Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
- Location
- Germany
Why would we want to go all out when moderate improvements to existing designs are among the options?
This is a commission after all.
Don't reinvent the wheel.
This is a commission after all.
Don't reinvent the wheel.
Arc 8 Interlude 2: A Road Split in Three
A Road Split in Three
14th of November 2006 A.D.
The library was not that big, by the light of day it could not be more than ten paces across, but the light of day was not allowed to reach far though the heavy emerald curtains to wander along the dark wood shelves. It might damage the books, Lydia would say apologetically whenever Daniel would complain about studying by the low orange-ish light of the old desk lamp and then she would start asking him if he wanted to to something else. Of late the something else had involved more hand touching, three almost-kisses that had him cursing his lack of courage and on the one side and his lack of sense on the other. But this time he wouldn't get distracted, not after what he heard, not after what happened last night.
Molly and Lydia had been in the middle of some kind of vampire war, vampire power struggle and there had been a thing there that was 'worse than a demon'. What did that even look like, what did that mean? By the end of the explanation he almost wished he hadn't asked.
Ink and paper made poor mediums for describing such things, almost as bad as words, but through the crackling pages of ancient grimoires he started to understand. Faces twisted not with mere pain, faces disfigured not simply with sin of the kind men and Fallen Angels all possessed and which the sacrifice of Christ could lift, but alien horrors, plots from beyond the edge of reason and sanity. It had been a corner-stone of Daniel's understanding of the world up to this point that the Holy Ghost was in the world and even in the Last Days the mercy of God would be upon the world, that good would win out over evil
But these things, they weren't in the Book of Revelations, they weren't in any books he knew of outside these library and yet he could not deny they existed, no more than he could deny the girl pulling the tome away.
"That's enough for tonight."
"Why?" Daniel did not mean to snap, it just slipped out, but with that word is seemed to him he had lost control of his tongue. "Because my fragile human brain is going to shrivel up and die if I read anymore? Because there's no way I can do any good against these things anyway so I might as well ignore them like a child closing his eyes to hide from the monsters? This is dumb and pointless and dumb." The armchair screeched as he pushed himself out of it. "I think we should just stop, not just for tonight, but.. for good." He was not sure if he just meant reading old books and that scared him. He loved Lydia, or thought this was love anyway, the sweaty-palm breath-catching feeling that still left him light headed and giddy whenever she smiled at him, but he couldn't... couldn't do this anymore.
Daniel Carpenter was not an idiot, he knew just because you were with someone that did not mean you could to everything they could do, witness his parents, but his mother did plenty of things to help out his dad large and small from fixing his armor to balancing the bills. Lydia had looted her armor off a dead valkyrie and she had tax lawyers to balance her budget.
Lydia did not speak for a while, leaving him with the growing fear that she would just.. agree and that would be that, he'd be able to see her around the house when she went crime-fighting with Molly and that would just be shit and he'd probably be a shit about it and veverything would
"Remember how I said you can't do this quickly?" Daniel's girlfriend, no Lydia Rhys, princess of a bleak kingdom ever-lost, said. "That is not actually true, there are faster ways to knowledge, to power, but if you are not paying the price someone, something else has to. That is sacrificial magic."
She meant that. It was like a bucket of cold water dumped on his head. If he just said the word Lydia would unlock the padded case in the study, take out the gleaming brass athame and start killing things until he said stop, until he was sacrificed with whatever gifts had been ripped out of them.
"There are vampires Red and Black court, shapeshifters in town, there's shapeshifters that eat man-flesh..."
It was terrifying, exhilarating, disgusting, flattering and it felt like his stomach had fallen though the floor and decided to walk home. If he had any amount of good sense he would probably follow it. Instead, voice sounding a lot more certain than he felt Daniel Carpenter managed. "I don't want that."
"Three paths twined and three paths parted, wisdom earned, blood taken and glory everlasting lived..." Lydia murmured something under her breath. Before Daniel could ask her what she meant she rushed to one of the bookshelves and pried from it a tome wrapped in crumbling leaf of gold. Flipping to it quickly she came to whichever page she wanted and pressed it flat. Upon that pager there rode a knight all in red, from his clothes to his shield, his caparison and and the pennant atop his lance
"What..." Daniel started, but she was already answering. "This is the third way, the Otherworld, what wizards call the Nevernever, it runs on stories, it is stories. Invoke a quest the right way for the treasure you seek, be if purity, wealth wisdom or power and a path will open before you that you may walk."
"What's the catch?" Daniel asked, leaning in to read the Latin text. It wasn't the kind he was used to, but after so long along Lydia's books he had gotten the hang of 'Church Latin' even though he was quite sure this wasn't a church-approved book.
"The catch is you could die, you could lose yourself for decades, centuries, forever, you could find the thing you seek and discover it is as ashes in your mouth." Lydia raised a finger to his lips when he was about to speak. "I still think option two is better if you are tired of books, but you would have more luck than most who rode upon that path. People like me and Molly can tip the scales along the way where most others cannot."
The choice of 'keep slogging through books that tell me how insignificant I am' or 'break up with my girlfriend' had just gotten a whole lot more complicated.
OOC: So you know how teenagers are not the most sensible people in the world? Add ancient mystical lore to that. Previous vote still open. Also on the matter of the manuscript I tried to find something that was both meaningful and impressive, but that did not work out so I went with something that looks impressive with non-English text so it would not be distracting.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Moderate Improvements?
Well, that could use some clarification to me. I was assuming that the plan was just more or less just making something that already exists, if perhaps of higher quality than most.
To re-iterate: What sort of 'moderate improvements' are we shooting for here?
Also, re: the new Interlude: is this something we should be worried about?
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- Location
- Florida
[X]Plan Bond, Odin Bond
- Location
- Germany
I'm just assuming that legendary successes would make these vehicles somewhat better than the mass-produced version
We ARE going all out.
But we do have two different projects to carry out, and must do them to the best of our ability.
Concentrating on just one means that the other one carries the short end of the stick.
Remember, Odin asked for two different vehicle projects.
Not one only. Not one and check in on the elves as they do the second one.
Not focus on the first and rush the second in whatever time thats left over.
We should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.
Focus on both.
EDIT
They would.
Legendary successes is 5 successes or better. I dont see a situation where Molly is throwing 18 dice at this with the help of the elves and isnt able to make that much on both projects.
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Oh boy, teenagers will teenagers, I guess Daniel is picking up the Urban Fantasy YA protag ball.
I'm honestly quite interested in Daniel running around doing his thing to become powerful in the background, it could go in so many directions while Molly is clomping around like 800 pound nuclear gorilla she is.
I'm honestly quite interested in Daniel running around doing his thing to become powerful in the background, it could go in so many directions while Molly is clomping around like 800 pound nuclear gorilla she is.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
I mean he could go in a transhumanism quest in the fivefold court. He might look good in chrome.
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=*points at own plan*
My HEAVY plan comes with acoustic and IR stealth, colorshifting camoflage, broad spectrum ECM, modular weapons and antimissile lasers. My SLICK plan is a lot more focused on evasion and egress than confrontation.
=Yes, its something we should be worried about. Part of the protection the Carpenter kids enjoy from the supernatural is that they arent actively throwing themselves into it. Dude doing this makes himself a legitimate target, in a world where his father has enemies who would love to hurt his family through him.
Just the Denarians would make lotsa hay out of this. You want power, eh? I have this Coin somewhere...
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Well if we can't stop Daniel from throwing himself into the thick of it then they only thing to do is help and enable him.
Still the help that we can give as an Infernal generally also comes with a price.
Still the help that we can give as an Infernal generally also comes with a price.
Thats no solution.
There is no reasonable amount of power Molly can bestow that makes him relevant in the sort of knock down, dragout combat that is likely to come her way in the next couple years. That kinda power is fraught, and always comes with a significant cost.
This is Serious Business. Life-altering commitment.
Its not shit you get into because you are feeling emasculated by your girlffriend.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Line still stands. You are right that we can't offer him enough power to keep him safe from everything. In fact even we don't have enough power to keep ourself safe from everything. Even Mab doesn't have that much power. Even the Archangels don't and I doubt the white god does either.
But we can give him enough to make him safer than he would have been if he insists on throwing himself into things and wants to fight the good fight.
It's not just that, feeling emasculated by his girlfriend is part of the problem, but there is also lurking cosmic horror in there at his own insignificance.
That bit is genuinely not new for the child of a man who fights Denarians, and who knows of at least one dead Knight.
My two cents, at least.
No we cant.
He's enough of a high value target that if he enters the field, he will pull the sort of aggro that Molly would in his position, specifically because he can be used to attack multiple current and future heavy hitters from Michael to Molly to Lydia.
They call it the nevernever for a reason, and it isn't because it's friendly.
I suppose we shouldn't be surprised by him going off like this, but nothing has really changed for him even with the exalted running around. He's a baseline human, if the Denarians were the worst things going bump in the night he'd still be basically helpless.
I'd prefer to save them for something else, but the most direct and least suicidal option for Daniel is probably exalted crafting.
We have the body/sword of a greater Akuma and a fistful of impossibility to work with, and that charm natively includes the juice needed to build custom gods.
For thematic reasons, my first thought is to use the gossamer and body to rebuild the sword into an artifact with a chunky new god stuck inside it and give him a Molly/Lydia brand imitation of a Sword of the Cross.
Not anywhere near as good obviously, cause we aren't on the white God's level, but something in the same vein. A supernatural tool that doesn't so much change the wielder as amplify their impact and make sure the choices of the squishy mortal matter.
Set it up so that they have some sort of spiritual partnership to justify him growing its power and then track it as a background that permits him to buy various supernatural powers with exp as normal.
- Location
- Brazil
Well, while I think his choice is idiotic, I also admit not knowing the pressure he is feeling between the impotence of wanting to help his sister and girlfriend and not being able to and the insignificance in the face of the horrors that even Archangels fear.
BUT, no matter what, we are his big sister, whatever he chooses we will do our best to help him survive and thrive, he just has to bear the brunt of his choice. Such is the curse of "Free Will" given only to humanity.
I like this plan, especially since the Exalted Creation charm is right after Hell on my list. We should be able to pick him up next month and do that.
BUT, no matter what, we are his big sister, whatever he chooses we will do our best to help him survive and thrive, he just has to bear the brunt of his choice. Such is the curse of "Free Will" given only to humanity.
I like this plan, especially since the Exalted Creation charm is right after Hell on my list. We should be able to pick him up next month and do that.
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As his thoughts illustrate in the interlude Denarians are supposed to lose. Are the Outsiders? Keep in mind he is sixteen, that is not really a good age for anyone to think of cosmic horror as an old hat. He is not Charity just because he is related to her.
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- Location
- Germany
Should have read more Lovecraft.
If Cthulhu can loose to a steamboat, then humans are not as outmatched as the cosmic horrors want us to think.
*I know the steamboat didn't cause real damage, but the big squid going back in his basement is enough of a victory to matter.
- Location
- Canada
The horse in that picture has a great expression. It has big ಠ_ಠ energy. The knight also looks unamused. I'd like to imagine that the text is something like: "And verily the king dispatched the Red Knight on a mighty quest as he had forgotten his keys and they were half-way through the forest of despair."
He is old enough to remember Shiro's torture-murder two or three years ago, and his father being brought home that same evening, with Dresden unconscious from a bullet wound and recovering in their guest room.
Im not sayin its not understandable that the teenager is freaking out at new information.
What Im saying is that, in the cold light of day, there's no real additional risk; Outsiders wield no more apparent power than the Denarians do, and have been around longer than the Denarians have been Coins, and have still not succeeded.
And frankly, Outsiders dont get permission to hop into people's heads like Denarians do. Its a rather more involved process to get access to a mortal's head and body.
It means that Molly absolutely does have to spend time with family this December, like I've been pushing for.
Dem's the breaks. I suspect that between Molly and Daniel, horror movies are going to be rather unpopular in the Carpenter homestead from now on.
EDIT
Speaking of which, brass athame? Thats new.