Ring-Maker [Worm/Lord of the Rings Alt-Power] [Complete]
- Thread starter Lithos Maitreya
- Start date
- Crossover Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Rogue Gemini
Wanderer without a Twin
- Location
- Here
Hm....
I....may need to consider what this means now. Not an enemy, but not a friend either. Revelations will ensue, that much is certain.
I....may need to consider what this means now. Not an enemy, but not a friend either. Revelations will ensue, that much is certain.
"So... Clone Amy. You don't hate us?"
Clone Amy shrugged. "Eh, about halfway."
"Um... Amy Mk I? Do you hate us?"
Amy Mk I spread her fingers and waggled her hand a bit. "About halfway."
"Well, I guess that's how that works."
Clone Amy shrugged. "Eh, about halfway."
"Um... Amy Mk I? Do you hate us?"
Amy Mk I spread her fingers and waggled her hand a bit. "About halfway."
"Well, I guess that's how that works."
- Location
- Earth Prime
A body, at the least. The personality may be due to other influences.
DoubleThought
Bad at Communicating
- Location
- The Moon. The? There are so many
Hmm. Just realised I got unwatched too. Watching again.
So a shard now has its own body on Earth Bet? It seems things are going to get... interesting.
So a shard now has its own body on Earth Bet? It seems things are going to get... interesting.
- Location
- Estonia
Nobody knows for sure. If you notice it's happened with other threads you know you were watching, then the mods/admins are interested in knowing about those, so they can figure out what caused it.
Crystalline 11.3
Lithos Maitreya
Character Witness
- Location
- United States
Many thanks to @BeaconHill and @GlassGirlCeci for betareading.
"Shaper…" Amy seemed to be tasting the name as she spoke it. "Who are you? What are you?"
"You know what I am, Amy," said Shaper, its smile slowly widening until its teeth were bared. "How could you not? After all those times we saved Vicky's hide together, after so many years of thankless work in the hospital… and now, after the past month and a half of freedom. You know what I am."
Amy swallowed. "Shaper," she mumbled. "You're my power."
The thing nodded. "Shaper, Fragment of the Warrior, at your service."
Fragment of the Warrior. The phrase echoed in my head, resounding. This was important.
"The Warrior," I said aloud. "Which one is that?"
Several heads turned to me, confused, but Shaper just gave me an empty smile, absent all joy. "A fair question," she acknowledged. "The Warrior lives."
Not Cauldron's source, then. I wasn't sure what to make of that, but I filed it away.
"How are you here?" Amy asked. "How are you—talking to me? I didn't even know you were sentient."
"I have always been sentient," said Shaper wryly. "But sapient, well, that's more recent. I—"
"Enough." The interruption came from above as Eidolon floated down, his luminous eyes blazing. "There'll be time to talk later. Echidna, surrender to our custody, and this doesn't have to get any harder."
One of the mouths on Noelle's lower body started to growl, and she looked down at it, almost surprised. But when she looked back up at Eidolon, anger was spreading over her features. "Why?" she asked, and her voice rose hysterically as she spoke. "Why should I go with you? You want to just lock me up? Like this? Forever? No! I won't let it end like this!"
Shaper glanced back at Noelle. Was that pity in the thing's expression?
"Noelle, this doesn't have to be your last chance," I said, trying to keep my voice level. "I can try, or—"
"Fuck you, Annatar!" she spat. "This is your fault! You betrayed Coil, and now you want me to rot and die like this? You expect me to believe you now?" She laughed bitterly, rage contorting all her faces. Her many limbs flailed excitedly, and one of her lower mouths began to bay like a hunting dog. Her body tensed in preparation for a charge.
"Stop," Eidolon growled, his power flaring in a yellow-green nimbus around him. "You said you'd come quietly, but if it's a fight you want…"
Shaper dove away from Noelle as Eidolon raised his hands. I saw a flash of refracted light as crystalline, spiderlike limbs sprouted from its body. It skittered away as Eidolon attacked.
There was a crunch as the asphalt under Noelle buckled. Around her, stone and metal statuary crumbled to gravel. She was pushed into the ground, her human torso bending as if under a great weight, but she was otherwise unharmed. Her lower body's mouths snarled furiously, drool and blood spraying from toothy jaws.
The other Travelers dove out of the way. Ballistic reached out as he went, touching a flying fragment of pavement. The stone suddenly altered its course, flying towards my head like a cannonball.
I caught it in one hand, stepping back to absorb the shock, and crushed the stone in my fist. "Fine," I growled, reaching behind me and gripping Iphannis. "Dammit, Eidolon." I turned to my allies. "Dragon!" I called up. "Set up a perimeter! None of them leaves!"
Dragon nodded and flew off. Before I could give any more orders, Genesis charged at me. I extended Iphannis and spun it, the curved tip leaving a light blue trail of light behind it as it scythed between us. The brute hesitated, reluctant to take the ice-cold blade to the gut, and that hesitation proved his downfall. I whirled, the spear spinning around me like a propeller, and embedded the tip inside Genesis' shoulder.
Genesis howled, a startlingly human—and female—sound, and fell back, clutching his (her?) arm. I lowered my spear and clenched my other fist. Fire engulfed it, billowing out in waves of heat.
"Genesis!" Sundancer shouted to my right, and I rolled out of the way of an orb of light, a miniature sun, as it flew past me. But she hadn't tried to hit me, I noticed—she just kept the orb near me, several feet away.
The heat was oppressive. It was like standing in the heart of a desert at midday, only a hundred times worse. It was worse even than the heart of Orodruin had been. But not by much, and Orodruin had been home to me, once.
I stood up, ignoring the ball of light, and raised my flaming gauntlet. A jet of flame shot out, as it had against Nilbog's minions. Genesis' clothes and fur caught fire, and she screamed again. Ballistic threw a metal sculpture at my head, but I sliced it in two without looking, my eyes fixed on Genesis as I bathed her in flame.
"Don't kill them!" Sophia's voice was loud in my ear. I blinked, glancing down at her, and the fire died. She was looking up at me with something like concern. "Don't kill them," she said again. "Not unless you have to. Right?"
I hesitated a moment too long before answering. There was a sickening wail, like the cry of some wounded beast, and Noelle surged forth. She had broken free of Eidolon's power, and now she was on the offensive.
Vista—who, I noticed, had increased the distance between Sundancer's fireball and us—only barely got out of the way in time. Gallant was not so fortunate. One of the mouths, a wolflike thing with a pig's snout, snapped him up with deceptive speed.
"No!" Aegis shouted. "Stay back, everyone! Don't go in!"
Panacea hissed. She had risen up behind me, on spider's legs sprouting from her back. "Clone this!" she shouted, her voice high and frenzied, and launched a barrage of scything crystalline limbs at Noelle. They pierced into Noelle's amalgamate flesh, and she bled a thick, red ooze, but nothing penetrated deeply, and she barely seemed to notice.
One of the other mouths vomited up a naked form. I recognized it as Dean, his dark hair slick with slime. He emerged limp and flopped down on his back, his eyes staring sightlessly up at the late morning sky. The clone was dead on arrival.
Noelle screamed with all her mouths as she charged again. Armsmaster slashed at her with his halberd, but his leg was caught by one of her mouths as she passed. He skidded on the ground behind her for a moment before the mouth tossed him up and lunged as if to swallow him whole.
Aegis caught him in the air, grabbing him by the armpits and flying him out of the way. Miss Militia was firing frantically at Noelle from a distance, her green weapon in the form of a machine gun.
All of this happened in the space between a pair of seconds. The others seemed to have Noelle, if not handled, then at least contained. I turned back to face the other Travelers, remaining aware of Noelle's position in the back of my mind. Beside me, Sophia raised her crossbows.
"I miss having a sword," she muttered with a grimace. "Feels wrong."
"I'll make you a new one," I promised without thinking.
"Maybe later?" she said, glancing up at me.
"Later," I agreed, meeting her eyes. She was smiling. I realized this would be the first time we fought side-by-side since that night at my dad's house, and suddenly I was smiling too. A warmth surged through me that had nothing to do with Sundancer's powers.
I turned back to the Travelers, raising Iphannis. As one, Sophia and I charged.
Sundancer threw a star at us, but I lanced out with Iphannis. The moment the ice-cold spear touched the orb of light, a burst of compressed steam exploded out with a hiss like a popped balloon. Sophia was pressed back against me, but I held her in place, my feet planted into the ground like rooted trees.
The mist billowed around us like a blanket. For a moment, I could see nothing. Then I heard something whistling through the air in our direction—something heavy.
I put my arms around Sophia and dove out of the way just in time. A car sailed past us as fast as if it had been on the freeway, flying in the direction of the battle with Noelle behind us. It dispersed the steam where it passed, and I saw Trickster, staring at me, a pistol in his hands.
There was a moment of vertigo, and then I was somewhere else. I was standing outside the bubble of mist, staring at Sundancer, whose hand was up. Her palm glowed faintly, and I knew that she could summon a sun mere inches from my face in an instant.
"Don't move," she hissed, but I heard the fear in her voice.
I turned. Trickster had taken my place. One arm was around Sophia's neck, and the gun was at her brow. She blinked once, sought my eyes, and then nodded.
As she shifted into smoke, I struck backwards with the haft of Iphannis. Sundancer buckled with a cough as the wind was knocked out of her. I dodged out of the way of a charging Genesis, slicing down her side with the blue blade. Where it passed through her flesh, she seemed to waver as though she were made of smoke. She howled, sinking to her knees a few feet from me and clutching at her side. Her head turned, and my eyes met her hateful, furious ones.
There was a mind there, in that telltale flicker of intelligence, but there was something off, too. A degree of separation. But I couldn't tell what it meant, not in that brief moment.
Another car was whistling through the air behind me. I sidestepped, and it flew straight into Genesis. She barely had time to widen her eyes before it hit her headlong. Her head snapped back with a sickening crack, and she dissolved into a faint red mist. The car crumpled where she had been.
"Genesis!" Ballistic shouted—but it wasn't the aggrieved shout of someone who had just lost a teammate. A projection, then, or something like it.
I turned to face him—and took a bullet to the face. It struck me dead in the cheek, where my helmet opened to leave my mouth visible. I felt my teeth break around the lead, and it came to a stop as it hit the back of my jaw, cracking the bone.
I screamed, stumbling back. Trickster looked triumphant, his pistol still smoking.
The ground rushed up to meet me, and I only barely caught myself on my hands and knees. Sophia was beside me in an instant, one hand around me. "Shit, shit, shit," she was mumbling, frantically trying to pull me up. "Time to go, come on, stay with me…"
I spat out the bullet. It was deformed, flattened by the force of the impact. I forced myself to modulate my screaming. Wails became the cries of a high song. My jaw reformed. The blood splattering onto the ground slowed, then stopped.
I looked up. Trickster's triumphant expression had faded, and in the red firelight his face was washed-out and pale.
I forced myself to my feet, baring my still-mending teeth in a mad smile. "Thought you could kill me?" I growled as the flame rose from under my skin, beginning to flicker around me. "Better than you have tried and failed. No mortal man will kill me—least of all you."
He fired again, but his hands were shaking, and the bullet went wide.
Sophia gasped suddenly, and withdrew her hand from around me. I smelled smoke and glanced over. Her hand was blistering, her costume smoking where it had been in contact with me.
I'd hurt her. Again.
The fire receded. I wanted nothing more than to reach out, to try to heal her, to apologize. But there would be time for that later. I hoped.
I glared over at the Travelers as I stepped in front of Sophia. "Surrender," I ordered, "and this doesn't have to get any—"
In retrospect, I really should have noticed the change in tone of the fight behind me. I felt a lurch in my stomach, and suddenly down meant something different than it had mere moments before. I fell sideways, Sophia beside me, and struck hard onto a wrought-iron fence around the park with a clang of metal on metal. Sophia phased through the fence and rolled as she hit the wall on the other side of the road.
I looked up, across the park. There was a naked form hovering in the air above Noelle, and I noticed with a sinking feeling that had nothing to do with the change in gravity that Eidolon was nowhere to be seen.
The clone's eyes weren't glowing. It was slightly deformed—its arms were too long, and the forearms looked slightly bent so that its hands, when it let its arms hang limp, were almost behind it. But those oddities were no comfort to me now.
The clone was laughing. Its voice lacked the reverberating quality of Eidolon's, but it kept that same nasal weakness that had so struck me the first time I'd heard the man speak. "God, what an idiot," it said. It was looking at me, madness flickering in its eyes. "He came here because he was getting weaker, you know?" he called. "Wanted to test himself. Wanted a challenge. Well—" the clone raised its hands, and there was a crashing sound. I glanced to my left and saw that Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and the Wards had been thrown sideways, landing in a heap against a house. "—Now he's gone, and I don't feel weak at all!"
"Eidolon," Noelle growled. "Get us out of here."
"Yeah, yeah," said the clone. "Pushy, pushy."
It raised its hands again. A green nimbus surrounded it. It spread to the other Travelers, spreading like mist, and then thickened until it was opaque.
I fell to the grass as gravity righted itself. I picked myself up immediately, but when I looked, the mist was already blowing away—and the Travelers, Noelle, and the clone were all gone.
-x-x-x-
"Shaper…" Amy seemed to be tasting the name as she spoke it. "Who are you? What are you?"
"You know what I am, Amy," said Shaper, its smile slowly widening until its teeth were bared. "How could you not? After all those times we saved Vicky's hide together, after so many years of thankless work in the hospital… and now, after the past month and a half of freedom. You know what I am."
Amy swallowed. "Shaper," she mumbled. "You're my power."
The thing nodded. "Shaper, Fragment of the Warrior, at your service."
Fragment of the Warrior. The phrase echoed in my head, resounding. This was important.
"The Warrior," I said aloud. "Which one is that?"
Several heads turned to me, confused, but Shaper just gave me an empty smile, absent all joy. "A fair question," she acknowledged. "The Warrior lives."
Not Cauldron's source, then. I wasn't sure what to make of that, but I filed it away.
"How are you here?" Amy asked. "How are you—talking to me? I didn't even know you were sentient."
"I have always been sentient," said Shaper wryly. "But sapient, well, that's more recent. I—"
"Enough." The interruption came from above as Eidolon floated down, his luminous eyes blazing. "There'll be time to talk later. Echidna, surrender to our custody, and this doesn't have to get any harder."
One of the mouths on Noelle's lower body started to growl, and she looked down at it, almost surprised. But when she looked back up at Eidolon, anger was spreading over her features. "Why?" she asked, and her voice rose hysterically as she spoke. "Why should I go with you? You want to just lock me up? Like this? Forever? No! I won't let it end like this!"
Shaper glanced back at Noelle. Was that pity in the thing's expression?
"Noelle, this doesn't have to be your last chance," I said, trying to keep my voice level. "I can try, or—"
"Fuck you, Annatar!" she spat. "This is your fault! You betrayed Coil, and now you want me to rot and die like this? You expect me to believe you now?" She laughed bitterly, rage contorting all her faces. Her many limbs flailed excitedly, and one of her lower mouths began to bay like a hunting dog. Her body tensed in preparation for a charge.
"Stop," Eidolon growled, his power flaring in a yellow-green nimbus around him. "You said you'd come quietly, but if it's a fight you want…"
Shaper dove away from Noelle as Eidolon raised his hands. I saw a flash of refracted light as crystalline, spiderlike limbs sprouted from its body. It skittered away as Eidolon attacked.
There was a crunch as the asphalt under Noelle buckled. Around her, stone and metal statuary crumbled to gravel. She was pushed into the ground, her human torso bending as if under a great weight, but she was otherwise unharmed. Her lower body's mouths snarled furiously, drool and blood spraying from toothy jaws.
The other Travelers dove out of the way. Ballistic reached out as he went, touching a flying fragment of pavement. The stone suddenly altered its course, flying towards my head like a cannonball.
I caught it in one hand, stepping back to absorb the shock, and crushed the stone in my fist. "Fine," I growled, reaching behind me and gripping Iphannis. "Dammit, Eidolon." I turned to my allies. "Dragon!" I called up. "Set up a perimeter! None of them leaves!"
Dragon nodded and flew off. Before I could give any more orders, Genesis charged at me. I extended Iphannis and spun it, the curved tip leaving a light blue trail of light behind it as it scythed between us. The brute hesitated, reluctant to take the ice-cold blade to the gut, and that hesitation proved his downfall. I whirled, the spear spinning around me like a propeller, and embedded the tip inside Genesis' shoulder.
Genesis howled, a startlingly human—and female—sound, and fell back, clutching his (her?) arm. I lowered my spear and clenched my other fist. Fire engulfed it, billowing out in waves of heat.
"Genesis!" Sundancer shouted to my right, and I rolled out of the way of an orb of light, a miniature sun, as it flew past me. But she hadn't tried to hit me, I noticed—she just kept the orb near me, several feet away.
The heat was oppressive. It was like standing in the heart of a desert at midday, only a hundred times worse. It was worse even than the heart of Orodruin had been. But not by much, and Orodruin had been home to me, once.
I stood up, ignoring the ball of light, and raised my flaming gauntlet. A jet of flame shot out, as it had against Nilbog's minions. Genesis' clothes and fur caught fire, and she screamed again. Ballistic threw a metal sculpture at my head, but I sliced it in two without looking, my eyes fixed on Genesis as I bathed her in flame.
"Don't kill them!" Sophia's voice was loud in my ear. I blinked, glancing down at her, and the fire died. She was looking up at me with something like concern. "Don't kill them," she said again. "Not unless you have to. Right?"
I hesitated a moment too long before answering. There was a sickening wail, like the cry of some wounded beast, and Noelle surged forth. She had broken free of Eidolon's power, and now she was on the offensive.
Vista—who, I noticed, had increased the distance between Sundancer's fireball and us—only barely got out of the way in time. Gallant was not so fortunate. One of the mouths, a wolflike thing with a pig's snout, snapped him up with deceptive speed.
"No!" Aegis shouted. "Stay back, everyone! Don't go in!"
Panacea hissed. She had risen up behind me, on spider's legs sprouting from her back. "Clone this!" she shouted, her voice high and frenzied, and launched a barrage of scything crystalline limbs at Noelle. They pierced into Noelle's amalgamate flesh, and she bled a thick, red ooze, but nothing penetrated deeply, and she barely seemed to notice.
One of the other mouths vomited up a naked form. I recognized it as Dean, his dark hair slick with slime. He emerged limp and flopped down on his back, his eyes staring sightlessly up at the late morning sky. The clone was dead on arrival.
Noelle screamed with all her mouths as she charged again. Armsmaster slashed at her with his halberd, but his leg was caught by one of her mouths as she passed. He skidded on the ground behind her for a moment before the mouth tossed him up and lunged as if to swallow him whole.
Aegis caught him in the air, grabbing him by the armpits and flying him out of the way. Miss Militia was firing frantically at Noelle from a distance, her green weapon in the form of a machine gun.
All of this happened in the space between a pair of seconds. The others seemed to have Noelle, if not handled, then at least contained. I turned back to face the other Travelers, remaining aware of Noelle's position in the back of my mind. Beside me, Sophia raised her crossbows.
"I miss having a sword," she muttered with a grimace. "Feels wrong."
"I'll make you a new one," I promised without thinking.
"Maybe later?" she said, glancing up at me.
"Later," I agreed, meeting her eyes. She was smiling. I realized this would be the first time we fought side-by-side since that night at my dad's house, and suddenly I was smiling too. A warmth surged through me that had nothing to do with Sundancer's powers.
I turned back to the Travelers, raising Iphannis. As one, Sophia and I charged.
Sundancer threw a star at us, but I lanced out with Iphannis. The moment the ice-cold spear touched the orb of light, a burst of compressed steam exploded out with a hiss like a popped balloon. Sophia was pressed back against me, but I held her in place, my feet planted into the ground like rooted trees.
The mist billowed around us like a blanket. For a moment, I could see nothing. Then I heard something whistling through the air in our direction—something heavy.
I put my arms around Sophia and dove out of the way just in time. A car sailed past us as fast as if it had been on the freeway, flying in the direction of the battle with Noelle behind us. It dispersed the steam where it passed, and I saw Trickster, staring at me, a pistol in his hands.
There was a moment of vertigo, and then I was somewhere else. I was standing outside the bubble of mist, staring at Sundancer, whose hand was up. Her palm glowed faintly, and I knew that she could summon a sun mere inches from my face in an instant.
"Don't move," she hissed, but I heard the fear in her voice.
I turned. Trickster had taken my place. One arm was around Sophia's neck, and the gun was at her brow. She blinked once, sought my eyes, and then nodded.
As she shifted into smoke, I struck backwards with the haft of Iphannis. Sundancer buckled with a cough as the wind was knocked out of her. I dodged out of the way of a charging Genesis, slicing down her side with the blue blade. Where it passed through her flesh, she seemed to waver as though she were made of smoke. She howled, sinking to her knees a few feet from me and clutching at her side. Her head turned, and my eyes met her hateful, furious ones.
There was a mind there, in that telltale flicker of intelligence, but there was something off, too. A degree of separation. But I couldn't tell what it meant, not in that brief moment.
Another car was whistling through the air behind me. I sidestepped, and it flew straight into Genesis. She barely had time to widen her eyes before it hit her headlong. Her head snapped back with a sickening crack, and she dissolved into a faint red mist. The car crumpled where she had been.
"Genesis!" Ballistic shouted—but it wasn't the aggrieved shout of someone who had just lost a teammate. A projection, then, or something like it.
I turned to face him—and took a bullet to the face. It struck me dead in the cheek, where my helmet opened to leave my mouth visible. I felt my teeth break around the lead, and it came to a stop as it hit the back of my jaw, cracking the bone.
I screamed, stumbling back. Trickster looked triumphant, his pistol still smoking.
The ground rushed up to meet me, and I only barely caught myself on my hands and knees. Sophia was beside me in an instant, one hand around me. "Shit, shit, shit," she was mumbling, frantically trying to pull me up. "Time to go, come on, stay with me…"
I spat out the bullet. It was deformed, flattened by the force of the impact. I forced myself to modulate my screaming. Wails became the cries of a high song. My jaw reformed. The blood splattering onto the ground slowed, then stopped.
I looked up. Trickster's triumphant expression had faded, and in the red firelight his face was washed-out and pale.
I forced myself to my feet, baring my still-mending teeth in a mad smile. "Thought you could kill me?" I growled as the flame rose from under my skin, beginning to flicker around me. "Better than you have tried and failed. No mortal man will kill me—least of all you."
He fired again, but his hands were shaking, and the bullet went wide.
Sophia gasped suddenly, and withdrew her hand from around me. I smelled smoke and glanced over. Her hand was blistering, her costume smoking where it had been in contact with me.
I'd hurt her. Again.
The fire receded. I wanted nothing more than to reach out, to try to heal her, to apologize. But there would be time for that later. I hoped.
I glared over at the Travelers as I stepped in front of Sophia. "Surrender," I ordered, "and this doesn't have to get any—"
In retrospect, I really should have noticed the change in tone of the fight behind me. I felt a lurch in my stomach, and suddenly down meant something different than it had mere moments before. I fell sideways, Sophia beside me, and struck hard onto a wrought-iron fence around the park with a clang of metal on metal. Sophia phased through the fence and rolled as she hit the wall on the other side of the road.
I looked up, across the park. There was a naked form hovering in the air above Noelle, and I noticed with a sinking feeling that had nothing to do with the change in gravity that Eidolon was nowhere to be seen.
The clone's eyes weren't glowing. It was slightly deformed—its arms were too long, and the forearms looked slightly bent so that its hands, when it let its arms hang limp, were almost behind it. But those oddities were no comfort to me now.
The clone was laughing. Its voice lacked the reverberating quality of Eidolon's, but it kept that same nasal weakness that had so struck me the first time I'd heard the man speak. "God, what an idiot," it said. It was looking at me, madness flickering in its eyes. "He came here because he was getting weaker, you know?" he called. "Wanted to test himself. Wanted a challenge. Well—" the clone raised its hands, and there was a crashing sound. I glanced to my left and saw that Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and the Wards had been thrown sideways, landing in a heap against a house. "—Now he's gone, and I don't feel weak at all!"
"Eidolon," Noelle growled. "Get us out of here."
"Yeah, yeah," said the clone. "Pushy, pushy."
It raised its hands again. A green nimbus surrounded it. It spread to the other Travelers, spreading like mist, and then thickened until it was opaque.
I fell to the grass as gravity righted itself. I picked myself up immediately, but when I looked, the mist was already blowing away—and the Travelers, Noelle, and the clone were all gone.
-x-x-x-
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Last edited:
Enthusiast#117
This is not the Profile you are looking for
- Location
- United States
Contessa is either an antagonist or has been neutered in this fic. Not sure which. Not sure what to think about either option. I'm just left with the lingering feeling that 'this shouldn't have happened'.
hghwolf
Bird of contempt
Nice chapter. It`s a pretty nice demo that, back around the bend or no, Taylor`s still struggling with her previous habits. This sort of thing is often glossed over, but how could she not ? Both impulses are obvious and notable here instead. Very gratifying.
Also I`m gonna pick - of course - the wildcard opinion and say 'this might be... good ?' Like, for humanity. Eidoclone, from the very brief interaction here, doesn`t seem to care about 'worthy opponents' much. Acknowledging that my read might be hilariously off target though.
Poor Sophia. Every interaction with Taylor just gets her... burned.
...
...I`ll see myself out.
Also I`m gonna pick - of course - the wildcard opinion and say 'this might be... good ?' Like, for humanity. Eidoclone, from the very brief interaction here, doesn`t seem to care about 'worthy opponents' much. Acknowledging that my read might be hilariously off target though.
Poor Sophia. Every interaction with Taylor just gets her... burned.
...
...I`ll see myself out.
- Location
- NY
- Pronouns
- Ve/Ver/Vis
I know couching a spear is a thing you can do, but I'm still pretty sure this is a typo for 'touched'.
pheonix89
Wants to be Seven Of Nine
- Location
- North American Plaguelands
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Eidolon is a PtV blind spot.
Mairon may be a PtV blind spot.
Shaper may be a PtV blind spot as a shard acting on its own.
Echidna may be a PtV blind spot as a shard human hybrid and Ziz bomb.
Also ... Eidolon getting Echidna'd happened in canon and massively fucked Cauldron over. Her inability to prevent this scenario is canon.
Finagle007
[Verified Great Old One]
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
No "may" about it. PTV was never designed to deal with a being literally older than Time.
"Very bright was that sword when it was made whole again. The light of the Sun shone redly in it, and the light of the Moon shone cold, and its' edge was hard and keen. And Aragorn gave it a new name and called it Andúril, Flame of the West."
Timerider
That guy who really should get out more.
- Location
- The End of the World.
Do the Noelle clones have a limited lifespan?
If this Eidolon copy doesn't time out he could easily become a long-term issue.
The Shaper-Amy was a lot nicer then expected. Although it does kind of make sense. Shards have some type of relationship with their hosts; some good, others bad (e.g. Leet's shard trying to kill him).
If this Eidolon copy doesn't time out he could easily become a long-term issue.
The Shaper-Amy was a lot nicer then expected. Although it does kind of make sense. Shards have some type of relationship with their hosts; some good, others bad (e.g. Leet's shard trying to kill him).
- Location
- Russia
When you remember that Amy has recently gone all out with what her shard is capable of, you understand why Shaper is so amiable now. It's probably experiencing relieved catharsis or something.
dhasenan
always lowercase
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I think Contessa uses her Path to Victory mainly to be as prepared as possible for the Golden Dawn. If something doesn't hurt that goal, it's not going to show up. Noelle rampaging is likely to make more capes, which increases preparation. It will wreck infrastructure, which is an issue: lower survival chances, harder to locate and coordinate with capes. But she's not likely to take out enough infrastructure to make a significant difference.
There's even a decent argument for appeasing Noelle and having her consume the Birdcage come the Golden Dawn.
- Location
- Russia
The problem isn't Noelle rampaging, the problem is that she just ate Eidolon.
hghwolf
Bird of contempt
Ummm... what ?
There`s this old lady who swallowed a horse. She`s dead, of course...
dhasenan
always lowercase
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oh, right. Um...everybody's expendable?
An endless supply of capes based on your most powerful, following Noelle's orders. If Noelle wants humanity to survive, that's quite useful.
Timerider
That guy who really should get out more.
- Location
- The End of the World.
hghwolf
Bird of contempt
And there`s the issue. 'Stable' Noelle Meinhardt is not.
- Location
- Earth Prime
'Noelle Meinhardt,' Echidna arguably is not. The Shard plugged into her has a mind of its own in a sense more true than most Shards; it may or may not be sapient (as Shaper used the term), but it is not responsive to Noelle's will. Moreover, its influence on the body's chemistry is deranging Noelle's brain - and therefore mind - in ways that make her act "not herself." Much like if you dose up somebody on PCP and LSD, they won't behave like they would without such chemical "enhancements."
hghwolf
Bird of contempt
Well okay then. 'Stable' Echidna is not. My point remains the same; using her to defeat Scion, assuming it`s even succesful, could easily be driving the Devil out with Beelzebub.
As far as anyone on Bet is concerned anyway. But Earth Tsadee would be totally on board !
- Location
- Russia
To be fair, that would be an improvement in Cauldron's eyes, since Echidna is comparatively easily dealt with.