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Divine Administration - of Gods and Bureaucracy (Worm/Exalted)

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One thing that bothered me a little about this chapter is is how Coil drops his "safe" timeline only minutes before everything falls apart. It makes a certain amount of sense, but it did feel a little convenient.
 
Have to nitpick, sorry.
Serafina said:
I'd managed to convince Piggot to look into Concordia before they went public, thankfully. Just my expert opinion as a civilian contractor and old friend of hers had helped to push her into investigating the suspected master effect.
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I don't remember them being old friends at all. In the PRT Squad interlude, which is their only real interaction as far as I'm aware, she views him with disgust.
Interlude 16.x said:
"Oh, I did mention I wouldn't be on the team in the future. Not because of any injuries, mind you. I'm facing a stay in prison. My captain and I were the only ones left," Thomas knit his fingers together and rested them on his stomach, looking very calm. "He grabbed the rope ladder first, but he didn't climb fast enough. I shot him."

Her face twisted in disgust.

"You would have done the same in my shoes."

"Never."

"Well, it doesn't matter. A few years of my life. I don't expect I'll be there for too long. There were extenuating circumstances, and the PRT doesn't want me talking to anyone about what happened."

She shut her eyes, tried to shut her ears to his smooth voice prattling on with things she didn't want to hear.

Monsters, freaks, lunatics and bullies… the labels didn't belong to just the capes.

It's like the world's gone mad, and I'm the only sane person left.
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Should be a simple fix. Swap it so that he uses his spies in the PRT to push her in the desired direction, rather than doing it himself.
Always Late said:
Didn't know Coil was a cauldron cape. I thought he triggered in Ellisburg during the Nilbog disaster. Eh, whatever the author says goes, their story.
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Cauldron cape is canon. Don't remember where it's confirmed in-story, but here's a list. Edit: scrolling down a bit suggests it's revealed in his interlude. He notes that it was expensive, and he still owes a favor.
 
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Always Late said:
Didn't know Coil was a cauldron cape. I thought he triggered in Ellisburg during the Nilbog disaster. Eh, whatever the author says goes, their story.
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kenhikaru said:
Cauldron cape is canon. Don't remember where it's confirmed in-story, but here's a list. Edit: scrolling down a bit suggests it's revealed in his interlude. He notes that it was expensive, and he still owes a favor.
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Here you go:

Arc 8 Coil Interlude said:
Perhaps worthy of a celebration. Coil maintained his own vices. It would be unfair to expect more of himself, when he had the unique talent he did.
It had certainly been an expensive talent. Even with his ability to game the markets in a way that clairvoyants and precognitives couldn't detect, it had taken him years to pay it off. A maddening, frustrating endeavor, when he had already been thinking of plans he wanted to set in motion, having to postpone them. And he still owed a favor, even now, up to a week's services. He couldn't be sure if he was powerful and secure enough to fight back if they demanded too expensive a price, or too much of his time at a point critical to his plan.
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kenhikaru said:
Have to nitpick, sorry.
I don't remember them being old friends at all. In the PRT Squad interlude, which is their only real interaction as far as I'm aware, she views him with disgust.

Should be a simple fix. Swap it so that he uses his spies in the PRT to push her in the desired direction, rather than doing it himself.
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Thank you very much.

The perils of writing while I'm away from my computer, then transcribing it into google docs. Normally I check things while doing so, but I guess I thought "they knew each other from Ellisburg" (which is correct) and translated that into some friendship.

It has been corrected now. Again, thanks.
 
Giygas said:
Not the cauldron ones. Eden still had to set things properly.
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Cauldron capes still experience mental effects. Noelle and Grey Boy are two dramatic examples, but hardly the only ones. See also Canary. In general, the only real difference is that Cauldron capes are in a far better place in their lives and are screened for preexisting mental instabilities.

kenhikaru said:
I don't remember them being old friends at all. In the PRT Squad interlude, which is their only real interaction as far as I'm aware, she views him with disgust.
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True, but his cannon backstory makes no bloody sense. Someone who spent several years in prison for manslaughter should have no future in the PRT, let alone a promising one as Coil allegedly did when Cauldron gave him his power.

tertius said:
I liked the Alchemical Solutions take on it, when he realized that he isn't choosing between two timelines, but one and none. Used it to accelerate-plan things months in advance, with proper thinker headaches to go.
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I'm pretty sure the canon Coil could never do that, but it's a good illustration of an alternate expression of his shard. You could even make the argument that he got a fairly weak power, considering his vial was supposed to be extremely high-end. Perhaps he was simply too fixated on his choice to murder his commander? Even a single additional timeline would have made him vastly stronger. Then again, his defeat in canon was largely via plot fiat.

Though WoG claimed that Triumph also had a high-end vial, not that he seems very impressive in canon.
 
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Don't forget, Cauldron capes are using DEAD shards from a DEAD Entity. Regardless of how "high-end" they are, they'll ALWAYS come off as "lesser" compared to the live shards.
 
Finagle007 said:
Don't forget, Cauldron capes are using DEAD shards from a DEAD Entity. Regardless of how "high-end" they are, they'll ALWAYS come off as "lesser" compared to the live shards.
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Lolno. The only natural triggers in the same league as top tier cauldron capes (The Triumvirate, Hero, Grey Boy, Echidna) are Dragon and Glastig Uaine.
 
OverReactionGuy said:
Lung, Skitter, black kaze, Foil, Sphere, panacea, and more are also in the top legues as natural triggers you know. It's not just dragon and Glastig Uaine.

Contessa also was a natural trigger.
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To be fair, in the case of Skitter and Panacea, it's more of how they use what they've got rather than what they've got. Skitter was VERY inventive in the use of a fairly limited power, and Panacea's almost first reaction to triggering was to hit the books. Individuals with different mindsets would've gotten far less out of those powers. In the case of Lung's, Foil's, and Black Kaze's powersets, almost no munchkining is required as it's almost impossible to screw them up.
 
Watching Coil suffer repeatedly is always fun to watch. :D

More seriously, I definitely enjoyed the chapter, and didn't notice any obvious errors. I thought you had mentioned the Coil interlude covering more time (i.e. time we haven't seen in other chapters yet) but I'm probably just mis-remembering.

Anasurimbor said:
Cauldron capes still experience mental effects. Noelle and Grey Boy are two dramatic examples, but hardly the only ones. See also Canary.
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I don't remember Canary suffering from any mental effects. She caused them, but I can't think of a single bit of canon pointing towards her being affected by her shard.

Also, Noelle doesn't count, as her connection to her shard was so severe her shard was actually in control part of the time. And I didn't think Gray Boy was a Cauldron cape. Was this from canon or was it WoG (it seems to be a common belief, to be sure).
 
Serafina said:
I wouldn't so much say addicted as just plain paranoid.
Now yes, having powers probably messes with your brain to some extent. But I'll keep that rather low-key in this story, with the assumption that most capes are only mildly influenced by their shards.
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Nudging mah brain meats. It's interesting in canon how shards generally try to influence people to act a certain way. Though I think it's mostly by aggravating existing issues. Paranoia is one, Taylor got trapped in a locker and tried to regain control of her life by seeking agency in being a hero all the while somehow avoiding the very path (Wards) that would easily let her become one. The less said about what the heck motivates Crawler the better. The funniest one is Leet's power trying to kill him (might be fanon).

The one I clearly remember though is Administrator zoning in on Danny in a bar, then diverting to Taylor later on. He had/has a temper problem that he keeps under control tight enough to give Bruce Banner pointers. I wonder how much of that was his natural temper and how much was Administrator. He still had his temper after Taylor triggered, the shard left him because he wouldn't trigger and it apparently couldn't influence him before then.
 
BobSquirrelKing said:
I don't remember Canary suffering from any mental effects. She caused them, but I can't think of a single bit of canon pointing towards her being affected by her shard.
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There was the whole incident where her powers went berserk. Hardly definitive, but certainly suggestive considering what we know. WoG all but confirms it, or at least uses it as the example of what happens when parahumans try to use their powers rationally.

BobSquirrelKing said:
Also, Noelle doesn't count, as her connection to her shard was so severe her shard was actually in control part of the time.
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So she doesn't prove that Cauldron shards can influence their hosts... because her shard influenced her too much?

BobSquirrelKing said:
And I didn't think Gray Boy was a Cauldron cape. Was this from canon or was it WoG (it seems to be a common belief, to be sure).
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He very explicitly was. See clone!Eidolon during the Echidna incident. WoG suggests he was essentially lost in his power, the same as Doormaker and Clairvoyant.
 
Anasurimbor said:
There was the whole incident where her powers went berserk. Hardly definitive, but certainly suggestive considering what we know. WoG all but confirms it, or at least uses it as the example of what happens when parahumans try to use their powers rationally.
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When did her powers go berserk? If you're talking about her ex-boyfriend, it was more that she didn't realize he'd been listening to her song, or that he'd still be receptive afterwards, and she made an offhand comment with horrifying consequences.
 
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