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An Imago of Rust and Crimson (Worm crossover)

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Peanuckle said:
I enjoy her steady growth and acceptance of her power. Setting a "be nice to me" creature on the girl was a nifty trick, though full of fridge horror. She'd make a frightful monster if she sent out creatures like "kill people" or "do horrible things." It'd be almost impossible to trace it back to her, as well.
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Huh, I hadn't realized that Taylor is basically a more stealthy Simurgh-lite, whispering into people's ears to get them to do what she wants on a micro scale. I'd guess that things like the screen trick have a minimal affect at best, and that saying something like "kill the person next to you" might get the thought to pass through their mind, but not act on it.
If she made some projection of Murderous Intent, however, and then did a screen trick like that...

Typo and other thingy:
find some humour what I saw
find some humour in what I saw

and then returned to reality just in time...
... and then dropped out of the Other Place.
She leaves (the Other Place), then is suddenly back in, then leaves again. Maybe change "just in time" to "just long enough"
 
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Correct me if I'm wrong, my memory is a bit fuzzy.

Taylor is capable of interacting with her own emotions via the extraction and subjugation of them, yes? She can then attach said emotions to other people e.g. see Cry Baby to her father.

But can she directly manipulate other people's emotions? Has she even tried? And how damned terrifying would she be if she could?
 
Chet Betera said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, my memory is a bit fuzzy.

Taylor is capable of interacting with her own emotions via the extraction and subjugation of them, yes? She can then attach said emotions to other people e.g. see Cry Baby to her father.

But can she directly manipulate other people's emotions? Has she even tried? And how damned terrifying would she be if she could?
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She has. In the latest chapter, she attaches Sympathy to the principal. It's unclear how strong the effect is, but she can.
 
Chet Betera said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, my memory is a bit fuzzy.

Taylor is capable of interacting with her own emotions via the extraction and subjugation of them, yes? She can then attach said emotions to other people e.g. see Cry Baby to her father.

But can she directly manipulate other people's emotions? Has she even tried? And how damned terrifying would she be if she could?
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What's the difference to what she does now?
She already manipulates emotions even if she uses constructs to do it.
I think she would be less scary if she didn't use puppets because she'd have more control.
 
Didn't the one girl at the asylum have slaughterhouse iconography on her body in the other place?

Maybe that's where Taylor caught it.
 
MJ12 Commando said:
But really what's 'mind warping'? I mean, if you could see someone's thoughts deep in their heart of hearts, I think you'd have a very, very alien worldview. And probably very cynical. It's a great vicious cycle.

Is a cynical misanthrope->sees things justifying worldview->becomes more of a cynical misanthrope->repeat.

I fully expect that the nWoD crossover isn't actually in Things but in thematics. The slow degradation of morality by interacting with a cold, unfeeling world with plenty of shadows where innocence can be lost, having to face the fact that secret knowledge is often maddening-and having a powerful, versatile toolkit which deliberately encourages you to be a terrible person to make use of it for its fullest potential.

Being a munchkin in nWoD is often the same as being a monster.
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Yeah, there's a reason most ordinary social interactions have a lot of lies, misdirection and misrepresentation. You need that bit of delusion to be able to make nice with people, and maybe over time, make them more like the people you want them to be. People have a multiplicity of motives and desires, but most people can only read what is done and shown.

Of course, Taylor here is kind of making them more like the people she thinks they are. Might perpetuate the problem, but someone hunting for deviations in psychological profiles in the area is going to notice that eventually.
 
NeverDies said:
Didn't the one girl at the asylum have slaughterhouse iconography on her body in the other place?

Maybe that's where Taylor caught it.
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I was gonna say no, but then I thought again. Heh, yes.
Three set's of 666.
Nine inverted nines.

The book might be it, but the lipstick appeared before we started reading. Probably just a changed book.
The infection seems acausal if it's an infection.
 
I wonder what would happen if we write something in the weird world.
Will it become really nice in 'reality'?

I now want this power just so I can experiment.
 
iv been reading this because it looks interesting but i am having major trouble following what is going on in the story and what exactly are taylors powers?
 
edmantgoog said:
iv been reading this because it looks interesting but i am having major trouble following what is going on in the story and what exactly are taylors powers?
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We don't know :D
She sees some kind of other world that shows her true horrible things.
She makes constructs out of emotions and attaches them to people or uses them to teleport.
She can probably do other things, but there are no clear answers at this point.

What would the world be like seen through eyes of Happiness? Like she did with Sniffer.
She can manifest empathy. Can she see through it?
 
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cosoco said:
She has. In the latest chapter, she attaches Sympathy to the principal. It's unclear how strong the effect is, but she can.
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modrony said:
What's the difference to what she does now?
She already manipulates emotions even if she uses constructs to do it.
I think she would be less scary if she didn't use puppets because she'd have more control.
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I'm talking about less "Let me insert sympathy into your soul" and more "Let me tear every last shred of sympathy from your soul so you shall never feel for anyone ever again."
 
Chet Betera said:
I'm talking about less "Let me insert sympathy into your soul" and more "Let me tear every last shred of sympathy from your soul so you shall never feel for anyone ever again."
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I doubt she can do permanent alterations. So far all the changes have reverted.
Maybe she could eat the sympathy and keep it inside her? Anything is possible.
'Emotion doesn't disappear' seems to be a constant.

I wonder if she can clean up emotional spills and use those.
 
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edmantgoog said:
iv been reading this because it looks interesting but i am having major trouble following what is going on in the story and what exactly are taylors powers?
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Her powers are weird, unknowable, and kind of horrifying, with broad applicability.

This is, I'm reasonably sure, intentional, and trying to go "oh she has [X] powerset" is missing the point of the story, really.
 
Oh Taylor, how easily do you embrace casual mind control! (well, subliminal influence, but I'm sure Khepritude will come naturally to you).
I foresee a trend of it being the first thing she ever does in interacting with somebody from now on. Either Isolation to be left in peace, or casual psychic worm to make interactions go as smoothly as possible for her.

I also love how she is deluding herself into thinking that pretending to be part of a secret conspiracy was a good thing. Perhaps an early symptom of her (probable) Slaughterhouse memetic infection?
 
The Nomad said:
I also love how she is deluding herself into thinking that pretending to be part of a secret conspiracy was a good thing. Perhaps an early symptom of her (probable) Slaughterhouse memetic infection?
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I think it's more hilarious that Taylor believes she's actually fooling the PRT into thinking she's with the government.
 
Taylor's really coming to trust her power. (Exclusively?) I wonder whether it's just stripping away comforting illusions, or if it has its own biases? Constantly seeing only flaws in everyone around her is quite bad enough, but if there's any[one/thing] out there that she gets a deceptive read on ... Saya no Uta funtimes?

Also - if S9 is a memetic contagion rather than a group with 9 members, that begs the question of what (if anything) the 9 denotes here. Nine initial vectors? Nine strains, maybe?
 
FlatlineAskari said:
Also - if S9 is a memetic contagion rather than a group with 9 members, that begs the question of what (if anything) the 9 denotes here. Nine initial vectors? Nine strains, maybe?
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It's a mis-spelling.

You see, the people who figured out what was going on were German, and their reaction was something like, "NEIN! NEIN! NEIN! NEIN! NEIN! NEIN! NEIN! NEIN! NEIN!" :p
 
The sight saw eyes on the artist girl. It doesn't only show negative qualities as being observant is not one.
How it shows the qualities seems more alien than malignant to me.
 
FlatlineAskari said:
Taylor's really coming to trust her power. (Exclusively?) I wonder whether it's just stripping away comforting illusions, or if it has its own biases? Constantly seeing only flaws in everyone around her is quite bad enough, but if there's any[one/thing] out there that she gets a deceptive read on ... Saya no Uta funtimes?
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I really dislike that idea. It's much more interesting if she can't blame anyone but herself. The devil is more frightening when he comes openly and honestly and tells you exactly what you're getting. Then, it's all on you and your choices.

Her power offers up all the evils secrets of the world, it doesn't even pretend otherwise. If she doesn't bother looking for the good, then it's not her powers fault.
 
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