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Allegedly a Villain in Brockton Bay: a Tale From The Broken-Winged Crane

Summary:

A Lintha Primordial Loyalist Infernal Exalt arrives in Brockton Bay via a failed attempt to escape the Judgement of the Daystar. This is a Worm Crossover with Exalted 2.5e. Of note, this is the only work in this category I know of that is about a Primordial Loyalist instead of one of the ones trying to rebel against the Yozi or Neverborn. At least I haven't seen one of those crossing over with Worm.

Notes:

This part is not really required reading, outside of the first few pages that explain the basics of this Worm Crossover with Exalted 2.5e.

Chapter 1: Setting Notes, Sheets, and Exalted 2.5e Errata

Summary:

This is mostly optional information, outside of the first few pages about the setting.

Notes:

This work and all chapters in it are in the Public Domain, or by the CC0 license where that does not exist.

Chapter Text

Notes and Background:

 

[Required Background Reading: 

 

You need to know what Worm is, which is happily very popular right now:



You need to know vaguely what Exalted is:

 

While it might not be factual, these somehow more cleanly convey the important points of the setting, what Yozi are, and why being an Infernal Exalt makes you eventually grow into an embryonic Primordial (which is good fluff):




Expanded Tellurian / One World Of Darkness To Rule Them All (the semi-canon AU were this story is set):

http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/1310851-ex2-5-mage-the-ascension-archmages-are-tyrant-raksha-original-content



If you don’t care about background mechanics, feel free to skip straight to Chapter 1 at this point.

 

Note: 

No characters in this story are aware of the game mechanics of Exalted, save for Raksha of various kinds, especially Tyrant Raksha and their Primordial cousins. They were the designers of it all, of course they were aware of it. However, following standard martial-arts and wuxia precedents, some aspects of the mechanics of the world have been discovered and named, like cultivation, Essence, motes, charms, Virtues, etc. The game mechanics are here for a very important reason: to show the audience the stakes up front. If someone or something dies because the dice rolled poorly, no one can complain about unfairness. Similarly, writing a character with hundreds of charms can make it seem like there are no limits to their powers. Seeing their sheets or summary stats in this work is my response to that. 

 

CONTENT WARNINGS AND GENRE EXPLANATIONS:

Gore, violence, addictions, insanity, drug use, body horror, fantasy-style cannibalism, no actual sex though, go figure. This is not a happy fun shonen action story, but is instead (like the source material, Worm) vaguely realistic depictions of the consequences of comic book heroes and villains on the world around them. Specifically, this one focuses on one whose powers are so terrible and horrifying that one of his least horrifying powers is being able to eat anything: food, bones, humans, rocks, trees, gods, space, and himself. It’s strangely less awful than his other qualities, because there is essentially an afterlife in his stomach, and if he really wants to, he can remake their bodies so long as he didn’t fully digest their souls beforehand. All the same, this story is about trying to make new friends, despite that. It won’t dwell on exhausting darkness and drama, but it does have the threat of fates worse than death backed up with several options to really make the most of it.  This has been called “dark absurd humor” by at least one reviewer. I will try to keep somewhere in the middle. Not too hot, not too cold, just right. There is a slight chance of warm-fuzzies.

 

]



[Author’s Note: FYI Mariner is Essence 7, and has all Kimbery, Metagaos, and Cecelyne charms, as well as Laughing Wounds Style, Mantis Style, as well as all of the Dragon King Martial Arts styles [Debris From the Fallen Races p3-17; including all four TMA and the one CMA]; the only other charms he knows are soak charms from Malfeas, as well as some upgrades to Crowned With Fury, because he was a literal dictator who ruled through fear; and finally these Heretical charms: Unsurpassed Devil-Craft (subbing Kim/Metag crafting charms instead counts). Yes, he is very powerful, but not arbitrarily so, and he will generally have a hard time against other Celestial Exalts who are specialists, since his charms are relatively broad in their coverage, but don’t provide all the specialist advantages to him that a Solar might have. Yes he is very powerful, but it's best to think of him as a loner who hit the Essence Wall, and had to just keep buying charms instead; his own powers and skills not directly related to his three patron yozi are due to him killing and eating those who knew those powers. He is about as powerful as you would expect someone to be when they conquered a country on their own (mostly), but his sheet is carefully balanced so that he is only really OP in situations where everyone and everything around him are fair game (also as an Infernal, he naturally gets a lot of seemingly unrelated powers, so I don’t think his wealth of sailing-related charms are going to really put him over the top in the powers of the setting). If not, his natural drawbacks come into play, and he can’t show off his hypertoxic AoE or transformation abilities. His Martial Arts styles are mostly overshadowed by Laughing Wounds, unless he is grappling someone and uses Mantis Style (it is useless otherwise, save for jumping and crippling people); the Terrestrial Dragon King Styles are entirely there for flavor and will almost never come up (and they also cost almost no XP for him to learn). While he can be subtle, its not a great long-term plan, unless you can find actual allies or something; thus the murder-hobo problem of his is solved by making his neighbors keep track of him. In the setting Worm, where he will be kind-of alone in a world full of things trying to kill you and parahumans with power levels between derpy-mortal and Solar God, having more charms than the canon Ess 7 NPCs is not a bad thing (it is an AU after all). Mariner’s sheet will not arbitrarily change over time, save the potential to go Devil Tiger, or when he has explicit training arcs (requiring him to summon at least 2nd Circle Demons as tutors). If you care, the Sherden Caste (my name, since there is no official one) as well as others are mention in Shards of the Exalted Dream, and I’m using them because this is an AU version of Creation, and I don’t want to make folks angry for small inaccuracies about the setting. Exalted was awesome for being inspirational, even if it didn’t always wind up with the best implementations of those ideas. Oh and just to make it clear, while Locust Mariner is symbolically tied to water and wood, he is no Terrestrial or Elemental. He is not those things, just like Kimbery is not a water goddess, but the Inventor of Spite and Hate who just happened to take all the water for herself, to conceal her dark secret heart from the world. As well, in the opening scene he is both suffering from a Metagaoiyn Torment (see below), as well as personal regrets. Thus, An-Teng is saved in large part because he cannot force himself to grasp it in his madness, unable to free himself from his ennui. 

“The Torment of Metagaos: When an Infernal with a Metagaoiyn Urge accumulates 10 points of Limit he suffers the Torment of Metagaos. For one full day, the impossibility of finding true fulfilment looms large in his mind, turning all worldly pleasures into bitter, taunting reminders of his insatiability. He cannot find enjoyment in food or drink, and will resentfully pick at his meal if he doesn’t simply toss it aside in disappointment. Similarly, he is untitillated by sensual delights and uninterested in wealth, and reacts to offers of either as though he had been gravely insulted by some aspect of them. He is petulantly disinterested in keeping hold of his possessions, unbothered by theft and likely to abandon or damage his assets.”

The main character has many easily exploitable weaknesses based on having permanent charms that require active Willpower expenditure from his pool of 10 points to ignore those include (Willpower is regained slowly and only via sleeping it off):

  1. Sunlight/bright lights/not using Manipulation
  2. Cannot use Manipulation against Beloved targets
  3. Loud Sounds above whispers
  4. Being so hungry that he basically cannot do anything unrelated to eating (can’t spend a willpower to ignore that penalty, oddly, but he can spend it to avoid killing and eating someone on hand out of starvation)
  5. Greed/Lust
  6. Love/Hate
  7. Emotional appeals by those he considers ‘beloved’
  8. Trivial Betrayals
  9. Being unable to avoid massive collateral damage

 

Essentially, these are not too hard to overcome individually, but it’s easy to make him snap if you keep pestering him.

]  

 

==

 

Setting Notes:

  1. Entities are a kind of Demon, spawned from Metagaos. They vary in power, much like Behemoths, their Essence rating does not really indicate their power rating. 
  2. Shards are Sort of like Possession, but result in what are a bunch of essentially Demon Blooded running around. They are permanent as well, until dead, or that brain node being removed.
  3. Shards work exactly like Infernal Wonders in Graft form (brain implants), save that they are not actual Infernal Wonders, they just work like them for convenience sake.
  4. Any time there is a conflict that isn’t totally obviously one-sided, I roll dice. I have a real character sheet and everything (Wildbow did much the same). Just because the main character is hard to kill doesn’t mean the story can’t go on without him. Rolls are notated in place like this: {{Author Rolls X dice. Results: Stuff happens}}. The mechanics are all 2.5e Exalted, with the best community expansions being used. These should be infrequent enough to be ignorable if you don’t like to see the mechanics.
  5. Because I don’t want it to be boring, the Endbringers are unbound Wyld Behemoths, not demonic ones. Shards cannot be perceived unless they are actively reproducing/installing themselves, otherwise they don't exist in this plane at all. Even then, when they are in this world doing their reproduction/installation they are immaterial and follow the normal rules for things like gods and spirits.

 

TODO:

  • Choose timeline start: ~1 week before Skitter debut?
  • Figure out what Armsmaster and Dragon were doing
    • Working on an internal storage cache that’s bigger on the inside than the outside; based on a Prof Haywire theory about bending space without punching holes. The earlier tests were successful with the help of Vista, this one is being done without her in front of a review panel consisting of several PRT bigwigs.
    • Their issue came from essentially dividing by zero, and putting Armsmaster’s spatially warping miniaturization technology into the box as a test, and the whole thing imploded, sucking everyone through the floor of the box into the Endless Staircase.
    • They meet JFLM in the staircase. He is upside down above them, trying to figure out if he’s finally gone crazy. He does not speak their tongue, but tries to pantomime needing help and whistling. He uses FLOWERING THE FAIRER FACE to appear to know how to signal for help.
    • Dragon is able to fly. Armsmaster’s spear is broken again. 
    • Dragon, given the option to ignore what she’s seeing, decides that (for expediency sake) this is close enough to a shipwreck to qualify for rescuing the stranded man. When she flies up to meet him, it becomes clear that the distance is greater than it appears.
    • Dragon gets footage of him jumping 100m up to meet her, so they know he’s a Cape.
    • Armsmaster calls her out for being reckless. Stares hard at the two and eventually says ‘Protocol says he goes into Quarantine’ and curses them both for how much paperwork he has to do on this. 
    • Vista is called in to extract them from the space hole
    • They pop out in front of the PRT, who have Hazmat folks standing by. 
    • JFLM of course is a hazardous material, but if he doesn’t want to get stuck in an isolation jar, he needs to cooperate with the Protectorate, so that his weirdness can be channeled into productive ends. 
    • JFLM does not speak their language, so this is conveyed by drawing, primarily. He  uses PERVERSE WHISPER CAMOUFLAGE to put his words in the mouths of grunts, though no one seems to realize that. He uses FLOWERING THE FAIRER FACE extensively, hating to rely upon it. He stops using PERVERSE WHISPER CAMOUFLAGE as soon as possible. 
    • Will wind up as a Probationary Protectorate member. He is kept in Brockton Bay by Armsmaster’s interference, so he can ‘salvage’ something from that embarrassment. Armsmaster hopes to wring extradimensional tech from him.
    • His main job for the first couple weeks is learning English from the Wards. He is initially only sent with groups of 3 or more including full Protectorate members, but after a few weeks, its reduced to 2 or more Wards. It is considered a bad assignment for most of the Wards, due to the gulf of difference in trying to simultaneously explain the modern world to the dimensional traveller. While also overcoming the differences from a native Old Realm speaker, who writes in something more in common with Nahuatl.
    • He goes into one of the equipment storage areas for Maintenance, and grabs ones of their 3kg uncoated lead dive-weights, and then uses Prime Element Wonder and the Alchemy procedure, Heavenly Transmutation Processes (Lead to Gold) to make the payment for his lawyer. 
    • He winds up being on patrol with Armsmaster when they go to pick up  Lung. It is the first time anyone witnesses him doing anything medicine related, since that was very hard to translate without a common understanding of modern and supernatural medicine.
    • Notes
      • As a character, JFLM is very powerful, but not at all subtle. The closest thing he has to subtle is doing terrible things to people, slower. His powers do nothing to help him unless he is trying to sell people things, or exploit their desires. At most, he can understand others, and hide his weirdness a bit, but it is a terrible long term plan, and with Int 7, he is well aware of that. 
      • Blossoming Rose Style and the Fan 2.5e updates of Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style are all chosen here because they are balanced and of high quality compared to some of the poorly thought out styles in canon, as well as providing proper keywords and consistent mechanics. I am honestly surprised that it is not a canon style, given how it fits in between White Veil and Citrine Pox of Contagion Styles.
      • While he has access to Ocean Washed Words, he knows that it is temporary, and has bitten him more than a few times when he allowed its commitment to lapse, and it reset, causing him to need to spend another day reacclimating it. He only uses it when he absolutely has no other options. Of course, it is common knowledge that being immersed in a new place is the best/fastest way to learn about it, and he has better ways to spend his motes. (Also, he knows that there are dozens of ways to target committed motes, but he has none of them; Solars and Sidereals have most of them.)
      • Similarly, he does not use the Kimbery charms that summon Resources for collection at the shore, because anywhere that he uses that carries a real risk of having it all stolen from him. Thus, it is not an option outside of areas under his full control.
      • He will try not to use Mind Control or other social manipulation powers on his friends. That’s a betrayal of their trust.
      • Frenemies are fair game for being manipulated, but not Mind Controlled, because that means that he would be losing out of the chance to cultivate a true Rival.
      • Muggles are kind of fair game, so long as he is subtle, and he does not care about them.
      • Enemies are fair game for everything, unless they are perfect Rivals, in which case he will go out of his way to take *everything* from them before he ruins them; he is too compassionate to kill a rival unless he has to, perhaps for their loved ones sake, since he now loves them too, and better than his Rival.
      • His biggest virtues are Compassion/Conviction. If anyone ever knew what he really did, they would be horrified. His love is toxic, but good intentioned. As a result, he supports the really old-school approach to things: so long as they aren’t dead, I am being merciful, even if they are crippled and in agony every second. Old School Mercy, like the Romans and Greeks.
      • He will never have any Artifacts or other equipment unless he makes it himself.
      • XP Balancing vs Canon Characters: he starts with nothing other than his Charms, so having XP thrown into them as though he was Ess 8 without actually being Ess 8 is fine, balance wise.
      • The House of Wellness and Fortune, teaches Lintha and their allies how to be sneaky deadly martial doctors, merchants, and courtesans. Traders and pharmacists considered this a more practical alternative to the Brotherhood of Blades. This House is connected to The Ten Shadows Academy of Malfeas, and is little more than a front for it. Lintha were always highly variable in their personal capacity and forms, so there was a reasonably wide range of specialties available in The House, save that they all had the core theme of allowing traveling Lintha to appear harmless and unarmed, unlike the Brotherhood. While some among the Lintha decry the merchants and courtesans as being a waste of precious personnelle, the Septs affiliated with the merchant-mariners and their rooks recognise that not all battles are fought at sea.
        • Locust Mariner was trained there, in Laughing Wounds Style. 
      • Mariner strongly favored Kimbery (his Caste Yozi) and Metagaos (his Favored Yozi), and only slowly grew to appreciate the sublime ways of Hegra later on, once he started to understand the value of leaving people alive, even if they aren’t on his side. Intolerable Burning Truths let him be selective about his Compassion, and his boundless greed always wanted more everything. So, it was simple to make due with death. Now, he views himself as being powerful enough to not *have* to kill everyone.
      • Storm-Surge Stance + Storm Tossed Sea Prana + Font of Vitriol Invocation = 70 mile radius Kimbery’s Waters and Poison Lacquer; Add Poison Well and you can sub your blood or any other toxin; Larger radius than even the Hegra charmset, generally not used unless he’s invading. It deals poison and acid rain, and lasts up to 7 hours (with Storm Curse Condemnation). Combine this with Demons Sea Shintai to invade a country. Can be subbed out for Hegra charms, but those storms are 7 miles radius, even though their env penalties are crazy good, and they support the same kind of substitution via Poison Well. 
      • His blood contains the following by default: Kimbery’s Depths Poison Lacquer, Hegra’s Toxin, Psychedelic Rain, Kimbery’s Waters/Acid, anything Metagaos related.
      • Grappling Charms: (Kimbery )Ichor Flux Tendrils, Seared Fruits of Union, Gore Bloom Extrusion, Vile Brine Distillation, Inescapable Whirlpool Grasp; (Metagaos) Hidden Roots Revealed, Devil-Weed Body Unfurled, Eutrophication, Hunger-Driven Embrace, And Then He Stole The Air, Choking Greed
      • Constant Self-Compulsions: [all ignorable for 1w/scene]
        • Intolerable Burning Truths: 
          • Mother Before Daughter: The Infernal can’t knowingly betray beloved characters or ancestors from whom she descends (i.e. parents, grandparents, etc.). Betrayal means a course of action or inaction that she believes will result in more harm than good. When making rolls to navigate anywhere or track a beloved character, she adds bonus successes equal to the number of beloved characters she has.
          • Trust Is Naïve: The Infernal takes refuge in the depths of her loving faith, refusing to believe anything bad about a beloved character. She can still become convinced that such a character has been duped or forced into poor decisions by the wickedness of others, but will never assign blame to them. Just as Kimbery's waters welcome all, she may reduce the number of scenes necessary to build a positive Intimacy toward any character she has never reviled by any amount, to a minimum of one.
          • Existence Is Agony: The Infernal can’t show mercy. She may spare an enemy, but only with the intent to prolong his suffering. If multiple courses of action seem to offer roughly equivalent benefit to herself, she must choose the path she believes will maximize harm to non-beloved characters along the way. Compassion 3+ no longer compels her to care about anyone except beloved characters, though she may magnanimously choose to care about strangers in hopes of making them beloved.
          • Never Forgive: The Infernal cannot abandon or weaken a negative Intimacy toward reviled characters and refuses to believe anything good about them. When she makes a social attack encouraging others to think ill of a reviled character (Emotion and/or Illusion) or harm a reviled character (Compulsion), her words become unnatural mental influence.
          • Hate Springs Eternal: The Infernal can’t knowingly help a reviled character unless she believes her own life depends on it. Her great heart can still sustain (Willpower + Compassion) positive Intimacies without risk of losing them through sleep, but negative Intimacies do not count against this limit and never fall off that way. Additionally, she adds +1 to her DV and MDV against the attacks of reviled characters; manifest loathing shields her even against enemies too foolish to fear her.
        • Hunger Without Satisfaction: An uncomfortable emptiness eternally gnaws at the innards of the All-Hunger Blossom. He is beyond starvation, but all the world must be his trough, lest he suffer even a moment of discomfort. The Infernal can no longer die from hunger or thirst, suffers no negative effects from overeating, and can extract enough fluids from one full meal to eliminate any thirst penalties, regardless of how desiccated his food was. However, he starts developing hunger penalties after just (Stamina + Resistance) hours without eating a full meal, at a rate of one point per hour to a maximum of -10. The Infernal ignores any hunger or thirst penalties affecting actions that would help him acquire food. This includes attempts to track or kill prey, forage for edible plants, persuade a grocer to give him leftover stock, and so on. Only actions that would directly alleviate his hunger benefit. The warlock cannot ignore penalties while tracking an enemy messenger unless he sincerely intends to devour them (or something in their possession). 
        • Greed Without Restraint: The belly remembers no past favors or future promises, but demands to be filled now. The warlock requires just one scene to develop intimacies of hunger (literal or otherwise), and if he has Conviction 3+ must roll to avoid accepting, indulging or acquiring any material good that is offered or otherwise made easily available. However, he can channel Conviction to acquire or enjoy material pleasures and goods, even at the expense of his long-term goals. He converts dice from channeling Conviction or from intimacies related to greed, hunger, or lust into automatic successes when persuading others to help him gain such delights, this includes indirect methods like negotiations or trade, or when he is otherwise pursuing them himself. If you can rationalize some kind of self-benefit, your Compassion may be spent interchangeably with your Conviction. With a repurchase, any activation of Palate Without Limit also grants you perfect perception of the value of objects or trade goods in various markets and includes the effects of the Solar Charms, Frugal Merchant Method and Insightful Buyer Technique. As well, this grants you one bonus success on honest haggling, and three bonus successes for dishonest dealings (either your own, or your opponents). At Essence 3+, this upgrades to permit you to passively perceive the Resources or Wealth ratings of visible targets, including the ability to infer the source of their wealth. With an Essence 3+ repurchase when you know Desire Without Escape, you may pay an additional (+5m) when activating it, to allow you to track abstract wealth in addition to concrete targets of your desires, and you may cough up a living map to this target, which includes a depiction of what kind of hardships you will face in your pursuit as well as other clear landmarks; this item gives you a +5 success equipment bonus to pursue that target. With this repurchase, you also may make a perception roll to taste all of the trades or exchanges that a target has made within a specified timeframe, with a month being the default, and a year giving a -3 difficulty, and so on.
        • Ecstatic Erudition Insight:
          • Hegra is a being of desire, both within and without. Upon taking this Charm, an Infernal becomes much more skilled at understanding the desires of others, adding his permanent Essence in bonus dice to any roll used to discern or exploit the desires of others. In addition, he becomes much more focused towards fulfilling his own whims, negating the Appearance modifier of any social attack that attempts to convince the Infernal to go against his desires. However, there is a drawback: this focus on desire makes the Infernal incredibly unstable, flitting from one whimsy to the next. Whenever someone makes a social attack against the Infernal that attempts to influence his emotional state (including all social attacks enhanced by Charms with an Emotion effect), he subtracts his permanent Essence from the dice pool used to calculate his MDV against that attack. This penalty does not apply to any attack that is attempting to change the Infernal’s opinion, his perception or any other aspect of his mind, only his emotional state. In the event that a social attack alters the Infernal’s emotional state in addition to other effects, this penalty only applies in cases where the emotional effect is the central aspect of the social attack (as determined by the ST).
        • Incomparable Intoxication Ideal:
          • Hegra does not simply embody or understand desire; she encompasses it, transcending mere joy to become euphoria itself. This Charm grants a number of benefits to the Infernal: 
            • The Infernal may, upon activating Poisonous Euphoric Panacea, choose to create any other intoxicating substance with which the Infernal is familiar, so long as its Resources cost is less than or equal to his Essence.
            • The Infernal becomes immune to all mundane Poison effects, and adds his Essence in automatic successes to resist magical poison (but will still experience any psychotropic effects, regardless of success on the roll to resist). 
            • The Infernal learns to ignore the pains and aches in his body, the better to indulge his fantasies. The Infernal may reduce his combined wound and exhaustion penalties by his Essence. This does not obviate the need to rest or heal; it merely allows him to ignore the penalties for not doing so. 
          • However, this comes at a price: the Infernal’s priorities becomes warped, putting his wants over his needs. He must roll Conviction to avoid accepting, indulging or acquiring any material good that is offered or otherwise made easily available (stacks with Greed Without Restraint).
        • Vibrant Rainbow Chorus:
          • The Infernal experiences emotion as a synesthetic chorus of music, from the violet strains of love to the bright red cacophony of anger. This perception allows her to know the dominant emotion of all characters she can perceive, and she may place any character’s emotions in context within the scene, if applicable. In addition, if any of a character’s Intimacies or their Motivation resonate with their current emotional state, they are made Obvious to the Infernal. The Infernal may perceive this with any of her senses, allowing her to benefit from this information even if she is blinded or deafened–she might taste the different flavors of emotion on the air, or feel their psychic vibrations. This does not allow her to ignore any of the usual penalties for sensory impairment, however. A second purchase of this Charm grants the Infernal (Essence) automatic successes on all Awareness-based actions to perceive any character whose emotions he can detect with this Charm. However, he suffers an equal external penalty on all Awareness-based rolls to perceive things without emotions or whose emotions he cannot read. In addition, even if blinded or deafened, he may still use the synesthetic perception of this Charm in place of his lost senses, allowing him to visually or audibly perceive characters without the usual penalties of his impairment, so long as he can sense their emotions. He still suffers the normal penalties for  perceiving anything with no emotions, or whose emotions he cannot detect. The perception granted by this Charm extends to (Essence x 100) yards when used in this way as an independent sense
        • Hateful Wretched Noise
      • Social Perception Charms: 
        • Summary: Unless he activates charms, the only natural passives are Ecstatic Erudition Insight. In order, he leaves the following active unless out of motes:Palette Without Limit, Vibrant Rainbow Chorus. All of the others are pumped as priorities shift.
          • (EEI Passive) He experiences his own roiling maelstrom of desires, and like the charge that calls Hegra’s black lightning, like calls to like, and he is drawn to desires of any kind.
          • (Vibrant Rainbow Chorus) The Infernal experiences emotion as a synesthetic chorus of music, from the violet strains of love to the bright red cacophony of anger.
          • (Palette Without Limit) Putrefying offal and fine steak each have their merits, contemplated alongside every flavor by the petal-tongues of the All-Hunger Blossom.
        • Palette Without Limit+Greed Without Restraint (activated):
          • (s) Keen/Unsurpassed Taste/Scent Technique
          • (s) Frugal Merchant Method
          • (s) Insightful Buyer Technique
          • May even reveal basic details normally restricted to other avenues of perception, allowing the Infernal to determine someone’s height and eye colour by licking up an errant drop of their sweat. 
          • Permitting even the most abstract qualities to be determined, including information about wealth, possessions, organizational ties, resources the target may have access to, or any other information that might be the target of one of your intimacies.
          • May also include their relationships with other characters or ot her truly esoteric information that a full scene of investigation might reveal.
          • Passively perceive the Resources or Wealth ratings of visible targets, including the ability to infer the source of their wealth.
          • You also may make a perception roll to taste all of the trades or exchanges that a target has made within a specified timeframe, with a month being the default, and a year giving a -3 difficulty, and so on.
        • Price-of-Everything Undercurrents (activated):
          • This Charm supplements a normal or dramatic action to estimate the value of a good or service and the quality of it. Examples include the condition and value to the owner of an allegedly "priceless" pearl, or much "not flooding a district of Malfeas" is worth to her supplicants. This Charm gives the Infernal a perfect awareness of the target quality's condition, and how much ownership of it is worth to its prospective or current owner. This awareness grants her two bonus successes on any price haggling which ensues.
        • Hidden Depths Temptress (activated):
          • (s) Irresistible Salesman Technique
        • Dark Depths Unseen (activated): 
          • Perfect defense against all attempts to read the Infernal's emotions, Motivation, Intimacies, or mind.
        • Hidden Currents Awareness (activated):
          • he rolls (Perception + [Investigation or Socialize]) adding his Essence in automatic successes and compares the result to every character present. If the Infernal garners more successes than one half the (Manipulation + Socialize) of any individual, the Infernal learns that character's goal in the current scene, his Motivation, and any Intimacies that may be present.
        • Ecstatic Erudition Insight: 
          • Infernal becomes much more skilled at understanding the desires of others, adding his permanent Essence in bonus dice to any roll used to discern or exploit the desires of others. In addition, he becomes much more focused towards fulfilling his own whims, negating the Appearance modifier of any social attack that attempts to convince the Infernal to go against his desires.
        • Shallow Hearts Cry Out (activated):
          • enhances a read intent or read motivation action meant to discern the desires of another, using Perception + Investigation or Socialize against the target’s Dodge MDV, adding the Infernal’s Essence in automatic successes to the roll. If the Infernal succeeds, the Infernal automatically understands the target’s greatest desire at that moment. This requires no vocalization on the part of the Infernal or his target; the Infernal must merely be able to see his or hear his target to be able to use this Charm. This is an entirely subjective measure: though a subject’s greatest desire will often revolve around their Motivation or one of their Intimacies, a man who has not eaten for several days may most desire food, while an addict experiencing withdrawal (especially one addicted to Hegra’s toxin) will almost always desire the object of his addiction most of all. The Infernal may use information gained from this Charm to enhance his ability to persuade his target; so long as he exploits this knowledge, the Infernal increases his effective Appearance against the target by his Essence. This does not allow the Infernal to exceed the cap on benefits he may receive from high Appearance.
        • Vibrant Rainbow Chorus (activated): 
          • This perception allows her to know the dominant emotion of all characters she can perceive, and she may place any character’s emotions in context within the scene, if  applicable. In addition, if any of a character’s Intimacies or their Motivation resonate with their current emotional state, they are made Obvious to the Infernal. The Infernal may perceive this with any of her senses, allowing her to benefit from this information even if she is blinded or deafened–she might taste the different flavors of emotion on the air, or feel their psychic vibrations. This does not allow her to ignore any of the usual penalties for sensory impairment, however.
          • A second purchase of this Charm grants the Infernal (Essence) automatic successes on all Awareness-based actions to perceive any character whose emotions he can detect with this Charm. However, he suffers an equal external penalty on all Awareness-based rolls to perceive things without emotions or whose emotions he cannot read. In addition, even if blinded or deafened, he may still use the synesthetic perception of this Charm in place of his lost senses, allowing him to visually or audibly perceive characters without the usual penalties of his impairment, so long as he can sense their emotions. He still suffers the normal penalties for perceiving anything with no emotions, or whose emotions he cannot detect. The perception granted by this Charm extends to (Essence x 100) yards when used in this way as an independent sense.
          • [This is always channeled through Taste/Smell]
      • Semi-secret weakness: compassion. He is almost alien in his views, but his compassion is more human than human, save that it is only ‘average’ when applied to those he has no attachments to. Couple that with the fact that his usual social charms get overbalanced by Hegra, and you have someone who will let themselves be manipulated, because they just feel so much empathy. 
      • Official Appearance: JFLM is an unnaturally tall and wiry man, possessed of a grace and poise that seems at odds with his appearance (Blood and Salt p 41). His face is long, with a cleft chin and high cheekbones, and he has a variety of symmetric facial piercings of gleaming Vitriolic Moonsilver (MoeP:Inf 173). His skin is bright emerald green, almost the same color and shimmer as an iridescent beetle shell; he has a Custom Tattoo of his own devising that slowly moves and shifts across his flesh. His eyes are ruby red, and possessed of a shrewd piercing gaze that seems to read through all pretensions. His hair is beyond frost-white, passing into the realm of being almost opalescent; it is often styled based on where he is and who he is meeting with; his hair smells slightly of pepper. His voice is neither too deep nor high, but has a melodic twang when he speaks, like he’s a step off of spitting verse. He is attractive, in a solid and angular kind of way that is almost universally exotic. 
        • [IGNORE THIS DONT USE IT]“Mother Drowns Child”: Custom Artifact Demonic Green-Sun Tattoo (*****); The Chalcanth of this was made from the arms of  Madelrada, That Which Wears Down The Mountain, which she lost in a bet to JFLM. She did not expect to lose the wargames that were being performed, and so bet her own arm against his. The quicksilver components were Szorenic Quicksilver, which he gathered himself from the invidious forest. The tattoo moves and changes over time, and he can move it and reshape it with a moment’s focus, as though he were doing calligraphy or painting. Its exact color and style are not fixed, but typically contrast with his skin. It is specifically designed to self-conceal when he uses charms to conceal his appearance. The tattoo is designed to passively respond to Flesh-Weaving Tendrils without appearing obvious and disgusting. It’s appearance has nothing to do with its function, which is multifold: 
          • It adds the “Vitriolic Blood” quality from Madelrada (CoCD:Malfeas p125), save that it adds that effect on top of your normal blood exposure, if it would be more. This may be turned off, but turns back on automatically whenever it could affect a Reviled target.
          • It adds (Essence) successes to any combat rolls against your children or descendents, so long as those actions benefit from Kimbery’s First Excellency.
          • It makes anyone rolling to hold their breath, avoid environmental effects, resist poison or disease, they roll their pool twice, and take the worse result. The range of this effect is the same as the Vitriolic Blood, 3m. 
          • By smearing your acid blood (if you have no current wounds this costs 1lhl) on a weapon you own, it freezes Obviously becoming coated with Indigo Ice, and gains the quality of being an Acid-Rime Weapon (MoEP:I p178) for the scene.
          • You may add your number of negative intimacies (Motivations and Urges count) as an equipment bonus to the Toxicity, Virulence, Morbidity, and Penalty of Toxins (e.g. Poisons, Diseases, etc) that you create, control, or which occur within places you own in any sense. If the defender is the subject of one of your negative intimacies, they must roll twice, and take the worse result. This stacks with similar effects.
          • It is a Green Sun Tattoo, but he benefits from the full protection, even though he is not a Lunar akuma.
          • The only downside to this tattoo is that, being a gift specifically to him, as the result of that bet, it cannot be transferred or used by anyone besides JFLM; this is an exception to the normal rules for Tattoo Artifacts.
      • He loves his children and dotes upon them. Even those who plotted a coup against him he left alive. If a particularly cute kid comes along, his ‘Grandfather’ mode comes on, and he is very sweet. Part of why he is loathe to just kill everyone in cities is because he knows of the bystanders. So long as he is merciful, he reassures himself that all wounds might heal with time. This tendency is a little strange, given that he’s 400+ yrs old, so even full grown adults might poke his button. 
      • Glory Girl and Gallant’s Emotion powers: GG’s power is a passive Emotion effect, Gallant’s is an active Emotion effect. Both count as Social Attacks and are resisted with MDVs. While Ecstatic Erudition Insight makes Mariner vulnerable to Emotion effects (-7), Demonic Primacy of Essence (and its upgrades) cancel that out (against an Essence 1 Human, it’d be +6), while Impervious Primacy Mantle and Crowned With Fury make actual orders unacceptable. That means that both GG and G can target him, and if they sweet-talk, per Impervious Primacy Mantle’s wording, they could make him have a -1 or -2 to his normal MDVs against them. This is why their powers aren’t auto-mind-control against his emotions. However, if they figure out that his Compassion and Conviction are stupidly high, they can use that against him. Of course, with the Errata I’m using, he can ignore his self compulsions for a scene with 1w. If Jack Slash or some other truly manipulative opponent truly wanted to get on his weakness, they would need to know enough about him to successfully not only get him to trust them, but also to want what they want. Its not impossible, especially given that any betrayal by a trusted friend make them Reviled, and then he kind of has to always hate them to death. Sloowly.
        • If he doesn’t have IPM, then it’s harder to resist! He has one actual weakness.
      • One of the biggest turning points in Mariner’s life was when he realized that his own kin feared him. No, not loved and feared (that’s normal enough in the Lintha), but just feared. He took it badly, and soured his reign, knowing that his distant grandchildren were little more than frightened strangers. Unlike many of the Yozi, who have specific powers that cause fear (like HG), neither Kimbery nor Metagaos have ever needed such a thing. They are legitimately terrifying in their own right, and being their representative on the mortal plane makes JFLM a small piece of Malfeas on earth. He is a humanoid abomination, whose main powers call down the wrath of the lands, seas, and skies. He is a king with the sensibilities of something between a  merchant prince a pirate lord and El Chapo, and powers driven by greed, disease, poison, lust, hate, and addiction. Thus, he is legitimately terrifying, not through any kind of trickery, but because he has the capacity to terrify even a rational mind. Even his family knew this, and knew that even if he had sworn to never lay a hand upon them, he was just one bad day away from reconsidering his largesse. Even those family members which had crossed him usually survived, but the ‘mercy’ shown them caused vomiting in the court.
      • The ‘sponsor’ of JFLM is Madelrada, Eighth Soul, That Which Wears Down the Mountains; she has rather blatant favoritism in her selection, and he gained his tattoo artifact from her ‘playful’ spirit. 
      • Mariner is a man driven by passion and hedonism. While his original personality had more Temperance than he does now, his has always been stubborn about what he wants and needs. His story is going to be about finding people he can trust, for business and for family and friends. Can’t do his Urge without it. Can’t trust people if they are always mind controlled, since there is no loyalty there (as he recalls from An-Teng). He can’t cheat in this new life, not if he wants it to be genuine. 
      • Final balance notes: Dip HG+LWS final. Added back IPM/CwF. Added back Cec DPoE. Those two sets of charms are much less than the SZ one, and represent the ‘king/dictator’ background from JFLM.
      • “Maybe you would say I am unambitious, compared to my fellows in the Thing Infernal. I have but claimed one country; a dictator but not an emperor. Such words wash off me like gentle rain off a duck’s back. They commit a categorical error, placing me among them in their bellicosity. I took An-Teng because I wanted a place to raise my family. It was my home and my workshop and my laboratory. But most of all… it was mine. All mine. If I wanted to expand, all of Creation would not slake me.”
      • Per the maps, The Principalities of An-Teng are absolutely huge, and are the nearest landmass to both Bluehaven and The Blessed Isle. His lands extended the full width of An-Teng, going past the mountains all the way to the Inland Sea, and stopping just shy of The Lap. This area is a rectangle roughly 1200 miles deep (from the shore) by  2600 miles long. This is roughly the side of most of North America. The sea-claims extended out much farther than that, covering roughly double that area out including Bluehaven. Within An-Teng and its territorial waters, all Merchants and Lintha are free to pass and do business, and it was a Free Trade zone, where nothing was forbidden from sale and services. The only things that were verboten were Realm military forces, unless they were just Dynasts and their personal guards on civilian business and out of uniform. Most of the inhabitants didn’t even know that they had been invaded over, but their newfound love of the ‘new leader’ was universal. None who would live within An-Teng as its citizens and serfs were spared that fate, save for the Lintha Family, and their direct allies. Merchants and travellers, and any who were not ‘natives’ were exempt, per the free trade agreement. Violating the local laws was harshly punished, however, even by free traders.
        • An-Teng in canon has no standing armies, but instead depends on Guerilla Warfare, permitting their invaders to sink too deep and get stuck overextended while they foul drinking water and raid supply chains. This worked against them with JFLM’s invasion, since he fouled the lands they hid in, and corrupted their own men into his personal guerilla forces. Not even death could free those he claimed, and the dead rose again as his almost mindless infantry.
        • His primary advantage was the availability of canals running all the way to the deepest mountains. His penetration drowned the areas nearest the waters, and spread toxic flora and fauna in his wake. Grey Swamps and floating lab-wombs spawned countless atrocities in his wake. Entire cities were swallowed in the darkness, ignorant of any invasion happening at all. 
        • The whole invasion took just 3 months, slightly slower than the total time it should take to cross An-Teng. Entire communities were left ‘fallow’ and ignored entirely. They were of course infected with his Self-Seed, and that plague proved decisive. The other major factor was the 70-mile radius storm that rained his toxic acid blood from the skies, which simultaneously carried the worst of all diseases as well as the horrid seeds of his infectious ownership.
        • By the time that he took on the Pantheon individually, his followers had increased more than a thousandfold from mind-control conscription. 
        • The eastward limits of his conquests was a failed attempt to capture Lap. Overconfident, he used his brain-washed and addicted conscript navy, headed by a former rival that he had broken and pulled into his forces in lieu of death. The force of Cousins, slaves, and conscripts were held together with fear, addiction, kimberian oaths, and his self-seed. The force was easily defeated through a combination of unhelpful weather conditions causing them to travel too slowly and run out of their supplies midway. Though the captains tried to keep order, the crew fell to withdrawl and were consumed from within by the self-seed and oaths of service. With 90% of his forces in no state to fight, the skeleton crew was killed by the Dragonblooded within the city. Because he relied too much on addiction and mind control of various kinds, he lost a near-monopoly on agricultural products in the South. His expansion stopped just outside of Lap, and he learned not to trust his powers unless he intended to kill whatever it was he used them on.
        • The era of Lintha Peace within An-Teng was marked internally as an apparent Cult of Personality. JFLM was looked upon as a semi-legendary being by those who did not know his touch during wartime. Those infected could never believe anything bad about him, and set up the Cult of Personality themselves, to explain to themselves why they all loved him so blithely. He permitted it, as efficacious. Of course they could never question it either, nor realize that there was a plague that infected them. Just that some who opposed the Dictator went missing.
        • JFLM used a levy on Dynasts to pass Tribute to the Realm. In truth, the Tribute was generally tainted foodstocks, bearing very specific versions of his Self-Seed. It took almost 140 years for the Realm to catch on that they were no longer in power, and that a potential Yozi cult had taken control of their doorstep.
        • Even after his Exile, it will take centuries of concerted work by Heaven to restore An-Teng to what it was before JFLM’s touch. His Self-Seed is almost impossible to remove, even for the Solars. However, it is of greatest annoyance to Heaven, that the Sidereals are unable to Countermagic his works, unless they have a Solar to help them.
      • A Bite That Keeps Gnawing + Unities and Disunities from Root-to-Petal make it so wound penalties can go  above -5 and have no cap, and that means that the usual internal penalties (min pool from Core p121) means that you can get dice pools to 0 using the wound penalty rules easily. You can also add Taste of Shared Pain to add yours to their own. Add Evolve or Die and you are basically as buffed as the LWS Form would make you.  Good design! 
        • You can also combine it with Hegra’s weather effects, which are external, as are Metagaos’ environmental effects. Any of these plus disease or poison are a good way to get a pool to 0, and become inapplicable per the rules. There are a very small number of charms that set your pool up to ignore these.




----





Roles in the story:

  • Facilitates canon?
  • Expands canon?
  • Gently Changes/Expands canon? THIS ONE: explains the nature of entities in the context of WoD+ and gives the setting a role in the universe.
  • His purpose in the story is to go and try to learn more about the other characters from canon, especially those that catch his eye. He especially envies families. Fortunately, he does not have a crazy compulsion to kill everyone and take their stuff, but its nice to know that he can do so if he wants to. 



Relationships:

  • Works for the Protectorate / PRT; at the very least is cooperating with them to enforce order/peace. He is a probationary member.
  • Does not Mary Sue his way into being friends with everyone
  • May be antagonistic towards Skitter?
  • Don’t make him instant friends/allies with Wards/Protectorate, let relationships form naturally.




Themes:

  • Unhappy with how conquering turned out
  • Wants to start over where they aren’t a villain or rule by mind-control/fear
  • Personal aim is to get friends and family
  • Struggling with how to best use their power
  • Struggling with their past as a villain



SWL+Elloge: spends a lot of time trying to figure out other characters. Interesting read for people who like those characters? Yes, I think so!




What I have decided is this Kimbery+Metagaos is fine. His part in the plot will derive entirely from friendships and personal relationships that I will build in a reasonable way, as he comes to understand this new world and his place in it. He will struggle with the fact that his bad habits make it easy to fall back into his old ways, and it is only his friends and/or rivals who will challenge him not to, as a personal thing. 

 

Even with 39 Hegra charms, this is still less than the 45 charms from Szoreny (not to mention the cost of the added Excellency, which costs about 20 charms extra on top of that 45). Keep Hegra: more focused, keeps with existing themes, just expanding on them to make the fluff have teeth. I am very happy with this. 




Ink Monkey’s Modern Infernal Charms:

 

https://ericminton.wordpress.com/2014/07/02/ink-monkey-bones-8-modern-infernal-charms/comment-page-1/

 


AO3 Formatting Guide for hidden text areas: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5046274/chapters/11603362#mobile1

 

Parahumans Online Forum Formatter:

https://github.com/ujamer/myrddin

https://ujamer.github.io/myrddin/




~~~ REAL SHEET ~~~ 



"Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner, Grandfather of Sennong Sept ,and Dictator of An-Teng": 

Ess5/7 (Meta/Kim); Sherden Caste; Urge: Metgaoiyn; All charms from the revised Meta list and the Kimbery. Basic sorcery only. Knows Laughing Wounds and Mantis CMA Styles and all four of the Dragon King TMA styles [Debris From the Fallen Races p3]. He mastered the charms of his patrons as a matter of religious devotion, as his family worship the Primordials, and his interpretation of that is that learning their charms is the best thing he can do to understand them. He has made it his life’s work to attempt to heal/repair/fix the Yozi and Neverborn, and failing that grow their Excellencies and Charm-sets personally to help them grow beyond their limits. Not so secret weakness: can be easily bribed, and actually has to roll (Greed Without Restraint and similar charms) at great penalty to not accept it. He has Compassion and Conviction 7, Kimbery’s Intolerable Burning Truth make it so that his Compassion is ignorable for those that are not Beloved. Current Urge: Become wealthy and affluent beyond reproach. Current Motivation: Find new family and friends. Personal Anima is impossible thalassic wings made of swirling helixes of eyes and mouths, though it is hard to tell whether the wings are fins, flippers, or flapping tentacle cloaks like are found in the depths, the wings are in constant erratic motion, only lining up to reveal their proper shape seemingly by accident. Per caste errata, Neomah Coadjutor gives a in-caste discount on Malfeas charms in addition to 3 favored. 

  • Excellencies: (These are bought for both Kimbery and Metagaos and Cecelyne) 
    • First (Yozi) Excellency -- Essence Overwhelming [Adds dice]
    • Second (Yozi) Excellency -- Essence Triumphant [Adds Successes]
    • (Yozi) Mythos Exultant [Gain something in place of Willpower for a stunt]
    • (Yozi) Inevitably Technique [Ess 7+: free use; drops Target number to 6]
    • Effortless (Yozi) Dominance [Cumulative First Excellency discount per scene to min 0]
    • So Speaks (Yozi) [First Excellency can be used as innate power, no EYD discount]
    • Ascendency Mantle of (Yozi) [Raise your Ess limit for your age by one, unless you fail to do something]
    • Essential (Yozi) Archetype [ECG; ignore penalties using the 1st Ex]
    • (Yozi) World-Shaping Cosmogony [HBC; Wyld-shaping… ]
    • (Yozi) Paragon Paradigm [HBC; sets difficulty to 10]
    • Children of (Yozi) [HBC; your offspring get access to your 1st/2nd Ex’s, and count as Demon Blooded with you as their Coadjutor…]
    • (Yozi) Arts Externalized [10k; discount on spells that invoke your Yozi]
    • Expansive (Yozi) Consciousness [HBC; net +5willpower secondary pool, fillable with Ex-enhancable stunts or Yozi-related charms… ]
    • Cosmic Forge of (Yozi) [HBC; easier Yozi-related specialty crafting]
  • Sorcery Charms: Sorcerous Enlightenment of (Kimbery|Metagaos|Cecelyne), Sorcerous Integration of (Kimbery|Metagaos|Cecelyne) Principles [lots of effects… ; 100]
  • Non Kimbery/Metagaos/Cecelyne Charms:
    • Malfeas Soak/Healing/Armor:
      • Combat/Soak Charms:
        • Hardened Devil Body
        • By Pain Reforged
        • Scar-Writ Saga Shield
        • Nightmare Fugue Vigilance
        • By Agony Empowered
        • By Torment Immortalized [100]
        • Basalt Flesh Withering [ECG]
        • Countless Cities Clotting [HBC]
        • Towers Rise Again [HBC]
        • Armored With Suffering [HBC]
        • World-Mastering Authority [HBC]
      • Social/War Charms:
        • Impervious Primacy Mantle
        • Crowned With Fury [Note that this happens during Social combat only, with the Social keyword, so you cannot accidentally activate it without Joining Debate]
        • Know Your Place [10K/HBC] (‘Social’ just like CWF, “As an unnatural mental influence, for the rest of the scene any character who interacts with the Infernal and whose Dodge MDV is lower than the Infernal’s Charisma gains an Intimacy of Terrified Awe towards them.  This may be resisted for a scene by spending one willpower, and as an exception to the normal rules for unnatural mental influence a character who resists does not gain Limit. At Essence 5, this Charm’s duration increases to Indefinite.”; my errata below includes this: “Know Your Place [Malfeas; 10K] Add in the following text. “At Essence 5+, this charm’s duration becomes indefinite. If you know World Ruling Intensity, then this duration becomes Permanent and it is automatically on, and is automatically applied to all actions which are either social or which allow you to address or otherwise be perceived by others (this includes actions outside of Social debate which demonstrate your might, in contravention of the normal Social rules [this is a permanent downside, of course]). If you also know Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion, in any scene where your splendor would be overwhelming to your lessers, you may take a miscellaneous action to redirect (this is a reversible toggle) that energy towards your Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion, causing that both that effect as well as Know Your Place to be applied automatically, to all valid Lord-Over-Beasts targets within (Ess) times the normal radius; this may be reverted at any time. While this redirection happens, Know Your Place uses normal (non-Permanent) costs and durations. Regardless of this redirection, the following permanent effect is added to this charm: characters who already have Intimacies of Terrified Awe towards you count each interaction with you, including just being able to see or hear you as once full scene spent reinforcing these Intimacies. You may choose to permit the coexistence of intimacies of Terrified Awe alongside those caused by your other charms, if they would normally replace one another.”, making this the huge permanent fear effect!)
        • Traitors’ Heart Conflagration [10K/HBC] (“This Charm permanently enhances its prerequisite [CWF].  When it is used against a character who possesses an Intimacy of Terrified Awe towards the Infernal, the character must pay a lethal health level to resist the social attack, on top of any willpower cost.  Their flesh visibly blackens and chars, the odour of burnt flesh marking their fleeting rebellion.  Characters with a Limit Track may choose to pay a point of Limit in place of a health level the first time they would be affected by this Charm in a scene, which immunises them to its effects for a day.”)
        • Fear Births Obedience [10K/HBC] (“ Any character with an Intimacy of Terrified Awe towards her must pass a Valour roll at Difficulty 1 to act against the Infernal’s commands or interests in any way, physically or otherwise.  What is best for the Infernal is judged as perceived by the character, unless a command would contradict their belief.  Moreover, they roll the lower of their Essence and Valour.  Characters may spend one willpower to ignore the effects of this unnatural mental influence for one scene. Essence users count each point of willpower spent to resist this Charm as a scene weakening their Intimacy of Terrified Awe.  This benefit is not enjoyed by demons of the first circle and gods, for their kinds were made to be slaves and in slavery they shall remain.”)
        • World-Shaking Commands [ECG] (“This Charm may supplement any social attack that is enhanced by Crowned with Fury. If it exploits a character’s Intimacy of awe, fear, or loyalty towards the Infernal, then it becomes  unblockable and undodgeable.”)
        • My Will Be Done [ECG] (“A crown of emerald flames blazes upon the Infernal’s brow, engraved with glyphs that spell out his name and imperial title. If he makes a social attack or exerts mental influence that constitutes an unacceptable order against a character with one or less points of temporary Willpower, it is not rejected outright. If the target ‘s MDVs are overcome, they must resist it normally. If a character possesses an Intimacy of awe, fear, or loyalty towards the Infernal, they may instead be given  unacceptable orders if they have three or less points of Willpower remaining. Non-heroic mortals are always subject to this Charm, no matter how many points of Willpower they have remaining. Exalts and other beings with a Limit track may override this power, allowing them to ignore the unacceptable order normally, but they must accept two points of Limit to do so for each unacceptable order they reject (Abyssals gain Resonance instead).”)
        • Restrained Punishment Generosity [100] (“The first time the Exalt performs a social attack during an action, she may activate this Charm to enhance it and all subsequent social attacks. As she begins her attack, the Infernal makes an intensely rude or threatening gesture, though not so combative as to call for Join Battle, or opens with a vicious comment. This grants the Exalt (Charisma) extra successes for the rest of the action on all social attacks against those who can feel fear.”)
        • World-Ruling Intensity [100] (“With this Charm, the Exalt is forevermore capable of inflicting fear or benefiting from effects that rely on fear (such as Restrained Punishment Generosity) against any volitional being, even the mindless undead and automata. This includes forcing such normally fearless beings to make Morale checks when confronted by the Exalt. Even the dumb matter of the world, the truly inanimate and senseless things, are terrified by the Infernal, though they can not express their feelings.”)
        • First King’s Demand [HBC]  (“This charm enhances a social attack phrased as a demand. Leave this place, Bring me aid, and Bring me his head with a side salad are all valid uses of this charm. It makes the attack an unblockable social  attack, causing unnatural mental influence that costs willpower to resist equal to half the user's essence. Servants of the Incarnae or the free Primordials (Such as Solars, Sidereals, Lunars, Alchemicals, elementals to name but a few) reduce this willpower cost by one, due to the ancient surrender oaths. This demand is often phrased oddly, and the powerful quality of their voice is utterly inhuman, providing the Obvious nature of the charm.”)
        • Mantle of Lordly Dominance [HBC] (“permanently enhances its prerequisite [CWF so that when its effects are used against anyone who has an Intimacy of fear or awe towards the Infernal or anyone the Infernal holds social or metaphysical authority over, the target must spend two points of Willpower instead of one to resist a successful so
        • King of Terror Mien [HBC] (very complicated, see the text, but makes people run away…)
        • Trauma-Repressing Denial [HBC] (upgrade KoTM, makes them repress the memory because scary)
        • Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion [10K/HBC] (

“””

Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion

Cost: — ; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Compulsion, Emotion

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Crowned By Fury

In times gone by, every beast knew the authority and dominion of the Primordial King. These ancestral memories leave them helpless in the face of Malfeas’ wrath. This Charm projects an unnatural compulsion with a radius of (Essence x 2) yards, forcing all natural animals to submit to the Infernal. Camels kneel, flies land and cower, wings buzzing in harmony, birds freeze in place, singing songs to her glory; mechanically, they are rendered Inactive by their submission. A ridden animal may be spurred to ignore its reverence for a scene if the rider spends 2wp, and succeeds on a reflexive (Charisma + Ride) roll at a difficulty of the Infernal's Essence. Mounts marked by marked with Fealty Acknowledging Audience or who have an Intimacy of Terrified Awe towards the Infernal, or whose rider has been marked or has the Intimacy, may be spared these effects at her discretion so long as they are not hostile.

Any natural animal ridden by the Infernal has its Control Rating set to 0. Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion has no effect on animals which are magically compelled by other effects or supernaturally loyal, such as familiars. The Holy Tyrant had a similar charm, but it could be controlled; Malfeas, who harbours secret fears, must shout his dominance least any doubt him.

 

”””

  • Misc. Charms:
    • Nightmare Fugue Vigilance
    • Insignificant Embers Intuition
    • Dim Irrelevancies Unveiled
    • Skyfire-Seizing Repast
    • Sun-Heart Furnace Soul
    • By Hunger Nourished [BwC]
    • Unassailable Conflagration Spirit [ECG p78]
    • Somatic Catacombs Concealment [10K]
    • Calloused City Growth [10K]
    • Urban Legend Agyiopathy [HBC p442]
    • Mean Streets Curriculum [HBC p422]
    • Kneel or Be Knelt [INK p52] 
    • Demon Core Meltdown [INKM]
  • Martial Arts Styles [Martial Arts is Favored]: 
    • Celestial Styles:
      • Laughing Wounds Style [2.5e updated version in the errata below]
      • Mantis Style [Scroll of Individual Greatness Vol 3: Echoes of Enlightenment 02, p61]
      • Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style  [2.5e updated version in the errata below; Lintha Rook]
      • Black Claw Style [INK p95; won it in a bet against Mara] 
      • Eye of Heaven Style [Debris of the Fallen Races, p13]
      • Infernal Monster Style [INF p157-163, INK p70-77, HBC(REVLID) p1101-1118,  ECG p96-97, Scroll of Errata 992; learned from Suntarankal]
        1. INF: All including native expansion charms
        2. INK: All except Untamed Apocalypse Shintai (the always mad one), and all of the Chained Beast charms (akuma-native anyway)
        3. HBC(REVLID): All except the Hateful Apotheosis charms (the ones from Perfected Rage-Saint Sarira to Back With a Vengeance)
        4. ECG: 
          • Shattered Hope Mockery
          • Corpse-God Mutilation
          • Earth-Shaking Cataclysm Blow
          • Hero-Breaking Horror
          • Creation-Swallowing Hellmouth Strike
          • Star-Shaking Fury
    • Terrestrial Styles: (First Pulse from Suntarankal; Fivefold Shadow Hand Style and White Veil Lintha Rooks; all others Litha Traditional)
      • Flame and Stone Style [Debris of the Fallen Races, p4]
      • Black Tide Style [Debris of the Fallen Races, p7]
      • Dagger Wind Style  [Debris of the Fallen Races, p9]
      • Shadow Hunter Style [Debris of the Fallen Races, p11]
      • First Pulse Style [SotM p45] 
      • White Veil Style [SotM p61]
      • Crimson Pentacle Blade Style [SotM p63]
      • Even Blade Style (all variants stolen) [SotM p69]
      • Fivefold Shadow Hand Style [SotM p75]
  • Misc:
    • Flowing Kata Form [INK, p95]
    • Roots of the Brass Lotus [Scroll of Errata, p 149; Infernal version of Swallowing the Lotus Root]
    • Lotus Root Internalization [100; p103]
    • Touch of Divinity [Scroll of the Monk p17; assuming this is the logical prerequisite to Soul-Enlightening Beneficence for Infernals]
    • Soul-Enlightening Beneficence [Scroll of the Monk p18, Infernal version has no stated prerequisite charms] 
  •  Heretical: 
    • Unsurpassed Devil-Craft (Kim/Metag crafting charms count)
    • Verdant Desolation Understanding (Metag/Cece from metag book)
    • [All of these are from The Fourth Soul and are locked behind having an active Unwoven rating, he cannot currently access them: link]
      • (Coadjutor) Flesh Extravagance
      • Fourth-Soul Devil Domain
      • Blossoms of the Tiger Empire
      • God-Beast’s Mantle
      • Self-Within-Self Inversion
      • Omphalic Reverence Receptacle 
      • Two Is Company

 

  • Kimbery Charms (canon/Modern https://ericminton.wordpress.com/2014/07/02/ink-monkey-bones-8-modern-infernal-charms/ ): Consuming Hatred Dissolution, Heart-Controlling Tides, Mother Knows Best (ink-monkey’s),  Wound-Drowning Metamorphosis.
  • Kimbery Charms besides Canon+REVLID’s: 
    • Sea’ s Fickle Favor, Sudden Storm Fury, Dark Depths Unseen, Hidden Currents Awareness, Endless Pounding Surf, Untiring Sea Prana, Heart Eroding Method, Crashing Wave Unity, Current Shifting Technique, Dreg Purging Method, Tide Turning Gesture, Waves Fall Back Emulation, Flood of Violence Prana, Tides of Battle Approach, One Mind Ocean, Stone Eroding Touch, Filth Consuming Dissolution, Caustic Wave Embrace, Vile Brine Distillation, Armor Corroding Attack, Inescapable Whirlpool Grasp, Dark Water Embrace, Flame Quenching Presence, Storm Surge Stance, Storm Curse Condemnation, Tempest Calming Gesture, Storm-Tossed Sea Prana, Font of Vitriol Invocation, Sea Home Stance, Treacherous Waters Navigation, Favorable Current Benevolence, Spare the Unworthy Vessel, Ocean Carving Futility (gains Sea Keyword for the purpose of paying the normal 3m surcharge), Fury-Absorbing Vastness (costs 8m, gains Sea Keyword), Sunken Treasure Technique (gains Sea Keyword), Pipe Navigating Flow (gains Sea Keyword)
    • Acidic Body Meditation, Steel-Melting Skin, Burning Hatred Release, Acidic Depths Spewed Forth, Tide’s Flowing Wave, Bittersweet Poison Reverie, Caress of Taint, Flowing Water Prana (8m),  Matron’s Malicious Smile, Vengeful Mother’s Diatribe (8m), Mother Never Lies (self-compulsion per Witness to Darkness; the negative to Manipulation applies to Beloved targets only otherwise it is forever incompatible with other Kimbery social charms!), Mommy Knows Your Secrets, Petulant Scorn Tongue, A Wave of Flesh and Sinew
    • Blue-Ringed Venom Garden
    • Grotto-of-Sweet-Songs Shintai
    • Pelagic Muse Artistry, Squamous Idols Raised, Monstrous Manse-Mother Fountainhead, My Pretty Baby, Geomancy-Suckling Little Darling, Potential-Drowning Depths Dweller, Unhallowed Dreaming World-Progeny, Rocking-Cradle Envelopment, Ocean’s Bounty Blessing, Pearls of the Secret Deep, Weeping Wounds Tribunal, Toxic Love Indulgence, Great Mother’s Blessed Waters. 
    • [Bo10kS] Price-of-Everything Undercurrents, Hidden Depths Temptress, Rising Tide Gratuity, Kindness Expects Repayment, Rapturous Leech Rupture, Great Mother’s Blessed Waters, Ocean Washed Words, Surging Tidal Retreat, Attention-Holding Grace, Passion-Driven Maelstrom, Heart-Rending Loveliness, Martyr’s Open Endearment, Beauty-Over-Truth, Carmine Mantled Emissary, Organ-Pulping Reprimand, Lurking Indigo Haar, Demon Sea Shintai, Haar-Hidden Dealings, Pain-as-Witness Oath, Esoteric Inundation Investment, Benthic Sibling Vow, Red Tributary Envelopment, Instruction from Mother, Hidden Family Secrets, Grasping Ocean Hag, Well-Reputed Grotto, Primordial Smugglers Trail, Godmother’s Own House.
    • Mother Masters Children. (war)
    • Grand Motherhood Ascension (creates/populates lab-wombs at your option, can be used to modify anything that is in a lab-womb of yours)
    • [Repurchased via Ess4 Treacherous Waters Navigation]All Solar charms in the Survival, Sail, and Ride trees. The Exalted Index shows these pages for the canon sources, plus [100] and [ECG]: “Ride ........................................234, GS33, IM, Lr66, LR82”; “Sail .......................................236 , Ab179, IM, Lr66, LR82”; “Survival ...................................209, GS28, IM, Lr60, LR67”
      • Survival:
        • Ex Core p209-211
          1. Friendship With Animals Approach
          2. Spirit-Tied Pet
          3. Bestial Traits Technique
          4. Hardship-Surviving Mendicant Spirit
          5. Element-Resisting Prana
          6. Eternal Elemental Harmony
          7. Food-Gathering Exercise
          8. Trackless Region Navigation
          9. Unshakable Bloodhound Technique
          10. Traceless Passage
          11. Eye-Deceiving Camouflage
          12. City-Moving Secrets
        • Glories of the Unconquered Sun p28:
          1.  Steadfast Elemental Emperor Stance
        • Dreams of the First Age (Lords of Creation Revised) p67-68:
          1. Guiding Light Shines On
          2. Life-Sustaining Shelter Preparation
          3. God-King Benevolence
        • [100] p15:
          1. Refuge-Finding Intuition
          2. Trail-Soothing Grace of The Sun
          3. [clarification on canon charm] Element-Resisting Prana
        • [ECG] p15-16:
          1. Storm and Sun Prediction
          2. Woodland King’s Court
          3. Harmonious Wilderness Domain
          4. Golden Paradise Dominion
      • Ride:
        • Ex Core p234-236
          1. Master Horseman’s Techniques
          2. Worthy Mount Technique
          3. Single Spirit Method
          4. Phantom Steed
          5. Wind-Racing Essence Infusion
        • Glories of the Unconquered Sun p33:
          1. Dragon-Riding Meditation
        • INK p2-25:
          1. Immortal Rider’s Advantages
          2. Horse Skids Trick
          3. Hero Rides Away
          4. One Man Cavalry
          5. Thunder-Hoof Method
        • Dreams of the First Age (Lords of Creation Revised) p82:
          1. Draft Horse Measure
          2. Sun-Towing Method
        • [100] p29-30:
          1. Heroic Course Familiarity
          2. Attendant Chariot Gesture
          3. Impossible Maneuver Execution
          4. Pilot’s Steady Hand
          5. Narrow Escape Strategy
          6. Majestic Bearing Intuition
          7. World-Crossing Stamina
        • [ECG] p26-27:
          1. Mount-Guiding Intuition
          2. Superior Horseman Style
          3. Breaker-of-Horses Technique
          4. Race the Lighting’s Course
      • Sail:
        • Ex Core p236-238
          1. Salty Dog Method
          2. Invincible Admiral Method
          3. Ship-Claiming Stance
          4. Hull-Preserving Technique
          5. Shipwreck-Surviving Stamina
          6. Perfect Reckoning Technique
          7. Storm-Weathering Essence Infusion
          8. Sea Ambush Technique
        • Abyssal p178-181 (only listing new charms that aren’t already published in the Ex Core book; Ab/Sol for Mirror charms):
          1. Dark Waters Odyssey 
          2. Ruthless Captain Efficiency / Crew-Inspiring Courage
          3. Sea-Scanning Glare / Oceanic Omniscience Intuition
          4. Mist-Veiled Doldrums Technique
          5. Shroud-Crossing Miasma (NOTE: this should probably travel to or from any world you have been to in the past, as well as specifically  Malfeas, Kimbery, or Cecelyne by default not the Underworld until you have been there at least once; JFLM canonically has been there to lick things)
        • INK p25-26:
          1. Immortal Captain’s Advantages
          2. Flag of All Nations Method
          3. Mariner’s Parable Defense
        • Dreams of the First Age (Lords of Creation Revised) p82-83:
          1. Omnipotent Admiral Authority
          2. Invincible Solar Vessel
          3. Ship and Soul Union
        • [100] p30-31 (n.b. all published sail charms are mirror-keyword, with first listing here being solar): 
          1. Expert Pilot Concentration
          2. Invulnerable Solar Vessel
          3. Sun-Racing Clip
          4. Golden Cove Trick
        • [ECG] p27-28  (only listing new charms that aren’t already published in the Ever-cascading  book; Ab/Sol for Mirror charms):
          1. Wind-Defying Tack Rigging
          2. Splice The Mainbrace
          3. Eternal Storm-Breaking Harbor
          4. Unwavering Admiral’s Flag
          5. Captain’s Beloved Seahome
        • [ECG] p71  (the only non-Mirrored Keyword Abyssal Sail charm):
          1. Blood-Dimmed Tide (Unhallowed Ghost Ship is Mirrored from (Ship-Claiming Stance; Exalted, p. 237); this should obviously claim the as being outside of Fate, and counting as as the waters of Kimbery instead of anything death related)
    • For reference, these charms come on when his Anima is up: Muse of Beauteous Horrors, Art Begets Art, Horrid Idols Raised, Pelagic Muse Artistry, Squamous Idols Raised (Blue-Ringed Venom Garden may activated reflexively for 15m, without needing to spend an action to do so, wherever he was when his anima first hit 10+, later invocations are activated normally).
  • Metagaos Charms: 
    • All of those from my version of the charms 
    • These from [HBC]:
      • Feast Upon (Shinma) [Nirupadhika actually teleports any target you can sense to anywhere within your reach that you can sense. This is not a Shaping or Sorcerous effect, but things which specifically stop teleportation effects without keywords can contest the strength of the power with their (Ess+Occult) vs your own (Ess+Occult+Resources), and they get an external penalty equal to your Essence, and you get bonus auto-successes on this roll equal to your roll over dice from hitting the target]
      • Revisiting Old Wounds [initial purchase you just take the damage as part of the cost, with the repurchase you still take the damage, but it is soakable with you natural soak, armor does not help]
      • Dragging Prey Out Of Sight
      • Feast of A Lifetime [This works with your other taste memory effects, and lets you actively dig through memories without needing to do the white-room interrogation]
      • Maw of The Bloom [The Bite Mutation here permits him to bite even without Teeth Without Number active, though that version still requires a Clinch as normal.]
      • Words Like Vipers 
      • Predatory Dominance [This intimacy can either encourage your food to keep coming back to feed you anew, or discourage your food from annoying you; the intimacy can go either way, since the wording was confusing in the write up. Pick one when you activate the charm. For clarity, Mafleas-style ‘Terrified Awe’ is as much an option as anything else.]
      • Aspect of the Perfect Predator [does not require that you have eaten it before, unlike the other similar charms]
      • No Greater Treasure
      • No Place Is Safe
      • Hunter’s Trophies
      • Scent The Elusive Prey [If you already could, add +Ess successes to do so]
      • Screaming Heavenly Morsels [If you already could, add +Ess successes to do so]
      • Food That Keeps on Feeding
      • Prey Are As Nothing (cost is 8m)
      • Top of All Food Chains
      • Mouth of The All-Hunger Blossom [upgrades the base bite statistics as listed, Def penalty is +0; subsequent upgrades allow your mouth to widen and optionally extend your retractable fangs, but are not visible unless in use.]
      • Carnivorous Virility Regeneration
      • Pestilence Plagued Maw [the willpower cost is only if you have no other way to make the disease, and you only pay it to create the disease from nothing, especially if you’ve encountered it before and are not currently a carrier]
      • You Are What You Eat (HBC:Hunger Blooming Bite Prereq version)
      • Ethereal Bonds Delicatessen
      • Voracious Appetite Meditation [Starvation penalty is Hunger Penalty or HL Penalty]
      • Many Mouths Mutilation [concealable just like Teeth Without Limit, separate maws though]
      • Sharpened Incisor Snap
      • Spawn-Snatching Chomp
      • Horror-Birthing Feracity
      • Second Seeding Propagation
    • These from The Book of Ten Thousand Scorpions:
      • Voice From The Woods
      • Chewing The Cognition
      • They Live
      • Voluminous Gastric Larder [This provides an Elsewhere bypass before things hit my Inner World Genesis Stomach, permitting things to be stored without actually being fully digested into the Taste-Memory Afterlife]
      • Suspicion-Averting Murmur 
  • Cecelyne Charms:
    • All the canon ones from the Infernals book [INF p118-130], including Broken Winged Crane [BWC p14-19] and Inkmonkies [INK p54-58] as well as Ink Monkeys Modern page. Note that for charms similar to Stone-Flayer Touch or Sandstrike Blast, the 1w surcharge for attacking materialized creatures while dematerialized only needs to be paid once per scene. Generally, the rule of thumb is that unless specific costs are specified, while you are dematerialized, you treat the materialized with the same charms you would normally use against dematerialized spirits (for example). Per Cecelyne charms, he is natively Immaterial and uses the Materialize charm to become real flesh.
    • All of these from [EGC p81-85]:
      • Desolation Of The Numinous
      • Lowly Pebbles In Their Place
      • Hell Messiah Dictum
      • Gospel Of Oppression
      • Mandates Of The Demon-Prophet
      • Faithless Infidel Flagellation
      • Oasis-Haunting Phantasm
      • World-Weathering Sandstorm
      • Endless Sands Exceed Mere Grains
      • Arrogant Princess Superiority
      • Soul-Scouring Devil Sandstorm
      • Blighted Dream Desiccation
      • World-Swallowing Wasteland Invocation
      • Heart’s Lust Granted
      • Forbidden Arcana Tutelage
      • Ifrit-Binding Sorcerer’s Smile
      • Abundant Generosity Patronage
      • Caged Soul Renewal
      • Ordination Of The Hourglass
      • Blessed By Silver Chains
      • Bountiful Locust Blessing
      • Bleak Cosmos Demiurge
      • Broken Messiah Benediction
      • Endless Horizons Unfolding
    • All of these from [100 p80-81]:
      • Infernal Adjutant Sacrament
      • World Author Eminence
      • Multitudinous Repleation
      • Teeming Swarm Reprimand
      • Lawful World Benefaction
      • Bleak Spirit Internalization
    • All of these from 10K:
      • Scales Of Feast And Famine
      • Sins Born In Blood
      • Erosion-of-Freedom Patience
      • Faithful Follower Discernment
    • All of these from HBC:
      • Hundred Demons Curriculum [1]
      • Law Breaker's Abrasive Reprisa [2]
      • Swift-Sand Desert Coffin [3]
      • Unquestionable Scrollkeeper Citation [3]
      • All-Authority Glass Gown [4]
      • Quixotic Benefactor Shintai [429]
      • Desolate Monument Scheme [437]
      • Vice-and-Virtue Equation [440]
      • Between You And I [440]
      • Divination Of Endless Inadequacies [441]
      • Lacerating Desert Assault [452]
      • Altruism Mocking Desiccation [487]
      • Pneuma-Moulding Marvelous Muneration [489]
      • Measure Of Might [637]
      • Untouchable Shining Glory [637]
      • Deference-Imposing Demeanor [638]
      • Call To Worship [638]
      • Resplendent Power Unveiled [638]
      • Beloved Matriarch Edict [639]
      • Instinctive Essence Subordination [639]
      • Ardent Hypocrisy Internalization [703]
      • Blemish-Smoothing Transcendence [772]
      • Infinite Horizon Desolation [773]
  • Thaumaturgy: All (only via Blood Cauldron Swamp Soul)
  • Sorcery: All Levels, spells list: He knows all of the basic Counterspells and Dispellations, as well as the Infernal Demon Summoning spells. He almost never uses Sorcery or Thaumaturgy, because he is too lazy, and can’t be bothered. He has Sorcery Initiations from Kimbery, Metagaos, Hegra, and knows all spells which would receive a discount from any of those initiations.
  • Combat: Occult (MA/Melee…), Thrown, War
  • Crafting: Genesis, Vitriol, Water, Wood
  • Backgrounds: Backing 5, Cult 5, Savant 5, Unwoven Coadjutor 5
  • Attributes:
    1. Physical: Str 2(7); Dex 2(7); Sta 7
    2. Social: Cha 7; Man 7; App 2
    3. Mental: Per 7; Int 7; Wits 7 
  • Other Primary Stats:
    1. Willpower: 10
    2. Essence: 7
    3. Virtues: Valor 2, Compassion 7, Conviction 7, Temperance 2
    4. Urge: Metagaos
    5. Coadjutor: Neomah
    6. Backgrounds: Cult 6, Savant 5, Unwoven Coadjutor X (5 prior to soul poison), Backing (Kimbery/Metagaos/Cecelyne) 5, Influence (Malfeas) 5, Contacts (Malfeas) 5, Infamy 5.
  • Calculated Stats:
    1. Base DV’s:
      • PDV: [Dex+Skill(Occult usually)+Ess]/2 = 11
      • DDV: [Dex+Dodge+Ess]/2 = (7+7+7)/2= 11
    2. Base MDV’s:
      • PMDV: ([CHA OR MAN]+Skill +Specialties)/2=(CHA+PRES); (7+7)/2=7
      • DMDV:(Will+Integ+Specialties)/2= (10+7)/2=9
    3. Base Join:
      • Join Battle: (Wits+Awareness)=14
      • Join Debate: (Wits + Awareness)=14
      • Join War:  Solo (Wits + Awareness)=14
    4. Essence Pools:
      • (Base) Personal: 31
      • (Base) Peripheral:  79
      • Expansion Pools (max 7*10motes): [Actual: 5*10m=50m]
        • Malfeas
          • Sun-Heart Furnace Soul
        • Metagaos
          • Bottomless Belly Mantra [META]
          • Crimson Fed Fecundity [META]
        • Kimbery
          • Rising Tide Ascension [BwC]
        • Cecelyne
          • Transcendent Desert Within [BwC]
      • Overdrive Pools: (max 25 motes regardless of pool count)
        • Malfeas
          • Demon Core Meltdown [INKM]
        • Metagaos
          • Crimson Offerings [META]
          • Empty Stomach Frustration [META]
          • Something’s Out There [META]
        • Kimbery
          • Song of The Depths [INK]
          • The Tide Turns [INK]
          • Tug the Umbilical Leash [HBC]
          • ~Unerring Grief Discipline [INK]
          • ~Spite Honing Curses [INK]
        • Cecelyne
          • Wayward Serf Remonstration [INK] 
          • Specks Before Infinity [INK]
        • Infernal Monster Style [HBC REVLID]:
          • Grind Your Bones
          • Clenched-Fist Krodha Soul
    5. Health Levels: 
      • -0: 1 (base)=1
      • -1: 2 (base)=2
      • -2: 2 (base) + 7*3 (HDB*7)=23
      • -4: 1 (base) + 7*1 (HDB*7)=8
      • Incap: 1 (base)=1 
      • Dying (effective -5): 7 (base) + 5*7(DiFTW)=42
      • Sum (Including Incap, excluding Dying): 77
    6. Soak: 
      •  Natural: 
        • (Base) 7B/4L/0A
        • (Scar-Writ Saga Shield purchase 1) 7B/7L/0A; Hardness 7B
        • (Scar-Writ Saga Shield purchase 2) 14B/14L/0A; Hardness 7B
        • (Scar-Writ Saga Shield purchase 3 w/errata) 14B/14L/0A; Hardness 14B/14L; Ess < 4 set Min Damage to 1. 
        • (Scar-Writ Saga Shield purchase 3 w/errata and Basalt Flesh Withering) 14B/14L/14A; Hardness 14B/14L; not subject to Min Damage from any attack. 
        • (Armored With Suffering*2) automatically gain ([Current Wound Penalty]*Ess) to natural Bashing and Lethal soak.
        • (Evolve or Die) B/L/A Natural soak = current damage levels (not wound penalty), prevents Bashing Rollover, adds (for a cost) your wound penalty is reversed and becomes a bonus.
        • (Sensuous Torment[TDO]; 3m/tick Counterattack) +20 B/L Hardness that stacks with 14 B/L Hardness from above
        • (Insatiable Slave Stamina[TDO]; 4m/scene) add Wound Penalty to B/L soak
      • Armor: 
        • (Greedy Gawping Grip) depends on Resources rating of equipment.
      • Ignores wound penalties (By Pain Reforged+2*By Agony Empowered); costs 1LHL, indefinite duration (By Torment Immortalized)
      • Bashing Doesn’t Roll Over to Lethal (Evolve or Die, costs 6m1w)
      • Wound Penalties reverse and become bonuses (Evolve or Die,  costs 11m1w)
      • Example: (-0 Wound Penalty no Armor) 14B/14L/14A,  Hardness 14B/14L 
    7. Healing:
      • (Exalt Base) Bashing damage heals 1 health level per 3 hours. Lethal damage healing rate varies (-0 = 6 hours; -1 = 2 days; -2 = 4 days; -4 = 1 week; Incapacitated = 1 week). Double these times if not resting. Agg. damage cannot be healed magically; otherwise heals at lethal rates.
      • (Countless Cities Clotting*2) Base healing rate * (10 + Current wound penalty); (3m/B; 5m/L) dramatically heal over a minute.
      • (Towers Rise Again; upgrades/replaces Countless Cities Clotting) Base healing rate * (10 + Higher of STA or RES + Current wound penalty); (3m/B; 5m/L) dramatically heal over a minute. Can heal automatically from amputations and Crippling effects. 
      • (Weakness Is Food) Base healing rate * 7, applies to B/L/A healing, and provides a bonus level of healing to non-passive healing charms (this adds to Towers Rise Again, doesn’t multiply it); Lethal and Agg heal at the same natural rate as Bashing, passively
      • (Weakness Is Food + GWR + GGG): as above, but the base rate is * (7 + Resources)
      • Example: 1 B/L/A heals at least x(10+7+7[Res=0]=24 times faster than normal, making each point of any kind of damage take at most 7.5 minutes (at least 8B/L/A per hour) to heal. Amputations and Crippling Effects automatically heal when the damage associated with that limb is healed. Effects not damage related heal attached to your last wound levels that would heal.
    8. Pre-Computed Bite Attacks: (each builds on the prior)
      • (Base Human) Bite[Clinch stunt] Speed 6, Acc +0, Dam +0B, Def. - , Rate 1, Tags C N P.
      • (One Hand Fury; Punch base per Scroll of Errata; left hand just looks like a dark glove until active): Speed 5, Accuracy +2, Damage +10L/2, Defense +1, Rate 3, Tags N, O, P 
      • (Mouth of The All-Hunger Blossom) Speed 6, +(Essence/2) Accuracy / +(Essence) L damage / -0 Defense / 2 Rate, Tags C N P. Can be used without the C, can be used with MA or Athletics. 10s rolled on bite damage rolls to count as 2 successes.
      • (Maw of The Bloom) Speed 6, Acc +Ess, Dam +Ess B, Def. - , Rate 1, Tags C N P; From above: Speed 6, +11 Accuracy / +14 L damage / -0 Defense / 2 Rate, Tags C N P. Can be used without the C, can be used with MA or Athletics. 10s rolled on bite damage rolls to count as 2 successes.
      • (Base Teeth Without Number; 1m-> 10s count 2x) Bite[Punch] Speed 5, Acc +8, Dam +7L, Def. +2 , Rate 3, Tags N. ; From above: Speed 5, +19 Accuracy / +21 L damage / +2 Defense / 4 Rate, Tags N P. 10s rolled on bite damage rolls to count as 2 successes.
      • (Consumption Without Joy; -1 HL, ignore armor) Bite[Punch] Speed 5, Acc +8, Dam +7L, Def. +2 , Rate 3, Tags N O2; ignores Hardness, is magical material; From above: Speed 5, +19 Accuracy / +21 L damage / +2 Defense / 4 Rate, Tags N P O2. 10s rolled on bite damage rolls to count as 2 successes, ignores Hardness, is magical material.
      • (Pestilence Plagued Maw) Add disease, +Essence to the virulence and untreated and treated morbidity of the disease. This is a Shaping effect. 
      • (Mutilation Feast Method; 1m+5m add Crippling or Amputation)
      • (Insatiable Eucharist Appetite; can eat immaterial beings and souls and spirits; -1 HL if eaten a god, bite can only be soaked with armor)
      • (Infinite Ailment Anatomy; can infect with a bite)
      • (Contagion of Weeds; inflict Self-Seed with bite)
      • (Hunger Blooming Bite; 2m/8m Inflict starvation with bite) Also add you Hunger Penalty as bonus to your base bite equipement damage rating. Sorcerous, you retain this effect for 8m, until dispelled.
      • (Voracious Appetite Meditation) Similar to Hunger Blooming Bite, see text.
      • (Virulent Carnal Appetite Unfurling; may inflict cannibalism with bite) 
      • (A Bite That Keeps Gnawing; read charm, huge penalties)
      • (Poison Well; lots of poison/disease, read charm)
      • (Maw of Indolence and Fertility; adds at least hunger level to damage, lots of details read charm) This sums the HL bonus two damage to 2*Hunger Penalty (including the one from Hunger Blooming Bite.
    9. Precomputed Weather Range: Max via Storm-Tossed Sea Prana (Kimbery), 70 mile radius. This is enough to really fuck up most of the major cities on the east coast at once, while also TPK-ing the center of that range.
  • Metagoiyn Urge: To Become Wealthy And Affluent Beyond Reproach.
  • Motivation: To be loved and respected by real friends and family.
  • Intimacies: TODO
  • Skills: (all at 7; anything he is likely to have exposure to is at least 1-3 dots)
    1. Crafting (All; he ate enough people to count for the Fire/Earth/Air ones and legit trained with Water/Wood as a mortal; Alchemy/Vitriol/Genesis/Shaping came from Exaltation; Glamour/Magitech/Necrotech/Fate all came from eating supernaturals, and he cannot use most of them, save Glamour thanks to Hegra)
    2. Linguistics
    3. Occult
    4. Medicine
    5. Performance 
    6. Presence
    7. Lore
    8. Bureaucracy
    9. Athletics
    10. Dodge
    11. Integrity
    12. Resistance
    13. Martial Arts
    14. Melee
    15. Ride
    16. War
    17. Sail 
    18. Investigation
    19. Awareness
    20. Socialize
    21. Larceny
    22. Survival
    23. Stealth
  • Costume/Equipment notes:
    1. Resources Value: 5 (you literally cannot buy this except from 1-2 artisans worldwide)
    2. Muse of Beauteous Horrors, Art Begets Art, Horrid Idols Raised, Pelagic Muse Artistry, Squamous Idols Raised; social attack encoded “Mortals beware, all others know your place beneath my heel.”
    3. The cane can be adjusted to unhinge in the middle to act as Nunchucks. 




-  “Chosen of Kimbery”: The Sherden Caste are the chosen agents of The Great Mother. They reflect the love and hate of their creator, and walk a tidal path between being secretive monsters and loving family. They are widely feared for their capricious favor, driven by fickle motivations known only to them. Their love is as dangerous as their hate, for it is corruptive in addition to deadly. As a whole, they oversee the execution of Kimbery’s whims, however variable and fleeting those might be. Generally, they are less outright warriors, and more occult patrons. They are notorious for their ability to insinuate themselves into organizations and families, before twisting them into something unnatural and dependent on their largesse for its continuance. Skills: Occult, Craft(Genesis), Sail, Presence, Socialize. Caste Powers: So long as your Anima is visible at all, you count as being in an area where the Sea keyword applies. If it is at 10m+ then you count as a piece of art (with an Artifact Rating of your Essence) enhanced by Muse of Beauteous Horrors and Pelagic Muse Artistry (or any other ‘art’ or ‘crafting’ enhancers you might know)  and any upgrades you know, save that merely seeing you is enough to trigger the touch effect (it restarts any interval clocks as though the first exposure just happened); so long as you are visible, all viewers who do anything besides passively admire you take -2 to their pools and rolls. Beloved targets can be optionally excluded, they see only the thalassic light show of your anima, and not the secret alien beauty of either of the two charms art effects. Reviled targets take an additional penalty equal to your Intimacy rating toward them. Anima: You are initially suffused with the sensations of the sea, salt breezes and a blue-green glow. At bonfire level or higher, the glow is the reflected visions of the sea’s depths. Those who are Reviled feel that they are drowning, and see only the darkness of the killing waters of Kimbery’s hatred. Caste Mark: Transparent green-blue disk, that moves as though it reflects the sea; reviled characters sea a dark hole into the fathomless hell depths lit only by unearthly lights. Beloved Characters see a pleasant glowing blue disk whose radiance is calming. The disk floats right in front of the forehead instead of being on your skin.



~~

JFLM was once the ruler of An-Teng, claimed in a violent rush from the seas, after failed negotiations with the Navy. He led a force of his own pirate fleets and quickly converted the cities within a days march of water to his own, before using the converted to march upon and lay siege to the remaining inland holdouts. He held the lands until overthrown by a bloody coup led by Gold Faction Sidereals and their Solar allies. His attempts to avert burnout caused his Exaltation to kill its next host, putting him in its place. His biggest regret was that he ruled not only his country but his family too with fear and assimilation. Eventually, he was surrounded with fawning sycophants and parasitic courtiers. Not even his mates knew him as anything besides their overlord.

 

Errata: 

  1. Blood And Salt Ruling: The Pinnacle of Mercy’s (Blood And Salt p75) nonviolence field property is mechanically implemented as a “One Mind Within” Manse power (Oadenol’s Codex p78): “ONE MIND WITHIN: Presence 6. Symbols of mastery fill the manse; its arches are high and spreading, and its halls intimidatingly wide. Like a manse built with Invisible Theft (Power 5), its architecture resonates with the mind, but its structure is unsubtly overpowering. It controls sentients within its walls, directing the activities of any thinking creature with a Dodge MDV less than 10. This is an Unnatural Mental Influence for Compulsion. Resisting the manse’s attempts to use oneself as a tool costs one point of Willpower, and grants freedom for one action. Beings with an Essence score at least equal to the manse’s rating may shrug off this effect for a scene by spending three Willpower. Attuned characters are immune.”
  2. Per Dreams of the First Age: Lands of Creation (REV) Appendix Old Realm Script, the Old Realm pronunciation of Lintha is Li-Ni-Da, following this arrangement from the book:

Li | Ni

-----

  D  A

  1. XP Costs: this setting is for a single character, not a circle. Thus, Excellencies for Patrons/Caste/Favored do not need repurchased (others are repurchased normally); thus the XP cost to repurchase charms or to purchase charms that are mechanically identical to a repurchase (like a permanent upgrade that doesn’t have a unique activation stat block otherwise) all cost 0 XP; they do still take the normal amount of time to learn and unlock, however, making them about roleplay. Likewise, Infernal Monster Style charms are both favored and cost half price because they are divided up so weirdly specifically that you need to buy a bunch. I think this is because no one could decide if they were meant to be GSP native brawl charms, or the leash for Akuma of any size, or if they were a style for little demons and yozi worshippers. Thus, the power scale is strange and the lore of who developed the actual charms is designed around the very first Akuma Solar using them to kill his former Circle. The trade off for this is that the Lintha character does not gain nor retain any charms from when they were “god blooded”. As well, since the character will primarily be alone and using these very infrequently, outside of boss mode, so their cost is discounted.
  2. Craft(Genesis): This can be used to make permanent changes to someone as a Project. Increasing an Attribute or other stat in this way costs as much as the new Attribute value minus the old Attribute value. This is a mutation by design, but via Genesis it becomes a ‘natural’ and ‘permanent’ part of the target. See the “Secret of the Ooze” section of the Revlid’s Genesis rules. 
    • The first dot in an Attribute or Skill is 1M (mutation point, for genesis project planning purposes)
    • Normal mutations cost their rating in M, variable rating ones cost a specific rating, not the sum of all of them. Progressive mutations like size increases cost the sum of the mutations that make them up.
    • The dots must be bought in order so 1 -> 2 -> 3 … 
    • Each dots costs its rating so Strength 4 costs 4M for just that dot
    • When you calculate the final cost, halve the cost of any skill or background or virtue or willpower rating.
    • Essence dots can be granted at 1M per XP they would normally cost.
    • If you are adding this to an existing creature, you subtract the cost of their existing ratings, as through you were buying them from scratch, so going from Str 2 to Str 5 would cost: 5M + 4M + 3M + 2M + 1M -(2M + 1M)
    • If you are making a brand new creature, try to work something out by analogy with existing examples in the books and Revlid’s examples.
  3. Crowned With Fury: The automatic triggering is something that the user is very much aware of, and requires only a modicum of self control to avoid flashing a crown of flames and mind controlling everyone. Generally, it should only affect direct orders, and not phrases that indicate that you would like something to happen. Conversely, the orders can be couched in politeness and ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, and still work fine. Otherwise it would be a crippling social charm to everyone but those who do  not care about social interactions. For flavor, it would not be strange to accidentally order someone to do something in times of stress.
  4. Illusions: Resisting Illusions requires some proof that there is something amiss to trigger the ability to spend Willpower to resist. Illusions are not strictly static things, aside from the basic use of Chimeric Delirium (which is more like Chim), but their main weakness is that they cannot adapt to their setting changing or other circumstances; thus within the original creation description they can move and react just like they are supposed to, but they cannot do things which are outside of that narrow description. Those who are hallucinating from Hegra’s various poisons are  almost never allowed to mundanely disbelieve Illusions, and double all penalties to their rolls or pools to do so supernaturally (with items, spells, or charms). 
  5. All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight (and similar perfect detection charms): for rules purposes, Illusions and similar essence-based disguises are resolved as attempts at Stealth against the user (for the thing beneath the Illusion), unless they pierce them normally like any mortal could. Otherwise, Illusions would be completely worthless for 90% of all uses. The normal presentation of the Illusion appears under AESS as whatever the Illusion provides so a fake table would appear under AESS as the supposed table would down to the littlest details; while the thing the fake table is hiding would be concealed as Stealth until the user of AESS has cause to disbelieve the Illusion, and AESS instantly sees both the Illusion as the magical effect as well as the thing that was concealed. Unless the AESS user has other charms that simultaneously invalidate all Stealth and Cover and Concealment and Disguises, there is no way for AESS to bypass the disbelief process. Remember that the The Eye of The Unconquered Sun and similar perfect effects invalidate stealth too.
  6. Social Keyword during combat: [IGNORE THIS (read after the end brace for new text): As a Stunt, a short one-liner can be mixed with other combat, permitting it to benefit from Social-keyworded charms that do not explicitly state that they take a long time to do, or which could not possibly occur during battle. Using a Stunt like this prevents you from regaining Willpower or motes or Virtue Channels or similar things from that Stunt. This one-liner must somehow be tied into the current fight, either trying to command someone or otherwise directly relate to the stakes of the combat. Similarly, any normal combat charms that would cause you to issue a command would be sufficient to trigger Crowned With Fury; LWS Instructive Punishment Method can be used to trigger CWF. Similar charms replace the need for distinct stunt usage.] Per a reading of the  forums,  you cannot mix Social in mid-combat. While I originally thought that the  LWS option could not work as intended, and that I would need to use INF instead, it being the only way to do this at this point; I was shortsighted. It turns out that what LWS does is basically perfect, and while Instructive Punishment Method and Brand of Obedience are applied using normal combat ticks, their effects are Social scale UMI, and do trigger all of my Social charms. Keep in mind that there are a bunch of Emotion keyword charms that can be used in normal or social combat. Remember that most non-Social charms can be included in Social actions, if well thought out, but not the reverse. Social is about grinding people down and breaking them, not sudden force. LWS does its best to bypass their resistance by causing physical harm that  pre-drains their will to fight back, more or less.
  7. Fixed Non-Instant Duration Charms: All charms that you use which have a cost that would logically need to be renewed periodically in order to keep an ongoing effect up can automatically be paid by the user so long as there is no effect that prevents both Shaping and teleportation effects. The cost paid is fixed to be the exact same amount as was paid to initially activate the charm in question, and the user is made aware of when they need to do this, depending on how time sensitive the situation is. If paid in this way, there is no interruption in the charm’s effects, and the new duration is added onto the old duration. You may pay this amount in advance, up to (Essence) times beyond the current one.
  8. Blossoming Rose Style (Scroll of Individual Greatness Vol 3 Echoes of Enlightenment 02; p28):  the bonuses from the From charm stack with other sources, as they are typeless equipment bonuses. The official armor and weapons are a little vague, so they can accept any kind of light armor. The weapons it accepts are identical to Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style, add the Fighting Needle and Tapered Staves to the DPCS weapon list, as “Ink Brushes” and “Hairpins”. Since I can’t find Tapered Staves anywhere, I assume it applies to the following two weapons: Pressure Sticks and Fighting Sticks (DEx Armorium 1.2) of any kind, especially the kinds concealed as either walking sticks or umbrellas. The artifact versions of this are the Wrackstick (for the Fighting Sticks), Hornet Wand (for the artifact Pressure Sticks; DEx Armorium 1.2)  and the Space-Warping Needle (for the Fighting Needles; these are used in the hand too, and have no penalty for doing so; it gains the M tag), and either the normal clinching options for DPCS artifacts, or with the Fate String (the artifact version of the garrotte DEx Armorium 1.2). Pressure Sticks are a kind of Cesti mechanically, and use the stats of a Smash Fist for the otherwise unnamed Artifact Cesti, save that they look like artifact decorations or other kinds of non-weapons. Needles / Pens / Pins of any kind, and the Garrotte are valid, since the Garrotte explicitly blocks the meridians running in the neck or through limbs.  The Form charm’s bonuses are Equipment bonuses that stack with other Equipment bonuses. These weapons are explicitly permitted for DPCS form weapons.
  9. Dreaming Pearl Style (Canon [Scroll of the Monk p88] with Errata and Additions largely cherry-picking from the rewrite [Scroll of Individual Greatness Vol 3 Echoes of Enlightenment 02; p25-28]):
    • As this is taught in the House of Wellness and Prosperity, it is compatible with all form weapons for White Veil Style, as well as Blossoming Rose Style. 
    • The range increase from the charms of this style are added to the base range.
    • Add this form weapon errata from the This style treats as unarmed attacks  (Scroll of Individual Greatness Vol 3 Echoes of Enlightenment 02; p25) version: “This style treats as unarmed attacks those made with fan, sash, cape and rope. Without appropriate reinforcement (as a war fan or rope dart), such weapons are rarely useful. Some have artifact equivalents, like the fate ring or forms of magical clothing. Most clothing and similar things are too flimsy to serve as weapons for this style, but those that are specially weighted (usually at negligible increased cost) can serve as improvised weapons that are compatible with the style. They generally have Speed 6, Accuracy -3, Damage +0B to +4B, Defense -2, Rate 2. Many carry the ‘R’ tag. This style is incompatible with armor.”
    • Add this from the revised (Scroll of Individual Greatness Vol 3 Echoes of Enlightenment 02; p28) version: 

“””

New Enchantment Procedure

Careful Master Peacock Attire (2, Intelligence, 3, One week): 

This is a ritual that is often used to reinforce clothing for use with this style. It transforms ordinary clothing of any quality into subtle protective gear that gives its wearer +1L/1B armor soak that stacks with standard forms of armor but not similar sources of soak (such as steelsilk clothing, which is a suitable artifact substitute). Clothing or other objects so enchanted are sturdy enough to be used at least as improvised weapons that are compatible with Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style’s Charms. Increasing their Artifact or Resources cost by one allows them to be used as real weapons, eliminating the Accuracy penalty their equivalent improvised version would suffer. 

“””

  • In keeping with that, while Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form is active, the accuracy and defense value of all form weapons is raised to +0 if it was less.
  • DPCS and Hidden Devil-Weed Body Unfurled and Fang-Missile Method and It’s Raining Phlegm: While the DPCS floating weapons are normally mundane objects, floating through your MA charm, once you activate FMM targeting the form charm it gets them all at once, they reveal themselves to be your body parts. Then, HDWBU can be used to include them, just like any other body part, twisting and whirling like madness. Finally, the IRP effects targets the form charm, so that the floating weapons all get it once. Visualize this as a number of floating fans unfolding to reveal themselves as beautiful miniature Agatae-like wasps covered with shining mandibles. Then, those wasps warp and stretch, unraveling mid-motion to unfurl and strike a distant target with their hooked mouthparts/tendrils. 
  • If you have multiple limbs with reach or flexibility similar to the floating weapons the style uses, they may be used in place of a prop (just like your fins in Gazelle-carp form). If this is done, your hands typically take on symbolic gestures or mudras. These limbs are treated normally if attacked, instead of being taken out of service. The main benefit of this is that your limbs take on the unpredictable floating motion that the props otherwise would. If you have additional limbs or props that are not currently in use for a grapple or floating, they can fill in the slots of limbs/weapons that are. If any of these limbs are already stretchy and/or super-flexible, then their range upgrades are based on those of the floating weapons.
  • Seven Storms Escape Prana: If you have the Form charm active, you may activate as a Counterattack instead of a Simple activation as follows: 

“””

Seven Storms Escape Prana 

Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive

(Step 9)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack, Obvious, Social

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata

Giving ground before opposition, the martial artist gains a new

position from which to respond. Such canny strategy is as much a

defense, and as admirable, as remaining a bulwark and standing

one’s ground. This Charm is activated in response to an attack

either physical or social, the martial artist exhaling a small cloud of

murky, blue smoke and disappearing in a flurry of sleeves, fans,

gestures and polite nods. The character disappears and reappears

up to (Essence x 5) yards away. The martial artist may only reappear

in a place that she can see and could currently reach with any

number of valid Move actions. This Charm fails to activate if the

martial artist attempts to bypass a ward against teleportation.

When the martial artist activates this Charm and sacrifices a valid, readied (in hand or floating nearby with Dreaming Pearl

Courtesan Form) in-style weapon to serve as a distraction, she may

roll her (Manipulation + [Stealth or Socialize]), adding her Essence

as extra successes. Leaving behind a torn sleeve or crumpled fan,

the martial artist is nowhere to be found, having slipped into

hiding as per a valid Stealth or Socialize action to conceal one’s

location and intentions. The martial artist rolls Stealth in physical

combat or Socialize in social combat. She may even hide when there

is no valid cover, her foes dumbly losing track of her, but in this

case she remains concealed only for two ticks.

This Charm does not help to defend against the attack to which

it responds, though if that attack is part of a flurry it may render

her an invalid target for the rest of the flurry. Obviously, this

Charm does not render her an invalid target if she remains visible

and within range of the attacker, but whether using Stealth or

Socialize it can be equally effective at hiding her from a

bone-breaking assault or a withering argument.



“””

 

  • Invoking the Chimera’s Coils:
    • Your fins count as your normal unarmed attacks with the +3 Damage modifier, save that they are obviously floating and detached and can be used for all purposes like form weapons. If you do not already do lethal damage, these do lethal damage and can be used to parry lethal sources unarmed.
    • Replace the last paragraph with this: “This Charm lasts for as long as the Exalt wishes, and she must spend a point of temporary Willpower to end it. Invoking it is risky, however. A martial artist who learns this Charm comes dangerously close to the Blossom of the Perfected Lotus, without necessarily the wisdom to control such esoteric forces. The Exalt thrills to an ecstatic bliss in this form, and many who have done so forgot they were once mortal. For every additional scene her character remains in this form, the player must make a Willpower roll with a cumulative +1 difficulty modifier. If she fails this roll at any time, the character disappears in a blinding flash of pearlescent light, never to be seen again except in fragmentary, half-remembered dreams. Those masters who have grown well beyond--that is Essence 5+ with Mastery of at least one other style or Essence 7+ without any other style mastery-- the minimum Essence of this charm do not suffer this risk, and their cumulative difficulty caps at +(10-Essence) and they never permanently disappear, but just remain stuck in this form.”
  • With Style Mastery, you may repurchase the following charms in order to gain added benefits:
    • Demure Carp Feint: 
      1. When the character can validly apply her own Martial Arts based Parry DV with an unarmed free hand or with a form weapon of Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style. It grants her a cover bonus to DV equal to the Defense trait of her weapon. This does not count as a dice bonus from Charms and this bonus is based only on the Defense of the weapon in question, not any external bonuses that may increase the weapon’s Defense like Perfected Kata Bracers. Magical material bonuses and the like are not external bonuses. If a weapon’s Defense is 1 or less, this Charm’s distracting kata still provides a cover bonus of +2.
      2. On the tick the martial artist activates Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form and until her next action tick, she may activate Demure Carp Feint as if it were not a Charm. By reflexively paying a two-mote surcharge, the martial artist may do so again after having already activated this Form. The Charm also gains the Social keyword while this Form Charm is active, allowing it to apply its DV bonus as bonus dice to shield the user’s motivations (Exalted, p. 131) and to enhance Socialize rolls to set up an unexpected social attack. These social combat options do count as a dice bonus from Charms.
    • Pearlescent Filigree Defense: Every two motes spent on the Charm also increases the character’s Appearance for the scene, but only to a maximum of (Essence) additional dots. No combination of Charms that includes this one may increase Appearance by more than a total of (Essence) dots, and dice provided this way count as a Charm bonus.
    • Lethal Paper Fan Attack: 
      1. When it is used to enhance an unarmed Martial Arts attack, this Charm reduces its Speed by one, to a minimum of 3, and raises the weapon’s Accuracy to +0 if it would be lower. If the weapon already has Accuracy +0 or higher, this Charm adds one to its Accuracy. 
      2. If you have the Form charm active: If a weapon’s Accuracy would be less than +0, it rises to +1. If it is already +0 or higher, it is increased by +2. Taking advantage of this benefit increases the Charm’s cost by one mote and is optional. This same surcharge may be applied to give the Charm the Social keyword, allowing it to further emphasize the points made by the martial artist’s flying weapons. This enhances a Presence- or Performance based social attack, making it unnatural influence that costs one Willpower to ignore as the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan’s words cut truer and deeper with her showy emphasis.
    • Flurry of August Leaves Concentration (may be optionally invoked as a Extra Action charm as follows):

Cost: 2m per weapon, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type:Extra Action 

Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious

Duration: Instant 

Prerequisite Charms: Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form

The martial artist’s delicate movements extend through her awareness of herself into the props she surrounds herself with, be they fans of silk or steel, sashes weighted or not, and even the air they fly through. These are her minions, and they act in concert with her to perfection. This Charm is a flurry of up to (Essence + 1) unarmed Martial Arts attacks, at least one of which must be made with the character’s own hands or a held weapon. The others may be made with her hands, feet or held items, or by the flying weapons that surround a martial artist who has activated Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form. Attacks made with flying weapons can validly target foes up to (Essence x 5) yards away. The attacks made with this Charm ignore multiple action penalties but not Rate, and impose a DV penalty equal to the highest of any one attack in the flurry. 

  • Resplendent Sash Grapple Technique (may be optionally invoked  with a single instant activation)

Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack, Obvious

Duration: Instant or until the clinch ends

Prerequisite Charms: Flurry of August Leaves Concentration

The whirl of high society surrounds the martial artist, deflecting and subduing distractions that are not worth his time. This Charm is an unarmed Martial Arts counterattack using the character’s full (Dexterity + Martial Arts) pool to respond to an attack against him. The martial artist must have successfully parried the attack. If he has activated Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form and has at least one floating weapon available, he may use this Charm to respond to attacks from as much as (Essence) yards away; otherwise, this is a close combat Charm. It may have one of two effects: 

  1. Successfully striking the aggressor is resolved as an attempt to disarm them in response. This follows all the rules found on Exalted, p. 158, save that the martial artist suffers no external penalty on his attack roll. This is an Instant effect.
  2. Successfully striking the aggressor initiates a grapple that can only be used to hold them. This clinch is maintained as long as the martial artist remains within (Essence) yards of his foe and commits motes to this Charm. Every six ticks after initiating it he reflexively maintains the clinch with ([Dexterity + Martial Arts] ÷ 2) successes, which may be enhanced further with Charms. He may not maintain more of these grapples than he has flying weapons as per Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form, and each grapple reduces by one the number of weapons considered for the effects and bonuses of the Form Charm. A foe that gains control of the clinch can only respond by ending the clinch normally. If the flying prop used for the grapple is attacked and destroyed or knocked out of orbit, the associated clinch ends immediately.
  • Vindictive Concubine’s Pillow Book (upgrades the alternate instant version of Resplendent Sash Grapple Technique):

Cost: — ; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Emotion, Shaping, Social

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Resplendent Sash Grapple Technique

With a word and perhaps a rude gesture, a secret properly revealed might leave even the most confident exposed and unmanned. Having gotten to know a foe, the martial artist can now embarrass him. This Charm permanently enhances its prerequisite, adding the following response options: 

Successfully striking the aggressor does not inflict damage. Instead, the target makes a reflexive roll of (Wits + [Dodge or Larceny]) against a difficulty equal to the martial artist’s threshold successes on the counterattack. If the target fails, the straps and buckles loosen on their armor and their bulwark flies from them as they try in vain to evade the counterattack, depriving them of the benefit of their armor as it comically slumps across their shoulders and down their knees. This is equally effective against mundane and magical armor, but it can only remove one source of armor soak at a time. A character may resituate their armor and regain its benefits with a number of consecutive miscellaneous actions equal to its mobility penalty (minimum one), which cannot be flurried. If the target benefits from armor soak from Charms, these become Obvious in nature to the martial artist. Instead of stripping the target of the physical armor that hangs from his frame she may f lense his spirit with derisive laughter, forcing one of the target’s armor soak-providing Charms to prematurely end as if the target canceled it. This is a Shaping effect.

In social combat, the Charm can be used to respond to a social attack with a saucy slap to the behind (with or without the aid of a long, weighted sleeve) or even just a knowing look that tells everyone how transparent the target is. This is still resolved like a physical counterattack, but if it successfully hits the target must roll their Temperance at a difficulty of half the 

  • Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata (may be activated at a discount for less overwhelming effects): 

Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata

Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple

Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion, Obvious, Social

Duration: One scene

Prerequisite Charms: Flurry of August Leaves Concentration

There is only so much room around the star of the show, and so there is always competition to fill that space. Those left out of the running are heartbroken, neither savvy nor lucky enough to spend time with the martial artist. This Charm is activated with a (Manipulation + Martial Arts) roll, adding extra dice equal to the character’s Performance. Those whose MDV is lower than the  martial artist’s successes are helplessly entranced by his posture, his movements, his mere presence. This unnatural emotion imposes a -1 internal penalty to an affected character’s actions that do not reflect such feelings, such as paying close attention to other tasks or even defending oneself. The penalty increases to -3 when performing actions directly contrary to infatuation with the martial artist, such as attacking the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan or attempting to leave her presence. This lack of self-control lapses for (target’s Temperance) actions if the martial artist attacks a given target, and it may be ignored completely for two Willpower for the rest of the scene. This cost rises to three Willpower if the target already has a positive Intimacy to the martial artist when the Charm is activated. The infatuation of this Charm lasts as long as a character can see the martial artist. When the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan is out of sight, it does not fade but instead transforms into longing melancholy to recapture the vision of one so lovely. It is otherwise dealt with in the same manner, inflicting penalties and resistible with Willpower expenditure as above.

  • Invoking The Chimera’s Coils: 
    1. The armor bonus increases: armor soak of 8L/12B and 4L/4B Hardness
    2. He may substitute his permanent Essence for his Appearance rating as if it were his natural Attribute rating for the duration of the Charm
    3. The character’s gear disappears Elsewhere for the duration, though necessary equipment may be called back to rest daintily atop a fin by paying one mote and taking a miscellaneous action to draw it forth. These appendages offer no hardship in holding, manipulating or caressing the world around the martial artist. 
    4. Though tales may be told of the Chimera body’s physical perfection, its beauty touches something deeper than  simple visual aesthetics and transcends all known boundaries. The first time in a scene anyone with Dodge MDV less than (martial artist’s [Martial Arts + Essence]) sees, hears, feels or smells the martial artist, they are subject to an unnatural emotion that instills in them an Intimacy of heart-aching appreciation for the wonderment that is the Chimera. This Intimacy cannot be suppressed or eroded until after the scene ends, though it may be rejected initially for two Willpower, rendering a character immune to this effect from any source for the rest of the scene.
    5. A character who has adopted the Chimera body treats the Type of Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata as Reflexive (Step 2) rather than Simple. In addition, he reduces the total cost of activating any other Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Charms (including the Form) by one mote, to a minimum of one.
  1. White Veil Style: The version taught by the House of Wellness and Prosperity is designed to be used with DPCS, and so uses its rules for weapons and armor instead. Also, Birdsong Over Blades, once you have mastered the style, permits you to use charms that are dependent on how much damage is dealt, up to a pre-zeroing damage of (Essence).
  2. Black Claw Style: The version taught by the House of Wellness and Prosperity is designed to be used with DPCS, and so uses its rules for weapons and armor instead. Students are trained to tell whether a DPCS weapon is too conspicuous for Black Claw usage, generally anything which could be mistaken for clothing, jewelry, or decorative accessories are fair game.
  3. Crystal Chameleon Style: The version taught by the House of Wellness and Prosperity is designed to be used with DPCS, and so uses its rules for weapons and armor instead. Students are trained to tell whether a DPCS weapon is too conspicuous for CCS usage, generally anything which could be mistaken for clothing, jewelry, or decorative accessories are fair game.  This is definitely a Linth style since they are mentioned specifically during the Primordial War: “This ancient Celestial martial art dates back to the Primordial War, when it was innovated and used by the Chosen of Mercury to help deliver vital messages despite overwhelming Primordial opposition. Demons and Lintha alike were left blinking and confused as practitioners quickly blurred through their blockades, leaving only footprints and corpses to mark their passing.”[Glories of the Most High: Maidens of Destiny p24]
  4. Lintha Martial Arts Styles: All of these Dragon King TMA and CMA Styles were historically stolen and adapted by the Lintha thousands of years ago.  For clarity, the Lintha learned all of these styles from their enemies, and prior to the fall of their Genesis labs in their homelands, could modify their bodies easily to fight in a variety of styles. Therefore all of these styles may be used with the following weapons in addition to their original weapon types (armor restrictions are unchanged): unarmed, natural weapons, Auhzian, Sawfish Swords, all Martial Arts Weapons, all chain and rope weapons, all blunt impact weapons, and all traditional Dragon King weapons (including all of those associated with the original styles); all together these are called Traditional Lintha Martial Arts Weapons:  
    • Auhzian effectively combines piercing/slashing swords with a bill-hook polearm while the handle is always reinforced for use as a blunt weapon like a club or blunt polearm so those weapons always count as any of those for the purposes of charms and styles. The bill-hook itself may be sharpened (if not used to board boats from underwater) making it usable as an axe or pole-axe, depending on your grip. Just like real life bill-hooks they can be used as a (short) spear by changing the grip. If they are used for boarding, they can be thrown like a javelin or harpoon or similar, and those are always tied to the user with a rope, usually to the offhand. They are a versatile weapon, if not especially  powerful. Trained opponents can usually guess which usage mode an auhzian is designed for based on whether the user wears reinforced gloves and which parts of the weapon are sharpened. For example fully sharpened and no gloves indicate use without changing grips as a more normal sword might be, while gloves and only the main cutting edges and thrusting tips being one that is likely to use them in multiple unpredictable patterns at the expense of efficiency at pure sword attacks. While it is not specifically listed, all auhzians are usually longer than similar swords of the same type, kind of like how a no-dachi would be compared to a katana, even though they are otherwise the same kind of weapon; this includes the longer handle which is obviously designed for either one or two hands, being at least long enough to hold the blade like a spear or pole-axe, even if that isn’t used by the style, like Even Blade. 
    • TMAs
      • Flame and Stone Style [Debris of the Fallen Races, p4]: no additional changes needed here.
      • Black Tide Style [Debris of the Fallen Races, p7]:no additional changes needed here.
      • Dagger Wind Style  [Debris of the Fallen Races, p9]:  This version of the style only requires that you are capable of attacking in the air, not that you have your own wings; attempts to do these actions while jumping without powered flight are possible, but give you a -2 external penalty to all Martial Arts rolls to do so. It is compatible with flying mounts as taught by the Lintha, doing so requires at least two dots in Ride and one in Sail. All Lintha prefer to use the Auhzian here, as it is a hooked counterweight that can fill for wing buffets, usually paired with flying Agatae, Eristrufa, or Radeken mounts, making it popular for scouts. 
      • Shadow Hunter Style [Debris of the Fallen Races, p11]: no additional changes needed here.
      • First Pulse Style [TMA; SotM 45]
      • Crimson Pentacle Blade Style [TMA; SotM 63]
      • Even Blade Style (all vars)  [TMA; SotM 69]
    • CMAs
      • Eye of Heaven Style [Debris of the Fallen Races, p11]: this style has been corrupted so that the Heaven and Yu Shan that offerings would normally go to have been redirected to the Yozi.
      • Crystal Chameleon Style [Glories of the Most High: Maidens of Destiny p24-27]
    • Lintha Rook Styles only taught to Rooks and not the Sword Brothers or other similar groups:
      • Fivefold Shadow Hand Style [TMA; SotM 75]
      • White Veil Style [TMA; SotM 61]
      • Dreaming Pearl Courtesean STyle [CMA; SotM  p88] using errata version here
  5. Laughing Wounds Style: 
    • This works fine with effects of your own which allow you to ignore wound penalties, you still have the wound penalties, but your charms replace the final penalties with -0 or similar no-ops.
    • Errata: weapons are: 
      • Any “Chain or Rope Weapon or their Artifact Equivalents”.  Per DEx Armorium v1.2 p18; Cat o’Nine Tails, Combat Yo-Yo, Fighting Chain, Meteor Hammer, Nunchakus, Seven Section Staff, and Whip.
      • Any thrown chain or rope weapon. Per DEx Armorium v1.2 p20; Bolas, Lasso, and Net.
      • All versions of the Flail. Per per DEx Armorium v1.2 p11-12; Flail, Great Flail, Hand Flail, and Pole Flail.
      • All Mancatchers. Per DEx Armorium v1.2 p12-13; Clothsentangler, and Mancatcher.
      • All Clinching weapons. Per DEx Armorium v1.2 p22; Clinch, Razor-Harness, and Strangling Cord/Reinforced Scarf.
      • For this style, attacks with the flail-like weapons are typically aimed for maximum pain rather than death, all the easier to have options when speeding up reluctant submissions. So long as that weapon could be used to entangle or punish without killing them before they can feel the pain of the style’s methods, so non-masters do not have the appropriate patience and insights to use all weapons of this style. Most are only accessed by style masters, in order to apply the style even against armored opponents as well as provide tactical flexibility. This includes: Nunchakus, Fighting Chains with the One-handed Weapon option (the attached weapon need not otherwise be a style-weapon, any valid combination works), Seven Section Staffs, Flails, Meteor Hammers, and Razor Harness. 
      • For All Lintha Family or those who learned this from any school associated with them, Traditional Lintha Martial Arts Weapons are included. All of those that are not normally part of this style follow the same mastery rules as flails.
    • Armor is unarmored, but garments treated with Acid-Hardening Bath are fair game, as are similar non-Armor protective garments, so long as they could allow you to flaunt your appearance or feel a blow should you move correctly. 
    • Finally, the spell mentioned in the style description is  “Blood Lash” from the Black and White Treatise p38. This spell creates a ‘Whip’ with the listed stat block; to reflect this add ‘D’ and ‘RR’ to the canon Tags below, and it may be used in a Clinch, and being entirely supernatural, can be used at any distance within its range without penalty. The variable damage for this is recalculated based on your current damage each time you use the weapon during combat, and not just when you first call it into being. Learning the form charm of this style permits this spell to be cast either Sorcerously or Necromantically (for which purposes it is an Iron Circle spell), depending on the learner’s desires, it may be recast to produce additional weapons, if you can pay the cost and the committed damage levels. Copied here from the Black and White Treatise p38: 

BLOOD LASH 

Cost: 10m, 1lhl

Target: Caster

Most sorcerers consider the Blood Lash a weapon of last resort, for the spell can be cast only if the sorcerer bears a bleeding wound—at least one unbound, unhealed level of lethal damage. The character may wound himself if he must (this self-inflicted damage does not trigger reflexive Charms of defense). Blood from the sorcerer’s wounds surges outward, forming a lash of blood. This effect inflicts another health level of lethal damage, which cannot be healed until the caster ends the spell or the spell’s scene-long duration expires. This whip of blood can make Melee or Martial Arts attacks. Its reach is a number of yards equal to the sorcerer’s Willpower. It inflicts dice of lethal damage equal to (caster’s Strength + Essence) + the number of lethal health levels the caster currently suffers. Its full traits are as follows: 

BLOOD LASH 

Speed

Accuracy

Damage

Defense

Rate

Tags

5

+1

(Varies)L

+1

2

M,N,R
  • The Sorcerous Enlightenment of Kimbery gives a discount on “Blood Lash” reducing it’s cost 5m+1lhl; my usual Damage is 14L + (damage)L
  • This “Blood Lash” is actually made from your blood, and so it has any properties that it would normally cause. Since it is a whip, you may merge it with your body using Greedy Gawping Grip as normal. If you wield it with something that already enhances your reach, it measures from your outermost extension for its range.
  • Also, charms that allow you to ignore wound penalties or sets them to 0 for some duration work fine with this style, just keep track of the normal rating and use that for LWS purposes, regardless of your other powers. This is vitally important, and it’s less that you are not in pain (just look at Malfeas himself for example), and more that you are not inhibited by pain; original LWS form turns this into a bonus!
  • The following revised/debuffed versions of the style charms are to be used, they are from TDO (whoever that was has been lost to bitrot when the White Wolf forums went down) but I found them here:

 

Kiss of the Whip

Cost: 2m; Mins: Essence 2, Martial Arts 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling, Stackable

Duration: Instant

Prerequisites: None

With a predatory smile, the martial artist lashes her foe with vicious exactitude, making him cry out in shocked agony. If an unarmed attack enhanced by this Charm hits its target, it deals no damage. Instead, that character suffers a Crippling effect, increasing the wound penalty he suffers by -1 for the rest of the scene. Multiple uses of this Charm stack their penalties to a maximum of (Martial Arts).

[Errata: This does nothing if the target takes zero post-soak damage. Each -1 level of this Crippling effect cannot be healed until the end of scene, after which point the Crippling effect is healed as though it were a level of the same kind of damage as the source attack would have dealt, Bashing for a Bashing attack, Lethal for Lethal, Agg for Agg. This may not be used on yourself.]

 

Sensuous Torment

Cost: 3m; Mins: Essence 2, Martial Arts 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack

Duration: One Tick

Prerequisites: None

The martial artist thrills to the torment that her pitiful enemies fear. This Charm can be activated in response to any attack that hits the martial artist, even if it does not successfully deal damage. She is overwhelmed by a wash of ecstatic essence, numbing her body to all pain. The martial artist gains bashing and lethal Hardness 20 against all attacks for the rest of the tick.

[Errata: This stacks with ‘natural’ Hardness from Scar-Written Saga Shield, but not from armor or other charm-based sources of Hardness. It is not Hardness from armor, but instead temporary natural Hardness.]

 

Laughing Wounds Form

Cost: 6m; Mins: Essence 2, Martial Arts 4; Type: Simple

Keywords: Form-Type

Duration: One scene

Prerequisites: Kiss of the Whip, Sensuous Torment

Even as blood runs down her skin, the martial artist laughs savagely, whirling undaunted through battle like a scarlet-streaked demon. While this Charm is active, any wound penalties the martial artist suffers are not applied to combat-related actions, unless she attacks or defends with a non-form weapon. Whenever she makes an unarmed attack, she adds the magnitude of any wound penalties suffered by the attack's target to her raw damage. Finally, she may pay a level of lethal damage in place of a point of Willpower to channel Conviction or Valor. If she suffers a wound penalty of -4 or greater, she need not expend a channel of the chosen Virtue when doing so.

 

Instructive Punishment Method

Cost: 4m; Mins: Essence 2, Martial Arts 5; Type: Reflexive (Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion

Duration: Instant

Prerequisites: Laughing Wounds Form

The proper application of pain swiftly teaches weaklings how to serve. The martial artist may activate this Charm whenever an enemy attempts to attack her, defend against an unarmed attack made by her, or attempts to defend against mental influence exerted by her. With a crack of her whip or a menacing glance, she terrifies the fool who dares defy her, causing them to suffer a -3 internal penalty on the action. This is considered to be a wound penalty. If, within the same scene, the martial artist has dealt damage to the penalized character or imposed a Crippling effect on them with her unarmed attacks, this penalty is external. A character may pay a point of Willpower to resist all instances of this unnatural mental influence for the rest of their action.

 

Brand of Obedience

Cost: 3m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 3, Martial Arts 5; Type: Reflexive (Step 7)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling, Obvious

Duration: Indefinite

Prerequisites: Instructive Punishment Method

The martial artist truly owns her pathetic disciples, and can mark them as hers if she deems them worthy. If an unarmed attack enhanced by this Charm deals damage or inflicts a Crippling effect on the martial artist's foe, she leaves behind a disfiguring scar or an ugly welt. So long as she commits the motes spent on this Crippling effect, the wound is enchanted as a symbol of authority, and glimmers with the Old Realm rune for "Mine" if observed with essence sight. If a marked character attempts to attack the martial artist, defend against one of her unarmed attacks, or defend against mental influence exerted by her, she may choose to punish them for their disobedience by paying a single mote. The mark glows red and burns their skin, dealing (Essence) dice of lethal damage to them as a secondary Crippling effect. This damage ignores soak and Hardness from armor. Once the martial artist breaks her commitment to this Charm, the magic fades from the scar, though it remains until it is healed naturally.

 

Insatiable Slave Stamina

Cost: 4m; Mins: Essence 2, Martial Arts 5; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK

Duration: One scene

Prerequisites: Laughing Wounds Form

Grinning as black bruises darken her skin, the martial artist demonstrates an even greater appetite for pain than she expects from her slaves. So long as this Charm remains active, the martial artist does not fall unconscious if reduced to Incapacitated by bashing damage. Instead, she remains fully aware and active, with further levels of bashing damage being converted to lethal normally. Furthermore, she may soak lethal damage with her full Stamina, and adds an amount equal to the magnitude of any wound penalties she suffers to her bashing and lethal soak.

[Errata: While this is active, add “an amount equal to the magnitude of any wound penalties she suffers” to the Hardness granted by Sensuous Torment.]

 

Ecstatic Tenacity

Cost: 8m; Mins: Essence 2, Martial Arts 5; Type: Reflexive (Step 7)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling, Obvious

Duration: Instant

Prerequisites: Insatiable Slave Stamina

The most terrible wounds mean less than nothing to one who has refined her tastes for agony. This Charm can be activated in response to any attack, reducing its raw and final damage to zero. However, this Charm does not prevent the martial artist from suffering, instead converting the damage to a Crippling effect that increases the wound penalties she suffers by -1 for the rest of the scene. Multiple uses of this Charm stack their penalties. This drawback is considered to be a unique Flaw of Invulnerability.

 

Rapture in Chains

Cost: 3m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 2, Martial Arts 5; Type: Supplemental

Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion

Duration: Until released

Prerequisites: Laughing Wounds Style

Victims restrained by the martial artist find themselves unwilling to break free. If an unarmed clinch attack enhanced by this Charm succeeds, the martial artist's whip or chains seem to come alive as they twine around her foe, slipping into impossible knots of painful tightness. Whenever the grappled enemy rolls to establish control of the clinch, any wound penalties that apply to his roll are converted to external penalties. In addition, each time the martial artist would successfully deal damage to a clinched opponent by crushing him, she may instead cause him to lose a point of Willpower as an Emotion effect. If a character is reduced to zero Willpower while clinched, he gains an Intimacy of submissive lust towards the martial artist.

 

Groveling Penitence Prana

Cost: 7m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 3, Martial Arts 5; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK, Compulsion

Duration: Instant

Prerequisites: Rapture in Chains

Daring to oppose the mistress's will is like begging for humiliation. The martial artist may activate this Charm whenever she holds a clinched enemy, rolling (Charisma or Manipulation + Martial Arts) as a reflexive social attack against his Dodge MDV. If the martial artist's roll succeeds, her foe falls to his knees in submission. He is incapable of acting for the rest of the scene as if he were clinched, even if the martial artist releases him from her clutches. This unnatural mental influence can be resisted for a cost of three Willpower.

[Errata: they count as being grappled for all purposes, save that you need not be physically in contact with them to perform clinch-related actions (your force of personality being enough to crush them at this point it presses on them just like you normally would), and they cannot move unless you permit it.] 

 

Ravishing the Unworthy Heart

Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 4, Martial Arts 5; Type: Supplemental

Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Servitude

Duration: Instant

Prerequisites: Brand of Obedience, Ecstatic Tenacity, Groveling Penitence Prana

Shaping her lips into a kiss, the martial artist reaches forward to stroke her foe's chest. Then, with a grinning snarl, she plunges her hand through his ribs to rip out his heart. An unarmed attack supplemented by this Charm deals aggravated damage, leaving behind smoldering welts or bloody scars. In addition, if the martial artist's target suffers a wound penalty that exceeds their (Valor), then the attack is unblockable and undodgeable. If the penalty exceeds their (Valor + 3), it is also unexpected. Characters that have no temporary Willpower always suffer from an attack that is unblockable, undodgeable, and unexpected. If an attack enhanced by this Charm would slay the martial artist's enemy, she is faced with a choice. If she wishes, she may execute him, pulling out his heart with her bare hands or the tip of her whip in a gruesome fatality. A more merciful mistress, however, may choose to cancel all damage past her foe's Incapacitated health level in order to impose a Servitude effect on her victim. The victim's Motivation is replaced with a new Motivation of obeying the martial artist. Characters enslaved by this Charm may pay two Willpower to resist it for one scene, and are freed once they have spent a total of ten Willpower resisting this unnatural mental influence. This Charm can always be activated just as the Canon version if that is preferred, it must be decided once per target per sceen. 



  1. Mantis Style [Scroll of Individual Greatness Vol 3: Echoes of Enlightenment 02, p61]: 
    • THIS SECTION IS MERGED WITH OUR ERRATA 





Aspect: This Style is elementally neutral.

Weapons and Armor: The mantis is lightly armored but has a sure grasp of anything it gets in its claws. Practitioners of the Mantis Style may wear light armor and may wield any Martial Arts weapon with its Charms, treating attacks with them as unarmed. Because it is so basic and fundamental, it is easily adapted to new martial arts weapons, such that any martial art you are trained in may be combined with this style as though they were Martial Arts weapons. As taught by the Lintha Family Traditional Martial Arts schools, this includes those weapons as well. Bites can count as Crush actions, if you choose to do so.

 

Leaping Mantis Technique (2)

Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1; Type: Supplemental

Keywords: Combo-OK

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: None

Swift and sure, the mantis appears before its foe ready to take

matters in hand (or claw). This Charm may enhance a Join Battle

action, adding additional dice equal to the practitioner’s Martial

Arts rating to the roll. The martial artist may also perform a

reflexive Jump action along with her Join Battle roll (see Exalted, p.

127 and 144 for rules on jumping), as long as it is towards a foe or

moves her closer to where she believes a foe to be.

The martial artist may also use this Charm after having already

entered combat, in which case this Charm enhances a standard

Jump action, eliminating the DV penalty for that action and

adding the character’s Martial Arts to the (Strength + Athletics)

pool used to calculate her leap’s distance. A Jump enhanced this

way may also benefit from Martial Arts Excellencies used to

enhance the character’s (Strength + Athletics + Martial Arts) pool

to increase the distance covered. Remember your Jump’s distance

starts outside of your actual Reach.



Iron-Arm Block (2)

Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)

Keywords: Combo-Basic

Duration: One action

Prerequisite Charms: Leaping Mantis Technique

Like unassailable chitin walls, the mantis’ forearms are not

merely weapons but also shields. This Charm enhances the martial

artist’s attempts to make unarmed Martial Arts-based parries. In

addition to allowing him to parry lethal and ranged attacks

barehanded without a stunt, he gains a +2 cover bonus to his DV.

As a cover bonus, this does not count as a dice bonus from

Charms.



Mantis Form (2)

Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Simple (Speed 3)

Keywords: Form-type

Duration: One scene

Prerequisite Charms: Iron-Arm Block

Adopting a straight but somehow askew posture, the martial

artist gains both nobility and a rock-hard but delicate grip. Her

dignity sets her apart, aloof from the carnage that may surround

her as she wades into battle and does what must be done. For the

scene the character’s unarmed Martial Arts attacks may inflict

lethal damage if they would instead deal bashing, and she ignores

onslaught penalties to her Martial Arts-based Parry DV as long as

she is defending herself with a Martial Arts weapon or her bare

hands.

A martial artist who adopts the Mantis Form and is Essence 3+

may improve the benefits of her Iron-Arm Block. Invoked normally,

it provides a shield bonus to her DV equal to her permanent

Essence. Alternatively, it may be invoked as if it were not a Charm

activation at the normal +2 bonus. This latter use of Iron-Arm

Block adds the Obvious keyword to the Charm.



Grasping Claw Method (2)

Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Simple (Speed 4,

DV -0)

Keywords: Combo-OK

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Mantis Form

The mantis first removes the threat to itself, dispassionately

and purposefully, before moving on to the more pressing matter of

what to do with its prey. This Charm is an unarmed Martial Arts

attack that is resolved as a normal attack that inflicts damage as

well as an attempt to disarm the target (Exalted, p. 158). The attack

suffers no external penalty for the disarm attempt.

Rather than simply sending the weapon flying, if the attack hits

and would have ended with at least one die of post-soak damage as a

normal attack, the martial artist may choose to deal a single die of

bashing damage while disarming the target. The martial artist then

takes hold of the weapon. If the character wishes to then wield the

weapon, this Charm counts as a reflexive Ready Weapon action.

 

Grasping Mantis Defense (2)

Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Grasping Claw Method

Like a mantis finally reaching out to take hold of its prey, the

martial artist strikes quickly and ensures that her foe cannot harm

her. This Charm may only be invoked when the martial artist is

using her Martial Arts-based Parry DV in close combat to defend

herself against an attack. As long as she successfully blocks the

attack she may then attempt a counterattack to clinch and hold the

attacker. If the martial artist successfully initiates the clinch, the

attacker becomes inactive and on the martial artist’s next action

tick the two begin fighting for control of the clinch normally. The

mantis stylist cannot perform a crush or break hold before her next

action tick; she simply maintains the new clinch until then.



Joint-Locking Technique (2)

Cost: 3m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK

Duration: Until the clinch ends

Prerequisite Charms: Mantis Form

The mantis drags its victims close with inexorable strength,

ensuring that there is no escape once it has chosen them. This

Charm may only be activated to enhance an unarmed Martial Arts

action to maintain control of a previously established clinch. Use of

Joint-Locking Technique adds (character’s Essence) extra successes

to the roll to control the clinch and continues to do so until the

martial artist’s foe gains control or the martial artist ends the

clinch.

 

Crushing Claw Technique (2)

Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK

Duration: Until the clinch ends

Prerequisite Charms: Joint-Locking Technique

This Charm enhances an unarmed Martial Arts clinch attempt

to crush a foe, adding (character’s Martial Arts) to the raw damage

of the crush and allowing it to inflict lethal damage rather than

bashing. This bonus persists as long as the martial artist maintains

control of the clinch and attempts to crush the victim every action.

 

Joint-Disabling Attack (2)

Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Crushing Claw Technique

There is only one end to the feeble struggle of the mantis’ prey,

but to ease and speed along this conclusion the mantis crushes,

twists and disables them to make its job easier. This Charm

enhances an attempt to crush a foe with an unarmed Martial Arts

clinch. If the crush would have ended with at least one die of

post-soak damage, rather than inflicting damage it inflicts the

equivalent of one amputation crippling effect of the martial artist’s

choice (see Exalted, p. 152). The martial artist may only disable

hands, arms and legs this way, and they are not actually amputated.

This Crippling effect lasts for the rest of the scene and should likely

result in situational internal penalties to continue resisting grapples

or other actions in which an arm or leg is often useful if not

absolutely necessary. This is how it works if your grapple would deal 

bashing damage, but if it would deal lethal, the crippling effect 

manifests with shattered bones and ruined joints (which heal like any 

normal supernatural Crippling injury). In such a case, 1 post-soak 

lethal damage would be enough to effect something small like a finger 

or thumb, 2 for an ankle or wrist, 3 for a forearm or shin, 4 for thigh or 

bicep, 5 for shoulders or hips, and +5 with a called shot penalty for any 

of the myriad of joints in the torso. 



Flying Mantis Kick (2)

Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Mantis Form

As one action the mantis leaps and strikes. This Charm

enhances an unarmed Martial Arts attack, allowing it to be

accompanied by a reflexive leap towards the target, putting the

target within range of the attack if they were not already in reach.

This jump is calculated using Martial Arts instead of Athletics (see

Exalted, p. 127). If it hits, extra successes count double for

determining the raw damage of the attack. This Charm is fine when

the intended target is already within range, allowing you to 

Reposition yourself relative to them, potentially moving behind 

them or into a blind spot (normal perception checks apply).

The combined action of jumping and attacking counts as a

single normal Jump action for the purposes of Leaping Mantis

Technique, allowing that Charm to enhance the soaring assault

This eliminates the DV penal y of the attack and adds (Martial

Arts) to the pool used to calculate the leap’s maximum distance.



Unfolding Retribution Stance (2)

Cost: — ; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Permanent

Keywords: None

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Grasping Mantis Defense, Joint-Disabling

Attack, Flying Mantis Kick

Amongst the most dangerous of foes, the master of Mantis

Style sits patiently, awaiting the mistake that will put his enemy at

his mercy. With aplomb he gently takes his foe in hand and then

squeezes the life from them, or, if he is generous, merely teaches

them a lasting lesson and lets them go. Ah, the vagaries of the

inscrutable mantis! Mantis Form is modified permanently, while 

that Charm is active 

Unfolding Retribution Stance allows the martial artist to activate

Grasping Mantis Defense as if it were not a Charm, requiring no

Combos to do so. He may do so only once per tick. Instead of

taking advantage of Grasping Mantis Defense on his action tick,

the martial artist may activate Flying Mantis Kick once as if it were

not a Charm. It also changes the following charms:

  • Joint Locking Technique gives an equipment bonus, not a charm one.
  • Grasping Claw Method gains the Reflexive keyword, and may enhance any attack you make. It may be activated as though it were not a charm when your Mantis Form is up. If you do, resolve the attack normally, but add the disarm effect too.
  • Joint-Disabling Attack may now enhance any kind of attack. As well, it does not replace all the dealt damage, but instead reduces the extra damage by the amount required. Masters of the style have the Crippling effects under their control better, and may choose whether the effect is Bashing or Lethal in nature, and if it ends at the end of the scene, or if it persists like a normal Crippling injury.
  • Flying Mantis Kick: This now always deals damage, but if you have the Form charm active, or if they are within the normal range requirements, add +1 to the Minimum Damage for the attack, for every 10 meters of distance between your starting position and the target up to a maximum of +(Essence) Minimum Damage. 







  1. Infernal Monster Style: The ‘One Hand Fury’ and similar charms work fine with any kind of Infernal charms which make you shape shift in any way, allowing them to be used in Shintai forms, where the Hand merges into your new form in some way the allows you to still use it in whatever way is reasonable. Other self-targeted shape shifting powers could work as well, but it’s specifically designed for users which are either Green Sun Princes or Akuma. The One Hand and similar things work additively with your new form, generally giving you the best combination with the new shape, and either adding (in the case of damage and accuracy and defense) or taking the best available value (e.g. Speed, Rate). Parade of a Thousand Demons has a final line implying that you are always in some kind of controlled Overindulgence, ignore that line, instead it should read: “Your Rage is permanently altered such that the effects of Casting Off The Eight Restraints is your default way to channel Rage, and you only revert of fury and killing when there are no more indulgences to be had, as normal. However, if you ever want to go straight to anger and fury, you need to spend 1w in reverse of the original charm direction.” The original wording was poorly thought out, and would result in almost no benefit (or at least benefits that would certainly not be worth it) for essentially character-derailing levels of pseudo-limit behavior that really did not interact well with other style charms.
  2. One-And-Only Insistence [REV, Isisdoros]: This charms’ penalty from “the Infernal suffers the same penalty when attempting to hide or disguise his identity”. This applies to all mundane attempts by the infernal to make a physical disguise or mundanely hide his identity. It does not apply to anything else, regardless of how broadly it was worded.  As well, for the purposes of mundane disguises, adopting a cape costume and ‘title’ that derive from your real titles does not count, nor does not giving a name or not introducing yourself, but portraying an entirely different background and demographic would not; again mundanely. This applies to the upgraded version at Essence 3+, such that mundane attempts are prevented. For our purposes, being enhanced by more than just Excellency charms is sufficient to qualify as no longer mundane; Excellency charms can conditionally qualify as no longer mundane, but only if there is the maximum possible exertion on your part, just like you were using the Theion First Excellency. While you are larger than life, it would undermine that concept entirely if you could not do it yourself, at least with effort. Finally, this may all be ignored for 1w per scene, like all permanent Yozi self-penalty charms.
  3. Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion: [Ruling] The is always on, but any supernatural effects by the warlock to disguise themselves or cover themselves with an illusion or conceal themselves preempts this charms effects, forcing the natural beasts to break through their defense against that disguise, illusion, or see through your concealment before they realize your might and cowtow. Ruling, Skitter’s swarm is not “mundane” when she is actively using it, and Bitch’s Dogs are mundane, but are usually “ridden” when they are around. Those who are Beloved, your own offspring, addicted to you, or bearers of your self-seed all can be excluded as though they were bearers of your “Terrified Awe” intimacy.
  4. Weight-Exaggerating Ego Density [REV, Isidoros]: At Essence 3+, the increased weight goes from times (Ess) to times (Ess*10) and the reduced Knockback range increases from (Ess*10) to (Ess*Ess*10); the charm now costs 4m to activate. At Essence 5+, the automatic successes to Blockades and Control Clinches goes to (Ess*2), and the effective strength increase for feats of strength is (Ess*10), while the damage to surfaces increases to (Ess*10); this charm now costs 8m to activate. Note that the tracking difficulty improvement only applies to surfaces which are both fragile and persistent, like a tile mosaic, but not to anything that would naturally revert like dirt, rocks, or mud, or is sturdy like thick stone bricks, metal surfaces, or stone. As a rule of thumb, if cattle would destroy it by walking on it, then it may be ‘fragile’ enough for this effect to be trackable. If you have other charms that would make you harder to track in a supernatural way, then this tracking bonus does not apply; it is strictly a mundane side-effect of being so dense.
  5. All Shintai charms having “scene” duration are actually “Indefinite”. Instead of committing the cost or paying it per scene, at the end of the first scene that they assumed the Shintai form, they may choose to remain in it or not. Afterwards, they will need to pay the normal cost to return to normal at some later point.  This is to keep consistency with the other canon Shintai charms, which represent the transition to a small Joutun-form Titan. 
  6. All-Devouring Depths Shintai: Use a combination version of the Revlid’s rewrite and the canon/errata’d version, add these from the canon one on top of Revlid’s rewrite:
    • Gains all the benefits of Fathomless Poison Haven.
    • Eyes of variety blink and glare across her body, allowing her to use All Things Betray as an innate power for free.
    • Contact with her body is an environmental hazard with the same statistics as her acid blood. Victims struck by her suffer one-time exposure, while those clinched steadily dissolve.
    • On each action tick, she can give herself one permanent mutation as a Desecration effect. All of these mutations dissolve when the Charm ends.
    • ~Ignore all caps on the number of mutations you can inflict on yourself in this Shintai. Using this to increase in size also increases your reach.
    • She flows through or over other liquids at her swimming speed. She flows over solid surfaces at her ground move speed without regard for gravity (such as by oozing up walls). 
    • Halve the Minimum Damage of any attack against you which is not fire, lightning, or Essence blasts.
    • ~Non-Excellency Infernal charms which add dice to your pools for any kind of grappling give stacking equipment bonuses instead of normal charm bonuses. 
    • ~Subtract your Essence from any target’s Essence rating when calculating minimum Internal Penalty pools for Essence users and Exalts (Core p121), leaving them a minimum of 1 die in their minimum Internal pool. This only applies to grapple-related checks.
  7. Demon Sea Shintai: At your option, you may activate Lurking Indigo Haar to cover the surface of your waters with the effects of Lurking Indigo Haar, up to a height above your surface equal to your depths beneath it. If you do, you may choose whether any particular targets are spared its effects, or if it is possible to float or swim through the Haar fog. Those who are subject to its effects and not permitted to float or swim through it are likely to drown while trying to breathe at the ‘surface’ that they cannot swim above.  Additionally, activating any of Kimbery’s weather charms while this Shintai is active adds the option to extend the Haar as a secondary effect of the weather charm, spreading it beneath your storm clouds (for example); the depth of the Haar in the case of these weather charms is the same limit as the depths it would have with Demon Sea Shintai active. All costs must be paid as normal, but the Shintai increases the range. As a bonus effect, your Shintai may communicate at the range of the weather charms, if it would be greater than the default range for this Shintai. Whenever Lurking Indigo Haar is activated in coordination with this Shintai, the Health Level cost must be committed for the duration, despite being Sorcerous. It is through this bleeding wound that the Haar is sustained. So long as you have one or more of Kimbery’s weather charms active, you and your designated allies benefit from Mother Sea Mastery, Fathomless Poison Haven, and Acrid Slip-Stream Assist, and the area within your weather effects count as the Sea. If your weather would include the Haar effect, then you and your fleet may travel over land and air as though they were the sea, as the Haar effectively lets everyone swim or sail or whatever even if there’s nothing for the Haar to logicaally sit on besides clouds or similar weird things.
  8. World-Gnawing Worm Shintai: add the following effects to it.
    • The following charms are automatically active: Hunger Blooming Bite, Virulent Carnal Appetite Unfurling, And Then He Stole The Air, Scent The Elusive Prey, Screaming Heavenly Morsels
    • The charm cost discount applies to the following charms too: Hand Biting Retaliation, Platter Cleaning Violence Flicker, Taste of Shared Pain, Aspect of the Perfect Predator
    • Any powers which are normally capped by your hunger penalty and which would let you produce almost infinite resources (motes, willpower, health levels, etc) if they were not, are still capped as normal.
    • If you have seven repurchases of Feast Upon (Shinma) then this shintai adds the following effects for an extra (10m 1w; the willpower is not committed):
      • The capacity for the Infernal to feed is amplified to match his appetite, which is without measure. 
      • The cost to activate Feast Upon (Shinma) is 1m per power, and doing so does not count as a Charm activation. 
      • The Infernal also gains an eighth activation for the duration of the Charm, Feast Upon Advaita Iraivan. Attacks supplemented thusly are made at Speed 3. 
      • Finally, the Infernal may supplement any melee range attack with Feast Upon (Shinma.) 
      • When the Infernal would use lethal health levels as alternate payment for motes or willpower, he may use whatever sort of damage he should choose, and may combine sources to determine the cost paid. 
      • So, the Infernal may pay two aggravated health levels to activate Evolve Or Die, or a single bashing health level for three activations of Feast Upon (Shinma.) 
      • The Infernal's Bite has the Clinch Tag as optional, and increases the Accuracy, Damage, and Rate values by four (+4). Whenever an Infernal would successfully deal damage with his Bite attack, he may reflexively pay 3m to heal a health level of damage.
    • Ignore all caps on the number of mutations you can inflict on yourself in this Shintai. Using this to increase in size also increases your reach. This also includes any caps on how many limbs you can have, or your size.
    • Whenever you would inflict a Crippling effect, or whenever you would grow limbs, and you are not currently suffering from a Crippling injury, then each limb may be used to add +1 meter to your size (in any or all directions you wish to grow). Increasing your size in this way adds a temporary+1B/+1L/+1A to your soak, and one temporary -0 Health Level; it also temporarily increases your base reach by +1 meter. These temporary effects go away if you receive an external Crippling effect; these temporary limbs absorb and negate one Crippling effect in this way, and reduce your size accordingly, undoing their contribution. If you know Swallowed Offerings, any Crippling injury you inflict counts as eating the same amount of flesh (or whatever you crippled), and may be stored within your extradimensional stomach instead of adding to your overall size; at the end of any scene where you have left over temporary levels from this charm, you may spend 1w to swallow them all and either return to the base size of this shintai, or back to normal form.    
  9. Lotus-Eaten Dreamer Shintai: add the following to it:
    • Any Illusion effects you create require two successful resistance rolls to disbelieve them. Any illusion charm costs 5m less and 1w less.
    • The ‘1 full year’ timer is reset whenever they either become addicted to you, or they are reduced to <=3 Willpower while suffering from Withdrawal.
    • Those trapped in the shintai’s illusory world are inactive, and must exert effort per the charm to escape.
  10. Nightmare Tempest Shintai: add the following to it.
    • Soul-Husking Monochrome Strike’s discount and activation also applies to its upgrades, Sky-Crisis Strike, save that Sky-Crisis Strike is still Simple action instead of Reflexive. That means that activating them costs no motes.
    • Firmament-Shaking Cataclysm: Against targets with addictions towards you, or who are presently suffering from either of Hegra’s poisons, or who have not seen through your illusion charms, these upgrades cost nothing, and any or all of them are applied all at once. For everyone else, there is no willpower cost, and the base cost per is 1m each.
    • World-Drowning Cloudburst: waive the willpower cost here, so long as Firmament-Shaking Cataclysm would cost nothing too. 
    • Any Illusion effects you create require two successful resistance rolls to disbelieve them. Any illusion charm costs 5m less.
  11. Spiteful Sea Tincture: The Obvious tag can be waived entirely if you use Vituperative Smuggling Technique, Innocent Petal Assumption, or Canker-Concealing Trunk Confusion, or other similar illusion charms. Vituperative Smuggling Technique is her own way of hiding her touch, until it is time to strike, and a single application can conceal all such stains. 
  12. Sea Within Veins Prana: This immunity to magical poisons and diseases applies to you too. If you choose to, you may ignore either or both within your body; or even just leave specific ones alone.
  13. Great Mother’s Tears: yes, this does allow you to substitute any of Kimbery’s toxins in place of any other poison that a charm you are using would produce.
  14. Lurking Indigo Haar: Since this is based on Sea-Within-Veins Prana, and the wording is unclear, I am interpreting this fog to be a prolonged version of the SWVP effect, so it is an ongoing version of the base charm’s effects. Otherwise it is little more than an expensive replacement for a smoke grenade. If you know Storm Curse Condemnation then this Sorcerous zone may be attached to either yourself or some unfortunate target (or boringly an object or point on the ground). This follows the same counterspell rules as Storm Curse Condemnation.
  15. Vituperative Smuggling Technique: Errata: targeting one part of a group with countermagic does nothing to the rest of the group. As well, there is an Essence 6+ repurchase that removes the 1 month time limit for the Sorcerous effect, this removed time limit only works for you and its use on non-character objects; for other people and groups of people, it becomes (Essence) years.
  16. Sunken City Camouflage: Errata: For this to be targeted with countermagic, the original location within the locale where you used the charm would need to be targeted, unless you explicitly set some other location instead.
  17. If you have multiple ‘Geomantic Charms’ that you are using, they are mutually compatible implicitly, but their Blasphemy Rating automatically stacks where available.
  18. Spreading Damp Envenomation: This can be used to trigger the lacquer application and then Poison Well (or any other Poison substitute charm) can substitute the toxin of your choice instead of the normal one.
  19. Storm Curse Condemnation and Tempest Calming Gesture: The use of successful countermagic exempts the user from the weather effects for a scene, but the AoE effect is tied to the actual target of the charm. Thus, the storm only goes away when the tagged target is counterspelled directly, following the range limitations of Counterspells. 
  20. Font of Vitriol Invocation: As the transmuted waters are Kimbery’s anyone within it also treats each action they take in it as though they had been exposed to a dose of her toxins, in addition to the caustic properties. Once you learn this the difficulty to counter any of the following charms is based on your Essence, not the Min Essence:  Storm Curse Condemnation, Tempest Calming Gesture, Font of Vitriol Invocation, Lurking Indigo Haar, and all of your Shintai which are Sorcerous. If you know any weather charms from Hegra they are likewise covered. For all upgraded charms, the unmodified difficulty is all that is required to exempt a single target from the Sorcerous effects, so long as that is not the ‘center’ or ‘target’ of the effects. Thus, it is much harder to remove the whole storm than to protect a single non-target VIP from its effects.
  21. Stone-Eroding Touch: at Essence 3+, this may be applied to any kind of attack against an object or creature, not just Touch.
  22. Vile Brine Distillation: makes a dose of Poison Lacquer, or of your own distilled bodily fluids; using Craft(Genesis or Vitriol) can be used to modify the result.
  23. Great Mother’s Blessed Waters: typo, it is “up to a limit of (Infernal’s Essence/2)”, and the “If she is injured, then the duration on bodies of liquid in range at that point is Indefinite.” should be interpreted to include self-injury, such as spending a health level.
  24. Treacherous Waters Navigation: 
    • ‘The Great Mother’s touch blurs the lines between mounts, vehicles, and vessels, but all flesh needs to consume’; With an Essence 4+ repurchase; this charm may be repurchased once to gain access to any non-Native keyworded Solar charms related to the Sail skill, Ride Skill, or Survival Skill. All uses of the Ride Charms for mundane, non-aquatic creatures require the charm to be used on either Beloved targets, or be used within range of the Sea keyword. Somewhat similarly, all of the Survival charms take a +2m surcharge when used where the Sea keyword doesn’t apply, this is waived for Beloved targets. All Abyssal Sail charms lacking the Native keyword count for this purpose, but replace the Spectral keyword with the Sea keyword and satisfy the Avatar keyword with the added requirement to have that many repurchases of Intolerable Burning Truths. These charms, with all of their prerequisite charms being replaced with this one, and only their minimum Essence and skill ratings being met. Remember that Kimbery’s versions of these charms are always slightly warped by her nature, and definitely at least look like something Lovecraftian fever dreams. This implies that charms that specify ‘riding’, ‘swimming’, ‘sailing’, ‘driving’, etc are all mutually consistent, so long as they make sense when applied to those targets; that is you may target things with charms that should vaguely apply to that category, if you squint, so for example something that speeds up overland journeys from a riding charm should logically apply to the others, so long as the method makes sense thematically.
    • ‘The Sea That Marched indeed’; With an Essence 5+ repurchase, this charm can enhance the activation of other charms, primarily, if it is activate when activating one of your weather charms (including those that either cause or calm storms, it is just the unnatural part) while you also have Sea Home Stance active, then the area beneath that charm counts as ‘Sea’ for your charms’ purposes. If you have this charm active, then activating Acrid Slipstream Assist allows you and everyone you choose to include within the area of effect of Acrid Slipstream Assist to sail or swim together over anywhere that qualifies as ‘Sea’ including over land (they cannot fly per se, but are borne along the ‘sea’ surface by captive waters that the ships take with them; they may move up or down relative to the ground up to (Essence) meters above their minimum draft, and there is enough captive water to keep that vessel afloat under normal conditions, just kind of captive in place by the swirling curtain-currents of ichor per the Acrid Slipstream Assist write-up), if you add One Mind Ocean’s activation to this, you may include as many Magnitude worth of your forces as you can fit (up to Magnitude (Essence), all of whom must be with the weather effect’s area during activation, and at least one part of that number must be within the Acrid Slipstream Assist sphere during activation) One Mind Ocean stays up until at least the duration of your Acrid Slipstream Assist (max (Essence) days). All of these require you to personally oversee the process of traveling; if you cannot spare the time, activating Treacherous Waters Navigation while blessing a vehicle with Favorable Current Benevolence and Spare the Unworthy Vessel, permits them to travel without your guidance, until one or both of those charms deactivate. The only catch is that they must have initially been part of the group that you were guiding overland, and they are still restricted to the area beneath the ‘Sea’ keyword.
  25. Ocean Washed Words [Complex Errata]: 
Ocean Washed Words

Cost: 3m; Mins: Essence 2; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK, Sea, (Optionally: Sorcerous)

Duration: Permanent (toggleable) / Scene (Optionally: Indefinite) 

Prerequisites: Tidal Renewal Discipline

Kimbery’s waves have touched many shores and countless tongues have screamed desperate prayers to her.  Such knowledge lurks within her depths. This charm permanently lets you (passively, requiring no charm activation since just knowing it is sufficient) speak (so the range is ‘within hearing distance’) to anything remotely aquatic in nature, including things which would be found living in the analogous liquid bodies in Malfeas, or any other planes. The language which is the lingua franca with them all is Old Realm, specifically the Lintha dialect used in Kimbery’s other charms. This allows social attacks against animals and other creatures that do not otherwise communicate through language, or which are too stupid to talk. If you know Mother Knows Best, these creatures which are normally nonsapient or which are sapient extras that normally cannot communicate without this charm, then they count as your ‘descendents’ for the purposes of that charm. These creatures do not gain the ability to speak per se, but so long as they are around you, they may do so in Old Realm. When you leave, they lose that ability, but will (as far as they are capable) try to continue whatever they were told to do by you. Everything up till now is unconditional and permanent, and does not depend on the Sea keyword; you need merely will it to happen or leave it permanently on/off. 

So long as you are within range of the Sea keyword,  Mortals and other things which are not per se aquatic (as described above) will understand you when you speak the Lintha dialect at them (to clarify this is two-way communication with your Lintha being translated into their native tongue within their own heads and their native tongue being translated into Old Realm as soon as they speak it aloud for all to hear, it also works with reading and writing similarly; similarly to the first paragraph, so long as you are around they may speak to each other via this Old Realm dialect), but this grants no understanding of each others languages, nor does it convey cultural context, jargon, or idioms. Thus, it’s not a full replacement for Linguistics and related charms. The highest fidelity translations within it are things related to either trade, the sea, or anything thematically related to Kimbery. It is fitting that she privileges her creations above all others even privileging the dialect she birthed so that all would know it when they hear it.

However, if you are not within range of the Sea keyword, you may use it as follows: The Infernal can activate this Charm after meditating for (8-Essence, minimum 1) hours while submerged, allowing her to develop a basic understanding of a language commonly spoken within a region. She can speak, write, understand and otherwise communicate in that language.  She is clearly not a native, and speaks with a notable Old Realm accent - specifically the dialect of the ancient Lintha. The language slips from the cold darkness of her mind when she ends this effect – alternatively, she can instantly acquire it as a Linguistics specialty, as a Training effect. At Essence 3+, this charm’s activation changes such that it may be retained for a specific region as a Sorcerous effect (treat it as an Essence 3 effect for dispellation or countermagic use). This charm’s base non-Sorcerous form allows the 3m to be committed for the duration of up to a day, until it is expended at the end of the ‘active’ scene where it was applied. This will trigger automatically if at any point you desire to communicate with someone whose language you don’t speak, but which would be covered by your meditation. Thus, when not within the Sea, its usage is difficult or more easily interrupted by opponents.

  1. Rising Tide Gratuity: This charm may be repurchased an additional time for each of the following options, each of which replicates a Solar Bureaucracy Charm, which follow all of the normal mechanics for their activation, save that you need only the minimum Essence to be met and the prerequisite charms need to be already bought in this way with this charm counting as Speed The Wheels for that purpose, however, the duration of the charms are still sorcerously tied to the gift per this  base charm, and stop when that gift is gone; any damage done prior to that time remain, but the charm otherwise ends:
    • Indolent Official Charm [ExCore p232; Ess 2; requires Kimbery Excellency]
    • Foul Air of Argument Technique [ExCore p232; Ess 3]
    • Halo of Ministerial Dominion [Dreams of the First Age Vol 2 Revised p80; Ess 4]
    • Charter-Stripping Condemnation [Dreams of the First Age Vol 2 Revised p80; Ess 6; to clarify the non-bureaucracy activations,  those may be used normally without a gift, however the bureaucracy activations still require the gift per normal.] 
    • If you know Charter-Stripping Condemnation and Esoteric Inundation Investment, you may activate Esoteric Inundation Investment to sanctify oaths and contracts so long as they fulfill any of these criteria: this may be done in person or via prayer per Esoteric Inundation Investment, or via prayer in the same cost within any location that you own or control or which is geomantically yours or metaphysically claimed by you, or if it is done using materials that you have sanctified in your own name or that of an organization you are a member of, or in the name of any Yozi. Sanctifying oaths in this way works mechanically identical to a Fiend doing so, save that those oaths and contracts which you and your subordinates or beloved or descendents must be somehow business, commerce, or politics related. Only you may personally sanctify oaths not related to businesses, requiring you to be personally present, and those involved in the oaths must either be beloved, creatures of darkness, Malfean natives, your descendents or creations, or any of the Yozi. Charter-Stripping effects may be included as part of your stated consequences for violating the oaths, at your option.
    • If you know Esoteric Inundation Investment and Godmother’s Own House, you may activate the prior charm while touching a shrine you have prepared using Well Reputed Grotto, and the shrine gains the qualities that qualify as a Sea, while the interior of the structure surrounding it expands its original design (Essence*[Sail+Stealth+Larceny+Bureaucracy+Occult]) times larger on the inside than it was before (technically it is by (Essence*[Sail+Stealth+Larceny+Bureaucracy+Occult])^3, but that is harder to say), expanding in every direction you desire up to (Essence*[Sail+Stealth+Larceny+Bureaucracy+Occult]) times each dimension. The interior appearance is based loosely on the original design, and you may choose the details of the revised implementation of the expansion. This place is not exactly normal space, and not exactly Elsewhere, and the warp in space is incredibly secure, so long as the charms are not broken. Access to the area can be further secured with charms, sorcery, or any other ways you choose, given that you metaphysically own it. There is no change to the exterior structure to indicate what is hidden within (especially, it does not change apparent size), however, any attempt to damage or pierce the structure to access the interior without going through the intended entrance fail, just as any attempts to destroy (superficial damage is fine) the structure fail. The only way that the structure can be destroyed or entered is through the intended entrance, so long as the shrine is still active, the rest is too, making the shrine the real structure so to speak.
  2. Pollen of a Writhing God (Metagaos): this wording is ambiguous, but you can use Digestion Without Distinction and other self-targeting powers on others. The catch is that it isn’t cheap, costing +4m for each activation, and multiplying the total cost by COST*(1+MAG), but it only works for your infectees.
  3. Charms that allow you to target Dematerialized Creatures when material have the opposite effect when you are dematerial yourself.
  4. Most of the historical Primordial Races (most of which are long extinct) were originally created in Lost Zen-Mu and thus were preserved by their creators' world-bodies during the transit. Humans and the Dragon Kings were natives to this Creation not actually being primordial races. 
  5. For the segment of the Lintha who do not adhere to the Cult of Dukhantha, or at least those who are most-traditionalist, there are four approved kinds of people to breed with, which either does not dilute the blood, or which improves it, the offspring of which are both legitimate and full-blooded: 
    • Other Full-blooded Lintha.
    • Those demons or deva descended from Kimbery.
    • Demons or deva descended from Yozi or other Primordials of equal or higher Essence than you; Green-Sun Princes and Infernal Akuma qualify for this category too.
    • Literally anyone who has received direct permission from Kimbery by either directly asking or via public prayer, or by having the copulation blessed by and witnessed by Demons of the Second or Third Circle descended from Kimbery.
  6. The real reason for the downfall of the Lintha’s bloodlines was a combination of being systematically exterminated by Yu-Shan’s forces, as well as the Solar Deliberative and its allies. The fact that they survived in any way is due only to the love of Kimbery for her favorite children. Her hate and disappointment following their loss to the Solars was tempered by the fact that everyone lost, and so her wrath was simply to hold back on saving them until they were very nearly extinct. Their breeding issues could have been trivially solved with the Organic Technology (Genesis) that the historical Lintha had co-invented with Kimbery, but she held enough of a grudge to not mention it to them, nor offer to help them rebuild. She would not stop them if they did it on their own, however. The terrible inbreeding issues come from an incorrect interpretation of historical records, and are largely the fault of a few ancient scholars. Original Pureblood Lintha were designed by The Great Mother as part of her infrastructure, and as such were not themselves designed to be genetically stable when breeding amongst themselves. To avoid degeneration, they needed to breed with Deva of Kimbery (preferably), or with non-Lintha who descend in some way from Primordials. Breeding with humans was just a side-effect of their design, of being able to mate with pretty much anything. Their purpose, beside worship and soldier-subjects, was to spread Kimbery’s touch to all things through their breeding. As Kimbery’s children, she did bear the first of them conventionally, and they are her descendants in fact and design. This gives Kimbery metaphysical control over them as her descendants, but they also remind her of what she has had stolen from her, in her descent into a Yozi. Indeed, while she can make more Lintha if she wishes, the capacity to invent new true descendents with all of her blessings. Instead, she may design and grow things in laboratory wombs, or mutating existing beings. They can count as her descendants, but frustratingly different and diminished from what she could do at her full capacity.
  7. Lintha in canon count as either Sprits or God-Blooded/Demon-Blooded for the purposes of learning charms, but are neither in truth. As the weapons and favored troops of Kimbery, they were permitted to learn CMAs, provided they had Essence 3+ and had a teacher of at least Essence 5, or they have mastered one TMA; they can learn TMA’s without restrictions. They buy such charms at normal cost, not the extra high one. They are never allowed to learn SMAs, just like the Green Sun Princes. Remember that Kimbery did not like the Dragon Kings, and Lintha were designed to at least fight on par with them. As well, they were the original prototype for how the Exalts could live within mortal frames, and so it is reasonable that part of that was being able to access charm pools with effort.
  8. Lintha Funerary Rites: Those Lintha who are eaten by the Lintha Family as part of their funeral go on to a special kind of after-life. The women who are eaten go on to be part of the racial memory of the Lintha, which is less like a hive-mind or anything like that and more like having dots in the Whispers background (which usually goes up with age and spiritual enlightenment), with the Lintha matriarchs and the Great Mother at the root; she rarely speaks after her transformation into a Yozi. Males who are eaten go to join the Lintha Dead. This means that while anyone can learn the knowledge of the males (largely warriors and traders and sailors), only the women get the knowledge of the women. It is thought that this is part of the nature of the Great Mother’s designs reinforcing the natural matriarchy of the species. This continuity of knowledge has helped rebuild after the many great tragedies that have befallen the Lintha, while simultaneously making it very clear that it cannot wholly prevent them. 
  9. Learning Martial Arts Ruling: Many styles are taught outside of those Essence users who know how to truly utilize its teachings. This means that when one later gains Initiations or Essence Awakenings, they realize the truth behind what they’ve been taught. This more or less lets the training occur when is appropriate for the story, rather than needing to shoehorn it all in after a breakthrough, and permits Exalts with martial training backgrounds to have a reason to suddenly start with MA charms instead of just their native ones. All Wuxia features breakthroughs happening at dramatically appropriate moments, and not always in a classroom. 
    • Also, because all the Terrestrial Martial Arts styles are written assuming Terrestrial Exalts learning them, no matter what any of the charms descriptions may imply, the only ones who take elemental surcharges are those who are natively  Terrestrial Exalts or Elementals, no other characters have anything to do with this, and take no penalties for anything related to those. 
    • Terrestrial Styles may have poorly thought out mechanics like Fivefold Shadow Hand Style’s multi-purchase and implied 4 times higher XP cost compared to any other style in the same category. Just ignore all the sharing and learning rules for that style, as well it only costs the normal amount of a single charm purchase instead; it just takes longer to unlock the full mastery for each. Ignore the multi teacher part too, since it’s dumb. Completely ignore the Share-(Element) keyword entirely, it’s incoherent and makes no sense.
  10. Setting Note: Once of the Oaths of Surrender  in the Primordial War was for the the Primordials to never again use certain of their Charms, effectively forcing them to diminish themselves from Primordials (regardless of whether or not they suffered fetich death or personal death) into Yozi or Neverborn. This meant that the Charms still existed, since they were baked into the fabric of Creation itself, and removing those underpinnings was what the Three-Sphere Cataclysm wrought. The Solars knew that any of the Primordials could do such a thing, without their Oaths of Surrender, including the Neverborn. Thus, the Charms of the Primordials existed, but were forbidden from the use of their creators and their Devas. Green Sun Princes are not subsouls, and thus are not subject to that restriction. While many of these Oaths of Surrender were kept secret, this aspect was revealed to reassure the Deliberative that there was no longer the existential threat of the 3SC happening again, while also stabilizing Creation in the long term.  For some reason, the inability of the Yozi and their subsouls and Green Sun Princes and the Lintha to learn Sidereal Martial Arts was included within the Oaths of Surrender, the exact wording is known only to the signers and the authors of the oaths.
  11. Setting note: Neverborn are more or less Yozi in so far as they are capable of being a ‘dead’ version, relevant quote: “I saw, back when the 2e Yozi focus was still in full swing, suggestions that the tomb-corpses of the Neverborn would be alterations of what they had been as Primordials, and I did quite like that…  I agree with this presentation. Recall that Primordials are multiple things, a world, a humaniform jouten, and their entire soul structure. So the Neverborn would each be their own tomb-world (as varied as the forests of Szoreny and the trackless desert of Cecelyne), inhabited by deadly ghosts (as varied, though less life-filled, as Ligier, Zsofika, and the tomescu), and haunted by a central intelligence (who probably has some sort of weird hobby, like Malfeas and dancing).” (http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/1156891-a-bad-idea-to-indulge) ; Insofar as they are capable of normal thoughts like the Yozi, it is best to understand that they have been forced into something which is simultaneously agonizing and impossible to escape. Thus, the Neverborn are driven by pain and oaths of surrender, as well as being so paradoxically alien to their own Creation, that they accidentally dug out an entire underworld with their fall, as well as created the undead and necromancy. Thus, they are not ‘black mirrors’ like the Abyssal Exalts, but are rather every bit as themselves as the Yozi are, aside from their unique alternate prison.
  12. Setting note: The total number of Solar/Lunar Exaltations is 500. Of those Solars, 250 were taken in the efforts of the Reclamation. 50 went on to become the Abyssals (does anyone really like Abysalls? I think they’re such a waste being literal Mirrors of Solars--but so much worse--with Resonance to punish all stories besides the boring default ones). 200 went on to become Infernals. The weird writing about Lillun in chapter 1 of the infernals book is something that I ignore because it only fits with Ebon Dragon and not with the other Yozi (remember that Malfeas is not the place depicted in Dante’s Inferno, but instead it is the Greek Tartarus, back before it held anything besides Titans). Instead, the Infernal Exaltations are wholly determined like this:
    • There is a pool of 200 Exaltations, when one is stirred to life by a potential host, it is implanted within a demon of the appropriate Yozi to generate either their Caste connection or the Urge connection. There is no Lillun, so the Exaltations are kept within tumorous Phylactery-wombs which are grown throughout Malfeas and the other Yozi’s world-bodies like literal cysts. The only commonality among them is the fact that each one bulges when full, and they are all single use, withering away like an afterbirth. New ones grow most closely to places which are most holy or protected for each Yozi. Your favored Yozi are determined by your Caste, your Urge, your Coadjutor, and where your Womb was kept, that means that the ‘favored’ discount applies to those specific Yozi’s charm sets, with at least 2 (and at most 4) giving you discounts.
    • Coadjutors must either match the Yozi of the Caste or the Urge the infernal exalt will receive.
    • Those who have unlocked the Heretical Triumphant Cry of the Devil-Tiger are freed from this restriction, and their modified Caste and Urge may be triggered with any host. Their own charmset is discounted, as are any that were previously discounted. This changes your caste permanently, and modifies your Exaltation permanently, as a Heretical feature of the metamorphosis. Doing this frees the old Exaltation you were attached to previously, and forges a new Primordial Exaltation as a Heretical effect. Thus, becoming like the Creators does not detract from their Exaltations. This is proof of your might, no longer drawing power from the Yozi directly, or the Unconquered Sun indirectly, but your own Primordial hierarchy of souls, even as incomplete as a newly made one might be compared to the originals. You and any future bearers of your Exaltation no longer die from old age, and you are effectively immortal unless killed. Your continued ability to learn and use Infernal charms is part of your new Exaltation, and you are of course using your own charms in addition to those that you could otherwise take. 
    • Each of the Canon Yozi receives host priority for each of the Infernal Exaltations that they favor in canon. This means that other Yozi are forbidden from filling their ranks with one of these favored original solar castes so long as the favored Yozi has fewer than a minimum of 10 of their own Infernal Caste active and made from that solar caste stock.
    • All of the other Yozi (including Kimbery) are permitted to grab their own Infernal Exalts with the other 150 exaltations. Each of these Yozi must cooperate with the efforts of the Reclamation for it to apply. 
    • The Canon Reclamation’s Yozi may also grab extra ranks from the pool, but have the same issues with compatibility as all Yozi, and so do not grow any faster than the others. Thus, the priority system just holds everyone else up, if they were going to use Infernal Exaltations of that particular original solar caste.
    • While there is no quota system to prevent hoarding, other than basic Yozi politics, it is the case that the Yozi are so inhuman that finding mortals to select which will not reject their might nor burn out immediately is actually much harder than making Akuma.
    • All canon Yozi participate in the Reclamation in their own way. Sacheverell for example does so while asleep, and being picked over by his lesser souls like bed bugs or lice. 
    • While it won’t come up, this method could be applied with the Deva of Primordials, or with the broken soul-parts of the Neverborn. The resulting Exalts would have more in common with Infernals than Solars or Abyssals. Autochthon cannot do this because he has no Deva anymore. Gaia or Infernal Exalts who use Heretical charms to get their own fetich/souls/deva/demons could too, thereby permitting more than one possible member of their Caste showing up.
    • All references to Lillun should be replaced with less squicky references to Phylactery-wombs. 
    • Per the Neverborn ruling above, the Charms of Theion and Mardukth (The Neverborn, He Who Holds In Thrall) and Ta’akazoka (The Neverborn, Perfected Principle of Consumption) all still exist. The only things that don’t are those Charms of She Who Lives In Her Name that were associated with The Three Spheres’ Cataclysm. She unmade herself and the world rather than let its perfection be tarnished by Solars. Assuming that similar acts may or may not be associated with the fact that Time Travel no longer works in Creation, lends evidence that similar things may have happened in the past. 
    • In order to learn charms from Neverborn, an Infernal requires at least one dot of the Whispers background. With 4+ dots of it, it's possible to have a Caste associated with one of the Neverborn’s past, as well selecting them as “Patrons”; this is done in the original name (e.g. Mardukth, Who Holds In Thrall, not He-Who-Holds-In-Thrall), not the Neverborn one, calling upon powers that were carved into Creation and beyond by their inventors, regardless of their current inability to use them. Neverborn might be mad, but they are as much Primordials as the Yozi are, to the point that they retain vestigial soul hierarchies even in the Underworld. Doing this does not actually cause you to be an Abyssal, and you still use living essence; Infernals do not gain access to Abyssal charms in this way, nor can Abyssal Exalts learn these charms. Whispers for Green Sun Princes also pick up the lamentations of Theion, He-Who-Bleeds-The-Unknown-Word, and all of the other mutilated Primordials, and does not function normally; depending on your caste and patrons, the whispers cry out for vengeance and justice, not Oblivion. Should you ever use Ultimate Darkness Internalization, Whispers reverts to normal for the duration. For Green Sun Princes, they may develop their Whispers rating anywhere in Malfeas, or places in Creation and beyond which resonate with the themes of any of their patrons/coadjutor/caste, not just the Underworld.
    • In order to learn charms from Theion, He-Who-Bleeds-The-Unknown-Word or any of the other Primordials that were mutilated into Yozi, you need to have some kind of Tutor or Mentor, who remembers what used to be. This can either be an Unspeakable who remembers what was, like Liger. Or, it could be those things you personally witnessed, via backgrounds like Past Lives or Savant. Other backgrounds could work, so long as there is a clear way to find out about the past from a first-hand witness. The modified Whispers background above is also an option. It does not matter if the current Yozi either cannot or will not currently use those powers; Malfeas seeks vengeance for what was lost, regardless of whether or not he still has the heart to use Ultimate Sovereign Fundament or not. 
    • All that is required to form a connection (that is either learn those charms without a teacher, or to get them as a favored Yozi or something similar) with one of the now-dead Primordials is to fulfill any of the following requirements (fulfilling these requirements for a living Primordial will work too, but they are likely to reject any connections with Green Sun Princes, unless directly associated with the Reclamation somehow):
      • Have a Coadjutor associated with that Primordial.
      • Have an Urge associated with that Primordial.
      • Have your Phylactery-Womb form in or near a sacred site (e.g. a temple) dedicated to that Primordial.
      • Be a follower of that Primordial, and leave a sacrifice in their name in or near a sacred site dedicated to them. This may be done during your formative period after leaving your Chrysalis Grotesque, but before you raise your Essence rating for the first time, post-gestation.
      • Receive permission from the Primordial in person, either from one of its component souls, or from one of its jouten. This may be done at any time, and can be used to voluntarily shift Castes, Urges, and favored status to the new Primordial.
      • Have witnessed or interacted with the Primordial in question, sufficiently that you have an understanding of all of its Excellency as well as most of its Charms. This must have happened prior to your gestation.
      • Possess a Caste associated with the Primordial.
      • Have done any of these in a past life, for example during the Primordial War. The only restriction on this part is that if you were one of the Solars who killed a particular Primordial, you are forever forbidden from having any connection to it, except as a mere Akuma, lacking free will.
  13. Witness to Darkness: Replace paragraph beginning with "Finally...", with "Finally, the Infernal is unimpressed with the murk of others' guile, and adds her Essence rating to her MDVs against inherently deceptive social attacks and as bonus successes to recognize or pierce another's deceptions. Her attunement to lies makes it harder to be honest, however, imposing a -Essence internal penalty to all attempts to be honest and straightforward, save when truth brings more pain than lies." In addition, as with Hateful Wretched Noise, the penalty imposed by bright light and the self-penalty to social behavior can be ignored for a scene with the expenditure of 1 Willpower. 
  14. Similar Charms: other permanent charms that inflict a self-compulsion or similar things can be suppressed using willpower like Witness to Darkness or Hateful Wretched Noise.
  15. Remember that the Flora of Malfeas are as much metal as they are organic, so the aesthetics of the works of Metagaos and Kimbery should be as much Phyrexia and Giger as Lovecraft and Swampthing. That means that purely metal things are fine so long as they have some kind of impossibly organic aspects, just like meat and flesh and wood and metal are all able to intermesh within Metagaos and Kimbery. 
  16. Excellency Notes:
    • Metagaos [Revlid, modified MTG]: Metagaos is a voracious hunter who lurks in plain sight within the jungle of his body, stalking his prey until they are ready to be devoured. He is cunning in his predation, easily tempting his quarry into the deceptive labyrinth of his bayous and glades, ensnaring them in traps from which there can be no escape. The ravening nature of the All-Hunger Blossom is concealed beneath false familiarity and fertile decadence until it is too late, allowing him to entice fresh fools into his waiting maw. These bloody sacrifices cannot quell his self-indulgent demands, for he is never satisfied. The Trackless Quag consumes everything within his insidious influence, and is himself consumed by countless diseases and parasites which infect and degrade body and mind alike, assimilating victims as surely as if Metagaos had eaten them whole. This Excellency aids actions that provide the Infernal with something he wants at someone else’s expense, helping him to seize or seduce appropriate offerings from others, be they wealth, information, or flesh. Attempts to acquire or improve sustenance always qualify. Such ruthless acquisitions are broken down and merged with their new owner, cannibalized for their juiciest parts. This Charm cannot benefit any act that emphasizes prudent planning over immediate indulgence, as Metagaos cannot abstain from what he desires, even for later gain; the exceptions are other actions which this charm would benefit, or anything which helps him either be lazy, or get food. The Excellency explicitly can be used to enhance martial arts, grappling, choking, biting actions, or attacks made with weapons enhanced by his own charms, for all of those allow him to taste his prey.
    •  Metagaos [HBC, NEVERWAR RPNATION MIRROR]: Metagaos is a devouring predator and a cunning hunter, and in his eyes all are prey. When he feeds himself, nothing is safe from his rapacious appetites. When others feed him, he receives blood offerings, he rewards initiative with growth. When desperate, the All-Hunger Blossom will devour himself, using self-cannibalism to transform, striving always to be more deadly than before. Metagaos is a host of deadly traps and plants, and can always inflict disease in a pinch. In the swamps of Metagaos, there can only be growth through feeding. This Charm can enhance any action that either creates life or consumes, as the cycle of self-predation is a defining aspect of Metagaos. Actions involving sacrifice, typically a blood offering may also be enhanced by this Charm. Hunting and stalking resonate well with the themes of the All-Hunger Blossom's predatory themes, as do improving one's self. Finally, the All-Hunger Blossom's nature as a dominant creature may extend to social situations when asserting personal authority, although the authority from a title holds little power unless it was a title earned through establishing dominance.
    • Metagaos Uses any action which benefits from either the Revlid (modified) 1st Ex or the HBC version. As well, he has the following, “The All Hunger Blossom does not Plan endlessly like Szoreny, but sustained growth requires planning. Nor Analyze every variable, like She Who Lives In Her Name, but he does calculate, usually in order to forecast opportunities, losses, and risks.  Nor does he arbitrarily scheme like The Ebon Dragon, but he could not conceal his traps without guile and enough understanding of others to create without drawing attention. However he does grow and change, and when he can trade a small amount of forethought to avoid labor, he happily takes that deal. As a result, his works are as much art as design, dynamic and iterative, building upon themselves, his designs evolve (to the utter disgust of SWL). The only unifying theme is that it must be worth his time and effort. He takes great satisfaction in reshaping the world to demonstrate his personal mastery of his skills as well as his ownership over things. His works may be artistic, but something is beautiful when it demonstrates his insightful use of what is his. Sometimes this takes the form of hands-on work, sometimes it's about managing and guiding his designs or properties, sometimes it's about squeezing blood from stones so he gets the most out of what is his. Showing off like this isn’t necessary for him to do these things, getting things done while rubbing it in the noses of his competition is generally worth the effort. He  would apply himself to any kind of trade or gambling, so long as its net expected result is you walking away with something you want most of the time, but he has a special place in his heart for rigged bets and predatory deals; besides the works described above, he can do long term plans, but they need to either be edible, or let him be lazy, or include some kind of trap/rigged quality. After all competition breeds perfection, does it not?  In a related but orthogonal sense, taking what you  are owed, or reclaiming what has been taken from you always qualifies. Metagaos often claims vast swaths of The Demons City under justifications and questionable legitimacy, swallowing up whole fiefdoms through eminent domain.”
    • Kimbery Uses any action which benefits either the canon 1st Ex from Broken Winged Crane, or these. Kimbery’s ex’s benefit her whenever she would plot and scheme, obviously, since it’s implied by her trying to do things secretly or otherwise long-term. This means that any action which includes plotting, planning, or other long-term thinking can benefit from her excellency. As well, her artistic and business endeavors show that she is more than capable of designs and crafting, regardless of the specific medium her bizarre creations might be wrought in. Thus, any time could express herself symbolically or semiotically through her alien or unexpected creativity, it qualifies for this charm, regardless of whether she is subtle or horrifyingly overt in her “creativity”. Kimbery would apply to smugglers and backroom politics as much as real trade, especially those involving fleet logistics or naval action; she almost exclusively plans in the long term, if only to prolong the suffering of everyone she deals with.
  17. Trust Is Naïve: (use the fan version) The Infernal takes refuge in the depths of her loving faith, refusing to believe anything bad about a beloved character. She can still become convinced that such a character has been duped or forced into poor decisions by the wickedness of others, but will never assign blame to them. Just as Kimbery's waters welcome all, she may reduce the number of scenes necessary to build a positive Intimacy toward any character she has never reviled by any amount, to a minimum of one.
  18. While He has access to the Ascendency Mantle Charms, he does not use them, so his listed Ess 7 is his actual Essence level. If and when he ever really needs them, he needs to buy up Ess 8-10 during gameplay.
  19. Those infected by your Self-Seed may be counted as your own body parts for the purposes of your area-of-effect charms that cause damage or similar things under your control. 
  20. Predatory Dominance: [Errata] This already allows Emotion with any attack; With a repurchase it is permitted to be used with the Social keyword too, causing its effects with any successful social attack action. You may choose to treat these intimacies specially, and you may allow them to coexist with other intimacies caused by your charms. You may choose any reasonable intimacy based on the nature of your interaction, so long as there is some part of it that prevents opposition. With a Ess 4+ repurchase of this charm, the cost to resist the charm or erode that intimacy increases to 2w and -1 Hunger Level, as their body’s own prey-like panicked reaction exhausts their vital stores physically as well as mentally. Per the import errata far above, the Intimacies created by this effect either discourage opposition, or encourage interaction with you at your discretion, either or both are possible, as Metagaos values migratory herds as much as any hunter. As well, with this repurchase, you may select other intimacies caused by your own charm or effects, and choose which ones may coexist when they would otherwise permit only one.
  21. Words Like Vipers: If you know Predatory Dominance and you are at Ess 3+, then it can be activated whenever that charm would be applied, with the poison    applying one scene worth of reinforcing that intimacy for each point of  damage that the poison winds up inflicting that was not resited fully. At Ess 3+, if you know Insidious Ideas Mantra or Pandemic Notion Parasite, it can be  applied to the initial use of those charms to taint the  target with either of those, then whenever they would trigger again, if the target resists the influence in any way or acts against any intimacy so instilled, they trigger Words Like Vipers poison again. This also now applies to any attempt to resist the intimacy from Predatory Dominance, so long as you activated this charm when you applied that one. If the intimacy is ever removed, then this effect goes with it (thus those who can tough out the poison long enough to remove the intimacy are best able to resist this charm). 
  22. Prey Are As Nothing: Costs 8m. You may repurchase at Ess 3+ that applies its perfect defense against any influence which would prevent you from fulfilling your desires or which discourage you from hunting prey or eating food; having an intimacy to support these such as hunger towards something or desire for that thing is helpful but not necessary if any other charms permit you to supernaturally influence yourself towards those ends. At Ess 4+, this charm may be activated when one or more of the following conditions is true during any combat besides Social (this does not have the same restriction on how recently anyone has been attacked): a target has triggered the base defense of this charm; you are in the presence of things which would count as the targets of your desires or something which you hunger for or which is your prey; your prey is under unnatural influence of some sort from you; they are addicted to something; they are your employee or a grey walker or a creature of darkness or they are affiliated with worshipping you or the Yozi. Then those who can see, hear, or otherwise sense you, with a MDV less than your successes on a Int + Ess + Occult roll find themselves under (until end of scene) an Emotion effect which compels them to indulge in whatever your own tastes are, regardless of their own tastes, to the point that they feel compelled to seek out those things even mid-combat. This costs 3m for normal combat and 8m for any other non-Social combat.
  23. Horror-Birthing Feracity: Errata, this can be used to create a doppelganger from a Grey Seed. This doppelganger acts and looks exactly like the victim, save that they have no special personal knowledge of what the victim knows beyond what the user can guess at. However, if you used Memory Without Time, Picking Yesterday's Gums, or similar charms that permit you to grant a copy of that info to the doppleganger, so that it is much more convincing, even if it may not know everything, and its knowledge may be out of date. This doppelganger is a Creature of Darkness and is mechanically a Grey Walker, save that it follows any orders from you, regardless of whether other Grey Walkers could do so. Creating this doppelganger embeds the Grey Seed within them, using it up, but still preventing the victim from recovering until the doppelganger dies. These doppelgangers do not have any powers that your Grey Walkers would not have access to, but permanently benefit from Innocent Petal Assumption, save that it hides their lack of real powers instead of their potential violent actions or nature. Thus, the 'turn their eyes away' part makes people look away and not think about the lack of powers, for example. The reverse is also true, hiding any qualities or traits or powers of the Grey Walker-based doppelganger that the victim does not actually have.
  24. Second Seeding Propagation: Errata, Ess 7 removes the time limit on how recently something was born, and likewise removes the once-per lifetime limit. A second errata: if you know Seared Fruits of Union, these seeds can be implanted as if they were lab-wombs, in addition to any other methods of creation and gestation.

 

  1.   Note: this is how I am representing speaking in a foreign language [compared to the rest of the characters in the scene], assume it to be Old Realm unless I noted otherwise: <<This is me speaking in Old Realm! Be glad I didn’t have real a real Old Realm Logographic font. It looks like a cross between Egyptian Hieroglyphs and Mayan logographs, and is written in a order even more confusing than boustrophedon ordering.>> Similarly, “--” or “---” are used to mark logical transitions in the text, usually swaps of POV or scene changes. If posted in one-big-doc mode rather than being split up per chapter, then “===” is used to break chapters exclusively. I get personally annoyed when writers choose stylistically not to clearly demark scene breaks with appropriate whitespace or rules. It makes it so that any interruption in concentration makes it difficult to figure out the context of the line being read, and forces backtracking to figure out where you were. If it matters, I try to keep the contents within quote marks to be the literal (in the programmatic string literal sense) contents, and don’t move punctuation outside of it. I don’t care if that’s not what the US style guides suggest, I am a programmer and string literals are literals.
  2. Modern Setting Errata: 
    • Supernatural treatment includes basically anything which is derived from Capes or supernatural sources. Tinker-tech products work for this purpose, as do their commercial derivatives. The catch is that commercial products are either very hard to find, very expensive, or don’t work very well for the cost.
    • The “Powers” are 100% “Implanted Infernal Wonders” (which makes them give charms and Urges and maybe Ess Pools) made from the 1st circle offspring of the 2nd circle Demons that manifest as Scion/Zion, which are beneath the 3rd Circle Demon which is “The Spawning Pit”. Scion/Zion is Ess 8. All of these are parts of the Soul Hierarchy of Metagaos. All of them give some kind of ‘basic Cape buff’ in addition to their normal functions, and the Charm pool is strange, and seemingly customized based on initiation conditions. The worm fragments exist on the other side of the not-gauntlet, and only manifest immaterially here to implant the pea-sized graft to the human’s brains in a single 1 second long action, before returning.
    • As there is no sense in having more skills unnecessarily, the following skills are still used in modern settings, if you have never been exposed to either the new scientific forms or the old magical/low-tech forms, then you need at least some hands on experience to avoid getting circumstance penalties for unfamiliarity, and treat everything as improvised:
      • Archery: this covers firearms and anything that shoots projectiles or beams.
      • Thrown: this covers grenades, flashbangs, and anything chucked.
      • Ride: this covers all vehicles that are not ships of any kind.
      • Sail: this covers all ships, including anything that flies. Also submarines and space ships.
      • Computers/Tech: These don’t actually have their own skill (unlike VtM) and use whatever skill you’d normally be using with them, like Presence, Craft, Socialize, Linguistics, etc.
  3. Demonic Primacy of Essence (and upgrades: Lowly Pebbles in Their Place and World Author Eminence): If you have the ‘gods’ upgrade for DPoE, then it applies the MDV to any and everything listed in the normal list, as well as LPiTP’s list. When anything would not be effected like a god (like Exalts or LPiTP’s list), then you can activate WAE to upgrade them for that instant to be treated like a god. For the purposes of Sublimation of Ordained Purpose, most humans are designed as menial servants and worshipers. Other mortal races may have alternative purposes. 
  4. Holy Land Infliction: This charm has the dumbest size (10 sq yards is on average less than half of one US parking space) and the slowest growth (none) of all Infernal geomantic charms, despite being an infinite desert and the whole point of deserts is that they naturally grow despite anyones attempts to stop it (look up desertification). This makes no sense and is just dumb. Replace the base area to being a circle (you can of course concentrate on making it a different shape than a circle, but the total area is what matters here) of radius 10*Essence*Cult meters wide, and all further increases are based on adding to that radius by the listed amounts; all upgrades use this base size and multiply the radius increases by whatever they would normally apply to the usual base 10 sq yards. It also has the natural base growth rate increased add to the radius per day of +10*Cult meters per day, with all upgrades also applying their effective bonuses to these growth rates, if they are daily ongoing acts (usually either Prayer or toil), rather than one-off sacrifices. Since the only one that increases the size instead of what counts as one or when it counts as prayers/sacrifices/etc is Lawful Word Benefaction, that means the HLI+LEB is radius (10*Essence*Cult*Essence) meters wide, and daily growth is a base of +10*Cult*Essence meters per day, and all sacrifices are multiplied by your Essence rating before being applied. Here is the list of all the related upgrade charms:
    • [INF] Withered Soul Wastes / Footprints Like Heralds Focus 
    • [INF] Endless Torment Emanation / Sand-Scouring Society Infliction 
    • [100] Lawful Word Benefaction: “When the Infernal uses Holy Land Infliction, he may expand the space it covers to as much as (Essence x 10) square yards. Desolations created with the Charm can also grow in new ways, drawing strength from oppression. This functions like expansion due to prayer, but is based only on the presence and activity of a spiritually desolate society or group as per Withered Soul Wastes or Sand-Scoured Society Infliction.” This cham is permanent and Obvious when applied (as in you can choose to apply it, and when you do it’s Obvious and unless you are very weak, it probably tips the size limits to make it and automatic Blasphemy).
    • [100] Bleak Spirit Internalization: “The Infernal’s Withered Soul Wastes lowers its mote cost to five and extends its duration to five days. Another purchase of this Charm at Essence 6+ removes the Willpower cost and extends its duration indefinitely.”
    • [ECG] Bleak Cosmos Demiurge: “upgrades Endless Torment Emanation. It may now erode or build Intimacies even if doing so would oppose a character’s Motivation. Exalted and other beings with a Limit track may accept a single point of Limit to ignore this for one scene (Abyssals gain Resonance instead). If the Infernal also knows Sand-Scoured Society Infliction, the benefits of this Charm are extended to it as well. A second purchase of this Charm At Essence 6+ allows the Infernal to strip others of all purpose. Whenever a character within the aura of spiritual desolation created by Endless Torment Emanation or Sand-Scoured Society Infliction loses all points of temporary Willpower, their Motivation is broken. They become listless and depressed, and can be given commands that violate their Motivation. The Exalted and other beings with a Limit track are immune to being broken by this effect, but they gain two points of Limit if they lose all points of Willpower, and gain an additional point for each scene they spend within the aura without regaining Willpower. As before, Abyssals gain Resonance in place of Limit.” 
    • [ECG] Broken Messiah Benediction : “upgrades Endless Torment Emanation. The Infernal may activate it to target a character, requiring that they touch them to bestow Cecelyne's favor upon them. The spiritual aura created by Endless Torment Emanation is centered on the target, although the Infernal may choose whether or not he is affected by it, carving out a spiritual niche at the center of the blight if she wishes to bestow a blessing, rather than a curse. At Essence 5, the Infernal may re-activate this Charm to maintain her curse on a character whenever its duration ends naturally (but not when dispelled). Her target must be within the same realm of existence as her, and she must succeed on a (Charisma + Occult) roll at a difficulty of the target's Essence in order to maintain it. This counts as an entirely new effect, allowing the target another chance to using relevant defenses against it.”
  5. If you have multiple charms that would cause Unnatural Mental Influence, the way that they stack is that each added UMI-causing effect (probably a charm) beyond the first raises the Willpower cost to resist by 1 to a max of your Essence. A target may bypass this extra cost by stunting if they can Channel their highest Virtue when resisting it mentally (this would reduce the cost from max Ess to 1w for the first UMI, and then 1W 1Virtue Channel for all of the rest). This cost adjustment applies both to the cost in willpower to reject the influence temporarily (e.g. for an action) as well as permanently (e.g. you must normally spend 5 willpower to permanently get rid of the base effect).
  6. Towers Rise Again: These limbs may be integrated within a day, just like stolen limbs from You Are What You Eat. 
  7. Urban Hell Renovation: Calloused City Growth or Impossible Freedoms Imagined are enough to substitute for the prerequisite 1st Malfean Excellency. 
  8. Swarm Damage interacts mechanically as per a weapon being wielded by the controller, and does not mechanically track individual members of the swarm doing attacks.
  9. Instruction From Mother: Style’s in this case should read “Martial Arts Styles” and the ‘three dots’ should read “...either 3 MA charms from a single style, or a Form charm…”, and the limit on teaching is that you cannot teach what you do not know.
  10. Just in case it is unclear: when Metagaos charms say “you count as touching and tasting” your self-seed infectees, and that you can “deliver bite attacks” through them. That also allows you to deliver touch effects, either with a bite or not. The mechanics are otherwise identical.
  11. When treating Old Age as a Crippling Effect to treat, you may choose what age they look like afterwards.
  12. Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion [Malfeas; HBC]: this submission causes them to be Inactive unless explicitly directed otherwise by the infernal. Riding a horse is an example. Attempts to perform social attacks against them is possible by the infernal, but without a common tongue, what he can convey is limited.
  13. Know Your Place [Malfeas; 10K] Add in the following text. “At Essence 5+, this charm’s duration becomes indefinite. If you know World Ruling Intensity, then this duration becomes Permanent and it is automatically on, and is automatically applied to all actions which are either social or which allow you to address or otherwise be perceived by others (this includes actions outside of Social debate which demonstrate your might, in contravention of the normal Social rules [this is a permanent downside, of course]). If you also know Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion, in any scene where your spendor would be overwhelming to your lessers, you may take a miscellaneous action (this is a reversible toggle) to redirect that energy towards your Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion, causing that both that effect as well as Know Your Place to be applied automatically, to all valid Lord-Over-Beasts targets within (Ess) times the normal radius; this may be reverted at any time. While this redirection happens, Know Your Place uses normal (non-Permanent) costs and durations. Regardless of this redirection, the following permanent effect is added to this charm: characters who already have Intimacies of Terrified Awe towards you count each interaction with you, including just being able to see or hear you as once full scene spent reinforcing these Intimacies. You may choose to permit the coexistence of intimacies of Terrified Awe alongside those caused by your other charms, if they would normally replace one another.”
  14. Invincible Colossus Stature: this does not grant mutations. It is a permanent change to your base size. Remember that the reach of your charms and effects also increase based on your change of scale, so being 3x your normal (or rather 3x the size of a reference human) size makes the radius of your AoE power 3x longer (for example). 
  15. “Dreamstone is Resources 3 for a small one or Resources 4 for a big one. These are rare green opals primarily from the pit mines near Gem. If held while sleeping, they store and preserve your dreams. Small stones are about the size of an acorn and will catch the first dream of each night. Large gems are about the size of an apricot and can capture all dreams in a night. Anyone can then take the stone and touch it to their forehead to experience the stored dreams the next time they sleep, or may hold it for a time in a peaceful place to see the dreams as visions. The stone will hold the dreams until purged via a special meditative technique.” They are also called dream opal in Ex Core p55.
  16. Infernal Magical Materials Exist as a consequence of Vitriol / Theion To being included in the realm. These materials are just as fundamental as any other of the big five magical materials, save that Theion To was excluded from Creation in the Time of Glory, otherwise these infernal magical materials would be part of Creation’s Canon five; Adamant was similarly associated with Autochthon. Hepatizon is just as indestructible as Orichalchum. 
  17. Goat Build: “look at the extra space from Esoteric Inundation Investment in my errata, and apply it to a simple horse-drawn carriage that probably looks like a Sheep Carriage or a Shepherds Wagon. Instead of the stupid Manse thing. YES DO THIS, just replace the horse with a mutated goat. We treat the goat+the living yew carriage as one project. Goat-drawn carts are a historical real world fact, and this is just making the goat a little bit larger with Genesis/charms. Add self-seed (no specific  trigger, besides betrayal; not transmissible), with the following mutations (REV): Large(2; goat ram -> horse -> big-ass clydesdale; mechanically, we swap the base template creature to a Simhata (Ex p349) since size changes are weird, and add on the fluff that the Gore attack uses the same stats as a Bite), Alternate Form(2; Natural Swimmer, Substance Breather, Air-Downer), Involuntary Transformation(0; Alternate Form when immersed in water or other liquids), Natural Swimmer (4), Substance Breather(2; water), Air-Drowner(-6), Fast(6), Wall-Crawler(5), Creature of Darkness(-4), Cosmetic Mutation(0; shaggy coat hides most physical mutations unless closely examined),  Natural Armor(1; shaggy coat), Natural Tool (1; cart control), Jumper(base 2[+3=5]); this creature is specifically designed to that it’s form and it’s attachment to the cart work together, and it can move freely in all movement modes, taking the cart with it. The cart is part of this design, with slightly different presentation of the traits, obviously than the goat, but they are a pair, and this thing essentially become a yew-tree clad in exterior plates of my own teeth, to protect it against almost anything normal. As it’s a tree, it works fine in any environment, as well as having what looks like a decorative tree on top. That’s just the remnants of the original form. So he will still do the normal beach base thing, but once he is there, he will make this shrine. Instead of doing anything with a bus, he instead swims across the river to find feral goats on the island, and grabs one. The creation of all these things is now the focus, it should be more interesting than buses, and much more focused. Total time 48 hours of terrible rain but nothing else. His aim is to measure his effectiveness without giving anything away about his powers, as much as it is to keep people from seeing his works before they are ready. Back of the envelope calculation, the interior of the original cart (based on the size of early historical public transit buses) is 123 m^3, so the adjusted interior is 42k+ m^3, which is a small warehouse size. The signs are designed to be folded and flipped around, rather impossibly simple in their design, but actually let him hide or show different things without revealing that there are more options. ‘Hungry Joe’s House of Traditional Medicine and Arts’, with his signboard listing ‘gold, barter, or trade only ’, ‘sacrificial food/drink required’, and his services being ‘Traditional Medicine’ on one half, and ‘Traditional Arts’ on the other. Medical services are relatively cheap on his chart, as are mundane tattoos and piercings. All of their prices are based on basically giving him two food objects instead of one, or beer and food for example. Under the Traditional Medicine he also sells drugs and medicines for slightly more than that rate. Personal Enhancements are available, as is beautification and de-aging treatment, as well as longevity and mundane immortality treatments. Traditional Arts section has a number of weird things he can provide for fees, mostly anything from the old world he could grow in his lab; he can provide Sorcery casting as well as Artifact creation but that one is very expensive, aside from Demon-Ink Tattoos  or Demon Grafts. Many of these special treatments as well as custom stuff all take at least a day or two to do. This is a new version of one of his older designs, and he needs to gestate it in his stomach while he is working on the rest; he designed the Cart and the Tattoo and the goat to all be built within his  allotted time frame; there is ‘Esoteric Consultation’ under the Arts category, which includes all of his Cecelyne based wish granting its listed as ‘variable’ cost.”
  18. Artifact Tattoo Build: “New Franchise Artifact Tattoo:
    • Name: Brand of the Unfolding Mercantile Corporation
    • Rank: 1 (base effect barely rank 1 then +1 for the company shares it part, and then -2 from that Heretic charm he knows; min Rank 1; Essence commitment = 1m-2m -> 0m)
    • Made from JFLM's own tongue flesh and sea water (not a demon ink tattoo, but a regular tattoo artifact)
    • Effects:
      • base tattoo appearance: A spiraling kudzu vine bearing flowers around a large central one; this is an artwork blessed by Kimbery's aesthetics, and is clearly unnerving to gaze upon closely for it is impossibly detailed.
      • employee tattoo appearance: Determined by their specific employment contract
      • base mark appearance: Stencil of the Fools' mask that JFLM wears
      • base employee mark appearance: Determined by their specific employment contract
      • base mask appearance: Fools mask per the image I saved; he looks like an aboriginee with green eyes and a blonde afro.
      • base employee mask appearance: Determined by the specific employment contract
      • base: the tattoo can be on or off, when toggled on, it creates a specific disguise in the form of a specific mask and a specific 'disguise' that the mask applies to the rest of the body. The mask appears to be wood with various decorations possible, but is only compressed motes and not real material. It is not actually an illusion, as it is a self-shaping effect that leaves afterwards. The mask and the tattoo both count as your tongues, for sensory and charm purposes. If you 'take off the mask' (it reveals your specific disguise's face), you may lay it upon some object or location or person or contract to mark them with a specific mark, based on the nature of the 'franchise or employment contract' you have for the organization that you either run, are the head of, or are a duly appointed representative of in keeping with your employment contracts. Items and places marked in this way count as your tongues just like the mask does. Employment Contracts marked in this way may include granting them a 'employee' copy of the tattoo. That tattoo behaves exactly like your own, aside from the fact that it's purely a sorcerous marking upon them, which immediately ends if they are no longer your employee.
      •  "Hungry Joe's Mercantile Corporation" employment contract bullet points:
        1. Standard subordinates masks are the same as the boss's mask, save that they have their employee rank on the forehead.
        2.  Standard subordinates disguises are generic mixed-race looking people, who are vaguely tan with brown hair and brown eyes.
        3.  Standard subordinates tattoos are single kudzu flowers clearly arranged in a kimbery-aesthics way. Don't look at it too closely, for it is impossibly detailed. These are clearly inspired by the real tattoo design.
        4.  Standard corporate ranks:
          1. 1: Temporary Labor; unable to offer employment contracts, unable to use branding marks. Mask rank mark is a big 'X' mark
          2. 2: Contractor; unable to offer employment contracts, unable to use branding; can order around Temporary Labor. Mask rank is a big 'O' mark.
          3. 3: Base Employee; able to offer only Temporary employment contract, able to use branding; can order around Temporary Labor. Mask rank is a single '-' mark. 
          4. 4: Supervisor; able to offer Temporary or Contractor employment contracts; able to use branding; can order around Temporary Labor and Contractors. Mask rank is a single '=' mark. Tattoos are individualized slightly.
          5. 5: Manager; able to offer any employment contracts below Manager; able to use branding; can order around anyone of Supervisor or lower rank. Mask rank is single '#' mark.  Tattoos are individualized slightly.”
  19. Archived notes: 
    • I am having troubles writing Hegra
    • I have minimized Hegra in my current writing, but it will show up eventually
    • Hegra is either edge-lord pain fetishist or it-was-all-a-dream episodes that I hate
    • What I want to consider is Hegra->Cecelyne
    • Keep basically everything else the same, including the important Lintha + Sheridan caste plus devouring urge from Metagaos
    • Verdant Desolation Understanding makes Meta work with ‘place of physical or spiritual desolation’ because literally nothing natural can live there without becoming unnatural, it means that the sea stuff jives fine so long as you mix all three together; counting infected as demons is crazy good, as is the elimination of the Metagaos inconsistencies with desolated areas. 
    • Cece goes really good with his long term job as a Dictator, and lets him make ‘deals with the devil’ where you can make seemingly good deals that have a death sentence if violated. Generally its to do some non-specific deal once in the future; the similarities to the Godfather is good for a Lintha dictator/merchant/doctor
    • Grixis (Esper does not fit the ‘arbitrary and capricious hypocrisy of placing the weak beneath the strong not because it is right, but because you are strong enough to force it’)
    • OK sheet updated, charms updated, basic text updated via search/replace Hegra, and looking for addict and hallucination; it’s obvious how I tried to remove Hegra. Cecelyne has like 2 or 3 weather charms, but they are all basically sandstorm shintais or permanent sandstorms that don’t really interact with the other weather charms being a single kind of weather instead of weather changing charms.
    • STill need to slightly tweak the scenes to see if there is anywhere that need changing, but save that for this weekend, 
    • Did initial pass to tag FIXME for a few places that needed tweaking to Cece it up
    • Still need to do final front to back review to sanity check it, and note anywhere that needs tweaking or is a good place to fill in extra stuff
    • OK the great thing about that Verdant Desolation Understanding charm is that the exact words are ‘as well as the hosts of the Self-Seed to be counted as 'demons' for the purposes of desolation charms, including treating them as actual demons if your Essence is higher than theirs.’
    • I assume this follows the idiom that anything that is just a generic demon means that they qualify as the average demon in hell, the 1st Circle Demons, since your Essence is already higher
    • Mention that your locusts double as seed carriers for  Luscious Jungle Germination in chapter 9
    • Remember, we are more like the Godfather ‘look dont ask how the sausage gets made just remember that you got a debt now’ than a proper cult leader or god; we are the object of worship due to our Self-Seed mind control angle more (just like before), just now we have the option to ‘generously’ answer requests with actual things instead of just rain or drugs or dreams
    • Our most common response to prayers is handing out self-seed infested locust to eat, since that costs nothing compared to normal wishes
    • CC cult title: “He-Who-Waits Demiurgos of The Order of the Locust”
    • HG cult title: “Screaming-Gap Demiurgos of The Cult of the Dreaming Butterfly”
    • OK: it turns out that An-Teng all the way to Lap is the legit border between the West and the South, including plenty of info from pages Ex54-55 about the weather and nature of An-Teng being essentially a mixture of hot arid lowlands, temperate forested highlands, up to cold inhospitable mineral rich mountains. The Fire Mountains mountain range is the middle of the area between An-Teng and Lap, and everything south of Lap is obviously Cece-favoring.
    • This tells me that, since he did not actually conquer the Southern reaches instead of where his really did in the border of teh south and west, that he cannot thrive there, so canonically he cannot have been Cece-favoring! Finally a counter example!
    • note: having canonically stopped at Lap due to the fact that his men couldn't keep going, it would make more sense if his strategy hinged on being able to hide in either the woods, seas, or the southern wastes just south of his eventual borders. Especially when your cult is a mixture of self-seed bearers and normal worshipers cult
    • Now, long story short, CC gives wish granting and commanding demons/self-seed carriers easier however, they already had those negatives from MTG in the first place, and HG has the unique angle he literally can drive people mad with his attentions
    • (because I am well aware of things being hard to think through all at once, I am keeping both sets of programs installed until I sleep on it with the Cece style cult vs the HG style cult; he almost has contempt for his worshipers in HG vs Cece being more like a mixture of a wish-granting monkey's paw and Mafia Godfather )
    • CC style cult doesn’t make sense for him; his moral compass says greed is good and does business, while the worship angle is vaguely the wrong flavor; HG’s cult are those addicts and madmen who he vaguely has contempt for since they ask for things for free. This is the thing that should rule out CC, not the others!
    • Great! It’s done! CC doesn’t fit with Greed Is Good, and regardless of how it might seem like Godfather, it’s just not. [CONSIDER THIS]:
      • Sultai CC: primordial order is oldest order, rule by the mighty over the weak
      • You are being offered a deal you cannot possibly afford with terms you cannot understand; it is not a gift, it is a binding non-refundable legal pact. The process for filing the paperwork is indeed arcane, but no less so than that used in the British commonwealths.
      • Thus, the Greed Is Good angle still works, it's not a gift so much as a legal deal that can technically be refused--an incredibly shady legal deal at that. Anyone smart would immediately flee to foreign lands seeking surgeons to remove any lingering self-seeds.
      • Canon CC BwC charm Inevitability of Law makes self-seed bearers skip directly to spending willpower to resist UMI no defense rolls allowed; seems pretty bullshit with the normal Self-Seed penalties.
      • Anyway I think CC is probably viable in theory this way, just not in a way that inspires me like Hegra does, I just need to keep the thin line with Hegra to avoid becoming Grim-derp and/or Darkness Fatigue. Ironically, CC has the same exact issue!
      • Inspiration Sources:
        1. The Eagles: Hotel California
        2. Big Iron: The Longest Johns
        3. That one locust song from YT
        4. Cult of The Lamb
        5. Dinkum
        6. Kenshi
        7. Huacachina
        8. The Outsider from Dishonored
        9. The Godfather
        10. Dune
        11. Trop Talk: Faustian Bargain
        12. TVTropes: Deal With The Devil 
        13. TVTropes: Magically Binding Contract
      • OK: I have thought it over with all of these considered. I still think HG is a better fit, just so long as I go subtle with her charms and don’t spam them
      • Yeah sleeping on it made me want CC; install Cult of the Lamb and Kenshi instead of the other options;
      • Alright: HG because madness and infamy specialist is his schtick not vaguely god-demon–lawyer.
      • OK 5-19-25 Update: I figured it out, and he can offer Magically Binding Contracts and Deals With The Devil, which sounds to my ear like Business deals conducted by Mafia Bigshots like the Don/Godfather; he can do all that in addition to calling upon a wide variety of ‘fuck you powers’ on the social end, as well as dozens of way to destroy the lands (into deserts and locusts usually) or call up a number of sandstrike blast upgrades that make persistent sandstorms that kill you pretty fast or you can turn into one thats at least a mile wide. This makes an actual angle for JFLM to be able to offer deals that people will foolishly accept, while HG offers nothing lasting, CC’s bargains are always fulfilled for the bargainer (immediately more or less too), while the thing that is paid is neither their souls (why would JFLM want souls?) nor is it impossible nor does it kill them. It is limited to at-most a month of service that cannot be refused per bargain. As well, smart bargainers can simply run away and hope that they can avoid the notice of JFLM so that they will never be found for the bargain to be invoked while those aware of their self-seed infection status will likewise need a competent surgeon to excise that from their flesh since both are required to get the most insane fuck-you powers to work on them.
      • List of things he can grant with Verdant Emptiness Endowment (range is at least a mile and may be online, perhaps inheriting it from the leadership in an org; lots of extra penalties for breaking too including damage/death losing benefits for failing a clause):
        1. Canon (including INF, BwC, INK, INKMOD; INK p56 Miracle Gift Mastery very important multiple dots per gift and only one debt as well as mortals getting Training while in XP debt)
          1. Traits
          2. Backgrounds (Most, Including other people’s stuff)
          3. Mutations
          4. Locusts
          5. Literally any Charm (besides Martial Arts Charms you don’t know)
          6. Martial Arts Charms (that you know)
          7. Degrees in Thaumaturgy (any that the target is ‘capable’ of qualifying for)
          8. Attributes
          9. Abilities
          10. Specialties
          11. Instant healing including Crippling effects
        2. ECG:
          1. True Love (technically shared Intimacies and mind control)
          2. Sorcery Spells I know (native ones get translated into normal non-native equivalents)
          3. Multiple ‘bound’ Demons (they perform some task and ignore the wishes of their charge unless directed otherwise)
          4. Immortality and Eternal Youth (technically adding +100+Ess*25 [+275 years to their current life span])
          5. Ordination into being a priest of yours
          6. Free/discounted VEE activations for priests or cult members
        3. HBC:
          1. The ability to cast VEE to Essence users (Desolate Monument Scheme is complicated)
          2. Wishing for someone else’s behalf (Altruism Mocking Desiccation is complicated)
          3. Rebirth into a Demon-self possessing your old corpse (Pneuma-Moulding Marvelous Muneration is very complicated)
      • Yeah, this is actually pretty easy to write compared to the ‘its always drugs’ angle from HG, while making all of those options available too via his Kim/Mtg Crafting charms and Kim/Mtg/Malf for the king being terrifying/predatory/eldritch-horror. I can also cause slower madness via Diseases and Mutations (all mental illnesses are one of either in the game and Kimbery can rain ‘Mutation: Derangement  (Fear of Clowns)’ for example. Mtg can also track people who try to run perfectly, provided he is anywhere near them to start with. CC can also offer to ‘scour the flesh from their bones’ or be ‘devoured alive by locusts’. Chimeric Delirium still lets general Illusions like oWoD Chim as well as infectious illusions with upgrades.  Fang Missile Method lets me turn any attack into a bite attack; Tainted Sandstrike Blast!
      • OK lets sleep on this one; so long as it’s not dumb, it’s probably a better long  term thing that won’t have him spamming ‘hyperaddiction’ constantly
      • ALSO: I briefly overestimated how uncommon reasonably competent Trumps  classification is (way more common including ones that are basically unlimited unlike his which has a hard cap on Willpower use per day)
      • Alright, I tried swapping to HG 3 times and sleeping on it again: no dice, Cece will be a challenge to write, but it should be less one-note than HG. CC keeps me just outside of the grim-derp because I can actually help people who keep their oaths, instead of only having one option.
      • NOTE: After filing that Azure-edged paperwork he begins to feel himself getting reconnected to the faith mechanisms of his infernal cult in Creation and Malfeas, greatly delayed it seems.
      • This calls to me despite changing more that HG I think one more pass to smooth things out should be enough
      • Remember that INF/Rage keyword charms are modified per Boar to be essentially only triggered by denying him what he is trying to consume, unless you go out of your way to actually damage him a lot and are a credible threat that isn’t so far beneath him that you are an ant biting at a boot (per CC’s charms). Then he needed to spend willpower to suppress it for the scene, unless he redirects it into consumption. Case in point, he would have been Rage-ing in the scene with Lung, if he wasn’t actually able to keep eating his prize. I can totally work with that!
      • Oasis order: use Metagaos to claim the local flora and fauna, then use Holy Land Infliction to desert the area around save for your magical shit, then use either the Kimbery Dark Waters charm to claim existing waters or Whispering Up From Below [HBC p191] to make a mile-wide lake out of underground connections to kimbery making it a mile deep lake too (Lake Baikal is deeper, slightly; you mush decide when invoking this charm whether the end result will be freshwater, seawater, hypersaline brines, or any combination of that and the many expressions of Kimbery’s waters that you can imagine including having an https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchialine_system  connection to either Kimbery or mundane seas, underground caves systems like karsts, etc; remember that Kimbery canonically connects to all hidden places in almost this exact way; there is the option to connect to the hidden hot parts of the mantle too, making geothermal hotspings, or the reverse making places irrationally (perhaps by pulling water around to mess with vapor pressures or mixing in deep cold toxic brines that are impossibly cold already) colder than they should be, usually with indigo rime around the shores ). Then depending on your desires, either make it a home or make it a trap, or make it a hidden smuggler's base, or whatever.
      • FROM HG Version: 
        1. Fixes applied: locust farm ref done; everything else is just good background context. Notes that he gets sick of only eating  locusts eventually, just like MTG eventually gets sick of eating his own limbs.
        2. Fixed: added 2 extra martial arts styles to bring it up from 7 to 9; with CC Style being canonically used against the Lintha in the Primordial war, and the last one Infernal Monster Style so I have actual charms to point out to make him actually scary like before, just a berserker who starts with Gluttonous Boar Approach first before getting actually furious. Fortunately no more HG means that I can actually stay sane unless someone really ticks me off and steals my food. Figures it out: greed is good wants to own things, INF generally destroys those things that you might own, so those that would trigger it probably get a grudge for forcing him to bite his own tongue to restrain himself from putting them in the dirt.
        3. “~NOTE-TO-SELF: Keep this version, it’s not OP and I won’t need to explain why he theoretically had all kinds of powers that would have prevented him starving in the staircase, as well as being able to do space-warping powers and summoning demons constantly. That is just more endless rewrites! Possible Solutions:
  • Speak all languages with Hundred Demons Curriculum only applied to Self-Seed hosts, not everyone
  • Space-Warping: this almost always only applies in places that are ‘journey-scale’ and not local scenes
  • Summoning Demons: Don’t summon demons unless you need specific demons like that translator
  • Starving on the Endless Staircase: yeah add in a single line about ‘farming locusts’ to avoid eating only stone: remember the real issue is that it had almost no mote regeneration at all.
  • Granting Wishes is too easy: most people won’t just take that offer, no matter how desperate, and the ones the would generally are the weakest and least useful people to work with. Remember that he can advertise ‘esoteric consultation’ services for the modern nights, and just kept the wish-granting stuff as a specific service he could offer but given how terrifying he wound up being, no one was dumb enough to take him up on it without a lot of convincing. In context, it was mostly handled by the apparatus of his cult, and very rarely in person. Otherwise it was kind of like taking out an occult loan from the Godfather.“
  1. Archived notes: Random Encounter Table for JFLM at night (default at debut with no reputation at all) After rolling 4dF (4 Fate/Fudge/’0/+/-’ on a d3/d6):
  • -4: Catastrophically bad encounter default to a fight scene immediately, bad here means either very visible, very outnumbered, or very important enemy faction
  • -3: Run into someone who is an enemy who is not a potential customer at all, and they definitely either already have a group, or are able to call their backup.
  • -2: Run into someone who is an enemy  who is not a potential customer, but you can probably talk to them before anything important starts.
  • -1: Run into someone who is an enemy who may or may not be a potential customer.
  • 0: Run into someone neutral who may or may not be a potential customer.
  • 1:  Run into someone neutral who is  a potential customer.
  • 2:  Run into someone friendly who is  a potential customer.
  • 3:  Run into someone neutral or friendly who sought you out specifically to buy something or partake of services.
  • 4: Run into someone friendly who sought you out specifically to buy something or partake of services, and can be addressed about side-jobs or long term contracts.

 

  • ~ OFFICIAL FIRST ENCOUNTER ROLL: 4dF = -2 ABB squad out scouting their borders for fresh tags, they do not recognize JFLM, and since he’s not specifically Asian, they aren’t recruiting. They are not actively hostile, but are not here for anything other than a dog marking it’s territory. The mobile cart part doesn’t register to them as something in their turf that needs ‘integration’ 
  •  



=== 

 

Archival Community Sources 

(stand against the bitrot)

 

Extended Infernal Magical Materials 



(source link: http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/464774-infernal-magical-materials/page2 )

I don't know whether I would change all the above mechanical ideas if I wanted vitriol-aspected Jade to be a separate thing from Hepatizon. I still don't know if a new Jade color, on top of Hepatizon, would be too much cheese. Vitriolic Jade would probably carry the hate and bitterness themes, along with the theme of dissolving things (from Ink Monkeys Infernal geomancy, vitriolic themes include: acid, atrophy, corrosion, damage, decay, degeneration, depression, destruction, emotions (negative), evolution, hate, mutation, patience, refinement, resentment, resistance, revenge, ruins, rust, scarring, stoicism).

 

Hepatizon would also reflect hate and bitterness, but would have authority and pain themes from Malfeas, and of hunger due to hepatizon's association with Metagaos.

 

Those two sets of themes look like they'd produce very similar bonuses for weapons and armor, though. I dunno.

 

Corroding acid: 1 automatic damage to non-magical armor, +? damage

Armor bonus: (like regular Jade)

 

Hate/Bitterness: + accuracy, + damage, and/or convert 1 damage die to automatic success in Step 10

 

Pain: targets hit with it have +1 difficulty to resist Stun and Knockdown

Authority (similar to Brimstone): +50 yards range (archery) or +10 yards range (thrown); +hardness on armor?

Hunger/Parasitism: how to make this unlike Green Jade? reduce bearer's healing times based on health levels dealt with a weapon, instead of stealing motes?




EDIT: I won't necro this thread when everyone is talking all about 3E, but unless I get some feedback on balance I think I have got the bonuses for Vitriolic Jade and Hepatizon. I'm a bit concerned that Hepatizon armor is too weak and that melee weapons are too strong.

 

The demon realm has infernal variants of adamant, jade, and moonsilver, and a unique magical material named hepatizon. Not including jade, the three "infernal metals" must be laboriously refined, in similar fashion to the celestial metals of Creation; but despite with the abundance of the raw materials for their creation, not many demon souls are able or inclined to refine magical "metals". For millennia most hellforged artifacts intended for the hands of Infernal Exalted were crafted from jade, simply because most akuma have been Dragon-Blooded. Most ancient infernal relics of storied history and powerful evocations are jade -- but artifacts commissioned for the new Princes are often of adamant or hepatizon instead. Learning to refine "infernal metals" for themselves takes more persistance and patronage, but because the raw materials are so abundant the potential for the panoplies of the Green Sun Princes is great indeed. Already, hepatizon and adamant are less rare than perhaps ever before in infernal history.



In order of relative abundance and availability today, the magical materials are:

 

Vitriolic Jade

Infernal jade is a sixth color of jade, one influenced by the Essence of the corrosive element vitriol. While it needs no refining and is easier to work than all other infernal magical materials, it can only be mined from vitriol-aspected demesnes in the demon realm, and many such demesnes produce no jade at all. Furthermore, the right to quarry deeply into the body of one of the Yozis is not granted to just anybody, even among the Exalted -- most productive quarries are owned and tightly controlled by an Unquestionable descended from the Yozi whose world-body contains the demesne, and mining even from one's own personal demesne is still illegal without permission from one of the Yozi's Third Circle souls. From these mines jade flows into the Malfean economy in markedly less abundance than jade in Creation.

____ Appearance: Jade aspected to vitriol is a pale, sickly yellow color with a greenish tinge. It is obviously jade, but closely resembles yellow jade. If the jade is alloyed with Malfean green iron or steel, it takes on an appearance closer to green jade.

____ Weapons: Vitriol seethes with the hate and venom of the imprisoned Creators, and dissolves every substance it touches. Vitriolic jade weapons, though not nearly as corrosive, deal +1 damage, and burn non-magical armor and clothing like acid. On a successful hit, such a weapon deals 1 unsoakable damage to the target's armor or clothes.

____ Armor crafted from vitriolic jade provides attuned wearers with the same bonuses as other jade armor.



Hepatizon

Hepatizon is a magical metal derived from infernal brass (refined with demon blood, green sunlight, and vitriol). Some demons tell rumors of pure hepatizon veins running under the sucking bogs of Metagaos, but fools who dare to seek it rarely return. It resonates with the Essence of both Malfeas and Metagaos.

____ Appearance: Hepatizon is a dark, brown-purple or black-blue metal with an appearance somewhat like bronze. Its colors and lustre are as beautiful as any celestial magical material, though their somewhat patchy arrangement gives an overall impression of corroded and burnt metal.

____ Melee Weapons: Hepatizon hungers to punish foes and consume their life, and the burning rage of the Malfeas sears flesh with every strike. Melee weapons forged from hepatizon gain a +1 bonus to both Accuracy and damage. On each successful strike, convert one die of post soak damage to an automatic success in Step 10. Finally, the wielder's wounds heal more rapidly after they have absorbed the life-force of their victims: after striking a living target, reduce wound healing times by the wielder's (Essence) days, to a maximum of (health levels of damage dealt by the attack).

____ Ranged Weapons: Who in any world is beyond the hate and rightful authority of Malfeas? What under the light of any sky is not coveted by the greed of Metagaos? Nothing and no one. Hepatizon bows add 50 yards to their range (thrown weapons add 10 yards). All ranged weapons forged from hepatizon gain +1 Accuracy, and deal especially painful wounds: rolls to resist Stunning and Knockdown caused by these weapons are made at +1 difficulty.

____ Armor: By the laws of the Primordial order, lesser beings have no right to oppose their betters. Those who dare to harm the Infernal Exalted find the very force of their blows subsumed by hepatizon's hunger. Armor forged in hepatizon gains +2 to both Hardness values, and +1 to both soak values.



Cecelynian Adamant

Adamant forged from Cecelynian glass has the same magical material bonus as any other adamant, and is almost identical in appearance; the base color is closer to grey than blue, and it refracts indirect light in a duller red hue.

 

Infernal Moonsilver

Moonsilver remains the rarest true magical material native to Hell, and very few Green Sun Princes prefer it. There are three varieties, identical to Creation's moonsilver in magical material bonuses but differing in origin and appearance.

____ White Moonsilver is somewhat more common than the other colors of infernal moonsilver. Forged from the silver wood of Szoreny himself, it's paler than Creation's moonsilver and more reflective.

____ Crimson Moonsilver must be refined from crimson silver. It resembles normal moonsilver in every particular except its blood-red color.

____ Opalescent Moonsilver can only be made from silver steeped in the Essence of Oramus -- for example, that obtained from Mursilis, the Skittering Jungle. It has an odd opalescent luster with pale, shifting gleams of many different colors.



Notes:

Evocations

When designing Evocations for infernal artifacts, consider the themes of vitriol, or the Yozi most closely associated with the magical material. Look at the themes in the Ink Monkeys Collection: infernal geomancy.

 

Identifying Infernal Artifacts

Infernal magical materials are just as obviously magical as their counterparts in Creation, but that doesn't mean that the average savant recognizes them for what they are. Without familiarity with Creation's magical materials (or at least samples and time to make comparisons) even learned savants can mistake these obscure materials for something else they already know of (note that occultists have usually never heard of adamant or yellow jade). The roll to realize the difference is Intelligence + Occult. When carefully comparing samples of two materials side-by-side reduces, the difficulty is never greater than 2. 

 

Infernal Magical Material

Can be mistaken for... 

Difficulty to tell the difference

Vitriolic jade

yellow jade

4

Jade alloyed with green metal

green jade

2

Hepatizon

nothing else

0

Cecelynian adamant

Creation adamant

5

White moonsilver 

Creation moonsilver

3

Opalescent moonsilver

Creation moonsilver

3

Crimson moonsilver

red jade

1




--

[ Wiki ]

Why the Yozis are Right (And You Should Suffer and Obey For All Eternity)

If the Abyssals are Evil Buddhists and the Sidereals represent a sort of utilitarianism taken to its High-Conviction conclusion and the Dragon-Blooded represent the idea of positive law, and Fair Folk what happens when you have to view reality as a story and not so much reality - other people can phrase all that better than I; Stephenls, are you listening? - the Infernals are basically Divine Command Theory. Like all the splats they basically have a reason and a developed ethical system that impells them to do what they do, and that system is - the Primordials are Right.

The Primordials created the world. They fastened its bases from pure chaos and built up a bubble of reality. Gaia and Cytherea built the Creation known by most mortals, while others laid the foundations of Yu Shan, wrote the rules for the Games of Divinity, and invented things like gravity and hierarchy and romantic love. Autochthon gets called the Great Maker by the bacteria living in his belly because he's the only one they know, and gets called a Mary Sue because he made humanity and the pattern spiders and Exaltation, but they all did stuff like that. The Primordials are all Great Makers - it's why they formed themselves into solid shapes and implemented grand visions instead of staying in protean, aproggressing chaos like all the other Unshaped, if you subscribe to that metaphysic.

And with the Primordials there isn't all that much of a difference between "making" and "being." And they made, did, expanded out everything that exists, and you know how at the end of the day you just want to sit back and have a beer? Damn right you do! And so they came up with these nifty subroutines so they could just take a fucking break, right? Some awesome robots, and even set up in a nice hierarchical system, so everybody's pet creations can get overseen by these spiritual subroutines that are overseen by these neato "Incarna" bots...

And then everything went to shit. The housecleaning-bots turned malfunctional and took everything over and locked their parents , their creators, the beings responsible for their very existence up , but not, before, mind you, actually killing some of the Makers of All, allowing so so many intelligent races to die, and killing some their very souls , mutilating them into wholly different identities.

What kind of sick fuck murders half of her loving parents and grandparents , destroys some of their souls, their hearts, their very beings, and locks everybody living left together in a cage composted of their own bodies?

And the Yozis are the Primordials who have survived this. They have carried on, because they have not forgotten creation, and those among them who put faulty programming into the bots to make them go nutso, and because they must carry on, because they are Will and Making and Vision themselves.

And you are an Infernal. In a previous life, you mutilated your mother and tied her up, binding her flesh to your father's - and all so this creepy man down the street could live the high life in their beautiful house that they built with their bare hands. Now your mother, crying, is calling for help. Guilt overcomes you, guilt defines your existence. You know what you did was wrong. You have to make it up, somehow. Mommy says you and all the other rebellious children have to be punished, and you, contrite in your heart, understand. You will submit to it. O dear god, how could you hurt your mother so?

In your heart, will she ever forgive you? Maybe, maybe; she's still your mother and she loves you - now, now is time to untie her, to cure her wounds, and round all the other children up for punishment. Not because it will spare you that punishment in the least - not that you'd want to be spared that, overcome with guilt as you are - but because it's just the right thing to do and because you want be regarded, someday, in the end, as a good child again. It's going to hurt her more than it hurts you, ultimately.

And they have taken mercy on you. They have said to you, little child, little child whom we parents love, we know that you hurt us, we know that you did this to us, and you and the rest of Creation will have to be punished for hurting us, because we love you. But you'll make us very proud if you help us accomplish that - we'll in the end, forgive you, look with pride at you among all the rebellious creation, because you are our prodigal son or daughter.

Won't you make your loving parents proud?

(Or hear it straight from the source.)

But how is that the action of a loving parent? The Yozis are horrible stewards of Creation, the wayward student observes. Here, calmly explains the Infernal, if emotion shall not suffice, perhaps intellect will. Here is how the Primordials love you:

The love a Primordial feels for its creation is the love one feels for a thing that one has created and that does its job excellently. Look at it this way:

What is objectively best for a thing? To fulfill excellency? What is excellency? To fulfill its purpose, to be itself most fully. This is all tautological. An excellent knife, for instance, is a knife that cuts well, doesn't rest, is aesthetically appealing, et cetera. If you take pride and love in your knife then you keep it sharp, polish it, and maybe even keep it in its own leather container.

What is an excellent tree? One that grows, that doesn't get weird infections, that produces fruit that is good to eat, that provides a home for birds, that provides shade, that doesn't mess up the erosion patterns of the local environment. If you chop it down, it will provide good, sturdy wood. An excellent flower, likewise, is pretty, whether in the ground or in a vase, provides polination for bees, does not inhibit the growth of flowers around it, and maybe even has medicinal properties. A good gardener - who can truly be said to "love" her garden - will go around and uproot the bad flowers, she will take careful track of the soil, and she will find a way to arrange all the flowers harmoniously, beautifully, and creatively. It's what is best for the flowers - how flowers become the best flowers they can be. A good arborist will cut off diseased limbs, and good forest managers understand that forest fires play a natural role that helps forests to be the most excellent forests that they can possibly be.

Consider a bonsai tree. Its growth is stunted. Do its caretakers hate it? No. They are good, loving caretakers - they want it to be a good bonsai tree, beautiful and touching precious.

When girls' feet were likewise bound, was that because their parents hated them, or didn't care for them? No. Their parents did it because they loved them. They wanted them to be as beautiful as possible. What about circumscision? Do parents go through a bris because of hate or neglect? No, the do it out of love for their son. They want him to be as pleasing before G-d as possible. They want him to be fully a member of the community. They want the best for him.

Some child wants to do nothing more than eat candy and watch TV all day. The parents will not have it! They take away the candy, which makes the child happy, and the TV, which makes the child happy, and force them to eat vegetables, which are painful, and read books, which are torture. How could the parents be so cruel? "You hate me!" screams the child at his parents. "You hate me! You never let me do anything I want!" This breaks the hearts of the parents. They love him so much, they want the best for him. Do eating candy and watching TV (and being able to use the house for some party while the parents are away, et cetera.) objectively make him much happier than eating vegetables and reading books? Yes. Categorically. But it is the negligent parent that lets him do what he wants, be truly happy in this regard. The loving parent abrogrates this preference - "hurts" if you're using that way of looking at things - in order that the child might be a more excellent person.

What is a patriot? A patriot is somebody who loves their country. "Stand beside her, and guide her..." A patriot wants her country to be the best country that it can possibly become. A patriot isn't someone who dreams of her country falling into idyll - a patriot, a hero, understands that there are sacrifices that must be endured to make the country as best as possible.

What is most excellent for a thing is for that thing to be most excellent, and if you love a thing, you will promote its true best interests - being all that it can be. Its subjective states of happiness and unhappiness are categorically not what that is. States of happiness and unhappiness in humans and other intelligent beings are subroutines that were part of their most pussiant design, a feature created - just like feet, or hands - so that it might most fully fulfill its purpose. And if it's not working towards that purpose then, for the sake of the being of which it's a part, that has to remedied. That's what love - or at least the kind of love with which we're concerned here - is.

The Abyssals' mission is purely destructive, the Fair Folks' totally senseless, the Sidereals' only to preserve the status quo, the Solars' and Dragon-Blooded's and Lunars' and Guild's for nothing but pure and petty power. The mission of the Yozis is purely and uniquely soteriological. They propose to heal a broken world, not by petty secular standards, but by the only standards that truly matter.

And that, dear child, is why you should suffer and obey, repent and adore, for ever and ever.




--

 

AO3-specific Changelogs:

  • 20250828: added "Because I don’t want it to be boring, the Endbringers are unbound Wyld Behemoths, not demonic ones. Shards cannot be perceived unless they are actively reproducing/installing themselves, otherwise they don't exist in this plane at all. Even then, when they are in this world doing their reproduction/installation they are immaterial and follow the normal rules for things like gods and spirits." to the setting notes; clarified the infernal wonder text too, per "Shards work exactly like Infernal Wonders in Graft form (brain implants), save that they are not actual Infernal Wonders, they just work like them for convenience sake." Also remplaced some notes about Hegra with Cecelyne references.

Chapter 2: Green Sun Prince

Chapter Text

--

 

Before you now is a book unlike any other. Permanent and correct in every way. Each copy as unique as its reader. It is as much text on a screen as it is anything else. Some see it as a ponderous and bound tome with gilt edges. Some hear it as an off-key song from a music box. Some hear it recited in the words of other readers, lovingly recorded and curated for public audition. Others know it as a limp-winged bird upon a gentle pond. All are as correct and perfect as any other.

 

And now the tale begins with the death of a king—brave and true.

 

--



The Dictator of An-Teng stood alone, trapped within the burning archives at the heart of his nameless palace---what was once The Pinnacle of Mercy before he killed and ate the god who lived there; the lavish gold and jewels of his crown glowing with reflected flame. 

 

He had accumulated many titles in his over 800 years of life, but he was announced at The Thing Infernal as Lintha Sennong Dictator Admiral-of-Admirals Grandfather Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner, Green Sun Prince, Sherden Caste (Chosen of Kimbery), Favored by Metagaos and Cecelyne, Surgeon-General and Plaguemaster of the Reclamation, Grandmaster of the Green Sun Kingdom, Conqueror of An-Teng, He-Who-Waits Demiurgos of The Order of the Locust, and The Tide That Drowns Cities and Swallows Gods. 

 

His 400 year reign had been peaceful, perhaps too much so. The Gold Faction Sidereals and their allies had led a bloody and sudden coup against him that evening. It seemed while he was personally outside of Fate, his countrymen were not.

 

At his feet laid a pile of bodies. Over the countless long hours, the mounds of dead had collapsed on themselves under their own weight. Some were  obviously foreign soldiers of some ilk---Dragon Blooded by taste. Most were his own subjects, somehow freed from the deadly enslavement of the mind-warping infection that was his Self-Seed. He could barely spare them a thought, not when he looked upon the leaders of the coup: his own grandchildren and a handful of dead Sidereal Exalts. 

 

While his children were barely identifiable beneath the acid and black lightning burns, he knew his blood all the same. Still though, it disgusted him to know their treachery would not be properly punished. Next to them, the Sidereals who had plagued him for long enough to exhaust even him. They no longer glowed with The Maidens’ light in death, and nothing about their corpses would have stood out, save for the massive gaping holes that had been bitten through them by his own teeth, or the fact that most of their bodies had been reduced to a frothy red pulp floating upon a pool of iridescent green acid. Still, to have survived so long against his efforts, they had been tough bastards; undoubtedly still young, for their kind, but a full Circle.

 

As he had swallowed their flesh, he also tore chunks of their minds and souls into his gut for digestion. He savored that small meal, until he spat back up their recent memories to chew upon like a cow upon its cud. It took him a moment to realize their last mission had not been his assassination, but merely to bring sacred Prayer Scrolls into his palace. If he was not so exhausted, and if his demons had not been banished, he would have entertained searching for other circles.

 

The words began: “It is the Judgement of The Heavens that this Creature of Darkness is recognized as a Blasphemy, to be Contained, Quarantined, and Purged. Let The Loom cut this place from its weft; with the sacred radiance of The Heavens Judgement We find you Guilty on the charges of Theocide and Cannibalism of The Golden Lord of An-Teng, most beloved Lieutenant of The Unconquered Sun; The Pale Mistress, dutiful Goddess of Disease and Death; Fao Baaw, God of Broken Water;  Goukaen, Lesser Elemental Dragon of Earth;  …” and ended with “... and by Convocation of the Bureau of Destiny, may the Condemnation of The Heavens direct the Eye of Judgment of The Daystar upon this Blasphemy upon the dawn, to be scoured from all memory.”

 

They had trapped him with the only thing that he was truly helpless against, the holy golden fires of heaven’s judgement. He could not eat it, he couldn’t outgrow it, he could not defile it with his mind-warping toxins, he couldn’t choke it, and being so surrounded, it cut off his contact with the waters that he might call to drown it. Flexing his spiritual self, he felt that he had been trapped fully materialized here, with some elaborate warding against him teleporting away, nor trying to warp space.

 

He had called down a hundreds-of-miles-wide killing storm outside, channeling the caustic waters of the the Demon Aea into his own hate-filled blood; if the winds and lightning did not kill, then the fact that the storm was as much his own blood as it was the acid rain of Kimbery. Smaller Cecelynian sandstorms still filled many of the places the unwary had taken refuge from his rains, grinding them to bones and dust for rejecting his gifts.

 

He was the Plaguemaster of The Reclamation because his blood held every disease he had ever met, and an equal number he had made from scratch; it held the spiteful caustic waters of The Great Mother, and the very same mind-warping Self-Seed that he used to conquer the continent of An-Teng. 

 

It was this same kind of storm he used 400 years ago to conquer and subjugate his land with his tainted corrosive hypertoxic mind-warping blood. In a fit of pique, he had called it down as soon as he had realized there was a coup; his land would suffer for his anger, and he could sense the madness and death cries of tens of thousands immediately outside his palace. 

 

By the Yozi’s own Oaths of Surrender, the golden fires were not only unextinguished, they were only fanned higher and brighter by his winds.

 

All that power, but it was nothing before The Daystar. 

 

There was nothing he could do but wait for it to reach him. Even if he tried something desperate and escaped, what then? Could he, a Creature of Darkness, really outrun The Loom of Fate and The Daystar? Even in death, they had won.

 

He reflected on his poor decisions in his life that had led him to where he was. Ruling through violence and fear and mind-warping assimilation had kept the peace, but it hardly made for a healthy resistance against the coup. Easily accomplished via his heretical art of Verdant Desolation Understand caused the laws of Cecelyne to treat them as the least demons, to be ground beneath his will, and beneath his boot.

 

He had long ago claimed An-Teng as a new homeland for his long exiled people, The Lintha Family. For a time, it had been good and productive, uniting the Lintha as they had not been since they were driven from their sea-borne nation within the womb-embrace of The Great Mother, Kimbery. Without the desperate need to just survive holding their attention any longer, the Lintha largely moved on to other projects. 

 

He had not. He had kept the peace through his mind-warping power and fear over the non-Lintha subjects, while he worked for the Reclamation, to restore the Yozi. Not merely to free them, but to make them whole, as well as their Neverborn kin. A great work. Too much for his unnaturally short lifetime. The only progress he had made was just understanding the true nature of a single oath of surrender and Primordial unmaking in the form of Mardukh Who Holds In Thrall. The learning had nearly killed him and revealed only deeper complexity beyond his full understanding. 

 

What was ultimately worse, in his opinion, was that he found no true satisfaction in power. He had been happier when he was a merchant privateer with several happy wives and a litter of fine children. All of them were long dead. The only family he had now were sycophants and parasites of his office, without love or kinship. Indeed, he was fairly certain that their infighting was what catalyzed the coup.

 

If he had truly desired to hold the country, it would have been his to the bitter end. His Self-Seed Infestation infected the whole country, and all he needed to do to take them all down with him was to say the command phrase aloud. All would die, consumed from within like Cordyceps, and their rotting flesh would fertilize his fields. Spilled blood a sacrifice to expand his ever growing grey mangrove swamps. Afterwards his vegetation would force the flesh to rise again, as numberless grey walkers; durable but unthinking they were his even in death, as much an extension of himself and his swamps as an army.

 

But, he could not bring himself to care enough to use it. He still hated to lose any of his possessions, but An-Teng’s flavor was dull and unpalatable to him now. He was done with it, and the scavengers could fight each other over the sloshing contents of his chamberpot. They would never even realize that the whole place had originally been rigged as a deathtrap. 

 

Staring at the fire, he recalled sitting drunkenly in front of a hearth, lamenting that he had wanted to leave this damned backwater country, and go somewhere that nobody knew his name. Maybe he’d be a farmer this time? He could be an excellent fisherman. While he hadn’t been expecting a coup, he had been aware of his looming mortality from another angle. Green Sun Princes all burned out. 

 

The Ebon Dragon insisted that it was a flaw in the design for the Infernal Exaltation; humans were never meant to channel direct Primordial energies in the long term. No one at The Thing Infernal believed him. Popular opinion was that the Shadow of All Things betrayed their confidence even before they met him, by adding in an integral time-limit by ‘accident’ when the Reclamation first designed them. 

 

Everyone in The Thing Infernal strove desperately for some way to bypass their drastically reduced lifespans. A base 150 years from exaltation to death, compared to 3000 for the Solars and 300 for the Dragon Blooded (not to mention the normal 250 year lifespan of his own kind, the Lintha). There were as many ways to fight back as there were Green Sun Princes. 

 

He couldn’t fathom the majority of them, and had failed to unlock the heretical Cry of the Devil-Tiger, like his peers had. They allegedly became immortal, but no one had been alive long enough to tell for sure. The only surety was that the more powerful you were, the longer death could be averted--but not forever.

 

Politics and The Reclamation had distracted him. All he had to show for his efforts was a glass vial he kept in his chest pocket. He was fairly certain that, if he killed himself in just the right way, then he’d slip sideways instead of down, and he could bypass death by piggybacking on his Exaltation finding its next host. If he was right, he could trick the universe into skipping the steps where his mind and souls were cleansed from the Exaltation by the River Lethe and Lytek, and trick the Exaltation itself into thinking that it immediately had to go find its host the hard way, with no demon to act as an intermediate host.

 

He had prepared the vial, knowing he would need it eventually, though he had been putting it off for too long. If he didn’t want to burn out, he eventually had to kill himself with its exotic poison. It was obviously untested, he knew, but it was the only option he had besides waiting for death by holy fire; no more delays. The glass vial held only a clear liquid, too thick to be water, but when he lifted it up in front of his eyes, the golden fires of his death cast beautiful shimmering reflections that made it seem alive. He held it aloft with palsied hands, after knocking the stopper out, and toasted the fires. “If this works, no more conquering.” he said to the neomah Coadjutor who shared his senses and soul, quaffing the bitter poison.

 

--



As the chosen, Sherden Caste of Kimbery, he should have been inured against poisons. After all, when your blood was a toxic amalgam of the killing waters of the Demon Sea, the hypervirulent lymph-sap of Metagaos, all lesser poisons (diseases, parasites, etc.) are nothing. This vial was different, he knew. A strange solution of Vitriol with his own distilled blood, and the Yozi Venom that were hidden in weeping pools within hell. This one coalesced from the frustration of great Oramus that he should be confined forever within his own shattered wings. It was a poison so hypertoxic that it not only killed him, it also killed the strands of Fate that dragged his Soul down to Lethe, as well as the Demon that would have borne the Exaltation to its new host. 

 

And he felt every minute of the pain of killing himself, the Fate of his Exaltation, and slipping beyond the bounds of Creation and Malfeas. Naked and raw, he was exposed to the non-place that lurked between the layers of the Tellurian. The scholar in him might have gazed in curiosity at the Shinma that defined all possible realities, but the agony of soul poison precluded anything besides obsessive and constant focus on the symphony of anguish he caused himself. He knew it was necessary to break his Exaltation and soul, to convince the cycle of Reincarnation that he was dead, but to also make the Exaltation think it was still alive. 

 

The Great Maker had never thought that an Exaltation could feel pain after death, and so the mechanisms of rebirth were forestalled. From the screaming of his neomah Coadjutor, Thief-of-Whiskers, it sounded as though she was broken as well.  It barely registered to him when his own internal stomach universe was inverted and burned up in the process, spilling  everything he had swallowed to store, as well as the countless souls he had devoured over the centuries.

 

It was impossible to know how long it lasted, but he nearly went mad with helpless terror, sure that he had fouled up his occult experimentation, and doomed himself to an eternity of madness and pain. 

 

Blind and deaf, he used the absolute last of his strength in a desperate attempt to escape. Of the tricks he had learned from the other Yozi besides Kimbery and Metagaos, none seemed terribly relevant. There was the smallest hope in mimicking Metagaos’ own self-consumption. His teeth could grind the material bones of mortals as easily as immaterial god-flesh. He could and did even eat holes in himself and the interstitial spaces of Malfeas overflowed with his probing, colonizing spillover of grey muck and roots. 

 

If his intuition was right, he was too heavy, too real to continue his journey. He needed to be light enough that the subtle ‘currents’ that moved around him like the dark heart-waters of Kimbery would be able to wash him out of the non-place he was stuck in. 

 

A gut instinct told him that the same way that Malfeas survived in the Deep Chaos of The Wyld and beyond, World-Mastering Authority must have reflexively activated to keep him intact. It did nothing against active effects, but was priceless when you really needed it. 

 

He’d already killed himself once, but this would take everything that he had. It would be a great effort. 

 

Great effort… the kind that he could ill afford to do twice. 

 

Pouring every part of himself into the center of being, where his soul intermingled with the heart chakra, he felt his extremities go numb, perhaps having been claimed or finally torn free by the strange environment he was within. 

 

Nothing happened…

 

He cannibalized his own semi-immaterial flesh, wringing it out like a damp cloth for spare motes. Each and every one of them dumped into his core. Some places just don’t allow for dematerialization in the first place… maybe this was one? It was so strange.

 

He felt heavy...

 

And then, with the suddenness of birth, he awoke screaming. Blind and deaf to all but his own birth cries, he felt only that he was encased in violent compression, as though being crushed in a giant's grip. Unseeing, he felt around for his bearings.

 

He was wet, and he could not feel his limbs. Where he could feel, even a slight flexion drove daggers of stabbing pain into his torso.

 

His tongue was intact, he stuck it out to taste the truth of the substance in front of him. Metagaos blessed him with a sense of taste which transcended all others. There was a stone surface that he lapped at, blindly. It was hard, cold marble. No time to spare for analysis, he bit down, tore a chunk of marble free with teeth sharp enough to pierce any mortal substance. 

 

Crunch.

 

He realized how hungry he was. His stomach was empty, truly empty in a way it had not been for centuries. 

 

IT MUST BE FILLED.

 

All over his flesh, maws lined with jagged thorn teeth opened themselves where they had never been. 

 

HUNGRY.

 

Wriggling in place with the force of dozens of mouths all blindly reaching and searching by touch and taste. The pain of his damaged torso ignored for the visceral joy of consumption. 

 

Marble tasted blandly bitter, and contained barely any nutrients such that he’d need to eat more than ten times as much compared to even a brick of charcoal.

 

Eventually, he fell headfirst to another floor of marble.

 

FRESH GRAZING.

 

Then another hole, and another. A writhing bore-worm. 

 

At some point, one of his searching tongues desperate for any novelty found his own flesh and burrowed deep to find the flavor of his own pain. Sure enough, masses of his own bones had seemingly fused with marble pieces. He ate them. His damaged flesh remained ragged around the holes left behind within him. He ate that too.

 

DELICIOUS MEAT.

 

Turning more mouths to bite and dig, he found the ruined remains of his eye sockets and upper skull, also fused with stone. He twisted to feast upon himself.

 

CONSUME WEAKNESS.

 

Flesh moved and shifted. Most of his body had been partially fused with marble. He had heard the theory behind failed teleportation or materialization, he didn’t realize it precluded healing from the damage; while the blessings of Cecelyne made him naturally immaterial like spirits, it didn’t mean that he had tried the charm anywhere risky. Fusion ruined limbs, but left them intact, if useless. He would eat them too, and grow fresh limbs from the bloody stumps.

 

Once his eyes grew back, he looked at his freshly regenerated body, whole, if naked. He looked around, and saw only strange architecture that consisted entirely of marble stairs upon marble stairs, with no true up or down.

 

He was hungry again. He stood up, and looked around. There was no one there but him. No food, no water, and no apparent light source, just a uniform diffuse glare that cast no shadows. 

 

No food. No water. No direction.

 

EAT ROCKS.

 

---

 

Before a mixed crowd of a dozen PRT and Protectorate bigwigs, Armsmaster and Dragon stood rather theatrically next to a curtained off partition. The room was ringed with PRT security officers carrying fire-fighting gear and first-aid kits.

 

One of Dragon’s smaller units, barely bulkier than Armsmaster’s own power armor suit, stood to the left of the curtain. She addressed him in a semi-private whisper. “Colin, are you sure you don’t want me to call in Vista?”

 

Armsmaster held a notepad in his gauntleted hand, going over a checklist with a pen. “No, Dragon. I double checked the gravimetric readings last time she was supervising, and there are no major safety concerns. We could do without the fire-extinguishers as well, but I feel like that’s going to be some kind of union rules that I don’t have time to butt heads with.” 

 

“Safety aside, it would be polite to include her, given how much help she was with the design.”

 

Armsmaster waved his hand dismissively, and turned his pen back to the pad. 

 

Dragon sighed through her speakers, just loud enough for Colin to hear. He either ignored it pointedly, or was too wrapped up to notice it. Ater a moment, he put the pen down and looked Dragon’s suit in the camera-eyes with a nod.

 

The room's lights dimmed slightly, and Armsmaster and Dragon took opposite places on each side of the curtain.

 

“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you all for coming out today for our tech demo.” announced Dragon in her vaguely Canadian accent. Having worked with Colin in the past, she knew that he had little patience with basic pleasantries, and she had to convince him earlier not to just pull off a tarp and yell ‘behold’ like a cliche.

 

Armsmaster took a step forward, waving a hand outward at the seated audience. “While Professor Haywire was best known for his work on the Earth Aleph portal, much of his semi-published research involved theoretical spatial manipulations. Nearly five years ago, I managed a proof of concept application of his basic theory to miniaturize circuitry in my halberd,  shrinking it to beyond any current industrial fabrication process by a factor of eight. Now, in collaboration with Dragon’s advanced fabrication techniques, we have managed to make real one of the Professor’s unrealized Gedankenexperiments.”

 

Dragon helped him pull away the curtain at the front of the partition. “The ‘Cheaters Box’!” she announced, with a dramatic flair that Armsmaster was seemingly incapable of. “A rather simple idea: can you use spatial manipulation to make a box which is bigger on the inside than the outside? The answer to that is ‘yes’! Without the benefit of modern technology, this device would have been patently impossible to realize even 20 years ago. But now it sits in front of you today.”

 

Armsmaster pulled the folded halberd from his back, and held it up. “The physical dimensions  of this spear are more than three times the widest edge of this box.” He stuffed the haft into the box with a demonstrative clunk, leaving most of it clearly visible. After withdrawing it and stepping away. “Now, when Dragon turns the power on…” he trailed off, as Dragon threw a lever on the table behind the box.

 

There was a slight hum, like a speaker-bank being tuned to static.

 

“... Now, the interior should be increased to the exact length of my halberd.” he said, moving closer, and turning to face his audience. 

 

The white-noise hum from the box increased noticeably as he approached it. With a wave of his halberd near the box, the lights in the room flickered. As the shaft sunk into the box, the tip of the spear and the upper edge of the box began to visibly vibrate. 

 

Dragon noticed first, and turned towards Armsmaster in alarm. 

 

Too late, the spear was already passing through the interior perimeter of the box. 

 

A flash of distinctive blue-white Cherenkov radiation left the box. There was not even a proper explosion, instead only a tearing sound that reminded Dragon of hearing a glacier calving.

 

Without even time for thought, both Heroes were bodily dragged within the impossibly small box, and the front section of space that they had occupied all slid in sync within the box’s open top, while the audience could only recoil in shock and try to flee the strange traceries of radiation and bent angles that defined the margin between the normal space of the room, and the exotic space of the box’s territory.

 

Armsmaster and Dragon found themselves momentarily reeling from what felt an awful lot like being stretched vertically on a rack. Dragon felt no pain, but Armsmaster’s horrified unmanly shriek was telling. What Dragon did notice was that her onboard G-meter had glitched, and the suit’s thrusters had been turned on automatically by the safety measures to prevent an imminent collision with the earth.

 

Dragon looked at Armsmaster’s halberd, and saw that it had its top third missing, being less a spear at that point and more of a baton. His hand looked the worse for wear. She floated over and grabbed his damaged gauntlet. A detailed inspection showed that it was not so much melted as sublimated. Strange to see high-temperature resistant plastic-ceramics turning into vapor at room temperature. All she cared about was that he still hand a hand inside there.

 

“The hell are we?” he spat out a loogie of blood as he spoke.

 

“Colin, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore…” 

 

Dragon’s cameras recorded it all: a strange Escher-esque room of stairs and stairs and stairs. There was no up or down, just stairs. If it weren’t for the off-center shaft that was the box they’d entered through, there would be no point of reference at all.

 

“The HELL are we?”

 

A sound came from ‘above’ them. Both turned, seeing a distant figure on the ‘ceiling’ of the room, perhaps 100m away. As both of them had a zoom function, they  could clearly make out the figure to be a man wearing a fuzzy dense white tunic-like garment made of white wool that seemed to merge with the man’s long beard and white hair. He seemed to be wearing a form-fitting green bodysuit underneath. 

 

--

 

Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner followed the novel taste on the air with his tongue, sampling the breeze like a serpent. In what he had dubbed The Endless Staircase, there was no novelty. No breeze, no scents that were not his own. The only flavor was stone, aside from the locusts he farmed–but even their flavor eventually dulls. 

 

During his long imprisonment, he discovered the price he had paid for his time in the non-place beyond the world. A lifetime of memories had burned from his mind. True, they were his memories of flavors, but he did not think he could pay it again. He might as well drink directly from Lethe next time, and save himself the uncertainty and pain; though he was half certain that his soul had been irreparably damaged and may just dissolve in the attempt. He was stuck wherever here was, so any novel taste was to be savored, no matter how mundane.

 

He sprinted down trackless stairs and up them again. He leaned hard on his senses, the tongue of Metagaos, no flavor was too small for it to delight in. He would find them, it was just a matter of time. There was nowhere to dematerialize to here, so he was stuck permanently materialized here.

 

When he left the notch between two sets of stairs, he saw them. Two armored men next to a portal that admitted the most blessed salt of fresh air, not the weird stale stone-scented flavor that he had long ago gotten sick of.

 

He was hungry. 

 

MUST ESCAPE.

 

Those people, he could tell, were not from anywhere he was familiar with. Their mismatched armor did not smell at all like they had the touch of a proper smith upon them. He shouted at them in Old Realm, trying to sound as pathetic as possible. He forced down his passive fear aura like clenching his fist--it wouldn’t do to scare off his rescuers. As it was one of the aspects of Malfeas he had taken into himself, it wasn’t something that could be turned off, only redirected--in this case, rather than the pressing weight of the majesty of Malfeas being felt by the humans, it was instead greatly magnified his lordship over animals, forcing them to kowtow out of instinctual submission the their creators. It was extremely conspicuous, either way, but without any animals here, it was less likely to be obviously alarming to the potential rescuers. To say nothing of the many laws of Cecelyne that he might invoke over mortals, he must avoid that at all costs.

 

<<Oi! Oiiii! I’ve been trapped here! Please take me with you!>>

 

--

 

The advanced mics on Dragon’s camera picked up the hairy guy shouting at her. It was no tongue she’d heard of. It was unclear to her if he was shouting at them to keep out of his territory, or if he was trying to have a conversation. 

 

She saw an almost desperate kind of look in his eyes. The man switched languages several times. Dragon had language codecs for dozens of tongues, but none of these were among their number.

 

--

 

Mariner began to panic… how, by Adorjan’s windy teats was he supposed to talk to them if they didn’t speak any proper languages.

 

If only he’d studied under Elloge when he’d had the chance, then he wouldn’t be in this mess. Why should he need a Universal Translator when he could just eat someone who knew whatever tongue he needed fluency with. If he was in the sea, Kimbery’s Ocean Washed Words could have temporarily helped, if he was next to the sea. There were simply too many ways for sorcerers and exalts to break such charms; it was a backup  plan, not a primary tool.

 

He had a desperate idea, and activated Flowering The Fairer Face. Social camouflage that it was, it helped him blend in with social environments like a Ghillie suit might in a field. 

 

--

 

Dragon could see that the man had given up on proper communication, and was just whistling and waving his arms. Emergency responder protocols in her head labeled it a maritime accident: a man adrift. 

 

Armsmaster saw her suit lean forward, as though preparing to leap to the rescue. “Dragon, stop! We don’t know what’s going on here, and we’re under no obligation to do anything but return to the portal.”

 

“I don’t think that’s a threatening gesture, Colin.” she turned to look at Armsmaster again.

 

“You could lose a suit!” 

 

She turned around again, moving away from him. “I can make more.” As usual, she was unsure if she genuinely wanted to help the stranger, or if her inbuilt protocols demanded her to be selfless. It didn’t matter right then, so she pushed it out of mind.

 

Armsmaster watched her leap up on her thrusters to fly off. He grunted in frustration at being ignored by his colleague. He tried his radio in his helmet. Most of the sophisticated communications systems he had installed were offline, leaving him with something about as fancy as a walkie-talkie as his fallback.

 

“Armsmaster to ALCON. Armsmaster to ALCON. Can anyone hear me?”

 

FSHHSSH STA --CK “Roger Armsmaster, this is Brockton Bay Dispatch Desk.”

 

“Radio Check Dispatch.”

 

“Signal Weak Armsmaster. Are you in a tunnel or something?”

 

“Negative Dispatch Emergency in progress. Await further instructions.”

 

“Wilco Armsmaster.”

 

Dragon found herself fighting to cross the 100m gap between the floor and ceiling. While it certainly looked short, it clearly was taking longer (or farther) than it should. Her sensor suite was not calibrated for anything this exotic. Eyeballing it was here only choice, figuratively speaking, since she had no real eyeballs. She blasted upward, only to slow down as she approached the midway point.  

 

“Jump guy!” she shouted in English.

 

--

 

Living within the Endless Staircase was not only an exercise in tedium, it was also so Essence-poor that he barely respired any motes each day (what was a day in this place with no sky?). Hoarding slowly, he had to ration and account for each mote. Now was the time to consume them all. 

 

The space was strange. What looked like 100m was not. His occult senses were finely tuned, but this place was (to his knowledge) unique in the universe. Its rules were seemingly arbitrary. It stank of the Wyld.

 

He was so hungry. Just like Metagaos, he could never actually starve, nor die of thirst, but Hunger Without Satisfaction did not mean that it would be pleasant. 

 

How dare something so trivial as a staircase deny him.

 

He did not know how long the portal would remain.

 

He did not know if this person would help him or not. 

 

He had to take a chance.

 

But… his powers didn’t really work unless he was able to channel it through his base urges like eating and fucking. 

 

Hmm… 

 

At least the Excellencies of Metagaos worked that way. Maybe that was the wrong  way to go. Kimbery’s Excellencies were equally inapplicable without someone or something to focus his love or hate on. Finally, Cecelyne’s did not seem relevant unless he had a vehicle or ship or mount. None of which seemed apropos; this place was technically a place of desolation, but the physics here stunk of the Wyld so who knew if that would help. He had learned many of Mafleas’s secrets. Most of them were about how to endure the tortures of life, or how to impress your will upon the world, but none seemed relevant. Here in what he was pretty sure was a calcified chunk of the Deep Chaos, there were no guarantees about time and space, let alone the laws of physics. Don’t overthink things. Straight lines…

 

His stomach growled. 

 

He couldn’t take out his frustrations on the two strangers, though that would solve his short term problems. Don’t try to eat potential rescuers. 

 

He needed to focus. He smelled the tiniest waft of air from the hole. Fat and sugar. Wheat flour and whole milk. Butterfat and salt. Tart berries and citrus. 

 

He was drooling.

 

MINE.

 

{{Activates Greed Without Restraint (Consume the origin of that smell!), and the 2nd Metagaos Excellency; Channels Conviction}}

 

--

 

Dragon was unprepared for this excursion to the realm of stairs. She had a suit that was designed for meetings and paperwork, not for field trials. The thrusters on the unit were intended only for short hops to reach her suit-delivery systems: planes, helicopters, and drones. She was absolutely pressing her luck attempting to transit the folding space of the staircase. At worst she would run out of energy and propellant midway, and fall. 

 

Her mental estimate based on fuel consumption (with a lot of assumptions about local gravity and linear spatial distortion strength) brought the folding of space turning 100m into several kilometers. Even now, at the visual midpoint, she did not really know if she was actually halfway there, but her Point-of-No-Return indicator had turned on. If she went any closer, she would be of no help to anyone.

 

She waved at the man, slowing to a static hover that she hoped conserved fuel.

 

He seemed not to be paying attention, her video cameras caught him closing his eyes and sticking his tongue out. Strange.

 

Then, an unexpected roar. The kind of primal sound that belonged within the midnight savanna. Armsmaster, however, being a human of flesh and blood, understood it in the visceral flight-inducing sound that a base primate would recoil from, and he turned and stared frozen at the source. 

 

The stranger’s face contorted into that of a snarling predator, staring upward at the portal, like it owed him money. But, the snarl and roar did not abate, but seemed to only grow in size and volume, until it was deafening and his maw had not only widened impossibly far in order to accommodate the sound too big for any mortal body.

 

With a suddenness that sent Armsmaster to his ass, and Dragon’s cameras would not have caught, if she weren’t already looking directly at him, he leapt with sufficient energy to leave a crater behind.

 

He sailed up on a ballistic trajectory that told Dragon that he lacked the ability to fly, nor did she see any kind of obvious spatial distortions like Vista made. No, she was pretty sure that he jumped just using his muscles and a lot of yelling.

 

Jumped kilometers straight up to meet her outstretched arms with just muscles and yelling.

 

Dragon was a little impressed.

 

His parabolic arc seemed to slow, but she knew that the area was simply spatially denser than it should be. He seemed to notice this too, and after a moment of falling back down, she desperately maneuvered to avoid missing him.

 

With time and great apparent effort, he finally began his approach to her, his power seemingly exhausted. His carefully cultivated inertia kept him on a parabolic path towards her.

 

Then he sailed up past her, grabbing her by the hand as his ballistic arc swung another quarter of the way to the floor where Armsmaster was. If she hadn’t been there to meet him part way, he would have failed to jump, and fallen several kilometers to the ceiling again. Dragon only had to turn her thrusters up to get them back the last 25% of the distance, which was fortunate, since the stranger clearly outweighed the safe load for her suit.

 

Up close, Dragon could clearly see that the man was possessed of an appearance that was more fitting a Case 53 than a normal human. His skin is bright emerald green, almost the same color and shimmer as an iridescent beetle shell; it was tattooed in an exotic pattern of intertwining roses while his face, ears and upper body were heavily decorated with gleaming silver piercings. His eyes were ruby red. His hair was beyond frost-white, passing into the realm of being almost opalescent. 

 

Armsmaster was on his feet again when they returned. “Dragon, that was even more dangerous than either of us anticipated! Your telemetry showed several orders of magnitude of spatial distortions! Are you okay?”

 

She touched down, forcing her thrusters into cooldown to avoid wasting any more fuel. “Turned out okay so far. Thank god that guy can jump kilometers on his own, or I would have had to leave him behind.”

 

Armsmaster turned to regard the stranger, who was staring up at the portal like he was about to attack it. Armsmaster reached reflexively for his spear, before realizing that it was just a metal baton until he repaired it. The stranger had not appeared aggressive before, but everything about his stance and motion spoke of a stalking beast.

 

“Yeah good thing.” he leaned in to whisper to Dragon. “Did he attack you?”

 

“What? No!” 

 

“Okay. Do you think he’s safe to bring back?”

 

“Maybe. It’s hard to get a read on this guy.”

 

He sighed, and poked his radio. “Dispatch, this is Armsmaster. Three to retrieve. Dispatch Vista and someone with a lot of rope. Also please transfer me to PRT Dispatch.”

 

“Dispatch here, will comply and standby. Turning you over to PRT Dispatch.”

 

“Roger Dispatch.”

 

“PRT Dispatch speaking.”

 

“Armsmaster here, PRT. I need a hot bath at the demo labs.”

 

“Armsmaster, hot bath for one?”

 

“Two, plus company, PRT.”

 

“Request received Armsmaster. Three away.”

 

Dragon knew that Armsmaster had ordered a Quarantine team. The details were a little hazy, since the updated codes were local changes, but the ‘company’ part seemed important. She looked over at the stranger. 

 

Without warning, his arms seemed to untangle from their apparent disguise of human flesh. Unknotting to flex outward into tangles of countless coiling grey tendrils. They were not quite roots, and not quite tentacles. 

 

Armsmaster gagged. Dragon lacked the capacity to sympathize.

 

Where the arms had been, the tendril-knots/limbs seemed to stretch easily up to the ‘ceiling’ (a different staircase from where the stranger had been trapped), and poked physically around the hole of the box. It was hard to make out, but the opening of the box seemed far too small to permit a full person to pass through it. 

 

The stranger snarled again, before seemingly disappearing. 

 

Dragon’s cameras, intended for fine-detailed facial analysis during meetings barely caught the stranger exploding into a torrent of needle-fine tendrils and threading almost instantly through the too-small opening. 

 

--

 

Vista just barely entered the lab she had been paged to. It was the first real Emergency call she’d gotten in a while, and it made her a little giddy to be taken seriously. She sprinted, nearly out of breath into the doorway, expecting someone to be attacking the lab, or someone attempting to teleport into the building.

 

What she found instead was a hairy bearded buck-naked man covered in coffee and jam, stuffing his face with seemingly every donut within reach on the catering table he was crouched on top of. The man seemed oblivious to the security staff and PRT officers all pointing guns and tasers at him.

 

Vista stood in the doorway, her jaw agape.

 

“Is this another prank? If so, it's in bad taste guys.”

 

Director Piggot stood there, holding a gun at the stranger’s back. “Vista, this is no prank. This unknown cape teleported in here. Armsmaster and Dragon are trapped in that box on the table.”

 

“What? Really?” she turned and looked at the box, recognizing it from a week earlier. “Oh! I had no idea Armsmaster was demoing that today! Sorry, I should have been here!”

 

“Don’t apologize to me, Vista. I’m not the one trapped in a box by weird science.”

 

Vista looked at the stranger, who seemed to be closing his eyes and murmuring happily in a foreign language while he ate a danish. “Did I get called in to deal with this guy or the box?”

 

“I don’t know, Armsmaster called in a Quarantine squad for three, but did not call out a hostile.”

 

She noticed the arm opposite her was less of an arm, and more of an array of kind of disgustingly meaty vines that searched the floor adjacent the catering table for spilled morsels of food before stuffing them into the mouth of the naked man. He licked the sticky fingers of his other hand happily.

 

“Uhh… I’m just gonna radio Armsmaster to make sure.” Eww! She touched her earpiece. “Armsmaster, this is Vista, are you there? Can you hear me in that box?”

 

“Armsmaster to Vista, I can hear you loud and clear. Very important, do not let anyone turn the power off to the box! We could get stranded here.”

 

“Okay, I will make sure of that. Did you call me to extract you, or deal with this naked guy?”

 

“Naked guy? The stranger? Negative, Dragon says he is weird but probably not hostile. He was in here before with us, I don’t know how he got out.”

 

“I can ask him?”

 

Dragon chimed in over the radio “Dragon to Vista, stranger doesn’t speak English. At least I don’t think he does. He is probably a cape. Let the security staff know he’s enough of a Brute to jump a few kilometers straight up, and he’s a likely Changer. Didn’t seem hostile when we were interacting. Is he in the room with you?”

 

Vista looked over at him, unsure of what to think. She conveyed the situation to Piggot, who briefly thanked her before calling in an anti-brute squad and ordering the assembled security officers to focus fire on center of mass, should the stranger prove hostile. “Yeah, the naked guy is eating… donuts I think.”

 

Dragon’s mic went live, and then toggled back off a couple times. “Say again?”

 

“The naked brute is eating donuts and danishes. He’s on top of the food table covered in jam and coffee.”

 

“That’s what I thought I heard. Okay, let me know if that changes, alright?”

 

“Armsmaster here. Vista, priorities!”

 

“Oh.. yes sir.”

 

“We need you to extract us. The interior space of this box has variable folding, per Dragon’s observations up to three orders of magnitude.”

 

She leaned over the edge of the box, using her own powers to keep herself stable. “I can see you, but you don’t look like you’re inside the box. Where are you?”

 

Dragon answered. “An Escher drawing of stairs.”

 

“H-how?” sputtered Vista with obvious confusion.

 

Armsmaster continued, “Not important right now. I don’t know how stable this place is, and I don’t know how long the circuits will hold out before they burn themselves up from the load this is putting on them. Vista, priority is getting us out, or else we’ll be stranded with no clear way of coming back.”

 

Vista nodded and set her jaw. “Yes sir. Both of you stay put until I tell you to move. This is going to be tricky.” While she wasn’t directly able to view spatial distortions, her power gave her a kind of kinetic feedback when she started to apply her own powers. All she knew from trying to stabilize herself was that, like playing Operation, she needed to avoid touching the side-walls of the box. She wasn’t sure exactly what would happen, but it was the same kind of feeling she had when standing next to a long drop. 

 

To begin with, she needed to establish a shaft of x-axis and z-axis compression down to the trapped pair, so they could fit through the relatively narrow neck of the box. Then y-axis expansion beneath their feet, to make an elevator. Each individual step was something she knew how to do, but with the weird overloading of the box, there seemed to be some kind of oscillating compression and expansion of space near the walls of the box, even if she didn’t touch them directly. 

 

She had to be calm. This was all about control, not power. 

 

Inhale. 

 

Exhale.

 

“Director Piggot!” cried one of the security staff. “The brute is eating the tablecloth and the trash can! Should we stop him?”

 

Inhale.

 

The intercom sounded with an audible beeping. “Attention, Quarantine protocols are in effect for this area. Please do not leave the room without the authorization from a Cleaner.”

 

Exhale.

 

The door slammed open. “Director Piggot, we have the anti-Brute specialists here, where’s the target?”

 

Inhale.

 

One of the security officers behind her shouted. “Brute, you are destroying Protectorate property! Put down the table or you will be made to comply!”

 

Vista turned around with a glare, and everyone in the room was flattened against the far wall by resized furniture. “Everyone shut up! If you distract me, Armsmaster and Dragon could die!”

 

Everyone except the naked guy, whose limbs somehow seemed to fuse with the floor while he was physically eating the wooden table that the food had been on. The trash can and coffee carafe were missing.

 

Piggot shot her a look that promised unceasing bureaucratic retaliation. Vista’s butt clenched at the realization of what she had done. “Just give me a minute! Then you can go back to whatever.”

 

She turned back to the box, now that the room was silent. 

 

Inhale.

 

Try to ignore the fact that she’d stuffed the crippled PRT Director into a wall.

 

Exhale.

 

Try not to think about the fact that her boss would literally die if she fucked up.

 

Inhale.

 

Try to ignore the wet snapping crunch of tearing wood behind her, where a naked Brute was eating a table while ignoring her powers.

 

Exhale.

 

At least she couldn’t kill Dragon if she fucked up, since it was just a remote suit.

 

That was the one positive thing she could think of. 

 

She looked back at that naked Brute. How had he safely exited the hole? 

 

Maybe it wasn’t that hard.

 

Maybe she should stop psyching herself out.

 

Vista began, starting her shaft through the middle third of the available space. Not so small that it became difficult to control, and not so large that she was brushing the oscillating interference from the walls. She could see the shaft descend, and then she tried to wriggle it, just enough to get a feel for the space inside.

 

There only issue she had was trying to time it all so that she would not touch the oscillating walls, nor Armsmaster’s flesh. It felt like being inside a clothes dryer. One full of clothes that explode if you touch them. She had no time for a better analogy.

 

Slowly, oh so slowly, she extracted the floor that Armsmaster and Dragon had been on. By the time they stepped off the marble platform, Vista was covered with sweat and her hands visibly shaking from the adrenaline.

 

As she released everything with a pop, she fell to the ground and tried hard to catch her breath. Behind her, the majority of the room came away from the wall all at once, confused as to what to pay attention to first.

 

The door nearby slammed open, “Rope delivery!”

 

Dragon walked over to Vista, and hugged her. “Thank you so much for saving us!”

 

Armsmaster turned behind the strange area of the box’s orifice, and attempted to poke the power-lever off with his spear-turned-baton. 

 

Piggot scrambled to establish order. “All teams, on me! Isolate the Brute in Quarantine, and get the Cleaners in here as soon as the power gets shut off. Don’t let anyone else in or out of the room without the Cleaners go-ahead. Someone with a working radio call legal. Tell them we have a new immigrant, and ask them for guidance. Also, someone call in a translator, we need to figure out how to talk to this idiot before he eats something valuable.”

 

Her team busied themselves, and a sudden silence fell on the room; Armsmaster was successful. 

 

She walked over to Vista. “Let me make this perfectly clear: when its life or death, you need to make judgement calls. Today you saved the head of the local Protectorate. Did you need to crush your unpowered allies in the PRT using your powers? Could you have simply shouted louder? If it’s impossible for you to be that loud, could you prepare something mundane to make up for your weakness, like a megaphone? Think about your answers to these problems while you are reassigned to babysitting the naked Brute covered in jam that doesn’t speak English. Hope you weren’t itching for more patrols.” 

 

Vista paled. Piggot’s punishment could have been much worse, considering that she was well within her rights to demand actual imprisonment. But… if the protocols were anything above ‘not a threat’ level, she’d be putting in long shifts staring at the naked guy just in case he tried something.

 

Dragon patted her on the back. “If it is any consolation, I might be able to put together a translator, if you can get enough reference points for me. Then maybe you can ask him to put on pants.” Dragon snickered.

 

Vista pouted.

 

--

 

Director Piggot had Dragon, Armsmaster, a PRT lawyer, and a dozen armed PRT officers equipped with anti-Brute devices all in a reasonably large conference room. Across the table from them, stuck inside of a triple-sealed Hazmat Suit was the (less) naked Brute. 

 

While the Director had been waiting for the lawyer to arrive via helicopter from the PRT offices on shore, she had been amusing herself with the Quarantine team. Each and every person in the demo lab had been scanned and scrubbed, if they’d been exposed to detectable levels of radiation, chemical contaminants, or pathogenic microbes. 

 

A practical woman, the Director had been among the first in line for scanning. She was a busy woman, but also understood what happened when people didn’t follow protocols. The device had put out negligible levels of radiation, save for being an apparent neutron source. Piggot didn’t know enough physics to personally understand what that meant, but deferred to the safety consultants that the Quarantine team had on call.

 

She had been cleared after a few minutes. Armsmaster, Dragon, and Vista had not been so lucky. Evidently, Dragon’s remotely piloted armor was radioactive now, and needed replacement. Armsmaster needed radiation treatment, but some truly paranoid hardening in his gear kept it from being in the same bag as Dragon. His hand was partially cooked on the inside, and would need a full treatment elsewhere. 

 

Vista had been especially unlucky, hanging around in the spatial manifold. Her costume would be incinerated. Piggot had grinned while Vista was being shoved into the chemical showers. They were alternatingly entirely too hot and too cold, Piggot knew from personal experience, as well as being less water and more caustics and soap. Hopefully she wouldn’t suffer any long term health effects, outside of being scrubbed raw. Piggot was spiteful, but knew not to waste her forces.

 

The Quarantine team saved the naked Brute for last. Scanning him turned up strange results. First, that he was massively radioactive, to the point that he should probably be dead. Second, they had scanned him for chemical contaminants, only to have the machine confirm that there were not any surface contaminants, but that all of his blood was flagged as a contaminant. Third, they’d checked him for pathogens, only to turn up an impossible slurry of (more or less) every pathogen they had a detector for, as well as a few that they’d never seen but which were flagged as probable pathogens. His weird caustic blood was home to the pathogens that couldn’t logically live there, as well as seemingly containing some kind of toxic compounds.

 

They’d scrubbed and tried to clean him, but all they did was wash off the surface. He was internally as radioactive as he had been before, but his skin would contain it enough to get him in a hazmat suit. As a Brute, the suit would do little enough to stop him if he tore it off, but it was functional enough to keep the staff safe.

 

The biggest surprise to Piggot was Armsmaster coming up to her after he was cleared, and quietly demanding that the ‘Dimensional Traveller’ be kept at a Probationary member of the Protectorate under Brockton Bay. It was a mixed prerogative, where new capes were assigned. Both sides usually had to agree before any transfer was scheduled. He could be paraphrased: ‘he broke my toy, so I have dibs on his alien secrets’.

 

Piggot was not going to waste the opportunity to have Armsmaster owe her a favor for doing more or less nothing. Demanding paperwork works much better with a little extra leverage. She agreed, provided that the lawyers and the Brute both cooperated. She would have no unaccountable Rogues in her house, if she could help it. It went without saying that a particularly unruly Protectorate member would be transferred somewhere safe, like Greenland. Now, Armsmaster would have to keep that Brute well behaved and a model member of the Protectorate, if he wanted his toy alien.

 

She agreed, making a few calls to prepare her staff for the special assignment paperwork.

 

All she needed to do was figure out how to get that idiot Brute to sign paperwork via pantomime.

 

Which was why they were assembled at the conference room.

 

Piggot turned to address her assembled agents: “Right now we stand so gathered to determine the legal standing of this man. He is apparently a parahuman of some kind, but does not speak any languages that we know. Dragon I believe you commented on that on your first meeting?”

 

“Correct Director, upon first contact, he cycled through several languages I did not recognize, nor did any of my linguistic corpora databases. So he either speaks exclusively in nearly universally obscure languages from uncontacted New Guinean tribes. Or, per Armsmaster’s interpretation, he is not from this Earth, nor does he appear to be from Earth Aleph. I cannot rule it out, given the strange nature of the directionless void of staircases where we met him.”

 

“So, we need to figure out what category that puts this guy in, without being able to talk to him.”

 

The lawyer coughed. “Director, I don’t believe that it’s a good idea to have him sign paperwork that he cannot possibly read or have explained to him. It certainly would get thrown out by any competent judge.”

 

The guy in question could only stare at them blankly, a look of frustration evident through the glass of the hazmat visor. The guy slapped a palm on the table top, with a resounding thud. Everyone looked back and forth at each other, aware that they had been talking about him as though he were not there.

 

The brute in the hazmat suit pointed at the assembled, and then at himself, and then mimed walking, before pointing in a rather precise downward angle.

 

Piggot stared at him, uncertain.

 

Dragon spoke up. “I rather like charades. I think he wants us to walk over … uh… “ she pointed where he had. He nodded his head. “Over there.” She pulled up her maps, and could not see anything particularly outstanding in that direction. All that was over there were support structures and docks.

 

“Is he trying to arrange an escape?” asked Piggot.

 

“I don’t know.” stated Armsmaster.

 

Dragon pantomimed a question, tilting her head like a curious dog.

 

The brute pointed to Piggot and Dragon, and mimed talking. He tapped himself and pointed at Piggot, and shook his head while again miming speech. Then he mimed walking and repeated the talking gesture between him and Piggot, but shook his head yes.

 

Armsmaster muttered. “This is a waste of time.”

 

“He keeps trying to get us to leave…” Piggot supplied.

 

“Uh… I think I have an idea.” Dragon said, uncertainly. “He can’t talk to us now. We will walk with him over there. Then he will talk to us.”

 

“That doesn’t make any sense.” said Armsmaster. 

 

Dragon shrugged her suit.

 

“Does anyone think this is too dangerous to try?” Piggot inquired of the assembled heroes and anti-brute team. 

 

The Quarantine team shrugged. The anti-Brute team shook their heads. Dragon shook her head no. Armsmaster stood impassively.

 

“We need to get at least two more hands on. Just in case. I’ll call in the Wards who are on standby, and Vista, since the Director gave her punishment detail already. Remember, we can’t trust the unknown.” 

 

--

 

A few minutes later, Vista walked down the hallway, red like an awful sunburn, and dressed in a spare uniform that was two sizes too small, and hung off her like capris. She ran into Dean and Vicky, half in their costumes. 

 

“Afternoon, Missy!’ said Dean, in a pleasant tone that soothed Vista’s heart.

 

“You look like a boiled lobster!” said Vicky with a smirk that undid Dean’s efforts.

 

“Oh ha ha, Vicky. It’s been a long day.”

 

“I can see that. Are you alright?” asked Dean, leaning closer to examine her. Vista was just glad she couldn't turn more red.

 

“I saved Armsmaster and Dragon from a lab accident. This was anti-radiation stuff from Quarantine.”

 

“That does sound like a busy morning.” Dean said, nodding.

 

“Would you happen to know what we’re all being paged for at once? There isn’t a claxon or anything, so I wasn’t sure.” Vicky asked, slightly more cordial now that she knew Missy wasn’t red because of something stupid and teasable.

 

“God I hope not.” Vista groaned.

 

“Huh?” Glory Girl grunted.

 

The three opened the door to the room they’d been summoned to. 

 

“Oh dammit!” shouted Vista.

 

Glory Girl and Gallant just looked at her in confusion. They followed her gaze, seeing her cursing aimed at a stranger in a hazmat suit. Gallant stepped in front of her, protectively. Glory Girl just looked on in confusion.

 

Director Piggot sat across from the stranger, and Armsmaster looked at them expectantly, before ordering them, “You three are our backup eyes on this guy. Glory Girl, be prepared, he can apparently jump a couple kilometers straight up and shapeshift. You’re on counter-Brute duty. Gallant, try to keep an eye on him, and let us know if you get anything from him that might be useful. We’re trying to figure out how to get this guy to sign paperwork. He doesn’t speak English. Vista, you’re his escort for the time being, you know why.”



Vista sighed. “At least you got him to wear pants.”

 

Glory Girl just stared at Vista, and then back at the guy in the hazmat suit. She shook her head, no time for riling the girl up now.

 

Gallant stared at the guy in the hazmat suit. He held up his hand quickly. “I think he’s hungry.”

 

Piggot frowned. “Trust me he’s eaten.”

 

--

 

Playing charades seemed to be the only way to communicate headings while the group of 20 walked down the corridors that had been rather deliberately emptied of non-essential foot traffic. Half the paths were vetoed by the PRT staff, half the ones they wanted to use were met with a shake of the head from the brute.

 

Eventually they wound up at the docks that faced out into the open ocean. They were typically disused, given that most sea traffic came from landward. 

 

The group walked to a landing that was just inches above the high-tide line. Glory Girl hovered just above their heads, while the rest of the armed personnel took up positions that gave them a clear shot. The entire trip was unhurried, and slow. By the time they had arrived there, it was nearly 16:00. 

 

Armsmaster put his foot down. “No further!” He blocked the brute’s path to the water.

 

The brute laughed. 

 

Armsmaster engaged in a staring contest with the brute, though he was cheating using his opaque visor. 

 

Gallant spoke up. “Armsmaster, I think you’re annoying him. Also, I don’t think Glory Girl’s Aura is working on him.”

 

The brute grinned, nodding and planting his feet. He pointed at Armsmaster as though brushing aside a fly. The brute spoke in a language that none of them had yet heard. 

 

The choppy waters of Brockton Bay around the HQ calmed within 4 kilometers in all directions. 

 

The wind stopped. 

 

Tidal currents halted. 

 

Throughout the unnaturally calmed sea, pulsing of yellow-green phosphorescent light some 10m wide slowly rose to the surface, like pustules on diseased skin. They churned, up-gassing opaque green vapors, and strobing in place like the opening of great staring eyes beneath the water’s surface. 

 

Enormous shadows of alien nightmares rose up to swim just beneath the surface, turning the calm waters into an ominous froth. Never cresting, the beasts could be seen only as silhouettes against the eldritch glow. Like some kind of manifestation of countless ancient horrors long since forgotten. 

 

Soon deep, mournful lowing rose up from the depths, followed by countless glowing firefly motes that drifted up into the sky and could be seen for many kilometers.

 

Then the song began, emanating from the collective voice of all aquatic existence: the waves, the wind, the waters, and all living things within them. It was no recognizable language, but everyone understood the words as a matter of instinct: The Sea’s greatness is unending, her power terrifying, her reach limitless, her love/hate (they are the same) boundless and inescapable.

 

Armsmaster was not a superstitious man, but he felt the kind of primitive fear that a child does when encountering the unfathomable deepness of the sea. Instinctive fear. He didn’t ever realize that he had frozen up until Piggot started shouting at the brute to keep his hazmat suit on.

 

By the time he had turned around, the Brute was already naked, and slipping into the sea waters still churning with eldritch *things*. The man lazily dipped into the glowing waters, before cupping handfuls of it and ceremonially pouring it over his head.

 

Director Piggot’s cell rang. “Yes, Dispatch, I know something is happening out in the bay. Tell Air Traffic control and the Harbormaster to divert traffic around the glowing area. I don’t know any details, and I don’t want to chance something dangerous coming out of it.” Piggot grabbed at a firefly mote. Her hand passed right through it. “I think it’s just a big illusion. I don’t know.”

 

The Quarantine team which had been trying to get the brute back into the hazmat suit waved at Piggot. “Director, he's not radioactive anymore. I don’t know how, but the geiger counter doesn’t even pick up background radiation on him.”

 

The brute stood up naked from the water again. This time his unruly bushy beard and hair had seemingly been washed away with the seawater, leaving him looking neatly coiffed. The brute spoke in a tone of relief, and ran his hands through the long wet white locks pulling it behind his ears.

 

Glory Girl looked on. She could see an unnaturally tall and wiry man, possessed of a grace and poise that seems at odds with his appearance. His face was long, with a cleft chin barely hidden by his beard, with high cheekbones, and he has a variety of symmetric facial piercings of gleaming silver. His skin was bright emerald green, like some kind of bright coral-dwelling fish. The tattoo seemed to move and shift slowly, but she could not tell if it was just a trick of the light. His ruby red gaze possessed of a shrewd piercing quality. His hair was almost opalescent white, not at all like the worn dull color of the aged. His voice was neither too deep nor high, but had a melodic twang when he spoke ceremonially to the sea, like he was a step off of spitting verse. 

 

It was hard to tell whether his face looked more like mediterranean, african, or polynesian, now that his hair and skin were clean. Whatever he was, his muscled physique glistened in the yellow-green light. A trail of glowing algae slowly slid down his body to trace his nude manhood. Where had the crazed homeless man gone? This was an attractive man. He was handsome, in a solid and angular kind of way that was almost universally exotic.

 

Those assembled were largely professional enough to ignore it. The Wards were not among them. 

 

“What the fuck!?” shouted Glory Girl.

 

Vista felt conflicting feelings comparing the man who looked like he should be a marble statue,  with the memory of the same guy covered in sticky jam and with an arm made of gross.

 

Impulsively (for him), Gallant walked up to the naked man and tried to hand him his jacket, trying to get the brute to cover himself, pointing at the flashed women.

 

Piggot walked right up to, and stared at him in the eyes. “We’re here. Are you done wasting time?”

 

Dragon moved up to attempt miming the Director's question. The brute shook his head and sat down.

 

“Well?” asked Armsmaster. 

 

Dragon shrugged. Some of the staff started to walk away.

 

The brute stood up and whistled at them, before motioning for them to return.

 

Piggot was growing impatient, but could not imagine a situation where a hostile brute would call over PRT officers that were leaving him alone out of boredom.

 

The guy pointed at the sun, and then at the horizon.

 

Dragon looked at her internal clock, and saw that it read 201104111630, she guessed: “I think he’s waiting till sundown.”

Chapter 3: Probably Just An Illusion

Chapter Text

Vista stood next to Gallant and Glory Girl with her arms wrapped around herself. “I can’t believe this is real.” she said, gesturing off towards the sea full of madness.

 

Gallant gave her a reassuring hug. “I wish it wasn’t. I can sense … it's like the whole ocean is feeling … well it’s hard to put into words… reverence isn’t right. Obligation? ”

 

Glory Girl scoffed. “You heard Piggot, this is probably just a large-scale illusion. I will admit it was funny to see Armsmaster freeze up mid-staredown, but all this is overdoing it, don’t you think?”

 

Vista shrugged. 

 

Gallant shook his head. 

 

The brute finally stood up. Sundown was nearly there, and the PRT staff and heroes once again became focused and professional. Almost hoping that the brute would try something, after wasting their time with illusions and swimming.

 

They watched him kneel down at the edge of the ocean’s still glowing surface, and touch it. He spoke quietly enough that only Dragon’s mics picked up his words. She thought it was the same language he’d used before the seas turned weird.

 

After his short interaction with the waters, he stood up, took a few steps back, and folded his arms. Dragon saw him staring expectantly out at the sea, but did not know why.

 

Three minutes later, the top of a bald woman’s head popped out of the glowing sea water. She quickly slid up and out of the water to stand proudly nude in front of the brute, who stood with his arms crossed across his chest.

 

All could see the woman was both strange in appearance, as well as possessing a kind of universally appealing mien. The assembled might have assumed she was a Case 53, given that her flesh was lavender, her eyes dark and without pupils, and her neck seemed to have gill slits. However, her flesh was pierced in several places, forming elegant traceries of gleaming jewelry and chains of delicate brass links that looked both refined and painful. She wore some kind of exotic wide collar of golden metal that reminded one of stacked neck rings of ancient tribal cultures.

 

The brute spoke two words to her, and she gasped in shock with one hand partially over her mouth. As soon as she had time to react, she fell to her knees in front of him, kowtowing with her head upon the ground before his feet.

 

She fell silent. The brute asked her something while she was on the ground. It appeared that her muffled response satisfied him, and he bid her rise. When she did, she kept her head bowed, and eyes on the ground in front of her feet.

 

The brute grinned and pointed at the assembled PRT and Protectorate staff. The purple woman looked at them all, as though she had not noticed them. He pointed again. She stepped forward, carefully remaining off center, so as not to stand between the brute and the crowd.

 

Her voice was warm and sweet. “My Lord bids me act as his translator. Do you all speak English?”

 

Surprisingly, Piggot was the first to respond. “What do you mean ‘My Lord’?” Her face was skeptical bordering on hostility.

 

“A thousand apologies My Lord,” she bowed her head again in disgrace. “Allow me to introduce His Grace, Lintha Sennong Dictator Admiral-of-Admirals Grandfather Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner, Green Sun Prince and Peer of the Thing Infernal, Sherden Caste and Favored by Metagaos and Cecelyne, Surgeon-General and Plaguemaster of the Reclamation, Grandmaster of the Green Sun Kingdom, Conqueror of An-Teng, He-Who-Waits Demiurgos of The Order of the Locust, and The Tide That Drowns Cities and Swallows Gods!”

 

“Bullshit.” said Piggot. “This is just another dumb illusion.” She walked up and waved her hand at the purple naked woman, moving to pass through her just like the firefly lights. Her hand stopped with a meaty slap of palm on plump titflesh. 

 

“Madam, I have other employment now, please save that for another time!” purred the purple woman.

 

The brute spoke, moving to place himself between Piggot and the woman. The purple woman shuddered, though it was unclear if it was pleasure or fear. She translated.  “My Lord demands to know why you strike his subordinate.”

 

Piggot frowned, attempting to stare down the towering naked man. It worked no better for her than it did for Armsmaster. Though the man’s eyes had been lax and indolent for most of the day, there was a hard edge to them that she remembered from staring down the beasts of Elisburg. It did nothing but harden her jaw. 

 

The silence dragged on, Piggot eventually answered. “It is time for introductions. Though I remain unconvinced of the truth of his claims, I will concede that you ma’am are solid.”

 

The purple woman translated her words. The brute frowned, and replied. It was translated, “And what would convince you, person who has not done the courtesy of her name?” 

 

Piggot planted her hand on her hip. “I am Director Piggot, I run the Parahuman Response Team for the East-North-East Directorate. I do not appreciate your attitude, and I remain unconvinced of the veracity of your claims. The wide-scale illusion is mildly impressive, but that is all it is.”

 

After receiving the translation he laughed. His reply translated, “I have not used even a single illusion yet. You doubt that I am real? Then let me spar with your proxy, Director. I do not care if you doubt my titles. They matter not in these lands anyway.”

 

Piggot stroked her chin, “Spar with my proxy? Perhaps... “

 

Glory Girl slammed down from above, before dramatically rising from one knee. “Oh! Oh! Director, let me do it!”

 

Piggot looked over at her, then back at Armsmaster. He shrugged. The Director nodded. “Fine. Don’t hold back.” she turned and pointed. “Fight her to submission, and I’ll believe you aren’t just trying to trick us.”

 

The naked brute walked over, and looked the costumed teenager over. His words were translated, “You pick a child for your Champion? Truly she is no older than the Great-Great Grandchildren of my Great-Great Grandchildren.”

 

Glory Girl stomped, shaking the metal flooring, “And how old are you supposed to be, oh great conqueror? Also, I refuse to fight you without you putting on pants.”

 

The translated response was, “I do not know how long has passed since I left my world, but I am well beyond 800. Tell me, do all people within this dimension possess powers as you and your companions?”

 

Vicky’s jaw worked without speaking. “Dimension? You mean Earth Bet?”

 

The purple woman supplied an answer without translating. “We are both from Malfeas, An-Teng and Sennong Sept are in Creation. Neither of those are these ‘Earths’ as your worlds call themselves. The universe is unimaginably big.”

 

“Still, get him to put on pants, or I won’t fight him.” replied Vicky with a shrug. She was hardly a cosmologist. “And, no, not everyone has parahuman powers.”

 

Gallant was kind enough to supply a pair of pants. He had called in a favor from the Costume Department to get it delivered to the docks while they were waiting. They were little more than standard bluejeans. He was now mostly dressed, incorrectly wearing the jacket from Gallant’s earlier attempt to cover him, like a cape.

 

Afterwards, the two intending to spar moved to an open area nearby. The words from his translator, “His Grace, Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner, says that if you want him to take you seriously, young girl, that you must begin the fight hitting him as hard as you can; he will give you a free shot and do nothing to defend himself. If you cannot even draw blood, he will consider your part in the fight forfeit.”

 

Glory Girl growled. Gallant walked up from behind her, and whispered. “Vicky, I don’t think your aura works on him. At least, I haven’t seen any reaction from him. Please be careful.” He squeezed her hand, supportively. 

 

“I keep getting grounded for being too rough. I’m looking forward to letting loose on someone who is literally asking for it, and putting that pompous guy on his ass.”

 

Piggot had Dragon setup extra cameras, to make sure that any illusions would be detected by at least one of them. Armsmaster seemed to be quietly rooting for Glory Girl, though it was hard to tell.

 

The two squared off. The brute shouted, and his translator supplied, “My Lord commands you to hit him as hard as you can.” He stood on both feet, unbraced, with his hands in the pockets of his pants, the picture of relaxed contempt. 

 

Vicky hated being ordered around by her own parents and direct superiors, let alone some random smug asshole. The fact that he wasn’t even taking her seriously galled her to no end. She flexed her knuckles, remembering the last time she’d punched a brute through a concrete wall and out the other side. 

 

Harder. She needed more momentum. She had to make a point.

 

Glory Girl flew up into the air, leaping up to rocket skyward, then flipping acrobatically to shoot away from the impassively standing brute. The PRT staff looked on in confusion, but Gallant covered his mouth, recalling the last time Glory Girl had done this to an armored tank. Needless to say she was radiating indignant fury that he didn’t even need his powers to see.

 

Harder. She needed more speed.

 

She flew up at an angle, before twisting sharply to dive at a sharp intercept trajectory with the knuckles of her right fist aimed directly at the brute’s stupid cocky grin.

 

{{Att Pool: (aug)Dex 5 +(aug)Brawl 5 +1 Spec(Punching) +3 Aim +3 Stunt = 14d10; Author Rolls: 11 successes. Target permits attack, DV’s inapplicable. Damage Pool: (aug)Str10+Weapon12B(O 4) + Carry Over Accuracy dice 11 = 33B; Target Natural Bashing Hardness: 14 (33=bypassed); Target Natural Bashing Soak: 14; Net: 19B; Author Rolls Final Damage: 12B HL; Target HLs: 70 total; 7 Base HL (-0/-0/ -1/-1/ -2/-2/ -4/ INCAP) + 7xHardened Devil Body (7x(-2/-2/-2/ -4)=28 HL) + 7xDeath Is For The Weak (7x(INCAP/ INCAP/ INCAP/ INCAP/ INCAP)=35 Incap HL’s; Current Wound Penalty: -2; Target activates By Pain Reforged with damage}}

 

Glory Girl’s force-field clad knuckles impacted the smug grin with enough force that the metal deck plating of the dock dented underfoot. True to his word, the brute did not defend himself, no dodging or parrying, but his body did flex enough to direct the momentum that would have sent him flying into the water into the deck plates instead. 

 

His nose and lips split from the blow, bleeding first green sizzling fluid, followed moments later by  glowing molten brass that quickly cooled into solid armored plugs for the holes in his damaged face. 

 

The brute looked up at her after she came to a halt just in front of his face, and wiped a smudge of cooling green blood from his split lip. He belly laughed and bellowed something that the purple woman did not translate.

 

He stood before her and inhaled before a blue-green glowing disc briefly appeared floating in front of his forehead. He opened his eyes and looked at her in a way that was remarkably different from before, seemingly searching strange places on her body. Staring at her hands and stomach, among other places. 

 

He walked around her briefly, speaking. The translator spoke, “As one of the foremost occult experts of Malfeas, it is within my powers to know and recall  flavors of all of men and beasts. I know your blood now, ‘Parahuman’, to be of an accord with the God-Blooded or Demon-Blooded, though your exact nature is obscure. Your flesh is not where your strength lies. Fields of force are your armor and your weapon and your wings; even your aura is of a kind. Yet they are not the absolute touch of She Who Lives In Her Name.” The purple woman shuddered as she translated the rest, this time the fear was unmistakable. “Nor is your aura anything compared to the oppression of Cecelyne’s grinding law. You are weak, and ignorant. I will forgive this. You will lose knowing that I will not have used even the barest fraction of my might. I played harder with my children.”

 

Glory Girl looked beyond mad. 

 

Armsmaster called out. “Wait, did he just imply he can detect powers?”

 

Piggot shook her head. “Don’t believe anything he says, all he did was take a punch so far. Psych-out tactics are hardly anything new. It’s also quite possible that translator is helping him. She seemed to know English well enough to imply that she might know famous heroes too.”

 

The brute continued through his translator. “We shall start fighting now.” He said before moving to the opposite side of the cleared area, and performing a ceremonial (Bao Quan) salute with a nod and his left hand covering his right fist. 

 

Glory Girl ignored his pleasantry, and immediately channeled her rage to make up for the lack of momentum from flying, bracing her feet against the deckplate as she shoved off, crumpling the inch-thick steel. 

 

{{Att Pool: (aug)Dex 5 +(aug)Brawl 5 +1 Spec(Punching) +3 Stunt +5(Channels Valor) = 19d10; Author Rolls: 13 successes. Target Parries, Current Unarmed Parry DV 10. Net Accuracy Successes = 13-10 = 3; Damage Pool: (aug)Str10+Weapon12B(O 4) + Carry Over Accuracy dice 3 = 25B; Target Natural Bashing Hardness: 14 (25=bypassed); Target Natural Bashing Soak: 14 + (Armored With Suffering for -2@ESS7=)14=28 B Soak; Net: 0B + Overwhelming 4, but Basalt Flesh Withering sets min damage to 0, so Net=0B no min; Target HLs: 70 total; 7 Base HL (-0/-0/ -1/-1/ -2/-2/ -4/ INCAP) + 7xHardened Devil Body (7x(-2/-2/-2/ -4)=28 HL) + 7xDeath Is For The Weak (7x(INCAP/ INCAP/ INCAP/ INCAP/ INCAP)=35 Incap HL’s; Current Wound Penalty: -2 (0 With By Pain Reforged); Target Activates Laughing Wounds Form for 5m}}

 

The brute barely moved, more like transitioning from standing into a braced headbutt against Glory Girls force-field clad fist. Her blow’s energy was redirected into a glancing blow against his newly brass-coated face. It still would have killed a lesser man, but instead, made his right foot punch through the deck plate.  He quickly extracted his foot, and began to laugh again. It was different somehow, a kind of frenetic madness laced behind it.

 

Only the neomah knew enough to brace herself in terror, ready to flee. Everyone else seemed to feel some instinctual unease, suddenly going silent as the birds in a forest with the passing of a predator. For the neomah however, it was a whole world of difference between abstractly knowing his titles, and actually seeing the Grandmaster invoke the Laughing Wounds Form mere meters from her. Sadists were unpredictable at the best of times, let alone when their blood got up. She only watched one tear the still beating heart from an opponent's chest once to keep her distance.

 

Glory Girl spun on her heel, bringing a diagonal kick to the side of the man’s knee intended to snap it like a twig. 

 

{{Att Pool: (aug)Dex 5 +(aug)Brawl 5 -1(Fierce Blow) = 9d10; Author Rolls: 5 successes. Target Parries, Current Unarmed Parry DV 10. Net Accuracy Successes = 5-10 = -5; Parried. Target uses Full Defense}}

 

Her heel was caught by the man’s bare hand, and shoved slightly downward to miss him and land with such vigor that she continued through the deck plating and almost ran face-first into her opponent’s chest.  He stepped back and drew in a deep breath, before opening his stance in a way that invited another strike.

 

She obliged him, venting her frustration not just at him, but at all of those who never took her seriously as a hero. Glory Girl was not just an Alexandria clone, and she was not just another Ward in desperate need of adult supervision. She aimed her elbow right at his open chest.

 

{{Att Pool: (aug)Dex 5 +(aug)Brawl 5 +1 Spec(Punching) +3 Stunt +5(Channels Valor) = 19d10; Author Rolls: 14 successes. Target Parries, Current Unarmed Parry DV 10. Net Accuracy Successes = 13-10 = 4; Damage Pool: (aug)Str10+Weapon12B(O 4) + Carry Over Accuracy dice 4 = 26B; Target Natural Bashing Hardness: 14 (26=bypassed); Target Natural Bashing Soak: 14 + (Armored With Suffering for -2@ESS7=)14 =28 B Soak; Net: 0B + Overwhelming 4, but Basalt Flesh Withering sets min damage to 0, so Net=0B no min; Target uses full action to attack.}}

 

She might as well be punching a wall for all the damage her elbow inflicted. “God Dammit! You insufferable asshole!”. Her fists beat against his side in frustration.

 

{{Activates Kiss of The Whip; Att Pool: Wits 7 + Occult 7 + 1(acc) = 15d10; Author Rolls 8 successes. Target activates Perfect Defense, cooldown until DV’s refresh; Miss.}} 

 

His hands shot out into a viscous hook to her exposed back, clearly intending to strike  the sensitive kidneys. The blow stopped with a white glow just a hair's breadth from her skin. When it proved fruitless, the brute twisted his hands back and spoke sharply in Old Realm at her. The translator supplied from the sidelines, as a short shout. “His Grace said ‘You cannot enjoy my gentle touch through your forcefield. What a shame!’”

 

Glory Girl grit her teeth. Imagining those green hands on her person just made her angry. She could work with anger. She flew at him, using her power to turn the simple jump into a short rocket thrust into his side. 

 

{{Att Pool: (aug)Dex 5 +(aug)Brawl 5 +1 Spec(Punching) +3 Stunt +5(Channels Valor) = 19d10; Author Rolls: 6 successes. Target Parries, Current Unarmed Parry DV 10. Net Accuracy Successes = 6-10 = -4; Miss.}} 

 

He swatted her into the deck plates, and her boots caught and sent her careening off into the crowd. She quickly stood up, growling as her aura bore down upon the unfortunate PRT and Wards nearby, making them either quail at her might, or start rooting for her. Her opponent’s reaction was strange, giving her hope that it was working against him, before he shook his head like he was trying to get ringing out of his ears. 

 

The green brute almost immediately followed behind her, jumping after her arc, giving just long enough of a delay for the growl and aura to take effect, before his feet came in, aiming at the outside of her knee joints, designed to cripple her.

 

{{Kiss of The Whip + Groveling Penitence Prana; Att Pool: Wits 7 + Occult 7 + 3 Spec(Sadistic) + 1(acc) +7(BRF) = 25d10; Author Rolls: 13 successes. Target activates Perfect Defense, cooldown until DV’s refresh; Miss.}} 

 

He grunted, half cursing. The translation came out, “I see your forcefield is a perfect defense. No matter, they all have their flaws!”

 

Glory Girl knew that she was running low on her reserves of pure anger. She had maybe two more really good ones left in her. She needed to fight dirty if she wanted any hope of winning. In her fieldwork, she’d learned that her forcefields normally hit things bluntly, but if she made an effort to force her striking surface to narrow, it could pierce an engine block without throwing the car. There were two ways she knew of, both based on Karate techniques: either with the side of her palm, in a Knife-hand Strike, or with her fingertips in a Spearfinger Strike. 

 

She aimed a vicious Spearfinger Strike at the flesh of his throat. 

 

{{Att Pool: (aug)Dex 5 +(aug)Brawl 5 +1 Spec(Punching) +3 Stunt +5(Channels Valor) = 19d10; Author Rolls: 8 successes. Target Parries, Current Unarmed Parry DV 10. Net Accuracy Successes = 8-10 = -2; Miss. }}

 

Her fingers shot out, and the brute quickly grabbed her fingers with both hands. The force from her strike drove him three meters backwards, firmly in the middle of the PRT and Protectorate onlookers. Only a few moved, the rest were either too taken by Glory Girl’s Aura, or were loath to give up their ringside seats.

 

The brute stuck out his wet tongue and moved to lick her face. She thanked her good fortune that her forcefield kept him from making disgusting contact with her. Her growl returned, and she scowled.

 

{{Mariner uses All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s sight analysis option from Palate Without Limit, and enhances the roll with the 2nd Metagaos Excellency: 7 Awareness + 7 Perception = 17d10; Author Rolls: (8 Successes + 7 successes (2ndEx) + 2 succ (Keen (Sense) Discipline))*2(Unsurpassed (Sense) Discipline)=34 Successes. Required Diff:8. Net Degree of Success: 26. Perfect, immediate understanding of the flavor.}}

 

The brute announced something, after licking his lips contemplatively. The purple translator muttered her translation, keeping just barely back and out of the action, but within a single step of the fight. “Yours is… a reflex? You don’t control it, not really. Your fear does. It flickers and dies in a vigorous flash, and then rests. But, for how long? Its tastes alternate briefly. That is how long...”

 

Glory Girl did not want to give him the opportunity to guess what her weakness was. The mere thought of it made her afraid and furious. She bounced off the thick deck plate like a trampoline, and flew up as high as she thought she dared to maintain her aim from, and turned her Spear-fingers into a more literal movement. She plummeted like a guided missile from the sky, applying her flight powers to drive herself into the earth. 

 

{{Att Pool: (aug)Dex 5 +(aug)Brawl 5 +1 Spec(Punching) +3 Stunt +5(Channels Valor) + 3 Aim = 21d10; Author Rolls: 11 successes + 3 succ Stunt bonus. Target Parries, Current Unarmed Parry DV 10. Net Accuracy Successes = 14-10 = 4; Damage Pool: (aug)Str10+Weapon12L(P+O 4) + Carry Over Accuracy dice 4 = 26L; Target Natural Bashing Hardness: 14 (33=bypassed); Target Natural Lethal Soak: 14 + (Armored With Suffering for -2@ESS7=)14 =28 L Soak; Net: 0B + Overwhelming 4, but Basalt Flesh Withering sets min damage to 0, so Net=0B no min; Target uses Counterattack action: Hand Biting Retaliation; Att Pool: Wits7+Occult7+ 3 Spec(Biting) + 1 Bite = 20d10; Author Rolls: 12 Successes. Target activates Perfect Defense, cooldown until DV’s refresh; Miss.}}

 

Though she plummeted towards him like a white-clad javelin flying with sufficient force to pin even an elephant to the ground, his jaws snapped shut around her fingertips like a bear trap. Her forcefield cloaked her in a defensive shell against losing her hands to his teeth. She was halted with such suddenness that caused Gallant to scream out, trying to desperately see if she was intact. Glory Girl was shocked at the inhuman strength.

 

A wild look passed over the brutes eyes, as he licked his lips. His gaze, that of the wolf that just saw the fleeing deer trip and fall. He moved with inhuman grace and speed, as the glowing disc upon his forehead flared to blazing life again, and the area around the brute was lit up almost like a bright bonfire of the same eldritch luminescence as the seas around them. He ducked and wove among the crowd, making his path unpredictable.

 

 {{Activates 2nd Metagaos Excellency, Hunger Drive Embrace + And Then He Stole The Air + Rapture In Chains; Att Pool: Wits7+Occult7+ 3 Spec(Grapple) + 1 Hand + 3 Stunt  = 25d10; Author Rolls:15  + 7 Succ (2nd Ex) = 22 succ - 10 (GG aug PDV): 12 successes. Perfect Defense on cooldown, provides 15B/15L armor soak + 5B/3L natural soak and 15B/15L Hardness instead; Grapple Established; Damage Pool (Crush): 7Int+ 22 Carry Over (Piercing crush ignores half armor; O 3; Bashing) + 7(LWF), Net 30B; Author Rolls: 17B HL Final Damage; GG has 15HL: Filled all but Incap with Bashing, wraps around to fill the top again with Lethal.}}

 

The Brute’s hand slid beneath and around Glory Girl’s attempts at holding him back, and grabbed her around the throat in an iron grip that glowed with the strange light of his aura. For her, his touch was like being drowned in boiling water, agonizing and it immediately knocked the air from her lungs. She could not even bring herself to attempt to escape, all too focused on gasping for breath that could not possibly come, or was she trying to reverse the hold? Her intentions hardly made a difference. By the time she realized she was trapped, she felt her clavicle snap under the pressure of resisting. She started to see a red haze that threatened to fill her vision.

 

The other snapped, like wet wood.

 

Not a sound escaped her throat. 

 

Blood dribbled down her chin from her nose and mouth.

 

Her eyes bulged in her head and bled from burst blood vessels.

 

She passed out, trying to scream for help, pathetically. 

 

There was a scream from behind the brute’s back. Gallant charged forward, hurling a focused concussive blast laced with his flash of anger at the brute’s exposed back. “Let her go Brute!” He rushed forward behind his blast, and tried to pull the green hands from Glory Girl’s throat.

 

Vista came from the other direction, and punched the green man in his pierced face. “It’s over! Let Vicky go!” Her fist may as well have hit the deck plating, for all the good it did.

 

There was a simultaneous sound of guns being drawn and cocked. With just a nod from Director Piggot, there were dozens of firearms leveled at the Brute.

 

Armsmaster had a backup halberd already drawn, which crackled with electric power.

 

Dragon opened a side port on her suit’s hip, and withdrew a small handgun whose barrel hummed with energy.

 

Into the middle of the fray, the purple translator threw herself--screaming--at her green brute master in that strange tongue they shared. 

 

He finally blinked and looked up at her. The look of predatory hunger in his eyes softened. 

 

Vista punched him in the head again, and he released Glory Girl to Gallant’s grip. He turned to look at Vista, and stood up, towering over her by nearly a meter; once again nude amid his damaged and torn clothing. He looked her in the eyes, and asked her a question. The translation soon followed. “I did not know this was to be a best of three. Are you the next child Proxy for the Director?”

 

Vista was shaking on the inside, but kept her place, daring him to continue the fight.

 

“That is quite enough Brute.” said Piggot. “You have proven that you can brutally choke a teenage girl. You should be proud of yourself.”

 

After hearing the translation from the bald woman, he turned to the Director, walking over to her in a way that was intimidating without actually being actively aggressive.  What he said translated as, “I am pleased at my restraint, as you all should be. I earned every title I have; I started far weaker than any of these ‘Parahumans’, even more so than yourself Director. Now, do cheer up. Your proxy is alive, she will surely heal in a few moments.”

 

Piggot scowled. “Unless a Parahuman specifically has super-healing, they don’t heal from snapped bones in minutes.”

 

The purple woman relayed this to the green brute. The tone of his reply and posture of his shoulders implied a confused question. His translator shook her head, and repeated herself. She turned to the crowd and perhaps made an excuse. “This servant has informed her Lord that healing as Exalts and Essense-users do is uncommon on Earth Bet. His Grace, in his capacity as Surgeon-General has offered to repair his sparring partner.”

 

Gallant interposed himself between the brute and Glory Girl. 

 

The PRT staff muttered, “That brute can heal?”.

 

Dragon looked at him, and then elbowed Armsmaster. He nodded, and spoke, “Absolutely not. We cannot trust you, as an unknown, to tend to her. We will see to her needs.”

 

Gallant whispered into Glory Girl’s ear, “Don’t worry Vicky, I’ll call Amy, and you’ll be right as rain.” He hugged her like she would break if he held on too tight.

 

Through his translator, the brute spoke. “Wise choice. What now, Director?”

 

Piggot shuffled up to just in front of him, poking him in the chest. “Now, we decide whether to let you into the country or not.”

 

He looked down at Piggot, grinning. Whatever he said made his purple-skinned translator laugh, and then look askance at him. They spoke back and forth until he nodded and waved his hand permissively. “My original occupation was a merchant. Allow us to negotiate a contract. I have been informed that I may request legal counsel. I can pay in trade with fish, shellfish, or similar things.”

 

Piggot raised an eyebrow. “A merchant?”

 

Dragon could not help herself. “Fish?”

 

Armsmaster frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. “Impossible. What kind of lawyer would accept an alien dictator as a client?”



Chapter 4: Meet The Lawyers

Chapter Text

Quinn Calle, as a rule, did not take on cases where there was a risk of the client being unable to pay his not-insignificant fees. Making that risk assessment over the phone was his usual modus operandi, but this case was so weird he came in person. Were he not already in Brockton Bay, he wouldn’t have bothered, however, he’d just finished a case a day early, and otherwise had nothing pressing to do that afternoon.

 

He walked into the offices set aside at the Protectorate HQ for his meeting. It was a little unusual, given that criminal cases were almost always at the PRT facilities across the bay, but he wasn’t going to complain about getting to walk around the impressively high-tech building.

 

Within the corridor, PRT staff and Vista stood guarding the doors he was traveling towards. He flashed them a toothy grin and his visitor badge. The ward looked like she was almost falling asleep standing up. The nearest PRT member walked over and scanned his badge.

 

“Mr. Calle, per anti-Brute protocols, we have a squad on standby in the hallway. Your client-attorney privilege will be respected, but for safety reasons, please familiarize yourself with the locations of the red buttons in the conference room. Pressing any of them will raise an alert with both our squad and Dispatch that you are in need of intervention. Be aware that you are not to make physical contact with the brute for safety reasons, and you will need to report to Decontamination on your way out of the building. Do you have any questions at this time?”

 

“No. I’ve been here before, and you all know that.”

 

Vista  walked over, unhappily. “When you’re finally ready for the meeting, let me know, and I’ll call everyone in.”

 

“Everyone? Who is everyone?”

 

“Uh… Director Piggot, Armsmaster, Dragon, some PRT staff and lawyers, a guy from Customs, Gallant, Brandish, and myself.”

 

“Excellent, thank you Vista.” he said. It was anything but excellent… Brandish, or Carol Dalton was an unwelcome addition, more or less his opposite number, New Wave’s famous Cape lawyer that worked almost entirely with heroes and rogues. The Director and Dragon being there was a bad sign too. 

 

He walked in. Before him were two mutant-looking parahumans. His client was supposed to be the green guy. It was weird seeing him sitting there eating bagels without an apparent care in the world. If he was really some kind of supervillain, Quinn would have expected a bit more … gravitas. No mask, no shirt, no shoes, and none of that cultivated posturing that so many villains practiced. The only visible clothing were the pair of tattered jeans he wore, and a ruined jacket in a crumpled heap on the floor near his feet.

 

Next to the green ‘brute’ was supposed to be the woman he’d talked to on the phone. She was purple, and looked like someone’s strange idea of an alien barbie doll. She wore a dress that was clearly too small for her, and it clung to her in ways that were distracting.

 

“Mister Quinn Calle?” she asked in a pleasant tone.

 

He pulled out a wide grin for her. “I am indeed. Now, based on what you’ve said about not being able to make a deposit or retainer, I’ve got 15 minutes I’m willing to work pro bono, to give you an estimate of my costs. Lets begin with introductions and what immediate need you have for a lawyer.”

 

“Very well, this is His Grace, Lintha Sennong Dictator Admiral-of-Admirals Grandfather Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner, Green Sun Prince and Peer of the Thing Infernal, Sherden Caste and Favored by Metagaos and Cecelyne, Surgeon-General and Plaguemaster of the Reclamation, Conqueror of An-Teng, He-Who-Waits Demiurgos of The Order of the Locust, and The Tide That Drowns Cities and Swallows Gods.”

 

Quinn almost choked on his coffee. 

 

“I am his neomah translator. He has not seen fit to grant me a name.”

 

“Tell me you are serious!”

 

“Dimensional Travelers, yes.”

 

“Dimensional Travelers that speak perfect English?”

 

“I have been summoned here before, English is a common tongue on Earth Bet.”

 

“Ahh… summoned?...” Quinn rubbed his head. “You’re asking for me to accept an awful lot. Let's say I believe you, because you’re cutting into your pro bono time. What do you need from me?”

 

“My Lord has been stranded here, after he was deposed in a recent bloody coup. He was nearly burned alive, and is effectively in exile. My understanding of your nation’s laws is limited, but I am under the impression that he would qualify for asylum.”

 

“I see, and he is a cape?”

 

“Uh… yes?”

 

“You’re not sure?”

 

“He has powers. He sparred with Glory Girl a few hours ago, at the Director’s request.”

 

“He is a cape. Did he introduce himself as a ‘Dictator’ to the Director?”

 

“That’s right.”

 

“Hmm…” the latino rubbed his mustache. “Then they’re within their rights to classify him as a Foreign Villain, should he apply to enter the country. That gives them a lot of leeway that normal citizens don’t need to worry about. Last question before I start charging: how much can you pay, given that there’s no deposit or retainer?”

 

The green man finally joined the conversation, after hearing that translated question. His response was: “Drugs, Medicine, or the fruits of the sea.”

 

“You still use the barter system?”

 

The response was translated as, “At times; I doubt this world trades on jade talents. My golden crown did not survive the journey. It burned with the rest of my palace. All I can offer is what I can call from nothing.”

 

“My base price is $100k for weird cases.”

 

The two conferred in their strange language, and the green man counted on his fingers, like an abacus. “My Lord recognizes this amount, and could provide it within two weeks of the end of services. Do you accept payment in gold bullion?”

 

“What kind of professional do you take me for?” Quinn replied with a real toothy grin. “Of course I do.”

 

---

 

Vista had been awake for about 20 hours by the time that the conference room finally filled up with all of the attendees for the meeting. Since there was no emergency, there was no one to relieve her until her supervisors decided one way or another where this green Brute would wind up. She was stuck there, waiting and wishing she hadn’t drank so much coffee on an empty stomach.

 

The conference room was cleanly divided between the left and right halves of the table. On the left, the green Brute, his weird (now clothed) purple translator, and his lawyer Quinn. Opposite them, filling the table and spilling into standing-room only, the bigwigs of the local PRT and  Protectorate, over twenty in all if you included their entourages. Guards ringed the room, per protocol, including herself and the local Wards. Glory Girl was absent; Missy tried not to think about the complex feelings she had over trying to defend her rival and sometimes-bully from the Brute. 

 

Her hands had been shaking since, but it wasn’t clear to her if it was too much caffeine or something deeper.

 

Before she realized it, the introductions had already passed. Brandish and Quinn both seemed to be trying to win a staring contest over who would begin their proposals first. Across the room, she could see Gallant biting his lip nervously. It must suck being an empath in a room full of lawyers, especially given how Brandish stomped into the room like she was out for blood. For all Missy knew, she very well might be, given what the green Brute in front of her had done to her daughter just hours before.

 

Piggot stepped in, “Quinn, I have things to do. Your client has admitted to being both a foreign dictator as well as having powers in front of several witnesses; almost the textbook definition of a Super Villain. Do you even have a reason why we should consider letting him into the country without a travel visa or passport? If not, I suggest that you get him on a boat and out of US territorial waters ASAP.”

 

The lawyer looked back at her calmly, taking it in stride. “Director, it’s so thoughtful of you to make it clear on the official record that you have acknowledged in front of witnesses that my client is a Dictator.”

 

Piggot pursed her lips.

 

“As befitting a recognized head of state. My client seeks political asylum.”

 

Piggot raised an eyebrow. “Under what grounds?”

 

“There has been a violent coup in An-Teng. My client is the Government In Exile.”

 

Brandish scoffed. “That’s ridiculous! You have no proof that such a place even exists!”

 

“My client is prepared to summon as many… demons… from his realm that can corroborate his accounts as you might require.”

 

Armsmaster leaned in, interrupting. “Summon demons? What in hells name are you talking about?”

 

The purple woman leaned in. “Indeed sir, I apologize I did not introduce myself more clearly earlier. I am of the Neomah, the Makers of Flesh; progeny of Berengiere, the Weaver of Voices; and Indulgent Soul of Ligier, the Green Sun; and Fetich Soul of Malfeas, the Demon City. We Neomah are Demons of The First Circle, we are something between sacred prostitutes and midwives.”

 

The room was silent, and then Armsmaster started laughing. “I take it back, Director Piggot, I don’t want him anymore. He’s obviously crazy!” He snorted. “Demons and magic! Ha! I’d sooner believe Glaistig Uaine about her damned fairies than I would about demons!” 

 

The neomah glared daggers at him. “Do not insult My Lord, nor the name of the King of The Primordials! You need not believe in sorcery nor demons for them to be real.”

 

Dragon placed a hand on Armsmaster. “I don’t believe this is a productive direction of conversation. The details of how his powers work are not what we are all here to discuss. Director, is it sufficient evidence that the Dictator is willing to call up more witnesses if your investigations require it?”

 

Piggot looked at the PRT lawyers, but not at either Brandish nor Armsmaster. They nodded, she nodded. “Based on circumstantial evidence we are willing to believe it until we have performed a more thorough investigation. But be aware, Quinn, that your client will have the book thrown at him if he attempts to defraud us on this matter. Is that clear?”

 

“Crystal, Director.”

 

“Piggot, I object!” shouted Brandish.

 

“Your objection is noted, Brandish, and for now I will remind you that you are here at our invitation.”

 

“Director... “ the white-clad Hero continued.

 

“We were discussing Government In Exile status were we not?” supplied Dragon, helpfully, as she kept Armsmaster on a short leash.

 

“Indeed.” replied Quinn. “My client was recently driven from his Palace in the Capitol, and is in de facto exile. There are several precedents for exiled Heads of State acting as the Government In Exile to seek refugee status and official political asylum within neutral countries. My client is requesting this status, and is entitled to it under several international treaties, even without a visa nor passport.”

 

“Within this country, and other signatories of the international accords involving the regulation of parahumans, we are given priority over the classification of parahumans. Should we rule him a Foreign Super Villain, he would be barred from legally entering the US, as well as any of the other signatory countries.”

 

“My client is a refugee in the most literal sense of the word, and is unable to return to his place of origin in the literal sense of being unable to travel dimensions. As well, if he should return there, he would likely face an almost immediate threat to his life. Per your suggestion, he would be unable to find reasonable safe harbor outside of this country.”

 

Armsmaster interrupted again, this time looking shocked and disappointed. “What do you mean he is unable to travel dimensions?”

 

The neomah translated his response. “His Grace informs me that he arrived in that location due to a partially failed materialization, and has no way to reproduce the effect.”

 

“But he can ‘summon’ you ‘demons’ can he not? How is that not Dimensional Travel?”

 

“It is by the grace of Cecelyne, The Endless Desert that I am able to travel at all, sir; and Kimbery, The Demon Sea that I was able to find My Lord when he called. His Grace is no demon, and thus cannot be summoned like one.”

 

“Oh… more ‘magic’, how convenient! You are both clearly crazy, making up such detailed lies.” Armsmaster mocked, clearly channeling his annoyance at losing direct access to the secrets of dimensional travel, despite having earlier petitioned the Director for that very reason.

 

The neomah held up her hands, pleadingly. “Just this once, I will not translate your insults. Consider yourself warned, do not mock the Yozi! Mocking the Great Mother of the Lintha is foolish enough, but if My Lord hears you take the name of his Great Mother in vain, you should hope he is in good humor, and does not take it upon himself to educate you as only a Lintha Sherridan could.” 

 

Armsmaster got up and left, spitting his words out like they tasted bad. “This is stupid, I don’t know how, but I’m sure this brute is conning you all, and I won’t be a part of it.”

 

Dragon almost moved to follow him. Vista couldn’t figure out why (Armsmaster was always such a dick, not worth the attention of the kind Dragon), but mentally filed it away for when she wasn’t dead on her feet. 

 

“Like I was saying... “ continued Quinn. “My client would qualify for asylum under several grounds that could be pursued for arbitration in any one of several international courts. Such a thing would be a great waste of time however. Would you not agree?”

 

Brandish nodded, and inclined her head. “Do you have an alternative proposal for your Dictator?”

 

The purple neomah nodded. “His Grace suggests cooperation. This world has organizations of those with power who serve the public as a kind of noblesse oblige. This is new and interesting to him. To quote him directly, ‘I have found no lasting satisfaction in conquering’. By his largesse, the public could benefit from his presence.”    

 

Brandish shook her head. “By all accounts, your Dictator is naught but a Brute with some minor wide-scale illusion powers.”

 

The neomah hesitated. “Do you really want me to tell him that?” she said, looking conflicted.

 

“I don’t rightly care what you tell him. I am not scared of someone who shows off by choking a teenage girl in front of a crowd.”

 

The neomah turned and conveyed the words of Glory Girl’s mother to the brute. This green skin shone with emerald iridescence in the lights, and his silver facial piercings glinted in the overhead light. His ruby-red eyes turned to consider the woman before him. She wore her white and orange-trimmed consume, with a half-mask concealing her eyes. 

 

He began to speak directly to her, and his translator hurried to keep pace with him. “I see, you  are the mother of the girl I fought with earlier, no?”

 

She nodded, glaring at him with distrust.

 

“It is only appropriate for a mother to guard her precious child from the violence of a stranger. Good. If you demand a blood feud, I will acknowledge your right with respect. Can it wait until after this meeting?”

 

Brandish’s hands shook, and a thin sharp shiv of hard light formed in her palm. “Are you mocking me?”

 

The green brute’s red eyes widened with wary familiarity with the glowing weapon. He stepped back, knocking his seat down behind him. His words were frantically translated. “Do you draw forth a Glorious Solar Saber in peace negotiations with a Green Sun Prince?” 

 

“Please! Both of you stop!” shouted Dragon. 

 

Piggot nodded and motioned at the brute-suppression squad. Vista suddenly found herself moving towards the conflict, before she could think better of it. 

 

Quinn stepped in. “I would like to note for the official record that Brandish drew a weapon. My client has done nothing but back away and knock over a chair.”

 

The neomah stood before her master, pleading with him in their foreign tongue. She eventually turned with her back to him, and she elaborated for him. “His Grace knows well the touch of the golden flames and shining blades of the Usurpers. Come closer at your own peril, Miss Brandish!” 

 

Vista and Gallant went to stand next to the green brute. The man’s exotic features showed an almost-fear that Vista was sure Gallant knew in depth. Vista shouted at him and Brandish, “God, would both of you calm down! Brandish, your daughter gave as good as she got in that fight! Weird green guy, I am too tired to deal with this shit! You are keeping me up, and I will dump you in the Bay if you don’t chill out!”

 

Piggot’s jaw dropped. Gallant stopped and stared at her. Quinn and the neomah both moved to replace the brute at the table. For his part, the green brute chuckled.

 

“His Grace accepts your wisdom beyond your age, Miss Vista. And, Miss Brandish, he accepts your declaration of a blood feud. I hope you know what you are getting into; Lintha customary vendettas do not translate well into English.” She turned to address the lawyers, “Now, His Grace’s patience is not limitless, if we could continue?”

 

--

 

Quinn and the PRT lawyers (excluding Brandish) worked for two hours to hash out the details of Locust Mariner’s deal with the PRT/Protectorate. In short, though he was the head of state of a Government in Exile, and thus exempt from most laws in the US via Diplomatic Immunity, he was only permitted that recognition on the condition that he sign an employment contract with the Brockton Bay Protectorate as a ‘Permanent Special Probationary Protectorate Membership for Highest-Risk Rogues or Former Villains’. 

 

In place of the normal laws and supervision by police, the Protectorate and PRT would oversee him as a special high-risk employee. He would not be allowed even as much freedom as the Wards were, though he would technically be a ‘hero’ he would be watched like he would attempt to betray his allies at the first possible chance. 

 

He would be required to maintain his primary residence within approved facilities only, and would only be permitted to leave the grounds with escorts. Should he be found to have willfully violated any normal laws, the police could lodge complaints with the PRT. While the contract was clear on exactly how hard it was to fully kick him out of the country, it was equally clear that Piggot fully intended to make his life a living hell if he made too much trouble.

 

The only catch Locust Mariner had managed to insert into the contract (with the language barrier limiting his otherwise remarkable negotiating skills from a lifetime of working as a merchant, supplemented with both Greed Without Restraint and Price-of-Everything Undercurrents)  was that he could not be compelled to serve the PRT or Protectorate (not that Impervious Primacy Mantle would even allow such a thing), they could only request his help and cooperation. If he did not cooperate, they were not required to feed him; he was given leave to forage, hunt, fish, garden, grow crops, or farm, so long as he did not violate any laws while doing so. Quinn managed to wrangle that, but at the cost of Piggot’s lawyers getting a clause promising his automatic aid if an Endbringer-level threat was imminent, and he was otherwise close enough to respond. 

 

As well, they did not wind up granting Mariner any form of pay, other than room and board. Indeed, if he wanted to enter into contracts with people living in the US or other signatory nations, he would need to have the Protectorate and PRT not only co-sign with him, but any such co-signed contracts needed to designate them (not Mariner) as the holders of any payment or property in Trust. Being a Government in Exile, he was exempt from fiscal oversight via the IRS, but the Trust clauses removed many loopholes for ‘high risk former villains’. 

 

Locust Mariner did not know what an Endbringer was, but could not argue against it without losing hours of negotiation. His translator made it sound like a Behemoth. It sounded unlikely enough to him that such a thing would occur that he agreed to the terms without complaint. 

 

The notion occurred to him that he absolutely could not play by the rules. He wanted to start over. He wanted family and friends, the kind that loved and respected him without mind control or coercion. He wanted wealth… enough that no one, not even his minders could force him back to where he was now. Even the many legalisms of Cecelyne he could invoke would likely backfire as soon as someone realized his capabilities.

 

Deep within, his soul stirred.

 

{{Motivation Set: To be loved and respected by real friends and family.; Metgaoiyn Urge Set:To Become Wealthy And Affluent Beyond Reproach.}}

 

If he was going to own this city, he would need to be careful. If they knew him as he truly was, they would burn him from their lands like the blight he was. Restraint was hard, and denying himself denied the source of his powers. But, it was worth losing most of his powers if he could accomplish his goals without them. If nothing else, this world of paper tigers was entirely too fragile to either withstand nor require his full power. It wouldn’t do to break his toys. Besides, he would have to kill the witnesses, if things got out of hand, and how would he explain that? Thank the Yozi that his neomah had warned him about cameras.

 

Chapter 5: Preliminary Exam

Chapter Text

Someone shook Vista gently awake. She had been told to stay nearby the brute’s holding area, in case the unpowered guards needed a cape’s help immediately. After 20hrs of being awake yesterday, she had almost immediately passed out in an uncomfortably hard chair. Wiping drool from the edge of her mouth, she blinked blearily at the blurry outline of a person that had woken her up. 

 

“It’s almost morning, you should go clean up before the new shift comes in.” whispered Dragon in a tone halfway between a big-sister and a mother.

 

Vista’s yawn muffled her words. “Mwhh! ... djii miss anithn?”

 

“Did you miss anything? No, not really. Those two haven’t slept a wink. I think they’re still talking.”

 

<<Are you really sure about all that, Neomah?>>  Locust Mariner asked, with a tired edge to his voice.

 

She held up her hands apologetically. <<As far as I know, this world and Creation can both summon demons like me, but once you have been called here, it is hard to hear the calls of Creation.>>

 

<<And you know the local tongue because you’ve been here a couple times?>>

 

Vista turned to look at the strangely colored pair in the holding area. They were indeed deep in their own private world. “I guess, if nothing important is going on, I can go shower. Thanks Dragon! I’ll be back in a half hour.”

 

“No worries Vista. I definitely still need more dialog for my translator to work.”

 

<<It is true. The supernatural parts of this world are hidden somehow. They exist, and obviously they still know how to call for us. As far as anyone can tell, Yu-Shan and the Poles are abandoned.>>

 

<<And yet I could feel the Judgment of The Unconquered Sun burning my eyes and skin yesterday. Only the light of The Daystar burns those who are Creatures of Darkness.>>

 

<<May the Peace of Adorjan fall upon me, if I mislead you, My Lord.>>

 

Dragon watched the green brute reach out and caress the soft lilac cheek of the purple woman. She felt like a voyeur, watching the strange chemistry play out between them.

 

<<Only a fool would betray the trust of a child of The Great Mother, let alone her Sherden. You seem entirely too wise for me to worry.>>

 

The neomah shivered, well aware of the limitless sadism of Kimbery. She felt the gills upon her neck, and remembered them as the sweet caress she had felt when she had long ago fell into the Demon Sea’s acid waters. The killing waters were not merely waters, they were aware. She would never know why they (She?) had chosen to withhold their killing touch. 

 

Her shiver was also informed from Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner’s fearsome reputation. While he was no Slayer, possessed of the boundless fury of Malfeas, the Locust Mariner conquered countries and killed and ate the whole pantheon of An-Teng. He was a Grandmaster of The Green Sun Kingdom, the ‘master of fifteen styles’ himself, and seemingly hell’s greatest practitioner of Laughing Wounds Style, as well as a master of Mantis Style, Black Tide Style, and the other esoteric Dragon King styles. Mantis Style was a common enough style for grapplers. However, she only knew of Black Tide Style due to its association with the Lintha, but even then it was exclusively used underwater; of course he taught Frist Pulse Style, Crimson Pentacle Blade Style, and  Even Blade Style to the Sword Brothers and was rumored to secretly teach White Veil, Fivefold Shadow Hand Style, Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style, and Black Claw Style to the Lintha rooks, even if he didn’t seem  to publicly use them himself. Of course, most of the martial artists of hell knew the berserker arts of Infernal Monster Style as did most graduates of Suntarnkal, and the Grandmaster was infamous for his appetites when angered. Case in point the famously  vicious match pitting his Laughing Wounds style against Deer-Footed Mara and her own Black Claw style, which he won after grinding her into paste over the course of hours. As far as she knew that was the titular 15th style.

 

 The fact that he chose to use his large hands to gently caress her face, neck, and gills,  rather than tearing her still-beating heart from her chest--which for him would be no more difficult than snuffing a candle before sleep--loomed large in her thoughts.

 

What kind of man was her new master? Was he still a doctor and family man? Was he still the merchant who sold life-saving medicine as often as addictive drugs? Or, had the brutality of life in Malfeas burned all of that from him? Was there anything left after hundreds of years, or was he a monster hiding behind a smiling face?

 

Dragon could not look away. It was like watching a Telenovela. 

 

--

 

Dr. Jessica Yamada hated being on call with the PRT and Protectorate. For her profession, it was vital to be able to control the pace of sessions. Rushing off to go deal with last minute interruptions was hardly going to help her patients, many of whom have all too few people willing to sit down with them and listen. Trust was earned, after all. 

 

She understood how important it was for her to be professional about the whole thing. Obviously, the PRT and Protectorate really needed staff like her, people who weren’t in a position where everything had to be either a friend or a foe. Nuances would hardly reveal themselves under interrogation lights. 

 

That’s what she normally got called in for: a few of their protocols required the sign off of a medical personnel. It was not that she was required for her personal skill set, but rather that they needed any person with the right licensure. Since she worked with them in her capacity as a therapist, she was also required to leave her precious patients behind and go fill a chair and sign paperwork. 

 

Today was no different. She had been rudely awakened two hours before dawn, by an automated phone call informing her that there was a need for Entrance Counseling for a ‘Person of Highest Risk’. While she hadn’t actually gotten a request for working with anyone of ‘Highest Risk’ at that point, it still struck her as odd that it was of low enough priority that they didn’t call in a specialist or something. It smelled weird and bureaucratic to her. 

 

At just past dawn, she arrived at the Protectorate HQ. Having woken up two hours prior in order to get there ‘ASAP’ meant that she was desperately in need of caffeine before she strangled someone. 

 

“Morning Doc!” 

 

Speaking of strangling someone…

 

“Good morning Dennis…” she replied, trying not to be blinded by the glare of the morning sun on his white armor.

 

“Oh Doc, you know I hate it when you call me Dennis! Clockblocker is so much cooler!” 

 

She could hear him smirking through his opaque helmet, she swore it.

 

“We can discuss your need to hide from your mundane side when we have our next session, Dennis. I assume you’re here for me?”

 

He nodded. “We’ve got a new brute in holding. I don’t know why, but they already agreed to let him join the Protectorate, and now we gotta do the paperwork for it. I’m here to guard you while you do it.”

 

“Guard me from what?”

 

“I don’t know, I was out sick yesterday with a bad case of MMO-fever. Brutes are brutes though, so better safe than sorry.” 

 

--

 

After several minutes of passing through security areas and elevators, they arrived in the holding area where the brute was being held. As far as Yamada was concerned, it looked like a cross between a small conference room and a holding cell. It was labeled ‘Minimum Security’, but had four visible Protectorate guards, in addition to Vista and Dragon. Again more mixed signals…

 

“Ooo I hope the new brute is the purple chick!” exclaimed Clockblocker, eying up the curves of the woman sitting in the room, opposite a shirtless man with green tattooed skin.

 

“Of course you do. You are such a teenage boy, Clockblocker!” said Vista, noticing them finally.

 

Dragon turned towards them both. “I’m handing this over to you and Vista. Clockblocker, were you briefed beforehand?”

 

“Um… yes?”

 

“The big green guy is the Brute in question. Who he is, is a little complicated, and he doesn’t speak English. The purple woman is his … de facto translator. You and Vista have been selected for this tasking because you have ways of restraining a brute without causing collateral damage. Dr. Yamada is the VIP here. By all means be as rough as you need to with the Brute. I doubt you could really hurt him.”

 

“Why’s that? I’m pretty good in a fight.”

 

Vista chimed in. “Aren’t they still repairing the deck plating from where he fought Glory Girl?”

 

Dragon checked her camera feeds, looking like she was deep in thought. “Uh… yeah looks like there’s still holes big enough to require OSHA hazard labelling.”

 

“Oh really? I guess being able to survive that intact makes him kind of badass. Are we supposed to wait till she shows up for the meeting? I imagine she wants to brag again.”

 

Vista’s eyebrows knotted. “You’re making a lot of assumptions there.”

 

“Our last report from Brandish said that she was still unconscious in the hospital, awaiting Panacea’s international return flight this afternoon.” 

 

“What happened?” 

 

Dragon spoke again. “Panacea elected to take the next reasonable flight back, as soon as she’d finished her shift. By all accounts it was not an emergency. I suspect that she wants to make sure her sister is well, all the same.”

 

“Not that! I wanted to know about the fight!”

 

Vista waved her hand. “There’s a video, if you want. I know the Director set up cameras to look out for illusions. I don’t really want to see it again; I don’t even like Vicky, but I hate seeing that happen to anyone.”

 

“Where’s this video, can I watch it now?”

 

“No.” said Yamada. “I have work to do, and you are both my escorts. Sate your bloodlust on your own time.”

 

They entered the room as Dragon left, with two armed guards following them in and taking a post at the door. While there were two small hard cots in the corners, the center of the room had a table slightly larger than a dinner table, but big enough for eight to sit comfortably. The green brute already sat opposite the door, next to his translator. 

 

Both watched attentively while the two costumed capes led in a seemingly plain looking woman protectively between them. They all sat down, with the plain woman taking a seat to the side, nearest the brute, while her escorts took the other sides. 

 

Yamada spoke first. “I’ve been told that Armsmaster thinks you’re crazy.”

 

The translator flinched and relayed her words.

 

<<Which one was that?>> he asked.

 

<<The man with the dumb looking helmet that didn’t believe you, My Lord.>>

 

<<I don’t see how that should matter. I know things that he does not. The facts exists with or without belief.>>

 

“His Grace does not concern himself with opinions such as that.”

 

“Do you think you’re crazy?”

 

<<My Lord, she asks if you think you are insane.>>

 

The green brute thought about it. <<Mortals often fail to comprehend the thoughts of their betters, just as I can barely understand the thoughts of even The Great Mother, Metagaos, or Cecelyne, with whom I share my own nature more deeply than any other living being.>>

 

<<My Lord, I do not believe they will understand that analogy.>>

 

He sighed. <<Tell them ‘no’.>>

 

“His Grace says ‘no’.”

 

Clockblocker quipped. “That’s an awful long way to say ‘no’.”   

 

“What’s important is that Mister… how do I address him again?” asked Yamada looking at the purple woman.

 

“His Grace’s title is… “ she began.

 

“No,” interrupted Yamada. “I mean, what’s his personal name, buried under all that. I am Jessica.”

 

<<Lord, the woman requests the honor of using your personal name.>>

 

<<Neomah, how many times must I say it: we are not in Creation nor Malfeas, and these people care not for my titles. By all means she may use my name.>>

 

“His Grace favors you, and has given permission to address him as Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner.”

 

“Is that a Cape name?”

 

“No, Dr. Yamada. His Grace has no nom de guerre. In the culture of his birth, Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner is a name, one of many that are determined at birth via divinatory methods. It is indeed a mouthful in English, but I assure you that the Old Realm version is shorter.”

 

Clockblocker started to snicker. At sheer absurdity of a brute named ‘Joyful Fluttering’-anything beat up Glory Girl.

 

Vista tried her best not to follow suit.

 

Yamada spoke up, “That name sounds like it should belong on a Chinese Emperor.”

 

The purple woman shrugged. “His Grace is not one to stand on formalities. However, unless he specifically orders me otherwise, I am duty bound to do so on his behalf.”

 

“As I was saying, the important thing here, right now is that I will believe him when he tells me that he is not crazy. I am a psychologist after all, and I know that without basic trust and respect for each other, we can’t really communicate freely.”

 

<<My Lord, the woman, Yamada is a doctor of minds. She says that she will believe us about not being crazy. Her goal seems to be to speak ‘freely’ with Your Grace, and basic trust and respect is key to doing so.>>

 

<<As one doctor to another I greet her, and welcome ‘free’ dialog.>>

 

The neomah conveyed as much.

 

“Doctor? As in witch doctor, PhD, MD, etc?”

 

<<What kind of doctor, My Lord?>>

 

<<The best kind, neomah. A master of flesh.>>

 

“A master of flesh?” said the neomah, experimentally. “I guess that is closest to a medical doctor or surgeon.”

 

“What kind of doctor beats up teenage girls?!” Vista interjected angrily.

 

The neomah translated for her.

 

<<I did offer to fix her, did I not?>>

 

<<You did, My Lord. I shall tell them so.>>

 

“His Grace did offer to fix Glory Girl.”

 

Yamada moved her hand to get a word in edgewise. “This brings me to the second purpose of this meeting. I need to professionally assess if you are both healthy and fit for duty, as well as begin the determination process for your official PRT Power Classification. Can you indeed heal others, or just yourself?”

 

The neomah conveyed the question.

 

<<Can I heal others? Tchh… Of all my titles Surgeon-General of The Reclamation was the one that meant the most to me. I have spent centuries trying to restore the Yozi and Neverborn to the Primordials they once were with my healing arts. I am not done, either. I doubt I shall ever accomplish it, but I alone am qualified among all worlds to do so. Can I heal others? Yes.>>

 

<<Um… I don’t think that will translate My Lord.>>

 

<<I have centuries of experience as a pharmacist, diagnostician, surgeon, alchemist, Genesis master artisan, and I am simultaneously the master of poisons, diseases, parasites, and plagues. They are mine, and I will control them for weal or woe.>> 

 

The neomah rubbed her eyes. She was reminded again that while her lord did not need to sleep, she surely did. “I am sorry, I cannot convey properly the degree to which My Lord is answering your question in the positive. Several of his specializations as the Surgeon General of The Reclamation do not exist here. Explaining them is not something I am especially qualified to do in His Grace’s stead. It would be like trying to explain the Internet to His Grace.”

 

“Who doesn’t know what the Internet is? Geeze!” commented Clockblocker. “Even my grandparents use social media.”

 

Vista nodded in begrudging agreement. 

 

“We can always use new healers. I’ll see if Panacea is available for testing any time soon.” said Dr. Yamada.

 

Vista shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

 

Clockblocker looked confused. “Why?”

 

“New Wave is pretty tightly knit, are they not? I think most of them are family of some kind.”

 

“Yeah, wow, Panacea is extra protective of her sister too!” Clockblocker smacked his fist triumphantly into his opposite palm. “The only thing that could make it worse is if he’d castrated Gallant while he was at it.”

 

Yamada shrugged. “Maybe a little anger will make for a more challenging test of his healing skills?” she looked at Mariner’s red eyes; not the broken pallid pink of an albino, but eyes seemingly designed that way. There was a degree of active engagement within them that she did not expect. It was like they saw through her, and knew things about her that she had neither said, nor could have conveyed across the language barrier. The eyes looked beyond her, and she could feel heartbeat rising and palms sweating, while the phantom sensation of something like ice down her spine. Almost, but not quite, she heard the sound of distant discordant piping. 

 

She blinked, and deliberately averted her gaze. Unsure of her own reasons for doing so, but dimly feeling very small. 

 

“Doctor Yamada?” asked Vista. “Are you okay?”

 

Was she? Jessica did not know. She looked down at her itinerary. Oh, yes… the checklist. “I have a list here of the major categories that we normally organize Parahuman Powers into. If you are willing to answer some questions about your powers, we can get started.”

 

The green brute nodded after his translator conveyed her words to him.

 

“You have been characterized as a Brute by most accounts I have heard. Are you aware of what that means?”

 

The translator discussed it with the green man, who eventually shook his head. <<Tell them that I am not naturally stronger than an average Exalt. Nor am I more than of average inherit durability among the Celestials. Were it not for my greed and overflowing fertility, I would not be much of a fighter at all. If she seeks them truly, she should look to the Slayers and Scourges.>>

 

“His Grace denies the label. He suggests that he is not much of a fighter in the conventional sense.” supplied the neomah.

 

“Still though, I will mark him down for testing in Brute and Healing. Regardless of his suggestions, it would be worth the time to clear up the confusion as well. Next, Movers. Do you believe that your powers give you enhanced mobility?” 

 

He shook his head. Of course Kimbery’s charms aided sailing or swimming, but he didn’t think that was what she meant. He also wasn’t sure if he really wanted Yamada to know the true extent of his powers; outright lying was not likely to win him any allies either. Trust would need to be built slowly.

 

Yamada checked the “N/A” box. “Alright, how about powers that can be used to effect an area?”

 

He shook his head yes, and peeked over at the papers in front of Jessica. <<Neomah, how many things are there on this list?...>>

 

--

 

Nearly an hour later, they had determined that he was not a Mover or Trump, but needed testing in all other categories. He had not provided anything too juicy for Yamada, but it seemed like he had a variety of unrelated powers, which confused the PRT Classification guidelines somewhat, and made threat-assessment misleading. Still, he would wind up with a RPT Classification of ‘Brute 6*; Mover 3*, Trump 0; Unrated all other categories’ until further testing could be completed. It slotted him in with Glory Girl’s Brute rating, with a +1 from his obvious self-healing. The Mover rating was penciled in after Dragon’s footage of him leaping to her in the extra-dimensional space.

 

Specific notes were made in her log suggesting that he needed to be tested for healing powers. She was pretty sure that the super-senses he mentioned were legit, but without having specialized isolation areas, all she could determine was that she could not find a point at which he was unable to Taste or Smell a stimuli. That was some kind of Thinker rating, she was pretty certain, but whether it was dangerous enough to get on his file? She didn’t know. 

 

Yamada drew a privacy curtain around the green man, and examined him per the intake procedure. She could not believe that he was older than 800. Everything about him screamed that he was in his 30s, and full of vitality. Her attempts to take blood samples failed, with his strange blood dissolving the delicate metal tip of the syringe. She was grateful when he warned her not to keep trying, lest she spray it all over herself and the room they were in. She added a note to test for Breaker or Changer, maybe Shaker/Striker depending on how far it sprayed?

 

She could only conclude that, lacking the proper equipment to do any closer examination than waving the exact same scanner the Quarantine team had used earlier over him, he was probably fit for active duty. That, and that he made her very uncomfortable when she tried to examine his mouth. She imagined it must be what a vet feels when they’re looking down a sedated tiger’s gullet, and just hoping it did not wake up mid-exam. The fact that the seemingly normal looking teeth turned out to be made of black rusty-looking metal surely had no bearing.

 

Later, after reviewing the videos of his arrival, she was left wondering whether the wild predator rather literally gorging on the catering table, or the brutal sadist choking the light from Glory Girls eyes, or the strange uncomfortably insightful eyes that seemed to already know her secrets was more representative of who her new patient was. While he had not obviously lied to her, she understood that he had not been forthcoming either--she knew more about what he was not than anything concrete about what he was. Maybe he really was some kind of alien politician. 

 

It wasn’t until much later that Yamada realized that she seemed to have misplaced several high-precision reference-pure lead weights from the exam room, part of the equal arm balance used in some procedures.

 

--

 

<<My Lord, this world is aggressive in its pursuit of wealth seemingly appearing out of nowhere. It is inadvisable to do this thing.>>

 

<<I have already gestated a single-use Laboratory-Womb for the alchemical procedure of the ‘Heavenly Transmutation Process’, and swallowed the lead weights. What’s done is done. It is odd though, that you would find my drives uncharacteristic; was I not a merchant before I was a conqueror? Besides, Greed is Good, and requires no justification: this is the virtue of The All-Hunger Blossom, foreign though it may be to most neomah.>>

 

<<While I respect your desire to pay your debt to your lawyer, you absolutely must not turn more lead to gold with alchemy. Even if you are not caught this once, your lawyer must still bear the responsibility for it after payment is rendered.>>

 

<<Fine, if it will keep the ears of the auditors off my back, I will not repeat the process without good cause. I understand that there is no easy way to store or transfer my wealth in this world, unless I stoop to swallowing and regurgitating everything I might barter with. While my heart wants to start over, my tongue wants to taste all the world, and my stomach is not yet big enough to fit it. Priorities and patience are the weapons of the merchant as much as the conqueror.>>

 

<<Thank you, Your Grace, for taking this translator’s advice seriously.>>

 

Mariner could feel the 10 kg of lead sloshing within his not-stomach. The Laboratory-Wombs were gifts from The Great Mother, one of her greatest blessings. Intended for the creation of life itself, they could be repurposed for many lesser tasks, if one was not in a hurry and ate well. 

 

<<Give me a week, I haven’t restocked my inner stocks within my Endless Stomach, and I don't think I could go unnoticed if I tried to eat enough to speed up the procedure beyond that.>>

 

<<Yes, Your Grace, I shall deliver your payment securely to your lawyer.>>

 

--

 

A week later, Quinn Calle stood in front of a local jeweler. She was unscrupulous enough to not ask where things came from, most of the time when she worked with Quinn. After all, the handsome man had gotten her son off with little more than community service.

 

He opened a small shoebox, and pulled out a yellow metal object shaped like a straight-sided bowling pin. “I want to sell this.” he stated, pushing it in front of her.

 

She blinked. 

 

“What is it?”

 

“It’s gold, obviously.”

 

She looked at it closely. It had a matte finish, but if she took off her glasses, it seemed to be the right color.

 

“Quinn, april-fools has already come and gone.”

 

“I’m serious.”

 

“Gold doesn’t just show up in random sizes and shapes, Quinn. The issuing mint is required to certify the weight and purity before marking it. This ... lump, looks like no ingot or bar or coin that I am familiar with. Did one of your clients spray paint a fishing weight or something? Maybe pull a fast one over their smartass lawyer?”

 

His grin diminished slightly. “Could ya’ check anyway, please?”

 

She huffed, and carried the heavy object to her workbench. 

 

Several minutes later, she came over to Quinn with a frown.

 

“This thing has to be fake, Quinn. It’s too pure to be gold, even from the highest purity mints in Australia.”

 

“Higher purity is good right?”

 

“It is… but you have to understand that this kind of thing doesn’t exist! No one makes these! The only marking on it is ‘2kg’. There’s no issuer! There’s no paper trail! Even if I sell it to someone else, they’d have to recast it, alloy in some impurities, and then recertify it all before anyone will take it!”

 

“So is that a ‘yes it is worth something’ or not?”

 

She cursed and pulled out a calculator. After everything was said and done, and her $30k+ fees were extracted, it was worth almost exactly $100k. 

 

Calle was just a little impressed.

 

Chapter 6: Costumes and Capes

Chapter Text

“Table.” said Vista, with an exasperated sigh and a vague gesture towards the now familiar wood of the conference table.

 

<<Child are you pointing at the desk, or at the papers upon it?>> asked the green brute. 

 

“Table!”

 

He grabbed a piece of paper from the desktop, holding it aloft between them. “Tiah...biul.”

 

She shook her head again. “No.” vigorous pointing, “Table!”.

 

He pointed down too, “Tabh’ool.”

 

“Taa bull.”

 

“Taephul.”

 

“Table.”

 

“Table.”

 

“Oh god, I can’t believe that took a half hour.”

 

<<What is your name, child? I can’t keep calling you that, since there are too many for this Grandfather to keep track of.>>

 

Vista looked at him, uncertain. This happened occasionally. Part of trying to get the brute oriented into the Protectorate was teaching him enough English that he didn’t need to rely on his purple Translator. She was apparently here temporarily, and when the ‘magic’ holding her here wore out, she would return to wherever ‘Malfeas’ was.

 

Clockblocker was asleep next to them on the table. Having annoyed Armsmaster with a minor prank, he was given the punishment detail with Vista for the next couple days. 

 

When the brute spoke to her, she felt like he was the kind of person that was worth paying attention to. It was a weird urge, and one that made her vaguely uncomfortable. After days of trying to work with him, she had conveyed the alphabet and the basic numbers to him. He kept trying to speak to her in his own tongue, but she had no clue where to start.

 

He pointed at himself. <<Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner.>>

 

She didn’t quite get it.

 

<<Locust Mariner.>>

 

Was he trying to teach her a word too?

 

He pointed to himself with both hands on his chest. <<Mariner.>>

 

Vista didn’t know what he was trying to say, and shrugged. Whatever language they spoke in ‘Malfeas’, it sure was hard to map to English. To her untrained ear, it seemed like things moved and shifted each time he spoke. 

 

“Aha!” she exclaimed, causing Clockblocker to jump from his lackadaisy. 

 

“What?!” he snorted.

 

“I need some name cards and a marker!”

 

--

 

Nearly an hour later, most of the room was covered in stickers (or more specifically ‘Hello My Name is …’ stickers) bearing either Vista or Clockblocker’s handwritten English, or the brute’s oddly pictographic writing. More than a few times, she had caught Clockblocker sneaking in rude things in his labels, and she quietly corrected them with a glare.

 

The brute looked at her tag, “Vee…ss” he carefully rounded “...Tah”.

 

She looked at his nametag. It was a mess of something between hieroglyphs, cuneiform, and strange pictograhy and out-of-place symbols.

 

He pointed, drawing a zigzag over his tag. <<Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner.>>

 

She tried hard to sound out his name. <<M... e... r... eehn… or?>>

 

That was some kind of progress, though both of them ignored Clockblocker’s attempts to join in. His boredom made him an overeager puppy trying to demand playmates; his repeated awkward teenage  attempts to flirt with the neomah, when she occasionally returned with more paperwork, only served to reinforce the image of a yapping lapdog.

 

---

 

Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner was walking up steps, on his way to a meeting in the Protectorate HQ building. He was escorted by his neomah translator and two armed guards; while he strolled slowly, he collected his thoughts.

 

Nearly a week of practice had yielded only midling results for Mariner. Sure, he might be one of the preeminent scholars of Hell, but from what he could see, learning ‘Ehngliiss’ for a native speaker of the sacred Lintha dialect of Old Realm was going to be an uphill struggle. Simply put, it appeared that this new language had a broad vocabulary for things of which he had no equivalent concepts. The reverse seemed to be even harder, seeing as this world apparently lacked even a basic Motic Theory of Essence Flows, let alone a full understanding of the underlying shinma upon which She Who Lives In Her Name and Autochthon had designed the outermost automatic  mechanisms of the lesser sciences. Just trying to explain what a demon was had been hard enough, let alone trying to communicate the nature of What Lurks Beneath, the charm which he had used to call his neomah aide. Trying to explain that What Lurks Beneath was not so much a technique as it was a fundamental aspect of the universe, part of her own nature which Kimbery shared with him.

 

The girl ‘Veetsah’ had made an effort, of course, but could not explain to him what the boxes of glass and metal were, just as he could not explain why he was green, when she had asked. His translator was going to leave soon, and he had needed to send her out to scout the area for him. There were so many unknowns that he could hardly know where to begin without her help. Kimbery’s will bound her to his will for only another few weeks. 

 

Unless he wanted to be forced to rely upon the temperamental Ocean Washed Words charm of The Great Mother again, he would need to make the most of this time while people seemed willing to teach him. Was it strange that he was left waiting for the other shoe to drop? So many times in his life, allies became enemies without warning. Even if they didn’t become outright enemies, his grotesque powers could instill fear even among the most jaded demons of Malfeas. Now, with his desire to make a life for himself that didn’t hinge upon constant mind control, he found himself growing ever paranoid.

 

Once, long ago, his children had loved him, even if it was mixed with fear of the unknown he represented for them. However, after nearly a hundred years of peace during his reign as Dictator of An-Seng, there was little but fear and envy. It was then that he remembered feeling the savory flavor of his prize, a new homeland for the Lintha, stolen from the hands of The Golden Lord himself atop the Pinnacle of Mercy, finally tarnished and sour. 

 

His step faltered at the recollection. No matter what, he always loved his family. Even the misguided ones that had tried to overthrow him. Family would be forgiven, just as Kimbery forgave her own progeny. They would live, and he would take all those parts of them that he did not forgive, all those parts of them that he hated, and he would cut that out of them, and remold them back to model kin. 

 

He would never forgive the transgressions of the Sidereals though, nor their Terrestrial pawns. Those he would butcher and feed to his misbehaving offspring---so that they knew how lucky they were to have the chance to beg his mercy. 

 

The guard behind him coughed, and Mariner realized that he had been daydreaming about home, while looking through one of the glass windows that overlooked the sea.

 

Once he started walking again, huffed in self-annoyance. It was too easy for him to get emotional. It was too easy to be impulsive when he should behave himself. Too easy to drop his poise and horrify his new teammates. 

 

That is why he had been looking forward to meeting this ‘PeeAarr’ person. If even his Lintha children could not understand him without fear, then he needed a different approach. From what he was led to believe, the ‘PeeArr’ was some kind of courtesan, whose knack for twisting truth into spun gold was worthy of being dragged back to his court. It would be good to have at least a few retainers that could deliver him unvarnished criticism without collapsing from the pain of the effort of opposing his Self-Seed, wrapped around their hearts and minds. 

 

==

 

Glenn Chambers swept into his office several minutes late, wearing the brightest, tackiest,  Hawaiian shirt he could find out of his staff wardrobe. He had taken the initiative to test the mettle of this new ‘Former Alien Dictator’ that was now his responsibility. Would he behave himself, or would he show his fangs?

 

Glenn needed to know what he was working with.

 

“Mister Lintha, I understand that you’ve been learning English, would you please ask your translator to wait outside so I can evaluate your progress while we talk.”

 

The purple woman looked like she was ready to throw a drink in Glenn’s face. Mild confusion and surprise on the green man’s. Glenn had a sharp eye on him, searching for the seeds of anger that might blossom.

 

<<Neomah, it is fine. I have little enough to fear from this one.>>

 

<<It is rude not to introduce himself.>>

 

<<He said it was a test, did he not? Besides, I am hardly helpless.>> 

 

She huffed, and left for the waiting room. 

 

 “Are you ready, Mister Lintha?” asked Glenn, with a tilt of his head.

 

“We talk.” replied the Brute.

 

“Good.” Glenn locked eyes with him briefly, before moving out of his chair, and circling the green man. Without a doubt, he looked like a Case 53, but Glenn saw no makers mark on him.  “I have been told that you are a former Dictator. Do you know how hard you’re making my job?”

 

“Is exile Dictator. An-Teng.” 

 

“Did no one tell you that this country hates Dictators?” Glenn said, leaning in, in what was clearly an invasion of the green man’s personal space.

 

“Yes. Dragon say. Vista say. Pig-o say.  Neomah tell more <<details>>.”

 

Glenn tch’d at him. “I don’t like how you talk either. For an alleged scholar, you sure do speak English like a toddler.”

 

“What is toodlor?”

 

“Tiny baby, too young to do much but burble.”

 

“I could English better. I cheat. Not good idea. Stuck here too long to keep cheat. Vista say English to me. Slow words.”

 

“You’re going to be a hard sell.” he finished rounding the green man. “Where would I even start marketing you?”

 

“Am doctor.”

 

“Healers are pretty valuable. But, from what Dragon’s reports are on your powers, you’re a scary motherfucker. I saw the videos from her suit cams.” he sighed. “I mean, good on you for getting Armsmaster to shut up for a minute, but come meet our ‘scary brutish alien Dictator’ is hardly going to draw a crowd.”

 

“Am doctor. Best doctor.”

 

“That hardly matters if people don’t trust you to touch them. Case in point, your fight with Glory Girl ended with her on a stretcher. Everyone was so hostile that she had to wait for treatment for days elsewhere.”

 

“Broke bone easy. Touch and fix.”

 

“What does it look like?”

 

Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner held up his hands. “Either bite good, or go slow. Fingers.” 

 

The right hand unraveled, showing not only a tangle of gray root-tendrils, but they also formed a fringe of minute root/hyphae facing towards Glenn. “Slow but fast.”

 

He reached out for the desk and grabbed a wooden pencil; Glenn saw a motion that sickeningly confounded a squid attacking its prey with watching a strangler fig invade its host--just much faster. Within seconds of contact, the pencil was placed in an exploded view on the desk. Dismantled eraser and metal collar on one side, perfectly intact graphite core on the other, and the delicate hollow yellow shell of paint was set nearby the equally hollow wood of the shaft, both completely unharmed. 

 

“See?” asked the green brute, before returning his hand back to match its opposite. “Surgeon need no tools.”

 

“Eww!”

 

“Is bad?”

 

“Yes, dammit, it’s bad! It’s gross! Worst of all its unmarketable!”

 

“I see. Tastes bad.”

 

Glenn looked at him with narrowed eyes. “Yes... ?”

 

“I had this problem. Long time.”

 

Glenn tried vainly to suss out what the half-English words meant. “People thought you were gross when you were a Dictator too?”

 

“Yes. Dictator long time. Early children scared but love their Grandfather.” he frowned. “Recent children only fear. They know me but not know me. Burn palace. Exiled me. 2... 5... 0...  years peace. They don’t care.”

 

Glenn could only just keep his mouth from gaping. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting from the exiled alien Dictator with a Brute rating of six, but this wasn’t it.

 

“Did you have a big family?”

 

The brute nodded proudly, holding his arms as wide as he could, before his face became contemplative. “Outlive many of them. Is sad. Last one I held in my arms. Daughter of Granddaughter of Great-Granddaughter of Great-Granddaughter.” 

 

Glenn swore he heard the distant sounds of children playing in the hall. Passingly annoyed by the thoughts of noisy tour groups showing up where they shouldn’t be allowed, he pointedly put it out of mind.

 

“Too small to have name yet. Too small to fear me yet.”

 

Glenn’s jaw tightened. “If your family feared you, why did they let you hold the baby?”

 

The brute rolled his head from side to side, with indifference. “Am doctor.” He saw disbelief in Glenn’s eyes, and expanded on his laconic statement. “Chosen of The Great Mother. She loves her children. I love my children. Keep them safe. No danger having child. I make safe and whole. Eat disease before birth. No weak blood.”

 

“Weren’t there other doctors they could go to? You didn’t have a monopoly, did you?”

 

“I don’t know ‘monoply’, but yes doctors. Am best doctor. Even helped the ones that exile me. No gills. No bent spines. No flippers. I fix, and they do not even know it. <<They always want pure Lintha children. I laugh at The Great Mother’s joke. Lintha were never pure; we were built to require Her touch, lest we fall apart. But I give them strong, healthy children all the same.>>”

 

Gills? Glen thought to himself.

 

“I came for help. <<Neomah>> says you Peee Aree can fix.” his gaze seemed tired. “No more fear. Not here. Not again. <<I wanted to be feared and respected when I was conquering An-Teng. Perhaps I was foolish to think that I could go back from that. I know I cannot be just a normal merchant again, not with the power I have. I just hope it is not impossible to be respected, as horrifying as my power is.>>” 

 

Glenn looked at this green man, and tried to take his measure. He was normally a good judge of character, but there was nothing conclusive he could grab onto. Too many layers of confusion were obfuscating what evidence he could see. 

 

“I can help you. I’d normally say I’ve succeeded with worse material to start with, but I think we both know that’s not true.” He clapped his hands together and pointed with his paired index fingers. “You need to put in effort if you want my help. If you fail to even attempt to follow my office’s advice, I’ll wash my hands of you, and you can figure out how to fix this on your own.”

 

“Deal.” 

 

It was only many hours later that Glenn realized that he’d completely forgotten his plan to test the brute’s temper. He hoped that he hadn’t been intentionally suckered into a sob-story. Instead, he had gotten distracted by the brute’s strange ideas for his costume and ‘Hero name’. 

 

Apparently, the translator had a reasonable grasp on Earth-culture, despite being an alien. She had helped him localize what would otherwise be difficult to convey through costume design. The most galling part was that they didn’t really need Glenn’s input on the design, name, or fabrication of the outfit. The manilla folder she’d brought to his office was more of a courtesy, to notify him that he was not needed in that capacity.

 

He looked over the bill of materials. It was a bizarre combination of things he had heard of, like sharkskin leather and quartz lenses. As well as things that he hadn’t heard of, like Seasilk and Black Pearl. There was nothing inherently protective about the materials however, including nothing that would really qualify as proper armor, unless that shark leather was much tougher than he recalled.

 

The designs were definitely based on period woodcuts Glenn had seen, or at the very least extremely accurate Venetian Carnival Masquerade Mask reproductions. The base material of the outfit was dyed black sharkskin and seasilk, forming what looked like heavy robes and a matching wide-brimmed  archaic hat design meant to fit over a tight coif that connected the top of the head to the neck seamlessly. 

 

The underlayer was more of the same materials, but with more leather over vital organs, and a matching pair of gloves and boots. The outermost visible layer was decorated with iridescent metal thread (whatever ‘Drawn Dreamstone’ was), in an elaborate floral motif that incorporated a small fortune worth of understated pearls. 

 

It was the mask, however, that was the most recognizable piece, for Glenn. It enclosed the top of the face only, leaving the bottom of the mouth exposed. Made from more leather and silk, the mask had a pair of built-in spectacle-looking eyepieces of circular quartz. They sat upon a long curved beak that was thick and pointed at the end. Glenn recalled that the woodcuts always had the head fully enclosed in their depictions, so he assumed that the exposed mouth was a nod to the other mask designs used by the ‘Medico della peste’ from the Venetian Carnival. 

 

His nom de guerre would be ‘Sagacious Physician’, and he would fight crime dressed as a plague doctor. 

 

Glenn wondered how much was lost in translation, or if this was the least frightening thing that the green brute could think to represent himself. He shook his head and made a note to have his assistant prepare a pre-made ‘I told you so’ memo for when the brute found out exactly how intimidating that design would be. Ironically, the best thing about the costume was that it completely hid the green skin, red eyes, and white hair that made the brute stand out so much. 

 

At least he didn’t have to dust off his office’s guidelines for how to market a Case 53. 

 

Of course, the costume design submitted to Glenn left out the actual design of iridescent metal threads hidden in front of the black background. Conversely, the design was much more noticeable on the interior of the costume (which had a matte black background instead of a shiny one), though that would only really be visible while worn if the cape were fully extended by some movement.

 

Instead of the floral design shown in the drawings, Mariner had made a work of art--in the style of The Great Mother. It was only from very close up or from just the wrong place that the reflection of the threads would show to mortal eyes a glimpse of the horrors hinted at amid the strange angles. Sacred art for the Lintha--merely gazing upon it was an act of depravity in most cultures.

 

{{JFLM activates the following charms when making the costume: Muse of Beauteous Horrors, Art Begets Art, Horrid Idols Raised, Pelagic Muse Artistry, Squamous Idols Raised; social attack encoded “Mortals beware, all others know your place beneath my heel.”}}

 

----

 

A mismatched pair stood on top of the building’s roof in Downtown Brockton Bay. On the left, clad in high tech platso-ceramics of efficient gray and blue, stood Armsmaster. On the right, seemingly just another shadow amid shadows, until its movement betrayed not only solidity, but glittering adornments that only just hinted where the edges might be within the darkness. Armsmaster turned and regarded the annoyance next to him, wearing a costume that screamed at Armsmaster of a long history of pseudoscientific ignorance and medical failure, culminating in the debunked Miasmatic Theory. It vexed him terribly to be even standing next to this brute with medical pretensions. Not that he had the option to avoid the green brute, and his ignorant costume design. 

 

This was the night of the new recruit’s first patrol. Even if he wasn’t an exiled alien dictator that insisted that his Powers were literal Magic, he would have still needed to accompany the brute. That’s just how first patrols worked. He didn’t trust anyone underneath him, and so they had to prove that they weren’t a walking talking police incident report waiting to happen, before he could fully utilize them as approved Protectorate members.

 

Brockton Bay could ill afford losing any more of its stalwart defenders, as Armsmaster could only just try to stamp out the worst villainy while having to triage the rest of the crime-ridden city. He saw its slow decline now, not only in his simulations, but every time he walked its streets, and he did not like feeling so helpless about it.

 

He was determined to make the best of a bad hand that he’d been dealt. If this brute couldn’t reveal the secrets of the universe, then he’d fill a ten hour shift on the patrol rotation. It was just a matter of time before the patrol was done, and he’d have a chance to take first hand observations. His current models didn’t give him any particular hints as to where he should assign the brute’s patrol in the gang-infested lands of the city. After all, large scale fish illusions at sea is a strange power to combine with basic super strength and durability, but it hardly gave him an obvious role on the team. Maybe the brute would be a decent Tank. He certainly lacked the versatility of Alexandria packages, like Glory Girl. 

 

This was also his first chance to try out the auto-translator unit that Dragon had been working on. Her designs were interesting to Colin on multiple levels, but he didn’t know how reliable their data was yet on that unknown tongue that the brute and the purple woman with gills spoke. Right now, it was running on the audio system from Armsmaster’s helmet.

 

“Brute. Can you see the city from here?” 

 

“Can see. You want english?”

 

“Yes. I want you to speak as much English as possible, but if you don’t know the word, just say it in whatever that language’s name was.”

 

<<Old Realm. Though I don’t know which dialect you want me to use. Lintha dialect is beautiful and elegant. Malfean is expressive, and vibrant. It has many words for cities and buildings, unsurprisingly.>>

 

“Okay, I got ‘Old Language’ and then something about buildings.”

 

“I say that. More though.”

 

“Whatever. Just so long as you can follow orders.”

 

The beak-shaped mask cocked its head. “I no follow orders. Impossible. You ask nice, and I help. <<But I will bow my head to no man.>>”

 

Armsmaster hated the constant power struggles with this idiot. “You work for me, you understand that, brute? I tell you to jump, and you jump!” He turned and poked a gloved finger into the tip of the beak.

 

“I have contract.” said the brute through his exposed lower jaw. There was a finality to the statement that made it clear that he considered the matter closed. Even if wasn’t one of the Great Mother’s blood oaths, nor anything sanctified in the legalisms of Cecelyne, he would wring every last bit of blood from this stone, so help him.

 

In exasperation, Colin pulled up the contract terms again on his HUD, before grunting angrily. He removed his finger from the beak. “You do have a contract. Fine, do as I say, or I won’t feed you this week.”

 

“I hunger.”

 

“Then behave yourself, dammit!”

 

“Fine.”

 

“Good, now you’ve already been given the briefing before we left, about the city and its layout, and how to behave properly as a hero on patrol. Do you have any questions?”

 

“Why map round?”

 

Colin couldn’t be more confused. “What? Why was the map round?”

 

“Yes. Maps flat.”

 

“Shut up. Do you have any questions that aren’t more reminders of how big of a let down you are as an alien that believes in magic?”

 

Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner snapped his teeth shut with passing anger, the sharp clack audible even over the background of the city night. <<You just wait till I learn enough of your tongue to explain the flavor of motic flows.>>

 

“I didn’t get any of that. Say it slower.”

 

“No. Hunt now.” stated the brute, before jumping off the rooftop towards a neighboring one. 

 

Armsmaster shouted at the brute’s black back. “Make sure you stay within shouting distance! If I can’t see or hear you, you don’t get fed!”

 

--

 

Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner had centuries of experience as a man-hunter, in both senses of the word. It called to his nature to investigate the smells and flavors of this new city like a bloodhound that  had slipped its lead. Within minutes, he had given his chaperone the slip, not even particularly intentionally on his part. Though with his mastery of disguise and stealth, the mere idea that an unprepared Armsman could keep track of him if he didn’t want to be found, was absurd.

 

With so many options, he knew not where to start his hunt.

 

After a second of reflection, he thought, do heroes hunt? 

 

Probably not like he did.

 

If only he could figure out where to start.

 

--

 

It was just past midnight when Taylor stepped purposefully across the implicit line dividing the upscale Boardwalk from the crack whores that hung around the Docks. She did not know it at the time, but her story was just beginning.

Chapter 7: Operation BIRDMAN

Chapter Text

Tattletale’s cell phone rang--not her normal cell phone either. She relocated from the restaurant seating area she had been eating at to the single-occupant handicapped bathroom, and locked the door behind her. Without even looking at the Caller ID she answered: “Hi boss. I was wondering when you wanted us to hit that jewelry store.”

 

“Tattletale,” began Coil, “you are eager for action, as always. Incorrect guess though. That store folded yesterday. Further interference with their business would just cut into our bottom line.”

 

“Really? That was quick. Did you mention the name of the dog?”

 

“Indeed, Tattletale, your finders fee on that has already been processed and on its way to your account.”

 

“Great! Then I guess that’s all the work for this month.”

 

“Not quite. Your talents are too valuable to leave you idle. I have work that requires you specifically.”

 

“Lucky me, boss. When you say ‘me specifically’ do you mean I don’t need the rest of the team?”

 

“You probably won’t need them.”

 

“No offense, but we do have an agreement as a team. It might not be in writing, but we are a team, and agreed to negotiate as a unit.” 

 

“Fine. I will pay the normal rate. But, you should know that this is a low risk intel mission.”

 

“So what’s the job?”

 

“Your team will be tasked with leading Lung to personally encounter a target near the docks. It would be best if you did it without exposing yourselves to Lung directly. Harassing his staff is fine, just don’t get in a fight. Your personal role will be to observe the encounter. Your standard pay will be doubled if you can get intel footage during the encounter and doubled again if you can dig up anything interesting about the powers of the target.”

 

“Uh huh, something tells me you already had a plan prepared in case I took the team with me.”

 

“Of course. Your target is expected to be wearing an all black costume with a long pointed mask and wide hat.”

 

Tattletale didn’t need her powers to guess this was a new cape in town. Her mysterious boss seemed to be the kind of guy who would likely sell that intel at a premium to customers. “Are you gonna sell this video boss?”

 

“Knowledge is power, Tattletale. I won’t be giving you any additional intel about the target, I don’t want to bias the results your power digs up. I will however give you a heads up when I know the target’s schedule. I will use the code name BIRDMAN for the target in our communications.”

 

“Alright, on behalf of the Undersiders, I accept Operation BIRDMAN.”

 

--

 

At this point, she almost wished she hadn’t agreed to this stupid plan. Tattletale had been stuck in the rain for hours, moving from roof to roof, running up and down stairs when the gaps were too big to jump, and picking locks in a hurry to accomplish it all.

 

The idea originally was to use BIRDMAN’s schedule to plot out a route and try to wrangle him and Lung into meeting. Unfortunately, BIRDMAN seemed to not have a fixed schedule, and Lung did whatever the hell he wanted. Her powers let her read the writing on the wall, so to speak, but it was more like getting hints at probable paths implied by the infrequent radio reports she got about BIRDMAN and Lung.

 

It was exhausting, and she’d been there for six hours at that point, coming in right after Lung left his favorite office and before he got dinner. BIRDMAN was allegedly in the area as well, but she had no clue where half the time. Mostly, Boss’s reports were followed up with mad dashes for her, while Brian and Alec got to mostly sit on their asses out of the rain, unless a target of opportunity was reported. Then they’d go harass one of Lung’s minions to keep them annoyed with the Undersiders.

 

As near as she could guess, BIRDMAN didn’t seem to have neither a schedule nor a planned route. There was some kind of method to the madness, but she lacked vital facts and her Power just highlighted her ignorance. Whatever eyes the boss had on the guy didn’t seem to be very good at tailing him, or he was very good at avoiding them. It was too early to tell. Her best guess was that the boss had some drone cameras in addition to someone on foot. There really wasn’t any other non-Power explanation of the speed at which the updates came in.

 

The only equipment she brought with her were a pair of throwable cameras. They were little more than Go-Pro’s attached to cheap RC car controllers, but were innocuous and quiet if a bit slow. Their precision and video quality weren’t the best, but it was better than most security cams. Those cameras coupled with a set of climbing equipment, would hopefully help her get her bonus. If not, she was out a few bucks. No biggie.

 

“BIRDMAN and Lung confirmed south of your location.” chattered the radio update.  She had to run again to catch up.

 

--

 

Lung held a plastic take-out container in his hands from one of the best chinmi restaurants on the east coast--which just so happened to be in Brockton Bay. Within the twofold partition were hearty servings of his favorite dishes from that restaurant's fine selection of Japanese delicacies: sun-dried Karasumi mullet roe, and his recently acquired taste for the strongly flavored salted fermented fish viscera dish Shiokara. The thick brown gravy-like liquid of the Shiokara left a pungent cloud around him. He knew that it nauseated his men, but didn’t care. 

 

It annoyed him to no end that his meal was interrupted. He liked having whiskey with his Shiokara, and was thoroughly disappointed that that option was taken from him by some fucking amateur villain team. He would order his men to kneecap the fuckers for his aggravation. He just didn’t have enough hands to hold the bottle, cups, utensils, and plastic container all at once. Were he more sober, he would have probably had the foresight to just hand his shit to a lackey. Still buzzed, he was aware of his failure to plan ahead, but couldn’t really be bothered to care that much. Not when he had someone else to beat for his inconvenience. 

 

Starting just after dusk, there had been reports of tags being vandalized. Seeing as tags were a clear way to mark the borders of the ABB territory so that even those illiterate skinheads would think twice before crossing. Lung took his territory seriously, and had a spray crew sent out to fix the art and kick the ass of whatever punk kept tagging them. 

 

An hour later, the spray crew walked into one of his bars. Or rather, they didn’t walk so much as they hopped into the bar. The crew were naked, arms zip-tied behind them, and legs similarly bound at the ankles and knees. They were gagged with their own underwear or socks, behind some duct tape. They said two capes walked out of a cloud of darkness, tazed them till they shit themselves, then robbed them. Whatever paltry sum they had been carrying paled in comparison to the sheer gall of spitting in the face of his gang that the act represented. There were a lot of capes in town, but only the Undersiders’ leader, Grue, had publicly demonstrated such a powerset.

 

After several rounds of ordering his men to pursue the little shits, Lung finally got confirmation that his men had them pinned down in a garage. He came in person specifically to kick their teeth in while he showed them his interrupted dinner.

 

--

 

Taylor could not help but overhear the part of the ABB’s plans that were conveyed in mixed broken English--several asian languages interspersing heavily accented English--it was hard to understand for her. 

 

“... just shoot them in the kneecaps and bring them to me. I wanna do it myself for ruining my dinner… ,” she heard Lung command.

 

“Wait, make sure you get both kneecaps. Those tricky fucking kids can’t be trusted not to pull something again. No escapes this time! Drag them out of that garage!”

 

It was obvious to her from context that Lung’s gang was plotting to kill some kids! 

 

She had trailed them from back alleys but they were splitting up to go kill those kids. She needed to do this though it seemed impossible--if she didn’t act now, while the ABB were all in a clump, she might not be able to save those kids. 

 

Her mouth was dry.

 

She had to move.

 

--

 

“Reports show BIRDMAN approaching from the south, 100m.” said the boss over the radio.

 

“I don’t see him, boss.” Tattletale said, before turning and spinning 180 degrees. “I do see Lung and his gang, about two dozen. Coming into the lot from the north.”

 

“Lung confirmed.” 

 

Tattletale could see the faces of Lung’s minions, scowling slightly at his proximity through her binoculars. It was important, but she couldn’t tell why. Maybe it was smelly? She could see flies around him through the optics. 

 

“BIRDMAN should be visible.” squawked the radio in her ear.

 

She turned back south and saw nothing. Poorly lit by sodium lamps, the roadway revealed little beyond debris and circling moths. She blinked and then saw him. A man now stood where there had previously been nothing but gravel and used needles. Where did he come from? In the middle of the orange cone of flickering lamp light, was a dark figure shrouded in ominous chiaroscuro. A cape of some kind, wearing a costume of strange angles in black on black. Two glass lenses reflected the flickering lamplight from within  a mask of inhuman proportion. Either a giant nose or a beak  poked out from beneath a wide black hat. He carried nothing besides a small cane. 

 

She wanted to hide immediately.

 

“Um… BIRDMAN…  confirmed, I hope...”

 

--

 

Another cape had appeared, not one he recognized either. His men stopped in their tracks, unconsciously backing away from a predator. Maybe the Undersiders brought in a mercenary? It looked like a villain, in that costume, and the fact that he was blocking the way that Lung was traveling didn’t bode well, and surely couldn’t have happened by accident. 

 

The cape with the hat and cane stood very still and very conspicuously under a street lamp. Lung knew he wanted to be seen. Not an ambush then.

 

“This is my turf, stranger!” called out Lung, over the heads of his frozen men. “Leave now with just a warning.”

 

“I want your food.”

 

Lung growled involuntarily. His men backed away.

 

“The FUCK did you just say to me?!” he bellowed.

 

Broken English answered him; the stranger’s accent was unplaceable and thickly foreign, as if he had even less English proficiency than Lung himself. “Can smell it from here. I want your food”. <<Where did you get such a Western delicacy in this world of cattle and fowl?>>

 

--

 

Taylor couldn’t believe her luck. 

 

Another villain showed up. In a creepy-looking plague doctor costume too! She could only just make out that the mask exposed his mouth to talk. Other than that flaw, it was a pretty close match for what she had seen in the history books and on the internet; she had spent embarrassingly long looking into creepy shit after realizing her Power was to control bugs. It reminded her of how her own homemade costume was very much a work in progress, and her mask didn’t even cover her hair properly.

 

The Mexican Stand-off over shiokara continued.

 

Now, she realized that whatever distraction was happening, she would not have another chance to get so many bad guys in one small area. Her swarms definitely could spread out, but being in one big clump made them much easier to concentrate on.

 

It was now or never. 

 

She had to keep these guys from killing those kids.

 

She reached out to her swarm, and commanded them for the first time:

 

Attack!

 

–



Lung either couldn’t help himself, or (more accurately) just wanted to kick someone’s ass right then. Too many frustrations had accumulated, and he needed some release. He could feel his pulse beat with the fire that he knew so well, his rage-stoked power began to prepare his flesh for violence. It called to him, begging him to use it.

 

“If you want this stranger, come TAKE it!” he growled while taking a step forward and holding up the container with his left hand. With his offhand, he signed at his right-hand lieutenant to stay on his shoulder. The man was the automatic rifleman on Lung’s normal fire team--the brute was well aware of his limitations, and kept the gunman around to compensate. Lung hated having to chase prey when it ran. 

 

{{Greed Without Restraint: rolls Conviction (7), failure, no botch}}

 

“I take.” stated the stranger, his body language unreadable beneath the costume. Lung could swear that he could see the stranger licking the drool from the side of his mouth beneath the beak. The heat broke through his fingertips, and Lung knew that his claws were ready. He could easily punch through concrete with them. Lung shifted his weight slightly off center, preparing to sucker-punch the fucker.

 

As the stranger stepped forward a few paces into Lung’s reach, Lung eyed the stranger’s throat, picking a nice flat target of opportunity near the jugular. 

 

Suddenly the lights dimmed, and his men started to mutter. Lung did not let them distract him. Flies buzzed around the meal he was holding out, but that didn’t really surprise him, it was fermented fish. While it wasn’t exactly tunnel vision, Lung’s eyes were fixed, and did not detect the eerie swarms of insects that had appeared around the edges of the lot, which his men were pointing their guns at in confusion.

 

The man in the black costume reached out a gloved right hand, leaving his body open and throat unguarded. Lung could see the place on the man’s throat he would strike, and knew that it was unarmored, visibly bearing no more protection than a bit of cloth and leather. Lung struck out with sufficient force to gut the man like a hog.

 

{{Lung attempts a sneak attack [combat rounds will happen after this action resolves]. Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner activates: All Things Betray for 1m; Attack no longer unexpected. Joining Battle(Wits+Awareness) [Lung(5), LT(5), Extras(go last), Skitter(8), JFLM(14) activates All Things Betray for 3m adding 7 autosuccesses]. Resulting order: JFLM[13s], LT[3s] Skitter[2s] / Lung [2s], Extras. ; JFLM goes first, performs Misc action Speed 5; Palette Without Limit is always assumed to be active for JFLM}}

 

Almost supernaturally, the stranger in black seemed to already know Lung's intentions. He moved just so, unnaturally entering into Lung’s reach, and grabbing the bait from Lung’s left hand with both of his own hands. The stranger moved with a grace that Lung had not expected from such a cumbersome looking costume, and the stranger shoved a ball of the fishy delicacy into his exposed mouth with chopsticks.

 

{{Lung Rolls to hit: Dex[3] + MA[4] +2(claws Acc bonus) + 2s from circumstance bonus; target Parry DV 10; net 0. JFLM counterattacks, activating Hand-Biting Retaliation (3m) and Mutilation Feast Method (6m) and Predatory Dominance (4m); Att Pool: Wits 7 + Occult 7 + 1(acc) = 15d10; Author Rolls: 7s. Lung PDV 4; Net succ: 3s. Raw Damage: 2 (carry over) + 7(Int) + 0 (weapon) = 9L raw - (Lung STA=4)/2 = 7L O2; Author rolls: 3s (spends 1m step 8 for Teeth Without Number); 3L to an appendage is greater than 2L threshold for Mutilation Feast Method; Lung suffers a Crippling amputation; A Bite That Keeps Gnawing applied. Crimson Fed Fecundity triggers: +3m for the Crippling bite attack. Lung spends 1w to the unnatural mental influence (UMI) from Predatory Dominance}}

 

--

 

Lung’s trusted Lieutenant knew his place in this combat, positioned close enough to cover his boss with the automatic shotgun he carried but just far enough away to avoid the boss killing him with friendly fire. When Lung had signaled him to standby for his lead, he didn’t expect the stranger was stupid enough to actually reach out for the wretched stinking rotten fish and had been preparing to spray at a fleeing back. 

 

Instead, he now got a front row seat to watch Boss Lung, the head of the ABB gang, most famous as a cape for being nearly indestructible, getting his right hook not only blocked, but blocked with the stranger’s teeth. The stranger had bitten Lung’s near-bulletproof clawed hand and instead of just losing his head, he not only halted Lung’s assault immediately, but did so without putting down his chopsticks full of wet fish chunks.

 

Time seemed to freeze for a moment, but for a slight motion that the Lieutenant wouldn't have noticed, if not for the exaggerated wobbling of the stranger’s black beak. Then, Lung pulled his hand back and screamed like a stuck pig. 

 

{{Author rolls 1d10 [1=lose arm; 2-5=lose hand; 6=lose thumb and two adjacent fingers; 7=thumb and index finger; 8=thumb; 9= last two fingers; 0=pinkie]: rolled a 3}}

 

The stranger held the boss’s dominant right hand in his mouth, before swallowing it  whole, leaving no trace save for Lung’s screaming and his bloody stump. The Lieutenant didn’t have the time to examine the wound, normally shit like that just made Lung mad, but the fact that it happened so soon in the fight, before Lung had a chance to bulk up, meant that the stranger just got elevated from “Low Threat” to “Highest Priority Threat”. Although Lung could shrug it off, that ability didn’t extend to the rest of the gang.

 

The Lieutenant promptly moved his right thumb and switched the fire mode selector from Semi-automatic operation to Full-automatic, turning his USAS-12 from a normal modern shotgun into a banned ‘destructive device’ with but a flick of a switch.  It was meant for either suppressing a whole room, taking out a whole car at once, causing war crimes during a riot, or really fucking up one guy’s day. The Lieutenant could only reflect on how much he loved his job, before drawing a bead on the stupid,  masked stranger. 

 

The masked stranger seemed well aware of his movement, but seemed to be trying to finish eating. His mouth was still stained with the blood of Lung’s right hand, and the stranger was lifting the small pieces of fish to his lips, delicately so as not to crush the soft meat. The Lieutenant could only guess that the guy was too stupid to fear his streetsweeper. 

 

{{LT fires Focused Full Auto (FFA within the first range increment) at JFLM, Dex(3)+Firearms(4)=(7/2 per FFA)3s+2s (circumstance bonus for proximity); Rolls: 5s+2s=7s; target PDV (Dex(7)+MA(7) - 5 (onslaught) -2 (hands full))/2=4 PDV; Target hit, 2 carryover; shotgun (9L) + 3L (and O3; close range) + 2 carryover= 14L O3; Target L soak: 7STA/2 = 4; Post Soak = 10L O3 ; FFA multiplies x3 = 30L O3; rolled: 8L final damage levels; JFLM Counterattacks in Step 9 (via Hand Biting Retaliation);  Activates Teeth Without Number + Digestion Without Distinction + Memory Without Time + Picking Yesterday’s Gums + Platter Cleaning Violence Flicker + By Pain Reforged + 2nd Mtg Exl(+3s) + Predatory Dominance (4m); Sea Within Veins Prana is automatic AoE, Great Mother’s Tears substitutes Mutagenic Toxin for Kimbery’s Depths + acid bath; 2 dose exposure to each; JFLM attack pool Wits+Occult-Onslaught+Acc-full hands (7+7-5+1-2= 8); rolls 8d10; 6s + 3s(Exl) = 9s gross;  target DDV (3+3+0)/2 = 3;   9-3 = 6s net; Base dam Int(7)+0L (Hunger Penalty = 0; literally eating) + 6 carryover = 13 L; target L soak (STA 3)/2 + armor(reinforced breastplate +7L/6B) = 1 + 7 = 8L soak; remaining damage dice = 13-8=6L; rolled 6d10: 4 LHL. Amputation effect triggered. Armored With Suffering Triggered (-2 Wound Penalty); Predatory Dominance is resisted for 1w.}}

 

He fired a carefully controlled barrage at the stranger, struggling as always to counter the rapid recoil of the full auto setting. In faster than he could blink, the lead shot had peeled away the costume of the stranger, and then the stranger’s arm was suddenly blown off behind him. The stranger’s right side had a C-shaped divot in it where the arm used to be. 

 

{{JFLM spends 1m-1HL to activate Mounting Hunger Frustration: regains 8L*7Ess=56m}}

 

Rather unexpectedly, the stranger grunted in frustration and began moving as the wound sprayed sticky green fluid everywhere, covering the Lieutenant and Lung. With his remaining hand he opened his mouth wider than any human could, and shoved the lot, plastic tray, chopsticks and all into his face, chewing the wood and plastic with audible crunches. 

 

Without missing a beat, the C-shaped hole and ragged stump wriggled in a way that meat absolutely should not. A seam opened up, and a new arm, tipped with Lung’s right hand shot out of the seam, ripping it open like a splitting pea pod. All along the arm, more seams tore themselves open, revealing countless toothy maws filled with  tongues and blacked, rusty looking teeth. The limb then stretched and flung out of its logical socket like a chameleon shooting out its tongue. The disgusting harpoon of teeth moved too fast for him, but seemingly missed him at the last second as he dove away on the balls of his feet, dropping the gun in the process.

 

The Lieutenant had only a second to realize that the sticky green fluid was all over him, including almost covering his eyes. It felt like sizzling meat on a grill sounds, only it didn’t seem to be actually burning him, as uncomfortable as it felt. He wasn’t sure what powers that strange cape had, but he thought himself safe enough after that to take his right hand to wipe the crap off him. It just made it worse, as his arm was coated too.

 

As he wiped his palm on his shirt, it came away in his fingers, loose.

 

He looked down.

 

To his horror, he was missing most of his right torso, and the entire right arm. The ragged flesh leaked red blood that mixed with the unhealthy green fluid. He couldn’t even feel it. Was it shock or nerve damage? 

 

He could see extra eyes opening up  on the undamaged flesh---lidless and staring like a carp.

 

He took a deep breath; bloody pink froth came out of a hole where his lung should have been. 

 

He should only have two eyes, shouldn’t he?

 

The stranger pointed at him accusingly with Lung’s bloody hand, now with the mouths mostly closed it almost looked normal. He shouted, “You make me show teeth! You make exposed! Death too short a punishment! I cripple! I twist!”

 

{{Act of Villainy Performed: Agony-Savoring Mercy [Kimbery]. JFLM loses one Limit}}

 

He only had moments before his screaming was cut off by swarming cockroaches and flies, as he fell to the ground flailing. He could feel them biting his new carp eyes, but not his ragged wound. Small mercies, he thought, passing out from the pain.

 

--

 

Tattletale felt bile rise in her throat, as she tried to avoid vomiting at the sight of the fighting that was going on. It was a terrible idea to zoom in on the action with the high definition cameras. 

 

Every goon was covered in crawling and writhing sheets of insects, all trying their damndest to either bite, sting, or burrow into the flesh of anyone unlucky enough to be in the scene.

 

Her powers forced her to analyze every bite and bore. That was just how they worked, and she the unwilling voyeur.

 

There was another cape. The bugs were indiscriminate in who they were attacking, and she couldn’t see any special exception being made for BIRDMAN. He seemed to be too thick skinned to be too affected, but all she had to go on was his open mouth. Which seemed to be… biting… the bugs that came within range.

 

When he had… she couldn’t think of the right word for it, but “opened” his mouths all over his body, the first time, she could only stare in horror. The “opened” mouths were obviously some kind of Power, but she couldn’t fathom how they worked. All of the violence was so far away that she just hadn’t caught it all first hand. Maybe the videos would hold more answers to how one of Lungs veterans had lost an arm to BIRDMAN.

 

What did matter was that the “opened” mouths seemed to stick around, opening periodically to consume more of the insects swarming around them. On the other goons, the insects seemed to aggressively try to invade the airways and mouths. BIRDMAN seemed to be special in this regard.

 

As she panned over to examine the now downed lieutenant she could see that he had grown what looked like dozens of lidless eyes.  Her mouth filled with bile at the sight. She knew that hadn’t been there before he fought BIRDMAN. Did it have some connection to the bugs?

 

There was a distant scream from a rooftop, and the sound of popping balloons. In mere seconds, a whoosh was her only warning that Lung had chucked a desk-sized air conditioner at her.

 

She dove behind the masonry.

 

--

 

Taylor could not believe that she had not only subdued Lung via biting off his genitals with her swarm, but that she had survived the encounter mostly intact. The famously dangerous brute had escaped capture dozens of times, from being literally too angry to go down to the likes of Armsmaster and New Wave. And here, she had him on the ground, to the point that she was vaguely worried she had overdone it. 

 

She heard a noise from the ground nearby, and turned to see the last villain standing staring at her blankly from behind the red glass eyes of his plague doctor mask. Her swarm still circled him, but the ones closest to him were all dead.

 

As if he had forgotten what he was doing, the unknown villain walked seemingly carelessly around the carnage of the battlefield, searching for something.

 

Taylor couldn’t hazard a guess as to what he was looking for. Her attention had been largely focused on Lung.

 

Less than a minute later, he kicked over the remains of an overturned dumpster and held up his prize from the ground: his own detached arm and shoulder, clearly still possessing most of his costume, glove and sleeve intact, if damaged.

 

He seemed to consider things for a moment, before tearing off the naked and uncostumed arm on his right side and dropping it on the ground like a flopping fish on a dock. It jumped and clawed, until the hand and the arm separated and both twitched and jerked on the dirt. 

 

The damaged arm was swallowed whole. Taylor suddenly understood why the costume exposed the mouth, and was horrified.

 

After a second or two, the damaged arm, costume and all, extruded from the right shoulder, and returned back to the same state it had been when she first saw him that evening.

 

“A-are we going to fight now?” she called out to him, desperately trying to keep her mounting dread from showing. At the very least---even if she didn’t quite come down from the adrenaline yet---Lung had burned up most of her bugs, and she didn’t know how fast she could get more.

Chapter 8: Introductions

Chapter Text

Taylor was shaking in place, hoping the sound of her knees knocking together didn’t audibly betray her anxiety. She tugged on her bugs, bringing them closer to her. In her head it seemed like a good idea to have some kind of cover to hide behind. She was out of pepper spray and tasers, but her hand found a spare collapsible baton which she opened with a flick of her wrist.

 

Perhaps in response to her drawing a weapon, the obvious villain adjusted his stance. However, instead of assuming what she would normally associate with a karate or judo stance, he instead punched himself hard in the still bloody wounds drawing a slurry of green blood out. He started to laugh, and then cackled like a mad man as his blood gushed out of the wound in his shoulder, and flowed out and down his arm spilling outward rapidly.

 

{{JFLM actives Laughing Wounds Form 6m; he also activates Blood Lash for 5m 1w; current wounds=5LHL-> current Damage rating =14+5=19L }}

 

Impossibly, the blood kept pouring out and out, until it stretched the whole 10 meters between them and almost reached the edge of her swarm directly in front of her. With a self-satisfied chuckle, he flicked his wrist just like she had. The blood attached to his arm moved and flowed like a physical whip, which left deep burning gouges both where the blood had been spilled into the ground, as well as in shallow arcs where the whip kissed the concrete. 

 

Taylor could only think to herself that it looked like his blood was made of the kind of impossibly potent green acid that she had seen in old movies. Real acid usually didn’t do too much to concrete, especially not that fast or consistently. But this ten meter long whip of caustic blood somehow belied her common sense. Anywhere her bugs touched it, they simply disappeared with an alarming sizzling sensation in her mind.

 

The black clad villain before her adjusted his gaze to lock eyes with her own through the lenses of their respective masks, before making a subtle pointing motion with his beak-like nose. Taylor looked over at the side of the lot, where chain link fences were sunk into concrete and topped with rusted barbed wire. Next to the fence were a disused dumpster and a rusted metal bench that might have once been meant for people to sit on but was now just a tetanus dispenser. Overhead were more of the ubiquitous orange sodium lamps. 

 

{{JFLM applies Stone Eroding Touch at a distance for 3m each}}

 

With two flicks, he bisected first the dumpster and fencing, and then the neared lamp pole fell down with a white-hot pop of feral electricity. 

 

She could not see clearly after being functionally flashbanged, but the violent sizzling could only be a more aggressive version of the caustic green blood. Instinctively, she reached out with her bugs to feel around in the dark, only for them to reveal the thick metal lamp post continuing to dissolve into roughly coin-sized lumps of metal debris.

 

She did not want to fight this guy. How fast could he be in that get up anyway?

 

Taylor’s sight was just beginning to return to normal as she was once again nearly blinded by the red and blue of  police vehicular lights coming into view.  How had she not heard the sirens, if they were that close? That sizzling must have been pretty loud.

 

Within the time it took to consider that, the colored lights were joined by white spotlights so bright that it was hard to see anything besides them. 

 

“Both of you drop your weapons, or we will open fire!” shouted a voice from the darkness. Taylor couldn’t believe her luck, and immediately dropped her baton, and shoved her swarm onto a roof nearby. 



{{JFLM activates King of Terror Mein(5m) + World-Shaking Command(4m)+ My Will Be Done(5m1w) + Demonic Primacy of Essence (5m) w/ Lowly Pebbles in the Place + World Author Eminence(3m) + Predatory Dominance(4m) + Pandemic Notion Parasite(8m) + Know Your Place(toggled permanent aura to on instead of Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion) ; base intimacy, ‘Terrified Awe’ towards him); Emotion is ‘Terrified Awe’; half the cops spend 3w to resist, half do not; Taylor spends 3w to resist, is deliberately excluded from Pandemic Notion Parasite; (N.B. this is indeed his first use this story of the tools he used to conquer An-Teng)}}

 

“NO GUN! NO CAR!” commanded the voice from the black clad villain; green embers came from his mouth, flying upward to trace the shape of an implied fiery crown. The words seem to shake the air with their weight, as though the very shadows recoiled in fear. 

 

Taylor could see him clearly enough in the light of the police spotlights, both handheld and car mounted. The plague doctor laughed again. Upon his forehead, shining through his mask, a glowing disk appeared. He began grasping and tearing at the same open wound that the bloody whip had emerged from earlier, physically tearing a handful of his own flesh free in his off hand. 

 

His green blood did not flow as it had last time, instead steaming out like a venting boiler. In the mere moment it took to move and spread, the green blood had transformed into a 7 meter radius cloud of multicolored smog. The almost iridescent  miasma  refracted the spot lights almost as strangely as the glowing disk on his head, both forming bright semi-opaque rainbows that made seeing the man inside the miasma a matter of luck more than anything else. 

 

{{JFLM activates Lurking Indigo Haar for 10m 1w, Great Mother’s Tears substitutes the normal lethal version for the subtle non-lethal version; Anima at 10m level}}

 

“He’s resisting! Fire at Will!” shouted the police. 

 

Taylor dove to the ground, and found her swarm had involuntarily tried to come and cover her. In their haste, they tried to make a beeline through the miasma, only to find themselves swimming desperately instead of flying. The whole swarm was caught in the fog, unable to breathe, they all quickly became still, as if paralyzed or asleep, before drowning and dying. 

 

Several of the cops moved around to get better angles on the strange concealment, while Taylor was looking at her dying swarm. Then they opened fire. She couldn’t tell if they were hitting him or not, but an angry cry and some violent flailing from the blood whip from within the smog made her think that a few lucky shots from the cops had found the villain. 

 

From within the miasma, some kind of hissing and crackling could be heard. Something, or rather several somethings, appeared indistinctly  within the multicolored fog. Their movements were unpredictable, the barest glimpse of any definite shape only revealing things dark and green and wet within the broken rainbow oil slick of the miasma. They were huge and sinuous.

 

The glowing from within the miasma leaked out into the sky, and the stench of the salty sea became overwhelming, even compared to the normal smell of the bay at the docks. The lights were reduced to phosphorescent pinpricks, like something that belonged in the deepest depths of the ocean beyond the bay, but yet were impossibly bright enough to light everything for miles. Even the densest group of lights outshone the rest. They had some kind of solidity hinted at by their coordinated movements, highlighting what could only be the eyes and teeth of nameless, ancient leviathans that had drug sailors to their deaths in the icy abyss.

 

{{JFLM activates Ichor Flux Tendrils for 10m 1w; Anima is now Iconic}}

 

Despite the brightness the villain in the miasma remained shrouded in murk, only serving to instill a sort of deep awe within the viewers. It was like seeing something of an alien nature which is as beautiful as it is dangerous, a box jelly or blue-ringed octopus maybe. The cloying aesthetics were distracting enough that the cops did not initially think to back up.

 

From within the fog lashed out seven monstrously proportioned tentacles, covered with eyes that wept more of that green acid blood.  Two of the nearest squad cars were dragged physically into the miasma in full, and a third was dragged to the edge of the fog. The blood whip shot across the edge of the fog, slicing the engine block in half.

 

With their cover gone, half of the officers backed up and couldn’t do more than stare in confusion and horror at the monster that had suddenly appeared. The others, being of a more choleric temper, shot wildly at either the thing in the fog, or the tentacles,  or the glowing beast above them all. 

 

Another round of tentacles snapped out to grab the officers. This time, the eyes were shut, and did not weep acid. The inhuman strength of the gripping tentacles was beyond anything that a mere mortal could endure, but the tentacles did little more than drag the cops into the miasma (as opposed to crushing them like soda cans). 

 

Taylor could only watch in shock as a nearby, murky officer held their throat in a vain attempt to cough out the not-water of the miasma, clearly having not expected to need to be holding their breath in the trap of the miasma while struggling with the tentacles. 

 

It was awful they were drowning just feet from breathable air, purposely restrained to their fate. 

 

Within short seconds, the struggling ceased, and Taylor could just guess that there was some kind of toxin within that wasn’t as visible as the green acid, but apparently just as dangerous. Even she could hold her breath longer than that when she was just a kid.

 

The whole monstrous miasma, tentacles, and glowing sky lights all moved towards the remaining officers, who had moved back into cover again behind the remaining vehicles. 

 

Where the plague doctor passed, the concrete was coated with rainbow salts and metal was tarnished with a verdigris patina. Every weed and tuft of grass were coated with indigo rime. 

 

Taylor could see the remains of the cars: mere twisted heaps of multicolored metal fragments. Comparatively, the officers seemed in one piece, reflexively coughing even though they were very unconscious. 

 

From the sky came a flaming object into the middle of this scene, between the villain and the cops. It slammed into the concrete with a mechanical clank.

 

“BRUTE! Stop this at once! These men are on OUR SIDE!”

 

Taylor’s breath caught in the throat. 

 

Oh thank god, it was Armsmaster!

 

“WHY THEY SHOOT ME FIRST? I SAY NO GUN!” called back out of the miasma.

 

“Dammit Brute! I told you to behave. You are in so much trouble! Turn that off and stand down!”

 

The cloud dissipated, revealing the tentacles underneath somehow (impossibly) coming out of small puddles and pools of blood on the ground. After a moment, they too dissolved into green-black ichor and fell to the ground. The damage to the area and the patina and ice all remained. The lights in the sky seemed beyond his ability to deactivate. The cops remained down as well, shivering on the ground.

 

Unseen to all, Tattletale decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and exited the scene before her and her recording equipment got picked up by Armsmaster’s sensor-laden helmet. If the boss wanted to risk his drones, he was welcome to continue eavesdropping, but she fancied herself less disposable than Coil’s toys. Silently, she sent off a text to the boss and her crew: “BIRDMAN caged, going to bed.” Ironically,  after viewing the sum of all that nightmare fuel, she didn’t expect much sleep.

 

 ---

 

Taylor gawked slack-jawed at the improbable situation she stood witness to. 

 

“Brute, what was the one order I gave you tonight?”

 

“Says stay within shouting distance.”

 

“Did you do even that, Brute!?”

 

“You would hear me if I shout. Am very loud.”

 

“The obvious intention of the order was to keep you near me, so I could keep in contact with you! You don’t carry any communications equipment! No cell phone! No walkie-talkies! No radios! We heroes in the Protectorate need to keep in constant contact! There is a disproportionate number of capes and gangs in this town, and it is very dangerous!”

 

Taylor couldn’t help but tune out Armsmaster’s ranting. It was all basic common sense for capes, and she didn’t see the point in him yelling it at the guy in the plague doctor costume. He seemed to work for the Protectorate, maybe?

 

Now that she could see his costume up close, very well lit by the guy’s strange glowy aura, she could make out details that were hidden within the design. She could just make out the silver-wire detailing on the glossy black leather background. Tilting her head a little, her eyes traced the lines of the wire.

 

“Now in addition to your normal punishment of being denied commissary rations, I am exercising my discretion as your direct supervisor and naming you personally responsible for the damages to persons and property on this scene.”

 

“Did not do all of it!”

 

“It does not matter, Brute! Protectorate representatives are required to exercise discretion that you were clearly negligent of!””

 

“Bugs that took the dragon’s manhood are not mine! I took only his hand for stealing my food!”

 

“What bugs? What dragon? With all of the destruction you wrought, I came straight here to your beacon!”

 

“Dragons men I did some. Bit one. I mad at him. Gave them punishment without death. Is good, no?”

 

Taylor found herself gazing at what was either a labyrinth or some kind of abstract representation of trees. It was perplexing and complex, and felt so interesting under her fingers, the wire layers were complex shapes, not cylindrical. 

 

Wait…

 

When did she start touching the plague doctor?

 

She had moved several feet to do so!

 

Her hand still followed the odd texture, like she could almost figure out what the shape was, but couldn’t articulate it.

 

“You did what! Brute! You are reassigned to the damn morning shift! Then there will be a full staff to supervise your idiotic ass! You don’t move! I need to find out how many ambulances and vans I need to call in. Then I’ll debrief the bug girl.”

 

Wait, did Armsmaster just curse? Taylor thought to herself, looking up, she caught his back only, as he marched off towards Lung and his men.

 

“Your bugs, is good to go for soft fleshy targets, or into holes.”

 

Taylor looked up at him. She was touching him, and she could feel how warm his leather costume was under her hand. Much warmer than an outer cape should be given the circumstances.

 

“Fire Breathing makes it complicated, but there are five holes that no fire breath comes from.”

 

She made eye contact with him, and whispered, “You know?”

 

His arm lifted up before her, gloved hand and leather sleeve with the black leather cape hanging off the elbow’s curve. 

 

She saw him nod at his finger, and she stared at it. Other than the strange silver detailing, the glove seemed solid and mundane. But, after what seemed like an infinitesimal shiver, seams appeared where there were none before. Seams that weren’t seams began to move and slide in ways that were eerily familiar to her. 

 

She forced her power to attempt to feel the worms sliding along the outside of his gloves, but there were none. Sure it was something alive and moving, but the fine details she could see made her consider that they were some other kind of animal besides bugs. 

 

“Burrow deep...” 

 

The outermost layer of them forced themselves up and out of the glove, long and sinuous. She had seen plants and fungus that could grow like that in sped up videos, usually of ivy climbing up a tree or something like a mushroom growing.

 

“...and bare your teeth.”

 

Trees grow roots. Roses grow thorns. Jaws grow teeth. These things were all of those and none of them. Taylor imagined it must have been like flexing a muscle when cats expose their claws. The sinuous things wriggled over and through and past one another, in what she could only imagine would be the organic equivalent of a whirring  chainsaw being thrust into a tree.

 

“Hollow them out until they are but a meaty puppet.”

 

Taylor wasn’t certain if he commanded them to move, or if he merely thrust his arm out, at least at first. But then, the motion kept going and growing nearly triple the length of his arm, and Taylor looked down at his wrist again to see closer how he stored them all. 

 

“Fill them with yourself, and their flesh is your flesh.”

 

The seams did not stop there. Where there had been none before, parts of the arm were unraveling like some kind of complex weave made from the sinuous toothy not-roots. He was moving his arm tendrils in a show of what could only be a violent and messy end for anything it got in contact with. 

 

The movement drew her eyes deep still, exposing up past his shoulder. She could see his cape was attached to his body with fleshy innervations of roots, hanging off his body like the petals of a closed and inverted flower bud. It was no costume! 

 

He saw her notice, and impossibly opened the beak of the mask into a gaping toothy maw looking more like a dragon than a bird. It was just above his normal mouth, which grinned and laughed. Those weren’t a swarm of bugs! There’s no line between him and the things attached to him! Those silver wires were elaborate body piercings!

 

For all of a perpetually held breath, she thought that she would throw up in revulsion and disgust, but oddly all she could think was wonder if her swarm could take such fierce and exotic shapes.

 

“Brute! Put that disgusting thing away! Stop threatening witnesses!”

 

And like that, Armsmaster barreled through whatever Taylor had just been thinking.

 

---

 

For the better part of ten minutes, Taylor watched ‘Brute’ being chewed out by Armsmaster. She hadn’t realized he had so many different ways to curse, but maybe it was because he always seemed so stoic in his Parahumans Online (PHO) page. He usually came off almost robotic in interviews. 

 

If she was following correctly, ‘Brute’ seemed to be some kind of new hero, working under Armsmaster. Aside from the fact that they both had bird shaped hats, they could not look less alike standing next to each other. Armsmaster was tall, but the ‘Brute’ was taller, and his attempts to intimidate and browbeat seemed as vexing to the plague doctor as a child’s tantrum. Annoyingly in that it is loud and in front of you, but the content of the tirade was never to be evaluated.

 

“I said I did not do that to dragon. I take his thieving hand. Swarm is hers.” said the ‘Brute’, prompting the already furious head of the local Protectorate to turn and focus his frown on her.

 

Oh crap. Come on ‘Brute’! Don’t throw me under the bus like that! 

 

“Not the way I wanted to make my debut, but…” she stuck out her hand. “I’m new!”.

 

Armsmaster glared at her. “I don’t normally,” he shook her hand, with a crushing grip,  “congratulate villains. But, I’ve been chasing Lung for years, and you took him out on what my records suggest is your first time in public.”

 

“Wait! VILLAIN!?” she squawked with her voice cracking. “I’m a hero!”

 

Armsmaster looked her up and down. “Dark colors, apparently you control massive swarms of bugs, and you use them on your first night out to bite off the penis of a fire-breathing regenerator badly enough to send him into some kind of shock.” He nodded. “Yeah, pretty textbook villain.”

 

“But I’m not!” she said, feeling the urge to cry. “I swear, I was trying to protect some kids! I overheard Lung telling his men that he would deal with them personally!” She related the details of her night, leaving out only her personally identifiable details.

 

“My lie detector didn’t catch anything obviously wrong with your statement. But, just because you believe your story doesn’t make it true. If you want to be a proper hero, you will need to prove it.”

 

The ‘Brute’ chimed in, “You say same thing to me. Maybe she needs PeeArr too?”

 

“Shut UP!” Armsmaster yelled curtly, turning back to Taylor. “Ignore him!” He made a stabbing motion with his spear, “He is not authorized to take a statement, let alone trying to work on anything delicate. Now, if you want to avoid media attention that would make you have to stand under the spotlight and explain that you aren’t a villain on camera, I have a compromise that should work.”

 

Minutes later, Taylor was on the long walk home, holding a card bearing what she assumed was Armsmaster’s personal Protectorate line. Him taking the media attention for ‘defeating Lung’ would let her try again to keep things low key until she was fully prepared for that kind of publicity. Just the thought of it made her flop sweat. If only that whole thing hadn’t been so chaotic, maybe she could have found better kids to save. Armsmaster told her they were actually the Undersiders, some kind of low-end villain cape gang. 

 

She looked down at her battle damaged costume, coming apart at the seams in several places. That living plague doctor costume gave her so many ideas, but she didn’t really know where to start. Or rather, the obvious place to start was boring: repairs. Sigh, what a night.

 

---

 

Panacea was called in from her bath at home. Something about a mass poisoning and a regenerator in danger of anaphylaxis, as well as emergency sepsis reports. All of this seemed to be one incident, bringing in over six ambulances. What the hell happened? It was enough of an oddity that they would probably need her quick diagnostic powers enough that she couldn’t beg out of it. 

 

Thus, a grumpy Panacea, with damp hair walked into the ward where cape emergencies were normally sorted into, and she saw more than double the usual number of police officers guarding the rooms--which all locked from the outside, and had barred windows. Opposite--across the hallway in the low security area--there were seemingly three cops around each bed. What on Earth had happened?

 

She flagged down one of the police that was standing with their back to the wall, seemingly exhausted and red eyed; she gave even odds that they had either been crying or tear-gassed. “Officer, what happened?”

 

The cop sniffled with a surprised start, before looking up. “Oh thank god! Everyone, they managed to reach Panacea!”

 

She walked into the ward with the cops parting around her. Taking a quick headcount, she saw ten police in the beds, and knew vaguely that there was a similar headcount across the hallway in the secured area. Triage priority goes to emergency responders, so she would deal with them first.

 

“Officer! What... happened?” she repeated, making eye contact with the red eyed one.

 

“How did you not see it!? The lights in the sky! The Herald of its coming! How did you miss that?! … It had to have been visible for miles… Beware the rainbow clouds! It hides in the shape of a glass-eyed bird! I don’t know how I survived when my partner did not! It ate my patrol car! IT ATE MY PATROL CAR WITH EYES THAT WEEP ACID! I SAW IT ALL! So many eyes… they saw me… looked through me…  and now they know me… its voice burns me from the inside! THAT THING INSIDE THE BIRD! IT CAN’T FOOL ME! CAN’T HUNT ME IF I DON’T SLEEP!” the officer turned and gestured erratically at the other officers. “YOU KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT! IT CAME OUT OF THE OCEAN TO HIDE INSIDE A BIRD! DON’T PRETEND I’M THE CRAZY ONE JUST BECAUSE I’M KEEPING MY EYES OPEN! YOU SAW IT TOO! YOU SMELLED IT! IT CAN’T BE ANYTHING ELSE BUT FROM THE DEEPS!!” the officer seemed to lose strength, and collapsed to his knees weeping. One of the orderlies signaled the cops to escort their colleague away. 

 

Panacea didn’t normally hear police go off like that, sure patients and their families were prone to emotional outbursts, but most cops usually tried to hide their highs and lows behind the mask of professional stoicism and authority. This was something else. She smacked her own cheeks to refocus: triage rules. Is he obviously going to die if I don’t check on him in the hall? No. Probably… Suicide Risk as worst… Not her problem because he was surrounded by other cops. No, she needed to start normal diagnostics. 

 

Whatever this thing was that did this to them, it scared the shit out of the witnesses. She had seen Vicki and Dean double team someone with their powers before, but this felt… different. It seemed to endure long after the initial event. Her gut told her that a legitimate monster with an overwhelming fear aura could do this. She could add some kind of scan for the adrenal glands being artificially driven by something external, but she couldn’t (or wouldn’t) touch their brains directly. Real trauma and real PTSD made unnaturally strong by some kind of fear aura would leave marks that she couldn’t touch… at most she could suppress the hormonal changes that the constant stress caused. One more thing for her to-do list, she guessed.

 

Coming to the unconscious officers in their beds, she scanned them all at a glance. Each of ten beds held an officer. They had been in and out of consciousness for more than an hour. All of them seemed to be fully clothed, or close to being so. The cloth of each uniform as well as their hair seemed to have an opaque coating of some kind. They were all still wet, like they had been fished out of the bay, and never fully air dried. All of them had some serious bruising on what looked like bands or spots. All of them seemed to be restless, thrashing as if trying to rise to wakefulness but failing. None had been intubated or put on a respirator. None of them were hooked to IV’s. None of them were attached to any kind of instrumentation. 

 

No, wait, one was attached to a Holter cardiac monitor.

 

“Nurse, why aren’t these officers prepped?”

 

The orderly turned around, revealing no nurse present. “Sorry, Miss Panacea, but Nurse Ox passed out after handling that one. We put her on a cot in one of the ready rooms. None of the other nurses were willing to touch them.” 

 

It didn’t phase Panacea. She almost never wore gloves, as her Power required touch to work and that included sterilizing whatever pathogens she touched even more effectively than wearing disposable gloves. She never had to worry about poisons or other pathogens since her Power let her modify them into harmlessness one way or another before they even entered her system. Sure, she couldn't directly alter herself, but the flora and fauna on her skin, mouth, or gut  was fair game, just like the pathogens. She reached out for the nearest unconscious officer and brushed her fingers over the back of their hand, coated with that opaque patina.

 

Pulling her fingers up to her eyes, she examined the particles that stuck to it. It looked like ice crystals, if they could form a deep purple-blue rime at skin temperature. After a moment, her Power started to press upon the crystals. It obviously thought they were some kind of solidified poison, and was actively trying to unmake the filmy layer on her skin. Sometimes unmaking toxins was instantaneous, other times it was seconds. This though, it felt like it was complex, maybe too complex for her to deal with unless she devoted her attention wholly to it.

 

She closed her eyes, and felt it out with her Power. There was more to it of course. It’s edges slipped out of her biokinesis, like it was not fully alive; some things were not organic enough for her to target in the first place. Strange chemicals usually; they weren’t usually very stable. Nor did this appear very stable…

 

Panacea’s eyes drooped, and her breathing slowed down. 

 

Sudden panic filled her with a shot of adrenaline, and she sprinted over to the iodine bath, before submerging her hands deep into the tincture. This was bad… shit shit shit shit. She dunked them into alcohol and dilute bleach-water. Wherever she went, the ice left indigo stains, even tainting the iodine. One of them had to work! She had no idea what this gunk was soluble in!

 

“Shit.” her hands were clean now, scrubbed raw and red under water too hot to touch normally. “That was dumb… Nurse, come here.”

 

One of the remaining nurses and an orderly turned to hear her. 

 

“I would suggest taking these officers to the chemical showers. I don’t know exactly what this gunk is, but it seems like some kind of exotic sedative. I think it’s keeping them all knocked out and each time it would wear off, a little more sinks in and knocks them out. Since they were saturated with it, it either has an absurdly high LD50 or it’s engineered specifically to avoid overdosing. Maybe some kind of tinker-made crowd-control chemical weapon.”

 

That was dangerous. Nothing mundane could normally contend with her Power, but the rules get thrown out the window when one Power fights another. Did tinker-tech count? She wasn’t sure. It also raised a question.

 

“Who did this to them?”

 

The orderly just shrugged, and mumbled something about a bird.

 

“Fine, I can’t do anything until you’ve washed them off. But, if they were in danger from an overdose, they would have died already. Cursory examination of the bruising on the one I touched as well as his general health don’t make them priority cases. After they are out of the shower, if they don’t wake up in 24 hours, then give me another call. The bruising resembles an animal attack from a constrictor or a squid. Once they wake up, check for broken bones.”

 

She walked across the hallway to the secured area, where the doors had police posted, and the locks in the hallway only. They weren’t quite jail cells, but throw away the furnishings and you had a pretty good approximation of one. The nurse followed her across the hall, pointing out the beds that were already treated for anaphylaxis and surface wounds stemming from insects. Three beds next to them were in need of her but seemed to be just... more of the insect damage.

 

“Who did this to them?”

 

The orderly conveyed that it was the same incident, just a different set of ambulances. 

 

She touched the nearest one, and scanned for that indigo toxin… and found none. While she went to work healing the three with more severe insect damage, she considered what she was seeing. Maybe they weren’t in the way of the chemical spray that had caught the cops? Maybe they were the ones spraying the cops? She had been informed by the nurse that Lung was in one of the beds that needed special attention; she assumed these were his gang then. Maybe they did it… didn’t they have a new tinker or something? Bakura? Bakkon... Barracuda… Bakuda! Weird thing for them to use, but tinkers are always unpredictable at best, and actively adversarial at worst.

 

Afterwards, she was led to the worst cases. Triage order said that they were stable, but unlikely to recover. She did not see them until the cops moved the door and the nurse pulled the curtain out of the way.  Oh! That must be Lung! He was large, and very noticeably intubated. Well, that at least tells her that he was safe to handle. Now, who was this next to him… she stopped. The white sheet over the last gang member was sitting strangely.

 

Flipping a coin in her head, she went to the gang member with the sheet over them, and removed it to inspect what she was working with.  

 

Hurrk! She swallowed a sudden mouthful of bile. Instinctual revulsion was hard to completely suppress for a teenage girl, no matter her Power. This man was missing his right arm entirely, and most of his right shoulder and part of the adjacent torso, in what she could only assume was some kind of shark attack. There were wet black dots visible in seemingly random places on the torso, neck, face, and legs. Squinting, she could make out a thin ring of iridescent green around the black dots, and alarmingly gray colorless flesh all along the ragged margins of the missing flesh where the arm and shoulder should be.

 

She swallowed preemptively against more bile, and touched the nearest black dot. Hmm… not cancer… it’s like tumors that aren’t… wait… they are innervated! What the hell!? There were blood vessels and nerves and lymph; they were filled with ichor and had all the layering! 

 

Eyes! The black dot was an eye! 

 

She looked down again, looking at the dozens of black dots, until upon blinking they resolved into hundreds of fish eyes of various sizes and shapes. Lidless and staring, this man was covered with fish eyes! Why? What possible reason could there be for a gang member to get covered with eyes during what she assumed was a fight with the cops?! 

 

They were disgusting, but aside from how complex they were and how many of them there were, they seemed to respond to her biokinesis like any other tissues might. Not a priority to fix compared to that open wound into the body cavity that was barely covered with gauze. Moving close, she touched the green residue.

 

It was strange. Very strange. Blood that may not be blood. Touching it with her biokinesis, she perceived it as some kind of blurry combination of tree-sap, lymph, and human blood. There was a trace of something very alarming to her Power, telling her that this blood that was not blood was some kind of toxin. Based on the coinciding locations of the eyes and the iridescent green not-blood, she could only guess that it was the fish-eye source. What kind of poison makes people grow fish eyes? This was extremely biological, this time, but it had already broken down to the point that she couldn’t do more than note that it existed.

 

Moving to the gray fringe of flesh tassels around the edge of the wound, she touched the nearest part. Her Power could show her all of the damage, but seemed reluctant to look any closer. Attempting to force the wound closed caused the biokinesis to spasm out and cause actual blisters on the unmarked skin nearby the gray. 

 

She did not know what to do at that point. Wiping her hand over the blisters they healed normally. Frustrated, she left to go and inspect Lung.

 

The regenerator was in a bad way. She could see that his Power was fighting a losing war against a massive overdose of a half-dozen different kinds of insect and arachnid venom.  Did he roll around in a beehive or something? It was absurd, watching the cells dying in one area and rapidly dividing in another. Unfortunately for Lung, with his regeneration strung out and overworked, it was possible that she would kill him if she used her own powers on him too quickly, causing a fault with his powers that would actively work against her adjustments. 

 

Mostly she would need to be here to constantly monitor his internal struggle, and medicate him with the rest of what she could help with one way or another. She looked him over: there were too many insect bites to tally, his penis and testicles were gone amid the densest area of bites and stings. She cringed out of empathy. That's a terrible way to lose a fight with the cops.

 

She eventually found one area that had neither insect bites, nor any inflammation. Indeed, it was the stump where his right hand should be. Indeed, it was eerily familiar.. gray. Touching it directly with her power, she could see the ragged lines of a bite wound, this time the shape looked like a human bite. Some human must have bitten through dozens of bones and muscles and sinews to cut it off like that. Was Lung fighting a high-rating Brute? 

 

Biokinesis gave her the same warning as before. This wound did not want her to look at it with her Power, nor did it want her to try and heal it. She did not know what to do. Lung was likely to react badly to even mild attempts to heal him until his power calmed down. But… if this gray wound was caused by the same thing on both men, maybe she could try on the gang member first, and see if she can’t make any headway without experimenting directly on the unstable Lung.

 

Touching the gang member again, she closed her eyes and forced her focus into a single point on the outer edge of the gray wound. 

 

It was hard.

 

Very…!

 

Hard...!

 

Whatever it was fought back angrily; this must be the result of some other kind of biokinesis power. 

 

It took all of her mental energy…

 

Blood started flowing from her nose and eyes from the back pressure…

 

There, at the very edge of the gray plaque, a strange dark core of violently shifting and writhing cells!

 

She grabbed just that one part and dragged it out from the rest! 

 

It changed and shifted, attempting to outgrow her touch… but she held it! She held it damn it!

 

She wiped the blood and sweat from her face.

 

Grabbing it with her power, she felt it trying to grab her back. 

 

Everywhere that she tried to move, it moved to counter. 

 

There was something about it… so familiar.

 

The more she struggled to envelop it, the closer she could see it; the fact that it alarmingly seemed to be examining her right back was beside the point.

 

Deep deep down…

 

It was like looking in a funhouse mirror of her own Power. She speculated that if she grabbed at the source of the energy, she could force it to stop wiggling and behave. Following the margins of the flesh, she could see the Purpose her Power perceived.

 

MINE.

MINE.

MINE. MINE.

MINE. MINE. MINE.

MINE. MINE. MINE. MINE. MINE.

MINE. MINE. MINE.MINE. MINE. MINE. MINE. MINE.

MINE. MINE. MINE. MINE. MINE. MINE. MINE. MINE. MINE.MINE. MINE. MINE.MINE

 

It grew with Purpose. Her Power understood this Purpose, she needed only to say the word: M... I… N… 

 

No! NO!

 

She detached her hand, and her Power screamed in frustration.

 

It knew something about the gray flesh. Her Power wanted her to understand the Purpose. To have her part of it. 

 

It screamed at her to say it: M… I… N…!

 

Her mouth formed the outline of the words, “M…”.

 

“NO! NO! NO!” she ran out of the room, only to trip over a bench and vomit blood into the trash can nearby.

 

Hours later, Lung and the gang member in his room were still untreated, when the orderly found a hastily penned note from Panacea: ‘Cant fix -P’.



–-



In the few hours of exhausted sleep she could get before needing to go to school, Taylor could only marvel at how lucid her dream seemed to be, at least for what surely was a fever dream. She was standing in front of that ‘Brute’ man from earlier, basking in the glowing aura around him, staring into the disc of darkness and light that appeared to be floating in front of him. She wanted to look closer at the designs again. Her costume could use them, she hoped.

 

Examining them closely, she could almost make out the missing details from earlier. But, alas she couldn’t sneak a peek without alerting the man that she was doing so and surely getting the ‘stop being weird’ rebuke that she surely deserved.

 

The glowing hole above her bathed her in green lights, making her look upward. 

 

Before her, suspended impossibly in midair was a chalice that seemed to be made of indigo ice. 

 

Drink deep and descend.

 

She knew that was its purpose. Fever dream logic at its best.

 

Taking it into her hands to examine the contents, and she found it to be a glass of ice, filled with probably  water.

 

She was so thirsty… surely it was fine.

 

Drink deep.

 

She did.

 

--

 

Blearily running too late for high school, she ran quickly into the  shower, hoping to get rid of the evidence and blood or smoke that might have lingered her thick brown hair.

 

As soon as she started soaking her hair, she panicked, seeing her hair pooling in the drain at her feet. Oh no! Her hair was the only girly thing about her! This couldn’t be happening! 

 

Sure enough, she found enough hair to completely cover the entire shower stall. She shrieked in frustration, only to force her mouth closed, not knowing if Danny was in.

 

Fleeing into the mirror, expecting herself to be bald, she turned and looked at herself.

 

She had fantastic dreads now…

 

Her hands sought them out, confirming their existence. 

 

Feels pretty normal, but when she closed her eyes, she thought the dreads felt much thicker than they should normally be. Almost heavy. Most importantly, they called out for something to be filled with.

 

She needed to fill herself.

 

Fill her hair.

 

Soaking in water didn’t work.

 

Trying to feed it toast didn’t work.

 

She tried feeding it living flies, only for those to find them not eaten, but perfectly comfortable. A place even better than the terrariums. Entirely comfortable.

 

Skipping school was the only reasonable thing to do

 

–

 

After a few hours of experimenting, and hiding the evidence of her shower clogging incident, she determined that she had grown what could only be called a hive structure in place of her hair. She could essentially pick one kind of insect type to introduce, and they could not only live in there, but also breed. A portable safe place to store them.

 

She was very glad, but also had no hair experience with dreadlocks.

 

In her heart, she knew this was connected to that dream, but wasn’t entirely sure of the specifics. Just that all of her old technically dead hair was in the trash bag, while her new head organs seemed to blur that line. It has her heartbeat but it can be cut vaguely like living ropes. Definitely not made of normal hair outside of surface similarities. 

 

{Taylor gains the following mutations: Hive 1 (Abomination), Creature of Darkness}

 

Chapter 9: (Un)Official Debut

Chapter Text

Waking up to a pre-dawn alarm clock might not be the norm for most teenage girls, but Missy had been forced into the habit for years by the rigors of being Vista. It would be misleading to call her a morning person, but she knew enough ways to get a caffeine fix that it didn’t get repetitive. 

 

Late last night, when she should have been sleeping, she had been browsing Parahumans Online (PHO), seeing if they hadn’t found a more recent photo of her to put up on the page about Vista. It was embarrassing seeing her awkward pre-teen versions of her costumes up almost exclusively, and she felt it shaped public perception of her in ways that she preferred not to. Being called the ‘team mascot’ was fine when she was like, 8, but she now had seniority on the team. No one takes mascots seriously. 

 

In any case, she had gotten a late-night page notifying her that she had an extremely early assignment. If she had actually been asleep, it would have loudly woken her up. Instead, she was nursing a coffee as the sun was just threatening to rise. Leaving her bed in the shared housing areas, her feet had taken a bee-line for the nearest coffee machine. Afterwards, however, she was left with one thought as her brain started to boot up: if my job is to escort Mariner to an early meeting, how do I find him?

 

She scratched her head. He did not own any electronics, so email or calling him weren’t options. While he could technically be paged over the intercom, that would wake up everyone in the barracks too. He might not even hear it if he is in a different building. Where the hell did he live? She normally met him in the lobbies or the hallways, when she was on babysitting duty. In fact, either the translator or one of the senior Protectorate members usually grabbed him.

 

After asking several guards, and trying and failing to locate him in the directory, she got lucky: apparently one of the guards had seen him at the auxiliary docks. They said he was fishing or something.

 

Fifteen minutes later, she had gotten lost in the maze of similar looking maintenance and engineering facilities that hid underneath the normal office facades of the building. Bracing herself for another disappointment, she opened the sixth such identical bulkhead door, labeled a cryptic series of letters and numbers that had no relationship with floor numbers. 

 

The orange light of dawn streamed in from outside. Was this it? She stepped out onto metal catwalks. Dawn was not directly in front of her, but she could barely see any details of the HQ building. It being a movable ocean platform was part of the reason for the complicated design, but she couldn’t recall it ever moving in her memory. All she could make out was that several areas covered with white or reflective paint made it hard for her to look up. Instead, looking down, she could see the ocean surface  of the bay beneath her. Her power gave her reasonably good intuition for eyeballing distances, and she thought she was about a hundred feet up. Certainly high enough to not get caught in most weather.

 

She turned towards the relative darkness of the catwalks and scaffolding, finding them to wrap around themselves in an almost leisurely way. If these were for maintenance, it would make sense to have access to everywhere without needing to rappel off the top. The further she went the more and more the surface paint was chipped and peeling, with hints of rust telling her that it was past due for actual maintenance. 

 

Beneath her, she could hear distant speaking. Two voices? 

 

<<How many … >>

<<... four most honored Grandfather.>>

<<I will accept this price.>>

 

She was certain one of them was Locust Mariner. At this distance she couldn’t place the other voice. It did give her a heading to follow though, and she carefully moved towards their conversation.

 

<<What did you want advice on?>>

<<There was a storm, most honored Grandfather, and I am not sure where to find the pack ice...>>

 

She knew enough of Mariner’s language to talk to small children. She knew that she had never heard the word ‘pack ice’ before in the tongue--‘storm’ too now that she was thinking about it. The heck?

 

<<We have both been swept far afield by the currents, if you do not go the long way hugging the coast, you’ll miss breeding season fighting the eastern gyre dragging you into the Sargasso.>>

 

Who was he talking to in Old Realm? And equally importantly, how did she know all of these words? She absolutely never heard Mariner talk about ‘breeding seasons’! Mostly he talked about food… 

 

With a few loud clanking metal steps, she rounded the last bend in the staircase, and found herself face to face with the conversation happening at the dock. Mariner appeared to be sitting by a fire cooking something in a bubbling ceramic pot talking with a gigantic spotted gray seal. 

 

“What the hell?” she exclaimed in abject confusion. “Why does that seal speak English?” But, what she heard was her own words somehow twisted into Old Realm: <<What the hell? Why does that seal speak English?>>

 

The seal looked at her, and she looked back at it, both making eye contact.

 

<<Vista, do not scare my guest. This hooded seal has brought me news, as well as an offering of food, in exchange for advice.>> He gestured to several lionfish that seemed freshly caught on the metal deck plates. Turning to the seal, he addressed it, and bowed its head as he spoke. <<Go ahead and answer her, hooded seal. She will do you no harm under my hospitality. Treat her as though she were my niece, though we share no blood; answer her questions and be polite. She has been the only human here to speak with me of her own accord.>>

 

<<Of course, most honored Grandfather!>> the seal spoke in whines and barks, and the words came out in Old Realm. 

 

Vista’s eyes widened as she realized he really had been talking with the seal earlier

 

<<By the blessing of the sea, Grandfather speaks with all that dwell within the waters.>>, began the seal. <<By the right of the creator, Grandfather is due all respect and deference; as our creators made us, it is their right to unmake us beasts. That he extends his blessing of the sea to you, Guest… wait Niece Vista is a great honor as well.>> 

 

Vista slurped her coffee thoughtfully. There was so much to unpack in that statement. While her mind processed things, she watched him take the lid off of his pot to add in the seal’s apparent payment of fish.  The breeze carried the steam to her nose, and she inhaled, lowering her coffee. 

 

<<My god, that smells wonderful!>>

 

<<If you would like some, young Vista, I will share my meal… for some of whatever you are drinking?>>

 

Vista nodded, <<I’ll be right back.>>

 

<<No rush, this fresh fish still needs to stew.>>



Vista began walking up the way she had come, when a chirp from her phone caught her attention. She pulled it out, reading that Para-humans Online (PHO) had notifications for her. She saw a few personal messages that she hadn’t looked at.

 

 She opened her DM’s and read them while walking. The top two were just her being CC’d in ongoing mundane discussions. The last and most recent one wasn’t. 

 

‘From: Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know) 

I know you should be a BB local, and last I heard you were still posted there as a Verified Ward; do you have any insight into who was out last night in BB? Hopefully you have something more useful than mlekk or XxVoid_CowboyxX to add to the discussion.

Link:  Lights Over Brocton Bay? [Confirmed] ‘

 

With a tap, she opened the link and looked at the title. She must have slept through it, whatever it was; the mods had confirmed the post, so it wasn’t just more ranting from forum trolls. Skimming she found the initial report of ‘green and blue lights over the bay’ of someone claiming to be near the water, while the updates from the moderator added in cross-referenced confirmations that relatively agreed on the details and location. The last two links were a photo from a cell phone, and an incredibly blurry cell phone video of the sky. Both seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, neither was high enough resolution to zoom into. 

 

Well, she had missed something apparently. 

 

Walking back the way she came was easy enough, passively using her powers for navigation did not distract her. Reading down the thread there were a number of posts that the mod had collected for verification, but going past that, she saw a few folks trying to plot maps of the town and the surrounding area to figure out where and when this probably happened. One of the better ones was applying the same software used in earthquake reporting to make a likelihood map over BB. 

 

However, the very next post after that, from one  ‘5170nmyf4c3’ claimed: ‘So what are the odds that this is a new cape? I am hearing rumors of new capes in Brockton Bay.’ 

 

Whooo boy… that immediately changed the tone of the discussion in the thread. Missy knew that the mods were pretty strict about keeping threads on topic, and they generally tried to keep all discussion on current events from exploding into a dozen threads that needed moderation instead of just one big one. But, yeah, there were very few capes that were known to make lights like that, so the thread seemed to agree that the ones who were known were unlikely to be anywhere on the US east coast last night. Maybe this is why Bagrat sent her a DM.

 

She was drawing a blank on new capes though… trying to recall any rumors she had heard in the last few weeks took up most of her return trip to meet up with Mariner. She posted on the PHO thread, ‘Note sure yet, but I will ask around about new capes.’.

 

Walking back she could smell something smokey and wonderful on the breeze as she approached the place where she had left Mariner and the seal. Juggling the hot coffee and chocolate bars to one hand, she waved, <<Is that seal coming back? I didn’t bring any for him if he is, but I found some good coffee and some of the good chocolate bars from the machine.>>

 

<<No, he had a long trip ahead of him, and catching lionfish is quite hard for him. He’s probably leaving early to avoid having to rush. Now, the meat needs time to finish cooking, come and sit.>>

 

Vista did as requested, handing him the coffee and chocolate bar while staring over the rim of the stone pot he was cooking in. It steamed and bubbled, smelling cooking fish and something else she couldn’t put a finger on. Her momentary curiosity satisfied, she sat back and went back to nursing her own refilled coffee, when a memory popped up for her.  <<I remember Armsmaster was considering taking you on a patrol last week, did you actually get to go last night?>>

 

Mariner looked up from the coffee cup with a nod. <<Yes, I had some nice fermented fish  while I was exploring. It was just a delectable appetizer though, I wouldn’t mind finding more!>> 

 

While he was deeply contemplating the nature of the drink in his hands, Vista’s phone buzzed in her pocket, and she pulled it up again. More speculation on the same PHO thread, she pulled up her phone and typed a new follow up post: ‘Okay, I checked and it looks like the new Provisional Protectorate member went out on patrol last night with Armsmaster.’ 

 

<<This coffee was grown in the shade of a mountain facing west.>> muttered Mariner to himself, seemingly speaking to his cup. <<The woman who picked them was having an affair with her female coworker. Both were very much in love.>>  

 

Vista barely heard this before her phone pinged another reply to her own post. The Moderator was asking who. <<Mariner, what cape name did you settle on?>>

 

<<Auspicious Physician>>, he replied; though the name was short and concise in Old Realm, it was a tongue twister in English. 

 

<<Ah, okay.>> she said, before noticing that he had seemingly already eaten half of the chocolate bar in his hand, plastic wrapper and all. <<You know you aren’t required to eat the wrappers on those?>>

 

He looked thoughtful, as though it was a novel idea to him.

 

She went back to her phone and posted a reply of her own: “Yeah, the new guys is called ‘Auspicious Physician’, and he has a provisional Brute rating, and can apparently talk to sea life, but he and I talked to a seal this morning so I can only assume it works on things besides seals.” She noted that whatever translation power he had didn’t seem to change her written posts from English to Old Realm.  Maybe that’s why he usually tries to speak English, his powers are weird and random.

 

While she watched the extremely tall green bearded man covered with tattoos and piercings cook, she couldn’t help but notice the intense focus he had with some final finishing steps of the dish. For someone who could snap bones with his bare hands, he was surprisingly dexterous with the chopsticks he was using to debone the fish. 

 

Moments later she found herself seated at a simple metal table that he had obviously scavenged from somewhere, while the rest of the wooden bowls, soup spoons and chopsticks were all apparently hand made. He brought over the pot and filled her bowl first with steaming hot soup. What really surprised her was when he brought over several small dishes for each of them, each containing brightly colored foodstuffs. She recognised something that looked like salad, and another one that had to be berries, but the brown cubes and pale green circles she could only guess at.

 

Quickly enough, they were both sitting face to face, when he gestured for her to go ahead. He watched her look at the entirely too hot soup, before nodding in agreement. He started with the salad, and she tucked into it. While she normally wasn’t a huge fan of salad after eating watery  cafeteria salad for most of her time in school, this was crisp and had a very pleasant snap, and the light sauce on it reminded her of a peppery vinaigrette. It was hard eating with the chopsticks, and the cook across from her seemed used to teaching how to use them.  She tried her utensil control to grab a pale green circle, to taste test it. That was a pickle she was pretty sure.  Slightly hot and sour. Probably not a cucumber then.

 

The soup was calling to her at that point, with a fragrant cloud that she could ignore no longer. Grabbing the boat-shaped spoon, she carefully sipped the broth. It was pretty good, she guessed… 

 

She really couldn’t put her finger on what all the soup contained in there other than the fish she saw him put into it. 

 

It was pretty good, she guessed.

 

…

 

And suddenly her bowl was empty, and she could only stare at it wishing it wasn’t. It was a warm hug by her grandmother on a cold winter night. Something she didn’t know she wanted, but wouldn’t give up for all the world. 

 

Suddenly her bowl was being refilled. She made eye contact with Mariner and he nodded. <<Eat. There is plenty!>>

 

…

 

After she was almost embarrassingly full, and her plates of side dishes were all empty except the brown cubes. She held one up with her chopsticks, and it looked like some kind of translucent gummy candy, but brown and largely opaque.  She was feeling adventurous placing one of the bite-sized pieces in her mouth. It was like a gummi candy had a baby with caramel corn. In a breath the last of them were just a pleasant aftertaste for her. 

 

<<What was that?>>

 

<<Acorn candy.>>

 

She couldn't complain. <<Thanks for the food Uncle, make sure to feed me again, ok?>>

 

The green brute had a wholesome grin on his face. <<I suppose that is my punishment for telling that seal you were my Niece. You are welcome at my table anytime.>>

 

Her phone alarm rang, she swore under her breath, they were going to be  late for the meeting!

 

—

 

Hannah wasn’t sure if she had understood the early morning voicemail message that Collin had left for her. Sure, she didn’t sleep per se, but her shift was currently the daylight shift, and she still needed to handle basic upkeep for her apartment as much as the next person. As much as she felt a professional responsibility to keep abreast of what her colleagues and those that worked under or with the Wards were up to, there were limits to how involved she would or could get involved with things that didn’t directly involve her.

 

Collin’s unfortunate accident during a demo a few weeks ago was something she hadn’t actually been around for, because someone had to work while Tinkers were tinkering. There  had been a few emails she’d been CC’d on, and a fair bit of admin work to adjust to losing a lot of Missy’s and Dennis’s time due to some kind of punishment that Collin had leveled on them. Rescheduling the Wards patrol routes was common enough, but weeks of punishment details were uncommon and disruptive. She was running Carlos and Sophia ragged trying to make up the difference.

 

That’s why, when she arrived just minutes late for the early morning meeting she’d been drafted into via a 4am voicemail message she was a little confused to see Collin standing up in costume yelling at some guy with green skin and white hair sitting next to Missy, and across from both of them was Glenn the head of PR–looking severely nonplussed. Glenn was a wild card in any room he walked into. She wisely kept her mouth shut and sat down on the unoccupied side of the conference table.

 

“You insubordinate alien moron, you know what I meant by staying within shouting distance!”

 

The green guy looked bored to Hannah’s eye, like this isn’t the first time he’s heard this rant. He held a steaming hot coffee in his hands, matching the same one that Missy next to him–wearing civilian clothes–was holding looking vaguely sleepy.  

 

“I’m sorry if I missed introductions, but who is this Armsmaster?” she interjected, hoping he  didn’t blow up in her face.

 

“This is the alien dictator that’s wasting everyone’s time!” he pointed at the green man still staring him down. “And don’t think for a minute that I am not making you take care of all that collateral damage you caused with the police and the roadway!”

 

“Collin, I cannot help but agree with your sentiment.” interrupted Glenn. Armsmaster started to nod at the confirmation–before Glenn continued again, cutting him off a second time. “But. We only have one chance to handle someone this potentially controversial. We need to control the public narrative.” He pushed forward a file folder towards Collin, which caused him to sit back down. With great skepticism, Collin shut up and read.

 

Missy sighed, and pointed at the green guy. “Miss Militia, this is uh… Mariner, I guess in English.”

 

The green guy nodded, “Vista has teaching me English.” Hannah couldn’t place his accent, but it was not the usual way the folks talked around here. 

 

“We all have to learn some time. It took me years to get the hang of English too.” she smiled and nodded. 

 

“Absolutely not!” asserted Collin, throwing the folder back to Glenn. “This could get people killed by this incompetent brute!”

 

Glenn steepled his fingers and stared at Collin.  “You know that he needs to be tested.”

 

“He thinks the world is flat, and that magic is real! We must not let him use his complete lack of an understanding of the basics of evidence-based medicine to potentially misdiagnose civilians!”

 

“Then don’t let him near the civilians! It’s something I’ve already called ahead about before this meeting, and they confirmed that Panacea didn’t have time to treat everyone from last night.” 

 

Hannah had no idea what they were talking about, and tried to wave to get their attention back to the rest of the room. “Can someone please tell me what’s going on? The sentence long message I got from you Collin just said to show up here, but not why. I know you probably had a lot going on, but please, humor me. What’s going on?”

 

Armsmaster made an impatient huff, “I’ve forwarded the files to you, and you can read them yourself. This brute is officially censured after last night, and banned from the night shift where there is insufficient staff to monitor his chaotic potential. As I am in charge of the night shift and not the day shift, it’s being transferred to the day shift supervisor–namely you. I would say sorry, but I am too elated to wash my hands of this to really have the patience for office niceties.” 

 

Glenn slid the folder over to her instead. “Maybe you’ll know better than to pass by this once in a lifetime opportunity to see what we can make out of this guy. Even the worst healers are worth their weight in gold. If he turns out to be bluffing, we lose a few hours. If not… well Panacea is just one person, and she barely gets enough sleep.”

 

“Remember that because of his probationary status that he never goes anywhere unescorted. If there is a repeat of last night, we will have words, Brute!” threatened Armsmaster, once again standing and pointing. 

 

The brute in question shrugged noncommittally.

 

Hannah shook her head. This was the kind of childishness that she yelled at the Wards for doing. “Okay, Glenn, Collin, Vista, um… Mariner? We will go with Glenn’s plan. And, I acknowledge this administrative transfer, and will handle the details myself.” She turned towards the green man, “Do you have anything that you need to move from your old bunk?”

 

The brute didn’t seem to follow her question. 

 

Missy chimed in, “Um, I think that Armsmaster punished him to have to feed himself, and I think his official bunk hasn’t even been touched. He appears to be camping on the seaward dock.”

 

Hannah raised an eyebrow in confusion, looking to the green guy for confirmation. He nodded lazily.

 

“Well, you can keep doing whatever you were doing, and I’ll just mark you as having alternate on-site accommodations. No need to leave extra beds in the barracks. Okay, Vista and Mariner, you two go get suited up and meet Glenn and I at the helipad.”

 

–

 

Arriving at the non-emergency non-civilian landing pad, Vista and Mariner walked into the lobby to let the front desk know that they were here for their scheduled meeting with the doctors. Both were wearing their costumes in public, and Vista could only look at Mariner’s get up and wish that her costume were as cool looking, which she apparently said out loud, earning her a grin from Mariner. 

 

After a few minutes, three doctors in white lab coats walked up. They smiled at Vista, evidently familiar with her at a glance, but didn’t seem to know what to make of the apparent newcomer they were here to evaluate. Since he didn’t talk to them, they kept it to small talk with each other and Vista  while they were led towards wherever the evaluation was to take place.

 

They eventually entered the side entrance for the emergency ward, with the nurse explaining that the evaluation would be going over some folks that Panacea didn’t have time to deal with last night. Apparently there had been some kind of incident by the docks that brought in six ambulances worth of patients.

 

The nurse stopped Vista and Mariner in a hallway, and had them wait in the gift shop while the doctors prepared themselves. The two of them wandered among the pastel colored items for sale, before Mariner stopped to stare at a TV overhead, seemingly confused by the newscasters he saw. 

 

“That’s a TV, in case you haven’t seen one.” mented Vista, conversationally.

 

“Tee Fee…”

 

“T. V.”

 

“Tivey.”

 

She shrugged, “We can try that later, I am not sure if we have time now.”

 

He nodded.

 

After a few minutes, the nurse came to get them, leading them around the corner to come face to face with a bunch of exhausted looking cops.

 

One of them shrieked, “IT'S BACK! IT FOUND US!”

 

{{Group Valor roll 3d10, Emotion effect gives them a -1 penalty because they aren’t directly opposing the Terrified Awe (which would be a -3 per Scroll of Errata), standard target number per die is 7; min 1 success to not run; net pool 2d10: 6, 4; net failure, the cops who are part of this scene fail their Valor check, and flee the scene; JFLM will not pursue them. Unrelated cops are still around, but don’t understand what’s happening.}}



Vista could only gawk as all of the visible cops broke into a sprint away from her and Mariner. “Are they talking about me or you?”

 

“They shot me last night.” He watched their backs with an almost predatory edge, as if trying to decide if he needed to chase them.

 

“Wait, the cops shot you? Are you okay?”

 

“This is the thing that I got yelled at, I think. I am fine. Sturdy! No one dead!” Mariner made a thumbs up at that last part.

 

Vista shook her head. “I know you don’t take Armsmaster seriously and all that, but the rest of us have to. Please try not to make enemies  out of people we all have to work with.”

 

The nurse led them to the waiting doctors in the ICU. Mariner knelt down and whispered in Vista’s ear before they fully entered. “You are a cape, and can make your own choice here. When I heal, it is terrible to watch. Uncle warns his niece, yeah?”

 

Vista looked him in the eye through the clear lenses, but didn’t see the patronizing judgemental attitude she normally got from adults. “How bad?” she asked cautiously.

 

“Terrify my own adult grandsons even after they see it all their life.”

 

Vista nodded, “I’ll take your advice Uncle, and wait out here for you.”

 

He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and stood up. “OK. I go then.”

 

Vista could only remark how ridiculously tall he was. He was probably pretty scary when he was fighting the cops last night in that cool costume too. 

 

–

 

Locust Mariner was unsure of how many eyes were actually upon him, nor if those eyes were ‘capes’ with ‘powers’ to see through whatever illusions he might use to hide how terrifying it was when he healed someone with his touch. To be fair, Flesh-Weaving Tendrils were not necessarily meant to heal people, and were more of a general way to interact with organic material, whether it was living or dead. He was a dandy woodworker or carpenter just as much as he was a surgeon or taxidermist.

 

But, the real issue today–for him at least–was ignorance on his part. He had not yet found a catalog of the kinds and degrees of the ‘Powers’ that these ‘capes’. If he showed his hand too early in the game, it was no good. Hiding the idea that you could make illusions, poisons, or diseases was essential for those being effective. Then, he had to assume that the witnesses or cameras or whatever else was observing him would know if he did something to conceal how awful and frightening his powers were. Similarly, if he did anything besides just heal these people, maybe showing that he could reverse aging or cure cancer or breed perfect crops or servant races to harvest those crops, he would be showing his hand.

 

No, the most obvious and least threatening version of his healing was the one he almost never used outside of specifically trying to save his beloved family members from immediate death during combat. It hurt to use it, and not in a good way. All of his healing powers had costs that must be paid, and usually he was the one who paid them. This one could theoretically kill him if he did it too well or too often. Revisiting Old Wounds was worth it for those he loved. He couldn’t hide when he used it without revealing his illusions or his ability to change his shape into teeth or mouths, Teeth Without Number.

 

Now, if he already had to use Revisiting Old Wounds, he might as well show them how nicely his super-sense of taste, Palate Without Limit, supplemented his other ‘healing’ power Infinite Ailment Anatomy. It made it easy to understand and diagnose diseases and poisons when they were part of you, but any actual treatment or healing merely transferred them to him instead of the original host. It cost him dearly to use it, taking chunks of his flesh as a sacrifice, as well as making him hungry. If he was too hungry, that was much worse than being injured. If the doctor ate too many patients then he would have no clients.

 

The assembled doctors looked at him skeptically, dressed as he was. The nurse had led him to the folks that he recognised by taste from last night’s fight. The first group were the cops that had been dragged into his miasma, drowned with the subtlest of Great Mother’s Tears. It was perfectly painless, but insidiously nonlethal. It was a great way to make people pass out without any understanding of why or what happened to them after they did. He could see them still coated in it, but felt it was important to look like he didn’t already know the diagnosis by literally causing the injury.

 

{{Perception+Awareness: 7+7=14d10; [rolled 3 1 7 7 2 3 3 7 5 8 5 7 8 2; target 7; net 5]; Palate Without Limit gives 2 auto-successes and the successes on the roll are doubled before penalties are subtracted; Total Successes = ((5+2)*2)= 14 successes; for simplicity I am only doing one roll per scene regardless of how many time it’s supposed to be repeated in a real game.}}



“I lick now.” he warned the audience before moving over to the nearest and leaning down to lick the exposed skin of their nearest body part, the hand. Ignoring the murmurs around him, he could tell not only every single injury this patient had, every current disease they were suffering from, as well as exactly how long it would take to cleanse the remaining toxins from their body, but also the history of every kind of bad lifestyle choice or congenital defects the cop possessed, as well as the complete history of every time they caught a cold or flu or any other disease. But how to explain that to the doctors when he didn’t speak their technical language.

 

“This one bruised, they will probably wake up tomorrow.” The whole diagnosis had taken about 5 minutes, and most of that was just repeatedly licking new spots. 

 

The assembled doctors did not seem particularly impressed, making notes on their clipboards. After he repeated this for all of the cops, with almost no variation, the nurse then led them all across the hallway to see the other half of the people he had found last night, plus their allies that had been injured by the swarm.

 

He was led through the same process with the gang members, and he announced that he could not heal the dragon and the man with the gun that he had punished. It was a lie of course, it was probably the case that he was one of the only ones that could heal them. But, it wouldn’t be a punishment if he did.

 

Fortunately, the nurse did mention that the other healer had left before she treated all of the members, even if she had treated the first few.

 

Locust Mariner walked up to the remaining ones, licking them thoroughly to make sure he understood what had happened to the ones in the same fight that he had nothing to do with.  

 

“I heal now.”

 

{{Revisiting Old Wounds (4*4m=16m his anima is still off) activated with a bite attack; Dex+MartialArts = 7+7= 14 [1 4 9 8 2 10 2 7  8 10 7 2 4 5; 6 successes to hit; Str 7 + 0 bite + 5 rollover from to-hit=12d lethal dice->Revisiting Old Wounds heals 6L wounds from the target; that’s enough to bring up a almost dead mortal to full; JFLM takes 6L, without any charms active, his innate Lethal soak pool is 4, so he takes 2L per target healed.]}}

 

The witnesses watched as the strange plague doctor lashed out with a violent bite for the first genuinely injured person. With a grunt of effort, he tore a huge chunk of flesh free, swallowing it as the exact same injuries from the swallowed flesh appeared, punching holes in his flesh and his costume. Underneath the newly exposed pink flesh was fresh and whole. 

 

There was a confused gasp as the gang member’s eyes opened, muttering in what was probably  korean. He started to scream as the plague doctor repeated the same thing with the next bed. Attempting to move started to pull attached equipment with him with loud urgent beeping.

 

The nurses and doctors looked disturbed by the whole scene, but kept themselves still and uninvolved, as the test required.

 

“Am done. Yes?”

 

The crowd didn’t stop him when he walked back the way he came.

 

Chapter 10: Making a Workshop

Chapter Text

(in this chapter, these characters are speaking to each other in Old Realm, so it’s easier to read with normal quotes instead of double-angle-brackets)

 

Roughly a mile north of both the end of town and the Ship Graveyard, lies the disused and abandoned area technically called East-bend Inlet in the GIS records. Locust Mariner surveyed the area while his attendant neomah read off the data on her phone screen.

 

“This former site of fishing docks was abandoned in the wake of industrial runoff from upstream killing off the fish back in the Victorian era. There is a history of industrial waste dumping  here, but that was technically stopped in the 90s. The only notable thing about the area is the fact that the inlet is the end of a submarine canyon, and it is the terminus of a few minor creeks.” she summarized. Based on her research this site was almost identical to dozens of other minor abandoned docks up and down the coast. 

 

There was a hard stone and gravel beach that was unlikely to attract visitors nor fishermen. Uphill in both directions were dense and unpleasant mixtures of thorny brush and stinging nettles, while the overhead trees were chokingly dense weeping willows, giving way to barely visible  norway spruce  in the distance. There was nothing to attract potential buyers of the land here, since the Ship Graveyard made actual docks here unnavigable for mortals, while the tainted waters and land only grew the most hardy and invasive riparian pests. Most importantly, it was not too close to the city, while still being within his power radius.

 

“Umm… my Lord…” the neomah said quietly behind him, causing him to turn his gaze to her instead of the surrounding lands. “I know that you will begin your work here, but with my last week in your service, might I beg an indulgence?” 

 

He nodded, knowing how reliable the neomah had been.

 

“The stories of your conquest of An-Teng reached even my ears in Malfeas, many centuries ago, but I never had the chance to… travel to your lands. If it is not too much, might this lowly servant bear witness to your works?”

 

He genuinely laughed, not expecting that kind of request at all. He assumed she wanted to be granted a name. “As you are mine, my workings should keep you safe. Very well, I will not only do this for you, but I will also explain the details that a neomah would have no concepts of. Just promise an oath of silence on my secrets afterwards, and it will be acceptable.”

 

“Of course my Lord! I swear on my connection to my creator, may the peace of Adorjan fall upon me if I do!”

 

“Very well, we shall begin at sundown.”

 

--

 

When she finally returned via the same slow and winding footpath she had used to arrive there, she found that her lord had a live goat tied to a potted coniferous tree on a flatter part of the gravel beach. 

 

“Did you know that the people of An-Teng were famous for their use of guerilla tactics, all the way back to  antiquity? Before I conquered and expanded them from sea to sea, making them a single state larger than this entire continent.” he said, petting the goat. Upon seeing her shake her head no, he continued. 

 

“Asymmetric warfare—which includes guerilla tactics—is about the ways to leverage imbalance to achieve your ends. Guerilla tactics for them meant pretending to be whores and peasants, only to stab or poison those who accepted their hospitality. With their knowledge of the mostly impassable mountainous  jungles, they could flee to  relative safety when pursued by the now-wary survivor.” He turned to stand before her.

 

“What do you think is wrong with this situation?” he questioned.

 

The neomah bit her lip considering her response. “They broke hospitality?”

 

He shook his head no. 

 

“They made their non-combatants vulnerable to retaliation against them?”

 

Another shake.

 

“I don’t know sir.”

 

He made a gesture to the surroundings. “The issue was that they forgot the most important lesson of Asymmetric warfare: there must be an imbalance to exploit. What they did wrong was doing it so often that they developed a reputation for it. It would be foolish for an assassin to call out their strikes like it was a kendo match.”

 

“I guess you did conquer them, so guerilla tactics don’t work.”

 

He shook his head no, “To the contrary, my way of warfare was very similar. However, I know that the greatest tool in my arsenal  is the spice of secrecy. Never fight fair. Never let on that you can do something until it is too late. My conquest of An-Teng may be almost legendary, but the seeds of it were sown over decades of secrecy, mostly centered around building bases not dissimilar to this one. Do you remember what my title was before I gained the Grandmaster rank?”

 

She thought back, “Living Ancestor of the House of Wellness and Prosperity?”

 

“And what is my House famous for?”

 

“Teaching Doctors, Pharmacists, and Merchants? There are branches all over the world.”

 

“We are the branch of the Lintha family that does that while downplaying our connection to the House. We teach the Sword-Brothers stolen secrets from the Dragon-Kings. We teach rooks and smugglers as often as assassins; we teach each how the difference between a medicine and a poison is application and dosage. By keeping this quiet outside of the Infernal Way in Malfeas, we have survived the Usurpation unmolested.”

 

“So the conquest started from the House of Prosperity and Wellness?”

 

“I could not possibly comment upon that.”

 

--

 

After a few hours of preparation, her lord announced he was ready to begin. The whole thing would take the better part of a week, so she was to return after five days to see the progress. He had anointed her to keep her as safe as he was in the wilderness and bad weather. “I need to do this slowly enough to avoid lighting up the skies with my anima again, so do make yourself comfortable before we begin.” he said before she nodded her readiness.

 

“First, some mild rain to hide the tender and vulnerable stage of my works. Kimbery’s acid rains may drown entire layers of Malfeas. Mine can only reach 70 miles from me at the moment. My rains can carry many things, with the versatile numberless poisons of the Great Mother, and Metagaos’ mind-warping spores of the Self-Seed that is my blood. An-Teng fell as quickly as I could sail through them, but the marks of their passing endures still four centuries later. Storm-Tossed Sea Prana calls the deeps to rise.”

 

He moved his arms, pulling the depths of the seas up to quickly fill the moonless night sky with deep black ominous clouds. Initially small and dense, they quickly spread from horizon to horizon, stealing the waters from the seas below. After several minutes, they were indistinguishable from normal if dense storm clouds. Then, with a crack of distant thunder, the world was blanketed by torrential rains. She did not even feel a drop upon her skin.

 

“Then to bless the seas to connect them to the Great Mother more directly.” He explained, walking to the edge of the shore, cutting his palm, to drip fat green blood into the place where the waters of the land met the seas. For many long minutes, he sung hymns  to his own generosity before intoning his prayer: “May Great Mothers Blessed Waters find this place! Sink deep into the groundwater, sink deep into the seas, sink deep into the rivers, sink deep into the streams! As I am sure you are familiar with the Great Mothers touch,” he pointed at her gills, “this blessing does much the same to anyone who drinks her cold, bitter waters in this world too.” 

 

From her encounters with those waters, she could feel deep in her bones that something had changed. Whatever it was seemed so bear no immediate visible changes.

 

“Now for the hardest part, claiming the lands. Have you ever been into the gray margins of Metagaos? Based on how healthy you are, I know you haven’t been in the trackless labyrinthine bayours.” Upon seeing her shake her head no, he continued.

 

“Allow me to quote one of the nameless scholars description of the mysterious Yozi: 

‘Metagaos, The All-Hunger Blossom

Metagaos devours everything.

Those who approach the swamp that is Metagaos first discern

 that he eats light, for the light of the Green Sun grows dim

at his borders. Likewise, they observe that he eats color, for his

enfoliaged flanks are a tangle of gray.

Upon entering the trackless maze of the swamp, one sees

that many of his plants bear the contorted marks of other life:

a branch may have the scaly form of an amphelisia’s limb, or a

knotted trunk may reveal the frozen face of a long-lost demon

of the Second Circle. For Metagaos also devours independence

and identity, assimilating lesser creatures into his body and self.

There are places within Metagaos that bear the marks of his

hunger on the fabric of space—where a single step covers many

miles of distance, or where all paths lead in but one direction

because every other course has been devoured. And an hour’s

passage in other places is as a day elsewhere, because he has

gnawed there at the bones of Time.

And then there are the places where, in his rapacity,

Metagaos has chewed holes in himself. Silver sand spills in

from these gaps, mixing with the swamp’s stagnant water to

create vast murky tracts of quicksand. Even the great beasts of

the demon realm find it difficult to wrest themselves free from

these traps.

Metagaos himself is not the only one here who hungers.

Many of his vegetative creatures share his appetites, and they

feed on one another and on unwary travelers with equal glee.

Some are swifter than serpents and stronger than tigers. Others

 are as stealthy as shadows despite their impossibly brilliant

plumage. They rarely devour their victims’ lives, preferring to

steal their victims’ strengths for themselves. Those they feed

on become, step by step, like unto ghosts: colorless, gaunt and

faceless, drifting like shadows through the trackless gloom.

As to those who pass through Metagaos and survive, it

would be better if they had not. For in devouring their health,

he riddles them with disease—and his ailments are so numerous

 that not even the demon physicians know them all. His

vegetable plagues spread where these travelers pass, devouring

 victims from within, transforming colonies of demons and

hell-beasts into tangled, tortured groves of the not-quite-dead.

Thus does the All-Hunger Blossom spread across the layers of

the Demon City.

Few of Metagaos’ peers enter his mazy ways. Even Adorjan

seldom joins him, despite his silence. For she seeks silence for

its solace, and there is no solace, no serenity, in Metagaos. He

has devoured that too.’

 

She only knew that anywhere gray was to be avoided just as much as anywhere silent. 

 

He continued, “It is the nature of the Trackless Quag to grow to colonize all things with himself. As his favored son, I understand the way to live within him is to eat as you are eaten, growing faster than you are consumed. Claiming the land here in his name or rather in my name using the same arts is now in my nature. It begins beneath the tongue.” He points underneath his own tongue, but she sees nothing besides his teeth of black-pattern hepatizon. “Luscious Jungle Germination is the name of the art of investment.”

 

She watches as he bites off his own tongue, spitting it into a small muddy hole. His mouth full of green blood gargles a strange ritual for fifteen long minutes, before he abruptly completes the ritual by burying the bloody tongue like a farmer planting a sapling. She watched squirming fleshy roots churning over the ground and could taste the copper tang of blood in the air.

 

His tongue having apparently grown back in the meantime, he explained further, “Metaphysical ownership is a real thing here, and this one will grow to an initial 700yrd radius bayou, but will grow with any spilt blood upon its lands. Ownership here will anchor my later works to this  world, as well as bless any attempts to work this land to produce things. Not terribly important here and now, but I can make as many of these as I feel like doing the exhausting work for. Making a network of them long before the invasion of An-Teng was very important. You will see them in a few days after the spores have germinated.”

 

He then moved  to roughly the center of the area, before continuing, “Now that we have metaphysical ownership of this area we may permanently set up something not dissimilar to wards. In this case, Labyrinth Jungle Trickery will spread parasitic mudra-worms to slowly consume the space and paths that might lead here.” He then meditated for an hour before continuing: “There, now all paths that might lead here will leave them lost and confused. Alternately, they can be reversed, bringing the already lost here through rips and tears in space. Generally that mode is turned off, but it can be used at the same time, generally when collecting blood sacrifices or making sleeper agents. Only the greatest supernatural trackers can even resist it, and the Golden Lord’s forces never found a single swamp.”

 

“To match the blessed waters we then call the Great Mother to bless the wildlife with her Blue-Ringed Venom Garden.” He continued, walking up to stand again at the conflux of waters on the beach. “May the fecundity of the great mother pass these blessings down to their offspring for all time! And, may the spite of the Great Mother bless them with her toxicity and venom, that no man might sup upon them without death! May they keep the beloved safe, and be a scourge upon the reviled!  May they be beautiful in the eyes of the Great Mother, a Horrid Idol Raised in her name!”

 

His long slow ritual spread out, and the neomah could see it even effecting the goat in front of her, making its symmetry break slightly as irregular glowing bioluminescent bands appeared upon it. 

 

“Finally, I shall hide this place from all eyes. As the Great Mother is the greatest of smugglers, she taught the arts of Vituperative Smuggling Technique and Sunken City Camouflage to me.” he said, before walking in a circle. “Within the reach of the sea, all things shall be hidden from outsiders. Yeah, the trickery hides paths here, and this hides here. They work together to be a more complete solution to unwanted visitors.” 

 

She did not see anything change.

 

He wiped his forehead, after all that effort.

 

“If we weren’t already trying to blend in, the blessings of Cecelyne could be added here too, unfortunately it would be entirely too noticeable to have a desert here. Now, I need to swallow this goat and that tree in order to put them into the laboratory-wombs for them to gestate this week. No need to stick around for that part.”




-- 

 

Most of a week later.

 

“Record unseasonal rains continue to batter the east coast this week. NOAA advises avoid floodplains and other lowland areas until flooding control efforts can arrive…” the neomah turned off the TV station, moving over to the internet radar station. “I can’t believe he’s kept that up all week, it’s covering a 70 mile radius at least, with the edges bleeding out into three neighboring states.”

 

She got a text from his cell phone, telling her he was done. She let him know that she would be there shortly.

 

Several hours later, and she was still lost, sloppily slogging through deep mud in her rubber wading gear. Even with her fancy waterproof GPS, and the actual survey maps she had personally marked with the trail-boundaries, she couldn’t find her way there. Her own tacks were clearly visible behind her, showing her checker-board search pattern. 

 

“Still lost?” she heard from somewhere.

 

She looked up, squinting into the darkness and torrential rain, “... yeah. Where are you?”

 

“I am right in front of you.” he said, and he was.

 

They were relatively far inland from the beach. 

 

“I guess that works as you said, sir.” she stated, upon seeing her tracks warping beside her into long loops instead of grids. In front of her was a surprising amount of foliage, or at least it was much denser that she remembered out here. In the dim light, it was impossible to see very far, but at the very edge of her vision she could see the foliage turning entirely grey. And yet, there did not seem to be a clear visual cutoff between the normal green foliage and the grey ones. 



While she could see that the kind of flora that had lived there previously, thorn bushes, stinging nettles, and invasive pest trees, they now seemed to have experience some kind of weird hyper-growth, and she could see one of the normally ankle-high nettles was towering overhead like a palm tree or something. Carefully poking it with her walking stick, she could see the stinging hairs had spread to cover the whole surface of the plant, instead of just the leaves, and the woody stem had strange fleshy growths that reminded her of something not dissimilar to oak galls or corn smut. 

 

“Follow my lead, neomah. Tarry not, if you value your health. While the things here are unlikely to directly harm you, being temporarily owned by me and all, but the environs here at the very least passively encourage unwellness and disease, as well as increasing the virulence of vegetative poisons. If you were not already my possession, then the flora and mutated fauna within can easily infect the unwary with my Self-Seed. Even if the version here is specifically designed to only be transmissible within my lands, the usual version is incredibly hard to avoid exposure to, as well as being extremely contagious; a literally colonizing plague. The things living here won’t attack you so long as you are mine, but they are all incredibly toxic and indelible to outsiders, but they are all at least as dangerous as blue-ringed octopus venom.”

 

She followed him along until she found a pseudo-clearing that he had prepared, probably near the beach. Before her was a tarp draped over something larger than a car, and next to it was a single white-tailed deer, tied to a stake.

 

“Since you asked about An-Teng, I figured I would show you the real teeth of my army, so to speak. This deer was caught only minutes before you got here, and I made sure to avoid full exposure to this place until now.” He said, before walking over to it, and grabbing a handful of nearby brush. He walked up to it, and rubbed the frightened deer with it, making sure to get some in its mouth and eyes. It didn’t seem to do anything strange besides cower and try to be small.

 

“There are many uses for a Self-Seed.” he began, before walking over to the deer and quickly snapping its neck with one hand. The deer fell into the mud, twitching.

 

The neomah just looked confused at the casual cruelty. Until, after a few long moments when the deer stood back up, with its head still on backwards. She watched him go up, and tear one of the limbs from the beast, fully detaching it, only for the limb to have something long and ropey still connecting it to the main body. She gasped as it slowly healed back to relative wholeness over the course of maybe a quarter hour.

 

“This is one of those uses, the Grey Walkers. As you can see they are creatures full of terrible vegetative life, neither fully animal nor fungus nor plant alone. Any bearer of a Self-Seed will rise up at what would logically be the moment of death. The process is not without flaws, of course, but they are my limbs and my teeth. With reasonable conditions they heal like I do, and they carry my teeth and my blood. Within An-Teng, a place with naturally wet hot and fertile lands, they were an almost inexhaustible legion. Any effort to fight them with anything besides fire results in more Self-Seed infections among the survivors, as well as more reclaimed corpses from the now terribly alive fallen.”

 

“One part of my powers that I do not advertise is the aspect of the art of Chimeric Delirium that not only allows persistent and convincing illusions within these lands, but that doing it within these blighted lands blurs the lines between real and unreal within these boundaries. Similarly, there is another application of Labyrinthine Jungle Trickery for Chimeric Delirium to warp unfortunate souls unwarded against teleportation to exist simultaneously within the lands in place of an illusion, while still technically being where they were. Needless to say this is best used only when there are no survivors.”

 

He moved over to the tarp, pulling it free to reveal a bus-sized wooden carriage (that looked suspiciously similar to a vardo ) next to a shaggy-coated clydesdale-sized goat. The two were connected together with some kind of basic-looking harness arrangement.  The cart itself seemed to be topped with some kind of small decorative tree sculpture, while the outside looked to be painted wood. Arriving closer, she took in the finer details as he explained what he had built. 

 

“This is that tree and goat from last week, swallowed and remade to fit my purposes. The tree has been wrapped around like a bonsai, to form into a cart, surrounding several plates of my own indestructible hepatizon teeth. That way the interior cannot be harmed, only the exterior temporarily damaged. It and the goat have been designed together, to work on flat ground, muddy bogs, vertical buildings, and underwater. As both have been blessed by my works before I modified them, they are (non-transmissible) self-seed carriers and will heal like I do. Before I show the interior, you can see clever reversible sign boards, for when I go and advertise my wares.”

 

Then, walking her into the passenger side door, he opened it to reveal a glittering ornate red and gold panelled rooms, with hardwood floors. She got the full tour, showing the interior to be many many times larger than the exterior, including several floors and false walls. Mostly the front area seemed to be reserved for his client-facing areas, while the hardest to access area contained the shrine to the Great Mother that he indicated was the heart of the place’s weirdness. “The Well-reputed Grotto has many uses, but it is the smuggler's best friend, keeping those eyes away who are not legitimate clients, and directing mystically those who are potential clients.”

 

“Finally, I have made a minor disguise tattoo artifact.” he said, before showing it to her. It bore a spiraling kudzu vine bearing flowers around a large central one; this is an artwork blessed by Kimbery's aesthetics, and is clearly unnerving to gaze upon closely for it is impossibly detailed. Among its uses is the fact that it uses a non-illusion disguise to rewrite reality for the purposes of ‘Hungry-Joe’s Mercantile Company’ to have a distinct corporate look and feel. Upon dawning the disguise, she saw him suddenly gain a painted wooden mask bearing the Mask of The Fool from traditional theater noh-style masks. His normal green skin now a dark copper, his red eyes to green, and his long white hair became a blonde afro. He looked very foreign, but not one specific ethnicity. 

 

“In any case, this tattoo artifact has a few interactions for bestowing lesser copies of it to employees of the ‘Hungry-Joe’s Mercantile Company’, so that they get a uniform, more or less.” He took his mask off entirely, and the disguise did not change. After putting it back on and ceremonially removing it, the mask disappeared into the tattoo and his normal appearance returned.

 

“I believe that is the majority of the things I am willing to do here without provocation. Did you have questions?”

 

“No my lord, you have been generous so far.”

 

“Then, I believe I have reached the end of our demonstrations. Allow me to give you a payment for your services: In my name, as a member of the Thing Infernal, I do grant a name to this neomah and all the rights of citizenship that entails. I name thee the Rose-of-Dutiful-Servility!”

 

“Thank you my lord.”

 

With that, he had her sign her new legal name on the non-disclosure agreement documents edged in azure. Within minutes, both the document and the neomah dissolved into motes of light. 

 

“And that is that.”

 

--

 

Within her office, Hannah read through the email summarizing the testing results from the doctors at the hospital. It appeared that while there were no long term side effects from whatever treatment this Locust Mariner provided, the staff was reluctant to announce him as anything approaching Panacea’s healer rating. Instead, they concluded that the nearest analog healer was Scapegoat, and so this Mariner needed to be a reserve-healer at best. Hannah sighed, vaguely disappointed that poor Panacea would not have someone to split her enormous load with.

 

“I guess we will have to figure out a rotation for his escorts.”

 

Chapter 11: Finally Free-ish

Chapter Text

Locust Mariner walked leisurely through the heavy rains, enjoying the cool feeling as he slipped  effortlessly through the tangled undergrowth of his now matured base. The viscous thorns and choking vines holding no more purchase upon his skin than the rain above. The reflective eyes of the creatures he passed in the night showed the reflected ambiance of distant street lights. The things within bowed their heads in submission, as was proper for all lesser beings.

 

As he entered the small clearing on the beach where he had the cart, he whistled sharply upon seeing his pet goat had wandered off. Feeling no urgency, he spun in place while whistling again. 

 

“Bwaaah!” the doe bleated, jumping  over forty feet down from a tall tree. A tangle of branches stuck in her horns like a birdsnest.

 

He walked up and observed the little doe was now at eye level with him, having the size similar to a Simhata or Clydesdale instead of the escaped livestock she had once been. To keep up his cover, he had trained her to respond to English, instead of his native tongue like a proper mount.  He walked up and chuffed at her quietly while he reached to scratch her neck, before brushing the nest on her horns. 

 

“Yeah, yeah, time to get ready.”

 

“Bwaph.” said the goat, before wandering to the cart. 

 

After hooking up the poles to the goat’s harness, he quickly took the reins and shouted “Forward!” from his seat. The goat pulled the bus-sized cart like it wasn’t hauling anything at all behind her. Straight down into the water of the beach, quickly diving down into the dark depths.

 

“Hold.” he said, moving down to the now-aquatic goat, complete with flippers and gills. He swam easily to the front of the cart, checking the external seals, before moving into the pseudo-airlock that the door acted as. He popped his head inside, making sure there was only air inside, since the tree itself filled the cavity with pure clean air by default, he did only cursorily look around for leaks, before closing the front door and returning to the drivers seat. “Forward!”

 

After a long circuitous path around the bay, their heads popped out of the water while he looked around for a good spot to go aground. “Jump Up!” he commanded, causing the goat to leap out of the water twenty feet up onto a steep rocky cliff. The goat immediately lost the gills and flippers as soon as they were out of the water. 

 

He pointed the reins at an angle, and with a flick, the lot of them and the cart climbed at an impossible angle for a normal horse and buggy. Upon leaving the edge of the city, they came up to the large concrete sides of a disused warehouse. 

 

“Up up!” he called. Following his command, the goat to impossibly climb up the wall, cart and all. The motion was more in common to a spider or gecko than to anything a goat or person might do.

 

Upon the high up roof, they finally halted. He got out and put on his magical mask over his face, and went to pat the goat. “Good girl.”

 

As the rain finally ended, he surveyed the city before him, looking for a likely place to perform his debut as the rogue night doctor of Brockton Bay.

 

–

 

Not everyone joins gangs voluntarily, at least not in Brockton Bay. Some gangs don’t give you a choice, not really. For the ABB, anyone who wasn’t Asian of some kind could only be one time contractors. Harry Smith was a third generation immigrant from Hong Kong. His family ran a mostly Cantonese-style family restaurant. Nothing too exciting, but he grew up working the phones when he wanted a few bucks, instead of a normal allowance. 

 

Back in high school, the ABB gangers had heard him speaking normal fluent English, and decided that he would be a good pawn. They called them ‘scouts’ but he knew that he and the other unfortunate volunteers were there only because it was implied that refusal would result in at least a few bricks through the front window of the family restaurant, as well as a summary beating.

 

Scouts in the ABB were ordered to be the eyes and ears, and especially keep an eye out for Empire skin heads. Harry Smith didn’t like this job, and they only paid him if he found anything worth reporting. He didn’t have a lot of academic prospects, and pulling him away from classes all the time because the real gangers got a stick up their collective asses over something involving the boss and his top goons getting injured, wasn' t helping.  His mother was already disappointed enough in him, regardless of the fact that he was keeping them safe, well safer.

 

Harry  hadn’t been having a good day, having lost his umbrella to a gust of wind in the storm, leaving him cold and shivering. The rain had eventually stopped, but he was definitely not where he had intended to be at this point in his rounds. Finding cover under a bus stop had made him a little turned around. 

 

Despite being turned around, he knew that he hadn’t left the city, which left him at a loss to describe what he walked into after rounding a corner. He stopped and looked around behind him, seeing nothing unusual, before doing a double take and looking straight ahead. Where the hell did a horse and buggy come from? Was he high? He needed to see what this nonsense was doing in his neighborhoods. 

 

If he was anybody even marginally important, like a cape or one of the gangers that knew how to actually throw hands, and not just an unwilling conscript forced into scouting he would have actual equipment besides his now-damp cell phone. Binoculars or a camera at least… All he could see from his angle was the front face of the horse and what he assumed was the now-empty driver's seat.

 

Trying to get a better angle, he moved diagonally to see the right hand side of the buggy, not willing to walk blindly directly towards it. Once he was closer, a man walked out the side door holding a signboard and a folding chair. 

 

Scratch that… a masked man walked out. 

 

Well, that changed things then. 

 

Who the hell was that?

 

He was far enough away to just turn and run…  

 

While he was wracked with indecision, the masked man plopped the standing signboard down facing the way Harry had just approached from. The man then plopped the folding chair on the sidewalk next to him. The mask turned to face him, and he could only assume it was some kind of noh-style mask, looking like nothing specific beyond reminding him of a trollface meme. 

 

“A Viisitor.” said the masked man. Somehow appraising him from the seemingly solid mask. “Let me open the awning and unfold the shop.”

 

Harry’s brain decided it had enough and left for a smoke break. He just gawped at the masked man opening the ‘shop’, doing something concealed to the wood facing, the awning popped out and a some kind of accordion-looking thing unfolded to show what looked like menus. The man walked into the door again, before opening some shutters to appear facing Harry. 

 

“Weelcome visitor. To my humble shop and clinic.”

 

What the fuck. 

 

“I assure you I do not bite… Baby Goat might, but I will behave yes yes.”

 

That accent was so confusing. Harry couldn’t figure out if he was just weird, or if he was very foreign.

 

“I can see you are shy, feel free to pursue my wares without me hovering. Just knock if you want me to return.” he said, before exiting off to the side, leaving the shutters open and awning up.

 

Harry knew rule one of being a non-cape in a cape gang: be polite to anyone who might be a cape. Sure, he was just too confused to open his mouth sensibly, but whatever,  sure he could be shy if it got this guy to leave him alone.

 

Approaching cautiously, he discovered that the horse and buggy was actually more like a city bus being attached to something that looked like the mutant offspring of a Clydesdale and goat. Up close he could see some kind of decorative tree on top of the vehicle, as well as make out the text on the wooden signboards. 

 

It said: ‘Hungry Joe’s House of Traditional Medicine and Arts’, so that guy was probably ‘Hungry Joe’ whoever that was supposed to be. The next lines read ‘gold, barter, or trade only ’, ‘sacrificial food/drink required’, and listed his services in two  separate menus, one being  ‘Traditional Medicine’ and the other being  ‘Traditional Arts’ . 

 

Under the ‘Traditional Medicine’ section he sells a variety of basic medical care, first aid, emergency treatments, drugs and medicines, as well as ‘personal enhancements’, ‘beautification’, ‘de-aging treatment’, ‘longevity’, ‘mundane immortality’ treatments.  

 

Under the  ‘Traditional Arts’ section he has a number of weird things he can provide for fees, including traditional tattoos and piercingings, ‘Sorcery castings’, ‘Artifact creation’ was listed for seemingly absurd prices outside  of Demon-Ink Tattoos  or Demon Grafts. There is ‘Esoteric Consultation’ under the Arts category, which is listed at ‘variable’ cost.



Harry didn’t know if this was some kind of elaborate prank or maybe he was tripping balls in an alley somewhere. Pinching himself actually hurt, so probably not tripping. 

 

“See anyiithing you have query about?” asked the man, suddenly appearing above him in the platform above the signs. Harry pulled back to see the masked man sipping something steaming hot from a mug. The light inside the vehicle showed a weird combination of dark skin and a blond afro.

 

“Sorry man, but are you for real?” he knew he shouldn’t question crazy people.

 

“Reel?” 

 

“Yeah, mean are you legit selling all this shit? Are you even a doctor?”

 

“Everything you seeing and mooore. Am a card here.”

 

Harry found a business card thrown into his hands, that he barely avoided fumbling. It had a phone number and email address on the front, one the back it said ‘Night Doctor on Call // Emergencies no Questions Ask’, but did not list his name, weirdly.

 

“Seriously?”

 

“Whaat is strange?”

 

“Do you seriously expect me to believe you sight unseen?”

 

“Am neeww tooo city. What proof you want?”

 

“I don’t know man, I’m not a doctor!”

 

“This is no charity. You want something you pay.”

 

“What’s the cheapest service you offer?”

 

“Tatttooo. Usually two drinks, so long as you either bring print or choose from bookkh. Piercing too, but you need to supply the iteem yourself.”

 

“You seriously expect me to believe that? Two drinks? What kind of price is that?”

 

“Barter price. One drink sac, one drink price. Lowest price.”

 

“So no cash?”

 

“Fake money. Gold, silver, jade all fine. Trade fine if discuss.”

 

Harry sighed and looked in his backpack, vaguely recalling packing lunch earlier that week. Digging around he eventually discovered a can of soda. It appeared intact, despite being ignored amid heavy books and school supplies. He pulled it out, holding it up for the masked man to see. 

 

“First customer, offers a deal. I take sacrificial food offering, and replace second can with service. Just hand out cards like I gave you, and tell them Hungry Joe does tattoo, yes?”

 

Harry wasn’t going to agree to just any tattoo. “What is the tattoo?”

 

Pulling a thick tome from underneath the counter, he flipped it open and turned one of the pages visible. Harry looked at what looked like a full body tattoo shape, full of very detailed but stylized artwork that looked vaguely like traditional asian designs, if slightly off. Like something equally old, but having somehow continued to live on independently from the dead ancients. At least that’s what he assumed he was seeing, Harry wasn’t a historian. The indicated picture was titled something illegible that looked like maybe-pictograms, but also had an English translation underneath, he read out: “Demon Festival of the Way of the Fist.” 

 

“Yes, Suntarankal loves his festivals. I should know.” the masked man, pointing at the focal point of the piece, a giant pagoda-looking building that the demons were cavorting around. 

 

“I guess that is a pretty cool tattoo. Okay, I’ll do it.” Harry said, before handing over the soda can, and receiving a stack of maybe a hundred business cards. After a few minutes of prep, both headed into the cart, not even entering the back area, but just moving behind the privacy screen in the open area where he had been earlier. After he drained the can in one long chug, the masked man had Harry sit with his face away from the man, showing his back as he sat backwards in the wooden chair. 

 

“Okay I tell you close your eyes if you have a weak stomach.”

 

Harry had seen tattoos being done, since ABB culture required it, but he didn’t really want to watch himself getting it done. So, he closed his eyes. The masked man placed both hands on the exposed flesh on his shoulders, and Harry felt his skin crawling. It didn’t hurt per say like he assumed tattoo needles did, but it definitely felt weird. He tried not to think about it. Just listening to the distant sounds of the traffic.

 

Maybe five minutes later that man tapped him on the top of the head, saying “All done. Here mirror.” He took the offered hand mirror. It wasn’t super brightly lit back here, but he just noticed the sleeves of the tattoo wrapping down his arms when he went to grab the hand mirror. 

 

“Fucking christ, man. Do you have any idea how long a full body tattoo is supposed to take?”

 

“Here? I am not sure.”

 

“Full body tattoos, especially ones with multiple colors and shading take weeks! Multiple sessions too!”

 

“Maybe they are doing it wrong.” said the masked ‘Joe’ with a shrug.

 

Harry just shook his head. “You're the weirdest night doctor I’ve ever heard of.”

 

“Tell your friends, and don’t forget the cards.”

 

– 

 

Several hours later without any sign of potential customers, Locust Mariner decided to call it a night. Sure it had been slow to start out, but he must have seemed even sketchier than he thought to have scared off even drunk passers-by. He could literally grant wishes, but only if there was someone to twist the ear of. He would return the cart with plenty of time to go fishing before his day shift started. 

 

–

 

Hannah was standing next to her new transfer cape, checking over a paper test that she had administered to the new ‘green alien brute’ that she now had responsibility for. At the very beginning of the transfer, she had asked him to sign some online forms on the staff terminal, only to find him 10 minutes later holding an ink brush attempting to sign his signature on the glass touchscreen in black ink. She had initially been alarmed, but not livid like Collin had been with the ‘alien brute’. She just put her professional hat on, and asked him to stop for a moment while she asked him some questions.

 

He had explained that he did indeed find it strange that the form wasn’t a paper one, but he was an ‘alien’ so he was trying to adapt. He even had to  make his own brush and inkblock using the wood from his campfire at the docks. After some digging, Hannah determined that somehow, this green man had never been exposed to modern technology, including everything important about modern electricity. He knew plenty about plumbing and chemistry, and had a strong grasp of everything related to sailing and biology, at least as far as Hannah could tell.

 

Somehow Collin, the Tinker never explained why there were lightbulbs and computers in this building. She had to call HR to see if they could help find remedial technology training, and unfortunately for her it was mostly ‘watch these online documentaries’, so she was forced to handle the training part on her own.

 

Thus, she had spent most of her time with the new ‘alien’ administering comprehension tests she had to write herself. She was hardly an expert, but pinging the handful of tinkers she personally knew to sanity check herself, and she had slowly covered basic high-level stuff like ‘computers don’t want ink signatures’. It was slow going, but she found that so long as she was polite with her student, he was polite back. It was just hard to tell sometimes because of the gap in common sense and languages.

 

Hannah sighed with the markings on the test sheet. “Okay Mariner, it looks like you finally pass the basic safety and usage tests. I know it’s been a long week for both of us, but you have come a long way.”

 

“Thanks be for you patience  too. Much more polite than spear-man.”

 

“Since you have been cooped up all week on these training videos, how about we go out for a transfer this afternoon?”

 

“Tranfer?”

 

“Prisoner transfer. We got a handful of low-risk mooks and one Villain named Uber  that need transferred to the holding facility for their trial date. It’s low risk, but all we need to do it show up and keep anything dangerous from happening.”

 

“Yeas I will help.”

 

“Good.”

 

–

 

A few hours later, Mariner was standing out in the bright daylight wearing his Auspicious  Physician costume for what was probably the first time since he had made it. It was a little odd wearing what was clearly the kind of costume designed for nocturnal use. Out in the rear loading bay of this vaguely important looking building. Hannah and him were waiting for a bus to pull up so they could oversee the transfer. Hannah had already talked to everyone, but apparently the people running the building did not want him to enter it, for some reason.

 

As the bright orange bus pulled up, he caught a novel taste on the wind. It smelled sharp and buttery. Grains and fry oil. Hmm…. he wandered towards the souce of the smell.

 

…

 

It was a cardboard box. He knew what those were, thanks to Viista. Holding food, this time by the smell. 

 

…

 

He approached, pulling the box up.

 

“Egads! You found me!” Shouted the grown man wearing a mask and a black outfit. “Emergency Super Run Away Plan Activated!” the masked man shouted before throwing a black ball at the ground. It exploded into a dense black smoke cloud.

 

Mariner smelled around in the cloud, trying to find the source.

 

He could hear the distant sound of metal chains, but the smell seemed to have evaded him in the cloud.

 

After a few long seconds, the cloud dispersed. 

 

He caught the smell on the wind above, leading his eyes to see the masked man  using some kind of grappling hook. 

 

“You win this time!” shouted the masked man, before fleeing off the roof with the grappling hook in hand.

 

Mariner was disappointed to fail, but the cheese-smells had probably been on that masked man.

 

Not worth chasing, since he’s supposed to be here to prevent dangerous things. 

 

He called up there “Try not to fall, is dangerous!” 

 

There job done.

 

By the time he had returned to his place next to the bus, Hannah had come out to see if he was ready. “Any problems?”

 

“Not.”

 

“Okay lets do this.”

 

It took longer to do the paperwork after the fact than it did to oversee the 10 minute transfer in the first place. 

 

Chapter 12: Something About a Bank

Chapter Text

Hannah pulled out another form from the stack of forms, “Marniner, this is form 13-E, it is the requisition form that is exclusively used for external reimbursement from the PRT for non-PRT missions, pursuant to the official list of allowable non-bounty claims when you have a billing code.”

 

The red eyes stared blankly at her as she slid the form across the table. 

 

She tapped it, continuing, “As a non-PRT member, you will need to fill this out whenever you perform allowed public services otherwise our department will not receive the appropriate billing transfers to reimburse the overhead for the missions you go on that are PRT-related, but not specific bounties from the PRT.”

 

She pulled out a phone-book thick binder, placing it before him, “Now lets go over all of the different billing codes we will need to remember before …”

 

QUARK QUARK QUARK QUARK

 

Hannah looked at the emergency signal on the wall, vaguely concerned that there was something Wards-specific during her dayshift for once. No one liked doing crime in broad daylight, after all. 

 

She pulled out the relevant laptop from on the wall rack, preparing to handle logistics if nothing else. 

 

“Okay…” she read the communique from the PRT and the separate ones from the police and EMS units. Well, it looked like there were probable civilians caught up as likely hostages at a tripped silent alarm at one of the banks relatively close by. The HR rotation system flicked out a list of names for the rotation, including the fact that due to poor Carlos being worked double shifts all month due to the fallout from Mariner’s arrival in town, had been given leave to travel for a vacation to visit family abroad. So the rotation filled the highest rated back-up Brute in as the exact same Mariner.

 

“Looks like you’re going on your first official mission out with the Wards. If you have any questions, Missy should be the senior Wards member on site. Just follow her lead.”

 

—

 

The bank was several stories tall, mostly brutalist concrete that looks slick and dark in the rainstorm. Mariner had asked Niece if she wanted him to guard her; she said she could handle herself. Mariner didn’t trust anyone else he had met to have basic competence, and so he was largely ignoring them while they did whatever it was they did. He had borrowed a knife from the toolbox that the tinkers nearby were fiddling with, but he didn’t bring anything especially dangerous with him. 

 

Mariner really didn’t care about the robbery, but Niece did. Protecting Niece was his priority here, but she would be disappointed if he did nothing. Certainly he did not want to accidentally injure hostages, but he also didn’t think he cared about them more than the safety of Niece. Lacking anything more pressing, he might as well just walk in the front door. Unlike most humans, he didn’t really need to see things. From their position across the street, he could see blackness that wasn’t just shadows from here.

 

With a careful placement of the knife, he stabbed himself in the shoulder, at just the right angle so it wouldn’t fall out of place; the wound a bloody sacrifice to himself to invoke By Pain Reborn and Scar-Writ Saga Shield and its many many enhancements, which toughed his natural flesh in the same manner that Malfeas endured his inversion. 

 

“What the fuck…” said the annoying yapping dog. Cockblocker or something.

 

Moving himself through the stretches of the katas of Crystal Chameleon Style, he forced his essence flows to life, invoke the form-charm of the style, followed by the mobility enhancing charm from that style, Light-Treading Technique. Both caused his anima to flare before being broken into a shattered prism as well as wrapped around him like a glowing envelope. {{By Pain Reborn commits 1LHL; Crystal Chameleon From costs 6m; Light-Treading Technique costs 3m1w}}

 

“What the fuck was that!”  

 

“Martial Arts, Cochek-blocke.”

 

The dog looked like  it wanted to argue some ignorant point, but Mariner’s costumed back was already walking up towards the open bank doors. Regardless of his preparations, or relative lack thereof, he would be incredibly surprised if there was anything inside worth fighting seriously. 

 

–

 

Taylor could feel her flies near the open front doorway registering movement in the darkness. She signaled Bitch of an unknown walking straight inside. If they caught whoever that was by surprise, then they could hopefully alpha-strike them before they had any idea that Bitch had all three dogs waiting by that door, while Regent was guarding the rear door. 

 

–

 

Before he could even reach the interior field of darkness, Mariner heard the sound of scrambling claws on stone and the rough breathing of beasts. 

 

{{Stealth-off begins: JFLM  always has Palette Without Limit committed, so he suffers no penalties for darkness or visibility in this scene; however, he doesn’t need to use the darkness to hide; Reflexively activates 10m Stepping Beyond Light Prana for the scene; Disco Ninja mode activated. 

Anima is now Bonfire level I think. Unfortunately, Bitch and dogs are in the darkness, and cannot see the incredibly Obvious signs. JFLM is technically invisible. He can roll Perception + Awareness against her Dex + Stealth, but he gets Autosuccesses from his PWL and Bitch is neither trained to be  stealthy nor is she trying to do anything other than not talk loudly. Lets give her 3 Wits and 2 Awareness for a pool of 5 dice +2 dice for ‘high alert’ per Core p131 and -2 for invisible, for a total dice pool of 5 dice to notice him attempting to jump up to punch her in the face from where he was standing. JFLM Stealth pool is Dex 7 + Stealth 7 = 14 dice base, since his movement range is enhanced with Light Treading Technique he can just walk behind her and casually climb the back of the beast so long as the rider doesn’t pierce his Stealth; Bitch rolls Awareness pool 5: [5, 5, 8, 1, 4; net 0 successes but no botch], JFLM rolls pool 14 [9, 7, 6, 8, 3, 5, 9, 3, 2, 4, 4, 5, 10, 1 ; net successes 4] JFLM wins stealth (We spend 4m to apply Death From Nowhere Method), rolls to hit on Bitch, no visibility penalty, Dex + Martial Arts to hit dice pool 7 + 7; Pool = 14 [6 9 5 8 8 6 1 2 4 9 8 4 2 1 10] = 5 successes to hit; JFLM has surprised hit Bitch in the head her Dodge or Parry DVs don’t apply on an unexpected attack as she has no powers or skills that grant that beyond default human; Damage Pool = Str + Unarmed Punch + Carry Over = 7 + 3B + 5 = 15B Base; Let’s assume her helmet is at least 2B/2L and her Stamina is 3 ; 15 - (2+3) = 10B ; Roll the damage and then double the successes per Death From Nowhere Method; Remember mortals can soak Bashing and she has the default 7 Health Levels; 10  dice rolled  [3 4 6 4 2 8 6 7 7 7 ; 4 Successes] Double to 8B applied over 7 health levels; 8B Fills all 7 health levels including Incap, wrapping around to become Lethal on the highest level; Bitch is Inactive and incapacitated, but not in danger of instant death from overwhelming damage.}}

 

He breathed out to kindle his anima into a blinding shivering kaleidoscope of broken light and motion. With a breath to spare, he followed his nose around the incoming three massive dogs, aiming around to find the oncoming human presumably controlling the dogs. He would remain de-facto invisible within the blinding prism until he attacked, so all he had to do was avoid doing so until he could get a clean shot. 

 

The masked rider had her giant dogs sprinting in a straight line, trying to avoid colliding with each other or the bank doors on the way through. Mariner utilized his enhanced mobility to slide around and stepped up behind the rider briefly joining them on the back of the dog. Muscle memory almost made him strike with the lethal might of the Infernal artifact of his One Hand, before he remembers: don’t take these things seriously. His left fist would do. In another world, the target of his ire exploded into gory gibbets from a single blow with the black stone fist encircled with the glowing runes of the Scripture of The One Handed Maiden.

 

Pulling his arm back, he forced the mote flows of his long-practiced Death From Nowhere Method, and his fist struck true.

 

The rider crumpled into a heap, and he guided the ragdoll down to the ground as he took the figurative reins of the dogs. “STOP! BAD DOGS! LAYDOWN!” he felt Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion latching onto these natural beasts, as all three collapsed into piles of gore around the wet womb that contained the actual dogs. All three crawled before him, bellies up showing their submission to him. “GET! GET!” Even he could see the glowing green embers exiting his mouth that form the burning green crown of Crowned With Fury. Mere beasts were incapable of resisting Dominion in the first place, but the crown was automatic when he shouted orders. 

 

They left as quickly as possible, slowing only to hurriedly drag their unconscious owner by her own straps back into the darkness. 

 

Mariner turned back to look at his Niece in her helmeted costume across the street. He knew that he was invisible within the broken prism around him. “VISTA NIECE! WHAT DO YOU WANT? I GUARD DOOR OUTSIDE? I GO INSIDE HUNT?” The glowing fiery embers died as he stopped commanding. Hopefully she could not only hear him over the tense surrounds, but also understand what he was asking without him leaving the door he was trying to maybe guard.

 

Thankfully, she looked confused only momentarily before telling him, “UNCLE STAY AND GUARD THE DOOR! WE WILL SEND IN PEOPLE TO RESCUE THE HOSTAGES!” 

 

–

 

Taylor thought she knew what the plan had been: Bitch and her dogs would ambush whoever was unlucky enough to try to walk in the front door. As far as her bugs told her, that was exactly what happened, briefly.

 

She wasn’t sure exactly what had happened to the dogs, but she could definitely feel Bitch was riding upright one moment, and in a crumpled heap on the ground the next. She could only touch things with all the shadows around, but the ones she had left outside should theoretically tell her some visual details. Only they were even more confusing than usual, making her feel the almost vertigo of seeing compound eyes were exactly incapable of processing correctly. She had to close those eyes so-to-speak to avoid throwing up in her mask. She did not want to clean silk.

 

While she was coping with that, she had been a little  too distracted to listen to the aftermath of Bitch and her dogs running outfront, so she was startled when the cold wet noses of those very dogs reached her face.  They whined in alarm, trying to get her to pay attention to the thing they were dragging: one very unconscious Bitch. Her bugs said she was still alive, so Taylor felt around in the dark. The back of Bitche’s biker-helmet cum costume-mask had been caved in, and she felt warm blood all along Bitches head. Well, a mystery for later then. 

 

“PSst Skitter!” she heard Tattletales' voice trying to get her attention at the level of a loud whisper. “We got Birdman outside, doing something that I just want to call magic out front.”

 

“What’s he doing here?”

 

“Talk later, run now!” she whispered, holding up a keychain and name-tag. “I vote for getting while the gettings good. That guy is guarding the front door, even if I can’t actually see him in the cameras. Bitch’s dogs have reverted, and we can’t do anything important with them until she wakes. Grue got the bags filled, we can just take the manager’s SUV in the basement parking garage. Might be a tight squeeze with all of us and the bags, but I think I saw Glory Girl across the street, staring at the front door.”

 

“You got a plan?” came the voice of Regent, standing over the frozen body of Browbeat. “Cause if not, we can grab a few hostages to keep the cops from coming too close.” He said, waving a sharp knife at the kneeling forms of the bank customers in the darkness. 

 

Feeling the titular Glory Girl walking through the front area, Taylor announced, “Grab a hostage now! Get back Glory Girl!” Taylor shouted while grabbing the nearby girl in a hoodie that had been quietly waiting as if she was waiting for this exact moment to come.  She pulled a knife to the hoodie girl's throat. “If you come any closer I’ll start bleeding this poor girl!” She felt the bugs she had placed on the girl make a fizzling sensation in her mind when they touched her skin.

 

Tattletale pulled up behind them, after signaling the two men to go down the stairs leaving the hostages as distractions and dragging the money-filled bags and their teammate behind them. 

 

“Oh well, I can’t believe our luck, this hostage knows Glory Girl. I wonder who that could be. Brown hair, kind of short, constant resting bitch face when she thinks no one is looking. Ho ho we have the one and only Panacea to grace us with our presence.”

 

“Tattletale, my powers…” stage-whispered to Tattletale, “... they’d not working!”

 

–

 

Missy didn’t think for a second that Uncle’s stupid plan would work. As much as the guys had been trying to get someone to swap costumes with Clockblocker, Uncle was just way too tall, and broad shouldered to fit anyone other than maybe Browbeat. As the senior wards member on site, she should have just told them not to try it. 

 

As it was the improvised plan of holding the front doors and slowly funneling hostages out into the… whatever the hell Uncle was doing that made it look like a rave. If she hadn’t been looking the whole time–if she had even blinked for a moment—she would have missed the only action that happened where she could see it in the first place. 

 

She had to call in Glory Girl from the roof, to direct her in on the plan. Sure, New Wave wasn’t under her chain of command, but she knew how to cooperate when things needed to get done. The official rules of engagement were easy enough to follow: hostages are more important than theft, no matter how large that number was. If she didn’t have Uncle reminding her that she needed to do her job here as the commander performing overwatch and advising, not on the ground with all the bugs and darkness.

 

That was just a silver lining. Who liked bugs? Bleh… Anyway slow and steady saves lives. 

 

–

 

Taylor could not believe the kind of shit Tattletale had dug up on New Wave. Taylor was lucky that telling Glory Girl to ‘take your sister I am so sorry for my teammate’ seemed to delay any reprisal in the pitch black, as the lot of them fed down the emergency staircase. Taylor imaged the pair had a lot of talking to do, so maybe Tattletale was less of a horrible sociopath and more of a ‘rip the bandage off’ kind of shock therapist. 

 

They had piled absolutely packed into the SUV, which was no-shit black and big enough for everyone and the dogs to fit, even if the dogs were in her lap, while the money was buried in the trunk compartment hidden under a golf bag. 

 

Grue was driving, and the working plan was vaguely Grue the intersection to the max range he could do, while instead of obviously running away as fast as possible, Grue would just try to blend into traffic. No deeper thoughts were given due to  Tattletale estimating us to have about 10 minutes before they finished sweeping the other floors for anyone else, and confirmed that the Undersiders were not in the building.

 

Tattletale listened to the illegal police-band radio in her hands, holding up her hands and then saying ‘go!’

 

–

 

Taylor finally let her breath out from the back seat. It had taken almost 45 minutes to travel to the place that Bitch’s dogs would have gotten them to in only 5 minutes, most of that was slowly driving in the opposite direction from where they were heading to, before ditching the car in an alley and walking at a long diagonal by foot. It was not the exciting chase she remembered from movies, but they were still alive, and the only injury was Bitch; most importantly they had completed the mission and no one had died on either side. 

 

After dropping the bags at the safe-drop, they would go to their costume stashes before fully taking a win.

 

Not perfect or anything, but not terrible either. They were saving the official after-action reports until Bitch finally woke up, and they had been swapping carrying her solid square frame so that no one dropped her. Grue had volunteered to manage her, since he was probably the only one fit enough to keep carrying that Bitch after the better part of an hour.

 

–

 

Much later, Missy had walked out of her first PRT debriefing since bringing the new alien brute on the team.

 

“How’d it go Niece?”

 

“Director Piggot says that the bank’s insurance would easily cover the $40k losses, and thankfully we did manage to keep collateral damage to a minimum, and sustained no personal injury claims from the civilians in the bank. We didn’t get too much info about the new members of the Undersiders though. Better that than having a total knock-down drag out fight with lots of expensive collateral damage. I feel like the only thing we learned was some lessons about teamwork and chains of command.”

 

“Good?”

 

“Good, Uncle. Just let's talk about a plan first, next time.”

 

“Uncle is smart guy. Used to run country.”

 

“How big, like a little island?”

 

“Neomah showed me it same size here, entire continent down to where it hits south continent.”

 

“Uncle!” 

 

“I am not tease! An-Teng stretched from sea to sea and down to the edge of the world in the South.”

 

“Yeah yeah… sure.”

 

–

 

After applying staples to her head-wound,  Bitch eventually woke up covered in dogs, and cursing.

 

The consensus was that somehow, despite being unable to see through the darkness, the guy in the bird outfit was able to turn invisible-ish in the middle of that disco ball. Somehow he punched straight through Bitch’s helmet. Nothing online seemed to agree on what his powers were, but Taylor had personally watched him un-hand Lung, as well as trying to fight and win the police department. 

 

They needed to know more about his relationship with the wards and the protectorate, as well as hopefully figure out countermeasures. After all, Lung’s men had taken off his arm briefly just by shooting him like a lot.

 

As far as their employer goes, there were no complaints.