But there's nothing in any of that to catch an Exaltation's 'attention' so to speak. Aleph and Earthscorpion like to say that Exaltations are essentially arbitrary, and even they admit that even though it's nothing more than a lottery, you buy your ticket with Heroism. What did she do to buy that ticket?
First, remember that Infernal Exaltations pick people based on failure, not success - at some time of crisis or important time in your life you have to fail. Alice had a failure here that isn't really unlike Milly's. Is it really "heroic" for Milly to refuse an arranged marriage, because it really seems to be more about herself and anyone else. But then, being her own hero might be enough.
Second, I personally think it's less about a specific heroic act and more about heroic potential, at least as far as this quest goes. Remember that Alexander has stated that if Suzaku were to stop wanting to die then he'd probably Exalt at that very instant. Not wanting to die isn't very heroic, but ceasing to be suicidal is certainly something that would be a turning point in someone's life, so that can well be an important enough moment for an Exaltation to grab onto provided the person in question is heroic enough in nature. It wouldn't be enough for most people even if it was an important moment for them, but it works for Suzaku because he is a heroic individual.
Alice has that heroic nature in her own way. She's Compassion 4. She doesn't have friends at school just because she's pretty and a star athlete - in conjunction with her monster obsession that's actually something that could easily be turned to jealousy and make her a social pariah among the girls in a high school. It's not like she's particularly charismatic. No, the reason she's got loyal friends is because she's just so gosh-darned nice. You don't see it in the omake, but her compassion pretty much means she ends up helping people a lot. She rescues kittens from trees, helps lost children find their parents, helps out her classmates when they've got problems, will always be there to be a shoulder to cry on or give hugs when needed, etc. Her classmates consider her to practically be a saint. Weird and cowardly to be sure, but she's someone they have relied on.
That's what the Exaltation was attracted to, it just needed a moment important enough in her life. The failure to successfully stand up to her mother or to just go and make a life for herself so she could do what she wanted with it was enough to give the Infernal Exaltation a chance to catalyze.
A few things:
-It takes more than raw stats to make a hero, and there's nothing in the books that says that 4 is as high as a human can go (unless I missed a relevant houserule from the start of the thread). Also, metal is denser and heavier than you apparently are thinking it is, but that's honestly a nitpick.
1. It's right there at the start of the Attributes section in the core book - page 101: "Ordinary humans have Attributes ranging from one to four dots, with most people having two or three dots in all of their Attributes." That might not apply to Heroic Mortals, though, but Heroic Mortals are Exaltation material.
2. I actually looked this up when writing it. Street lamp poles are mostly hollow - the wires have to go through it. The example I found when writing this was a 14 foot high aluminum lamp post, and it's weight was 238 pounds, and this is one of the heavier posts I found. (a 15 ft high carbon steel one I found is only 173 pounds, for example) That's easily within what she could lift with her (Strength + Athletics).
- Abyssal exalts are not technically undead I don't think, at least not in the way a zombie is. If I understand the relevant fluff correctly, they're basically suspended in the moment of death, and so never actually died. This is how they get around the 'no resurrections' theme. This is contrasted by hungry ghosts, zombies, etc that are the metaphysical leftovers of stuff that capital 'D' Died.
They may not be. That's up to Alexander. But she'll have an advantage against their mooks, regardless.
- Honestly, the trait thing is a little offputting for me anyway. I understand the trope you're going for, but I think that kind of thing is more suited to roleplaying with the odd stunt here or there, and not a charm-level innate power (penalty negation and autosux against a fairly broad class of creature).
It's mainly a way to offset her trait based social penalties that will come from her monster form being on almost all the time. She pretty much can't go out in public for a long time, and even many allied characters will have a hard time interacting with her until they get used to it.
