not a Trump and therefor he explicitly can't effect a persons skill at using their power and presumably power granted skills either.
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Him not being able to absorb theos competancy and skill is just as much of a red flag. Tho the skills Theo uses not showing up to his power may be easier to miss.
 
Placeholdername said:
Soon enough, word will spread among the E88 that Theo Triggered because his psycho girlfriend bitched at him.

Or because she has a magic vagina. One or the other.
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Even more of the rank and file line up in… rank and file… for their favourite, not obviously already claimed by the Emperor fem-cape.
As if the almost nude cosplay didn't get empire *morale* up enough!
 
I see. I'm pretty sure Taylor stopped caring about being a hero a while back. Now she wants the Empire under her thumb, which she will have. Even Lisa has pretty much given in and accepted that being under Taylor's rule is better than Coil and Inevitable.

I really want Taylor to get a precog blocking charm quickly. I think there's one called Destiny-Manifesting Method and would not be surprised if she got it from Dinah. I mean it would be hella ironic, the Girl who can barely decide her own destiny giving Taylor a power to stop others from controlling hers.
 
Between using Sometimes Horses Fly Approach multiple times and Nightmare Fugue Vigilance and the pre-existing Willpower deficit from trying to appear fine, Taylor must be absolutely emptied out by now.

Then again she has been getting some pretty metal stunts. Diving off the rig absolutely would have paid for that use of SHFA and then some. Same with the Performance roll against Miss Militia, which makes sense since getting the chance to actually cry would have been pretty cathartic even if Taylor thinks she was lying.
 
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ses said:
Between using Sometimes Horses Fly Approach multiple times and Nightmare Fugue Vigilance and the pre-existing Willpower deficit from trying to appear fine, Taylor must be absolutely emptied out by now.
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To be honest, I'm more interested in more neurotypical protagonists. All this Limit-induced pseudo psychopathy just looks boring after a while. Or, at least, in most stories it does, here it is still amusing from time to time, like:
Daniel Snuts said:
"Sorry, not a lip reader. Blink twice if you just called me a psycho bitch."

Aegis, slowly and deliberately, blinks twice.
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Still, hoping to see the author's take on the sort of normal protagonist. The writing quality is excellent, it'll likely be a waste if Taylor spends all fic in psycho mode.
 
GiantAnteater said:
To be honest, I'm more interested in more neurotypical protagonists. All this Limit-induced pseudo psychopathy just looks boring after a while. Or, at least, in most stories it does, here it is still amusing from time to time, like:
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Despite commenters seeing the Great Curse around every corner, she's a natural trigger running off a Scion shard. All of Taylor's craziness in this fic recently is 100% organic all-natural bugfuck nuts born of trauma, not artificially injected beyond maybe the normal conflict drive shit from canon.
 
ses said:
Despite commenters seeing the Great Curse around every corner, she's a natural trigger running off a Scion shard. All of Taylor's craziness in this fic recently is 100% organic all-natural bugfuck nuts born of trauma, not artificially injected beyond maybe the normal conflict drive shit from canon.
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One could interpret "Charm Learning Shard" as "There is a (custom) Charm, that's learning (about) Shards, and it's a story about this Charm's adventures on Earth Bet (while attached to a certain girl that we all know)" :D
 
pepperjack said:
Everyone who knows Kaiser's secret identity. As an example, that did not include Low Key until recently, and not because Kaiser let her in on the secret.
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Okay, but Kaiser's secret identity is public knowledge and it will be really hard for Theo to have a secret identity when it's public knowledge that he's the son of a cape.
 
Frakir's brother said:
I wonder what the E88 will think once she eventually bugs out. From a native ganger's pov, I think they might think they were just infiltrated by the Real Loki
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Uh, she has one of Kaiser's major lieutenants mastered and a line to mastering Kaiser himself. I don't think bugging out of the E88 is in her future. All shall love her and despair.

Speaking of which Purity is literally the very first cape she's gotten soul price'd following the exact reverse blackmail Santa Claus plan the articulated all the way back at the start of the fic. Good for her, hope she has time to actually follow up and get the Charm out of it. Regent doesn't count since studying him was an explicit term of SS's lease and didn't actually require soul price to seal the deal. Only took her literally over a dozen powers to finally have a big enough dick to start going full Santa on parahumans.
 
PlasticSoldier said:
I think second gen capes are well understood enough that everyone would think it very unusual if Theo was a Thinker.
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There isn't always strong correlation between first and second generation triggers.

Just look at Glory Girl and Panacea. To those without detailed meta knowledge, Glory Girl's powers don't seem particularly similar to those of her parents or other relatives. Panacea's powers appear even less related to the rest of New Wave's, but then very few people know she's adopted, and none of those in the know are E88.
 
Placeholdername said:
There isn't always strong correlation between first and second generation triggers.

Just look at Glory Girl and Panacea. To those without detailed meta knowledge, Glory Girl's powers don't seem particularly similar to those of her parents or other relatives.
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Glory Girl actually is reasonably similar to Brandish and Flashbang (and Manpower), while Panacea is a biokinetic like Marquis.

Panacea's powers appear even less related to the rest of New Wave's, but then very few people know she's adopted, and none of those in the know are E88.
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A celebrity can't show up with a five-year-old kid one day and hide the fact that it was an adoption.
 
Oh I almost forgot about this part. Did Taylor just have normal sex with Ballistic or did she try the "Aleph innovations" he mentioned before?

Just looked up Nightmare Fugue Vigilience, the next time Taylor goes to sleep is gonna be fun.
 
bornagainpenguin said:
Other than what it says on the face of it, I am not aware of this literary reference. Could I get a link to the reference?

Thanks.
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Dark Lord Bob said:
To American Gods?
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Missed this comment, it is indeed American Gods.

zapking5 said:
Won't Victor notice Theo suddenly having absurd artificial skills?
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He might if he tried to eat them, but nomming the emperor's son is a bit of a faux pas.

omni001 said:
So I've seen comments in the chat reference Exalted skills having specialties. Do you think Aisha's new smarts might have a tech specialty that will help convince the PRT she's a Tinker?
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Aisha's boosts so far have been in the form of pure Intelligence (an attribute), not abilities (aka skills) or specialties.

omni001 said:
Oh I almost forgot about this part. Did Taylor just have normal sex with Ballistic or did she try the "Aleph innovations" he mentioned before?
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Despite Taylor's new outlook, she can't have regular sex with Ballistic without breaking character - it would be suspicious if Quicksilver suddenly wasn't saving herself for marriage anymore.
 
omni001 said:
Oh I almost forgot about this part. Did Taylor just have normal sex with Ballistic or did she try the "Aleph innovations" he mentioned before?

Just looked up Nightmare Fugue Vigilience, the next time Taylor goes to sleep is gonna be fun.
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Wtf. When did she get Nightmare Fugue Vigilance? Fuck. Don't tell me that's what she got from Miss Militia. She was a Noctis cape wasn't she? But I thought the charms were all coming with Taylor's needs to some extent? I'm pretty sure after sleeping with Bubbles she never got Nightmares again. Why the fuck would she want to have nightmares. Also there's no way she doesn't want to sleep. Sleep is the time she gets to cuddle with Bubbles.
 
AppleGrowth said:
Wtf. When did she get Nightmare Fugue Vigilance? Fuck. Don't tell me that's what she got from Miss Militia. She was a Noctis cape wasn't she? But I thought the charms were all coming with Taylor's needs to some extent? I'm pretty sure after sleeping with Bubbles she never got Nightmares again. Why the fuck would she want to have nightmares. Also there's no way she doesn't want to sleep. Sleep is the time she gets to cuddle with Bubbles.
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Be careful what you wish for-

Daniel Snuts said:
There is, of course, one problem with copying Miss Militia's power while in custody: Her power isn't just the ability to be armed at all times, but also the necessity. The specific weapon may change (usually a small knife while she's with you, because she's trying to appear non-threatening, but her control isn't perfect), but she is never not armed. You don't mind picking up another permanent power, it's just that things are likely to get uncomfortably hectic if you were to suddenly pull a gun right now.

You did memorize a secondary escape route leading from this room, but you'd still like to avoid having to fight Miss Militia if at all possible. So you try your best to direct your hypothetical subconscious influence over the expression of copied powers towards less exciting results. It mostly involves hoping really hard, because you still don't really have any idea what you're doing or how. But if at all possible you'd like a less exact copy this time around, please and thank you.

When you feel her power slip into place you tense up and furiously repeat to yourself don't be armed, don't be armed, I don't want to be armed. It... works. No weapon appears in your hand. Or maybe nothing you did made any difference, you'd never have gotten an exact copy regardless, and you got worked up over nothing at all. You slump forwards and rest your head on the table. You'll figure out what it does later.
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you might just get it.

Daniel Snuts said:
Despite Taylor's new outlook, she can't have regular sex with Ballistic without breaking character - it would be suspicious if Quicksilver suddenly wasn't saving herself for marriage anymore.
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Nice, I assume her Brute power is why she wasn't limping in the next scene.
 
Daniel Snuts said:
"Fucking hell," Aisha says shakily. "I could feel the terrible fate hanging over me if I didn't obey. That was for the smarts?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Uh..." She laughs nervously, looking at your uninjured leg. "Still worth it?"
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Considering the debt only lasts a month (or 29 days + 4 hours if converted from a Creation month) 2when invoked (and Taylor has invoked it otherwise Aisha wouldn't have felt the impending botch), so probably worth it at least in this case. Far more onerous demands could have been made Aisha :)
 
omni001 said:
Be careful what you wish for-



you might just get it.
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Omg. She fucking got it didn't she. I'm really hoping there's some other charm she got that I don't know about. If Taylor finds out about this she's never going to sleep again. I don't know whether that will be a good that even if it has no side effects…

Also holy fuck is this ff well written. It's like the answers to all our questions are there, buried in some previous chapter. Almost as if Daniel was expecting the question and tailored the writing to answer them. Answers themselves are just the right amount of vague and just the right amount of revealing.
 
Reread exactly what Ballistic's power is. "Striker effect that gives a Manton-limited object bulletlike velocity in a direction of his choice". God it's hard finding an Ability 5, Essence 5 charm that matches. Assuming that the 80 hour training time is exact, and it probably is because author-san has been very accurate with training time foreshadowings, it's either Acuity-of the Far Flung Hand due to being the only Thrown charm with a correct training time, which is completely fucking useless due to mind-hands already being a thing, or maybe it'll reverse the Manton limitation and just turn into a super-speed mover power? That seems completely off-base to me but I'm really scraping looking for an 80 hour charm. Author-san has shown more devotion to accurately foreshadowing training times than he has to ensuring that Taylor gets the charm that's the closest match to the parahuman's power, showing flexibility for the sake of the story.

But yeah maybe it's Death Draws Near (Or it's inferior solar counterpart Godspeed Steps if you're a poser and not a cool goth), completely cucking Velocity. Don't worry bro there's a million super speed charms, you'll just get one of the easy to learn Adorjan zoom zoom charms.
 
Since it looks like she got the Nightmare Fugue Vigilance, what would she dream about?
I'm hoping it's something like this: Taylor's nightmares are about an unstoppable force making her to face and deal with her own issues in a healthy manner that leaves her a better person. Or, as an alternative scenario, to make good, rational decisions in difficult situations.

Memetic Taylor: "Welp, looks like I'm never sleeping again."
 
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