Alucard 109
Not too sore, are you?
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I'm really, really hoping this is leading up to her brain unfucking itself, to her own horror
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Charm Learning Shard (Worm/Exalted) (COMPLETED)
- Thread starter Daniel Snuts
- Start date
Deroddfox
Getting some practice in, huh?
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You know... I've just had the sudden thought that all of this is an extended limit break brought on by her trigger event. I know there is one that essentially makes you a sociopath until it either wears off, or you cause DIRECT harm to someone to whom you have a major or defining intimacy.
Daniel Snuts
Know what you're doing yet?
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Haha, imagine trusting someone you haven't Mastered. She trusted Emma once, you know. She won't be making that mistake again any time soon.
L.15
Daniel Snuts
Know what you're doing yet?
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Remembering what happened last night, you stop by the library before heading to the Palanquin. They have old newspapers, don't they? They do. There it is, in the Tuesday edition of the Brockton Herald: 'Two men severely injured in nazi hate crime.' Your good deed for the day.
A quick skim of the article reveals that it's pretty much exactly what you'd been led to expect. 'Minding their own business', 'unprovoked', 'vile', etc. 'Savage and remorseless beast', and you can't even tell whether it's referring to Low Key or Fenrir.
You check the name of the author: 'K. Sandstrom'. Not a jewish name. Then you blush fiercely, even though no one will ever know you had that thought. You didn't start to believe nazi propaganda for a moment there! You were just, uh, disproving their claims. Yeah.
"Do you keep older newspapers around?" you ask a librarian. "Like, months old? Um, I'm doing a school project on Empire 88 hate crimes, I wanted to find articles about it."
The librarian, a nice old lady in her sixties, is only too eager to help.
"It's terrible what they do," she says as she leads you into a back room, where you find stacks and stacks of old newspapers. You start going through them looking for articles similar to yours, and she sticks around to assist.
"The older ones are all on microfilm," she says. "I can show you how to use the reader."
That's really cool, says the part of your brain that associates microfilm with espionage thrillers. It's wrong. Microfilm is not cool, it's tedious and fiddly. You think you'll be fine with the physical copies.
A certain pattern emerges as you read: The victims are disproportionately young men. And not to be overly sexist, but if you're looking for violent criminals (who don't have superpowers) you're definitely looking for young men.
You also see addresses mentioned you recognize as being inside Empire territory. You've patrolled those streets, you know for a fact that innocent people don't wander in there by accident. There seems to be a bit of crying wolf going on here, even when they're not crying about your wolf in particular.
Then you come across the story of an 8 year old black girl being killed in a drive-by. "Oh." Yeah, no. There's no justifying that one.
The librarian looks over at your exclamation. "I remember that. Terrible business. They caught the one who did it, thank god." She finds the 'shooting suspect apprehended' headline and shows you. There's a picture of the suspect.
"That's not a nazi," you say. Not unless he tried to escape the police by swimming through a vat of shoe polish.
"No?" That's all she says. She seems surprised that you'd think it was. You point out the earlier article, which calls it a 'white supremacist shooting', and mentions eyewitnesses.
"They must have been mistaken," she says. "You shouldn't use that one."
You think you're done here.
On your way out you stop by a library computer and enter a couple of names from the articles into an online police database. Most of them are indeed known violent criminals.
Turns you can't trust the nazi propaganda or the anti-nazi propaganda. What a world. If you can put your faith in neither the Fourth Estate nor the Fifth Column, what's left? Maybe you should make a mind-hands identity and join the Merchants? Oh wait, Merchant propaganda is "drugs are good, you should take lots of drugs" (there's also a fair chance Skidmark would insist on your cape name being 'Handjob').
---
"Your voice is different," Faultline remarks when you greet her.
"The old one wasn't working out. I'm trying to find a balance between sounding like my civilian self and straining my throat." What's actually happening is that you're using your new insights in shapeshifting to modify Quicksilver's voice - you sound less like yourself than you used to, and you're straining your throat less.
"I've never bothered."
"Well, your mask does muffle it a bit. I don't think I'd recognize it on the street." You tap your lips with a finger. "Some of us make sacrifices in the name of fashion."
Faultline snorts, and uses her power to split a piece of paper in two. The social pleasantries part of the meeting is over.
She's considerably less enthusiastic about using her power, now that there's no prize to look forward to. You have to clear your throat meaningfully when she goes too long without using it.
"Sorry." To her credit, she does not slip up again. A true professional.
---
After you leave the Palanquin, but before you can change out of Quicksilver, you run into Armsmaster. To everyone else, his armor is a tasteful dark blue with red highlights. To your sorcerer's sight, it's lit up like the world's gaudiest Christmas tree. He reminds you of nothing so much as a discount Panacea: Hundreds of individual pieces of tinker-tech are crammed together, each twinkling away in its own special way.
Unlike with Panacea though, you can actually make out what each piece does. Or you could, if he'd just stand there for a few hours and let you work your way through them all. Since it's not out of the question that you'll end up fighting/fleeing from him in another identity, you prioritize scanning for cameras and weapon systems.
"Identify yourself," he barks. He's doing a terrible job of pretending that he wasn't lying in wait for you, in your opinion. The odds of his patrol just happening to intersect your path are miniscule.
"Quicksilver, Thinker extraordinaire," you proclaim grandly, giving him a curtsey. "At your service."
One particular Christmas ornament in his helmet flashes, and his mouth sets in a frown. You know, that looked sort of similar to Lisa's power... Lie detector? This conversation just got a lot more interesting. Luckily you're very good at not lying.
"Ah, a man who prefers precision in all things," you say with a smile. "Allow me to amend my previous statement: While not currently at your service, I could potentially become so for the right price." You wonder if that's what set it off, or whether you don't properly identify as Quicksilver? But what else would you call yourself? You don't even have a cape name for your real powerset.
Well, not one you've ever stated out loud. If you could go back and do it over again, you'd be tempted to introduce yourself as 'Santa Claus' just to see what would happen.
"A mercenary," Armsmaster states disapprovingly.
"If you wish to name it such."
"Faultline's Crew?"
"Independent. Faultline is merely a client of mine. Never fear," you add as he opens his mouth to speak again, "the services provided are both legal and ethical."
Armsmaster relaxes a bit when that last statement doesn't ping his lie detector.
"I must urge you to consider joining the Protectorate," he says instead. "Independent Thinkers are particularly vulnerable, and villain groups will not balk at threats or blackmail - or even outright kidnapping - in order to recruit you."
Your smile vanishes. Armsmaster, aka Shadow Stalker's boss, has the gall to tell you that villains make people join them against their will?
"I do not believe further conversation would be productive," you say.
"As you wish. Please do not hesitate to contact the Protectorate should you require assistance in the future." Assistance with no strings attached whatsoever, you're sure.
As he turns to leave, you mentally reach out...
Armsmaster wants to be acknowledged as one of the five greatest heroes in the world.
Huh. Not 'the greatest' or 'one of the greatest'. Five is a very specific number, you wonder what his thought process was for arriving at it.
Well, there's an obvious way for a smug Thinker to find out: "Oh, one last thing," you call out.
Armsmaster turns back to you. "Yes?
"Who's on fourth?"
"What?"
"What's on third," you correct him. Alas, he just glares at you rather than continuing the skit. No sense of humor either. Though his aggrieved expression is kind of funny.
"Indulge a Thinker her little games," you continue before he can flounce off in a huff. "I only meant to ask, when you take your rightful place as fifth, who is the fourth greatest hero in the world? The first three are easy enough to guess..."
"...Dragon," Armsmaster admits after a few moments. "No matter what I do, I could never become more than the second greatest Tinker."
"Alas, poor Dauntless," you say, holding up a hand in front of you as if addressing a skull. "I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite potential, cut down in his prime. Such an unfortunate accident, with no witnesses-"
"I don't appreciate what you're insinuating," Armsmaster growls.
"Where be your arclance now? Your boots? Your shield? Your enchanted panoply that was promised to one day rival Eidolon himself?"
"Goodbye, Quicksilver."
"Prithee, Horatio..." You trail off as he stalks away. Seriously, fuck that guy.
---
There was an interesting flyer at the library that you didn't have time to act on yesterday: Protectorate tours just started up for the season. Come see the technological marvel that is the Rig! Meet real live heroes! It's entirely worthless from a power acquisition standpoint, of course, just a brief peek. But that's not what you're after.
You keep sorcerer's sight off for most of the tour, to prevent any incriminating gawking. You don't know that Armsmaster has rigged the place with eye motion tracking cameras to detect suspiciously interested visitors, but you avoid making any hypothetical hidden tinkertech gun emplacements stand out in your vision just in case.
Only half the local Protectorate is present for the meet & greet portion of the tour: Triumph, Dauntless, Assault and Battery. Even so you hit a double jackpot when you turn sorcerer's sight back on: Not one, but two secret monster capes.
"It's a bit distasteful, don't you think?" you remark to a fellow tourist, loud enough for the heroes to overhear. You picked an old lady shape for this excursion, plausibly hard of hearing, just for this moment.
"How so?" he asks.
"'Come buy tickets to look at the weird people'? They used to call that a freak show."
Neither of the Case 53s react at all. If they're hiding mutations, they're not self-conscious about it. Dauntless twitches a bit, but he's a regular cape. Whatever his issues are, they're unrelated.
---
"Battery. Triumph," you tell Gregor. Easiest two thousand bucks you ever made (minus the price of the tour).
"I'm noticing a pattern," Faultline remarks.
"Yeah. The sample size is small, but they're three for three on heroes. I'm not saying that the government has a black site where they create artificial parahumans and memory-wipe the mutated failures, but... You know what moon landing guy had to say about conspiracy theories?"
"Enlighten me."
"He claimed that most conspiracy theories are intentionally promoted by the CIA, so that when the outlandish shit the government does get up to - like the fake moon landing - inevitably leaks, it's lost in the noise and no one believes it."
"Hm. While I obviously disagree with the particulars, I don't entirely discount that he might have had a point," Faultline admits.
"Thank you for your assistance," Gregor says.
"Thank you for paying my bills."
"I had an interesting offer after you left last night," Faultline tells you once Gregor has left.
"Oh?"
"Ten thousand dollars if I would reveal your powers, and the nature of our business together."
You can't help but smirk. You guess you spooked Armsmaster pretty badly, revealing his deepest desires (and the obvious conclusions drawn therefrom) like that. "Interesting. Fifty-fifty split?"
"You'd go along with it?" Faultline says, sounding surprised. "I only meant to warn you that you've caught someone's interest."
"Sure, why not?" you say with a shrug. "Appearing as 'troubleshooting Thinker/Trump' in the PRT database is practically free advertising." You suspect Armsmaster won't mention the part where you might be a 'motivation' Thinker as well - he'd have to document how he found out.
"The PRT? Paying for information like that isn't their MO."
"I know who it is. He's fairly well off, and at least slightly corrupt." You recall Not Armsmaster's letter offering to buy orichalcum under the table. "He might feel threatened enough to pay out of pocket, if he can't hide it in the budget somewhere. Maybe a little of column A, a little of column B."
"What did you do?"
"Just a bit of Thinking out loud."
"Terrible habit, that."
"I've yet to meet a Thinker who could resist."
"Isn't that the truth?" she sighs. "I'll set it up, and add another 5k to your tab."
A quick skim of the article reveals that it's pretty much exactly what you'd been led to expect. 'Minding their own business', 'unprovoked', 'vile', etc. 'Savage and remorseless beast', and you can't even tell whether it's referring to Low Key or Fenrir.
You check the name of the author: 'K. Sandstrom'. Not a jewish name. Then you blush fiercely, even though no one will ever know you had that thought. You didn't start to believe nazi propaganda for a moment there! You were just, uh, disproving their claims. Yeah.
"Do you keep older newspapers around?" you ask a librarian. "Like, months old? Um, I'm doing a school project on Empire 88 hate crimes, I wanted to find articles about it."
The librarian, a nice old lady in her sixties, is only too eager to help.
"It's terrible what they do," she says as she leads you into a back room, where you find stacks and stacks of old newspapers. You start going through them looking for articles similar to yours, and she sticks around to assist.
"The older ones are all on microfilm," she says. "I can show you how to use the reader."
That's really cool, says the part of your brain that associates microfilm with espionage thrillers. It's wrong. Microfilm is not cool, it's tedious and fiddly. You think you'll be fine with the physical copies.
A certain pattern emerges as you read: The victims are disproportionately young men. And not to be overly sexist, but if you're looking for violent criminals (who don't have superpowers) you're definitely looking for young men.
You also see addresses mentioned you recognize as being inside Empire territory. You've patrolled those streets, you know for a fact that innocent people don't wander in there by accident. There seems to be a bit of crying wolf going on here, even when they're not crying about your wolf in particular.
Then you come across the story of an 8 year old black girl being killed in a drive-by. "Oh." Yeah, no. There's no justifying that one.
The librarian looks over at your exclamation. "I remember that. Terrible business. They caught the one who did it, thank god." She finds the 'shooting suspect apprehended' headline and shows you. There's a picture of the suspect.
"That's not a nazi," you say. Not unless he tried to escape the police by swimming through a vat of shoe polish.
"No?" That's all she says. She seems surprised that you'd think it was. You point out the earlier article, which calls it a 'white supremacist shooting', and mentions eyewitnesses.
"They must have been mistaken," she says. "You shouldn't use that one."
You think you're done here.
On your way out you stop by a library computer and enter a couple of names from the articles into an online police database. Most of them are indeed known violent criminals.
Turns you can't trust the nazi propaganda or the anti-nazi propaganda. What a world. If you can put your faith in neither the Fourth Estate nor the Fifth Column, what's left? Maybe you should make a mind-hands identity and join the Merchants? Oh wait, Merchant propaganda is "drugs are good, you should take lots of drugs" (there's also a fair chance Skidmark would insist on your cape name being 'Handjob').
---
"Your voice is different," Faultline remarks when you greet her.
"The old one wasn't working out. I'm trying to find a balance between sounding like my civilian self and straining my throat." What's actually happening is that you're using your new insights in shapeshifting to modify Quicksilver's voice - you sound less like yourself than you used to, and you're straining your throat less.
"I've never bothered."
"Well, your mask does muffle it a bit. I don't think I'd recognize it on the street." You tap your lips with a finger. "Some of us make sacrifices in the name of fashion."
Faultline snorts, and uses her power to split a piece of paper in two. The social pleasantries part of the meeting is over.
She's considerably less enthusiastic about using her power, now that there's no prize to look forward to. You have to clear your throat meaningfully when she goes too long without using it.
"Sorry." To her credit, she does not slip up again. A true professional.
---
After you leave the Palanquin, but before you can change out of Quicksilver, you run into Armsmaster. To everyone else, his armor is a tasteful dark blue with red highlights. To your sorcerer's sight, it's lit up like the world's gaudiest Christmas tree. He reminds you of nothing so much as a discount Panacea: Hundreds of individual pieces of tinker-tech are crammed together, each twinkling away in its own special way.
Unlike with Panacea though, you can actually make out what each piece does. Or you could, if he'd just stand there for a few hours and let you work your way through them all. Since it's not out of the question that you'll end up fighting/fleeing from him in another identity, you prioritize scanning for cameras and weapon systems.
"Identify yourself," he barks. He's doing a terrible job of pretending that he wasn't lying in wait for you, in your opinion. The odds of his patrol just happening to intersect your path are miniscule.
"Quicksilver, Thinker extraordinaire," you proclaim grandly, giving him a curtsey. "At your service."
One particular Christmas ornament in his helmet flashes, and his mouth sets in a frown. You know, that looked sort of similar to Lisa's power... Lie detector? This conversation just got a lot more interesting. Luckily you're very good at not lying.
"Ah, a man who prefers precision in all things," you say with a smile. "Allow me to amend my previous statement: While not currently at your service, I could potentially become so for the right price." You wonder if that's what set it off, or whether you don't properly identify as Quicksilver? But what else would you call yourself? You don't even have a cape name for your real powerset.
Well, not one you've ever stated out loud. If you could go back and do it over again, you'd be tempted to introduce yourself as 'Santa Claus' just to see what would happen.
"A mercenary," Armsmaster states disapprovingly.
"If you wish to name it such."
"Faultline's Crew?"
"Independent. Faultline is merely a client of mine. Never fear," you add as he opens his mouth to speak again, "the services provided are both legal and ethical."
Armsmaster relaxes a bit when that last statement doesn't ping his lie detector.
"I must urge you to consider joining the Protectorate," he says instead. "Independent Thinkers are particularly vulnerable, and villain groups will not balk at threats or blackmail - or even outright kidnapping - in order to recruit you."
Your smile vanishes. Armsmaster, aka Shadow Stalker's boss, has the gall to tell you that villains make people join them against their will?
"I do not believe further conversation would be productive," you say.
"As you wish. Please do not hesitate to contact the Protectorate should you require assistance in the future." Assistance with no strings attached whatsoever, you're sure.
As he turns to leave, you mentally reach out...
Armsmaster wants to be acknowledged as one of the five greatest heroes in the world.
Huh. Not 'the greatest' or 'one of the greatest'. Five is a very specific number, you wonder what his thought process was for arriving at it.
Well, there's an obvious way for a smug Thinker to find out: "Oh, one last thing," you call out.
Armsmaster turns back to you. "Yes?
"Who's on fourth?"
"What?"
"What's on third," you correct him. Alas, he just glares at you rather than continuing the skit. No sense of humor either. Though his aggrieved expression is kind of funny.
"Indulge a Thinker her little games," you continue before he can flounce off in a huff. "I only meant to ask, when you take your rightful place as fifth, who is the fourth greatest hero in the world? The first three are easy enough to guess..."
"...Dragon," Armsmaster admits after a few moments. "No matter what I do, I could never become more than the second greatest Tinker."
<3
"Alas, poor Dauntless," you say, holding up a hand in front of you as if addressing a skull. "I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite potential, cut down in his prime. Such an unfortunate accident, with no witnesses-"
D:
"I don't appreciate what you're insinuating," Armsmaster growls.
"Where be your arclance now? Your boots? Your shield? Your enchanted panoply that was promised to one day rival Eidolon himself?"
"Goodbye, Quicksilver."
"Prithee, Horatio..." You trail off as he stalks away. Seriously, fuck that guy.
---
There was an interesting flyer at the library that you didn't have time to act on yesterday: Protectorate tours just started up for the season. Come see the technological marvel that is the Rig! Meet real live heroes! It's entirely worthless from a power acquisition standpoint, of course, just a brief peek. But that's not what you're after.
You keep sorcerer's sight off for most of the tour, to prevent any incriminating gawking. You don't know that Armsmaster has rigged the place with eye motion tracking cameras to detect suspiciously interested visitors, but you avoid making any hypothetical hidden tinkertech gun emplacements stand out in your vision just in case.
Only half the local Protectorate is present for the meet & greet portion of the tour: Triumph, Dauntless, Assault and Battery. Even so you hit a double jackpot when you turn sorcerer's sight back on: Not one, but two secret monster capes.
"It's a bit distasteful, don't you think?" you remark to a fellow tourist, loud enough for the heroes to overhear. You picked an old lady shape for this excursion, plausibly hard of hearing, just for this moment.
"How so?" he asks.
"'Come buy tickets to look at the weird people'? They used to call that a freak show."
Neither of the Case 53s react at all. If they're hiding mutations, they're not self-conscious about it. Dauntless twitches a bit, but he's a regular cape. Whatever his issues are, they're unrelated.
---
"Battery. Triumph," you tell Gregor. Easiest two thousand bucks you ever made (minus the price of the tour).
"I'm noticing a pattern," Faultline remarks.
"Yeah. The sample size is small, but they're three for three on heroes. I'm not saying that the government has a black site where they create artificial parahumans and memory-wipe the mutated failures, but... You know what moon landing guy had to say about conspiracy theories?"
"Enlighten me."
"He claimed that most conspiracy theories are intentionally promoted by the CIA, so that when the outlandish shit the government does get up to - like the fake moon landing - inevitably leaks, it's lost in the noise and no one believes it."
"Hm. While I obviously disagree with the particulars, I don't entirely discount that he might have had a point," Faultline admits.
"Thank you for your assistance," Gregor says.
"Thank you for paying my bills."
"I had an interesting offer after you left last night," Faultline tells you once Gregor has left.
"Oh?"
"Ten thousand dollars if I would reveal your powers, and the nature of our business together."
You can't help but smirk. You guess you spooked Armsmaster pretty badly, revealing his deepest desires (and the obvious conclusions drawn therefrom) like that. "Interesting. Fifty-fifty split?"
"You'd go along with it?" Faultline says, sounding surprised. "I only meant to warn you that you've caught someone's interest."
"Sure, why not?" you say with a shrug. "Appearing as 'troubleshooting Thinker/Trump' in the PRT database is practically free advertising." You suspect Armsmaster won't mention the part where you might be a 'motivation' Thinker as well - he'd have to document how he found out.
"The PRT? Paying for information like that isn't their MO."
"I know who it is. He's fairly well off, and at least slightly corrupt." You recall Not Armsmaster's letter offering to buy orichalcum under the table. "He might feel threatened enough to pay out of pocket, if he can't hide it in the budget somewhere. Maybe a little of column A, a little of column B."
"What did you do?"
"Just a bit of Thinking out loud."
"Terrible habit, that."
"I've yet to meet a Thinker who could resist."
"Isn't that the truth?" she sighs. "I'll set it up, and add another 5k to your tab."
Prognostic Hannya
Knight of the Yuri Crusade
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...bro, you're starting to get worryingly close to justifying the Empire (or at least, not wholly repudiating their ideology). This is just straight up saying hate crime allegations against white supremacists are all actually false flag attacks carried out by minorities. Wtf.
Fernando
Part-time Loaf
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Taylor's consciousness:
O no
Taylor pls no
You already drank the kool-aid, no need to finish the jug
Also Taylor:
That isn't a nazi
Requiem_Jeer
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Well, given how these things usually go, the black guy was probably innocent of that shooting. White supremacists tend to have inroads with law enforcement.
Taylor, on the other hand, feeling that way from the evidence she has in front of her is depressingly realistic. The fact that the evidence lines up in this way is all on the author, though.
Taylor, on the other hand, feeling that way from the evidence she has in front of her is depressingly realistic. The fact that the evidence lines up in this way is all on the author, though.
AyorwexaTwaytvit
Getting out there.
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- 613
Oh I thought the author was implying that it actually was a white supremacist attack but that some corrupt and racist police officers blamed the attack on a minority dude to take the heat off the Empire but I get what u mean the texts kinda ambiguous
pepperjack
A Variety of Cheese
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I mean, he's saying that this is what Taylor is concluding (possibly falsely) from her research (which is possibly faulty) about the (recent) hate crimes being reported in the (fictional!) Brockton Bay.
It doesn't make me feel great to read it in the story, but the distinction is important, particularly on a forum that has rules against political discussion but which supports freedom of expression in fiction.
Doc Sithicus
Not too sore, are you?
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- Jan 27, 2019
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Is it just me or does the rank and file of E88 feel like a bunch of 4-Chan's meme lords?
gustyeagle
Know what you're doing yet?
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Isn't this obviously just Coil? Why doesn't Taylor suspect him at all? I understand thinking Armsmaster is a possibility, but Taylor really forgot about him.
Rerororororororororo
I love dogfighting
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"Oh wait, Merchant propaganda is 'drugs are good, you should take lots of drugs' "
Propaganda? More like fact, drugs are awesome.
Propaganda? More like fact, drugs are awesome.
Stanley_Jeb
Versed in the lewd.
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Probably because she already has a suspect she dislikes, and thus didn't think about it at all. This is building up to Taylor getting hit with a Conviction Flaw methinks.
klattmose
klattmose
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I don't think Coil knows Quicksilver exists.
Dakkah
Know what you're doing yet?
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IMO if it had been Coil we wouldn't have heard: whether or not he got the info he would've closed the simulation, as half his shtick is projecting competence.
OldSpartan
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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I don't believe Taylor has actually met Coil. She only knows of him through Lisa's motivation I think. So her not thinking of a cape she hasn't even met yet makes sense.
war piglet
Know what you're doing yet?
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Author blew way past justifying the E88 chapters ago.
This is the AU where white supremacist claims are true. There really is a liberal conspiracy and the whites are good ol' fun Americans who just like some racist memes. The E88 is actually a neighborhood watch and doesn't do any crime. It will later be revealed that Contessa is from a bronze age Jewish society.
Usually authors limit their white washing to Purity, and not the entire E88 because the E88 is obviously a violent gang lead by terrible people.
OldSpartan
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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I mean, Taylor makes it a point to mention that she can't trust anyone's propaganda. That wherever she is looking she can find a bias.
She obviously doesn't trust the nazi propaganda and recognizes that what they are peddling her isn't the truth. The problem is that while the Nazi's are obviously evil, she can't trust positions in authority because of her own bad experiences with them and the fact they have their own biases as well. I think it is sort of laying the groundwork for making the statement that Taylor should just form her own opinion on things and be mindful of the biases of others. Let their actions speak for them and all that jazz.
Edit:
I do think if the E88 ever does an appropriate initiation with Taylor and tries to have her kill someone to "prove herself" then hands will probably be thrown and she will jump off the tracks. But as long as she can keep making excuses for herself and keeps getting paid her money to be a "vigilante" and making progress on gaining more powers she will ride that train for as long as she can.
If she ever finds out about the dog fighting ring that Hookwolf runs things would probably get violent.
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eeda
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Taylor is now able to identify true E88 crimes from others that can be good as long as she don't drink the Nazi coolaid as she alredy is not drinking the Protectorate one or spiral into nihilism... What can be worst?
Stanley_Jeb
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You might be underestimating just how hard the Great Curse can fuck up an Exalted. By the end of the First Age, Solars basically were Nazis, to the point of treating DBs as subhuman and all.
And, IIRC, genociding the Mountain Folk or something along those lines. Been a long time since I've read the books, but Autochthon did leave for some reason like that, last I checked.
Taylor may very well be one Limit Break away from snapping and doing something... Truly regrettable, because while I agree that Taylor, clear-headed, wouldn't do something like that, any Exalted is mindfucked to the point they make Parahumans look sane by comparison.
Vallan.Mandrake
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What I think happend is that Taylor had her own experience with being falsely accused (of a hatecrime). She then checked the newspapers expecting to find examples of hatecrimes, and was suprised to find several false accusations (according to her experience). Was shocked, thought "E88 not bad?" then confirmed E88 bad, but newspapers lying too.
demonitter
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It's always good to recognizer that people are people, "insane evil stereotype" versions exist of people of all nationalities, idealogies and what not. I generally feel disturbed when people treat murder and maiming of people as "fun" if the target is in disagreement with their idea of "good", thankfully people like that are generally restrained by law or sent to prison when their zealousness surpasses their common sense.
goricnac
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Prob should have predicted this would move to QQ only after the mods froze it in SB on the chapter with all the sex jokes, and also all the nazi stuff drama, glad to see its still going tho, the build up to Taylor turning on the Nazis with how her "use them and lose them" mentality has developed is great.
R.A.G.
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The closest we've had to Great Curse here is Taylor's general psychopathy, I think?
You're reaching. Not terribly far, but still reading beyond what the text is putting forward. A read in the other direction is "People/stories hew to stereotypes regardless of context or truth". A non-racial example might be how gay people were seen as untouchable/diseased well into the early 2000s because the fear of AIDS colored every interaction.
"Drugs are awesome" - Taylor Hebert, canonically.
One very relevant example is probably how kill-happy people get for nazis when they pop up in fiction/discussion, always a bit disconcerting seeing that normally cling to conventional morality and empathy toss it out the window in the face of the enemy.
Kennethil
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I'm still expecting Taylor to one day be smacked in the face with the empire's violence against innocents, and the more comfortable she gets in her position there the greater the impact will be. I'd say that I'd have expected that to have happened by now, but she still hasn't copied anyone but Rune there. The fact that there are so many parahumans in the empire will probably tempt her to stay until she's ordered to maim innocents/watch them die.
However, for this to happen the library sequence wouldn't seem to be necessary. Just letting Taylor settle into the social camaraderie should be enough. So having her start engaging with the ideology at this point, when it looks like she'll stay eith the enpire for a good while longer, does seem to indicate a dangerous course.
However, for this to happen the library sequence wouldn't seem to be necessary. Just letting Taylor settle into the social camaraderie should be enough. So having her start engaging with the ideology at this point, when it looks like she'll stay eith the enpire for a good while longer, does seem to indicate a dangerous course.
goricnac
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All drama aside what I hope the author is doing is cementing doubts about how evil the Empire is in taylors mind for when shit goes bad. The Empire canonically has a "brutalize/murder" a minority initiations for higher ranked members, Tay is still technically a trainee.
Theres also the bit where Brockton has a ton of independent capes according to WB but they get killed, recruited or leave within 6 months of triggering, with most of the minority ones being directly hunted by the Empire. If you don't have a "run away" power like Hess you get killed fast.
Edit: Though now that I think about it the only crimes that we have seen committed were all committed by minorities... yeah seriously hoping this is just the author doing set up, cause with the library sequence and the rape scene this is starting to look really fishy on the "Nazis are actually good" scale
Theres also the bit where Brockton has a ton of independent capes according to WB but they get killed, recruited or leave within 6 months of triggering, with most of the minority ones being directly hunted by the Empire. If you don't have a "run away" power like Hess you get killed fast.
Edit: Though now that I think about it the only crimes that we have seen committed were all committed by minorities... yeah seriously hoping this is just the author doing set up, cause with the library sequence and the rape scene this is starting to look really fishy on the "Nazis are actually good" scale
Stanley_Jeb
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I mean... There was that bit with Browbeat, wasn't there? Assuming he's still black, that could've been the set-up, paying off during "initiation."
Then again, he might be a Ward by this point... On the other hand, if Taylor's the only one who knows he's a Ward, and that the E88 gets screwed if they offed a Ward, I could see her doing that once she's done with the E88.
Gets rid of them and of someone who's actively fighting for and supporting the system Hess used to fuck her over. Valor Flaws are one hell of a drug.
goricnac
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Browbeat got recruited into the wards within 3 months of triggering in canon, part of the 6 month for independents figure is that it includes recruitment.
Akuma-Heika
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In this case, she is saying its not a Nazi hate crime due to the fact the perpetrator is black...unless the E88 has black members. Reminding me of an episode of Boondocks I saw a decade ago or something (black KKK member)
Edit: not saying she isn't or is being indoctrinated, just that the example you chose was a poor view of it. A crime revealed as being perpetrated by a black person on a black person is hardly a race-hate crime (at least on its own; if you go beyond just the tag of 'black' there are plenty of races there, and many have historically not gotten along [less likely to be the case foe African Americans though]). I do think her pointing out that the radicalized story originally claiming it as a hate crime, not being talked about when revealed otherwise is fair though. Sloppy reporting, and then not even owning up to it. I do think it is a realistic portrayal of modern news though (as in since post WW2 [and possibly even slightly before that]) -_-
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