Remove ads

Memoirs of a Human Flashlight Thread 2: Now with more Arguments! [Exalted/Worm]

Reader mode
Yeah, she can lie, but being crippled by a chaotic mindscape for possibly weeks is a major incentive to stick to the truth.
 
See the quoted text above. Her power's prediction/simulation ability breaks down in the following circumstances:
1) Overuse of power. This has a gradient to it, since she can stretch this out with painkillers, but the further she pushes it the longer she's out.
2) Attempting to use her power while 'everything is chaos' makes it worse.
3) She tries to 'look' at what happens, shattering the simulation and disabling her power. Implies her power has the capacity to actually simulate the future in detail, but attempting to reach that detail instead of just the statistics it gives shatters the simulation.
4) She lies about the result. See 3.

From all that it seems Dinah's power builds a highly accurate simulation of the future, from which it harvests the values to give to it's host, when the host constructs a partial mental image and feeds it to the simulation, which crawls through simulated futures to look for match/no match, either unqualified or with a set condition. The probability values account for what she learns from them or reveals of her power. Attempting to reach the details of the simulated future breaks the simulation due to processing overload from feedback loop(more details she passes to the 'present' the more the power has to account for). Lying about the predicted values break the simulation, as the host takes unplanned actions. Pulling too many numbers in sequence overloads the simulation gradually.

And of course, part of it is her meat brain can't handle all that data either.
 
Gore17 said:
Is she an Ishvara? If not, she's a mook, when going up against a Solar.

Unfortunate fact: Raksha are below Lunars and Sidereals in power, which are in turn lower in power then Solars. In fact, Solars have a technique that instantly and automatically kills any Raksha hit by it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Actually, she has an Ishvara plugging into her soul. And that move works on Raksha proper, not fey-bloods punching way over their normal weight class by using said Ishvara as a knockoff exaltation.
 
Odysseus2099 said:
Just a point here. It's pretty obvious Worm precog is actually looking into the future, most likely by combining a power like the clairvoyants and Phir Se's time portals, not building a simulation. You are correct that her human brain can't handle the information though.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Not all of them, but it works out the same, whether it's probabilistic/deterministic modeling(marked by a non zero error rate, or probabilistic answers like Dinah and no necessary input data from the host), factual extrapolation(Tattletale, Number Man, where they can make very good guesses from known facts) or future entanglement observation(completely infallible but tunnel visioned like PtV or Coil). More data extracted, more accurate to the future, more stressful to shard.
 
Brellin said:
From my understanding Wards are only required to go to school if they haven't already finished their education. If she's tested out and then gotten herself a bachelors degree (inside of a week thanks to online courses, which is totally doable) then they can't make a real case for sending her back to high school. To say nothing of the fact that it is a criminal waste of her time. Hell, it's a criminal waste of Kid Win's time as well.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Really? Where can I go get a degree realm quick then?
 
Rakhasa said:
Of course she has a major incentive, but the point is, she can lie. From a narrative standpoint, the real question to answer is not "will she suffer for it?" (answer: yes) but "can she hide the cost of a lie from her interrogators, long enough to make then believe the lie?"

Because in a setting as depressing as Worm, where the literal survival of humanity will hang in the balance, in Dinah's lifetime, there will be quite a few situations where "a few weeks of pain" is an acceptable price for getting one up over your enemies.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I thought her threat was not that she can deceive, but rather that she can voluntarily make her miraculous precog useless for a span of time -- basically she's taking herself hostage, saying "don't fuck with me or I hurt the little girl", and it's working.

She's taking herself hostage because she has a broader vision for human survival than douche-Tagg, and she's willing to suffer for that vision.
 
veekie said:
future entanglement observation(completely infallible but tunnel visioned like PtV or Coil). More data extracted, more accurate to the future, more stressful to shard.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Just because you're looking into the future does not necessarily make your precognition infallible, e.g. if there are multiple futures. Aka. many-worlds. Which there probably are.

Best you'd be able to do in a case like that is percentages, really.
 
Baughn said:
Just because you're looking into the future does not necessarily make your precognition infallible, e.g. if there are multiple futures. Aka. many-worlds. Which there probably are.

Best you'd be able to do in a case like that is percentages, really.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think he means looking directly into that universe's future. Seeing what WILL happen instead of what COULD happen ala Dinah.
 
1986ctcel said:
I think he means looking directly into that universe's future. Seeing what WILL happen instead of what COULD happen ala Dinah.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I agree, that's probably what he meant. What I'm trying to point out is that any single universe can easily have multiple futures - there's no rule stating timelines cannot branch, and in fact MWI says they do.
Stroth said:
The only reason Path to Victory isn't infallible is because Eden deliberately broke it right before she died. And Coil's is always 100% accurate.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Perfect execution along with perfect prediction of the best possible path?

Oh yes, that'd be effectively infallible whether or not MWI is a thing.
 
A mix of both actually. Sort of like quantum entanglement, except through the temporal axis, where by knowing the state of one, you can become aware of the state of the other(and it's absolutely true). Absolute precog abilties do seem to exist, but are costly enough that even Scion has to use them sparingly, while parahumans tend to have hugely restricted versions.
 
Seonor said:
How the fuck has Coil's power anything to do with this story?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
In this story he's not dead yet.

This is an issue which must be corrected.

Taylor has shown much promise in providing a solution to the "Coil not yet dead" issue.
 
Sigh, are any of these Exalted crossover stories capable of going without some degree of Exalted wank coming up at some point in conversation?
 
DiceOfStupidity said:
Well, part of that it uncertainty how Exalted fits with given universe they are crossed with. And lack of clear definition how powerfull they really are. I mean just look at the Exalted settings - on the one hand you have moderately augmented but effectively normal humans, and on the other they explicitely have potential to do things so outrageous as single-handedly killing promordial (or Scion in Wormverse). Something that Superman would be unable to do.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Actually, can I be blunt? A large chunk of it is a good chunk of Spacebattles has a rather fuzzy understanding of how Exalted works. That's somewhat understandable, Exalted is not simple by any means, but the sheer amount of 'ahaha rflol stomp' that people throw up is mind boggling.

For example? Taylor vs Scion, is going to end with Taylor being splattered across the landscape. Scion is the sort of thing you throw at E5 groups to make them suffer, not the sort of thing a lone Exalt of any caste or type should be tangling with.

Exalted are powerful, and Solars more then most. They are not I win buttons, despite what meme tossers will tell you.
 
azoicennead said:
Beings like Zion are the reason Tiger-Warrior Training, Legendary Warrior Curriculum, Harmonious Academic Methodology, and Legendary Scholar Curriculum were made.
Taylor may struggle to solo him, but "bury them in corpses" is a time-honored Exalted tradition.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
No. Beings like Zion are the reason the Exalted host was made. As in, all the Solars, Lunars, Sidereals, and especially the Dragon Blooded. Tiger Warrior Training Technique gets you slightly better Dragons Teeth, and look how useful they were.

And struggle to solo him? As she is now, she can't. At E5, she has a chance, but that's like saying you can kill a water buffalo with you bare hands. And I'm not even going dignify any mention of cap breaker shenanigans with a response.
 
I seem to recall that even in the primordial war, mortals were recruited into the exalted's armies. They could fight first circle demons and other servitor races at least.
 
azoicennead said:
Beings like Zion are the reason Tiger-Warrior Training, Legendary Warrior Curriculum, Harmonious Academic Methodology, and Legendary Scholar Curriculum were made.
Taylor may struggle to solo him, but "bury them in corpses" is a time-honored Exalted tradition.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Throwing armies of Solar trained mortals at Zion without extensive Artifact backup is going to fail though. Parahumans are, barring further Exaltations, the only option to defeat Zion in a reasonable timespan.

And quite frankly, probably the only option even with further Exaltations. If parahumanity has one advantage over the Exalted it's that they are immediately ready to go and require far less education in the use of their powers to become effective.
 
AngryResearcher said:
Don't sell them short, there are a number of parahumans who are terrifying on the scale of Exalted.
Most of their powers have advantages and disadvantages when compared to charms and other supernatural effects, there's no clear supremacy here.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I bet GU, for instance, would absolutely wreck most non-Elder Exalts.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top