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RE:Cycle (Worm)

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You know, I still don't know what her power is, but the more it goes on, the more it remind me of a Tonberry.

Especially the move called Everyone's Grudge.

Well, that, and secrets. Hidden things, things that are hidden in shadows...
 
UnwelcomeStorm said:
They called her 'Lantern,' and she always went hooded.

It only became more apt as time went on. Gallant would always wonder if she knew how much.
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UnwelcomeStorm said:
"Yes," he insisted, but didn't prod any further. Taylor was already the color of bruises. He'd thought it a mercy not to press on them. He thought there'd be plenty of time.

He'd thought, when the report came in that Armsmaster had captured Lung, that it was a sign of things getting better. He'd thought there were lines that everyone knew not to cross.

He still cursed himself for not knowing better.
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UnwelcomeStorm said:
Failure sat heavy in Gallant's stomach. He thought back to the black shadow on the far wall. She had been playing with her lantern, sliding the hood back and forth, until she left it with on the end table, with the light providing her with a silhouette. She'd narrowed it to the tightest setting, and the brighter the light, the darker--and quicker--the Shade. He thought back to an open window several stories up. He pictured two handprint bruises the color of misery.

She'd been playing with her lantern, but it was a nervous habit. Nothing more. Gallant took a breath, and looked at the waiting Armsmaster.

"No," he lied.
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UnwelcomeStorm said:
There was more he wanted to say, more he wanted to ask, but Gallant just nodded and climbed onto the motorcycle. He checked the seat and handholds for blood, but of course there was none. There were more important things to worry about, anyway, and Dean soon forgot the Shade's words.

Bakuda started bombing the city the next day.
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I'm just wondering, am I the only person who reads this as a dark comedy?

Because it's basically "Gallant fucks up: the fic" and I love it for that.
 
This is really impressively done. You as much as tell us that this really, really Doesn't End Well, but keep us on the edge of our seats to find out what happened. I love it.
 
I'm kind of seeing the shade as a merger of everybody else's subconscious Id, the dark feelings and hurtful things people repress.

Maybe the shade interacts with somebody as a dark mirror of their desires.

Sophia wants to be strong, the shade shows her as weak.

Dean wants to understand people, the shade shows him an impenetrable facade of confusion.

Colin wants to use his technology to understand people, the shade exists such that his technology actively hinders his goals.


Each of these ideas is progressively unlikely, providing more abilities to the shade to enable it.

Just a couple further thoughts.
 
I can say with utmost confidence that I have no fucking clue as to what the hell is happening. It's very interesting though.
 
I'm interested to see where this goes. Taylor dosen't seem to have control, but is she unloading her emotions on her shade and those are acting as it's operating system? Seems everyone that irratates her gets targeted.
 
Oh, RE:Cycle updated.
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Which one was that?
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AWW SHIT! I LOVE THIS ONE! LET THE CREEPY TIMES ROLL!
 
So the longer it's out, the stronger (and stranger) it gets, and she can fall asleep with it active.

It seems very keen on sharing nasty secrets. Normally with her, but when she's not watching it, or awake to properly appreciate what it has to say...

I wonder what might happen if it were left to its own devices. What kind of diversions might such a shade find- or create -to amuse itself, running amok under the cover of the long night?
Having it loose seems tiring. If it were out for long enough, might she become too tired to wake up at all?
 
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Pyrelight said:
So the longer it's out, the stronger (and stranger) it gets, and she can fall asleep with it active.

It seems very keen on sharing nasty secrets. Normally with her, but when she's not watching it, or awake to properly appreciate what it has to say...

I wonder what might happen if it were left to its own devices. What kind of diversions might such a shade find- or create -to amuse itself, running amok under the cover of the long night?
Having it loose seems tiring. If it were out for long enough, might she become too tired to wake up at all?
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Like I said in my earlier post I think she unloads some of her emotions onto it when she creates it. Each shade is a unique entity powered by emotions directed at one person, and is reabsorbed when she draws it back in. It operates on the emotions it's given. She didn't like Shadow Stalker and the shade started to gather intel and damning information on her. And I'm betting Taylor was better able to control herself. kinda cold and a bit emotionless around Shadow Stalker. Kid Win draws her ire. She becomes cool and detached to him because she unloads her emotions towards him into her shade. Gallant calls her on it and she stops and makes peace with Kid Win. Armsmaster starts to put pressure on her, she needs to keep her cool. She unloads her emotions directed at Armsmaster into a new shade. It starts to collect intel. but then they tell her not to reabsorb it.

The catch. Each Shade acts like an organism. It wants to live and needs sustenance. So it draws from the only thing it's connected to. Taylor and her intellect. I'd guess they get stronger and smarter the longer they stay out, becoming more solid and learning to talk. Sucking the life, and intelligence maybe, from Taylor. It shares what it's learned to hurt it's target, whoever the original emotions that helped create it were targeted at. To carry the theory further, if she made one with the emotions she has for her father, the shade would seek to HELP Danny. This is of course just my theory.

edit: Well I didn't mean to kill the discussion. Sorry about that.
 
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This feels a lot like she's snatched herself a reverse form of Chevalier's power vision but mixed with Jack Slash's as well, in a sense. That's not at all the best way to describe it, I'm sure, but it's the best I've got.

Ashmaker said:
Because it's basically "Gallant fucks up: the fic" and I love it for that.
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More 'Gallant has no idea what to do, and neither does anyone else: the fic', because he's not really doing the wrong thing so much as he's doing what he thinks will be the right thing and getting blindsided along the way.
 
Franklymydear said:
More 'Gallant has no idea what to do, and neither does anyone else: the fic', because he's not really doing the wrong thing so much as he's doing what he thinks will be the right thing and getting blindsided along the way.
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He did lie about whether or not the public Lantern vs. Shadow Stalker incident was intentional. He may be too emotionally invested to rein Taylor in before things escalate too far.
 
zup said:
He did lie about whether or not the public Lantern vs. Shadow Stalker incident was intentional.
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That's not the feeling I got from it. I thought the whole 'he lied' part was part of how he now knows things to have played out, not something he knew at the time he said it. Everything feels like he's recounting a sequence of events to someone after the fact.
 
Franklymydear said:
because he's not really doing the wrong thing so much as he's doing what he thinks will be the right thing and getting blindsided along the way.
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What he thinks will be the right thing has pretty consistently failed. By which I mean, the specific failure in question has been consistent; he tries to sweep problems under the rug rather than fixing them.

So yes, he's doing the wrong thing. He might be a teenager who's failures are entirely understandable, but that's a reason to forgive him, not a reason to say what he's doing hasn't been wrong.
 
Is there a button for 'super creeped out, but loving it'? How about 'existential horror'? Cuz all I got is like, hug, informative, insightful, and funny. Like isn't strong enough, I'm sure as shit not hugging it, I wouldn't laugh in case it found me, and the other two don't quite fit.
 
Puck McSnuggins said:
Is there a button for 'super creeped out, but loving it'? How about 'existential horror'? Cuz all I got is like, hug, informative, insightful, and funny. Like isn't strong enough, I'm sure as shit not hugging it, I wouldn't laugh in case it found me, and the other two don't quite fit.
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Some people use the Funny rating for being scared, because you can imagine it as somebody screaming.
 
Puck McSnuggins said:
Is there a button for 'super creeped out, but loving it'? How about 'existential horror'? Cuz all I got is like, hug, informative, insightful, and funny. Like isn't strong enough, I'm sure as shit not hugging it, I wouldn't laugh in case it found me, and the other two don't quite fit.
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Ever since Hunter picked up steam, this reaction has fallen under "Insightful."
 
Puck McSnuggins said:
Is there a button for 'super creeped out, but loving it'? How about 'existential horror'? Cuz all I got is like, hug, informative, insightful, and funny. Like isn't strong enough, I'm sure as shit not hugging it, I wouldn't laugh in case it found me, and the other two don't quite fit.
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We (briefly) had WTF ratings, but they got disabled when Current Affairs proved that we had too many immature people to use them... And they never stopped, as the fact that CA no longer has a 'Funny' rating demonstrates.

The brief talks of getting a horror rating have similarly been shot down under the reasoning that people would misuse it.
 
If this was a magic setting, I'd be scared the shadows are eating her soul. I mean, she gets more exhausted the stronger they get? Eesh.
 
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