Glorious Shotgun Princess, Thread 3

Stonebrow said:
I'm probably in the minority to feel this, but won't a section of story focusing on Pacific Rim be a thematic distraction? It's cool, but someone reading it in 5 years is going to feel like it was kinda shoehorned in because it had come out recently, not because it made sense in-universe. I dunno, it'll be a fun ride, but it seems... like it wouldn't age well? I'm not exactly sure how to describe why I object to it. Maybe because it seems like it'll be another through the Lelliel-Rabbit-Hole shenanigans.

I can see the appeal though; I suppose I'm worried the literary integrity will be neglected in favor of cheap thrills. I'm not sure what his workshop should be instead either. I guess something more obviously synthetic. An army of Liquid Terminators? Reploids or whatever you call mega man enemies? Those dudes with the hat are tough. Star Gate Replicator things-I-forgot-the-names-for?
This is mainly, however, me trolling readers who want cheap thrills. When I say 'the workshop has basically become the Anteverse,' I mean less along the lines of 'Auto grabs a giant robot he left in Creation, possible the twice-the-size-of-a-yeddim-one that Aleph mentioned and fights giant voidtech monsters in it before he and a plucky Realm copilot self destruct it in the middle of the workshop' and more 'Holy Shit Auto, what the fuck is this?' level of horror.

Because the running theme is that a) Auto-the-Titan was grossly irresponsible, and b) Auto-the-god is a better person than he was as a titan and needs to either take responsibility for his previous self's fuckups, or stop taking credit for his successes.
 
9
A promise to help lead to...sweeter...things. A night of joyous feasting, celebration. Shouts against the desert, followed by drinks to eventual freedom. He ended up back in the main hut, where Sessi, the mother, the queen, walked him into her private chambers. What followed was something...impressive, even by his standards.

It's a shame the Dragon showed up halfway through it and began offering color commentary. When Jack made it a point to ignore him, he just kept going on and on about anything. Meaningless tripe and filthy jokes, shadow puppets and horrible, off key songs.

"...and so a noble warrior with an artifact sword set forth to oppose me! But before the final blow could be struck, I tore open a portal in time, and flung him into the future, where my evil is law! And that's what happened to my Fetich soul."

A crystalline eye opens, peering past the bare shoulder of the woman in the bed with him. Even in the dim light of the moonless sky, his own senses, his own sight-beyond-sight, lets him see the coiled black serpent hovering over a hookah next to the bed and puffing out smoke rings.

Head on the pillow, sheets of red and silver splayed about them both, one of the two humans in the room is awake. The other continues sleeping, her back to him, gold and silver hair fallen around her like streams of sand. Floating next to the bed, the serpent places the pipe back into the hookah. Winds blow, fluttering through the curtained windows.

The Dragon sets itself down on a mat across from them, framed in the dim light and lips parted in a smile of worn, ugly teeth.

"Oh hello, Jack. You've decided to stop pretending I'm not there. Would you like to know the true identity of the woman you had been performing the 69 with, or as I like to call it, Nature's Most Delicious Sandwich?"

Green eyes open and illuminate the room with a soft glow. They narrow, and Sessi glares, her lips turned downwards. "You," she breathes.

A trilling, wet gurgle escapes the mouth of the shadow-creature. Tendrils of blackest pitch wrap around it and snap out. A table from the corner of the room is pulled over for it to prop its elbow on. It pulls the pipe out of the hookah and puffs again.

"Me," the dragon purrs, "So. What aspect of you is this, dear sister? I'm going to guess the part that likes being spanked and told that she's a good girl."

Eyes narrow more, emerald slits playing off the silver and gray light that slowly permeates the room. Sand creeps in through the stone floor, the starlight of the windows wavering and shifting. Thick tension hangs in the room, the grin on the face of the serpent going wider and wider in response to the slow, simmering anger of the woman.

Jack, despite the conclusions his companions and his patrons have come to, is better educated on the realities of what is around him than they know. Hence, he leans forward, pressing his lips against her bare shoulder, then against the side of her neck. Her eyes soften, closing, her hand meeting his and intertwining with his fingers.

"Oh here we go," the Dragon sing songs, "I wonder if she realizes who your patron is, Jack." A giggle, followed by a purr. "Ah, Mind Hand Manipulation. Bet she knows now~"

Her hand reaches out and she snaps her fingers. The Dragon freezes in mid swear, calcifying and shattering upon dropping to the ground. Sessi smiles, turning around, pressing herself up against Jack and running one hand up his bare chest. "I hoped he was just some dehydration-brought delusion of yours, but I can already sense it." Her lips quirk in a faint, trilling purr. "So, where were we?"

There is energy in this room, in this hut. In this entire oasis, which he can tell just from glances is nothing more than this cabin. He can't hear any activity outside of it- even the wind that causes the curtains to flutter only starts at the windows itself. "So," he says, "I am talking with an aspect of the Infinite Desert. Should I call you Sessi, or Cecelyne?"

"My full title would be Cessi-Yll-Nylaine, the Oasis and the Queen." Her eyes meet his, glowing brighter than any other source in the room, "I am one of the chorus that makes up the personification of what you call The Principle of Law. But I prefer Sessi."
 
Basically? Jack is currently...uh...exercising his 'humanity on top' beliefs with a Third Circle Soul of Cecelyne.

Now, on one hand, he's no longer ignorantly playing with forces beyond his control, such as what he did when he accidentally summoned She Who Lives in Her Name to the ME universe.

On the other hand, he's still doing it anyway.
 
rkbinder said:
Depends of Jack's..."Performance" Roll.
No, no. Performance is for groups. Which would involve second circles.

This is more Dexterity+Athletics.

Or Dexterity+Linguistics.

*Bowa chickachicka bowa*
 
Talon88.1 said:
As a fairly noobish exalted player myself, just how bad is this, on a scale of '1 to Oh god oh god we're all gonna die?'
It could be worse. As it is, it's only "AHHHHHHHHHH!", not "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
 
GreggHL said:
No, no. Performance is for groups. Which would involve second circles.

This is more Dexterity+Athletics.

Or Dexterity+Linguistics.

*Bowa chickachicka bowa*
You sure it's not Dex+Melee?

I mean, it does involve a lot of putting bits of your body on or in the other person with the goal of rendering them an insensate heap.

Also, this being a Third Circle Soul means that Jack still hasn't quite filled out his "Unusual Sexual Partners" bingo card. For that, he needs to put the moves on a humaniform jouten.
 
TheSandman said:
You sure it's not Dex+Melee?

I mean, it does involve a lot of putting bits of your body on or in the other person with the goal of rendering them an insensate heap.

Also, this being a Third Circle Soul means that Jack still hasn't quite filled out his "Unusual Sexual Partners" bingo card. For that, he needs to put the moves on a humaniform jouten.
Well in that case it would be dex+martial arts instead as they after all removed brawl.
And well a third circle is unusual enough after all we are talking about a being that can casually destroy city's and which is a match up for an elder exalted.
 
Daedwartin said:
Im willing to sell brain bleach to those without it. 2 trillion dollars an ounce. Willing to haggle.
I think we are going to need it
The trillion dollars? Sure, there are things it will be necessary for.

The brain bleach? I'm sure Gregg won't post anything that will really require it.
 
Alasnuyo said:
Outside of Adorjan and maybe.. uh.. Ebon Dragon, most primordials don't usually interact on the scale of single persons. You usually just talk with their Third Circles, which are actually pieces of the primordial. To fully get the primordial's attention safely(ish) you'll have to interact with all of their Third Circles. Which would be easier said than done because The Oasis and the Queen might very well be the most humanly relatable soul of the Endless Desert. There are no guarantees that the other souls would be the same.
True, unless you cheat like Autochaton and the Ebon Dragon did and have surgery done on one of their Third Circle souls so they can get a better understanding of Mortals.
 
Alasnuyo said:
Outside of Adorjan and maybe.. uh.. Ebon Dragon, most primordials don't usually interact on the scale of single persons. You usually just talk with their Third Circles, which are actually pieces of the primordial. To fully get the primordial's attention safely(ish) you'll have to interact with all of their Third Circles. Which would be easier said than done because The Oasis and the Queen might very well be the most humanly relatable soul of the Endless Desert. There are no guarantees that the other souls would be the same.
^this.

The thing to remember is that a Primordial/Yozi is not a Greek God. A Primordial/Yozi is Mount Olympus, with the Gods as it's Third Circles. Sessi is an aspect of one of Cecelyne's souls, not Cecelyne herself. Her jouten, or world-body, is the desert itself, which is why she is one of the more alien ones. Some Primordials take more comprehendible Joutens- Isidoros, Adorjan, Malfeas (as the Brass Dancer), The Ebon Dragon.

The thing to remember is that, outside of the Dragon, most Primordials take on multiple jouten at once. When Kal and Auto were running from Adorjan, she was taking the form of both the continent-sized hurricane, and the young woman running alongside them. Malfeas will often simultaneously take on the form of both Hell and the Brass Dancer and other forms. Although it's usually a safer option to politely interact with Ligier.

The Dragon doesn't take more than one Jouten for the basic reason of they would stab each other in the back.
 
Obfuscated said:
So the dragon always takes an odd number of joutens, with the odd one out on popcorn duty ?

Eh, wouldn't work probaby (Menage-a-trois with backstabs standing in for dickings) but the image of a TED watching two other TED's betray each other does have an charm...
This is also true with his souls. It's theorized that one reason the Reclamation would fail is that the Dragon would be the first one out, close the doors behind him, then himself get trapped because his jouten and his souls are throwing each other back in so none of them can escape.
 
GreggHL said:
This is also true with his souls. It's theorized that one reason the Reclamation would fail is that the Dragon would be the first one out, close the doors behind him, then himself get trapped because his jouten and his souls are throwing each other back in so none of them can escape.
Another reason the Reclamation would fail is that everybody's so busy preparing for the Ebon Dragon to stab it in the back that nobody's noticed that Adorjan's going to stab it in the face.

I mean, she's Adorjan. She is catastrophe and calamity, the unconsidered variable that shreds the best-laid plans of Yozi and Exalt alike. Whose idea was it to let her in on the intricately planned long-term vital operation that everyone (else) has an enormous stake in and cares deeply about?

(Oh, right, she turned up one day and said she was taking part, and nobody was brave or stupid enough to tell her "no". Especially since that would just mean she wouldn't even have the periods where she's working more or less with the rest of them.)

Now, I believe the question of the current hour is... if Autochthon's headed off to his workshop, assuming he gets in there and out of there without something horrible happening, where's he going to go next?

And perhaps more importantly, what is he planning to do when he gets there?
 
Aleph said:
Another reason the Reclamation would fail is that everybody's so busy preparing for the Ebon Dragon to stab it in the back that nobody's noticed that Adorjan's going to stab it in the face.

I mean, she's Adorjan. She is catastrophe and calamity, the unconsidered variable that shreds the best-laid plans of Yozi and Exalt alike. Whose idea was it to let her in on the intricately planned long-term vital operation that everyone (else) has an enormous stake in and cares deeply about?

(Oh, right, she turned up one day and said she was taking part, and nobody was brave or stupid enough to tell her "no". Especially since that would just mean she wouldn't even have the periods where she's working more or less with the rest of them.)

Now, I believe the question of the current hour is... if Autochthon's headed off to his workshop, assuming he gets in there and out of there without something horrible happening, where's he going to go next?

And perhaps more importantly, what is he planning to do when he gets there?
Adorjan was let into the Reclamation for the same reason the Joker is let into the Secret Society of Supervillains. You don't fucking say no to the crazy person with a knife.
 
Scya said:
I am still hoping for interaction with the Jade-born as the non mortal underdogs of the setting. Or talking with the Clayman.
That's definitely on the agenda. First, Auto needs a face-ful of what an irresponsible asshole he's been and Hello there Eye of Autochthon.
 
GreggHL said:
That's definitely on the agenda. First, Auto needs a face-ful of what an irresponsible asshole he's been and Hello there Eye of Autochthon.
Yay maybe he is also able to fix the slight problem with the Hanibal Lector infection that they got. And ah the Eye, which classical first edition story did not use it if they wanted a powerful macguffin.
And do you also want to insert his only human worshipper in the setting that is channelling some of the essence of multiple manses to him, or maybe DEUS?
 
Scya said:
Yay maybe he is also able to fix the slight problem with the Hanibal Lector infection that they got. And ah the Eye, which classical first edition story did not use it if they wanted a powerful macguffin.
And do you also want to insert his only human worshipper in the setting that is channelling some of the essence of multiple manses to him, or maybe DEUS?
Well, I am going to deal with the fact that several characters have cults, and significantly large cults. Including Shepard and Pria.
 
Gamerex27 said:
On one hand, those cults will really get on Shepard's nerves. On the other hand, having people worship you makes you stronger, according to the little Exalted rules I know. So, Shepard really can't get rid of them, because she'll need every mote of Essence she can get to fight the Reapers, and she doesn't have the time, the patience, or the knowledge to meditate to bring up her Essence.

Ah, the Catch-22 situation. How fun you are.
Then Pria has to start using Bur charms to help Shepard organize her cult, then the Geth get wind of Pria and start worshipping her. Sadly, while Exalts do not hear the prayers of those worshipping them, spirits/gods do. Hence, Pria starts hearing dial-up modem sounds. All the time.
 
The lovely, black haired woman in the red skirts and black tunic tilts her head. She cocks an eyebrow, the gold chopsticks keeping her hair in a bun bouncing. A quirk of her lips and the fake wax mustache on her lips goes slightly crooked. "Who are you?"

Lightly sparked sweat drops roll down the side of the golden sphere. The iris goes wide, then cycles almost shut. "I am the God of Bad Disguises," he declares.

The fake mustache bristles. She folds her arms, propping up her chest. "No you're not," she says, "I know the God of Bad Disguises and you aren't her." She bristles, and the mustache tilts. "Oh! I know what this is!"

"I know exactly what this is!" Marching down the street, pushing past rikshaws, past shuffling porcelain cats, another woman with a fake wax goatee marches up and grabs the mustachio'ed woman by the shoulder. "Another fucking power play, is that it?"

The mustachio'ed woman slaps the hand away. "I had nothing to do with this!"

"You've been trying to get me fired since you fucking started," the goate'ed woman yells, poking her counterpart- who Autochthon notices is identical to her save for the different fake facial hair- in the chest, "This another one of your fucking patsies? What'd you give him to get him to play along, huh?" Then the goate'ed woman makes a sudden jerking motion with her hand, as if sliding it along some sort of long rod.

The mustachio'ed woman's face turns beat red. Next to them, a canal boat slows down to watch, several dog-faced monks staring at the argument before speeding past. "Oh, that's rich," she cries out, arms folded and turning from her counterpart with a huff "At least I don't get called the 'God of Bad Disguises and Quickies with the Subdirector!'"

During this, Autochthon glances between the two, iris narrowing, opening, lightning sparks playing over gaps between his plates. A single thought runs through the peerless, transcendent architecture that is his mind;

The fuck is this?
 
GreggHL said:
Five days after the attack, she found herself in a field in the middle of nowhere. Unhurt. Disoriented, yes. Alone, yes. But such things are rarely such an obstacle for her. For ones such as her. A simple spell located the mortals of this land, and she flew over the grassy fields, soaring over the treetops, the rolling hills, and the farmlands attended to by the odd magitech of this place.

A day of steady travel, her hunger and her thirst abated by her own inner magicks, and she comes across the steady hum of blue walls. Green eyes glance from side to side. Walking forward, the red and black armor creaking with every step, well-kept boots streaked with mud and silt from that unfortunately placed river she passed over, she passes the blue wall.

Before her, a collection of...boxes...are arranged. Large boxes, with windows and open doors, in which there are mortals tending to their business, talking to glowing plates, sitting in idle chatter. Children run along, a girl with blonde pigtails running past her, followed by a small, red haired boy with some sort of bright colored wand that shoots water.

She walks past the boxes, into a city of low houses, spires glowing with blue lightning, and mounted...things...with many barrels pointed past the blue walls of light. She walks, observing, feeling eyes on her, but not eyes of suspicion, not gazes of fear.

Awe. She senses awe. She senses that they admire her- even though she does not know where she is, she is certain that they have a measure of respect for-

"Commander Shepard!"

Green eyes narrow. The woman with red hair and marble skin turns to the sound of the voice. The voice saying the name those intruders, those interlopers said. The name they believed belonged to her.

"Yes." It is not a question. It is not a statement. It is the tone of grinding rocks and weathered stone. A man, a mortal man in dark blue armor, his face concealed by a helmet that reveals only the eyes, swings his open hand to his brow.

"Welcome to Elysium, Commander! If you need anything, just ask!" He points to his right- to the center of this town. City. Place. "Are you here to see the statue?"

She nods. He walks, and she follows, hands balled into fists. Listening to chatter about 'Eden Prime', and 'Reapers,' and 'Illium', as if such words are supposed to have meaning to her. She nods, but does not speak. Does not betray her ignorance of this place.

Lead past storefronts with glass made of blue light, lead down streets paved with steel, she is lead to an open pagoda, at the center of which is a circle of blue light and water streaming upwards in short bursts. At the center of all this, though, there is a statue. Of her. Standing atop a hill of stone, foot atop the destroyed helmet of an invader.

Holding one of those wands above her head in one hand, other hand covered in some sort of construct of light. Shouting in triumphant victory at some hard won-battle. "We also got some news from Eden Prime, so we added the last bit just recently."

Her eyes wander to the forehead of the statue of her-but-not-her. To the garish, glowing, golden circle upon her effigy's brow.

Green eyes flash and become glowing coals. A white stone appears in her right hand, and she clenches her fist to reduce it to powder. The soldier tilts his head, even as the vermillion aura wafts off of her, and rather than run he simply taps something on the construct appearing around his arm.

"Oh yes," Mnemon of House Mnemon growls, sparks flying from her grinding teeth, "It's just going to be one of those decades."
Ok, I have a plot question for this earlier plot snippet here.

How in the hell is Mnemon of House Mnemon able to understand that soldier here? While it's obvious that the "Creation Language Packs" are now spread far and wide across the ME galaxy (making it easy for anyone with an autotranslator to understand Mnemon), that doesn't quite answer how Mnemon is able to understand them in return here.
 
Robo Jesus said:
Ok, I have a plot question for this earlier plot snippet here.

How in the hell is Mnemon of House Mnemon able to understand that soldier here? While it's obvious that the "Creation Language Packs" are now spread far and wide across the ME galaxy (making it easy for anyone with an autotranslator to understand Mnemon), that doesn't quite answer how Mnemon is able to understand them in return here.
LANGUAGE-LEARNING RITUAL
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Linguistics 2, Essence 1; Type: Simple Keywords: None
Duration: One week
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Children of Mela often serve as the diplomatic corps of the Dragon-Blooded Host, and while fluency in foreign tongues often requires years of study, this Charm can reduce the necessary time to just an afternoon. The Dragon-Blood must spend at least one hour meditating and listening to a foreign language being spoken. He can then "absorb" that language into himself, becoming completely fluent in both conversation and literacy. The Charm lasts for one week, at which time the knowledge gained fades completely.

Presumably, Mnemon could have learned your basic ME-spoken languages, using this, while she had Kal and Wuffles as her guests. Or, from just listening to people speaking while she was entering the colony.

Magic.
 
Durabys said:
'Magic' is inconsistent and unexplainable..it is why it is called 'magic' in the first place.

Essence, motonics and concepts..not so much.
What do you think Essence is? It's magic, and its been called that in and out of Universe from day one. Aborbing a language by just listeining to it for few minutes is a minor mircale compared to what an Exalted can do.
 
Talon88.1 said:
Okay, now I have another question.

If Adorjan the Joker...whose Batman?
That's nice. I have a question, too.

How is this on-topic for the thread?

Judges would also accept "Why are you posting a tangent with little relation to the events of the story?" and "how much patience do the non-threadcrapping members of the thread have left before their cursors start edging towards the report button?"
 
Fiach McCarthy said:
What do you think Essence is? It's magic, and its been called that in and out of Universe from day one. Aborbing a language by just listeining to it for few minutes is a minor mircale compared to what an Exalted can do.
Wrong. Magic is a word that was created to describe things that cannot be understood and are un-analysable. Things are labeled magic if their are also completely inconsistent..Essence, motonics and Exalted-verse-concpets are everything but un-analysable and inconsistent. Near-impossible to understand for non-essence users, good, but not for Primordials and Exalts.
 
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