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File 135379902101.png - (31.24KB , 800x700 , title.png )
474224 No. 474224 ID: 3246fd

>Previous thread: http://tgchan.org/kusaba/quest/res/399781.html
Expand all images
>>
No. 474227 ID: 3246fd
File 135379914650.png - (198.04KB , 1000x600 , innerworld1.png )
474227

Well.

This is... interesting.

What should Saulanna do?
>>
No. 474230 ID: 0c2247

>>474227
Always talk to ? before you talk to !
Ask yourself what's up. Then ask the puddle what's up. Then Wordblood, then the blue thing.
Then talk to the new Diva.
>>
No. 474232 ID: bf54a8

first take stock of yourself, how do YOU feel? then i think talking to your new deva is in order.
>>
No. 474235 ID: ec2e47

The blue thing looks like out HERO SOUL (which I don't think is fully sapient by default and might react badly to our titan-ness), and from its color the hole in the ground looks like it leads back to the outside world. So we should probably save interacting with those until after we talk to Wordblood and the new Deva.
>>
No. 474236 ID: 1e9d01

>>474227
Take stock of yourself first. Look at what's in front of you.
>>
No. 474238 ID: 70c0f2

Oh, cool, the inner kingdom has been assembled!

First up, take stock of yourself, Saulanna. Your appearance seemed to have changed right after you created the time Deva. Like... you look like a younger version of yourself? Maybe this is what pre-exaltation, pre-memory loss, human you looked like?

Maybe poke at the pool in front of you, too.

Then let's go visit your new time deva. Judging from the exclamation point, he or she wants your attention.

After that, we can visit Wordblood in his library thing over there, and lastly, check out what appears to be your hero's soul.
>>
No. 474239 ID: f8a02f

>>474230


Exactly.
>>
No. 474242 ID: 70c0f2

>Unless we can hide our new appearance.
I'm guessing it's just our internal appearance that's changed. How we look on our spiritual internal plane. So we look the same as we did before outside, in the real world. (Well, shadow real world. Whatever).
>>
No. 474243 ID: 14d963

Cool, we apparantly have a proper world in our mind now! Small but pretty.

Check up on how we're feeling, look but don't touch at the weird things (hole in the ground and the blue orb that's probably our Hero Soul), then get Wordblood and go meet the new employee.
>>
No. 474247 ID: 14d963

Oh, and if we're worried about looking weak by bringing Wordblood along, we can justify it by saying that we're doing it for HIS benefit rather than OURS. We don't need his help, we just want to introduce the two to each other so they can establish a good working relationship.
>>
No. 474248 ID: cd4189

(Four posts consolidated at the request of a polite person)

Man did I chose to check in at the right time!

Yell at Wordblood and ask what's going on. I wanna talk to our new Deva, but I kinda want Wordblood backing us up.

I have no idea what the blue thing is, or the hole in the ground. Rushing in headfirst might be aggressive, but it's foolhardy.

....Screw it. We're the Queen of this Realm. Have Wordblood back us up if we can, but go talk to our new Deva to show who's in charge.

....HOLY FUCKING SHIT! OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT!

THAT BLUE THING IS OUR LUNAR EXALTATION! FUCKITY FUCK FUCK!

Graaah.....oh man, I am suddenly so much more wary of EVER contacting Luna now. If we do, we HAVE to explain things to her. Unless we can hide our new appearance.

Still in favor of talking to our new Deva. Tell Wordblood to come on over too if we can, but we are Queen and we look weak if we have to run to allies before meeting our new Deva.

And we might be weak, but....well, seems friendly enough. I'm curious anyways. We need to be decisive here.

>>474242

I hope we look the same outside, but who knows what appearance it is that Luna will see.

In any case, as a side note? Jukashi's finally cheeky stinger at the end of the last chapter told us to come talk to our new Deva. Funny, but possibly a bit of GM-advice?
>>
No. 474255 ID: 04b86a

>>474227
Ooh, our inner world is finally taking shape! There's a lot of symbolism going on here, too.

First thing's first, though. Get Wordblood and then welcome our new deva to the family.
>>
No. 474256 ID: 4eb46d

We should totally give ourselves a once over. Then talking to Wordblood is in order. Maybe we can find out what exactly happened there.
>>
No. 474257 ID: 67e8b2

Poke pool
>>
No. 474264 ID: 70acd0

Take stock of yourself, followed by your surroundings.

Once you've oriented yourself, call over Wordblood as having your Aide on hand will be useful.

Then head over to greet the new addition. can worry about a full tour after introductions.
>>
No. 474265 ID: cee89f
File
Removed

I suggest we check both ourselves and the puddle/hole thing, and bring wordblood with us to visit our new tenant.

Immediately after we're done talking with both of them, we need to (cautiously) see what's up with our hero's soul.

Also, our androgynous tenant needs a name. I'm still advocating "Legacy of the Forgotten Dragon" if it doesn't have an idea of it's own.

Also, Jukashi? See the image. Cliche, i know, but it fits
>>
No. 474266 ID: ec2e47

We should probably ask her or Wordblood about how titan naming works before we start any naming.
>>
No. 474269 ID: b08366

The color of the new deva - it is purple. The event of its birth, the mixing of Wordblood's red and Saulanna's (perhaps Moon Hero Exaltation's, also?) blue, could one say that this new being, it is Saulanna's and Wordblood's child?

But, let us note your surroundings, before we bury your child in hugs and exclamations of adorableness, shall we? This world is separated into four domains: Saulanna's, Wordblood's, your cutest child's, and your Moon Exaltation's.

Let us first analyse Saulanna's domain. It is a small patch of land, grassy. A tree of unknown species grows(?) off to the side - raccoons and humans both are able climbers. A small pool of water(?) - with an indication of some importance; perhaps and two rocks are before us. Finally, a small hut of cloth and sticks behind. A place of nature, of human-tamed habitat, I think, born from Saulanna certainly. A humble home - Saulanna has no grand ambition nor desire for great luxuries. Saulanna herself is colorless. An indication of Saulanna's humanity and Raccoon affinity, I say. But to the side, to the new Deva of Time's side, the grass disappears, replaced by those unmarked cubes. A sign of the unusual merging of Queen and Titan? One would expect the Queen would dominate, but the sign of this new Deva is so crudely fused! An incomplete integration, perhaps? Though the cubes lead to the Exaltation's domain - perhaps the cubes lead to the holder of the Exaltation, then to the the Exaltation itself?

For Wordblood's domain, it is connected to Saulanna's domain by a cobblestone road - understandable, for such is a product of civilizations, and civilizations give rise to Wordblood's sites of power, the repositories of knowledge and words, the libraries. Naturally, this too is a library, though, this seems to be rather sparse for a great temple to words - also understandable, diminished from his former great heights Wordblood is. But, an oddity: an empty(?) fountain stands in the middle of the temple - what meaning is this? Perhaps his name extends farther than we assumed - he is so tied to blood than he finds a fountain of it comforting. Well, little else surprising, here.

For your Feeder of Time's domain, an orrey - a mechanism to chart the moon, the sun, the stars, and the rest of the celestial objects wandering Creation's skies. That - should not be surprising, really. What else appropriate for one who devours Time, than a place that predicts its passage? The floor is smooth and orderly - worked stone, perhaps? Somewhat odd, but not remarkable - a sign of Wordblood's influence, with his aforementioned ties to civilization? Then the orrey itself is Saulanna's contribution (or her Exaltation, but they are the same, regardless): the Moon sails the sea of the night sky and the orrey mimics the dome of heaven. Though there is that post to the side of the connecting road - I cannot discern the meaning of that. Otherwise, rather geometric; quite fitting!

Last, but certainly not least (it is one of the abominable and blasphemous weapons of the Incarna against the Titans; it is never least), the Exaltation of Luna. Behind the Saulanna's hut, connected by a bridge of sticks and rope - how hazardous. The same grassy area as Saulanna's domain, though lacking the tree and pool one would expect. But an anomaly - a pillar inscribed with markings I do not know. A sign of Luna's gift, the wellspring of supernatural power that is the Exaltation? The markings, or something in the same language also appeared when Saulanna's spirit(?) was depicted, in the union of Wordblood's and Saulanna's powers to birth this new Deva.

For the characters - well, Saulanna and Wordblood are known. The Exaltation - a glowing blue orb - bears the mark of the Moon: a silver crescent and the silver circle within. (During the Deva Creation, it was the Waning Moon, as well as all the other stages of the Moon.) The new Time Deva: its symbol is the infinity sign, and its color is purple. Its head is modeled after Saulanna, though there are two curled horns on the sides - a sign of Wordblood's influence? Its body is two cloaks - a window to the purple majesty of the starry expanse of space - clasped with a medallion marked by its infinity symbol. Two pairs of bracelets decorated its two arms, connected(?) to its outer cloak.

So! Actual suggestions on actions: call Wordblood and your child to you. Then hug your child, and welcome it to this small host with much exclamations and shouts of joy and happiness. Get to know this wonderful new person!

Ignore the pool and Exaltation for now; better to have three perspective on those than just one amnesiac's.
>>
No. 474270 ID: 256d52

Oh my goodness, your new soul is so adorable! Go say hello right away!

Then go see Wordblood (have your timey-wimey soul come along if that's possible), then check out yourself, the pool and the Moon Hero orb in whichever order seems most sensible. I notice that your clothes have changed as well as your Moon Hero features vanishing. How very mysterious!
>>
No. 474274 ID: fb9917

See Wordblood, then see new deva. Then look at the other things but don't mess with them until you hear what the others say.
>>
No. 474275 ID: cd4189

One thing I'd like to add, no matter what we do. Our temperament is Aggressive. We are at our best when we take initiative. It is imperative that we act instead of react.

Whether we choose to look around first, call Wordblood to us, or move to the Time Deva, let's be the one in motion. Let's be the one setting the terms of engagement by being the first to act.

WE are the Queen. WE are the Ruler of this world.

We need to remember this. However dramatic the change in our Inner World, we must not forget that it is OUR Inner World. Our Devas just happen to live in here, and they earn their keep accordingly.

We can love and adore our new Deva, we can approach preparing for trouble, but we must be confident and project this confidence. Even if we don't seem to have our Hero Soul as an inherent part of us, we're still the one calling the shots. We're not letting them come to us, we're not Passive. We go to them, and we ask the question that they will answer.

We're the Alpha around here and we had best not forget it.

I'm worried about us not having direct access to our Hero Soul, and with it our Soul Force 2, but we should not give away weakness. Calling Wordblood to us ought to be sufficient. And if he CAN'T come with us, then that implies that neither can our new Time Deva. So we have some advantage in autonomy.

It's not the 'safe' route, but Saulanna seems to function better when she seizes initiative.
>>
No. 474280 ID: 84b8a7

Since I like how efficient the Alternative voting was here is my voting for first action to take:

1.Examine Saulanna
2. Examine Pool.
3.Talk to Time Deva Feeding Soul
4. Talk to Wordsblood
5. Check out Exalted Hero Soul Symbol
>>
No. 474281 ID: 886a4d

Hmm I think we should do it in this order.
1. Examine Self
2. Call your new deva over and introduce yourself
3. Call Wordblood over to introduce your new soul. They will most likely be working together.
4. Together examine your world. Starting with your domain, then wordbloods, then the Time Deva. Then the exalted soul.
>>
No. 474284 ID: 51a2e0

We shouldn't waste time with our new Deva. It is her specialty and all. Besides, what kind of parents would we be if we didn't greet our new little bundle of temporal energy first?

1: Visit new Deva
2: Words blood.
3: Exalted essence
4: Self
5: Pool.
>>
No. 474288 ID: b6178d

Wow. Her own internal world. That's really cool!

Saulanna ought to check on her new Deva first, though, before she goes exploring the rest of it. I'm sure she's curious about her new, uh, self-part?
>>
No. 474289 ID: cd4b01
File 135381541828.png - (73.42KB , 600x500 , lookself.png )
474289

>Examine self

Saulanna doesn't feel bad; in fact, she feels a lot better than she did a moment ago. But then, this isn't her body. Or... well, in a way, it's more her body than the other is, but it's not the one she's been using for things. This one seems not to have the marks of a Moon Hero. Saulanna has no idea if she looked like this before Luna empowered her, but it does feel like it's more human. And it came with some clothes, for some reason. She doesn't know what their significance is.
>>
No. 474290 ID: cd4b01
File 135381546705.png - (92.62KB , 600x500 , lookpool.png )
474290

>Examine pool

Since it's right next to her, Saulanna takes a quick glance. The water - if it is water - seems to show the view through her eyes. Uh, her other eyes, that is. This is where she looks... out. The sense of separation feels strange. This is this, and that's that. Is this how Titans interact with the external world?

The view through the pool is frozen. Time isn't passing out there.

Speaking of Time... go to, or call over? Call over both, maybe? Something else?
>>
No. 474291 ID: 29589e

Call over both. Getting them better acquainted with eachother, and learning about the Deva of Time with someone there to provide insight (Monsieur Wordblood) seems like a good plan.
>>
No. 474294 ID: cd4189

Call both over. If they can't come over, go to Time. Ask her name.

Ask before we give ours. We're in the position of power, us asking first seems more appropriate. Remember, be confident and assertive.

Then ask Wordblood what he thinks happened to cause this.
>>
No. 474296 ID: 7a78eb

Call the other titanic fragments over, leave the Lunar soul alone until you reach an accord.
>>
No. 474297 ID: 38cd76

Examine hut and call over the new baby.
>>
No. 474298 ID: 70c0f2

Hmm. Maybe we can ask Peregrin about what pre-exaltation you looked like, to compare later.

>Is this how Titans see the world?
I'd like to reassure Saulanna that this worldview and sense of self isn't that alien. It's not uncommon for humans to see themselves as a little person riding around inside their head, looking out through their eyes, to draw a distinction between body and self, vehicle and driver.

It's just not so literal for most people! Nor do they typically have such a well furnished interior, or passengers.

>What do?
Either call both Devas over, or call Wordblood over and then go together to visit Time.

Obviously we need to see Time (since last chapter ended with him or her requesting to talk to us) but I don't think we should leave Wordblood out (we've already accidentally snubbed or mistreated him a few times last chapter, and I'd prefer to avoid that). We should all get to know each other, see what's up.

Possible topics of conversation: Saulanna's new appearance, the workings of our inner kingdom (looks like there may be a building game of some kind, judging by the state of Wordblood's new library), getting to know the Time Deva (name and gender would be a nice place to start), and what the heck our hero's soul did.

Once that's all sorted, we probably want to visit the hero's soul. See if it can talk!
>>
No. 474299 ID: 70c0f2

...also Hugs. Hugs are going to be a necessary part of getting used to your new body, getting to know your new friends, as well as the old.
>>
No. 474300 ID: 67e8b2

Say hello to your new friend/component. You wouldn't want to be rude.

Next, ask Wordblood why your dreamself has no Tell.
>>
No. 474301 ID: 997ce7

>>474300
Why would it? The Tell is part of our Lunar exaltation, which is contained in the blue sphere.
>>
No. 474302 ID: 1e9d01

>>474290
One of the first things we should clear up with Wordblood is if he brought the Deva to life, or if the Hero Soul grabbed the TW set aside for that and did it itself. In that case, this Deva is made from part of your soul, crafted by Wordblood, and brought to life by our Hero Soul. Quite a unique method, if that's the case.

I say we bring both Wordblood and the new Deva to the center to confer and give introductions, then go investigate the Hero Soul on our own to see if we can communicate with it. I feel as though it should have memories of its own, and thus a personality...
>>
No. 474303 ID: cd4189

>>474300
>>474301

Indeed. A better question to ask would be, "Why is my Hero Soul no longer part of my mental avatar, and instead sitting over there?"

For lack of a better word.
>>
No. 474306 ID: 1a6de5

Talk to Time Soul first. We just created him, it would be unfair if we just left him there to stew while we examine everything else!
>>
No. 474309 ID: 997ce7

Suggestion 2012/11/24(Sat)20:38 No. 474308
>>474303
Because that seems to be the purpose of this world- to break up our self into manageable bits. Our personality, in the middle, the exaltation, above us, our time soul, to our right, and Wordblood to our left. Also a puddle, which is our window outside.
>>
No. 474310 ID: 70acd0

Call Wordblood over and go together to welcome the new addition.
>>
No. 474311 ID: c1ce30

talk to the new deva
>>
No. 474319 ID: 2eac65

Wave over Wordblood, and go to our newborn soul. It's her birthday, after all; we ought to make her feel special.

"Welcome to the world! What do you think of it so far?"
>>
No. 474325 ID: 14d963

Go meet the time soul in his/her domain while calling over Wordblood.
>>
No. 474343 ID: 09ae2c

Unleash a WARM WELCOMING HUG on TIME SOUL
>>
No. 474344 ID: 38cd76

>>474343
I agree. Also do this for our new Lunar Deva. :3
>>
No. 474348 ID: af25e0

Talk to Wordblood first, then examine your Hero Soul.

"!" events tend to advance the story, and we might not want to do that yet.
>>
No. 474349 ID: cd4189

>>474348

While true, sometimes putting off these kinds of events can backfire too. This isn't a world of automated NPCs, our Devas will not the order we visit them in and react accordingly.

The order we pick matters. And we picked ourselves and the pond first. Hopefully it doesn't hurt us.
>>
No. 474356 ID: 3734f6

The exaltation (a titanic construct) tied together (unexpectedly!) with the bit of you that was being used to create the new deva, perhaps undergoing the same deva creation process? In your internal world it appears to have formed its own unique domain similar in nature and equal in stature to your other two lordly devas. Perhaps exaltation spirits are a created from severed (in the manner human souls are) lord or proto lord devas? I posit that you did not create one but two new devas for yourself. So make sure you attempt to speak to it as well.

So, I suggest we first ask word-blood about what actions are safe and if it is invite all 3 to the center. Also hugs.

>>474349
Yep, don't get caught up in meta. Furthermore there is absolutely no reason we cannot come back here at will since this is literally inside us.
>>
No. 474366 ID: 84b8a7

1.Go talk to Time Deva. You can check out the area and cube too.

2. Go to Wordsblood and talk to him.

3. Go examine the Lunar symbol orb.
>>
No. 474368 ID: 334456

>>474348
hmm, i agree with this order of actions.

Also, awesome.
>>
No. 474382 ID: 4badbb

1. Speak to Wordblood for some insight on what happened.

2. Speak to Time Deva.

3. Examine the alleged-Lunar Exaltation.
>>
No. 474387 ID: 9718f3

All I want to ask Wordblood is if he was weirded out/surprised by anything, including this new inner world.

THe most important thing, however, is hugs.
>>
No. 474388 ID: cee89f

Call over both of them, properly introduce all of us (asking for the Time Deva's name first to show it's welcome) and if nothing comes up from that, tell them to come with you to see the one thing in our world-body that we DON'T think can move on it's own.

IE, Go to see the Lunar exaltation.
>>
No. 474396 ID: 1a6de5

Inviting the others over to your plot of land might not be safe. This place essentially represents your identity, with the central plot of land representing everything that is unique to you, and you alone. Inviting your devas into it might be asking for trouble, so I wouldn't risk it until we talk to word blood and see if that is indeed the case.

Furthermore, a theory on the cubes- the cubes represent the part of your identity that is Titanic in nature. We were told that the more alien concepts we attach ourselves to the more alien our worldview becomes. If we aren't careful the cubes could take over the majority of our identity, making us essentially Titanic in nature, not the human we perceive ourselves as now.

And that's terrible.
>>
No. 474406 ID: 63f851

1. Call over both to the center for discussion.
1a. Use the power of the Hello!
1b. Prepare to strike at the moment most optimal for giant hug.
1c. Start asking what's up.
2. See if the Lunar Exaltation is sentient or not.
3. Take a look at the tree and unfinished path, those might be our second-most common vote (Growth) and whatever our third vote was. Paths that might lead to future Devas?
4. Poke the Exalation with a stick and look at it's links to other entities (mostly Luna.)
>>
No. 474407 ID: 8bb78b

what's with the floaty orb thing?
>>
No. 474409 ID: e3f578

So, you're a Mom now? How does it feel?
>>
No. 474423 ID: 3fc386

I think the Deva of Time can wait (pun intended).

We have some things to ask Wordblood about:
1) What was with our body After we split our soul? we had some strange colouration and some symbols that were not there before.
2) What happened when we tried to form the new soul?
3) What did he mean by "hopefully we'll be some[what] more stable t[han] we are now"
>>
No. 474425 ID: feae6d

Hmm, at some point before leaving her inner world (IW)Saulanna needs to re-raise her soul force to 3 (assuming we still have the 2 TW to do so, may have miscounted), otherwise the lunars will notice. It might also be intersting to see how upgrading a metaphisical part of Saulanna is reflected in the physical(?) reality of her IW. As for now go over and meet the new guy/gal, get a sense of their personality and capabilities and then head over to get Wordblood's counsel. Hopefully he'll also have some advice regarding the hero soul before we examine it.
>>
No. 474452 ID: b24894

That map reminds me a lot of the game 'Bastion'. Which is neat.
>>
No. 474473 ID: c243ff
File 135389948458.png - (116.98KB , 600x500 , hugdeva.png )
474473

>cubes

They look like stone blocks, actually? Who knows what they mean.

>hug new deva!

Seems... she?... is eager enough to take care of that herself! Saulanna is not quite sure how hugging someone with no torso works, but it does. Sort of.
>>
No. 474474 ID: c243ff
File 135389958812.png - (138.07KB , 600x500 , meetdeva.png )
474474

Wordblood seems content to hang back, for now. The new deva seems equally content to fill the void.

"Ha ha ha! Look at you! Look at... everything! I can see things! And I can touch you. And I can talk! I can think! I can be. This is great! Oh, there's just so much, what first? What first. First. Beginning. The start. Continuum! Ha!"

"Oh, dear me. I'm sorry, everything is new! And everything is old. So old! So full and deep and complicated!! So empty. I can feel it. I know it! I know things. There's so much to tell you. So much to do for you! My creator. Progenitor. Mother mistress queen. I love you. I'll calm down. Probably. Potentially. I could check. But bad idea! Can you do something for me? I need a name. Not a title, I have a title! I am the Scavenger of Ages! Nice to meet you. I could have a few more titles, though, they're nice. I'll take whatever you have. But a name! Who am I? What will you call me?"

"Pick something good!!"

>>
No. 474481 ID: f83f5f

Saniya
>>
No. 474482 ID: beeca1

>>474474
David Tennant
>>
No. 474483 ID: a21b1b

Well, with how much she seems to like existing...
maybe "Am"? (It's also Irish Gaelic for "time".)
>>
No. 474484 ID: cd4189

Eh, hell with it. If we're all just tossing out names and the favorite wins, I'll toss out this one.

Ouroboros.

I do admit a fondness for the suggestion of "Am" though. It has the nice, snappy feel to it with a touch of symbolism.
>>
No. 474485 ID: e3f578

>>474474
Are you a lady or a man for one?
>>
No. 474486 ID: 3bad4c

Should we be establishing some sort of family relationship deal, e.g. by having all female deva names end in -na or just -a?

Chrona (no wait, that's a terrible name)
>>
No. 474487 ID: 9d3dcd

I like Ouroboros.
>>
No. 474488 ID: beeca1

>>474487
I've been on certain imageboards too long if the first thing that comes to mind when I read "Ouroboros" is "autofellatio", haven't I?
>>
No. 474490 ID: 70c0f2

>>474473
D'aaaw! Everybody's so happy! Even Wordblood!

I like Time, too. She's quite the excitable vivacious little thing, ain't she?

>>474474
Am's got a sort of appeal to it. Although, I kinda think we want a mashed up name, like Wordblood? Something that describes her nature.

>Ouroboros
Sounds masculine, and dreary. The all consuming world eater serpent does not describe our bubbly cloak-person.
>>
No. 474491 ID: f8a02f

>>474483
Yes.
>>
No. 474492 ID: a21b1b

>>474490
Isn't that actually a mutation of his former title, He Who Bleeds the Unknown Word?
>>
No. 474493 ID: beeca1

>>474492
No, Wordblood was part of He Who Bleeds. One of his Lords, if I recall correctly.
>>
No. 474494 ID: b24894

Time...antha?

Timantha! Just like the little crossdressing girl from the Fairly Odd Parents.
>>
No. 474496 ID: 09ae2c

FOR LO, I NAME THEE LORD ADMIRAL DICKPUNCH

GO FORTH AND PUNCH MY ENEMIES RIGHT SQUARE IN THEIR DICKS

WITH TIME
>>
No. 474497 ID: 51a2e0

Am seems like a nice name. Many meanings to go with it, plenty of puns, can give the friendly nick name of Ammy, and is pretty original in it's own right.
>>
No. 474498 ID: 70c0f2

>>474497
He was at least a Lord. Wordblood thinks he might have been the defining soul (ie, the King) but he wasn't completely sure, due to the disorienting memory loss and all.

>>474493
Ammy is a fantastic nickname. And unrelenting name-based puns seem totally in character for someone with as much energy as she seems to exhibit.
>>
No. 474499 ID: beeca1

Syzygy?
>>
No. 474500 ID: 1e9d01

She seems very loyal and eager. Good!
Ultimecia

Nalteshi Gazim
Resferva Starshimmer
Ettelyn Peifani
>>
No. 474501 ID: 1e9d01

>>474483
I don't like it! It's too short and simple for such a complicated soul!
>>
No. 474506 ID: 3fc386

Epoch: The beginning of a distinctive period in the history of someone or something marked by radical changes and new developments.
>>
No. 474507 ID: a21b1b

>>474501
Hey, gods have been named with as many letters.
>>
No. 474508 ID: beeca1

>>474506
Eh. Sounds a bit too solemn and masculine.
>>
No. 474509 ID: b6edd6

>>474501
Long and flowery description is what beings have titles for.
>>
No. 474510 ID: beeca1

>>474509
Another problem: "I am Am."

Not quite the best introduction. I realize alternatives can be used, but one of my rules is "Any name that can reasonably be used twice in an introduction with two separate meanings is not a good name."


A bit too wordy at the moment, but the concept gets across.
>>
No. 474512 ID: a21b1b

>>474510
Then you don't think "Mai" and "Az" are good names? (My name is Mai, I'm known as Az.)It wouldn't be too hard to say "My name is Am," or "I'm known as Am".
>>
No. 474513 ID: cee89f

>>474474
Legacy (of the Forgotten Dragon)?

Eon? (perhaps Eona, if you'd prefer something feminine?)

Starcloak?(I like this one - i really do)

Viol? (sounds a little like Vile, but it's meant to put emphasis on the O. Like 'Vy-ool')

When in doubt, pick a foreign language and translate until you find something that works.

Jiko? (from Jikoku, meaning instant, time, moment or one's own country)

Tempo?

Epoca?

Leziona? (from Lezione)

Vryemya (according to mylanguages.org, this is how you pronounce the russian word for time. ( время ) I sincerely doubt it)
>>
No. 474514 ID: beeca1

>>474512
Those are perfectly acceptable names. As I said, that rule was poorly formed and needs refinement. It should be "can be written as, disregarding capital letters."
>>
No. 474515 ID: 63f851

>>474510
"I'm Am." *Eyeroll* Problem solved.

So since we apparently aren't doing this in the discussion thread, here's a bunch of rambling word-fodder for you more creative types:

She's really enthusiastic. Bubbly. Jubilant. And she's also got time stuff. And that infinity symbol. Also, her cloak has a nebula inside it. So that's stars and stuff. Also, she's purple. Some combination of synonyms of these words might be a good, catchy name. Maybe.

Also, I have some bad name ideas too: Joyful Entropy! Star Cloak! Purple Shift! (Like red-shift or blue-shift, but both simultaneously!) Boundless Circle! Time- *Boot to the head*

Anyways, so far Am is by far the best name, so that's my only vote currently.
>>
No. 474516 ID: beeca1

>>474515
I did say "can be," not "must be." I still find the concept of naming someone "Am" in a predominantly English-speaking area questionable.
>>
No. 474517 ID: 4badbb

What about taking Am and making it into a longer name than Amy or Ammy? Like Amelia or Amanda? I like Starshimmer as a surname, or we could find a combination name like Wordblood's?

Another idea, since people were throwing Chronos about...why not Kairos? It means the right (or opportune) moment. If we want to feminize it we could call her Kairosa, and shorten it to Kai when speaking with her.
>>
No. 474518 ID: beeca1

>>474517
Both sound good, though I lean towards Kai.
>>
No. 474519 ID: a21b1b

>>474516
"Am" - 358th most commonly used word in English.
"Will" - 56th most commonly used word in English.

Nobody has a problem with people named Will.
>>
No. 474521 ID: beeca1

>>474519
I suppose that is now true.
>>
No. 474525 ID: 70c0f2

>>474517
If we are going to give her a more human name-surname pair, Starshimmer sounds good candidate for the surname.

If we're going for a more primordial or deific feel, Am seems like it works. It has that kind bronze age god kind of feel to it- powerful direct simplicity.
>>
No. 474526 ID: 3734f6

Ask wordblood "are there dangers or requirements that must be adhered to when naming deva?"

If not, then I think Am is best as well.

And it isn't too short a name, there is Ao and Io and Gaia has Aa. (one of the two of her 7 lordly souls that wordblood says are mysteriously missing)...

>>474490
If that is the case then its feeding + time or ... Nom-Am / Am-Nom?
>>
No. 474527 ID: 1992e7

>>474497

Alternatively, we could use Ammy (alt: Ammie, Ami, etc) as her name, derived from Am.

Though honestly, she seems like she would love introducing herself as "I am Am"
>>
No. 474530 ID: cd4189

>>474490
>Sounds masculine, and dreary. The all consuming world eater serpent does not describe our bubbly cloak-person.

I don't disagree. It's the one that best describes her function, but not her personality. So....Am is also a nice one.

>>474527

She does seem like she'd enjoy saying, "I am Am!" She'd love to find ways to slip it into conversation, I imagine.

Might as well make other suggestion.....how about Kaileena? But of a Prince of Persia reference, but a nice name.

I'm actually okay with Epoch. It has a better ring to it than Oroboros.

Endless?

Susan? Not the sto Helit one. :p
>>
No. 474536 ID: cd4189

Hmm. Throw two more on the pile:

Mandala. Look through the wikipedia article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandala

It...seems to fit her pretty well.

Other one I have is Möbius, as in a Möbius strip. Don't care as much for this one but it does define her nature. Calling her Moe for short somehow feels like cheating though.
>>
No. 474537 ID: 406926

>>474517
>Kairosa
I like this name. I like it a lot.
>>
No. 474540 ID: 090be0

I really like Kairosa. The nickname Kai totally fits her, and the Greek derivation really works too.
>>
No. 474541 ID: 1992e7

I prefer Am, but Kairosa isn't bad.
>>
No. 474542 ID: 334456

I rather like the sound of Kairosa
>>
No. 474543 ID: 41a1a3

>Kairosa
I'm going with this
>>
No. 474544 ID: 20ae00

Kairosa sounds good, especially since it's based from something relating to Time.
>>
No. 474546 ID: d30d0a

I'm mostly partial to Am, though for a name I'd pronounce it with a harder "A", like "Ahm".

If this gets shot down, Kairosa works too.

And whatever her name is, I'm sure she's going to be a DELIGHT to have around.
>>
No. 474547 ID: feae6d

I prefer "Am" but would be satisfied with "Am Kairosa"
>>
No. 474548 ID: 1a6de5

Am Kairosa seems good to me.
>>
No. 474549 ID: 4badbb

Am Kairosa is a good first and surname pairing, I think. But I will always support Kairosa, lol.
>>
No. 474551 ID: af25e0

If we've narrowed it down to those two, I'd prefer Kairos(a).

"Am" makes me think of AIs.
>>
No. 474555 ID: cbb448

>>474547
I'm also going with Am Kairosa. If you are a scavenger then creating or finding opportune moments to act would be something you would be very reliant upon. Plus, it ties into weather, which is always useful thing to have some knowledge of...
>>
No. 474558 ID: d30d0a

Yeah, Am Kairosa sounds PERFECT. Change (Combine) my votes!
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No. 474560 ID: 2eac65

Hmm... time magic, curly horns, starry cloak... you look like a Megido to me.

Yes, Ohara Megido. That sounds like a good name for you.
"Megido" for the proverbial end of an age, when one section of time dies and the next is born in its place.
"Ohara" for its relation to archaeology, the act of preserving things which were lost to time (which, in a sense, is another form of "consumption", especially in the sense that specifically applies to you).

Maybe you'd like two or three names? It's your identity, you'll know what you like best. Just don't pick out too many syllables; we're the queen, so we get the biggest name.
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No. 474561 ID: cd4189

>>474560

!!!

A challenger appears! I could definitely live with this name. I like the simplicity of Am, but this is also a good one.

Ohara Am Megido also has a nice ring to it.
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No. 474562 ID: ecfcdc

Amkairosa sounds good to me. Why give a two part name when she has no family but us, and she already has a good title?
>>
No. 474568 ID: 985388

>>474561
Another vote for Ohara Am Megido!
>>
No. 474569 ID: 1c8b8c

Möbius sounds awesome.
Tonalli would be my second suggestion.
>>
No. 474570 ID: 2ae746

I like Am!
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No. 474571 ID: 38cd76

I like mobius. But that's just because then we could call her Mo, which I find very fitting.
>>
No. 474572 ID: 9b155d

Am Kairos seems the best thing I've seen so far. Kairos specifically, as it means an opportune moment of time.

>>474561
O'Hara is a last name meaning descendant of Eaghra. Naming our Deva the descendant of someone else seems bad, even if there was someone with the name who was an archaeologist. Having our Feeding Time Deva represent ends of ages seems bad, as while this is the Age of Strife, it could spell poor things for Ages of Prosperity, Fortune, and Peace that are to come.
>>
No. 474573 ID: dd56d7

1. Am
2. Am Kairosa
3. Kairosa
4. Raccoons
>>
No. 474574 ID: a21b1b

>>474572
Ohara is Japanese for "belly", which sorta fits the whole devourer thing. Still going for Am though.
>>
No. 474576 ID: 246eed

upvoting Am for reasons completely other than the fact that "am" in Turkish means pussy, and her (lack of) torso looks like one.
>>
No. 474584 ID: e3814c

I prefer Am for the puns. But failing that Ouroboros.

Also I think word blood is saying "It's so good to have..."
>>
No. 474585 ID: 14d963

>stone blocks and tree
Maybe it has something to do with us naming ourselves Saulanna Ricanya Rockblossom?

>Am
Let me just say that I really dislike this name. Between the shortness and being a basic English word typically found padding sentences (but not usually used as names) it barely even feels like it's "there", and existing is hardly a unique trait.

>Ouroboros
That would be more fitting for someone that actually, you know, looks like a snake.

>Megido
Seriously? Naming our cheerful child after warfare and destruction?

...So what DO I like? There are several other suggestions here that sound DECENT to me, but none that really strike me as GREAT.
>>
No. 474588 ID: bf54a8

Kairosa
>>
No. 474590 ID: dd56d7

What about Amelie? Amelie Kairosa sounds nice.
>>
No. 474591 ID: dd56d7

(Pronounced AH-meh-lee)
>>
No. 474592 ID: c54cd1

How about Aion? Has a nice ring to it, male or female, gives an impression of Time, rolls off the tongue.

Eon might work too. I like Aion the most, as it refers to an actual historic spirit of Time.
>>
No. 474598 ID: 3f61e6

URÐR VERÐANDI SKULD (old norse for "past present future"... I think it would fit nicely, somehow)
Also we should really take this to discussion thread.
>>
No. 474602 ID: 70c0f2

>Megido
As a surname for a time character? I'm sorry, but that's too homestuck. I don't care if timecloak there does have ram's horns and pointy teeth, we're not making her an Aradia expy.

>Am Kairosa
Eh... Am works as a powerful lone name (like Baal, Zuul, Gig, that sort of thing). Not so much as a first name. Might work as a middle name. So... <something> Am Kairosa gives a proper rhythm.

1. Am
2. Kairosa
3. <foo> Am Kairosa
>>
No. 474608 ID: 3f61e6

Probably shouldn't post against so soon but I think this one is perfect
TITILAYO: African Yoruba name meaning "eternal happiness."
>>
No. 474611 ID: df1140

Really would like to call her Zeitgeist

But I´ll guess Ohara Am Megido will have to do
>>
No. 474614 ID: 406926

>Megido
No, that's much too Homestuck. Keep it away.
>>
No. 474619 ID: c59939

I support Am, but think it should be spelled Ahm, just to make it more visually distinctive.
>>
No. 474620 ID: 9d3dcd

>>474547
This
>>
No. 474621 ID: cd4189

If we go for a three word name, let's make sure Am is the middle name. It has rhythm to it. Like...

Kairosa Am Möbius?

Kairos Am Ouroboros?

I'm sure people can think of more. If Saulanna's name is any indication, Jukashi may end up mixing and matching anyways.

Falling that, we could use her title as an acronym and call her Soa.
>>
No. 474625 ID: 7f2a1b

"Ahm" has a nice ring to it. A nod to the deva's joy of existing, plus perhaps a teeny hint towards her purpose ("Ahm" sounds a bit like the "om" in "nom" to me).
>>
No. 474626 ID: ed6439

Something to point out: right now our Time Deva is loving and adoring, because there is only us.

It is entirely possible for her to go Yandere for us.

So....a name that's only bubbly may not be appropriate. This Time Deva of ours is a Feeding Deva. She eats and consumes, and judging by that void in her chest she will never be filled.

I think it extremely likely that this Deva will turn out to have a vicious side to her.

....Heh.

"I am Am! I Am what has been, I Am what is, I Am what will be! For you I will feed until all I Am not becomes what I Am!"

Frankly, I like how simple and common the word will be. Every time a person says am they're actually uttering the name of a new Lord Deva, with the potential to become equal to the strongest gods. It's omnipresent, it's everything, it's a foundation of language like she is the foundation of the universe.

I kind of like that deeper meaning myself.
>>
No. 474628 ID: b6178d

I know this isn't a voting thing, but I thought I'd chime in and say that 'Am' sounds like a -very- fitting name, even all by itself.

(JUST noticed that the Scavenger of Ages seems to have a racoon-mask, which, put aside the name itself, has... implications on how the feeder soul aspect is going to work. Verdict: Yeeeesss.)

As for titles... can we just give her those? That'd be fun! 'Firstborn of Saulanna Ricanya Rockblossom' is certainly available and appropriate (though might want to shorten it down, or find our, er, Titanic? name to use instead).

And just so Wordblood doesn't feel left out, how about giving -him- a new title as well? 'Primal Advisor' (or Prime Advisor, whichever works).
>>
No. 474629 ID: dd2fce

Going for Am Kairosa, because it kind of reminds me of Amon Re, and that's just cool.
>>
No. 474630 ID: ed6439

The big problem I have with a lot of names, even the ones I like, is that they don't immediately declare the Titan's function. Wordblood. He's about words, we get that right there. There's additional meaning when you look deeper.

I'm not a fan of Ahm or Ohm because they're bastardizations of the original meaning. A derivation of a derivation. It's not something I'd like to speak for our Titan.

Am, however, is easily known. People know how to use am. It's a familiar word. It's even got a nice bit of fridge logic for those who think about it deeper.

Time is so vast that narrowing it down to a single aspect, like stars or fate or something, seems to diminish the original element. Even names like continua are bastardizations of the original words.

It feels more primordial if it's defined by the original concepts, at least in the spoken language.

Timelord. There would be one.

Am. Deceptive simplicity.

Timedevourer. That can also be a good definition of what she does.

Or for a longer one in the vein of He Who Bleeds The Unknown Word.....She Who Devours Time? She Who Is That Devours All That Is? Something in that vein?

Food for thought.
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No. 474636 ID: 3fcc04

"I have an idea I think you would like, but Wordblood over there knows things about words and what they mean that I don't. Let's go ask him about how we should name you."
(P.S. If there's no good reason not to name her {it?} Am then we should.)
>>
No. 474638 ID: 8ea1c9

Throwing in another vote for Am as the name.

Titles are fun, and she did say she liked having more.
>>
No. 474640 ID: ed6439

"What's your name?"

"Am!"

"...I'm sorry, say again?"

"My name is Am!"

"You are Am?"

"Yes I Am!"

"Why are you named Am?"

"I am Am because I Am! My Queen made me what I Am and I Am what I Am, therefore my name is Am!"

Seriously, this gimmick sounds like something she'd have an enormous amount of fun with
>>
No. 474644 ID: 1b282f

>474481
I like this.

Personally, I think Sonya is a cool name.

Vremya, Tempus, and Ora all mean time.
>>
No. 474646 ID: ed6439

>>474645
>AM IS NOT A NAME!! It wouldn't even be good as a name!!

Am WAS not a name.

Then Am was Am's name.

^_^

But seriously, calm down already. A lot of other people don't have a problem with it. Do you really want to be That Guy who actively tries to keep other people from having fun?
>>
No. 474647 ID: 886a4d

I like Am, both for the meaning and the pun.
>>
No. 474650 ID: 92c81e

>>474645
Agreed, Exalts (and all beings on the same power scale) should have more meaningful or flowery names, such as Saulanna Ricanya Rockblossom.

I approve of using 'Am' as part of the name.
>>
No. 474652 ID: b327d1

I'm changing my vote. How about just a simple name like Eternity.

simple, straightforward, and it describes her accurately. It's a good night.
>>
No. 474656 ID: ed6439

>>474655

You might even say Am is one of the fundamental meanings in the universe. :p
>>
No. 474657 ID: 2be9cf

>>474650
Am is EXTREMELY meaningful!
>>474645
Am is no less a name than wordblood is.

(Also apparently in modern Irish Gaelic am means time)
>>
No. 474659 ID: fb9917

Obviously given the votes last thread we should name her Raccoons.
>>
No. 474664 ID: 575dba

Bibo
>>
No. 474670 ID: c59939

>>474619
Changing my vote to just 'Am' without trying to suggest a different spelling.

Leaving the old post there because someone else is referencing it, and it seems wrong to take away their reference.
>>
No. 474681 ID: c54cd1

I actually rather like the feel of Kairosa, whether alone or with Am.
>>
No. 474682 ID: 8eb156

Am seems like it would be something that she would like (not to mention being somewhat entertaining), plus the apparent time-word shenanigans.
>>
No. 474683 ID: d6324a

Throwing my vote in the ring for Am.
>>
No. 474692 ID: b3952d

I like Kairosa "Kai" Starshimmer for it's associations with time and the way the name fits nicely with Wordblood.

That said, I'm willing to bet she'd like a very long name, so why not just give her our ten favorite names?

I'm also finding myself thinking of The Doctor's Wife. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxcU5VNDNpk
>>
No. 474693 ID: 629257

I could maybe be ok with it spelled as Ahm, and if it came after Kairosa instead of before. But it largely feels unnecessary if the other part is there, and feels insufficient by itself.

Voting up Kairosa, voting down Am.
>>
No. 474695 ID: cee89f

Deleted my previous vote post as well as the angry rant that served no purpose.

Throwing vote behind Kairosa because Am sounds awkward for reasons stated in the discussion thread.
>>
No. 474697 ID: 14d963

Hey. I just realized why our time soul is so cheerful.

It's because she values every single second of her existance. She isn't just an unchanging spirit of eternity. Her understanding of time allows her to see and appreciate the nature of every individual moment, valuable and unique.

Does that help with coming up with a name?
>>
No. 474700 ID: 7c5856

I vote for Am. The Deva seems the kind of personality that would have fun with this.
>>
No. 474701 ID: 4badbb

>>474697

It gives more to the name of Kairosa, given that it's based off of the Greek word for "The most opportune moment" or "the supreme moment"
>>
No. 474703 ID: f2c20c

>>474500 here.

I'm throwing my weight behind Kairosa.
>>
No. 474718 ID: f33451

Lol i love how the title pic is slowly shifting from lunar quest to titan quest, also i am going to vote for Am as well it's to adorable.
>>
No. 474719 ID: 60fee2

Personally I like the sound of Am Kairosa.
>>
No. 474754 ID: 3406aa

<nukes old vote>
My final vote/Suggestion: Delta

Has two main meanings:

- Mathematics symbol used to represent change. Change being something that she seems to resonate with as indicated by her initial statement and her energetic behaviour. Also relevant in that time is only really observable by monitoring changing states. I'd also note that accurate orrery can only be made via application of theories, proofs, and observations that used deltas extensively as part of the toolset to map the movement of the heavens, allowing this name to also tie in to the main defining feature of the little realm of our new deva.

- Island at the mouth of a river, usually built up by deposits of debris that has been washed down the river. The imagery here fits her role as the entity that gates our consumption of spiritual energy, scavenging such energy from the flow of time. Also works in that the flow of the river of time moves around her, building her up rather than breaking her down, while also having ties to the ocean of stars that is fate. Note that the usual direction of flow (river into ocean) would also insinuate that ocean represents the star field glimpsed through her cloak, our titanic self as a whole, or both.

As an aside, it's classically used as a female name. Not sure if gender identity is something she'd really care about, but having a gender specific name may help if it is. Hell, even Saulanna seems to currently be less than 100% sure about her gender.

I was thinking of working out some form of compound name like Wordblood, but in the end I think that Time requires a singular name that hides greater depth behind a simple façade. Words derive more power from complexity. Time just is to the casual observer, requiring much closer observation to reveal all the nuances of it's nature.
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No. 474785 ID: f8ffd1

I vote for a
1. Am

But I also really rather like Delta so I'd like if we could make an extra title for her out of it, something like 'Delta of History' as a couple of word-puns, since she sort of represents our first step into Titanic existence -the changing of our story/history- , a reference to what she probably does as a 'scavenger of Ages' with the measuring and the knowing of ages and such, and sort of a brag, saying we intend to do god-like things like change history itself.
Note; I don't support actually messing with the past at this point.
>>
No. 474803 ID: 51a2e0

Voting Am here. Simple or not, I prefer it over ones involving change in their meaning. She's based around time, not change so Delta doesn't really fit. That and I am getting rather tired of the one or two people who venomously attack the name. If you do not like it, don't mention it. None of this negative vote stuff. It's childish. Also, let's keep the discussion to the discussion thread, OK? Jukashi asked us to have only TWO posts per update.
>>
No. 474807 ID: 38cd76

Updating my vote.

1. (deleted)
2. Eternity
3. Delta
4. Kairosa

I tried to delete my old post, but I was on my phone before, so... no go.

EDIT: Apparently people were really offended by my "negative vote" comment. :/ Still, I'm willing to vote for most anything except Am by this point.
>>
No. 474809 ID: f4d0fa

I REALLY dislike Am, too. Sounds too weird. Too bad it`s winning :-(
>>
No. 474823 ID: 256d52

I do love the tie back to Saulanna's forgotten archeological/treasure hunting background that Scavenger of Ages implies. Not to mention how it ties into racoons too. Digging up the past for Will and profit!

On the matter of names, I favour Kairosa and dislike Am. Huzzah!
>>
No. 474824 ID: 7dc8f2

I think that whatever we name her(?) it should end with Rockblossom.
That is our surname and our Deva's are most definitively our kin, so they should share it.
>>
No. 474827 ID: 6cc859

>>474807
I'm also voting for whatever the most popular thing that isn't Am is.
>>
No. 474828 ID: 6cc859

Kairosa. "Am" is dumb.
>>
No. 474831 ID: 1b13d3

Kairosa is an excellent name. It suits her(?) very well.
Don't like Am. Definitely not Am Kairosa.
Megido... well, the horns are a nice touch, as is the "ruins" theme, but let's avoid going full-expy. No to Megido.
Delta's pretty nice.

I vote Kairosa!
>>
No. 474852 ID: 1b13d3

(To clarify what I said about "ruins" - that was one of Aradia Megido's themes, and "Scavenger of Ages" makes me think of searching through ruins)

Seriously, Kairosa as a full name works beautifully - don't try to extend it any more. Doesn't this sound perfect: Kairosa, the Scavenger of Ages
And since she's keen on a title collection: Kairosa, Legacy of the Forgotten Dragon
>>
No. 474854 ID: 63f851

...bah, I'm changing my vote to Kairosa, even if I'm posting too often. Won't be changing it again unless someone comes up with a better name, which just isn't happening.
>>
No. 474954 ID: 6790d5

http://youtu.be/iw-88h-LcTk#t=1m45s

AM
>>
No. 475038 ID: bdb3f8

yeah, sure, Kairosa

"Am" makes me think of evil AIs tormenting the last surviving humans.
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No. 475047 ID: 5bf190
File 135407330467.png - (150.03KB , 600x500 , kairosa.png )
475047

"Ooh, so hard to choose! I like Am, but I like Kairosa too! There are a lot of good names! I want them all. Am is so distinct, so clear! But it has-been-does-get used for other things, and it is sort of... stoppy, don't you think? Aaaam. Am. But I am Time, so I need a name that flows! And other things, for other reasons, maybe! So I will be Kairosa. Thank you!!"

"Now, I have a name, and of course I have a purpose! The meaning of my existence is to help you reach subsistence! Ha ha, and beyond. Let's see what we've got to begin!"

>>
No. 475049 ID: 5bf190
File 135407337666.png - (138.30KB , 600x500 , kairopower1.png )
475049

"Let's see, oh my, I guess I upset things a little when I got here! I'll clean up. You have just one measure of Titan's Will at your disposal. Aaaand... Moon Power? All mixed up together into one?? That won't do at all!"
>>
No. 475052 ID: 5bf190
File 135407364909.png - (152.34KB , 600x500 , kairopower2.png )
475052

"Here! We can all carry our own little pool of magic. Moon Power for you, Titan Power for us! Don't worry, you can use all our power in any combination you like! It's only your Moon abilities that need power direct from your own pool, but you can convert ours to yours whenever you want, and because you have me and I'm wonderful, you can do it in no time at all! From the outside. Any neutral magic you can power direct from any one of these, and only power spent from your own pool will count to build your Soul Fire! Isn't that so much more convenient? I have to look into that some more."

"That's nice now. That's better. I like it. What else did you want me to help with?"



>[[AUTHOR: I'm letting it slip for that, since naming is different, but from now on, I remind you, please don't suggest more than once between updates, two at absolute most.]]
>>
No. 475061 ID: 1da170

Ah, well, you said you knew lots of things you wanted to share with us! That seems like a good place to start.
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No. 475063 ID: bf54a8

well, need some help when eating ghosts. so much of the energy pours into our soul fire instead of becoming titan power. at the moment? i guess whatever you have info on.
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No. 475067 ID: e3f578

Just so we're clear your an androgynous diva and don't care either way which pronoun we use with you, right?

Can we learn a little bit more about our past perhaps? I'm a little bored, let's do something fun. I was wondering if YOU had any fun ideas?
>>
No. 475073 ID: f2c20c

>>475052
Can she feel anything different about herself due to the Hero Soul's involvement in her creation?

A description of her abilities would be nice too.

Oh right and introduce her to Wordblood.
>>
No. 475074 ID: fb9917

>>475052
So we know we can eat ghosts, and so presumably mortals are just the same thing only usually weaker and they still have the attached lower soul. What about other kinds of beings? Exalts/heroes, gods, elementals, demons? All four of those sometimes need to be dealt with in a very final way. Would it be difficult to hide what we had done? Any particular benefits or disadvantages? Obviously we should avoid doing anything that outs us as a Titan but noone in Creation knows everything that happens all the time. Would a Stealth focused soul help in hiding our Soul Fire or the process of feeding?

Uhm what else do I ask the Feeding soul...how does generation of Titan's Will without consuming souls work? Any thoughts on what is clearly our Hero Soul manifest in our internal world? What do you think of Wordblood?
>>
No. 475085 ID: 70c0f2

>>475047
...that glyph is totally her name in gallifreyan, isn't it.

>What else did you want me to help with?
Talk about the workings of the inner kingdom? She seems to have some kind of... celestial observatory? That's very nice, is this something we're supposed to build on and upgrade?

Ask what effect the hero's soul had on her? (Can't help but notice she inherited a raccoon mask).

Does she have passive time powers, and what does that entail? What about active powers? What's actually available to spend Titan Power on?
>>
No. 475088 ID: 14d963

Saulanna's soul appears in human form in our inner world, lacking her Moon and Titan powers because those are represented by things outside of herself (Wordblood, Kairosa, and the blue orb). How well would Saulanna's "human" self be able to defend herself against attack if our inner world were invaded?
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No. 475090 ID: d6324a

Interesting that as the bangles slide up her arm, more of it becomes visible.

Almost like she's wearing a robe that just happens to turn itself and everything under it insubstantial.

Or something.
>>
No. 475096 ID: cee89f

...Huh. Well, one of our problems was our Soul Fire, so thanks for that. Initiative is good.

First of all, we need to know more about your abilities, both now and what you sense you could gain in the future.

Next, when you were forming, our hero's soul reacted with you in some way, do you know what happened?

Speaking of our hero's soul, why is it waaaaaaaaaaay over there now? I mean, the fact that you can move around our Moon Power means it's still attached to me... us... whatever, but it's over there on it's own island like you guys. Is it a Deva of it's own now or something?

[Explanation of situation] - and a fresh perspective might help. Any ideas, either on the outside world's situation or anything you can do in here?

Does this world have air now? Could we bring Peregrin in to meet you both, if we all need to have a discussion like the Deva element stuff again?

Wordblood tells us a Feeding Deva will ultimately be superior to Feeding than the average Deva, but what about spending TW?

Also, meet Wordblood, your roomate. He's our Aide Deva, Communication Element. (yes, I know you technically don't have genders, they're for simplicity's sake) He's not as... bouncy as you appear to be, but he's been very kind and helpful, and I'm glad to have him with us. I hope you two get along and work well together.

(If any sign of attraction enters their eyes... Back. Away. SLOWLY.)
>>
No. 475104 ID: 70acd0

What does she know about herself?
What does she know about us?
What does she know about recent events and our current predicament?

Best to approach these questions in a collaborative manner, getting her up to speed where needed while also getting to know her better. Having been created from a portion of Saulannas soul, I suspect that she's likely already up to speed for the most part, but always best to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

Once we're all acquainted with each other, we can explore our new inner domain together.
>>
No. 475110 ID: 3a1e5a

what can she do, and concerning TW generation, how fast can she do it?
>>
No. 475142 ID: 629257

Well we have the task she was made for, the absorption of those two slave souls. But before we throw those at her to chew on I'd like an explanation on how her particular method of feeding works, both relating to souls and passive generation.

And a general explanation of her nature and all the other things she was talking about at first.
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No. 475145 ID: 09ae2c

Kairosa, what is your favorite colour?
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No. 475149 ID: 38cd76

Some help raising our Essence back up to 3 would be nice. I liked Sight Beyond Sight, and it would be nice to still use it.

Also, some ideas on how to best go about regaining some of that Titan's Will would be good. And thoughts on how to best increase in power, in general. For all three of us.

And ideas on pieces of lost time we can go scavenging. :3
>>
No. 475186 ID: 8b24cc

How can Kairosa gain power, and what would be her preferred methods to gain power? Feeding on souls is to be expected, but are there any alternative ways for her to gain power?

Also, she said she can do normal magic in our inner world practically instantaneously, from an outer perspective. In the future, will we be able to selectively manipulate our internal time? In such a way that we can draw in an enemy or hostile person, and then use time manipulation to make them act much slower than the rest of us? This could be extremely useful in discreetly capturing people of interest.

Is the process of consuming souls instantaneous, from the perspective of the outer world? It is an internal affair once we draw the soul in.

Can Kairosa increase the efficacy of any internal actions, like Wordblood's consumption of knowledge? If spending more time on actions can produce higher results on account of more care being used, we should make this standard procedure.

Can she manipulate our internal time in such a way that we can increase the rate at which we naturally regain energy for magic?

What kinds of actions manipulate causality to a dangerous degree?

What things should we avoid doing to prevent drawing attention from unwanted sources?

And finally, what are the risks of using her magic?
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No. 475219 ID: 67e8b2

We are looking for a Beast-Blooded named Ruive.
>>
No. 475231 ID: 38cd76

"Oh! By the way Kai, you are AWESOME and AMAZING! Thank you so much for your help! " /moar hugs

Okay, I'm done.
>>
No. 475259 ID: cee89f

>>475096
Actually, one other question. Will you guys be able to use Titan Power for your own abilities that would normally cost Titan's Will?
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No. 475298 ID: 4a328b

Magic for everyone! That IS useful!

Hm, how about we get another opinion on the EAT SOULS issue? I'm almost positive Kairosa will be in favor of it, given her purpose, but if she objects there will probably be a good reason for it that we should know!

Question for Wordblood too: Any idea what was up with that thing during the creation with the runes and the hero soul?

Also all three of us should go check out that Hero Soul thing. While we're here.
>>
No. 475317 ID: 985388

>>475219
This. This so much. We've been distracted for too long. As soon as we've shaken off the houseguests, we have to go find Ruive.
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No. 475323 ID: a3852f

Past: Aligned with Time as she is, would it be possible to fill in some more details on our past? That shouldn't muck abut with causality, as it's already done and all. Might give us some useful information (particularly stuff like Hearts Desire)

Present: Descriptions of current abilities. Best to know what our options are.

Future: Ideas on where her powers could later develop. It's always good to have a plan.


On a personal note, Kairosa is awesome and we should feel awesome for having ANOTHER sweet soul. I can't imagine how regular mortals with just the one (well, two, if you count Hun and Po separately).


Oh, and a question to either her or Wordblood: can we manipulate this inner realm at all? Besides having it reflect us that is. An internal fortress has all kinds of uses when we're dealing with spirits and ghosts we want to "eat" but not digest, as we did in Chapter 1.
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No. 475386 ID: 5bf190
File 135417512184.png - (127.15KB , 600x500 , questionsanswered.png )
475386

>Introductions

"Hello! I'm the Scavenger of Ages, Kairosa!"
"Hello. I am- oh, new colours, how pleasant. Ahem! I am He Who Aids In Understanding, Wordblood."
"No you're not!"
"... Excuse me?"
"Wordblood! It's derivative. You're not him anymore! Probs won't never be again no how, neither! Why keep it?"
"... Names have meaning by use. If someone calls me Wordblood, and I answer, it is my name. It is my name if I act as if it is my name. I do, so it is. My heritage is important to me."
"Ok."
"Not the best way to start a relationship, don't you think?"
"Yeah, sorry. Issues for me, issues for you, you-me we'll hug it out later. Right?"
"All right."


>gender

"You ask what pronoun to use with me? I am Time! I, who begin and end all tales! I, who devour eternity, yet nurture all growth within myself! I am the one who who raises up the young, and carries the weak and aged to their end! Really? I dunno. I don't have any bits. Not now, anyway. My body's not here yet. I feel more like a girl than a guy, though. Jewelry. Long hair. Got some yonic imagery here? That's not very common! Hard to gender a sexless entity without implying sexist ideas. Let's just say I'm a lady. I feel like a lady!"

>Learn about our past?/Information

"Oh, yes! See, here's the thing, you'll like this. As a Feeder of Time, if you can get me a sample of something's essence, I can "taste" its history! Like, if you can touch it? I can take a little nip, give it a little lick, and tell you about its past. Living creatures will notice, though, they'll feel a liiiittle pinch. And magical creatures will be able to tell something magicy happened. Of course, there needs to be something left to taste? And I'm not near as good at it right now as I could be."

"Theoretically I could do the same thing for the future, but that's not a good idea!!"


>causality dangers

"Yeah! Ok! Ok. Ok, this is important. Let me tell you. The future is uncertain, see? There's all sorts of possibilities. It's not real yet. But Titans and not-reality don't go well together! A full-grown Titan can make things real just by thinking about them too hard! And there's the problem. If you look into the future the potentiality field will collapse and solidify into a single path. In other words, if you looked into the future, what you'd see is what you'd get! And you might not like what you see! See? What I could do is to just try and gently feel out the way things are going, get an idea what'll probably happen. I'd need to power myself up for it, though."

"And messing with the past?? Woah. I mean, any Titan can just brute-force reality into the shape it would have taken if something had been different, but what was done was still done, you just made it pretend it didn't! Actually messing with the past can't be done now Haht'hek's not around! Poor Haht'hek. He threw himself in the fire. I mean - Well, I could still do it, mistress! Some day, maybe, when I'm really strong! But it'd take ten titanic buttloads of power to reach back into the past, and I don't even have a butt as it is! And then you'd have destroyed everything that came after! I don't know what you'd want to do that for."


>drawing attention

"Well, don't mess with Fate too much! I mean, you can do a lot, because it's gotten messed up by the Dragon and Autochthon's guys and all the Heroes punching each other in the face, and Uranus keeps rewriting things all the time? That's why astrology doesn't work so good any more. But at the same time, there's one Maiden actually doing her job, and the whole Loom got an upgrade a while ago, so there's eyes being kept on it. On the other hand, the Loom was designed on the assumption there'd be Titans around, so it's not as bad as it could be! Just be a little careful. You probably won't unravel reality unless you're trying to, anything much less than that shouldn't cause much more complaint than any normal Hero. There is the problem of you not being subject to Fate, though, I guess. I can't make it look like you are. Sooo, maybe a stealthy deva could help you there? Or just keep away from anyone who'd notice."

>Hero Soul's influence

"Actually, I can explain that. Essentially, your Hero Soul behaved as if it were a deva! All of a Titan's devas influence each other at least to some degree. Every Titan has a few overarching themes, you see? For example, all of Gaia's Lord and Lady devas are dragons. Or, on the other hand, you might look at Erembour, the Dragon's Shadow's Desire deva; she has a lot of qualities that reflect her association with darkness, even though she doesn't have it as an Element. If another Titan also had a Desire deva with the same Purpose as her, whatever it is, they would still be a very different being."

"That said, though your Hero Soul behaved like a deva in that sense, it's still not a deva. Maybe it will become one, eventually? And maybe not. I have no idea how those things work."


"I do! A bit! Kind of. I have some hunches. And some things that I think I should know? I can feel them in here, but I can't quite bring them into view yet. Let me go over and poke it a bit and I could tell you things with a little more certainty!"

>will we be able to selectively manipulate our internal time?

"Sure!"

>favourite colour

"Whatd'you think??"

>internal world

"It'll develop as we do."

"We can make relatively inconsequential changes by spending our normal magical energy."

>How is Titan's Will made

"Well, you know how you regain your Moon Power over time? That's from you absorbing energy from the world around you, as you breathe, eat, look at things, so on and so forth and such. Basically, when we're all topped up, I'll start taking the extra energy you would gather and refining it into Titan's Will. As a Time soul, I'll also be drawing energy from here and there, you know, the turning of the seasons, the cycle of the sky, mooching a bit off the Loom of Fate, that sort of thing. They won't notice. So you needn't worry too much about bothering me by using your own magic all the time. Not unless you keep yourself running dry for weeks at a time, or anything like that!"

"Now, here's the thing! Will generation runs in steps. The baseline would be one every five years. Because you already developed your feeding powers a little and transferred them to me, I'm two steps up from that, so I can give you one every season! But wait, too slow, you say?? Have no fear, I'm made of time! Let me devote five points of Power to the process - it'll tie them up so you can't regain them - and I can squeeze that up another step, to one every month! And if you improve my Soul Force, you can upgrade my baseline generation, which will boost the boosted generation down to one every week! But there is even more!! See, creating "free" Titan's Will and then spending it is a little inefficient. If you decide ahead of time what you want to spend it on, I can direct my refining process directly towards that goal, and that'll be one step lower again! From a week it goes down to a day, and from a day down to four a day. Beyond that... well, I'll tell you when we get there, how about it? Let's not get too far ahead!"


>souls

"Oh, you got some ready? Let's take them in here and have a look at them!"
>>
No. 475398 ID: 70c0f2

Heh. She's fun.

>Licking things to learn their past
Ah! Like Glitcher does. Diving history from objects, that's a useful skill.

>prescience can lock you into bad futures
Yeah, the old "golden path" problem. Let's try and avoid that kwisatz haderach stuff.

>Poke the hero's soul
We'll go over and examine that soon. Then you can poke it to your heart's content.

>Poor Haht'hek
Was that Gaia's time dragon? Do you know what happened to him?

>Titan's will generation
Yeah, we'll assign as much as we can spare to allowing you to improve production. In the short term, we need to spend some to restore Saulanna's soul force, and upgrade Wordblood to be more potent in the social rematch when we face the other heros again.

>Let's get those souls in here!
Sure, if that doesn't end this internal sequence, and start normal time up again. I don't think we've exhausted everything we wanted to talk about or poke at, yet.
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No. 475399 ID: 406926

>>475386
Our devas. I love them so much. So much.

Several items present themselves.

First, if Kairosa can taste things' past for information, then if she could taste our past that would be excellent. We're right here, she can have a nibble. We want to know about who we were, even if it's no longer who we are.

And... seeing as our Hero Soul appears to be separate from us in our internal world here, it would be kind of nice to know exactly what powers we personally have, if any, which aren't dependent upon it. We're not a Hero, and we're not a proper deva... but we're still Queen? Explanations or wild speculation from our devas would be appreciated.

Let's go poke at our Hero Soul, check it out, see what's up. Kairosa can tell us those things that she said she'd tell us if she poked it.

So, Kairosa is purple because she's influenced by blue and red devas, at least in part? Does that mean that all our future devas are going to fall somewhere in the purple spectrum, and also that each will bear the mark of all its predecessors? Or am I reading too much into this, and Kairosa is just purple because purple is great?

When we have Kairosa eat the souls and turn 'em into something useful, will we also be able to earmark the resulting Titan's Will to a specific purpose and thereby squeeze more out of them? Are there other ways to maximize our gains here?

Well, we can go back outside and get them before continuing that particular conversation, I suppose.
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No. 475404 ID: f2c20c

>>475386
The Hero Soul is acting like a Deva? Well, let's go investigate it! Maybe we can talk to it.

I bet we can push TW into it and make it into a Deva! It would probably make a great warrior soul. Or a sneaky soul. Depends on what we can do with it.
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No. 475414 ID: fb9917

>>475404
We probably shouldn't screw around too much with the Hero's Soul until we have a better understanding of both it and our own abilities. The Hero's Soul was created by Autobot, and he was a full fledged Titan, so if we aren't careful we could mess it up. Not saying don't do it, just we should probably be really careful about it. New Heroes aren't generally supposed to be able to access the Hero's Soul directly, and I'm not sure if even the most powerful can do it normally? Devil Tigers probably, but I don't know about any of the other types. I think Sidereals especially have even less flexibility there than the other kinds. That might be by design, and I don't think we are as good at this as Autochthon is, so just proceed with caution is all.

We should totally start earmarking Titan's Will for Wordblood on account of how awesome he is.
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No. 475415 ID: 38cd76

I concur with Hero Soul investigation proposition.

Also, is there anything you can do to make the Deva Birthing process more efficient? Although I guess if childbirth didn't hurt, it would be cheating...

I also concur that I want to know more about our past. If we can get some Heart's Desire out of that, it could be useful. Though I think we're developing some good hearts desire to unlock our potential as a fledgling titan, the mystery of the past is so mysterious! WoooOOOooooOOOOOoooo...

Stealth Deva of Masks anyone? It would help us hide ourselves in Fate. :D That's essentially what the sidereal exalted do anyways, right?

Speaking of which, do your Time abilities let us play with Fate at all, Kai? I mean, you're pretty awesome as is, but...

>Our devas. I love them so much. So much.
Yes. Concur. :3
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No. 475428 ID: 6b6617

I say we give her ALL our TW.
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No. 475434 ID: ecfcdc

Okay, Give her access to the five points of power to attune and speed shit up. Now, the first thing we want to do is increase our own soul force back to how it was, unless I'm mistaken. But after that, we should use our titan's will to keep her as high as she can be without being more powerful than use.
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No. 475435 ID: 9b155d

Can Wordblood tell if it acted more like a Lord Deva or one of our Noble Devas?

>>475404
Lunars are basically the Exalted who most emphasize adaptability. I think narrowing down it's focus like that might not be the best of ideas. We should wait and see if it nabs it's own purpose, and if not try and find a very broad purpose for it.
>>
No. 475439 ID: c15bbc

Wheee!
Also, yeah, we should probably remember to maintain our own soul force alongside the others'; otherwise, we get metaphysically top-heavy or something.
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No. 475441 ID: fb9917

I think our first 6 TW should go towards first raising us to 3 soul force, then Kairosa to 3, then increasing her Efficiency of Consumption again to 3, since I believe it was 2 previously? That would get us a little more out of the second ghost, since the first is very likely to get us at least 5 TW and we have 1. Also she implied Efficiency/Ease of consumption might help with generating Titan's Will from non-soul things? Hard to say what else might be good until we know how much we have to work with.
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No. 475446 ID: a3852f

Upon returning to reality:
Step 1: Om nom nom.
Step 2: Test out Kairosa's absorption ability.
Step 3: Devote resulting energy into upgrading passive TW generation as much as possible.
Step 4: Laugh maniacally.
Step 5: Kick reason to the curb. Upgrade like crazy.
Step 6: Laugh maniacally again.


Although I suppose we should probably devote the energy we'll get into upgrading social abilities for the inevitable second round with all not-so-welcome guests. See if we can't make Garmir's favorite color pink or something.
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No. 475449 ID: bf54a8

think a good start project for any 'free' titan's will should be soul force. but for the stuff from the ghosts? we need to become a social champ.
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No. 475450 ID: cee89f

We probably need to upgrade Wordblood for social abilities. At the moment, our biggest threats outside are a Death Hero diplomat (not the one right outside, different death hero) and a pair of moon heroes who want to put moonsilver tattoos on us to resist the wyld corruption.

Now, I don't want either of them to find out who I am - not just yet. I'll be telling Luna eventually but right now, I don't know how they'd react to learning I'm a Titan. Probably not well.

...

Possibly, we could do that probability feel you were talking about, see how probable a bad outcome is if we tell Luna.

>Slaver souls
Let's make their devouring quick, okay?
>>
No. 475465 ID: 6b6617

I just realized something.

you have a mysterious and undiscovered past.

she discovers the past of things by licking them.

heeheehee.
>>
No. 475471 ID: b978d0

Looks like investigating our Lunar exaltation would be a good next step, followed by giving our internal realm a thorough once over. Can worry about the outside world afterwards, including the two souls on offer.

Actually, after checking out the Lunar exaltation might be a good time to broach the topic of admitting our true nature to Luna. The odds that Luna doesn't already know what's up are looking worse and worse...
>>
No. 475475 ID: 3734f6

1. Examine Exaltation soul.
2. Lock 5 motes towards passive generation.
3. Specialize TW generation for upgrading soulforce of saulana and her devas for that extra tier bump. Its the best use of TW >>/questdis/64431
4. Get saulana to SF3 again.
5. How much TW will it take to give wordblood the ability to create books? He said it could be done but not how much it would cost. If its cheap lets do it and instantly absorb and recreate the entire library + advanced tomes par has about magics.
6. Spending TW to make wordblood or saulanna into better at social combat is grossly inefficient. If we spend TW for social skills it should be to make a a social deva as wordblood explicitly told us to do. The slavers should provide enough TW for that.

Personally I think it would be better to use it to increase TW generation instead. saulanna to SF3 for 2TW, Kairosa to SF3 for 2TW, Kairosa's consumption efficienty to 3 for... 3TW?... actually if SF increase gives +1 rank to efficiency as I think it does (ask!) then it is better to raise saulana and kairosa to soulforce 4 each before getting efficiency 3 becomes cost effective. And tie up 10 of saulana's motes for +2 rank boost.

Just to clarify, when Kairosa said she can tie up MP from Saulanna for boost to TW generation was she referring to the titanic being (aka, the 18 power between the 3 of them) or just to the 6 that belong specifically to Saulanna? And can she actually do more then 5?

>>475471
wordblood is hiding us from her actively with his power. Also Gods are not omniscient. Death heroes went rogue, solar exaltations were stolen and inverted to create death heroes. both solar and death go to red sun to get converted... etc. Plus the 2 lunars here with us were NOT sent here by luna.
>>
No. 475478 ID: 8b24cc

>>475471

This sounds good.

This could work out well or badly. I'll bet that Kairosa can learn about our Exaltation's former hosts. If she gets good enough at reading the past, we could learn LOADS of charms from Kairosa learning about the Exaltation's former hosts.

....Huh, I wonder if the Lunar Exaltation could become a Deva, and when it does it becomes an amalgamation of its former hosts? It's supposed to have been wiped clean, but Kairosa could easily discern its past.

And possibly, with enough skill, learn how the Exaltation was made. This would be....well, not the Holy Grail as we might not be able to replicate it, but damn useful information.
>>
No. 475485 ID: 10eff3

>>475475
>make a a social deva as wordblood explicitly told us to do
didn't he do the exact opposite?
He basically got all pouty and went "I'M your social deva"
>>
No. 475497 ID: 14d963

Not a good idea to argue about the meaning of names with the one who INVENTED the concepts of language and communication :)

>"Oh, yes! See, here's the thing, you'll like this. As a Feeder of Time, if you can get me a sample of something's essence, I can "taste" its history! Like, if you can touch it? I can take a little nip, give it a little lick, and tell you about its past. Living creatures will notice, though, they'll feel a liiiittle pinch. And magical creatures will be able to tell something magicy happened. Of course, there needs to be something left to taste? And I'm not near as good at it right now as I could be."
Hey, this is useful. We can use it on Peregrin's captive souls to confirm what they've done to deserve their fate.

In addition to about a bajillion other uses, the most obvious ones being learning more about our own past and finding out what happened to Ruive. (We never even got around to checking how long Gevin has been dead for, and we shouldn't even need a Time Soul for that!)

Off-topic, I wish I had a power like this in real life :) It's really cool.

>"If you look into the future the potentiality field will collapse and solidify into a single path. In other words, if you looked into the future, what you'd see is what you'd get! And you might not like what you see! See? What I could do is to just try and gently feel out the way things are going, get an idea what'll probably happen."
We shouldn't ask questions of the type "What's going to happen?". Any attempts at prophecy should be phrased as "What will happen if we do X?", letting us use the result to decide whether to do X.

>"Let me go over and poke it a bit and I could tell you things with a little more certainty!"
Sure, go ahead. The Hero Soul was designed to stand up to Titanic-level attack in the war, so I doubt a newborn deva poking at it will do any damage.

>"I can give you one every season! But wait, too slow, you say?? Have no fear, I'm made of time! Let me devote five points of Power to the process - it'll tie them up so you can't regain them - and I can squeeze that up another step, to one every month!"
Wow, that's faster than I expected this soon.

Devoting those points to speed it up worthwhile once we have the Power to spare (i.e., not before we're done dealing with our visitors - it's not like that'll take weeks).

>"See, creating "free" Titan's Will and then spending it is a little inefficient. If you decide ahead of time what you want to spend it on, I can direct my refining process directly towards that goal, and that'll be one step lower again!"
I propose that we try to keep a certain amount of unassigned Titan's Will at most times as a backup cache, then once our backup cache is full we direct any further Will at predetermined purposes to benefit from the increased generation.

>"Oh, you got some ready? Let's take them in here and have a look at them!"
Let's, after getting Peregrin up to speed on what just happened.

I'd also want to look around our inner world some more - examine the fine working of Kairosa's orrery, checking what books Wordblood has in his bookcase, and of course poking the Hero Soul. That can go either before or after the souls, I don't care.

>>475450
>Possibly, we could do that probability feel you were talking about, see how probable a bad outcome is if we tell Luna.
An interesting suggestion, though I suspect reliably predicting an Incarna's future would be a little harder than predicting that of a normal mortal or even Hero...
>>
No. 475516 ID: 92c81e

>Hero Soul
I feel like we might be able to turn the soul into a deva by using the Hero Soul as the element of the deva, in a manner of speaking. Like how Kairosa is made of time, or Wordblood is made of communication, the new deva would be made of our hero soul.

Not sure if it's a good idea to do so, or not, but this is how I think we COULD do it. We would have to find a good purpose to give the hero deva that would suit it.

Anyway, this is all just speculation for now, and not our primary concern. We shouldn't worry about the next deva we want to create until we're ready for it. We need to focus on the task at hand, which is preparing for the coming social battle.
>>
No. 475522 ID: 9d3dcd

>>475516
We really, really need to know more before we try that.
>>
No. 475526 ID: 70c0f2

Oh! Also, Kairosa, we've heard that the Dragon's Shadow broke the calender of the underworld and that allows him to affect the passage of time in the shadow land. Does this present any opportunities or difficulties for us?
>>
No. 475568 ID: 12ba06

Questions to ask:

If we have Titan's Will to spare, can you use it to augment your Feeding of the Past ability? You aren't close to your full potential, but with the use of Titan's Will how much could you augment your abilities? Because if you can augment them enough, we should have you try that on the Hero Soul to learn more about the past bearers. We could potentially learn abilities, or at least their existence, this way.

Tying up points of power for improved Feeding would be good. We have some more pressing problems now though. What else can you do that doesn't revolve around the production of power? Is there something else we can spend your power on?

Can you aid Wordblood in the production of Power Words? At least those related to Time?

Can you improve Saulanna and Wordblood's efficiency with their powers?

Suppose we made a handshake with someone wearing a glove. Could Kairosa look into the glove's past, and be able to tell us things the wear observed or used the glove for? Most importantly, could this be done without the knowledge of the wearer?

Hopefully Kairosa can Feed on Saulanna and see what she was like before she Exalted, but failing that, could she Feed on Peregrin to see his memories, hopefully of what Saulanna was like before? We could use a frame of reference for how our original self used to act, just in case we have to play the part of our treasure hunter self.
>>
No. 475611 ID: 3fcc04

Speaking of soul fire, it's potentially a serious problem with an opportunity: It gives off an awful lot of light and detectable magic, can this be harvested? I'd imagine a scavenger would be suited to this if anything.

I also think it could be a bad idea for Kairosa to touch the hero soul just yet: Those were made by the gods for fighting titans. I wouldn't want to risk it until we had a better relationship with our hero soul and knew what its limitations were better. At least we need to make sure we're prepared to minimize the damage if it suddenly wakes up and goes berserk in response to Kairosa poking it.

I think we have more immediate and important problems with the lunars and the representative(s) of Dragon's Shadow, so now isn't the best time for long term planning. We need a practical plan for getting out of this with as few damaging/limiting problems as possible. What can we do to feel our way out of the social minefield we're buried in and get back to something safer like combat and exploration of hazardous places? If nobody else has a better idea I think we should work at increasing our capacity for social combat using these slavers and the aid of Kaan here: Round two is coming up soon unless we do something rash like go run and hide. We need to improve our ability to dish and soak damage in social combat post-haste and it's clear that it's vital to become much better at handling topic shifts than we have been.

We also need to come up with a decent cover-story about reluctance to be tattooed for the lunars. Is it plausible for Lord Kaan to have grafted a soul's memories or talents onto a lunar that doesn't have their tattoos yet? If so, can we extend that into an explanation that he's currently using this lunar mutability as a solution for getting rid of terrible criminal ghosts who would not pass on but could not be released without grave risk to the safety of themselves and others? This kind of half-truth about our nature and our relationship with Lord Kaan should be easily backed up with a demonstration of our surprisingly broad and deep knowledge. From there it shouldn't be that hard to explain that we want to finish learning all we can about the theory behind this tattooing before we even think of agreeing to it because it seems crude, drastic and limiting from what we already know and that we hope to devise a better method.

Next we'd have to come up with an explanation for why we went and secluded ourself with Kaan that would pass muster to Askalaff, Garmir and Akatrina, which would have to be plausible and believable. My imagination seems to be failing on this topic because I can only come up with highly intimate reasons for why you would disappear with him into seclusion at this time.

Finally what to do about Akatrina watching us? Uh, well, I just don't know.
>>
No. 475612 ID: 404f8a

Kairosa, would it be possible to preserve the consciousness or "self" of a ghost or other spirit in some way when breaking them down for Titan's Will? I mean obviously they wouldn't be as they once were, but would it be possible to keep the mind of the being intact so that we could, say, eventually build a common deva around it and that deva would still be THEM on some level? Or maybe use it for artifact crafting or something?
>>
No. 475619 ID: 1b13d3

First order of business is to have a look at those souls. Eternal imprisonment is a terrible thing, but fortunately Kairosa's talents will help us learn enough so as to decide whether to release or consume them. Let's be cautious about the effect that consuming a soul with a horrible history could have on our wonderful new deva, though. Let's see what Wordblood and Kairosa have to say on that matter.

Having Kairosa taste our own history could teach us something that could help us develop a Heart's Desire, which would protect us somewhat against Akatrina. But be prepared for whatever caused us to seek to have our memory erased. If this process uses Moon/Time power then let's do this before consuming souls, because consuming souls would presumably refill our power pools.

Later Kairosa can help us with the music box mystery. Right now we'll need to decide what to do with the Titan's Will. Raising our Essence to 3 is important, and granting Wordblood the ability to communicate directly with others' minds would be a huge help. But putting off an immediate advantage to raise Kairosa's Essence early is a good investment in time. Let's decide when we see how much Titan's Will we have to work with.
>>
No. 475715 ID: dd56d7

1. Poke Hero Soul
2. Poke ghost souls
3. (If evil enough) Om nom nom
4. Poke Saulanna
5. Up everyone's Soul Force as much as we can afford to.
>>
No. 475795 ID: 09ae2c

No! You shall hug it out right now! Your mistress commands it!

<b>Hugs for the Hug god! Smooches for the Smooch Throne!</b>
>>
No. 475829 ID: b3952d

I say poke the hero soul while we're in here, check with both of the devas to see if there's anything else we need to discuss, then try to find the way back to your body and get those other souls your Abyssal minion promised you.

I wanna see what Kai can do with them.
>>
No. 476092 ID: c8e02f

Can we get Kaan in this place and make Devas with him? Is Kairosa stepping on Saturn's toes?

Ask Wordblood and Kairosa how they prefer to be worshiped. I'm thinking... blood drizzled into a stately red ink-pot, drawn into a fine pequil made of local materials, and then written on a snake-skin.
>>
No. 476232 ID: 4eb46d

Many questions.
Can Kairosa look into souls to see what they would give us?
If that's the case I think that should be our next course of action.
>>
No. 476808 ID: 9adc96

Kairosa! Tell us more about our past!
>>
No. 476810 ID: 3b53fa

>>476808
this!
>>
No. 476821 ID: 3e2e91

Right, let's see those souls!

About the TW generation, let me see if I got this straight : as we are now, we get 1 TW per season. Increasing her Gathering Efficiency would cost 5 TW (which means that it's currently at 5, how did that come to be?), but we can buy the upgrade immediately, which would mean 5 months without generation before we get the payload. However, we could also increase her Soul Force, which would probably be less costly : how high is it?

Also interested in what she can tell us about the Dragon of Time, since she seems to be the only one we've met that has any idea about what happened to it.
>>
No. 477171 ID: 6e1469

I love that the introduction of a character adherent to the philosophy of "I think, therefore I am" is set in a Cartesian Theater. Dat irony. <3

Ask Kairosa about your pre-Lunar history, since she seems pretty ideal for that.
Ask her about the Dragon of Time too, while you're at it.
Inspect that shiny blue moon circle.
>>
No. 477419 ID: e054dd

Hug your Hero Soul.
>>
No. 477523 ID: 39f670
File 135510104397.png - (123.08KB , 600x500 , kairokiss.png )
477523

>Find out about Saulanna's past!

So, human though it looks, this body doesn't actually need to breathe. That's good to know.
>>
No. 477525 ID: 39f670
File 135510109066.png - (114.00KB , 600x500 , notmuchtotell.png )
477525

Kairosa draws back, holding her tongue as she savours whatever flavours she was able to get. After a moment, though, her face falls for the first time.

"I'm sorry, mistress. Whatever Peregrin did to your soul didn't just wipe your memories clear, it cleaned out your entire metaphysical house! I'm sure there must be some traces, but the tastes of Wordblood and your Hero Soul are each so strong that they're completely overpowering them."

"Oh, dear. Well, I suppose a Hero Soul or a piece of a Titan have much more weight on the passage of time than an ordinary mortal. Erm. No disrespect intended, my lady."

"I'll tell you what, though! Those gloves you're wearing at the moment belonged to you before, and it's easier for me to get a taste off them. If you gathered all your old belongings, I could at least give you some clues to follow towards learning more about your former self. In the meantime, how about I give those souls a lick?"

>Can we bring Peregrin in here?

Actually, I think... yes, I think I might be the one in charge of air, here. And... water. Yes. Voice and blood. Air and water. I would need a little upgrade if I'm to start being able to support material creatures."

>Can you mess with Fate?

"One day, maybe! It's not like samsara, it's super finicky! And ten times as much such if I'm trying to hide it. So not for a long time, I think."

>TW from eating souls, increased towards a purpose?

"No, it'll only work when I'm making it myself."

>What happened to Haht'hek?

"Ah, yeah. I know what happened to him. It's kind of a sad story, though! You sure you want to hear it?"
>>
No. 477528 ID: f2c20c

>>477523
Hehehe. I have no complaints about this whatsoever!

>>477525
Sure. It might even be relevant to whatever the Dragon's Shadow is trying to pull off by using a "strong power source". He could be trying to bring the Dragon of Time back! Personally, I'd support that.
>>
No. 477533 ID: ec6d4c

>>477523
First kiss 2X combo.

>It's kind of a sad story, though! You sure you want to hear it?
I have to admit we're curious, even if it's sad. Especially if there's some kind of danger he fell victim to being a time deva- we wouldn't want to repeat his misfortune.

>how about I give those souls a lick?
Sure, go right ahead! Although, I'd like to put off assigning TW till we're done talking and checking out things in here. We should probably all go check out the hero's soul, first.

I'd also still like to ask her about the broken underworld calendar and if that has any implications for us or her.
>>
No. 477535 ID: 4a328b

Yes, story time, please.
>>
No. 477536 ID: 3734f6

Yes please. storytime.
Then check exaltation (current status, and read past)
>>
No. 477544 ID: 9b6364

ayyup.
>>
No. 477547 ID: ecfcdc

>>477525
Well soul-licking is certainly something we ought to get going, especially if we want to upgrade Wordblood so we can bring Peregrine in here.

>>477533
>First kiss 2X combo.
While it's Kairosa's first kiss chronologically she did seem to have a bit of experience with it, perhaps taken from Saulanna's future.
>>
No. 477556 ID: 3fcc04

I'd suggest asking Wordblood and Kairosa if they have any idea how safe it is or isn't to go talk to the hero soul. I am curious about it but that thing was made to fight titans and well... we sort of are one now at least a little bit.
>>
No. 477558 ID: 63f851

We still want to look at the big glowing moon thingy before we got back 'outside' to have a bite of the souls, but after that no reason to dally in here. We could hear about Haht'hek now, since we're curious and all, but there's no advantage or disadvantage to having the story told later.
I'm starting to get worried with Kairosa. If she suggests getting around to the slaver's souls a third time she might start getting impatient. That would be bad.
>>
No. 477559 ID: 8098f4

Yes, story time!
>>
No. 477561 ID: b24894

I might be completely seeing that image incorrectly, but is Kairosa trying to feel us up just a little bit? I see her bangles and then, that's her hand, right?
>>
No. 477562 ID: 629257

I'm pretty sure we left some of our clothing back at the manse area, so that's another reason to check back there later.

So she got a taste of our Hero's soul, anything worth mentioning on that angle? Or remarkable history to Wordblood that he himself wouldn't know of? Barring or after either of those, tell us about the time dragon.

Then we'll return to the outside world and get those souls in here.

>>442456034
Probably safe, but not sure talking is really a thing there. I'm more interested about the big glowing moon up there, despite the obvious reasons for it being.

>>477558
Well to be fair that is her reason for existing. Her eagerness isn't about being destructive, she just wants to do her job.
And I'm sure Jukashi wants to get the story moving again at some point.
>>
No. 477563 ID: 629257

>>477562
>destructive
Sorry I misread your implications and can't delete. I think she is eager but patient enough, being what she is. We'll get our story then get on with the souls in one go I think.
>>
No. 477564 ID: f2c20c

>>477561
She's caressing Saulanna's face.
>>
No. 477567 ID: b24894

>>477564

Ooooh. Right. Now I see it. Originally, I thought what was actually her thumb was part of Saulanna's facial tattoos. Which I now see Saulanna does not have in her spirit world. So that's actually an arm.

I was like, "Damn, Jukashi, when you do fanservice, you really do some fanservice!" But now I see it's just a kiss. And a pseudo-homosexual one which, given that this is Creation, is the most common and normal kind anyway.
>>
No. 477568 ID: 9b155d

Story and Souls are go.

Um Are We?
>>
No. 477573 ID: 502013

Wait, what is that hand inside Kairosa's cloak ? the one reaching up.
>>
No. 477575 ID: 14d963

>"Ah, yeah. I know what happened to him. It's kind of a sad story, though! You sure you want to hear it?"
I suspect that we're going to hear a lot of sad stories before our adventure is over. Unfortunately, we'll probably end up participating in some, too.

And I'm not one to turn down useful knowledge.
>>
No. 477581 ID: 38cd76

Let's get peregrins permission to do a reading for him too. <3

The souls come first though, I guess.
>>
No. 477601 ID: 5d121c

Get the story and lick the souls.
>>
No. 477617 ID: b3952d

I'm voting for storytime too.
>>
No. 477618 ID: b3952d

Something to consider later on might be trying to get an item of personal importance from each of the Lunars and Deathknights for a few moments without their knowledge. Knowing more about our opponents could be very useful.
>>
No. 477652 ID: 1da170

...wait. Wait.

I'm definitely reading that wrong. Can you mess with samsara?!
>>
No. 477663 ID: 66ff59

Kairosa, what happened to your eyes? why are they blue?

also, yes to the story obviously.
>>
No. 477665 ID: 3e2e91

>>477663
Probably because she just "tasted" us.
Also note the grey hand that replaced her usual cosmic torso.
>>
No. 477672 ID: 849766

>>477663
It probably from tasting the lunar essence.
Blue=Lunar remember
>>
No. 477673 ID: b978d0

Sad story time is tempting, but not likely to be all that immediately relevant. Ask Kairosa to bring it up if it does become immediately relevant though, along with if she can think of any implications that the destruction of the underworlds calendar would have in conjunction with herself and her powers.

I suggest investigating the lunar exaltation next, followed by bringing in the two souls.
Kairosa will need to be a little more patient for now, but she can rest assured that snack time won't be far off.
>>
No. 477683 ID: ecfcdc

>>477672
The lunar essence must flow.
>>
No. 477685 ID: cee89f

Have her tell us while we're bringing the souls in.
>>
No. 477768 ID: dd56d7

1. Om nom nom
2. Story Time
>>
No. 477773 ID: 406926

>>477525
>Erm. No disrespect intended, my lady.
None taken, Wordblood! It would be kind of silly to get all angry over something that's just a metaphysical reality, wouldn't it?

Though, the exact state of what we are as far as the whole "ordinary mortal" thing is kind of weighing on my mind here. We've got both of you here, and our Hero Soul over there, which presumably is where all our Hero's power and Soul Force is- so is this just Saulanna's human-only self? It seems really strange to have Titanic devas be treating something so comparatively tiny as their queen. What exactly are we, meaning just this part of us? What is there that's special about us? How can we grow?

I suppose investigating the Hero Soul might answer some of this, so perhaps we can do that immediately after the story.

> It's kind of a sad story, though! You sure you want to hear it?
The world is full of sad stories. Every Titan's tale seems to be a tragedy. As long as they're true, though, it's better to hear them than not- and we're in no rush.
>>
No. 477782 ID: cf94e9

Quick! Pray to Luna, while she's there, go ahead and lick her!
>>
No. 477783 ID: cf94e9

It's time for a story about the Dragon of Time!
>>
No. 477858 ID: 7f2a1b

I say story time.

Also, remember to examine the exaltation thingummy. Have Kairosa taste it if it seems safe enough (i.e. wouldn't attract Luna's attention).
>>
No. 478021 ID: 4411c7

>>477525
Story? Yes, yesyseyesyesyesyseyes
>>
No. 478098 ID: bac356

Story time! Provide storyteller with munchies.
Hopefully you won't barf this time.
>>
No. 478151 ID: c8ab73

Let's hear about Haht'hek and then go check our our hero soul.
>>
No. 478186 ID: a5bbcc

>>477525
You've...ah...got a little something in your chest, there.
>>
No. 478277 ID: 3bad4c

Eat the souls unless they have genuine unfinished business.

Otherwise they're dead, and have nothing to look forward to except an eternity of imprisonment.

I think it would be a very human thing to have a record of each soul that gets consumed. A book on a special bookcase in the inner world seems appropriate, one book per soul. I think this would show respect for the existence they once had, and glancing over to see how many books are in the bookcase would give Saulanna a quick way to see if she's become a genocidal soul-eating monster or not. :) At this rate, I doubt that could happen though.

I imagine the bookcase should be in Saulanna's area, because we're not trying to impose humanity on Kariosa or Wordblood!

Giving Jukashi things to draw is always fun.
>>
No. 478346 ID: 4eb46d

I vote that we check out the new souls straight away, and then check out the hero soul!
>>
No. 478425 ID: 6a173c

Yeah! Listen to the Story, see these souls, nom 'em, then make a record of this stuff.
>>
No. 478431 ID: e1fba4

No story unless it's relevant to your abilities. I think it's best we focus on getting ourselves together and return to the situation unfolding back inside.
>>
No. 478615 ID: 1da170

Oh, this 'history' thing is super handy. Rather than just relying on Kaan's word that the people we're absorbing are dicks, we can know for certain.

So long as we don't break Kairosa by doing it too often, but she seems tough underneath the bubbly.
>>
No. 478934 ID: 37cda1

Kairosa, how much TW will we need to spend on your upgrades to get to that "four a day" (with committed Power and focus) or further?

Also, yes, check up on those souls.
>>
No. 479494 ID: bd1c04
File 135578411416.png - (139.36KB , 600x500 , sorcery1.png )
479494

> How safe is it to interact with the Hero Soul?

"Hmm, well. Though it may have been made with the intent of fighting Titans, it was also made by a Titan, and for Luna, who is a Titan's lover. I wouldn't think it had been created with any automatic countermeasures or suchlike."

"Much less anything that'd go off just by looking at it! I got a strong taste off you, but it's, like, a reflection. I should do a more direct inspection!"

>Can you mess with samsara?!

"Huh? Oh! Well, maybe! Everyone messes with samsara a little bit. Really though, what I was saying is that Fate is a lot more complicated than samsara is! Samsara is deep, deep-down foundation stuff, so it has to be simple. Part of how reality works. It's... the cycles of the world. The repeating patterns. The stuff that happens and then happens again. Odd coincidences. It-"

"Narrative causality, perhaps. The beginning, the middle and the end. The villain who creates his own undoing, the third son who succeeds where his elder brothers fail, the fall off the cliff that never kills. The house divided that unites, the house united that must divide. Souls reborn to find each other again, and play out the events in other places and other times. The Hero's Journey. That sort of thing."

"Yeah, that sort of thing! Every time something happens once, it becomes easier for it to happen again. Any Titanic power can leave a mark behind it on the pattern of existence, and every souled creature has a little spark of Titanic power in them! The more you have, the more weight you put on the world, and the deeper a groove you leave behind you for others to follow. So be careful! Everything you do and everything that happens to you can literally echo on down through history! Manipulating it directly would be way hard, though."

"Well, in a sense, a lot of magic manipulates samsara. Expending energy through their personal expression-forms to cause different kinds of reality, different kinds of stories, to take precedence over others."

"Well, I guess? That's only little local temporary things, though. On the big scale."

>What exactly are we, meaning just this part of us? What is there that's special about us? How can we grow?

You're a deva as well, my lady. You just happen to be human, as well. Mostly. I'm afraid I'm not sure how you would develop yourself further, since you don't have the instinctive understanding of how to grow with Titan's Will, like we do."

"Sorcery, mistress! You just need to train yourself up! You may be starting off from just being human, but even humans can learn sorcery, and that's basically Titanic power, just with some crutches on! Learn a bunch of spells, and keep practicing, and I'm sure you'll eventually get the hang of doing things yourself!

"Sorcery? Sorcery. Hold on. Referencing. First Age, sorcerers, three circles, trials..."
>>
No. 479495 ID: bd1c04
File 135578415253.png - (135.17KB , 600x500 , sorcery2.png )
479495

"... Oh. Oh, well. Wow. My goodness. That's... I don't know how I should feel about this. That... that Dragon's Shadow. What a... fellow. What a card. This is a joke. Well, not entirely. Sort of. It's... subversive. This, this ridiculous double-layered ironic humiliation lesson trickster nonsense. It'd be hilarious if I could tell who the joke's supposed to be on. Classic Dragon's Shadow, really. Holy tyrant, he must have set this up in advance."

"... Yyyyyyyyes. Hmm. Yes. You can skip most of this."


Now surely Wordblood can explain more than that!

"Well, if I wanted to give lesser beings a way to use their titan-spark, I wouldn't have done it this way. I've even been considering it, you know, I think I have an idea on how to teach Peregrin Kaan to use Power Words... Ahem. But it would be straightforward, in any case. Sorcery, now, here, it looks to me like it's all about mimicking Titanic reality shaping, by using raw will and trickery to fool the world into thinking you have authority that you don't. Imitation and deception, that's the Dragon's Shadow's way of thinking, there. But more than that, whatever way he worked it into the world - and he must have done it before he surrendered to the gods, I can't see how else it could have happened - he built in these five trials that you have to go through before the world accepts it from you. And they're totally unnecessary! Theoretically. I mean, they are necessary now, but they didn't have to be. But at the same time, they do teach valuable lessons and force the sorcerer to grow as a person. And they stand a good chance of shaking their existing loyalties, which considering that most sorcerers would be Heroes, would be to the gods. And then again, letting lesser beings use this kind of power defies the order mandated by the rest of the Titans. So, as said, I have no idea who the joke is supposed to be on. He does this sort of thing."

"None of it applies to you, though. You're a Titan. The world will bow to you by nature. You don't have to go through the trials, and I wouldn't be surprised if after getting used to it, you became able to learn and use spells far more easily than any other sorcerer."


"There you go, so! Now..."

>Storytime

"Sure thing, mistress. Just a moment."
>>
No. 479496 ID: bd1c04
File 135578418825.png - (104.29KB , 600x500 , kairoahem.png )
479496

"Would you like some assistance?"

"Nah, I got it. Just got to get into oracle mode, here. Hrrm. Arh-hem. Right."
>>
No. 479497 ID: bd1c04
File 135578423018.png - (279.14KB , 600x500 , hahthek\'sstory.png )
479497

"Hail to Haht'hek, the Dragon of Time, who turns the seasons, who drives the wheel of Ages! Hail to him whose coils are the spiral of both growth and decay!"

"Bow before She Who Lives In Her Name, the Principle of Hierarchy! Bend knee to the Mother of Separation, the definition of definition, Child of Oramus' Promise!!"

"Behold Pluto, the Maiden of Hours, who comforts the Dragon of Time! Praise to the goddess that measures the days!"

"Tremble, to the moment of turning, the end of what should have been, the time of never-starting. She Who Lives In Her Name feels the first touch of the green light of shame and the bonds of self-loathing, closing to tie her to her failure and despair! In her final rage, betrayed, she betrays herself and breaks her bones to release the fires within. An inferno is released, to burn the world to the moment of its birth, and undo all that had undone the Titans themselves!"

"Weep, for the Dragon of Time, who loves the world such that his every soul is wracked with grief! Weep for the Maiden of Hours, for whose cries of pain and terror, he tears his heart asunder! The blood of his life spills to quench the flames that burn creation. With his last strength, he curls himself about the existence that remains once-made, and turns his body to a wall against the fire. His scales are seared; his last breath, torn by smoke. His tears are boiled to naught. He dies to save what is, and aches for that which now shall never have been remembered."

"He is dead."

>>
No. 479498 ID: bd1c04
File 135578425895.png - (87.45KB , 600x500 , hahtheksstory2.png )
479498

Grieve, for the Dragon of Time. Grieve for Gaia, who could not keep her promise. Grieve for the Maiden of Hours, and her champions, and all the Heroes of Time, who go to meet Oramus at The End."
>>
No. 479500 ID: bd1c04
File 135578435544.png - (95.56KB , 600x500 , kairoshrug.png )
479500

Wait, "The End"!? What does that mean?"

"Ehh. I dunno."
>>
No. 479502 ID: e3aff6

So... It sounds like SHLIHN tried to unmake everything when the titans lost, Pluto got killed, Haht'hek killed himself to make a barrier to save creation, and possibly Gaia got trapped outside the barrier.

I guess we will go look at the Hero's Soul now.
>>
No. 479503 ID: beeca1

>>479502
Yeah, Swillin's body is a bunch of giant glass spheres filled with fires. When the titans lost, she broke them and retroactively burnt a shitton of Creation out of existence. Looks like that bit of canon remains with some details added.
>>
No. 479504 ID: ec6d4c

Okay, Kairosa, Wordblood, and their interactions are officially adorable.

>>479495
This "sorcery is a joke" thing amuses me. Still, the fact we can get around the restrictions by who and what we are could be useful. Sounds like we won't need a deva dedicated to sorcery and/or magic after all.

>Haht'hek
Sacrificed himself to stop time from being undone before it began. Got it. So, mercifully, not a hazard we're likely going to have to worry about Kairosa facing.

>Wings
I'm not sure if it's rude to ask, but I'm pretty sure Wordblood didn't have those before. (They show up for the first time in this chapter, if I'm not mistaken). Is that
significant at all?

>Now what
Let's check out the hero's soul next. Then we can examine souls and possibly eat them (gotta poke, examine, and talk about everything before we do anything proactive, like collecting and assigning TW).
>>
No. 479506 ID: 629257

Well... I think we get the gist of it. But you two should go over the what and who of that as best you can. As for that last bit, I'm fairly sure we don't need to worry about it anytime soon.

Anyhow, time to investigate our heroes soul. After that we bring in the slaver souls.
>>
No. 479507 ID: 3e2e91

Sooo... This Oramus made Gaia promise to keep time stable, a task for which she created Haht'hek. When he sacrificed himself, Pluto and all her subordinates had to go deal with the resulting fuck-up at The End, where Oramus resides.
Also, Titanic all-devouring flames destroying a being at the foundation of time erased him from existence, causing him to only be remembered by the Titans themselves.
Did I get all that right?

Who the fuck is Oramus (apart from meaning "We pray." in latin)?
>>
No. 479508 ID: ffe40a

Oramos is the Dragon Beyond The World. He represents everything that is Outside - both beyond Creation, and Beyond even the Wyld. He is a force of narrative-rending impossibility, and the Solars bound him within his own wings, one of the few things capable of the feat, that he might forever struggle against himself for freedom.

... IIRC.
>>
No. 479522 ID: 14d963

Thank you for that story. It's sad, but it's also heroic, and heroes deserve to be remembered.

Next up: check Hero Soul, then slaver souls.


Side note,Wordblood has some interesting text here:

Re: Sorcery
"OBVIOUSLY I KNOW WHAT IT IS I JUST DON'T GET HOW YOU'RE [...]"
"HE ALWAYS USED TO DO THIS KIND OF THING LIKE A PRANK BUT WITH A LESSON"

Re: Haht'hek
"I AM ALREADY QUITE SHOCKED BY ALL THIS"


As for The End, I could be entirely wrong, but I'm imagining a Chrono-Trigger-like "End of Time", a time outside time, infinitely far into the future.
>>
No. 479524 ID: 7f2a1b

Right, off to examine the Hero Soul thingamajig, then.
>>
No. 479534 ID: 38cd76

That is an incredibly sad tale. I think I'm going to cry. Don't cry, Saulana, fight it!

Did we learn any sorcery in the vast amounts of knowledge that we've absorbed already? That could be handy.
>>
No. 479535 ID: 5e3d31

The interesting part is that our Time soul knows nothing about "The End" So is that particular time out of time?
>>
No. 479540 ID: f2c20c

>>479500
>Saulanna is a Deva

I've been meaning to ask about that. If Saulanna is a Deva, is there any way to tell what her Purpose and Element are?

Also, I thought it was really freaking hard to kill a Titan? Don't they become Yozis rather than truly die?

Next stop would be the Hero Soul.
>>
No. 479546 ID: ecbc1e

>>479540

> Also, I thought it was really freaking hard to kill a Titan? Don't they become Yozis rather than truly die?

Hard, yes, but not impossible. And they don't become Yozi when they die - that's the result of a spiritual lobotomy.

They become Neverborn. Which are basically ghost-Titans who want to destroy everything.


And yeah - onward to Hero Soul omniscan.
>>
No. 479551 ID: d1efde

Maybe before we take a look at the hero soul we should do something about those slavers?
>>
No. 479556 ID: b3952d

Nice job on the banter! This was fun.

And sad. Still, good to know.
>>
No. 479565 ID: 5d121c

So, Kairosa, how is it exactly you know such incredible and distant facts a few seconds after being born of a Tiatn who never knew those things?
>>
No. 479573 ID: 8e9721

>>479497
If Haht'hek is the purple dragon and White, Green, Blue, Red and Black are the ones we have now, Yellow remains unidentified. I wonder who is he and how is he connected to Yellow Jade?
>>
No. 479580 ID: 4a328b

Let's not think about it too hard lest we inadvertently turn a possibly metaphorical "The End" into a literal and inescapable "The End"--that's what happens when you look too hard at the future, right?
>>
No. 479596 ID: ffe40a

>>479580
That's if you use Samsara. What you see with it is locked in - it becomes inescapable. The kind of divination where you look at possible outcomes and forecast their probability - what Astrology and the Loom-user usually do - doesn't, but can be inaccurate.
>>
No. 479600 ID: 7003a8

>>479498
Clearly, we need to find a way to bring Gaia back through the power of narrative convention and reality warping without letting anything else in.
Lets have Kairosa and Wordblood put that on the back burner. For now, we need Kairosa to lick the Hero's Soul for information. The most vital piece of information at the moment is the identity of Saulanna's Solar Mate.

OH! Kairosa! Can you use your insight for an advantage in Social Combat? Like to figure out what an opponent's goal is, or the background behind their arguments?
>>
No. 479601 ID: 406926

>>479496
>Wordblood offers assistance
Kairosa is Time and Wordblood is Communication. Between the two of them, they can almost certainly literally tell the best stories ever, about anything that ever happened.

I love our devas so much. So. Much.

>all the Heroes of Time
>Oramus
Kairosa, I don't mean to drag this out, but your opening run-down of our dramatis personæ here seems a tad incomplete. Presumably the Maiden of Hours' champions were Star Heroes, but "all the Heroes of Time"- were those Dragon Heroes of Haht'hek? Or something else? How does Oramus fit into this- or into anything, for that matter- and what was he promised/did he promise?

>sorcery, Titanic power access for humans, and Power Words
So if I'm hearing this right, sorcery is just one way that a Titan built for humans to learn to access their Titanic spark, and Wordblood is working on a second one... does that imply that basically any Titan, or indeed any third-circle deva, could come up with their own way for humans to learn to exert Titanic will?

And that Saulanna could, potentially, learn to use any or all of them? We're learning Power Words already, after all. Sorcery's on the list. Does Kairosa have some particular spin on bending reality to her whims that Saulanna might be able to learn given a bit of time and Titan's Will? Where are the limits here- or are there limits at all?


Once that discussion is over it's time to go over to our Hero Soul and check it out, maybe have Kairosa nibble on it a bit, see if we can learn anything.
>>
No. 479608 ID: 3bad4c

>is just one way
I'm hearing that it's been woven into Creation and is therefore the major way of doing so, rather than a natural law. Pushing other possibilities to the side, as it were. Still, a good place to start for a beginner, especially one who can skip most of the fakery.

>Solar Mate
As if that's going to be of any interest. Being a lunar is rapidly becoming insignificant in terms of the baggage it carries. Developing Saulanna's aptitude for sorcery, I suspect, would also massively reduce any negatives the Exaltation could possibly bring with it.
It should be a tool, not a lifestyle.
>>
No. 479612 ID: 82ced6

we can ask Kaan if anything happened to any large collection of time-related heroes as a whole. I'm sure he wouldn't have missed an event that big.

next order of business: check out the floaty ball.
>>
No. 479623 ID: 4ede1b

>>479612
Death heroes didn't exist that far back and he didn't even know about the Time Dragon.
>>
No. 479625 ID: 05a1ac

>>479573
I would guess that's Gaia's queen soul. Especially with it being in the center.
>>479601
I would guess both dragon heroes of time AND heroes of pluto count as heroes of time.
>>
No. 479627 ID: bf54a8

problem is, they could of been erased from history itself. no one but the titans themselves would know that time heroes once existed but now never have.
>>
No. 479640 ID: d03e2c

How are we a deva? Wouldn't Saulanna be the highest level within this whole Titan pyramid-scheme of souls? Isn't the term 'deva' and 'demon' for souls in servitude to a greater being? In Exalted terms, wouldn't that make the Yozi themselves "Fourth Circle Demons"?
>>
No. 479642 ID: bf54a8

>>479640
we went over this, EVERY soul in a titan is a deva. there are just different lvls OF deva. which s what the other names are. what lvl you are.
>>
No. 479664 ID: 66ff59

>>479494
>I should do a more direct inspection!"

..i'm ok with this! but would Saulanna? i'm starting to think that when Kairosa said she loves Saulanna she didn't mean it as a daughter loves a mother.
>>
No. 479667 ID: 553329

The Dragon in the centre is the Dragon of Aether, I think it's called Aa and is part of Jukashi's additions to the setting.
I really like the idea of Haht'hek - he shall forever become a part of my own headcanon, albeit in Behemoth form.

Oh yes, now let's hug the Lunar Exaltation please! Your fellow Raccoon has spoken!
>>
No. 479668 ID: 553329

Is Saulanna a Deva or a Jouten? I would imagine a bit of both, based on the Broken Winged Crane.
>>
No. 479670 ID: cfa8a1

>So, as said, I have no idea who the joke is supposed to be on.

It's a joke on himself, of course. A personal joke, which even he doesn't quite understand.
>>
No. 479748 ID: cee89f

Who exactly would 'all the heroes of time' cover? ... Assuming we gained Exalted (as we've discussed as a potential late-game/end-game goal), would that include you and/or any heroes linked to your powers?

...Seriously, would it include you, or was it just the ones you mentioned and their heroes?
>>
No. 479776 ID: b24894

My god. *We* are the Raccoon-Element Deva! D=
>>
No. 479800 ID: dd56d7

>>479776
YES!!!

Also:
1. Poke Hero Soul
2. OM NOM NOM ALREADY
>>
No. 479801 ID: 9a701c

OMNOMNOM THE HERO SOUL!
>>
No. 479819 ID: 629257

>>479801
...Wait, what?
>>
No. 479866 ID: b24894

Wordblood: Your wings make you look like somebody I knew, once. He's with the toasters now.

Kairosa: If our Hero Soul is titanic in nature, how much Titan's Will would we get from consuming it? In theory, only, of course. I mean, if we were ever in a situation where it was "Find a bunch of Titan's Will right this moment" or "Die", it might be useful to know our options beforehand.
>>
No. 479872 ID: 629257

>>479866
If we were in that kind of situation, we'd be better off reappropriating titans will from elsewhere. That's something Kairosa can do, if I remember correctly.

More likely, if/when we end up eating someone with a hero soul that'll matter. It probably is a bad idea to do that though, rife with troublesome consequences.
>>
No. 479890 ID: 4411c7

So, 'ole Swahili initiated the Three Spheres Cataclysm after all.

Nice story, nice art.
>>
No. 480078 ID: ffe40a

>>479866
Well, unless it's been changed, Exaltations are indestructible to all known means - even Titanic. They were designed by Autotchon the Great Maker, the Primordial linked to creating things, specifically so his brethren couldn't remove them from the picture.

I highly doubt Saulanna's newly-ascended self can do anything to them.
>>
No. 480083 ID: 997ce7

>>480078
Good point, but every Titan has one thing about them that deviates from the norm. Malfeas is the kind, Cecelynne is the infinite prison, Oramus is Oramus, Swillin can retroactively destroy shit, Gaia is linked to Creation, etc.

We *might* be able to mess with the Hero's Soul. Scavenger and all that, though scavengers do normally stick to things already dead or broken. But given the lack of... thematic appropriateness, I suppose, it's not likely to work.
>>
No. 480084 ID: 629257

>>480078
Huh... Well even if we can't eat them, they might still be handy for Kairosa to gleam information off of if we ever happen to defeat an exalt. She just just stick them in her mouth and suck on them like hard candy.
>>
No. 480085 ID: dd287a

Don't forget to shed a tear for the Time Dragons tragic story, it deserves it.

And remember that story, since nobody else does.
>>
No. 480089 ID: 5246aa

hey Kairosa, how accurate/detailed/far-reaching is the information you can get with your past tasting ability? for e.g., if you used it on a carved stone block, how much information would you get about the people who mined it, carved it and laid it? would you be able to tell us what they were feeling or thinking about on that day for instance?
If you can get lots of information about them then a note should be made to use it on the box Ghost dude had, to get us started on that.
>>
No. 480191 ID: 5d121c

Wordblood, Kairosa... What kind of stealth Deva do you think would be appropriate? Seeing what you two are, could Paradox work? Or would a deva like that get on both of your nerves, seeing how it would have domain over temporal paradoxes and linguistic paradoxes? Hiding things in paradox would be an excellent way for them to never be found, though.
>>
No. 480202 ID: db1ec9

>>480191
What about delusion or perception? People many times only see what they want to see. It's hard to get past the filters of those above things because aren't they part of a person as well?
>>
No. 480216 ID: e92f17

>>480202
It could work as an automatic active effect, like the how the Tell actively blinds those with a dodge MDV lower than 12. Could maybe be duplicated by working out how the hero soul does it?
>>
No. 480217 ID: cee89f

Wordblood, Kairosa. I'd like both of your opinions on the different benefits of a Seeing deva with the Knowledge element, versus one with the Truth element. What passive abilities might they have? If one were picked, how well would the other work as a noble deva in the future?

How would a Defensive Deva work if given a generally offensive element, such as war or battle?

>Stealth Deva Elements
I'd also like your opinions on Space and Mask elements for a stealth Deva.
>>
No. 480218 ID: ec6d4c

Could we maybe keep future deva discussion in diss? It seems absurdly premature (and a little insulting!) for Sualanna to have known Kairosa for mere minutes and already be be planning the next one.
>>
No. 480219 ID: 370c40

>>480218
I'll agree on the premature part, but I don't know about it being absurdly premature. We are probably going to need a stealth deva relatively soon. Could probably wait until after we deal with the souls at the very least though!
>>
No. 480220 ID: 629257

>>480218
I think that after we settle the issues of processing souls and spending titans will, we should use part of this internal phase going over what elements we want to have overall, and what would be good purposes for them. It's important to have a plan, I think.

We don't need to do it right now, but that is the point. If we choose elements only when needed and only according to the purpose for that moment we may end up growing in a way we could regret.
>>
No. 480238 ID: dd56d7

>>480220
This.
>>
No. 480266 ID: b3f501

Hug the Lunar Exaltation, it needs love. It needs a lot of love.
>>
No. 480409 ID: 6965ea

>>480220
[That really is a matter for the discussion thread.]

What remains to be done for now is to see to the matter of these souls and formulate a plan for our dealings with Akaterina and the Moon Heroes.
>>
No. 480441 ID: a28731

>>480409
[not exactly, I started this a while ago but quickly ran into a problem of lack of knowledge, we need to discuss it with wordblood to get answers to make informed decisions]
>>
No. 480461 ID: 997ce7

>>480441
So ask him in ITQ?
>>
No. 480546 ID: a0ab92
File 135633060947.png - (146.39KB , 600x500 , crossbridge.png )
480546

>Who's Oramus?

"Oramus was the first of all the Titans. He is the marker between existence and non-existence, the foundation of all reality. If we were to use human terms, I suppose you could refer to him as the collective ancestor of all being. And non-being. And everything, really. "Child of Oramus' Promise" is merely a fanciful title that can be used in place of the word "Titan"."

"He's crazy. But nice! If you're a Titan."

"Indeed. As for the why of the title, and the reference to Gaia's own Promise... well, I'd tell you the tale as much as I know, but I think we've had enough story time for now?"

>Heroes of Time

"Yes, they were Haht'hek's Dragon Heroes! You could maybe call Pluto's Star Heroes that as well, but it'd be inaccurate. Pluto wasn't so much about time as about how time is measured. Mostly what she did was back the other Maidens up in doing their jobs, and run as go-between with them and Haht'hek. And hang out with him. Very passive goddess. Very passive Heroes. Though they did turn people into dragons sometimes? Star Heroes are a silly bunch of weirdos."

>Who's that in the middle?

"She is Aa, the Elemental Dragon of Aether, and Queen of Gaia. Assuming nothing has changed, she lives in the Twilight World; that is, the world of dreams. But even aether itself, I must tell you, is a dire, dire secret; it is the final refined resource that we Titans produce when we purify the stuff of chaos into useable form, the clay for our greatest works. We even restricted our own access to it. Don't let anyone know about it, please."

"... You know, a lot of the Titan's Will you get from a soul is from sucking the aether out of it. If we could dip into the aetherworld for power, we could-"

"Forget it. The Unconquered Sun himself is the guard on that door."

>I thought it was really freaking hard to kill a Titan?

"Haht'hek was the Lord deva of a Titan, not a Titan himself! But yes, it would normally be very very hard to kill him, so that tells you a lot about what it was that did it! Basically, it's as if him and all of his own lower devas died at the beginning of existence. Of course, that's not the whole story. Gaia is the Titan of Life, after all! Theoretically, she should have been able to bring him back, or at least someone very like him. There must be a reason why she hasn't, but my senses can't reach that far. Perhaps the story I've been able to tell isn't the whole story! I get a faint sense that there is something of his essence still left. Somewhere. If you ever need something to do, you could look into it!"

>So, Kairosa, how is it exactly you know such incredible and distant facts a few seconds after being born of a Titan who never knew those things?

"Well, as I showed you, I can taste history! So long as I'm in contact with something to taste the history of. And through you, I'm in contact with the world and with the greater passage of time, so I can taste those! And that lets me know some things. Not everything. Time is like... ok, you know that at the borders of the world, reality shades away to chaos, yeah? The further you get the softer the rules become and the less defined everything is until it all fades out into a mad rainbow mess of infinite potentiality but no actuality. Time is the same. The future is not real. The future is uncertain, and the past is more certain, but it's not uniformly certain, see? The present is only slightly less unreal than the future, and events don't really become real for a while. Some do quick, some hardly ever become real at all. It's all about relativity! Just because something was in "the past", by dumb old abstract measurement whatever, doesn't mean that it's actually happened yet. Not from your perspective! It's only "happened" when it affects you! Tiny insignificant things were hardly real at all. Most events become more real the further back in the past they go, because the ripples of causality spread out to affect other things and it all interlocks to get more solid. And some events were so big and important that they affect lots of stuff really quickly and become really real super fast! And that's basically what decides whether I know something or not, how real it is, because the more real things have more flavour. So, the further back an event was, and the more significant it was, the more it sprayed the flavour of itself all over everything and the more likely I know it. It's complicated, see?"

... Huh.

"It seems simple enough."

"I'd expect you to get it, Mr. The-World-Is-A-Narrative."

"We all have our own insights."

"As for Haht'hek, I know a bit more about him because we're both Time. The world misses him, and there's, um. A gap. It sort of pulls at me a bit but I'm way too small and I don't really fit that good in the first place, so no danger. It's a connection, though. I can feel the shape of his absence. That tells me some things."

"Like looking through somebody's possessions, long after they're dead."

"Yyyyyyyyyeeeeah. It's... kind of depressing."

>How are we a deva?

"To be more precise: The body of the human, Saulanna Rockblossom, has become the body of a Titan. The soul of the human, Saulanna Rockblossom, has become the chief soul of that Titan. A deva."

>Kairosa! Can you use your insight for an advantage in Social Combat?

"I could, but as I said, you have to touch them, and they'd feel me take a nip on their essence, especially if they're magic themselves. If I combined my abilities with Wordblood's, though..."

"I might as well drop this information now. My World Reading ability would provide the sort of service you're asking about. To be more specific, it would, in its various stages: allow me to tell you an opponent's Will Points, then the numbers their attacks use, then (after improving my Soul Force) their Heart's Desire, and then (with more Soul Force again) their Mal/Affections. And other details with further upgrades, such as their competencies, magical abilities and so on. If I combined this ability of mine with Kairosa's, I might allow her to use her senses without needing to touch or alert the subject. I should tell you, however, I would need to borrow one of your eyes in order to read the world. On the positive side - since I know you've been wondering - there's a secondary ability up in the higher levels that will allow me to hear any prayers directed at you. That could allow Peregrin a way to contact you."

"Wow, look at this useful guy! I'm gonna drop lots of Titan's Will on you!"

"... Saulanna is the one who decides how we spend it."

"Oh. Oh, right! Duh me! Of course! Sorry. Ha ha! Still, you seem to have a good idea what you can do."

"To a degree, yes; more so now than recently. Your creation helped solidify all of us, so I feel somewhat more certain of myself, now. In fact... let me check. Yes. Yes, I actually have access to my own Titan Boost, now! It- er. Hm. It would allow me to improve my attempts at linguistic challenges. But we succeed on those anyway. Oh, and challenges that involve helping others, how nice! What about you, Kairosa?"

"I've got one of those as well, actually, nice! Helps with judgements on the past or future, huh. Oh, challenges that hinge on timing, aaand... magical energy control. That's useful!"

"Hmm. But aside that last function, neither of our Boosts do anything the Moon Boost doesn't incorporate already, and they only give a bonus equal to our Soul Forces. Well, it was made for the purpose of enhancement, so that's to be expected."

>Consuming the Hero's Soul

"Nope, can't do that! Sorry! They were made by Autochthon himself to specifically be protected from that sort of thing, far as I can tell. The most you can do is mess with them, and even then you'd need a Titan whose thing was messing with things to tell you how to do it. I mean, on the other hand, if you were a Titan who was entirely geared around destruction or consuming, you could do it. Maybe. It'd be a waste, though, these things are worth like thousands of times the sum of their cost, whatever it was!"

""A Titan whose thing was messing with things"... Hmm. I can't help but think of the Dragon's Shadow."

>Check out the Hero's Soul

On the way.
>>
No. 480547 ID: a0ab92
File 135633066290.png - (126.60KB , 600x500 , licking1.png )
480547

Alright, this should be fun! Given what Heroes get up to, this thing should have been at the center of a ton of important stories. I wouldn't be surprised if we learn some really cool secre-"
>>
No. 480548 ID: a0ab92
File 135633073065.png - (136.34KB , 600x500 , licking2.png )
480548

"-eeeeeaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhoooooolyyy fffaaaaaaaaaaaahhhck....!!!"
>>
No. 480550 ID: 92c81e

>>480548
It's delicious, isn't it?
>>
No. 480551 ID: ec6d4c

So... we're not gonna ask about the wings? I wanna ask about Wordblood's wings! A change in appearance has to signify something, don't it?

>lots of word read uses
That's all a lot of useful intel gathering to shape our actions in social combat. I'd love to give him some kind of more directly offensive capability, though.

>Titans' boosts
Yeeeesssss.

>Holy Fack!
Uh... I think she's either overloading on history/taste there, or she just tripped some kind of defense mechanism. I would suggest helping her- trying to extricate her. Gently though, don't want to rip her tongue off if it's stuck.
>>
No. 480554 ID: bf54a8

yeah gently pull her off that thing. it was owned by every moon hero before you, who knows how much history it has?
>>
No. 480555 ID: 14d963

>"I get a faint sense that there is something of his essence still left. Somewhere. If you ever need something to do, you could look into it!"
That sounds suspiciously like Wordblood's state before Peregrin bound him to us! And Wordblood said there could be more like him, elsewhere in Creation.

Though we might not want to bind Haht'hek to us like Wordblood, since Wordblood mentioned that having two souls with the same element is dangerous. If we can find what's left of him, I'd rather try to find a way to give him back to Gaia, her being one of the few friendly Titans.

>"Hmm. But aside that last function, neither of our Boosts do anything the Moon Boost doesn't incorporate already, and they only give a bonus equal to our Soul Forces."
Could be useful when doing a task we have a very low Competency at?

Can we use your and the Hero Soul's Boosts at the same time?

>"Alright, this should be fun! Given what Heroes get up to, this thing should have been at the center of a ton of important stories. I wouldn't be surprised if we learn some really cool secre-"
>"-eeeeeaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhoooooolyyy fffaaaaaaaaaaaahhhck....!!!"
"Kairosa! Are you alright!?"

Try to pull her away, though yes, as previous posters have said, gently. If she doesn't respond immediately, ask Wordblood if he can tell what happened.
>>
No. 480556 ID: f2c20c

Might want to try getting her away from there.
>>
No. 480565 ID: 5d121c

Huh. Now I'm really getting interested about this "aetherworld". The land of dreams? What's all that about?

And how could only one door possibly lead to such a place? Shouldn't every mortal and any other spirit be able to get at it by simply dreaming? Or by stealing dreams, like the fair folk?

Wasn't there a sid martial art that went on about these things too, by the way? I think I remember it being the only one that couldn't be regulated because everyone who did would find a teacher in their dreams.

>"Haht'hek ... If you ever need something to do, you could look into it!"

A very interesting prospect, and it could help us get in good with Gaia and Luna, if we're careful. I hope we find the time for it.

>The-World-Is-A-Narrative

It seems both Kairosa and Wordblood are close to this point of view. Maybe we could solidify our titanhood around a concept somewhere in this neighbourhood.

...this is, again, a bad sign for a Paradox Deva, isn't it? Or maybe not. You never know with a paradox.

>Kairosa having a freakout

Well, see if she's alright and help her if she needs it! More likely it's just an overload of awesome heroic memories, though.
>>
No. 480569 ID: d4ad1a

Pull her off, ask her what's up.
>>
No. 480573 ID: 3bad4c

You're currently the boss of that Hero soul, so you should definitely be the one to get in between those two.

This is your world and you are Queen of it! To be perfectly honest, I expect you to have no trouble at all.
>>
No. 480581 ID: 09ae2c

Hey, Kairosa is bogarting! Get yourself a hit of that shit before she licks her way to the center!
>>
No. 480582 ID: 2f4b71

>"Well, as I showed you, I can taste history! So long as I'm in contact with something to taste the history of. And through you, I'm in contact with the world and with the greater passage of time, so I can taste those! And that lets me know some things. Not everything. Time is like... ok, you know that at the borders of the world, reality shades away to chaos, yeah? The further you get the softer the rules become and the less defined everything is until it all fades out into a mad rainbow mess of infinite potentiality but no actuality. Time is the same. The future is not real. The future is uncertain, and the past is more certain, but it's not uniformly certain, see? The present is only slightly less unreal than the future, and events don't really become real for a while. Some do quick, some hardly ever become real at all. It's all about relativity! Just because something was in "the past", by dumb old abstract measurement whatever, doesn't mean that it's actually happened yet. Not from your perspective! It's only "happened" when it affects you! Tiny insignificant things were hardly real at all. Most events become more real the further back in the past they go, because the ripples of causality spread out to affect other things and it all interlocks to get more solid. And some events were so big and important that they affect lots of stuff really quickly and become really real super fast! And that's basically what decides whether I know something or not, how real it is, because the more real things have more flavour. So, the further back an event was, and the more significant it was, the more it sprayed the flavour of itself all over everything and the more likely I know it. It's complicated, see?"

Timecube! No, really. Think of one axis as Time As Mortals Perceive. At right angles to this, is Time As The World Exists. And at right angles to both is The Existence of All Possible Events. There is a flow of both times, from past to future, that most beings are caught up in. With effort (well, Titan's Will), one could move around the plane of time, though more easily in the mortal axis than the world axis. Events ripply across this plane, but it is not necessarily flat; events far from the plane of 'that which is real' have produced small ripples, whereas large events right on the plane have ripples that affect many. Titan's Will may both introduce new events into the space of existence, and/or shift the plane of that which is real to meet events that did not 'occur'.
>>
No. 480583 ID: 629257

Uhm... pull her off of there! She might be only getting an information overload that'll pass, but it could be something worse!
>>
No. 480586 ID: 55d1d4

stop her before she starts having sex with it.
>>
No. 480595 ID: 6cafbb

Whip that hero soul into shape! We'll have no more nonsense out of it!
>>
No. 480609 ID: 2cd465

Don't just stand there. Hurry to her and quickly (but gently) extricate her.

What could be causing all the distress? It might be something from the War, but I'm concerned about how tasting the Taint could affect her. Help right away!
>>
No. 480618 ID: 334456

Any one else pick up that hint that we've been neglecting to power up Wordblood?
>>
No. 480651 ID: 1da170

Bit too much history in one bite, I think.

Make sure she gets off it before she explodes, I think it's time to find what legendary jackasses our Exaltation has belonged to!
>>
No. 480654 ID: e92f17

>>480651
The Solars were the Legendary Jackasses (See: Desus). Maybe it's just the relatively high mortality rate, chimerism, unfixed castes, and other weirdness that comes with modern Lunars. Or a defense mechanism against Titans messing with the spark. Either way we need to pull her off of it.
>>
No. 480659 ID: f2c20c

>>480618
>>480623
Discussion goes in questdis.
>>
No. 480660 ID: b3952d

....Wow she has a long tongue. I can't help but wonder where it went when she was kissing us before.

In any case, I think we might want to get her off our Hero Soul before she starts Tasting the Rainbow.
>>
No. 480662 ID: f5588d

Note to self: don't lick things that glow with the power of the Moon!
>>
No. 480671 ID: 2f6e6e

Oh noes.
She's tasting the Beyond. Quick, rip her out before she breaks the fourth wall!
>>
No. 480673 ID: cee89f

....Get Kairosa AWAY FROM THAT THING and ask what got her so worked up.

...

Hi-oooooooooooooooo!
>>
No. 480700 ID: 4411c7

Did you forget? Hero's Souls assuming standard Exalted fluff all have memories of their previous owners. A being who can gaze into past events by tasting a soul would be in for a real treat when they taste a Hero's Soul.
>>
No. 480709 ID: e92f17

>>480700
Not quite. Lytek is supposed to scrub them clean of memory, but might miss a spot or two (or all of it, in the case of Past Lives 5)
>>
No. 480777 ID: cfa8a1

She's having a joygasm guys. It's perfectly unnatural.

...Lick the Hero's Soul yourself.
>>
No. 480807 ID: ffcde3

Lytek cleans them, but in addition to missing spots, he also leaves bits in on purpose for his own reasons. Point being, there's probably bits of any given hero who held a shard left over. That probably doesn't matter to Kairosa's ability though, since cleaning the shard doesn't change its history
>>
No. 480841 ID: 5d121c

Let's lick Kairosa ourselves. Give her a taste of her own medicine.
>>
No. 480855 ID: 68bbc5

Lick the Hero's Soul yourself, to see what all the fuss is about.
>>
No. 480873 ID: ce45c3
File 135664946881.png - (219.37KB , 600x500 , pullback1.png )
480873

>Pull her off

Yes, this seems like a good idea. After a brief hesitation on what parts of Kairosa seem most holdable, Saulanna peels her away.

"Uuueeeuhh... s-sorry... about that..."

"What happened?"

"It was... uuh, give me a moment. Huhh. Ha. "Give me a moment". Ha ha! Huurh. Ok. Ok, it was. It was just a lot to take in! Phew. Really, I mean, wow! Let me just... try to get it sorted, here. I got... all the Hero Soul's past hosts, and everything they lived through. There's been like... two three... five... six of them! And the biggest stuff they were there for, like... the war with the underworld, wow. And the invasion of the Fae, and the Contagion! And... uh, wait. Start at the beginning. I tasted... I tasted..."
>>
No. 480874 ID: ce45c3
File 135664950099.png - (107.05KB , 600x500 , pullback2.png )
480874

"Oh! Oh my shinma of excellence, I could taste Autochthon's hands from when he made it! And, and Luna, and... and Gaia! Gaia helped with the Moon Hero souls, for Luna! I understand, I get it! The Sun Heroes were made for perfection, but the Moon Heroes were made for adaptation, for survival! Your Hero Soul is evolving! It's supposed to change when something like this happens, that's what it was made for!!"

"It... and the wyld! The taint of chaos that turns Moon Heroes into crazy monsters, that's how it got in! The Moon Heroes' Hero Souls tried to adapt, to absorb it, make themselves stronger! That's why chimeras get powers normal Moon Heroes don't have! But, but it went wrong. It didn't work right. It... Autochthon! And Luna, and Gaia! It's too organic, Autochthon didn't get it, he's all about things you make, not things that grow! And Gaia had the same problem in reverse! But, but it's still so great, I mean this thing, I know I said it was fantastic before and that was such an understatement! It... it... no, it doesn't make sense. The evolution mechanism works, it could have fixed itself. It should have fixed itself. Why? There's something else. There was something else. Some other problem. Something... hold on, let me try remember... the Hero Souls were made... got hosts... trained... then..."

>>
No. 480875 ID: ce45c3
File 135664954380.png - (95.44KB , 600x500 , pullback3.png )
480875

"Oh... oh no! The war! The fighting! The Titans, they, they had to live out in the chaos for so long and it was so hard and so horrible and all they wanted was to look after each other and their souls and they made the world to be safe, so their souls could be happy and then it all went wroooooong!! The gods betrayed them!! We made them and we gave them life and meaning and they could live with us in here where it's safe and then they made Heroes and they attacked us and hurt us and, and they went in and tore them up from the inside so they could feel their souls dying inside them, they could feel themselves getting weaker, and when they realized they wouldn't be able to bring them back they cried, because they'd failed, they felt so horrible and ashamed and angry and it kept happening, until it was so bad they wanted to die, and they did, but they couldn't, but they were so hurt and so sad, and they hated the gods so much for doing that to them that it was the last thing they could even think and the last thing that bled from their veins and the last breath that they used to, to...!"
>>
No. 480876 ID: ce45c3
File 135664957849.png - (120.79KB , 600x500 , pullback4.png )
480876

"To... damn it! Curse them! Curse them all, idiotic ungrateful little scraps of nothing that wouldn't exist without us! Whine and complain and make speeches to themselves about how righteous they are, like worms crawling under a rock and complaining about how heavy it is when they know nothing about the heat of the sun or the birds that would eat them!! How noble of them to cover how much their freedom cost reality itself, all the gods and the creatures that were murdered just because they were loyal, all the places and the times and the things wiped from existence because of their cursed ignorance!! They can suffer! Any of them with any nobility can rot trying to stall their guilt with toys and drugs and let their fools and villains destroy them all, and they can get a lesson on what it's like to be betrayed when their own creations ruin everything they ever wanted to build, again, and then again, and it can keep happening all the way down for ever and ever AND EVE-!!"
>>
No. 480877 ID: ce45c3
File 135664961121.png - (118.35KB , 600x500 , pullback5.png )
480877

SMACK
>>
No. 480878 ID: ce45c3
File 135664964741.png - (129.58KB , 600x500 , pullback6.png )
480878

"... Oww..."

"You're welcome. What was that all about?"

"I... I don't know. I just felt... bad."

"I see. Well, what about the Hero Soul? You said there was a problem with it?"

"I... did. Yeah. There was something. It was... important. Something to do with the war. The Titans who died. I have to remember... But... ugh. I just... whenever I try to get it back, all I can think of is how terrible the gods are for what they did, and it feels so horrible..."

"Maybe I'll... try again, later? Later. Please? I... I know lots of other stuff, now. If there's anything you wanted to ask..."

>>
No. 480879 ID: 886a4d

I think we're done here. Thank her and apoligize for bringing all that up.
>>
No. 480882 ID: 60c0a1

Well some of your siblings put in yearning for something better in them souls. Yes you may have made a place to be happy and safe. Yet it wasn't so happy and safe when one or another of your kin acted up. Yet this time, perhaps things will change or continue as they have always been. Go comfort Kairosa, seeing something like that isn't all that healthy.
>>
No. 480883 ID: 60fee2

>>480878
Give her a hug.
>>
No. 480886 ID: 14d963

I think the original reason we were doing this was to see if it would help us relearn any of our previous incarnations' skills or Moon Abilities.
>>
No. 480887 ID: ec6d4c

>>480883
Amen to that.

Apologize for putting her through that, and thank her for trying. And yeah, we're definitely putting off any further messing with the hero's soul till later. Much later, when we're strong enough to handle it.

That whole made to adapt thing though, and the fact it's gone wrong at least once before, means we should probably keep an eye on it. There's no telling how thing is going to react, or what it's going to become, long term.

...I don't suppose Saulanna can safely examine it herself? I mean, she usually taps into it for power all the time.
>>
No. 480892 ID: dd56d7

>>480883
Yes. This.
>>
No. 480893 ID: e3aff6

It seems like a titan inserted a chunk of their history or even a piece of themselves into the Hero's soul.
>>
No. 480897 ID: 54e5eb

>"I... did. Yeah. There was something. It was... important. Something to do with the war. The Titans who died. I have to remember... But... ugh. I just... whenever I try to get it back, all I can think of is how terrible the gods are for what they did, and it feels so horrible..."

Look like she nearly managed to discover the truth of the Great Curse here. Still, it's strange that she is getting emphatic interferences from the Titans rather then the actual Exaltation.
>>
No. 480904 ID: bf54a8

>>480897
it's probably a side effect of TIME and stuff. and yeah, it must be something involving the great curse.
>>
No. 480907 ID: 7003a8

>>480878
Saulanna: Point out that mortals have always been controlled by those above them. If they have no agency then they can bear no blame.
In defense of Luna, she deeply loves Gaia. You don't know what she did when the war happened, but she at least deserves a second chance.

Wordblood: Realize that the celestial game lead the gods to betray the titans, and the best revenge would have been destroying the game.
>>
No. 480912 ID: 5d121c

So... she tasted the great curse itself. How fun?

Give her a hug. Let's just get on with tasting the ghosts now. Tell her we trust her to sort out what she just experienced when she's ready.
>>
No. 480913 ID: 406926

>>480878
>If there's anything you wanted to ask...
There are many things we wanted to ask, but none of them are as important as making sure Kairosa is all right. We're into hugs, but hugs are only a gesture of affection; does Kairosa need to gather herself before she's okay to get back to work? Because we can chat with Wordblood for a while, or just sit there and hold her, or maybe some other things. In fact, don't even ask if she needs a minute; just give her it. Other topics!

Things to do before insisting that Kairosa keep working:

-Ask Wordblood about how this whole inner world thing works. Each of our lord devas has dominion over part of it, right? Can we consciously reshape it? Can Saulanna make the grassy area grow flowers, for example? If so, give it a shot. How can we tell who has dominion over what? What can we do to develop it more?

-Let's go take a look inside the hut in the middle of the central island. Maybe it'll have clues to who she is? Even if it doesn't, basically anything exactly in the center of the world is bound to be important somehow.

-Is there anything that Wordblood wants to talk to us about? It seems like we're constantly occupied by immediate concerns, but now we have a little bit of time to chat.

Once we've gone through some of that, we can get back to Kairosa with the following topics:

-When we last devoured a soul, Wordblood learned a great deal of (very upsetting) history- but that history was as that soul knew it, not as things truly were, by my understanding. Would it be beneficial to go over some of that and fact-check, so that we can be reasonably sure that we're not working off bad information? This isn't necessarily "we must go over everything right now", but it might be good to make a habit of this- because Wordblood is a being of communication, but lies can be communicated as easily as truths.

-Maybe... Kairosa might even have some answers for Wordblood, as to why the first Heroes were so willing to kill him when he loved them.

-On practical matters, can Kairosa help us to use the Moon Abilities which the prior bearers of our Hero Soul possessed? What about their Competencies? Either could be exceedingly valuable.

-Can she tell us more about relatively recent events that the Hero Soul went through? In particular, it seems like we can't turn around without hitting references to the Tide of Oblivion. That seems important to know about in some detail- maybe get some details on the name and activities of the last Hero during that time?

-Can she fill us in on the general Moon Hero culture? Askalaff was spinning things so hard that it's surprising the whole room didn't get dizzy, so having a more unbiased look at how they do things could be priceless.

-When we were talking to the Moon Heroes, we noticed that our Moon Abilities seem to last longer than we had initially expected. Can Wordblood and Kairosa confirm or deny our theory that this is some sort of subconscious Titanic effect?

-Can the three of us chat for a while and establish some solid opinions on various topics, possibly via Social Combat? We know what opinions we want on a whole bunch of topics- we want to stay independent of other powers, for example, and we want to grow into a true, proper Titan without getting killed. But I think Saulanna is so young- with only a few hours of memory- that these feelings haven't been internalized and developed into true mal/affections or a Heart's Desire. Perhaps with some time to talk them out and really dwell on who she is and what she wants from life, Saulanna will be able to find her social center? Then she could face the world from a much more confident position in future social combats.

-And while we're at that, maybe Wordblood could go over a few things he didn't get to in our social combat lessons. We kept tripping over new emotions and mechanics last time around and getting caught off guard again would be both embarrassing and potentially devastating to our plans.

-Does Kairosa have any distinct Titanic Abilities that she'll be able to use on our behalf when we're not in our Inner World? If she doesn't right now, does she have an idea of what her options would be with some additional Titan's Will?

-She said that the Hero Soul is growing and evolving even now- how is it changing? What is it growing into? Is there any chance that we'd be able to guide its development?

-Can Kairosa tell us anything about the limitations and mechanics of the control that the Dragon's Shadow has over the cycle of days and nights in shadowlands? That seems like her field.

-We should probably get at least the names and a two-sentence description of each of the Moon Heroes who shared our Hero Soul.

-Hey, there was a Sun Hero matched to our Hero Soul originally, right? What's the latest information we have on them?
>>
No. 480923 ID: 629257

No... storytime can wait for now. Let her think about whats she's learned and we'll talk about it later. And I definitely think Kairosa should have a higher soul force before trying to get another taste of that.

We should get some souls in here, then work on spending and planning.
>>
No. 480926 ID: f2c20c

>>480876
I see the red sign of the Titans there in the background.

>>480878
I suspect that Kairosa really really wants to talk about the nicer things she's learned, to clear her mind about the bad parts. We should definitely talk to her about more things. Even if I'm wrong about that, we should still do it because we kinda NEED to.

Have her tell us some selections of info that she wants to talk about, for kicks. Otherwise, I can't think of anything that >>480913 doesn't already cover.

Also, now that we're a bit less overwhelmed, we could compliment our devas on their looks. Wordblood's wings are cute as hell, and Kairosa just looks damn cool. Tell them we're looking forward to seeing what they look like with a bit more TW under their belts. And us, too! I bet if we get a buncha Soul Power we'll start like, glowing and shit when we're in here. Hey... is Wordblood aware that he sorta broadcasts his thoughts through his word-based body? So far it's been interesting and sometimes useful seeing his unspoken insight on things.
>>
No. 480927 ID: b3952d

Give Hugs.

Remind self later to try to figure out this Curse thing. Maybe build an Examining Soul to help with that.

Chat with Wordblood about Inner World until Kairosa feels better.

Ask Kairosa if she learned any cool powers we might be able to get at soon and if she can angle us towards getting one of them when we boost our Soul Force.

Check out those ghosts and then Nom them.
>>
No. 480929 ID: b3952d

Oh, also ask how much Soul Force they need to be able to manifest in the Outer World and how much we need to make our Inner World habitable and bring other humans in and out.
>>
No. 480931 ID: d1efde

So, what I'm getting here is that there's a curse on the Hero Souls, and I suppose all mortals as well. So when Kairosa tasted the Hero Soul she also tasted the curse and the history and power of that curse is so potent that it's overriding the other information?

But I think we still got enough. Basically the curse is doing what it's meant to do in causing the natural adaptability of the Lunar Hero Souls to fail to adapt to the chaos taint from the wyld.

Huh, if this true then following this line of reasoning wouldn't the curse also cause problems with the Hero Soul trying to adapt to the current situation? Kinda worrisome.

So, yeah. Better ask about whether the curse will cause problems for the Hero Soul as it tries to adapt to being part of a Titan.
>>
No. 480932 ID: c54cd1

The Great Curse, huh? Yikes, I vote for hugs too. That stuff's NASTY.

Actually, Wordblood, can you sort of...separate the knowledge she just absorbed into something else? From the look of things, all of it at once (and the content of course) wasn't healthy, so it might be best to externalize it for later perusal. Maybe convert the thoughts into a Great Big Book O' Knowledge? I'm rather concerned about our Kairosa's health, what with having been born literally minutes ago.
>>
No. 480937 ID: 38b125

Commence with the hugging (and try to get Wordblood to join in for a big group hug), inquire as to what sort of neat things Kairosa has learned from the Hero Soul.
>>
No. 480958 ID: 2eac65

Oh, dear, that must have been horrible. I can hardly imagine what it's like to feel that sort of grief. Do you think you want to lie down? Maybe we should take a seat and let Kairosa rest in our lap.

>Hero's Soul was made to adapt
That's very interesting. So it might be behaving in a strange way intentionally, in response to our unique Titanic nature? Perhaps that's what attracted it to us in the first place.

>important information, can't remember clearly
It's okay, Kairosa. You've told us enough; I think we can figure it out from the context. Would you be alright with speculating about it?

(If it'd trigger another flashback, keep this to ourself:)

...Well, we've learned that our Hero's Soul isn't working like it should. And when we looked for the cause, we got that message from the dying Titans wishing death and suffering on everyone. The two must be linked somehow; the most probable explanation is that the Titans who were slain in the war somehow corrupted our Hero's Soul out of hatred, in order to seek revenge on the world. That's a very unsettling thought.

>the ancient war, death and pain
This, I'm reluctant to judge. I know we've been hearing a lot about the war between the Titans and the humans, but most of the info we've been getting is one-sided. We know what a nightmare it was for the Titans, but we don't know what exactly drove the gods and humans to turn against them to begin with. It could have been simple greed, or ambition, but I'm not willing to write it off as just that. Not until we know the humans' point of view.

>more information
Yes, thank you. Could you tell us about the past incarnations of our Hero's Soul?
>>
No. 480973 ID: bf54a8

>>480967
i think it's because she tasted the great curse in it. not that she has the curse.
>>
No. 480994 ID: 3bad4c

@Saulanna,
See if you can bring the Lunar shard's Inner Den into your Inner World.

>>/questarch/474217
>>/quest/480878
@Wordblood,
Has Kairosa inherited the Titanic hatred from inside the Lunar shard at the moment of her creation?

If so, how many devas are we going to have to create to render it inert inside her? (Perhaps one Element:Crafting|Purpose:Substitution and another Element:Rebirth|Purpose:Healing?)
Eesh, actually new devas might have the same problem. Should we be advocating increasing the soul force of you and Saulanna? Or would increasing Kairosa's soul force be the ideal counter?

>>480931
@Kairosa,
>"It should have fixed itself."
Sounds like titanic influence, maybe some sort of curse like what you were remembering there.
How much does it suck to have inherited an irrational* hatred that's going to manifest itself at the worst possible moments? My sympathies.
This is how narratives work, of course. However, my hope is that you being aware of such a thing will suck all narrative impact from its surprise effects, and therefore making it increasingly irrelevant.

I just wanted to point this out when you're about to be in the possession of a handful of Titan's Will, rather than finding this out and having no Titan's Will on hand to do anything about it. I'd recommend trusting Wordblood opinion, it seems he's got some great instincts.

*Irrational because without the titan war you would not exist. You don't seem unhappy with existing. We're certainly happy you exist, you're a great deva.

6th time's a charm
>>
No. 481011 ID: 4411c7

Hug her.
>>
No. 481027 ID: 334456

Got herself a taste of the Great Curse, did she?

It, and all the hate and ill wishes and despair of the Titan's killed which brought that curse about. Poor dear.
>>
No. 481056 ID: a5bbcc

>>481011
Devas Need Love Like Everything Does
>>
No. 481057 ID: 035769

>>481011
do this, she really looks like she needs a hug.

we should see if there is some way we can end the pain of the titans without endangering creation. just letting them loose would probably end with them going crazy and killing everything, but putting them out of there misery would end creation due to how they structured it. we would need to be strong enough to either help heal them, or alter creation enough that mercy killing them would not bring about the end of all things.
>>
No. 481061 ID: 521153

Hey, it's okay. It isn't important right now. We don't have the means to correct or augment whatever seems wrong with it anyway, not now at least.

Now, we have hugs. And for questions, did any of the past hosts know an Askalaff, an Empty Moon caste, or Garmir, Full Moon caste? Askalaff is at least 500 years old, if that helps narrow things down. Anyway, info on them would be totes useful at the moment.
>>
No. 481130 ID: 629257

Ignoring for a moment meta knowledge we shouldn't have...

Kairosa, can you tell if the "wrongness" in the hero soul is limited to only it? Or does it bleed into us from being exalted, or to you from its role in your creation?
>>
No. 481131 ID: ec6d4c

>>481061
Getting roundabout knowledge of our opponents via the past exaltations of our hero's soul would be pretty tricksy. Any dirt we dig up on them this way isn't going to exactly be recent, but a better understanding of their past or personality could be useful.
>>
No. 481150 ID: 3bad4c

@Kairosa,
>"And messing with the past?? Woah. I mean, any Titan can just brute-force reality into the shape it would have taken if something had been different, but what was done was still done, you just made it pretend it didn't!"
Given that you've existed for all of zero seconds according to Creation's time scale, what would be the consequences of altering the circumstances of your own creation to block the influence of the Lunar Exaltation Shard? (Or at least that bit of possible titan-hate you don't want?)

Apart from consuming that one remaining Titan's Will, of course.

From what you've explained, 'Time' and 'Cause and Effect' only matter when it's going on inside Creation.
From Creation's perspective, you don't even exist yet!

Welcome to being part of a Titan, where being incredibly awesome is part of the job!
Subverting causality at this infinitesimal scale should be a breeze for you. *grin*
Maybe you can just look at a future where you already succeeded in doing so for long enough that it becomes real!

Remember, you're the boss of time in this world. Some other Titan's devas have nothing to do with it.
Also, I think it would be incredibly impressive.
>>
No. 481254 ID: cee89f

... That's fine, Kairosa. I think it's time we brought those souls in here.

(also, i just realized that Kairosa's mask looks a lot like Kamina's glasses. Nice.)

>>481150
The problem is that it would primarily be affecting KAIROSA: who she was, who she is, what she would've done... We've been in our inner world for a while. Even if creation never notices a difference, we will and she will.
>>
No. 481391 ID: d59f46

Time for a group hug. Then, uh, get some Titan's Will for... Beauty?
>>
No. 481406 ID: 6b1436

Yes! Yes! Beauty! Spend all the TW on beauty so we won't regret not spending it on physical attributes when we have lunar tattoos and then take a bath so we have an excuse for our sudden change in appearance!

...Actually, spending ALL of it might be a bad idea. But enough so we have more dots than Akatrina.
>>
No. 481412 ID: 4ede1b

>>481406
>>481391
No, we need to save it for bringing back our Soul Force and getting stuff more useful then a couple single dot upgrades when we were getting creamed by a lot more then just a couple points. Also, we've been trying to ensure we don't get tattoos, so that shouldn't be a deciding factor in anything.
>>
No. 481418 ID: ec6d4c

...let's save TW allocation until after we've eaten the two ghosts (or not) and we know how much we have to work with. If you wanna get ahead of yourself and discus ideas, that's what dis is for.
>>
No. 481435 ID: 5d121c

>>481406
I think spending our points on beauty or just simple soul force is a good idea. Upgrading the devas is great and all but we should be personally strong first if we want to be successful in our current predicaments.
>>
No. 481438 ID: bf54a8

>>481435
technically all our devas put together determines our mind stats. physical stats effect our Creation body.
>>
No. 481526 ID: f2c20c

>>481406
We are absolutely not getting lunar tattoos.
>>
No. 481627 ID: 334456

>>481435
We should definately upgrade Wordblood in the near future. Poor guys feeling neglected, methinks.
>>
No. 481660 ID: ee283b

>>481627

I definitely agree it'd be a good idea to upgrade our Aide of Communication right now, especially seeing social.
>>
No. 481686 ID: 027156

>>481435

these strange little outbursts of our devas may stem from some sort of instability caused by being weaker than lords were meant to be. I say give all three of your souls soul force. it's not like we won't get any other awesome benefits if that wasn't it. besides, beauty has a much more limited use.
>>
No. 481689 ID: 38cd76

Lets get the world reading ability, then upgrade everyones soul force up to 3, so as to not draw suspicion.
>>
No. 481782 ID: 70e253

Sometimes telling a story or explaining something can be centering.

If it would help Kairosa to tell us about the time of something, hearing it would be gladdening. Talking about the Hero Soul, and the Moon Heroes who carried it, might be suitable, starting with, perhaps, the death of the first Moon Hero. How and when did these Moon Heroes live and die? How and when did heroes important to them live and die? Were Askalaff and Garmir known to any of them?

What was the experience of the prior moon heroes with castes, tattoos, and the corruption of the wild? Where did they die? How did they view the dead?
>>
No. 481870 ID: bb2145

I'd call first priority - pre-empt suspicion. So we want to buy Saulanna's Essence back up before anything else. Then I'd say we want to buy up the Essence of both Wordblood and Kairosa, not necessarily in that order. If we've got enough Titan's Will to do more after that great, but I'd call those our priorities.
>>
No. 481871 ID: a07204

>>481870

>>481686
Got to agree. Right now, as a whole, we should recoup what we used, then improve our soul force again if possible. Saulanna should always be stronger soul wise than the other two, but if we want to get through this, we need all three to be in good form.

When do, we should do Saul, Kas, Words. Saul to keep stability up, Kas to hopefully use the boost to make Word's boost cheaper.
>>
No. 481873 ID: 6e1469

Eat souls, then increase Titan's Will in the order of:
Saulanna>Wordblood>Kairosa
>>
No. 481875 ID: 15b5e6

Guys. Getting ahead of ourselves here. We have one TW. Let's save the suggestions for upgrades until after we've examined the ghosts and decided if they deserve being eaten or not.
>>
No. 481899 ID: f3ac2a

>>481875
Ethicality is secondary to self-preservation. The ghosts are already dead and sealed away, impotent and alone. We have no reason to sacrifice our self-growth for the sake of some trapped souls. We don't live in that sort of world.
>>
No. 481900 ID: 09ae2c

Lets focus on the practical here, people!

Ask Timelady if our past lives have any hidden stores of artifacts, magi-tech or manses!

Ask Timelady if she can drag any spells or charms off of our past lives.

Get dose souls in har an' OMNOMNOMNOM
>>
No. 481921 ID: 242c19

>>480913
Most of this is good. I like the idea of getting a short description of all our past incarnations. Maybe we should get a bit more info on our most recent one though.

Most importantly, determine if we have any useful new information about Askalaff, Garmir, and Akatrina.
>>
No. 482232 ID: 985388

>>481899
What the hell do you think this is, the World of Darkness? Saulanna is a Celestial Exalt, empowered by Luna, goddess of change and evolution (among other things), who has been shagging Allmother Gaia for the past five thousand years.

And as if that wasn't enough, Saulanna is a nascent Titan to boot. She is also drawing on the powers of the original creators of the world; its rightful rulers. In time, Saulanna will have the power to remake the world in her own image, if she so chose. If Creation has truly become as vile and debased as you seem to think it is, I can think of no one better qualified to undo it. And like all good revolutionaries, we shall lead by example.
>>
No. 482523 ID: 590c90

>>482232
It's a World of the Ultimate Darkness. He's the boss now, remember? And yes--"in time", we'll have the power to change things, but we're still a small fish in the scheme of things, and if we ignore our immediate power sources then "in time" could mean anything, including spans of time long after we're killed for being too weak to survive. Just because we have unlimited potential doesn't mean that we can compete with the dangers of the world in the here and now.
>>
No. 482947 ID: c4c758

Hug her, and hug Wordblood. Ask Wordblood about his wings, and the implications thereof. Express our deepest attachment and love for our dear friends.

Consider attempting to appease Luna.
>>
No. 482980 ID: cee89f

Breach the topic of contacting Luna to both of our Devas. We have a pretty good reason to try it, at least, but getting input from two other sources would probably be a good idea.

Possibly, we should make a Stealth soul first, so that if shit hits the fan when we contact UCS, we have something like a chance to get away before we're obliterated. But we should get any concerns our devas have on the table right /now/, while we still have a moment to catch our breath, think, and plan.
>>
No. 483188 ID: 370c40

>>482523
Boss of the Underworld is not 'the boss'. Creation is a big place and apparently the Celestial Bureaucracy is still around and still doing stuff. I wouldn't call that being in charge.
>>
No. 484598 ID: 05fc82
File 135796318514.png - (143.33KB , 600x500 , kairohugged.png )
484598

> Thanks
> Apologies
> Hugs

Of course!

Wordblood hangs back for a moment, seemingly uncertain, but finally joins in.
>>
No. 484599 ID: 05fc82
File 135796322420.png - (185.60KB , 600x500 , kairocomfort.png )
484599

> give her a minute
> sit there and hold her

> See if you can bring the Hero Soul's Inner Den into your Inner World.

Actually, Saulanna thinks that's already happened! On some instinctual level, she can sense that using that moon ability can now move things in and out of here. Perhaps this is a way in which the Hero Soul has already adapted to her titanic nature.

> Chat with Wordblood

>>480882
> Well some of your siblings put in yearning for something better in them souls. [...] it wasn't so happy and safe when one or another of your kin acted up.

"No, it wasn't. However, I would say, I'm not sure most of our kin really thought mortals were... well, real. I mean, in the sense of not being unreal, yes, but... Well, before the moment of Creation, existence was divided into us, who were real, and the fae, who were not. That's essentially the difference between us and them, and it's what brought us together and made us care about each other. After Creation... there were more middling creatures. Old ways of thinking were hard to get rid of. Besides, it could also be said that reality is based on resistance. If you see a wall, but you can just walk through it, it can't be real, can it? If you want to fly, and can just will yourself into the air with no effort, then gravity can't be a real thing, either. I'm sure you can see the consequence of this, for creatures as powerful as full-grown Titans?"

"... Time would have been a factor as well, I suppose. The world existed as we had designed, under our rule, for a very, very long time. Hundreds of millions of years. More. Several whole other species of proto-humans existed before we created yours. And hundreds of other species been and gone before them. What importance were brief individuals, in any number?"


>>480907
> Saulanna: Point out that mortals have always been controlled by those above them. If they have no agency then they can bear no blame.

"Of course! Mortals simply aren't powerful enough to be held responsible for such actions. To be frank, the gods are easily capable of just brainwashing humans into slavish servitude. I doubt even our fallen fellows hold much more than a passing contempt for ordinary humans."

>>480926
>is Wordblood aware that he sorta broadcasts his thoughts through his word-based body?

"Yes, I am. It's perfectly natural. I am Words; I express. It's quite straightforward."

>>482947
>Wings

"Yes! Aren't they lovely? Well. They are a little small. But still, it's so nice to have wings again! And an effective promise of being able to develop them more in the future. I was a little worried that I'd never really fly again. I have no idea of how long or how much Will it will take to build this world to the level where that would be meaningful, or to let me manifest in the outer world, but it cheers me nonetheless."

> Something wrong with the Hero Soul/Hero Soul's influence on Kairosa/us

"Mm. I know I keep saying this, my lady, but I have no idea how the Hero Soul works. I can't make any judgements on if something's amiss with it, or what it will do. You'd have to ask... I don't know. Autochthon."

>>480913
> Ask Wordblood about how this whole inner world thing works. Each of our lord devas has dominion over part of it, right? Can we consciously reshape it?

"Yes, and yes. You would need to spend Power, however. We all have some authority over most of it, though our level of authority alters based on elemental themes. As I said earlier, I think I, for example, have dominion over air and water here. Though not to the extent that I would if my Element was actually air or water.

> When we were talking to the Moon Heroes, we noticed that our Moon Abilities seem to last longer than we had initially expected.

"It wouldn't surprise me. As a Titan, you're rather more... solid than lesser creatures. As such, you're a much more secure anchor for magical effects, so long as you want them to persist."

> maybe Wordblood could go over a few things he didn't get to in our social combat lessons.

"I believe there's only one distinct thing I've not covered. You can spend Power to "heal" your Will Points directly. It's not actually magic, normal heroic mortals can do the same with their Will Power. You channel it through one of your Virtues, so long as it's applicable to the Topic, and regain Will Points equal to its rating. There are a few other details and specifications in regards social combat, but I think it will be easier to simply point them out if and when they come up."

> Let's go take a look inside the hut in the middle of the central island.

Saulanna is still comforting Kairosa! Also, it seems to be a tent.

> Is there anything that Wordblood wants to talk to us about?

"Actually, I've been considering that tent. And your clothes. They seemed familiar. I'm not sure... my memory is hazy on a lot of detail... but I think both may be of the type that the first humans made for themselves. Particularly the clothes. Other sentient mortal beings we had made had not tended to need them, so it was one of the first innovations humanity made for itself. Strange that it would reappear like this. Well, perhaps that's an instance of samsara, for you."

"Anything else... Hmm. Well, I've been thinking about your social situation with the other Heroes, but that can wait. And I've been thinking about Peregrin. We need to teach him something. Until we do, his oath may not hold if he ever comes to really believe we'll never teach him. It was conditional. Teaching him just one thing would bind him properly. What else... really, I'd just like to talk to you about being a Titan, in general. Where we come from, what it is that makes us what we are, how we all came together... but it would take a long time, and I don't want to overwhelm you. You're not that old yourself, my lady. There will be time."


> Questions when Kairosa is rested

> Past incarnations of the Hero Soul

"Oh, um. Yeah, I can tell you... some stuff. But, erm. There are a couple of problems. Like, first of all, Time, time is things happening, you know? Events. Changes. I'm not so good at things like names and faces, things that stay the same. The difference wouldn't be much on its own, I mean I know who Pluto was, right? But the Hero Soul is a bit weird. I think it actually gets cleaned in between hosts. By some god, I think his name is... Lytek? He cleans off a lot of the identity, so it's hard to make out the details. Particularly of the human parts. And on top of all that... I think this Hero Soul's hosts have all tended to be sneaky types! The stealthy magic's all gone and rubbed off on it. The big stuff all still stands out, of course, it's just... it's just going to be a summary, you know? Maybe when I'm stronger, I can power through all these problems. Or when Wordblood has his reading thing."

"Uh. Anyway. Let's see... first incarnation. Died during the war with the Titans, after doing a lot of snooping. Pretty early. Second incarnation. Killed a lot of devas. Even some Lords. Died in the last battle of the war. Ugh, got their soul crushed. Owww. Third... lived a long time. Fought fae. Helped build nations. Aaaand... something weird. There's this one spot where it feels like everything... splinters. And then comes back together? Turns unpleasant after that. Tastes like traces of the imprisoned Titans. And then dead when the Sun Heroes were betrayed. Fourth... lived out on the edges of reality, so it gets hard to taste. After a long time, there's a giant plague that kills most people in the world, but they survive. Fights the fae when they invade after that, including some that the third fought. Survives again, tries to kill the Scarlet Empress, gets done in by Dragon Heroes. And one of them is descended from one that killed the third! Samsara. Fifth... doesn't live long. Sixth lives to see the Sun Heroes return. The war with the forces of Oblivion. Survives that. Problems with a Sun Hero. Your Hero Soul's mate? Tastes of... death, and destruction, and betrayal. Fights. They end up killing each other. Aww. That's kind of depressing."

"I think I can... almost taste some other stuff. I'm getting a strong "secret base" flavour from somewhen. I can't quite make it out yet, though... I... Sorry. I'll do better when I'm stronger."


>>480913
> Would it be beneficial to go over [information from souls] and fact-check, so that we can be reasonably sure that we're not working off bad information?

"Sure, we can do that. It'll take some time, though. Like, manual effort, I mean."

"Perhaps we'll do that to occupy ourselves in the future, while you're busy with other things."

> Kairosa might even have some answers for Wordblood, as to why the first Heroes were so willing to kill him when he loved them.

"Oh, well, that's easy, actually! It was just practicality. There were a few select Titans who would have been of specific tactical trouble in the war, and He Who Bleeds the Unknown Word was one of them. Hard to carry on a campaign if there's someone on the other side who can, say, read or hear any message, from anywhere? Seriously, he could do that. Just pick up on everything being communicated, everywhere. So the opening attack of the war was to disable those Titans who could do stuff like that. The Lidless Eye That Sees was another one, I think. So it was just... strategy. Probably the Sun's idea!"

"... Oh. I... see..."

> Does Kairosa have any distinct Titanic Abilities that she'll be able to use on our behalf when we're not in our Inner World?

"Oh, plenty of stuff! Well, potentially. Right now, not much. I can pull spirits in here like Wordblood can. I can taste the history of things, though I need to spend a dot of Power if its outside here. And I think I can do something about your Soul Fire, if, uh. If you don't mind a little pain. Aside that... well, in the future there's lots I could do. Drain energy from things, move it around, give it to people. Do the same with Time. Not until I'm stronger, though."

> She said that the Hero Soul is growing and evolving even now- how is it changing?

"Can't really say. Not without looking into the future, anyway. It'll respond to its environment, so it depends."

> Can Kairosa tell us anything about the limitations and mechanics of the control that the Dragon's Shadow has over the cycle of days and nights in shadowlands?

Just your basic time-stretching. Pull the seconds from between the hours here, push more seconds between the hours there. The further outside his domain, the harder it is for him to do. Pretty simple."

> what would be the consequences of altering the circumstances of your own creation to block the influence of the Lunar Exaltation Shard?

Saulanna doesn't think it works that way. Wordblood said that all a Titan's devas influence each other; she and Wordblood have had influence on each other, and Kairosa seems to have had influence on them, though she was created after them. If the Hero's Soul is acting like a deva, then its influence is persistent, not just introduced at the moment of creation.

Besides, asking her if there's a way to change her would be a horrible thing to do! Just imagine it. Kairosa would look up with those big open eyes, and the corners of her mouth would slip down just a bit, and you'd see the thought: Is there something wrong with me? painted all over her face. All over her adorable honest little face. You'd hear a soft crack, and know a tiny fracture line had appeared across her heart.

Aww, no, Saulanna's imagining it right now.

D:

> Get a reading on those souls

Good idea. Aside the obvious practicality, perhaps getting to do her job will help Kairosa feel better!
>>
No. 484601 ID: 05fc82
File 135796328585.png - (101.12KB , 600x500 , lookpool2.png )
484601

Now, alright, let's... let's, uh. Hrrm.

How does this work?

"Well, I can get us moving with outside time again, but I don't know about anything else!"

"I'm not the one who was driving."

Saulanna wonders if she can just...

Just sort of reach in there...

And...
>>
No. 484602 ID: 05fc82
File 135796331547.png - (155.64KB , 600x500 , soulcrystals1.png )
484602

"Saulanna?"
>>
No. 484603 ID: 05fc82
File 135796337215.png - (142.24KB , 600x500 , soulcrystals2.png )
484603

"Are you... feeling well?"
>>
No. 484605 ID: 05fc82
File 135796343827.png - (148.45KB , 600x500 , showsouls.png )
484605

"All right! Let's have a look at these guys! Aw, wow. These weren't pleasant lives! Let's see. This guy with the whip, this guy was about raw selfish survival, pretty clear. Sounds like he had encounters with the supernatural when he was young, probably taught him what lengths mortals had to go to to prosper. Turned into a harsh fella! Went for the big bucks, exotic slaves for wealthy customers! Ended up wealthy enough to pay for some pretty sweet death services when he finally got offed. This was well before the Sun Heroes came back. Went back to the same job in death, with a little unfinished business around the girl who killed him. Well content to pawn souls to the forces of Oblivion, too."

"Along the way, he partnered up with this other guy. Sort of. Not so straight-down and gritty as his compatriot. Started out as a city guard, short military service, upgraded to bounty hunter. Didn't live in a nice place, though. Real criminals didn't pay the bills; slave owners paid big private piles of silver for the return of escapees. So the guy sort of got dragged down after a while. I think he had something to prove to someone? A relative of his, I think. It pushed him a little too far, and the lack of resolution on it kept him on in death. His ghost went back to his routine, catching criminals and slaves in the lands of the dead. He didn't sell anyone to the Deathlords directly, but he did sell to people who sold them on in a chain on that direction. I think he knew it, he was just sort of in denial. So slightly nicer than the other, but less honest about it, too. Both pretty dastardly dudes on the pure action-consequences scale!"

"Hmm. You know... I think I can sense some connections with other ghosts, pretty recent to their captivity! There might be other criminal types around that Peregrin hasn't caught. If we eat these guys, we might learn where to find some others who deserve it."

"So what'dyou say, mistress? Will we pull these guys in?"

>>
No. 484611 ID: 76b151

Yup. Lets eat.
>>
No. 484628 ID: 167604

Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom
>>
No. 484632 ID: cdad90

nom nom nom
>>
No. 484635 ID: 695191

Yeah, I think we're going to consume them both. However I'd like for them to have a chance to speak for themselves. Not a chance to change their fate but as a final word for their existence and as a measure of respect. Maybe we'll even glean information that's harder to read from the soul directly? How accurate is that process anyway?
>>
No. 484636 ID: dd287a

brace yourself, but try not to worry Saulanna, it can hardly be worst than whoever the first soul was, focus on teh silver lining, you're going to know how to use a whip I think! that'd be kinda cool.
>>
No. 484637 ID: 3bad4c

Let Peregrin know that you're okay, but your focus is totally split right now. You'll get back to him in a second.

Maybe tell him to get his notebook out for his first lesson.
>>
No. 484645 ID: 7003a8

>>484605
Eat them. They're scum, and with luck they'll lead us to the raw sewage called slavers.
>>
No. 484650 ID: be7fd9

Well, they're guilty of the crimes they were accused of. And we need the power.

We could maybe make it a little more formal than just devouring them, though? Let them have their last words before we move them on.

>possible hunting more baddies.
Oh lookie, another possible sidequest. Oh well, at least this one could be a source of moral quandary-less ghost eating energy.

>Question on past stuff
So... I know you're not so good at names and faces Kairosa, but I don't suppose Ask, Garm, and/or Kat showed up in any of those memories, anywhere? Information would be useful.
>>
No. 484656 ID: a28731

There is no point talking to them, she read their past so we already know and their crimes are unforgivable.
So eat up and lets hunt down their compatriots.
>>
No. 484658 ID: f2c20c

>>484605
The bounty hunter doesn't seem irredeemable. We should ask him what his motivation was- wait actually nevermind. If we yanked him in here to interrogate him, he would then know that we're a Titan and that's no good. We'd have to interrogate him in the outside world, and that could be dangerous. The slaver should be eaten.

Let's reassure Peregrin about our well-being and tell him what we just learned about the two souls. Ask him what sentence he would pass on the bounty hunter. Also maybe we could teach him something if we have time.
>>
No. 484678 ID: cee89f

First off, reassure Peregrin that we're okay, and that our new deva is named Kairosa, and she would probably say 'hi' if she could. Also, that we're having some focus issues, and we'll get back to him in a moment.

Second, bring the souls in, tell them their existence is about to end, and ask if they have any last words. The guy with the whip is total scum, don't even bother listening to him.

Third, ask Peregrin's opinion on the bounty hunter. We can put some stock in what he says, but at this point we can't exactly let him walk around free: even if we could trust him to forget about being dragged inside us (unlikely) the ghosts aren't going to treat him well.

Also: when you talk to the ghosts, speak in a dramatic manner befitting a Titan. Something like, "I am Saulanna Ricyanna Rockblossom, Moon Hero. Your lives have been examined, and found wanting."
>>
No. 484684 ID: bf54a8

just do it quick. like ripping off a bandage.
>>
No. 484686 ID: 1da170

Pull them both in, explain to them what's going to happen. They're going to become eternal, but they're going to lose their identities and be subsumed into something greater.

Tell them you've seen their lives, and ask them if they have anything to say, a memorial of sorts before they're returned to formlessness. Then spend some Power to create a tablet or somesuch and write down what they've said (you'll get the power back as a result of feeding anyway).

Then nom nom nom nom nom nom.
>>
No. 484687 ID: f45872

Eat them. Is there any way either of our Devas can insulate us from their memories, so we don't have to experience the more disturbing ones?
>>
No. 484735 ID: 14d963

Hunting escaped slaves is pretty bad. If you're just buying and selling slaves you can fool yourself into thinking that they're better off in servitude than as free beggars, but if a slave bothered to escape then he obviously had it pretty hard under his master.

In other news, Wordblood's snake body is uniquely well-suited for hugging things.

>"Yes! Aren't they lovely? Well. They are a little small. But still, it's so nice to have wings again! And an effective promise of being able to develop them more in the future. I was a little worried that I'd never really fly again. I have no idea of how long or how much Will it will take to build this world to the level where that would be meaningful, or to let me manifest in the outer world, but it cheers me nonetheless."
I agree. Wings are awesome.

>"As I said earlier, I think I, for example, have dominion over air and water here. Though not to the extent that I would if my Element was actually air or water."
Well, all we need of our air is that it exists and is breathable. We don't need to do anything fancy with it.

>"You can spend Power to "heal" your Will Points directly. It's not actually magic, normal heroic mortals can do the same with their Will Power."
Hmm. So it doesn't cause Soul Fire?

That could be pretty useful, though it's hampered by none of our Virtues being particularly high yet.

>"Actually, I've been considering that tent. And your clothes. They seemed familiar. I'm not sure... my memory is hazy on a lot of detail... but I think both may be of the type that the first humans made for themselves. Particularly the clothes. Other sentient mortal beings we had made had not tended to need them, so it was one of the first innovations humanity made for itself. Strange that it would reappear like this. Well, perhaps that's an instance of samsara, for you."
Hmm. That makes it sound like we aren't just a Titan that started out as a human, but a Titan that somehow represents Humanity in the same way that you represent Words and Time.

>"And I've been thinking about Peregrin. We need to teach him something."
Well, yes. I see no reason not to teach new powers to someone who is oathbound to only use those powers in ways we approve of.

Right as soon as we figure out how. We can use Power Words because we are a Titan and have a Lordly Soul of Words, how would we go about teaching a "mere" Hero to use them?

>"What else... really, I'd just like to talk to you about being a Titan, in general. Where we come from, what it is that makes us what we are, how we all came together... but it would take a long time, and I don't want to overwhelm you."
Well, one thing that I know about Titans is that they shape the world. They worked together to create the world, according to each of their individual interests, and continued to guide it until they were overthrown. Even now, as soon as the Dragon's Shadow escaped his confinement, he immediately went back to making sweeping changes shifting the world to his desires, good or evil as they may be.

We are now a Titan too, and the right of Titans is our destiny. In time, we will gain the power to remake the world in our image, and we will need to decide what we feel needs changing.

But you're right. That's a ways off.
>>
No. 484753 ID: 09ae2c

DEVOUR THE TASTIES! OM NOM NOM NOM!
>>
No. 484754 ID: 66ff59

>>484605
while the whip guy is an obvious snack, the second guy is not so straight forward. i think he can be redeemed with a little shove in the right direction, if we choose to spend the effort.

mind you, choosing not to spend the effort and to consume him as is will make his perhaps unjust end your responsibility
>>
No. 484755 ID: 3b1bd6

Try licking them, as Kairosa did.
You never know...
>>
No. 484756 ID: 4ede1b

Having something to prove is an atrocious reason to do that. To do what he did for his ego and then be in denial about it is pathetic. These guys get all the omnoms.
>>
No. 484758 ID: 370c40

Both definitely slavers. So, you know, eat em. Nowhere else for them to go. No point in trying to redeem even the less nasty one, since even if we did the guy is still a slaver and thus hated by everyone relevant. Lunars, ghosts, servants of the Dragon's Shadow, all tend to hate slavers.
>>
No. 484760 ID: 521153

>>484678
I agree with reassuring Peregrin that we're fine but NO WAY are we telling Kairosa's name to anyone. Her title Scavenger of Ages maybe, but Names are secret things. I would strongly recommend not introducing him to our Deva until we can bring him into our Inner World and he is bound to us properly.

Also, eat those dudes.
>>
No. 484762 ID: 5d121c

Eat them. Power up everyone's soul powers. All of this "I have no idea because I'm not strong enough." is getting old really fast.

It's sure to enhance our abilities in the social predicament we're having.

If we need more than just that as a goal for the powerup let's find out about this secret base thing. We can be nearly certain it would be worth checking out. If our specifically sneaky hero soul made a secret base it's bound to still be hidden, at least in part if not completely. There could be things like artifacts there, and even more importantly, a look into the distant past and what our lunar predecessor was up to. Maybe a bit personal for Saulanna, but I bet she'd just love getting to see what kinds of things motivated her in the past, what with not having a motivation right now.
>>
No. 484763 ID: e29d20

I know that this isn't a popular idea, by virtue of being completely ignored the last time it came up, but is it not at least worth considering if we can preserve some core part of their consciousnesses for some future use? I mean, the way Wordblood did it was to separate the memories and other such things away from the Titan's Will and then discard the "detritus" of what was left; but is it possible to preserve that like removing the fluff from a teddy bear or tanning a hide?

The way we did it back then was born of necessity, we had not the time nor the expertise to remove the Titan's Will without obliterating the spirit and we also had a pressing need for the Titan's Will then and there; here we have the opposite situation: we have all the time we need, a being literally created to do this, and we don't have a dire need for every portion of Titan's Will we can get our hands on right now. At least not above and beyond the abstract goal of self-improvement.

Also, this would give us a new tool in our toolbox; we wouldn't have to obliterate a spirit to get Titan's Will from it, we could have really interesting ingredients for creating artifacts, we'd have something that we could grow a deva around so that we wouldn't have to rip our soul apart -again- to create a Lordly deva or even just something to build a unique commoner deva around even if just for practice in doing so.
>>
No. 484776 ID: ba4fab

The problem is: what makes a soul morally good to eat and what makes a mind morally important to preserve are exactly the opposite qualities!

Do we really want to build our devas out of the scum of society? That doesn't sound like a smart long-term gameplan.
>>
No. 484777 ID: a07204

>>484763
The idea itself seems fine, it means we can have some nice personalities for future devas, give them a human link, or even save a friend of ours if need be, but these guys are not good material for it.

One's personality is bad enough as is, but the other is wishy washy, rather traitorous to both himself and his duty. The fact it was mainly for cheap profit and to try and prove himself doesn't help either. Devour them both and be done with them. For all intents and purposes, at least we don't make their entire existence suffering by making them fuel or weaponry.
>>
No. 484781 ID: 370c40

>>484763
I really don't think we want to grow our devas out of other people. At best we could maybe hold onto one of the ghosts for the purpose of turning it into some kind of servant...ghosts actually can become very powerful, although it is not something that happens often. Not sure either of these would be good material for that, though, and we DO need every scrap of TW we can get without consuming innocents. We are still in a pretty bad situation, and even a single point of the stuff can be massively useful. It's an entire new ability for one of our devas, for example.
>>
No. 484786 ID: aeaf8a

>>484763
I'd advocate that, but these are scummy personalities we don't need running around in our titanic psyche, so not these guys.
>>
No. 484790 ID: 1bb66d

nom nom fucking nom, motherfucker.
>>
No. 484809 ID: 8247d0

Nom the first guy.
Contemplate nomming the second guy. He seemed more niceish.
>>
No. 484811 ID: 80a28e

Say congratulations, you have won the honor by being such scums of creation instead of making something of yourselves, to allow for the rebirth of one of the true rulers of this world, your egos will be broken and and returned to the correct system of reincarnation that you were supposed to enter.
>>
No. 484856 ID: 4a328b

Eat them and reassure Peregrin that you're fine. Maybe get more information about the nicer one's unfinished business, as a potential thing to follow up on later. Also, can we pull Peregrin into the inner world and teach him the Power Word we know in here so we don't have to worry about time restraints?
>>
No. 484859 ID: 242c19

Yeah, pull them inside and eat them. Say something like "I have looked into your past and seen your crimes. Your existence is about to end. Do you have any last words?"
>>
No. 484860 ID: be7fd9

Actually, do we need to reassure Kaan yet? I'd rather pull the ghost inside and put the outside world on pause again.

After we've argued about how to distribute the TW and done the upgrades, Woldblood should be strong enough to make some air in here. Then we can pull Kaan inside and abuse our internal time stop to talk and plan with him and then teach him some stuff.
>>
No. 484873 ID: e92f17

>>484599
"I think this Hero Soul's hosts have all tended to be sneaky types!"
Saying Lunars were sneaky types is like saying water's wet. Even the most bombastic warrior type is pretty good at stealth, too.

But I vote we eat both souls. The second is almost worse than the first, because he knew the truth but pretended otherwise.
>>
No. 484923 ID: d04875

Nom the first ghost, but maybe holding off on the second for a while would be good. Unfinished business with a relative could lead to a (minor) sidequest although we already have tons that we don't have time for because asshole Lunars should up right when the slightly less asshole Abyssal did. Also, he still captured criminals after his death, so he should be willing to help us catch some EVIL GOASTS. It could be like a buddy cop show.

A disillusioned guard turned bounty hunter with dark secrets, and a soul-devouring abomination with a conscience. Together, they fight crime!

Also, Peregrin mentioned that the delagation from the Dragon had been time-shifted into being two weeks early. Considering that Akatrina showed up just in time to save our ass from being mind-raped into caste tattoos by the good guys, is it possible that the Dragon is aware of Saulanna wants us to succeed in becoming a full fledged titan?

I suppose in a general sense we could be classified as a "rebellion" since we are upsetting the normal idea of being an exalt by turning into a titan.
>>
No. 484930 ID: af25e0

The second guy doesn't sound like he deserves to be devoured, and we could make use of him.

>>484873
"Almost worse" is a silly phrase.
>>
No. 484940 ID: 406926

>>484605
No question and no hesitation. As before, it doesn't really matter if the souls deserve this or not. All that truly matters is our need. We chose this course, we need this power, and we will act without doubt. Devour them.
>>
No. 484959 ID: 77b50b

Eat them both, but yes, the suggestion to talk with them first sounds good.
>>
No. 484960 ID: 5d121c

Eat them both but don't talk to them. Let's get this whole issue behind us as fast as possible.
>>
No. 484979 ID: bfa44d

OM NOM NOM
>>
No. 484980 ID: df072f

Let them both speak, devour the whip guy regardless. The guard - depending on what he says.
>>
No. 484994 ID: 7f2a1b

Consult devas for any moral objections against eating the souls. Eat the souls should no such objections arise.
>>
No. 484995 ID: 575dba

eat them
>>
No. 485033 ID: b3952d

Pity both souls briefly, then Nom them and let Kairosa do her thing!

>>484923
Nah, she's just slightly better at hiding being an asshole than the others.
>>
No. 485036 ID: b3952d

I wonder if the increase in essence and everything will make our hair even poofier.
>>
No. 485038 ID: e3cea9

Wouldn't it be easier to catch the other ghosts if you had their buddies as bait?

Also, uh, those Fetters are probably going to be important later on. Like. Samsara level shit thar.
>>
No. 485067 ID: d1efde

Yeah, I'm going to vote eat. Nevermind that the ghosts they caught were going to be used to make soulsteel I'm not seeing any regret at being a slaver at all.
>>484923
Dude, we've got a ghost sidekick already.
>>
No. 485068 ID: b3952d

Oh yeah, I'm curious about something. Wordblood, Kairosa, if something happened to our physical body while we were in here, would we die?

If so, can we eventually bring our body in here? I'm not sure we necessarily want to do that yet, but it would be nice to know if we eventually can, should we decide to give up on Creation and just create our own universe.
>>
No. 485101 ID: 9db85e

OM NOM NOM.

It might be cool to start storing the knowledge of people we eat as books, instead of just casting it away, but in any case:

OM NOM NOM.
>>
No. 485943 ID: 58fa63

That's a very helpful broad overview, but still I'm not keen on eating ghosts without hearing what they have to say. Let's summon the bounty hunter, tell him what his situation is and ask some questions. I would like to know what he was trying to prove to whom, and see if there's particularly interesting about his relationship with Mr Whip. Then give him a brief chance to speak for himself. If we can re-crystal him for a few minutes then do that otherwise eat him there (unless we have reason to decide not to at this point).

Repeat with Mr Whip. I want to see if these guys can surprise us. But not in the bad way - be careful not to leave our souls vulnerable to any tricks a desperate soul might have up his sleeve.
>>
No. 486127 ID: 2eac65

>Lord Kaan worrying
Ah, yes, he saw us collapse. We should say something to him.

"We're quite well, thanks for asking. Better than before, I think. Our new Feeding Soul is getting along splendidly with the rest of us. I'd like to discuss the matter at length, but we've got something else on our mind first. Namely, the other souls you brought us."

(Be secretive about Kairosa and her abilities. If necessary, we could use it to find out about his oaths of silence without warning him.)

>mortals not seeming real to the Titans
You know, I think that's the main problem right there. With everything. The Titans were careless and cruel to mortals because they thought of them as resources or scenery instead of people like them. And the humans though of the Titans as something closer to forces of nature than people like them; when Heroes fought and killed them, they were probably too concerned with what an amazing accomplishment it was to think about how the Titans felt, which is why they were so cruel to them afterwards. And even now, we've got people who think of ghosts as being mere unthinking vestiges of humans instead of being people like them; while Garmir hasn't done more than make rude comments, that mindset could create a world of trouble.

Proclaiming it now: We will not make the same mistake. We won't be the kind of person to think "Well they're not really people like us, they're something other."

>how to deal with the ghosts
Hmm... that's gonna take some thinking. Should we eat them? It'd be easy to say "they're evil, they deserve it" but that doesn't make logical sense. After all, bad people are still people, and there's no reason they'd stop being people when they commit a crime horrible enough. The point of punishing criminals is to discourage crime, not to make them suffer; punishment for the sake of punishment is just inflicting suffering out of spite, and we've already seen how horrible spite can be. From the Heroes needlessly torturing the Titans after they'd won, to the catastrophe that killed Haht'hek, to... whatever it was that the dying Titans did... a world of spite would be an awful place, and not one we'd like to create at all.

That said, consuming them isn't out of the question, as long as we do it for the right reasons. First, I think we should talk to them. Don't be threatening or accusatory, that'll put them on the defensive and make them more likely to hide things they think we don't want to hear. Ask some questions about them, to fill in the gaps in what we know about their lives; don't be too specific, to avoid tipping them off as to how much we know.
>>
No. 486139 ID: 9db85e

It is true that Saulana must remain conscious of the fact that all sentients are people, more or less. We have no reason to need to talk to them. Any information we want, we can get out of eating them.

We're planning on doing it anyways, so no need to make them worry about it, cause them emotional distress or anything. And it's not like we're harming them in any way, or their impact on existence. Imprisoned as they are, they are already effectively dead, only their "alive" enough to be cognizant of their isolation.

There is no way we can release them onto the ghost population once more, we know they are criminals. Eating them provides both a mercy, and lets them contribute to one of the greatest developing forces in creation.

Plus, we would get much more complete and accurate information about what they know than simply /asking/ them about it.

Part of being a powerful entity, even for good, is being able to make the hard decisions. There's no reason to need to talk to them, and doing so would only cause them distress and draw the process out.

Eat them, absorb their knowledge, and fix the wrongs they left unresolved.
>>
No. 486180 ID: b24894

Saulanna should:
1) Begin aggressively thinking of ghosts as non-people.
2) Om nom nom.
3) Derive satisfaction.
>>
No. 486214 ID: 9fdf60

Yeah... taking the ghosts out to chat with is a bad idea. We need their TW, they're screwed no matter what we do. And being memories they aren't gonna change easy. Best we can likely do is chow down get their knowledge and power, and fix what they did ourselves as best we can because they're never gonna do it even if freed. Eat 'em quick so there's no undo suffering.
>>
No. 486316 ID: e92f17

>>486214
A ghost is the upper soul of a person who had unfinished business and stuck around. This isn't supposed to happen, they're supposed to go to Lethe.

And they both are slavers, one just likes to pretend he isn't. om. nom. nom.
>>
No. 486321 ID: c54cd1

Two slavers, even if one's in denial. My sympathy is not at an all-time high.

I'm for the Om nom noming. That said, I don't suppose it's possible to leave the bare bones (so to speak) of the soul when extracting Titans Will, is it? Enough that Leethe can reincarnate them? I'm not so sure about these two deserving it, but in the future we might find something a bit more sympathetic that nonetheless needs to be dealt with regardless.
>>
No. 486326 ID: 48f315

>>486321
No point. Lethe is redundant. We are the primary mechanism of reincarnation and the only way to make more souls. We eat them all.
>>
No. 486431 ID: f5e982

I really disagree about the second one. Catching escaped slaves is not slaving. It's... upholding a bad system, but it's a system that exists in a good chunk of creation. Frankly, most of those slaves were going to be recaptured by SOMEONE regardless. I won't begrudge a person for following the status quo.

And plus it means we've drawn a line. It means we KNOW we're not going to go down a slippery slope, because we'll be able to think "is this a ghost that was worse than that guy who recaptured escaped slaves."
>>
No. 486445 ID: e92f17

>>486431
A system like this only works because no one steps up and says "no." "I don't like it, but even without me it will continue" is just resigning yourself to ill deeds so you don't have to make a stand.
>>
No. 486450 ID: 997ce7

>>486445
I suggest this be taken to questdis. I'd also like to mention that it isn't because "no one" says no. It's because not enough do, and those few who do are horribly killed.
>>
No. 486453 ID: 4ede1b

>>486431
We know we're not going to go down a slippery slope because that takes time, and Kairosa is going to be generating it fast enough that nomming souls won't be an issue at some point.

As it stands, what we're doing is no worse then Lethe. Hell, it might be better because our Kairosa will at least be absorbing their memories meaning that at least they're not getting wiped out completely.
>>
No. 486520 ID: 1da170

>>486431
That's all well and good, until he knowingly sold people to be soulforged.

For all the "bluh bluh slavery" talk going around, that is really the central point. All the excuses and denial and justifications kind of pale in the face of it. Catching escaped slaves so they can go back to a life of menial labor, poor treatment and broken families is bad. Catching escaped slaves so they can go back to eternal pain and torment as someone's sword is fucking abominable.

Nom him. Nom him so hard.
>>
No. 486554 ID: 0bb4bb
File 135873243014.png - (122.19KB , 600x500 , saulaconsiders.png )
486554

Saulanna is going to eat them.

The question is... should it just be done, as quickly as possible, or should she give them the chance to say something first? Give them last words, or even just look them in the eye before it's done? On the one hand, her sense of Sympathy suggests that she be merciful and spare them pain. She doesn't know if the process is completely painless to begin with-

"Oh, it is! I can do it in literally no time from their perspective, once they're subdued."

... Right. But being told that they're about to be rendered down and absorbed will likely put them to severe emotional stress. It might be more merciful to spare them that awareness. And, admittedly, it might spare Saulanna some emotional pain herself. She doesn't want to be thinking of them as people, even terrible as they are.

On the other hand... Wordblood was just talking about how the Titans didn't think of lesser creatures as being real people. Her sense of Discipline tells her that if Saulanna wants to hold on to her human perspective, she might do best to talk to the people she eats, force herself to see them as people, at least once. Even if it would cause her emotional stress herself. Besides, some people would prefer to be aware of their end, even if they couldn't do anything about it.

"Personally, my lady, I don't believe you should consider their desires at all. They are thieves of choice and identity, and willful accessories to crimes against existence and life. They do not deserve your regard, and you should consider this choice only in how it affects yourself."

"By the way! I thought I should say, since you have me, eating souls doesn't have to be forever! With some time and investment, I can develop my ability to undo the expenditure of Titan's Will! And once I'm good enough at that, I should be able to gain the ability to extract what we once spent, replace it with Will from other sources, and then rewind the reclaimed Will back into a soul again! It's a really pretty advanced ability and I won't get it for a long while, and I can't use it on anything from before I existed, but... well, just so you know!"
>>
No. 486556 ID: 76b151

As long as we eat them I have no objection to talking to them first.
>>
No. 486559 ID: 3ceba0

They make the most interesting pair of Shoulder Angel and Devil I've ever seen.

Anyway, "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly."

...That said, I suppose we should maybe give them the option of a last request.
>>
No. 486560 ID: d2cff6

>>486559

I agree with this. For good or for ill, we can at least offer to hear any last requests they have.

Fulfilling them is another matter, of course. And Wordblood's last comment is correct "You should only consider it how it affects yourself."
>>
No. 486562 ID: 4ede1b

I.. literally don't understand how the second one is tied to Discipline. It seems much more of the opposite really. Giving into the desire to talk with them first when you know it's likely to cause emotional distress for both you and them shows a lack of Discipline. If you want to make sure you view them as people you can find out all about their past and what made them tick from the absorbed memories. It'd probably do a better job of it too, since a few last words wouldn't give you the same depth of understanding regarding what are going to be very human motivations for what they did.

So you should not give them last words, but maybe Kairosa or Wordblood could sort their memories into books or something that you can peruse later so you can get a better sense of who they were and why they were that way if you can't see them as people already. Horrible people are still people.
>>
No. 486563 ID: 4a328b

Listen to your sense of DISCIPLINE, Saulanna. It'll be unpleasant to face the spirits you're about to devour, but it'll probably help you hold on to some your humanity in the long run.

Keep Kairosa's future soul-remaking ability in mind for the future, but don't say anything about it to these souls. Better to be somewhat disingenuous about their options by leaving out her future ability than to get their hopes up and then neglect to keep your word for one reason or another. That's assuming you'll even want to recreate them in the future, which is by no means certain. Those guards you ate, on the other hand...they might be good people to bring back, later.
>>
No. 486565 ID: 522afb

I think you should talk to them, for your own sake. You're basically erasing their personalities, after all, so you might even spin it so that you're giving them a clean way out from their karmic debt?
>>
No. 486567 ID: 406926

>>486554
Don't bother talking to them. No last words, no last requests, no letting them come to peace with their fate, and no more dithering over this.

We aren't doing this because they're evil. That makes it more convenient, because we can pass it off as a punishment and it means other won't care that they were devoured, but we are doing this because we want to. Because we judge our own need for power to be more important than their need for existence in any form. That is natural- if beings of all types didn't value their own existence and empowerment more than that of others, they wouldn't live long- and humans would probably never have rebelled against the Titans in the first place, hey? Crushing others to empower yourself is a pretty darn human thing to do.

Accept who and what we are. Accept who and what we're doing. We are a predator with our own interests in mind; they're just unlucky enough to be the most convenient prey in position to feed us. Discard our doubt and hesitation.

Our will be done.
>>
No. 486568 ID: f2c20c

>>486554
I think we have already seen them as people, from getting a description of their lives from Kairosa. We know their motivations... but we don't really know their personalities.

Hmm. You know, I don't think Saulanna really understands that these are bad people. Maybe being exposed to their personalities would give her the drive we need to hunt down the rest of the slave ring.
>>
No. 486570 ID: 5c11b4

just eat them right away.
>>
No. 486571 ID: 695191

>>486554
I vote for talking to them. Tell Wordblood that them deserving kindness is not the point, this is about respect, holding onto our humanity, and the possibility of serving justice to both their virtues and sins.

However if we have the idea of undoing some of the ghosts we eat at a later time, we should only talk to them if the memory of talking to us can be undone now or then. Letting ghosts go again later doesn't do any good if they know we're a titan. If we can't that doesn't mean we can't talk to them, but we'll need to be careful about it.

Also, ask Kairosa if there is the potential for important information or insight being unavailable after eating, that we could glean better while they are whole. And the idea of having a library of the lives we consume should be appealing to both of them, so mention that.
>>
No. 486572 ID: a07204

Bloody hell, enough of the blithering. Asking if they had any last words was bad enough, but final requests? These guys are responsible for far worse fates than what we are going to do to them and you want to see if they have any unfinished business? There is being 'good' and there is being 'Naive'.

Any data we need or feel is important we can get from their memories. If there are memories of sick or poor people, great. We can help them. But listening to their pleas will not make us human.

Eat them quickly and painlessly and let their crimes be washed away that way. They do not deserve any pity.
>>
No. 486578 ID: 9db85e

Who knows what sort of tricks they developed as ghosts? If we released them to talk to them again, we're basically giving them a chance to try to make an escape.

It's really much more prudent just to eat them. We're already concious of them as individual people, and we will be more so if we store their memories away.

If we're going to do it, lets just do it as efficiently as possible. Then we can scan their memories for any unfinished business, last regrets, or evil contacts that require justice.

It's a no-lose situation, as long as we just go and make with the devouring.
>>
No. 486588 ID: 85cca2

Let them have a few last words. Not so much for their sake, as for our own. The whole soul-devouring thing is not something we want to get addicted to or start using on an haphazard basis. Forcing ourselves to confront exactly who it is we end might be helpful in maintaining control of ourselves.
>>
No. 486590 ID: 7b0ada

Discipline.

We've been concerned about losing our humanity for a while now. This is the first opportunity we've had in a long time to reinforce it- and it may be the last we have in a while. It may be a bitter pill, but for our own good, we should swallow it.

And I don't care if it's more merciful to die (or cease) ignorant of what is to come. The condemned are allowed their last words- not murdered unexpectedly in their cells before they are aware of the execution.

If you can't bear to kill someone looking them in the eyes- you should not be killing them at all. Don't make this easy. Events of this magnitude should not be easy.
>>
No. 486591 ID: 3bad4c

The human perspective, to be honest, you're stuck with. Us Voices of the Past aren't going to let you lose it. It will always be there nagging at you.

To remember the human perspective, you need to remember where it comes from. Beneath all the cultural taboo against harming other (humans) it's instinct. A species that preys on itself is not going to have a civilisation, and vice versa.

There is no objective morality, that's just a story the humans tell themselves. It's just a shared instinct about what is best for all of them.

If you treat the humans the way your instincts tell you, you're already doing it right.

However, extending this instinct to the imprisoned dead is taking it too far. They're not going to help sustain your society, and you certainly can't mate with them. They are more 'other' than any racial prejudice that humans have ever come up with.

In short, being nice is about communal survival. Being nice to nasty, permanently disabled infertile former people is not going to contribute.

The problem is, again, your instincts. You remember that ZOMBIE GHOST? You didn't have any issues about destroying it because it didn't look all that human.

So the eternal conundrum is yours. Your instincts dictate you must survive and thrive. Your choices are to follow them blindly (including anything that looks remotely human) or to apply your logic (to exclude those that aren't actually human).

My suggestion:
Since they don't qualify as potential members of any human society, you should treat them like animals.
Don't let them suffer by telling them, instead be quick and efficient. Respecting the dead is something humans do. Frightening the dying, not so much.
>>
No. 486592 ID: 059ca3

The only reason to talk to them would be to interrogate, and since Am Kairosa thinks we can get the only really noteworthy information just by eating them, there's no real point in bothering with interrogation.
>>
No. 486593 ID: 700879

Just eat them. There's lots of better people to exercise in Sympathy with. These two are bastards and should be dealt with as such
>>
No. 486594 ID: cee89f

As a Titan, it is important that we maintain our will and drive, it's true. But the people we eat are still people and should be thought of as such. The path of a ruler that cares nothing for their subjects - even subjects as vile as these - is self-destructive, the cause of the deaths of most of the titans, and to be perfectly frank is the cause of almost all of creation's problems.

Hear their last words. If not for them, then for your own sake, so that the mistakes of the titans, gods, and exalts before us do not repeat yet again.

And then eat them quickly. If we extended such a courtesy to an actual soulforger, we can do that much for a pair of slavers.
>>
No. 486595 ID: 4411c7

Just eat them. Gobble them up. You are not a mortal. You are literally superior to them. Standard fare for soul-eating should be to just eat them. Don't talk to them unless it seems like you can glisten information from them. From these guys, it doesn't look like you'll get anything. Just eat them. Don't talk to them.
>>
No. 486596 ID: 370c40

>>486554
>Besides, some people would prefer to be aware of their end, even if they couldn't do anything about it.

I would, for one. And if it causes them a little distress, well, maybe they shouldn't have been such bastards all their lives and unlives. Hear their last words. For yourself as much as them.
>>
No. 486598 ID: 9fdf60

With Wordblood to help record and go over their lives and memories, we can determine what their last wishes would have been with a high degree of accuracy.

But right now, upstairs is a very old and powerful not-abyssal, and two powerful lunars, each with their own and quite potent abilities to notice new entities popping into the building and then being snuffed out. THAT IS NOT A RISK WORTH TAKING. WE MUST NOM QUICKLY AND STRAIGHT OFF AS THEY WILL NOTICE THE HUGE POWER FLUX NO MATTER WHAT. Best to not give them an idea of what actually happened.
>>
No. 486599 ID: 1da170

Last words only. No requests, no extended conversations, no time for excuses or dithering or anything like that.

And if they take too long giving said last words, let their final memorial be that the end passed and they could think of nothing to say.
>>
No. 486600 ID: 370c40

>>486598
I'm just going to quote Wordblood from the discussion thread here


- How detectable are beings within our Titan world-body?
>"Almost entirely undetectable; it is, after all, essentially an attempt to see into another world. Only the mightiest of powers, dedicated to the task, would stand even a slim possibility of being able to do it. Unless, of course, we were to make specific provision for others to see into our inner world."

Unless they have the corpse of the Lidless Eye That Sees up there probably they can't detect anything happening inside us.
>>
No. 486601 ID: 242c19

>>486590
I mostly agree with this. Let the condemned speak for themselves before they die.

Also, there's no reason to release them both at the same time. Release one, talk, eat, then release the next. With 3-on-1 in our inner world there should be no chance of escape. The soulforging guy was a stronger ghost, and we didn't have any problems devouring him. We were also weaker than we are now.

>>486554
> By the way! I thought I should say, since you have me, eating souls doesn't have to be forever! [...] I can't use it on anything from before I existed
Aww... That poor guard we had to eat during our fight with Peregrin is the only person who deserves to be brought back. Thankfully, we shouldn't have to do this much more.
>>
No. 486603 ID: f45872

Just eat them and be done with it. Make it quick and merciful.
>>
No. 486608 ID: d59f46

Ask them for a last request, or about their Fetters.
>>
No. 486609 ID: 35edd4

If we can bring them back later, then what's the problem? Eat whatever apparently-evil souls you like, and commit to restore them and render them unto proper justice once we're powerful enough to spare the energy.
>>
No. 486616 ID: 368bd2

You must hold onto the part of you that shows restraint and holds yourself up to standards.

What other people feel is just as important as you, remember Wordblood, as kind as he is, is a Titan - he doesn't feel as much kinship to mortals as you do.

Keep respect towards others, even when your needs are great and you will continue to be a force for good. Start to ignore the feelings of those around you when it's convenient, and you will find yourself at the same distance that made the Titans arrogant and the Gods jealous, and wreaks havoc on the world around you.
--

Explain that it is painless and unavoidable, and you are giving them a chance to speak beforehand. Avoid details, they don't need to know. Don't ask for a final request, and don't grant one unless it's something trivial or worthwhile.
>>
No. 486620 ID: 2eac65

>>486554
>holding on to a human perspective
This is probably irrelevant, but you might be missing the point slightly. Retaining a human perspective isn't necessarily a good thing, or even possible; what's important is that you can sympathize with perspectives which are very different from your own, whatever it may be. The difference is important, since there are innumerable beings in the universe with many different perspectives; even humans can have thousands of distinct cultures.

>Besides, some people would prefer to be aware of their end, even if they couldn't do anything about it.
This is a very good point. You can think and talk about what's best for others, but you've got to take their own wishes into account. If you only give people what you think they would/should like, you often cause more harm than good.

>"Personally, my lady, I don't believe you should consider their desires at all. They are thieves of choice and identity, and willful accessories to crimes against existence and life. They do not deserve your regard, and you should consider this choice only in how it affects yourself."
No. Bad people are still people; there is no reason they wouldn't be. Sometimes it's necessary to hurt people to stop them from doing worse things, but that doesn't mean it's simply okay to hurt them if they're "bad". The idea that people just stop mattering once they do something bad enough is both totally nonsensical and absolutely evil, and I will not accept it no matter how bad the person in question happens to be.

>The Choice
Okay, let's look at what we've got to do. If you don't talk to them, you'll spare yourself the pain of guilt by distancing yourself from your actions. If you do, you'll be forced to emotionally confront the entirety of them.

Saulanna, there are times that people need to face hardship in order to learn important things. Right now, you need to be hard on yourself. You're very intelligent, but you're only a day old; this is a very important step in your emotional maturation. You need to be a person willing to confront the truth, and to treat others like people, even if it hurts. If you refuse to understand the true scope of your actions, any morals you have would be rendered superficial and pointless.

Therefore, you must talk to them. They are people, and you have to fully accept that if you're going to fairly decide their face.
>>
No. 486641 ID: a28731

What about their memories!
When wordblood ate souls he separated them into TW, skills, and personal history. Discarding the personal history and absorbing the first two.

We actually NEED to have access to their personal history in order to track down their collaborators.
But I do not want to absorb that as memories, it would potentially negatively affect personality of saulanna.
So, can wordblood forget those memories into books (stored in internal world) which can be stored and sifted through for the info we need?

>Ability to undo
Not gonna do that for these two. They have been convicted by their society for some of the most heinous of crimes. Only reason they weren't sentenced to death is because the society in question lacked the means to perform a death penalty and instead went with eternal imprisonment. As the ruler of these lands it is your job to uphold the law and justice in this matter.

The ability to undo feeding would make more sense if we are forced to eat someone innocent (or at least guilty of only minor stuff) in order to survive. Not when we do it as a means of execution.
>>
No. 486643 ID: 13de9a

Discipline - retain your humanity. Talk to them.
>>
No. 486649 ID: 09ae2c

Don't listen.

They had lives. They had their chances. They had many chances. Then they died. THEN THEN GOT MANY MORE CHANCES AND CHOSE THE PATH OF EVIL.

These are monsters. Hearing their last words will only infect you with their poisonous morality. Their last words will be selfish and hollow.

Devour them. Use their lives to do good works in the ways that the slavers refused to.
>>
No. 486665 ID: 985388

Let them have their last words. It's the decent thing to do, and we're going to need to hold onto as much of our humanity as we possibly can. Being uncaring, selfish monsters was what got the Primordials ganked, and we're nowhere near as strong as they were.
>>
No. 486666 ID: 7f2a1b

>>486554
>I can develop my ability to undo the expenditure of Titan's Will! And once I'm good enough at that, I should be able to gain the ability to extract what we once spent, replace it with Will from other sources, and then rewind the reclaimed Will back into a soul again!

So in essence no-one we eat will be truly gone (unless of course something happens to Kairosa or her capacity to develop the ability she mentioned), but put in a sort of limbo-esque state.

So in essence, being eaten by us shouldn't be any worse than getting imprisoned in them crystals the two ghosts currently reside in.
>>
No. 486667 ID: 5d121c

If we can remake them then the discussion about morality becomes pointless. Also, they don't need last words, they're just going to sleep for a while.

Eat them.
>>
No. 486675 ID: 811640

We can undo the effect, you say? Damn it's good to be a Titan. I'm not certain these two deserve it of course, but it's nice to have an out for later in more ambiguous cases.

As to whether they deserve last words or not...I think I'm with Wordblood on this one. While holding onto human perspective is probably desirable (from a purely pragmatic point of view, its provides a flexibility of thought and you're less likely to become dangerously overconfident, both things that screwed over the Primordials pretty badly), but bringing them out would cause more harm than good. It's needlessly cruel to say "Hi! Nice to meet you! I'm going to eat you and there's not a lot you can do about it, but I thought you'd better know". They might be cruel, but we don't have to be. It only worsens us. You can still conceptualize them as people, make sure you don't glaze over the seriousness of this. Just don't make it worse than it need be. Plus, they did do some seriously horrible stuff. As Wordblood said, they may not deserve the consideration.

At least we don't have to worry too much about this becoming a slippery slope. Now that we have Kairosa's feeding abilities, we can gain Titan Will so fast, noming on souls becomes non critical. I mean, 4 per day, without too much work? That's huge. Not relevent at the moment, of course, what with us having less than a day before we have to find some way to get our uninvited guests out of the house (convert the library into a catapult? Set something on fire covertly? Summon something to serve a distraction? Kidnap yourself?), but after that, the upgrades will come very quickly.
>>
No. 486687 ID: 849800

That time deva is pretty useful! Well, I say that if Saulanna thinks she can, then talk to them without saying you'll eat them in order to also spare them pain. If she's not sure, then spare them the pain and just eat them. Try again when she feels stronger.
>>
No. 486696 ID: 08a3db

Discipline

'Capital Punishment is now possible for ghosts by way of a forced effect akin to Lethe. It is painless, quick and final.

I have been informed that if you are guilty of certain crimes, that you are to be capitally punished. My own investigation has proven guilt beyond doubt.

Do you have any comments before your execution?'
>>
No. 486702 ID: bdb3f8

All creatures with even a basic level of intelligence are worthy of respect. If you believe that simply because you are stronger, smarter, or more important than something else, that gives you the right to carelessly destroy it without a thought, you tacitly invite the same treatment upon yourself when something more powerful finds you. That does not mean you should not eat them, all things must consume to survive. But know that there is more to these beings than the power they represent, lest you also find yourself a thief of identity. A wise woman once said "Sin is when you think of people as things." If you believe what they did was wrong, then take the opposite path.
>>
No. 486703 ID: 21e9ee

>>486675
On that, why don't we kill two birds with one Stone and get them to help us find Ruive. It'll give both of them a chance to prove their trustworthiness, help Gevin out and nicely tie up a few pesky plot threads.
>>
No. 486704 ID: 92c81e

>>486554
Do it quickly. Spare them pain because they are people, rather than trying to pretend that they aren't.
>>
No. 486715 ID: bd8f75

as painful as it will likely be, we need to talk to them. if we don't it will be a step towards treating humans as if they were not real people. give them some last words, and any reasonable last requests, such as sending a message to someone they cared about. we should tell them you plan to remake them down the line, but there is no certainty that you will make it that far.
>>
No. 486726 ID: 888f37

Make sure to congratulate them on being about to become a part of sometime far grander and more glorious than they could ever dream of.
>>
No. 486740 ID: b978d0

Take the ghosts in one at a time and inform them that they have been judged for their actions and found lacking. Give each the opportunity to make one last mark upon the world before they are unmade, in the form of a last request, which you will only grant if you see fit to do so. Even then, no promises on your part other than that their passing will be painlessly instantaneous.
Note: Have Kairosa display a montage of their past deeds in her cloak, which will make it quite clear that you know what they've been up to. Wordblood should have no issues fixing them with a piercing glare and looking generally all-knowing. Then it's just up to Kairosa to put on a formal air of authority to complete the mood.

If an individual ghosts last request proves to be of a nature that would have truly redeemed them (only really determinable after investigating, if it even warrants that much effort), and if we can afford to do so at that future time, then recover that soul and give them the chance to enact that redemption by their own will. Don't actually let them know about this potential option though.
>>
No. 486747 ID: 6de77b

Talk to them.
Life is hard.
Deal with it.
>>
No. 486826 ID: c6319f

This is way too much fuss over two criminals who were facing eternal imprisonment. Yes, they are people. Yes, their lives matter despite the wrongs they've committed. And yes, we are going to eat them.

But do we owe them anything? The answer is no. No we do not. They don't deserve any last words or requests and we are not obligated to fulfill them. But they're still people and that matters. What we can do in this situation is make it as painless as possible and spare them the horror of knowing their fate. It is the kind thing to do BECAUSE they are people.

In the future, depending on the circumstances, we can talk to souls before we eat them, sure. But not these guys, not now.
>>
No. 486838 ID: 66ff59

>>486554
we want to remain human. we MUST talk to them.
you're a moon hero and a titan, running away from pain doesn't suit you.
>>
No. 486868 ID: a44769

Actually I'm pretty sure they weren't criminals, especially the second one would be doing things that were legal.
>>
No. 486881 ID: 5d121c

We don't need to talk to them. We are not executing them. They'll still exist, we're just taking the stuff that powers their existence for a while.
>>
No. 486884 ID: 77b987

From where we are sitting humans are literally snack food but that's no reason to be rude about eating them. If a tiger was about to eat you but stopped to ask your address so it could ship your wedding ring back to your family would you appreciate the gesture? You would prefer he not eat you I am sure but it's still a nice thing to do. Remember we used to be one of those snack packs on legs.
>>
No. 486900 ID: 5d121c

>>486884
But if a tiger ate me I would be dead and gone. The same won't happen to the ghosts.
>>
No. 486924 ID: 43897e

Eh. Just eat em.
>>
No. 486926 ID: cdad90

Just chow down. You'll get their memories anyway, so if there were any messages they might want sent or something, you can know about it without needing to talk to them.
>>
No. 486944 ID: 9276ab

Talk to them. Saulanna really needs to face the unpleasant reality of what she`s about to do. So do we, the readers.
>>
No. 486945 ID: d628b1
 

Do you want to be this person?

I don't want us to be this person.

Acknowledge their humanity. Give them that chance. They're people who deserve their fate, not handy little blobs of Titan's Will.
>>
No. 486973 ID: 9d3dcd

Just eat them. People who helped the Deathlords soulforge stuff don't have any dignity worth protecting.
>>
No. 486998 ID: 58fa63

Why is there even a question of what we should do? We speak of having the will to do what must be done, but are we so cowardly that we cannot even face those who we would condemn?

Speak to them.
>>
No. 487004 ID: a6e85b

just eat them
>>
No. 487046 ID: b24894

Eat them. But do it apathetically, rather than sympathetically, if you can.

You're not sparing anyone pain and fear. You're just enjoying a delicious, frothy, low-fat Willkshake.
>>
No. 487055 ID: 3f6f80

FUCK DISCIPLINE.

WE ARE LUNAR. WE ARE NOT CALM AND COLLECTED. WE ARE ANIMALISTIC PARTY MACHINE. IN EXALTED, COMPASSION ALLOWS ONE MORE INTIMACIES, BOTH GOOD AND FUCK YOU I HATE EVERYTHING. GET MORE SYMPATHY, GET MORE BREADTH OF EMOTION.
>>
No. 487082 ID: 985388

>>486868
Doesn't matter, thanks to hostis humani generis. Pirates, torturers and slavers can be tried and punished for their crimes by anybody who gets ahold of them, regardless of local law or where the crime was committed.
>>
No. 487097 ID: 090bef

>>487082
Wait wait wait, they were doing this on the high seas? that changes everything
>>
No. 487127 ID: 888f37

>>486945
>Do you want to be this person?

Yes?
>>
No. 487270 ID: c0536c
File 135901068301.png - (86.28KB , 600x500 , sauladismayed.png )
487270

Oh, dear. Why is this decision so hard!? It's like Saulanna's mind almost exactly split across these two options.

Just knowing their history doesn't seem like it's enough, it's too distant, like reading about a character in a book or a play. But letting herself experience their memories directly feels like it'd be too much! These are bad people, here, and taking a ride through the world as they experienced it seems like it would be... corrosive. But talking to them would be cruel. And yet... is the cruelty she's really concerned with on them, or on herself? Is all her insistence on how much better it would be to get it done quick, for compassion, for safety, is it just justification for sparing herself?

It might be.
>>
No. 487271 ID: c0536c
File 135901072336.png - (121.40KB , 600x500 , bringsouls1.png )
487271

But... that's what she's going to go for.
>>
No. 487273 ID: c0536c
File 135901075456.png - (143.54KB , 600x500 , bringsouls2.png )
487273

Let it be done with.
>>
No. 487274 ID: c0536c
File 135901078808.png - (150.53KB , 600x500 , ghosts1.png )
487274

They appear as statues, frozen in time. The barest beginnings of a prelude to surprise are caught on their faces; perhaps Kairosa slipped just a fraction of a second in pausing them before they were drawn in.
>>
No. 487275 ID: c0536c
File 135901080879.png - (185.61KB , 600x500 , ghosts2.png )
487275

That's all they get.
>>
No. 487276 ID: c0536c
File 135901082394.png - (94.60KB , 600x500 , ghosts3.png )
487276

>>
No. 487279 ID: c0536c
File 135901093406.png - (86.60KB , 600x500 , digesting.png )
487279

"Mmmmmm... Poor little souls. Unwind... Forget your crimes. They never happened! Forget your deaths; you never died. Forget the pains you took and caused. Take back the steps on the paths you took. Every choice made, undone. Yes. Before your hopes were dashed asunder, before your dreams all sank; potential tapped is free again, the dirty grey made blank. Be as you were. As all souls were."

"As before the beginning."


> All of Saulanna's Power pools are refilled!
> Out in the world, Saulanna feels her SOUL FIRE surge! The strength of the FULL MOON fills her body!

> Saulanna gains fifteen measures of Titan's Will.

> Saulanna gains COMPETENCIES:

> Master Whipping
> Expert Ropes
> Expert Staves
> Expert Streetsmarts
> Expert Tracking
> Advanced Athleticism
> Advanced Concealment
> Advanced Economics
> Advanced Horseriding
> Advanced Infiltration
> Advanced Natural Attack
> Advanced Outdoorsiness
> Advanced Salesmanship
> Advanced Worldliness
> Advanced Wrestling
> Average Alertness
> Average Aristocracy
> Average Flautistry
> Average Law
> Average Shooting
> Average Sleuthing
> Average Swordplay
> Basic Martial Arts
> Basic Straighttalking
> Basic Tailoring

> STAVES and CLUBBING combine and upgrade to Expert STICKBASHING.
> NATURAL ATTACK and WRESTLING combine and upgrade to Advanced BRAWLING.

>>
No. 487280 ID: c0536c
File 135901098755.png - (151.00KB , 600x500 , digesting2.png )
487280

"Aaaand... there you go! One ghost with Soul Force 4, the other with 5. Wordblood's Efficiency of Consumption was 2, but since I'm a Feeding deva, my zero was higher! And the maximum Will you can get from a soul is twice its Force. So, that's 7 and 8 Titan's Will! Plus the one we still had, we now have a total of 16!!"

"Pretty good, huh?"

>>
No. 487284 ID: f2c20c

>>487280
Very good, thank you.

Upgrade our Beauty like we planned(3 TW?), then our Soul Force twice(2,3 TW?), then Wordblood's and Kairosa's(2+2 TW?). Then we have 4 left, I think, and we can examine our remaining options.

Or, if now is not the time to decide how to spend it, let's check out the tent next while getting a refresher on all the stuff we can spend it on and what our stats are at the moment.
>>
No. 487287 ID: 9db85e

I'd say Beauty comes at the End of the List. Lets give Wordblood his World Reading ability first off, then raise everybodies SF as much as we can without raising suspicion. Any other abilities we can build right now would also be good.

If we have any left over afterwards for beauty, maybe, but we can discuss it when we get to that point.
>>
No. 487288 ID: bf54a8

+1 beauty, +1 soul-force for everyone.
>>
No. 487290 ID: fa5f30

Hell naw on beauty. We can spend those points on more Soul Force. If we can afford to go up three levels (+1 for our 2 homies), it will be really hard for the guests back in meatspace to mess with us. Beauty might just make them try harder.
>>
No. 487291 ID: dd287a

Make us the prettiest! also yes we need to get some flashy upgrades, nice whippin skills we seem to have picked up, reminds me, we need to actually get some actual equipment, as fun as having a brawling skill is.
>>
No. 487292 ID: 1f8505

And now we need a whip.

For whipping.
>>
No. 487294 ID: 370c40

We should really probably wait to spend any Titan's Will until we know what abilities Kairosa has that we could spend it on. Although raising everyone to Soul Force 3 is a given. Just spend the 6 necessary for that now. World Reading we could get as high as 3 if we wanted to, but it gets more expensive the higher we raise it. I don't know how much Beauty costs but this might be our only chance to raise it ever until we are much more powerful. It would be really suspicious otherwise.

We do have enough that we could raise everyone to 4...with a single TW left over that could be used to buy...world reading, maybe? But I'm not sure if we should do that.
>>
No. 487297 ID: 406926

Team, reference >>/questarch/409525 for a partial summary of our purchase options and the associated prices.

Increasing Soul Force of any of our devas is a cost equal to their current Soul Force, meaning that we can upgrade everyone once for 6 Titan's Will. Let's do so.

After that, Saulanna should get a second upgrade to her Soul Force for the defensive benefits in social combat and the free Moon Ability alone; either could save us in the immediate future, and the extra power won't hurt. That'll be 3.

Wordblood can get the World Reading ability for 1 more Titan's Will after that, again for the social combat bonuses.

From there I'm inclined to pause and assess- we'll need to keep arming up for social combat, but what would be the best way to go about it? More Soul Force for Saulanna? Soul Force for Wordblood? Buying more levels in World Reading? Getting Wordblood True Speech so that our deva's whispers to us during social combats can get an "absolute truth" effectiveness bonus? Does Kairosa have any potential socially-applicable combat abilities, like perhaps completely undoing/making us forget the effect of a social attack that just hit us? That would be handy. Are there any other priorities that the devas consider critical and would like us to earmark Titan's Will for? Discuss our options with them, bringing up the preceding points.
>>
No. 487298 ID: d1efde

Okay, need to get our soul force back up obviously and it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to upgrade Wordblood and bring Kairosa up to par. But should we upgrade our Beauty? On one hand we could use the boost in social combat. On the other, we have no idea how greatly it will change our appearance and we're trying to keep a low profile so too much could bring unwanted attention.


Oh, and just a thought: The Dragon's Shadow probably eats souls all the time. Considering how Akatrina said she's actually witnessed the Dragon's Shadow change over time and considering the fact that the Dragon's Shadow has control of time in the Underworld it's probably safe to assume that he's repairing the damage done to him both by the "lobotomy" the gods preformed on him as well as the damage from his escape far more quickly than people realize. The increase in souls being reincarnated now likely acts to hide the fact that soulstuff is actually going missing because the Dragon's Shadow is consuming the souls to expedite his healing.
>>
No. 487299 ID: 695191

Let's ask Wordblood what is thoughts were about our current predicament, ask the two of them what our next steps should be, then we'll all come to decisions together.
>>
No. 487301 ID: 76b151

I personally think we should get Saulanna's Soul Force to 4 and the others to 3 before anything else. We do have the TW for it after all and who knows when we'll get the oppurtunity to eat someone whos evil enough for our squabbling to allow her to eat again.

Assuming they are all at 2 SF thats 9 TW spent, leaving 7 for other expenditures.

We can increase beauty for 1 leaving us with 6.

For the rest I think giving upgrading the rest of Saulanna's physical stats (in case of combat) then creating a new ability for Wordblood \ Kairosa to help us in social combat. Or we couldhold onto the rest.
>>
No. 487303 ID: f2c20c

>>487298
Upgrading Beauty was said to not have a huge impact, and could be perceived as just Sulanna cleaning herself up.

Also, of great importance here- it costs ONE TW to raise it. Unlike practically every other thing we can do, raising our physical attributes does not have increasing costs depending on the current value! Or maybe it's just 1 point right now since we're only raising it 1 stat above our 'baseline', and future increases to that stat would cost more? That would make more sense and keep us from say, spending 5 TW to get supernatural beauty.
>>
No. 487309 ID: 256d52

>>487297

This sounds good. I'd say spend the remaining points on developing at least two (random) Moon Powers, another Titan ability for Wordblood and one for Kairosa and upgrading Beauty. They're all just a single measure of Titan's Will so we might as well stock up on 'em.
>>
No. 487312 ID: 14d963

The very first thing we need to do is bring our Soul Force back up to 3, like it was before.

After that, we need to focus on our current priorities: becoming better at social combat.

We got some nice Competencies off those souls, but barely any that are useful in social situations. Aristocracy isn't going to impress the Moon Heroes, and I'm not sure what Straighttalking even means, but Basic anything isn't likely to be very useful.

Ideally we want Expert Leadership and better social attacks. Failing that, upgrade whichever of Wordblood's social abilities might give us an edge in the upcoming rematch.

Other things, like upgrading Kairosa's passive generation and deciding what to asign it to, will almost certainly need to get done, but can wait until we've seen our guests off.
>>
No. 487313 ID: 4a328b

Upgrade Saulanna's Soul Force to 4 [2+3], Wordblood to 3 [2] and Kairosa to 3 [2].

Upgrade Beauty to give us an edge in social combat [1]

Wordblood's World Reading ability [1] --assuming he doesn't get it when we upgrade his Soul Force, that is. Does it need to be purchased more than once to get more out of it? And does the cost go up each time?

That leaves us with 5 TW, probably, and here we should take a minute to see what options are available to spend them on, especially now that everyone's got a boost in Soul Force and perhaps unlocked some new Titan's Works to choose from. Improving Kairosa's baseline TW generation sounded like a thing that would become available when her Soul Force was upgraded, for example. Speaking of that, while we're thinking of how to spend these new TW we can also decide what the TW she's making should go towards. I'm leaning towards tying up the 5 points to speed up the process, too.
>>
No. 487318 ID: a28731

The ability to UNDO consumption actually changes everything!
>>64483
This plan required us to go on an eating spree (so, probably innocents) before but with the ability to undo eating it is now guilt free!

If we consume enough souls to get a mere 60TW (so, 44 additional) and invest it as suggested in that post (if growth doesn't plateau, if it does we adjust) we would be able to get enough TW to UNDO the consumption of said souls in a mere 4 hours.

Saulanna and Kei would both be level 9 (WB level 2), and we would be earning 1TW every 4 minutes (which we could put towards brining WB up to level 9 as well, rapidly).

We should immediately lock 5 motes of saulanna's power towards generating TW, giving us a +1 to TW generation.
We should immediately start declaring what each TW is going to be used for for another +1

>>
No. 487319 ID: a28731

However, if for some reason we still insist on not doing the above...

We created Kei in order to generate TW for us without eating souls. At the moment she generates practically nothing! (1 TW in 3 months)
If we get taken tomorrow we are screwed unless we upgraded efficiency at least once. (a mere 2 TW but rewires another 4 to upgrade saulanna and kei's SF first).
>>/questdis/64463 Check out that beutiful graph.
>>/questdis/64483 Check out those rates of return
>>/questdis/64470
>>/questdis/64480

Efficiency Level = TW rate
2 = 1TW per 3 months (current rate)
3 = 1TW per month
4 = 1TW per week (effective current at +2 from locking motes and predetermination)
5 = 1TW per day
6 = 1TW per 6 hour

We should spend our 16TW as such:
2TW Saulanna SF2 to 3
2TW Kairosa SF2 to 3
2TW efficiency 2 to 3
3TW Saulanna SF3 to 4
3TW Kairosa SF3 to 4
3TW efficiency 3 to 4
15 total spent.

Keep the remainin 1TW and set goal of TW to be used to upgrade WB. In 6 hours we will generate the first TW and spend it alongside the remaining 1 on upgrading WB SF from 2 to 3.
Following 18 hours will generate another 3 TW used to upgrade WB to SF4.
Following 24 hours spend to generate 4TW spent to upgrade saulanna to SF5.
6 hours later. Beauty +1.
24 hours later Kei SF4 to SF5
24 hours later Kei efficiency 4 to 5
>>
No. 487325 ID: 334456

>>487318
Always someone trying to ruin a simple game with spreadsheets.

Beauty up, Soul Force up all around.

Remember, bumping Wordbloods soulforce tangentially improves our Social Abilities!
>>
No. 487326 ID: 78c815

spend ALL of it on Kairosa's TW generation thing. the rest is soul force for all.
>>
No. 487329 ID: 908c2d

Wow. Kairosa's soul consumption is a lot cleaner than Wordblood's was. Guess that's a good thing.

>16 TW
Soul force upgrades all around, twice for Saulanna since she was starting out behind, having to have sacrificed a level to make Kairosa). (-9)

Grab a single mote of beauty (our excuse for leaving was to go freshen up, we can make that work). (-1)

Additional Wordblood abilities / ability upgrades for social combat (we were getting destroyed before, dun want that to happen again). Hell, possibly do it twice. (-1 or -2).

Spend all but 1 of the remaining TW on upgrading passive TW consumption (we'll hold the last point in reserve for emergency power word crafting).
>>
No. 487331 ID: 3ceba0

Looking over that list, I find myself curious as to what kind of permanent changes could be made to our body and if any of them can help out our social-fu.

Also, I think we should be thinking more about short term survival than long term regen right now, as we do have the power to respec our TW choices.

Boosting our Soul Force is good, but we also need to get much more social than we are now, which is tricky to do with our very physical powers.
>>
No. 487333 ID: cef812

Our highest priories are our survival and our freedom. The Lunars and Akatrina threaten both.

We can secure more Titan's Will once we're assured of our safety. That means we should wait until later to upgrade the stuff we don't need RIGHT NOW. What we need right now is social capability (not just enough that we can hold them off, but enough that we can hold them off without tipping them off to the fact that we just got much, much stronger).

So: upgrade everyone's Soul Force to 3. Then upgrade our social capabilities - preferably by upgrading competencies or stats. Giving Wordblood powers that help us is all well and good, but buffing ourselves means we don't have to rely on Wordblood. We'll have two useful actions per turn, rather than just one.

So... upgrade Beauty and Dickery (and maybe also Inspiration, if you think we'll use it), and THEN start looking into powers for Wordblood.
>>
No. 487335 ID: 7003a8

>>487333
It's vital to keep Saulanna's Soul Force higher than any of the other Devas. If everybody is raised to 3, Saulanna's must be raised to 4.

Wordblood told her that, and he's the only one here who has any actual experience as a Titan.
>>
No. 487336 ID: a07204

Alright, going to have to say NO on increasing beauty. You seem to forget we don't WANT to draw attention to ourselves. Drawing attention here draws the attention of two sides which would not like us being a titan. That's bad. So for the time being, keep the changes internal.

Soul force buffing for all, make sure Saulanna gets one more to boost herself than the others, give wordsblood what he needs as well, and keep a pocket full of TW on hand for power word crafting. Maybe boost dickery and inspiration, but NOT beauty.
>>
No. 487337 ID: c54cd1

Soul force is all well and good, but it's not exactly going to be useful in the immediate future with our "guests". Getting them out of our hair for as long as possible is the priority, so just about everything we've got should go into social combat stuff. We're forbiden by the oath from using our Lunar magic and mucking things up with Titan powers, while possible by our specific wording, is a dangerous game to play.

I'd say an emphasis on Beauty (which is a huge benefit in social combat, at least by the original Exalted system. Not sure how it carries over here), whatever we want to use to convince them, and pour the rest into Wordblood so we can have an ace up our sleeve.

Once we get out of our current circumstance, we can focus on other uses for Titan will, like getting lots of it and teaching Peri a few tricks.
>>
No. 487338 ID: 242c19

Our immediate priority is surviving the upcoming social combat with our freedom and secrets intact. To that end, we should, at minimum:

Restore Saulanna's soul force to 3 (2 TW) - We shouldn't let anyone have a soulforce higher than the queen.
Raise Wordblood's soul force to 3 (2 TW) - He's our social combat deva.
Get Wordblood's world reading ability (1 TW) - We'll probably want to upgrade this a few times, but for the moment, just the basic level until we talk to Peregrin.
Raise our beauty - (1 TW) Cheap, easy bonus on social combat. We could upgrade it twice even, but I don't know if that would make it harder to explain than just us "cleaning up".

Total used: 6 TW, 10 remaining.

Now with Wordblood stronger, we can make this place habitable for Peregrin and bring him inside to give us advice about how else to spend the TW. Maybe Wordblood can give him a Power Word lesson. In here, we've certainly got the time for it. If we have to, although I'd prefer he learn by other methods, we could spend a point of TW to teach Peregrin Power Word Stop. That would ensure his loyalty under the oath.

Heck, with our free time in here we could learn some sorcery from Peregrin as well. I don't think we actually need to spend any titan's will to do that if we learn "naturally".
>>
No. 487339 ID: 79ac0d

Everyone's Soul Force to 3. This is a given. Plus one Beauty, plus one Inspiration (we should play to our strengths).

Figure out some way to improve our Leadership, the lack of it was brutalizing us in social combat (and it'd be handy to have anyway).
>>
No. 487340 ID: 14bafe

>>487319

I agree with this one, other than the efficiency spending. From what I was able to get from Kairosa's Efficiency of Consumption statement, each Deva has a different Efficiency score, and currently hers is at 0.

MrTT's outline seems to be upgrading Wordblood's Consumption efficiency, and we don't need to do that anymore. Instead, we should upgrade Kairosa's.

Revised Plan:
2TW Saulanna SF2 to 3
2TW Kairosa SF2 to 3
0TW efficiency 0 to 1
3TW Saulanna SF3 to 4
3TW Kairosa SF3 to 4
1TW efficiency 1 to 2
4TW Saulanna SF4 to 5
Total Spent: 15 TW, 1 left.

Saulanna remains the most powerful, we have intense TW regen and efficiency in consumption (can we reconstitute a soul, then re-consume at a higher efficiency?), and setting up WordBlood to be upgraded will increase our social combat abilities anyway.

The fact that we have Devas and can snowball is our biggest advantage over the Heroes. Taking advantages of our unique powers is much more efficient than trying to catch up with the experienced people and their huge head start on an entirely linear power table.
>>
No. 487342 ID: d628b1

The long-term plan's great and all, but there will be more TW later. Get these guys off our back first, and then we can focus on becoming More Awesome.

To that end - upgrade Beauty (we just freshened up, it's not too conspicuous) and look at WB's social powers.
>>
No. 487343 ID: cee89f

Kairosa: If we managed to get you to a point where you generated multiple Titan's Will in a single day, how would that be affected by the time-slowing effect in this Shadowland?

Wordblood: Any ideas on what we should upgrade on you and Kairosa to get out of this situation with the Heroes?

>>487336
We've already drawn attention to ourselves. One dot increase could (probably) be explained by freshening up. Suddenly going from 'barely treading water' to 'able to bloody READ your malaffections' is probably going to attract more attention than looking prettier. And (correct me if I'm wrong) Lunar heroes can upgrade their looks with their own form of Will/EXP, right?
>>
No. 487344 ID: 908c2d

Oh, hey, a thought. We wee going to teach Kaan something, right? Wordblood, do we need to save a TW to for the idea you had to make that work?
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No. 487348 ID: 9db85e

I keep wonding where people get this "freshening up" thing from.

An entire DOT of beauty is very significant. I am such using my second post for this update to point that out. "Freshening up" is a gigantic stretch for a single dot of beauty.

Plus, I find it fairly offensive that one of the first things that people want for a female protagonist is "make her prettier NOW." I doubt people would be arguing to give her a point of beauty if she was a man. At least not as many. There are other upgrades that could prove potentially more significant than just "lets make her prettierz", while being less attention-drawing. Beauty is not expedient. (not that there's a problem with it, outside of attention-grabbing, after other expendetures are taken care of.)

Likewise, TW efficiency can likely wait.

Really, rather than bother with all this social combat, I kind of just want to use it to make a stealth soul now and hide until our enemies go away. Seems like it would lead to more action oriented solutions rather than just TALKING all the time and hoping that we don't get convinced of something we dont want to.
>>
No. 487351 ID: bf54a8

>>487348
no see, we need that dot because akatrina has a dot over us, meaning she can cause damage with an otherwise WORTHLESS argument.
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No. 487368 ID: e50e02

It seems like the best bet might actually be to go with Garmir and Askalaff. Reasoning is this: We get efficiency now, we do not need to win the next battle by ourselves and doing so would be even more suspicious than we already are. If we have to we can promise to return here after the training and tattoos. This is probably our best chance to learn about the lunar exaltation and get help with its abilities. Remember we are more than just a titan, and being able to go around as a proper moon hero will mean we can more confidently go out in public without chancing revealing our titanic nature.
The whole problem of going with them is the tattoos. But we wont get them immediately, that comes at the end so if we invest in efficiency we should have time to upgrade Wordblood enough so that the tattoos work as they should.
I suggest we follow MrTT's immediate spending plan, then upgrade over time WB to SF3, Saulanna to SF5 then WB to SF4. That takes exactly 2 days to do.
After this we upgrade Wordblood according to what will be most useful to help manage with the tattoos. The downside here is that until he becomes powerful enough to rewrite them completely, we will not be able to altar our body in any non lunar way. I believe that this will keep us safe and relatively free and given enough time we can get rid of the restrictions and we can learn more about our abilities in the meantime.
>>
No. 487387 ID: b978d0

Saulanna to SF4
Wordblood & Kairosa to SF3
Physical Body +1 Beauty

Should probably spend the rest on special abilities to add some more breadth to the power gained, but take stock of any new potentials resulting from the above upgrades first before deciding on those things.
>>
No. 487391 ID: 5d121c

Raise beauty. Raise everyone's soulforce, in the cause of saulanna by two levels. Use the rest on a few specific powers for our daveas like World Reading to make us better at the social thing.

>whipping
>ropes

Kinky. We should get some of those.

>natural attack

Wait, what, weren't these two humanoid? ...I guess I can imagine some situations where it might make sense, but it's still odd.

And let's find more about that aetherworld and that secret base and stuff. Why is nobody talking about those.
>>
No. 487398 ID: 14bafe

>>487359

I was under the impression that when we copied over those boosts, that upgraded her starting efficiency;
also this line:

Wordblood's Efficiency of Consumption was 2, but since I'm a Feeding deva, my zero was higher!

Leads me to believe that it is at 0, and it is more powerful than Wordblood's 2; since it is 0 it should start at base cost as she is a Different Person from Wordblood and has her own stats which start un-upgraded, just at a higher base level.

Also, clarifying that I down-vote any spending on beauty.
>>
No. 487401 ID: 9d3dcd

Mr TT has my vote.
>>
No. 487404 ID: 1f3bd9

So, to summarize what appears to be the consensus, in order of definitiveness:
1. Raise everyone's Soul Force by 1
2. Raise Beauty by 1
3. Miscellaneous additions to social capabilities/Titan's Will generation

I have to say that I agree with this general consensus, and side with those who argue that our immediate priorities lie with improving our social combat capabilities rather than our consumption efficiency, possibly though not necessarily by upgrading Wordblood's World Reading. I leave the exact means of improvement up to the author.
>>
No. 487405 ID: 2c7454

>>487404

This but also raise Saulanna SF to be one higher than her devas. I'm not sure, but it could be that having equal SF gives them equal say in the gestalt personality, resulting in slips and mistakes which is what we DON'T want in social combat.
>>
No. 487427 ID: 14d963

I'd like to not raise Saulanna's Soul Force higher than 3 yet, because I'm worried gaining such an obvious measure of power would be noticeable.

On that note, do either Wordblood or Kairosa have any powers that would help us limit how much information senses like Garmir's can glean from us?

Again, we can make all sorts of fancy upgrades after we're done with our guests. Right now, all Titan's Will beyond the initial Soul-Force-back-to-3 should either be spent on stuff that's directly useful in social combat, or saved for later.

Raising Kairosa's generation to 1 TW per hour or the like should wait until we actually have hours to spare.
>>
No. 487445 ID: 76b151

>>487427
Soul Force is unnoticable unless your covered in soul fire. Ours is already pretty damn large compared to what a normal lunar would have.
>>
No. 487455 ID: 4411c7

>>487427
As the two above me said, there's no reason to suspect anyone we've met so far can numerically measure our Soul Force. We should definitely up it to 3.

As for the rest, well, I'm not getting much involved in that. At the current Titan's Will rates for ability increases, I think we should invest in daily generation of Titan's Will. Once we're getting three Titan's Will a day, we can just sit back for, like...a month. Just stay alive for a little while. Then, when we spend all that Titan's Will, we will be *godlike.*

But Lunar Quest has only gone on for two days in-universe, so long-term planning may not make sense in the players' perspectives.
>>
No. 487467 ID: 9fdf60

I'm betting that half second before the ghosts got sucked in is gonna have tripped at least one hero's magical senses, and they're gonna be wonder wtf right before we go glowy and set off all sorts of supernatural reverberations... >.>

Anyway, getting Saulanna higher than SF 3 might be dangerous and will definitely be detected by the other heroes, making them very curious. So long as the daevas aren't higher than SF 3 as well though, we should be okay. getting everyone to SF3 is probably a good idea what with the powers for everyone stuff.

For consideration, perhaps get Saulanna to SF 4 and carve off another daeva, this one of helping our social interactions? Making someone who can help with the talking stats for us is probably much more effective than trying to by up our own skills. particularly if we have some remaining titans will to boost her with.
>>
No. 487469 ID: 92c81e

One thing people should remember in terms of upgrading beauty, is that it is not only physical beauty, but behavior related to beauty as well. So the physical part of that may be subtle enough we can get away with it.

I support Saulanna SF 2->3->4, Wordblood SF 2->3, Kairosa SF 2->3, Beauty +1. I dunno about the last bunch of TW.
>>
No. 487472 ID: 92d12e

Saulanna SF 2->3->4, Wordblood SF 2->3, Kairosa SF 2->3
>>
No. 487481 ID: 6e1469

I would skip beauty. It's probably our least useful choice, although I guess it would be interesting from an art perspective. The social powers we can get from improving ourselves magically are more significant than the straight-up linear physical route. I say we start with:

Saulanna +2 Soul Force (5 TW)
Wordblood +1 Soul Force (2 TW)
Kairosa +1 Soul Force (2 TW)

That leaves us with 7 Titan's Will. After that, Wordblood and Kairosa both deserve a treat for being such wonderful, adorable souls. Kairosa's soul generation upgrade and Wordblood's word-reading ability would both be great.
>>
No. 487485 ID: 6e1469

Wait, hrm. Information to consider from the previous thread:
>>467606
"Ah, yes. I was worried about the deal you made with Akatrina. Or, well, not the deal itself, precisely: it was a good one, if not quite sufficient. It's just that if the Dragon sensed your titanic essence somehow, and he must have done to take this trouble, I'm sure he'd send someone who had some way of investigating properly. I was already reasonably sure that Akatrina has learned some strange magical sensory abilities, and since she was his choice to send here, I'm certain of it."


So we have very good reason to suspect that Akatrina may be able to detect our Soul Force, and possibly the use of powers as well. I change my suggestion to only bring up Saulanna's Soul Force to 3, making the spend summary:

Soul Force: All +1 (Total 6 TW)
Wordblood power: 2-4 TW
Kairosa Power: 2-4 TW

It is also important to note that both of our souls remain highly adorable.
>>
No. 487500 ID: 1b13d3

Looks like we have several options.
1: Soul Fource 3 for everyone! (2+2+2=6TW; 10TW remaining) Save the rest for a rainy day.
2: Soul Fource 4 for everyone! (2+2+2+3+3+3=15TW; 1TW remaining)
3: Take this opportunity to make one more Deva. Raise SF, create Deva. (2+2=4TW; 12TW remaining - enough to raise Kairosa and ourself to SF4, and Wordblood SF3. Kairosa should be able to raise Wordblood to SF4 in under a day. Getting Wordblood to SF4 first would help us more tomorrow, but then it would take a few days to build up as much total strength as we would otherwise be able to do by tomorrow night.
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No. 487508 ID: 6bc349

I don't think raising Kairosa's soul force is terribly wise. We're going to head right back into the social arena too soon for her passive regeneration to matter, and our debate is unlikely to last longer then an hour or two, too little for any meaningful generation to happen. Given how swiftly TW can be put to use, there's good reason to keep a reserve. My suggestion is instead to invest heavily in wordblood - who is going to be immensely helpful in the immediate future - and to keep 5+ TW in reserve. If we encounter an emergency, we can use said TW to resolve it, and if we don't, we can invest in Kairosa's soul force and generation once our freedom and survival is secured.

SF +1 for Saulanna to avoid suspicion and regain willpower. SF +1 for Wordblood, which will hopefully unlock some applicable titanic magic. Finally, ask Wordblood exactly what world-reading and true speech can do and how much we need to invest to do so.

Beauty would be helpful right now, but it would raise suspicion and in the slightly longer term be an actively bad investment as we will want to avoid attention for the foreseeable future. I say we avoid it.
>>
No. 487530 ID: 370c40

Post corrected after receiving certain information from Jukashi in questdis.
Here's how I'm thinking to spend our TW.
SF 3 for everyone (6 TW)
Wordblood's World Reading 0>2 (3 TW) Wordblood's True Speech 0>2 (3 TW)
Kairosa's Will Generation 2>3 (3 TW)
Beauty +1 (1 TW)

Should be at the 3/4 TW a day mark, with power tied up and use predetermined, as well as prepared for social combat.

The point of Beauty makes up for the lack of SF 4 in social combat, and we don't become super suspicious when Akatrina uses a basic sensory charm and realizes we gained a point of soul force in a day. True Speech gives us a method of social attack, while World Reading gives us information like what sort of numbers they are throwing at us, and a way for Kairosa to use her history tasting thing without alerting them. Also Kairosa and Wordblood each get a free Titan's Working, although we probably can't predict what, exactly.
>>
No. 487535 ID: 1da170

>>487508
Remember that raising Soul Force grants a random magical ability (at least the first time, I dunno about now that we've reduced it and pushed it back up) and strengthens the ones already present.

Kairosa already has some nifty abilities that don't pertain to her passive income generation, that are worth enhancing. Plus, she might get a handy one in the grab bag as well!
>>
No. 487543 ID: 1156cf

>>487530

This guy's got the right idea. Raise everyone to SF3, give us some Beauty, and pump the rest into abilities for our devas. Keep it simple and safe for now, because we don't need anyone figuring out that we've spontaneously gotten more powerful.
>>
No. 487548 ID: 4a328b

After considering that more than a one point increase in Soul Force might be suspect, I'm changing my vote to +1 SF for all, +1 to Beauty, buy World reading if Wordblood doesn't get it with the SF, and then see what our options to spend it on are from there.
>>
No. 487550 ID: ecbc1e

Well, supposedly SF 3 maps roughly to Essence 2? In Exalted at least, you can instantaneously increase Essence to 3 as long as you have the experience. It might or might not be considered "weird", depends on how Jukashi's set it up. Then again, Saulanna wouldn't know that.
>>
No. 487619 ID: 3bad4c

Hmm.

The immediate problem is still conversational.
Wordblood, you're the expert on social combat. How would you propose to spend Titan's Will to give the best chance of success? That also means the best chance to have complete (if temporary) success instead of succeeding in social combat just to deal with late-night shenanigans from the losers.

And is there a way of bumping you up from back-seat driver to co-pilot for that?

It's all well and good learning Social Combat, but you're the expert and team Titan needs to win.
>>
No. 487624 ID: 3ceba0

>>487619
Yes, let's ask Wordblood what he would suggest doing with out TW to boost our Social Capabilities. Also, keep in mind that we can't use powers on the woman, but Wordblood might be able to do so.
>>
No. 487627 ID: 304df2

>>487338
>Restore Saulanna's soul force to 3 (2 TW) - We shouldn't let anyone have a soulforce higher than the queen.
>Raise Wordblood's soul force to 3 (2 TW) - He's our social combat deva.

I agree with both of these.

More importantly: right now we're weak, and while we've been increasing our potential, we're also faced with relatively large threats that will stomp us into the ground if we don't get at least a decent power boost.

If our goal was to go with the Lunars, we could side with them and gain the benefit of their power.

If it was to go against the Lunars at any cost, we could side with the Abyssal woman at the probable cost of straight-up telling the Shadow about our Titan powers.

If we want to avoid both, we need to be able to hold our own. Being weak is okay if you've got someone to help you, but it doesn't seem like Peregrin is going to be able to do much for us. Even if he was our social tank, it's likely the Abyssal woman could just tell him to bring us to the Shadow and then no matter if he obeyed or not the Shadow would find out about us anyway.
>>
No. 487661 ID: e581d9

Just going to put down a vote for spending some titan's will to create a new power word:

Stop. Given we have a time-based feeding soul and wordblood, it should be very easy to manufacture.
>>
No. 487677 ID: 370c40

>>487530
So it turns out I was confused about how TW generation works.

Getting above 1 TW a day actually requires more TW than we have: 17 actually. So Will Generation 3 is the highest we can get until we get more TW. Upgrading Kairosa's Soul Force alone does not improve her generation, just the cap on her ability. We also have to improve the Will Generation ability itself.
>>
No. 487688 ID: bb2145

>>487661

We already have Power Word: Stop. Saulanna used it against Peregrin in the first chapter.
>>
No. 487738 ID: 695191

>>487661
>>487688
But while we're on the subject, does Kairosa (and any future devas) have influence on our power words? Or is it entirely about Wordblood? Because her making power word Stop stronger by literally stopping time and not just action might certainly be a thing.
>>
No. 487788 ID: 58fa63

Consult with Devas about this plan:

Raise Saulanna's SF to 4 (5TW)
Raise Kairosa's SF to 4 (5TW)
Raise Wordblood's SF to 3 (2TW)
With the flow of time essentially frozen outside, devise way to teach Kahn a power word. If we don't have a way to draw Khan into our Inner Den, then use TW to get a Lunar power to do that (1TW)
Draw in Khan and teach him his first word. Maybe Stop, which we used on him before, or something all-around useful such as Repair. (1TW?)
Devote 5 Time Power to raising Beauty and get a good night's sleep. In the morning we may have an equal footing with Akatrina.
Have Kairosa unwind her SF to 3, then Saulanna's, in order not to arouse suspicion by suddenly being more powerful.
Re-engage debate, now with Wordblod at SF3 to help us.

Questions to Devas: Will this work? Is unwinding SF objectionable? Is limiting ourself to SF3 even necessary? (if not then we may have just enough TW to push Wordblood up to SF4 by skipping beauty or unwinding inner den power, assuming we needed to spend TW on that in the first place)
>>
No. 487791 ID: bf54a8

>>487788
she can only undo a thing that costs 1 TW.
>>
No. 487810 ID: 09ae2c

My plan: Raise SF of Lunar and Wordblood to 3
Raise Beauty by 1
Spend the rest on Social Combat abilities and charms. Just boosting everyones SF will not help us out of our Lunar-Abyssal predicament, nor will increasing TW generation. MAybe we can exploit wordblood to get around the oath.
>>
No. 487815 ID: 695191

>>487791
Not exactly. She can undo 1 TW of any thing, and if it cost more than that the rest of the power is disabled until the TW is replaced. She can't completely undo most powers so its not good for much more than squeezing out a few more points in a pinch.
>>
No. 487821 ID: 4411c7

Alright, so, since we can presume the Visitor Lady can perceive magical parts of a person, we should not raise our Soul Force beyond 3. We should raise it up to 3 but then go no further.

Ask Wordblood what he thinks about improving our social stats, with an eye on secrecy. We want don't want to be obviously better than we were before to anyone closely observing us, but we need to be better.

Based on Wordblood's advice, we'll distribute Titan's Will to social stats, and the rest can go among improving our devas' Soul Forces.
>>
No. 487867 ID: 5d121c

>>487821
We have no reason to presume such a thing. In fact, we have several reasons to presume the opposite is true.

My vote is still for SF to 4, WB and Kairosa's SF to 3, +1 to beauty and the rest to titan powers for WB and K.
>>
No. 487917 ID: a4a5e8

Upgrade beauty! Upgrade beauty!
I want to see Bishie Wordblood.
>>
No. 487939 ID: bdf494

>>487917

YES WE MUST SPEND ALL OUR TW ON WB'S BEAUTY
>>
No. 487980 ID: 8247d0

Spend it on Beauty. Now.
I remember how badly we almost lost to Katrina. It will not happen again.
>>
No. 488000 ID: 761add

Maximise TW generation. Like, everything that is possible.

If you've got enough left, buff Soul Force of Saulanna and Wordblood. Commit Power and focus on enhancing social abilities through Wordblood.
>>
No. 488186 ID: 7ebb49
File 135933733681.png - (95.76KB , 600x500 , askinboutupgrades.png )
488186

>spend spend spend!

So many possibilities! This will take some thinking. Taking input from the devas is a good idea.

>Beauty

Saulanna feels kind of attracted to this option, but it's probably a good idea to wait until she has a bath or something. Maybe she could ask for some make-up to be brought in? She might be able to borrow from Akatrina if nothing else, she looked like she was wearing a little. Saulanna doesn't actually have any idea how to apply makeup, having only devoured men who weren't much concerned with their appearance, but having it out that she requested some would help explain away the improvement in her looks.

"It could well be a good idea, my lady. The only drawback to beauty is being noticeable. At beauty 3, you're on the level of the most attractive person in, say, a small town. At 4 you're one of the most attractive people in a nation, and at 5 one of the most beautiful on a continent. Considering there are small bonuses possible from cosmetics and so on, Beauty 4 would be remarkable but not astonishing. If you don't plan on concealing that you're a Moon Hero much, it becomes even less of a problem. It's one of the more prosaic options in our social arsenal, but you shouldn't discount it. I know you're mainly thinking of magical options for the upcoming debates with the other Heroes, but don't underestimate the use of mortal tactics. You should try do some research on your opponents, if possible, understand their thinking, and try to think of arguments that will come up, so that you can be prepared with evidence to support yourself or counter others."

"For example, consider your fellow Moon Heroes. Before miss Dulahan appeared, they were probably not too bothered about you staying here, comparatively speaking! Peregrin's caste is not chiefly concerned with social interaction, he's a recluse by the standards of Heroes, and he can't have had a scheme based on a new Moon Hero being Chosen in his domain, as it's such an unforeseeable event. All they needed to see was that you could be contrary enough and had enough passion to refuse doing anything you objected to. With the appearance of a champion like miss Dulahan, however, they'll have focused on her as the threat. This is the sort of thing you should think on.


>Teaching Peregrin power words

"I think I've come up with a plan that will get him started on learning how to Speak. It would be faster to just spend Will to endow him with the ability, but if you want to be economical, I believe I can teach him the long way."

>Buy-

"Before you go on, my lady, I just want to remind you that you can learn some things the long way, as well. We devas need Titan's Will for most of our development, but as a human, and a Hero, you can train yourself in many things if given only time and a teacher. For example, if Peregrin has books on debate or rhetoric or the like, you could pull them in here, use them to practice and return them with no time spent in the external world. Or I could just absorb them. Similarly, you can increase your Soul Force and gain Moon abilities simply by appropriate meditation and magical practice. Obviously, you don't have time for any of that at the moment - you probably need to be in the outer world, since the amount you can learn from yourself is limited - but it is something to keep in mind. Or... perhaps you could try to commune directly with your Hero Soul? I don't know. Perhaps that's a bad idea, given what happened to Kairosa. My point is, you don't need to spend Titan's Will for everything."
>>
No. 488187 ID: 7ebb49
File 135933736949.png - (115.04KB , 600x500 , askinboutupgrades2.png )
488187

>Devote 5 dots of power to improve Will Generation

"As you command, mistress! And would you like to devote Generation to a particular project?"

Hmm. Saulanna needs to think about that. First, however...

>Improve everyone's Soul Force

This seems to have a strong consensus.

"As it should! Aside giving us more Power to work with, we'll open up new possibilities for abilities - perhaps even receive random abilities for free, like you did! At the very least, improving your Soul Force improves your supply of Will Points in social combat. Kairosa, if you will?"

"It's what I do!"
>>
No. 488188 ID: 7ebb49
File 135933742318.png - (127.02KB , 600x500 , powerrrr.png )
488188

> Titan's Will 16 > 10
>>
No. 488190 ID: 7ebb49
File 135933745770.png - (106.28KB , 600x500 , snert.png )
488190

>Saulanna SF 2 > 3
>Saulanna regains SIGHT BEYOND SIGHT!

>Wordblood SF 2 > 3
"*ksnrt!* Oh, gracious, excuse me."
>Wordblood gains the BREATH OF LIFE ability! He can generate a mysterious mist that can support mortal creatures.

>Kairosa SF 2 > 3
>Kairosa gains the POWER COMPRESSION ability! She can now devote 3 dots of Power to the task of regaining Power, making normal magical energy return at an improved rate.

Even more interesting.
>>
No. 488191 ID: 7ebb49
File 135933752080.png - (346.50KB , 1200x800 , innerworld2.png )
488191

Does this happen every time?

"This world is a reflection of us, mistress! It grows when we do."

"Quite wondrous, don't you think, being able to see your own development reflected back at you? It's different from my previous experience as part of a Titan, but very exciting, I think. And it seems I have some duty in making it habitable! Not in quite the way I was expecting, but it just shows that I'm further adapting to being part of you, my lady. I'd love to get started, but if you still need my advice...?"

>Maximum generation
>Social abilities

"Well, my lady, you have some deliberating to do. How important is your success in persuading the other Heroes, versus how quickly you want to grow? A social loss to either group is unlikely to be the end of the world, as you have ties of kinship both to the Moon Heroes and the Dragon's Shadow; however, either will certainly alter your destiny. Perhaps avoiding that is most important. However, the more power you have, the more influence you will gain on whatever your destiny will be! So perhaps that's more important! Or they could both be equally significant."

"So, my lady, I think the reality is that your calculations of spending, necessary as they are, come second to another decision. Do you want to focus on the social powers that might preserve your independence? Do you want to devote everything to gaining the most power as quickly as possible? Or do you want to divide your attention between them? Once you've made that choice, I can advise you on the particulars.

>>
No. 488192 ID: 76b151

I think our independance is the most important thing right now. Power can come later.
>>
No. 488193 ID: 74e4c2

Dividing your attention might be the better option. Everything in moderation.
>>
No. 488194 ID: 256d52

Rampant growth is dangerous in it's own way - you'll appear much more threatening to some people. Also, I feel you need to let your interactions with the world play into it, which that sort of monomaniacal focus wouldn't encourage.

I'd say focus on the immediate problem. Your will generation is pretty crazy even at this level so you can afford to upgrade it slowly.
>>
No. 488196 ID: 908c2d

Oh hey! Wordblood's wings grew. Kairosa and Saulanna don't seem to have obvious physical markers for the increase in power, though.

>And it seems I have some duty in making it habitable!
If our inner world is now habitable, we should definitely pull Peregrin in here for introductions and do some teaching of Titanic powers. And to discuss and plan for the current situation.

And pulling in resources for practice / preparation for the next debate isn't a bad idea at all.

>Do you want to focus on the social powers that might preserve your independence?
This is our most important priority. Once we've earned ourselves a measure of independence from the two sides hounding us, we can focus on other pursuits.
>>
No. 488201 ID: d1efde

I'd say that there's no point in being powerful if you can't use that power how you want. We need to take into account that Saulanna still lacks things that a normal person would have, like a past filled with interactions that helped shape her personality and worldview. The social powers are necessary to make up for what she's missing right now so that she can develop honestly at her own pace rather than being swept along by a smooth manipulator.
>>
No. 488202 ID: 695191

I say that we take advantage of Kairosas ability to unspend a point of titans will to get a number of weak abilities to help us with our immediate problems, which we can then reshape into something more substantial. In other words we choose "focusing on our social powers" but shifting our focus the other way as soon as we are in the clear.

Let's bring in Peregrin sooner than later, his knowledge will be helpful in our planning. So, Wordblood should get right to making the place breathable. We'll take the time to explore our new environment and talk with Kairosa about the information learned from those souls.

As for teaching him, the important thing is that he knows he is learning, we don't want him actually using any Words in the immediate future.
>>
No. 488204 ID: a28731

If willing to commit ourselves to hunting down the rest of the soul steel slavers and eat them to set up proper production
then I am willing to devote everything to social now.
(In fact I believe we have enough time to do so before the next meeting anyways.)

Else go for power

>Power compression
How long does it take to activate? If it can be activated immediately then its better to have it off when not needed so that we can store 3 additional motes, only activating it when motes are lower then max.
If it takes a while to toggle then this should be on at all times.
>>
No. 488207 ID: 4a328b

>>488202
This is a good idea, spending in social now and then bumping our generation once we're out of immediate social danger. So, for now, FOCUS ON SOCIAL.

Admire Wordblood's fancy wings, see if you notice anything new on Kairosa. And bring up that since Wordblood can sustain life here, now, it might be a good time to cement the true-name oath we have with him by teaching him our Word of Power before we go back to deal with the others. And we can explain things like the fact that the telepathic ability we used in the last social combat is currently limited to a one way message while he's in sight, sort of thing. Catch him up on things we haven't had time to discuss, like our current goals [staying independant from both parties] so he'll know how best to support us.
>>
No. 488209 ID: f2c20c

>>488191
If we work on social combat, we will be gaining power. That's both choices in one! Will generation won't be very large no matter what we do right now, so focusing entirely on that gets us neither Independence or Power.

I would also like to note however that I feel Independence is far more important in the long run. If we are convinced somehow by the moon heroes, we will have difficulty tapping the Dragon's Shadow as a resource in the future, and we SHOULD. If we wind up convinced by Akatrina then the moon heroes will report back that we're likely compromised and we might wind up losing credit in the gods' eyes or even hunted.

If we can avoid taking sides, we can avoid making enemies.
>>
No. 488210 ID: f2c20c

>>488204
I support hunting down the slavery ring.
>>
No. 488211 ID: 9db85e

We should bring some books on sorcery and on social skills in here and study up on our own, and accurately prepare ourselves for the coming encounter.

I vote for maintaining our independence at all costs by this point, whether that means staying or going or doing whatever.

If we can do that in a well rounded way, rather than just devoting ourselves to social skills, that would be best.
>>
No. 488218 ID: 09ae2c

>Focus on the social powers that might preserve your independence!

We can focus on training and will generation once we get these three idiots out of our hair. Besides, if we really need more TW we can just eat more ghosts.
>>
No. 488227 ID: 328fa0

Independence first and foremost. Power means nothing if we can't use it ourselves and no matter what we try to paint ourselves as, it wouldn't matter a lick if someone tells us what to do.
>>
No. 488228 ID: 5d121c

My vote is for splitting between growth and independence.

Nomming more of those slavers would be a good idea too, it would simplify things. How quickly could we do it? Do we have enough time to do it without the visiting Heroes noticing?

Also, I still think we should get that point of Beauty. It's dirt cheap for the significant bonus it gives us. Not one with impressive numbers, but it's completely mundane and permanent.

>"As you command, mistress! And would you like to devote Generation to a particular project?"

Uh... can we devote Generation to even more future Generation? I think that would be a good idea.

>forest in the picture

That's pretty cool. Are these things growing from Saulanna's SF, or as a combination of all devas?

Also, let's hit up Luna on the prayer line and ask her for help with doing our makeup.
>>
No. 488231 ID: fa5f30

Vote developing social power to maintain independence.
>>
No. 488234 ID: 695191

>>488228
>slavers
Well I wouldn't worry about noticing, after all it is entirely Peregrins business to investigate and arrest criminal souls. The fact that they are afterwards devoured is easily kept secret.

>Luna
>>488228
I don't think our grace period with Luna is still up, but even if it is I am highly wary of contacting her without at least a stealth deva. And even then, I'd worry about her noticing things like her sudden power increase or the inexplicable true name bond for her very recently amnesiac servant.
>>
No. 488238 ID: 370c40

Currently, it would cost an additional three Titan's Will to increase Will Generation to the level of producing one Titan's Will a day. So basically, spend everything on social powers now, and then later we can unspend three points or gain an extra point or two somewhere and get our TW generation going. Just get through this next day without becoming a mindslave.
>>
No. 488245 ID: cb0cc3

>>488191
Definitely backing focusing entirely on social, at least as far as distribution of our current supply of Titan's Will goes. We'll be able to get more power growth fairly rapidly in a variety of ways that don't mandate spending Will on it.
>>
No. 488247 ID: 70acd0

I'd say improve special abilities all round. Wordblood's World Reading ability would be quite useful, especially in conjunction with Kairosa's ability. Brainstorming a power word or two could also be useful, though more as a contingency plan kind of thing unless we can figure out a more subtle use. Maybe power words that can be used internally to heal, bolster, or protect?

Socially, we just need to make sure that we don't become pawns of one side or the other, instead maintaining our own side as an independent. Outright exerting our dominance in the upcoming social combat doesn't look to be too likely, and would probably cause as many complications as being subjugated. Better to aim at making allies of both sides instead. Don't want to turn into the same kind of anti-social megalomaniac as the other titans were after all. Would just lead to the same kind of end...

I also note that the Lunars seem to be somewhat less manipulative (and easier to manipulate themselves as a result) in addition to providing an excuse to leave the shadow lands. While we have a budding stronghold here, we need to get out into normal time so that Kairosa can work her TW generating magic in a more predictable manner. Can use the travel time to build ourselves up so we don't just get brainwashed by an elder lunar once we get to whatever camp. Once Kairosa is powerful enough to keep us connected to the normal passage of time, regardless of others influence over our physical location, then we can head back to build up our kingdom.

Get Peregrin in here (if it's possible now) so that we can teach him about power words. Being a bit of a sneaky sod himself, maybe he'll even help us figure out a power word we could use in social combat without being completely obvious. Good chance to satisfy the condition of his binding with potential fringe benefits. Can also look into creating some kind of mental link to him so as to allow covert communications.

Dedicate TW production towards raising Saulannas SF for now. It'll need to be done eventually anyways, though this will likely not matter until after our upcoming social gauntlet.

Oh, we should also broach the topic of coming clean with Luna to Wordblood and Kairosa. Not sure if Peregrin should be included in that discussion though.
>>
No. 488252 ID: 695191

>>488244
Unspending a point from a power that leaves it disabled and the rest of its titans will unusable is a bad idea, but if we only unspend powers with a cost of 1 that is perfect flexibility for us.
>>
No. 488255 ID: 92c81e

>>488190
Kewl stuff. I vote that we focus on independence first and foremost. Also, focus the TW generation on Saulanna's soul force. It won't go to waste.
>>
No. 488258 ID: 1da170

Did Saulanna-deva's hair get poofier as a result of increasing her Soul Force?

Let's dedicate Kairosa to raising it again, just so we can find out.

Oh, and when you put the question that way, it seems pretty obvious. Let's social-fu the hell out of everything!
>>
No. 488281 ID: 14bafe

I'd vote that we devote the Will Generation toward increasing Kairosa's Soul Force. After all, that's going to be incredibly important.
>>
No. 488290 ID: f2c20c

Oh, I needed to vote for what to devote the Will Generation to.

It kindof depends on what we spend our current TW on, and what's left to spend it on afterwards. How about we wait to decide? Also, what happens if we wind up raising the target manually? Will the generated TW sit there until it by itself is ready to upgrade the stat, or will upgrading the stat basically give us a discount using the generated TW?

If it's the latter, then we should lock it to whatever we want to upgrade 'next'. If it's the former, and the TW is completely unavailable until it hits 100% even if we decide to upgrade the stat early, then we should aim it at something potentially useful and most importantly inexpensive, so that the TW doesn't get locked up for long.
>>
No. 488305 ID: 14d963

>"For example, if Peregrin has books on debate or rhetoric or the like, you could pull them in here, use them to practice and return them with no time spent in the external world. Or I could just absorb them."
I definitely want to do this, no ifs, ands, or buts.

>Kairosa gains the POWER COMPRESSION ability! She can now devote 3 dots of Power to the task of regaining Power, making normal magical energy return at an improved rate.
I don't think this is useful right now. It would be useful if we were engaged in some prolonged low-intensity challenge, like, say, sneaking through enemy territory while dealing with repeated patrols for days straight but not encountering any more major opposition.

>"So, my lady, I think the reality is that your calculations of spending, necessary as they are, come second to another decision. Do you want to focus on the social powers that might preserve your independence? Do you want to devote everything to gaining the most power as quickly as possible? Or do you want to divide your attention between them?"
I'd say independance is the top priority right now.

Time is a resource that we sometimes have and sometimes don't. Whenever we can afford to spend some downtime, Kairosa can easily make up whatever Titan's Will we're losing now. We can afford to delay our growth by a few weeks (tops - there's a good chance we'll be able to cut that down to days) if in the process we're buying ourselves a few weeks of not being hassled.

We don't have to go absolutely all-out right off the bat - we can keep some Titan's Will in reserve, use it if it becomes necessary, and spend it on improving Kairosa's generation otherwise. But right now we should focus nearly all of our resources on the current situation, then figure out how much we have left for other stuff afterwards.

>>488196
>If our inner world is now habitable, we should definitely pull Peregrin in here for introductions and do some teaching of Titanic powers. And to discuss and plan for the current situation.
I agree with this, as well.

>>488202
>I say that we take advantage of Kairosas ability to unspend a point of titans will to get a number of weak abilities to help us with our immediate problems, which we can then reshape into something more substantial.
This could also be a good idea, though we can worry about whether to unspend later.

>>488228
>Uh... can we devote Generation to even more future Generation? I think that would be a good idea.
Yeah. Once we have time to spend, I would like to upgrade Kairosa's generation to 5 (it's 2 now). Once we're at 5 that should be enough for the time being and we should start massively boosting everything else.

>>488281
>I'd vote that we devote the Will Generation toward increasing Kairosa's Soul Force. After all, that's going to be incredibly important.
First focus on improving generation. Only improve Soul Force when we can't raise generation any higher without raising Soul Force first.
>>
No. 488327 ID: 66ff59

>>488191
independence above all else.
>>
No. 488331 ID: e5d10d

Focus on independence more than power
>>
No. 488335 ID: dd287a

Does the breath of life mean we can bring our stalwart death hero in here to get his opinion? or at least just snicker a little at the look that'll be on his face when he sees our inner world?
>>
No. 488336 ID: 67e8b2

Social power.

Put it all into Beauty. Supernatural beauty.

Make it so the first thing anyone says to you is 'woah.'

Launch a thousand ships.
>>
No. 488341 ID: c54cd1

Gaining personal power will be much easier if we can hunker down in the Needles for a while. Going with the Lunars is out, since the tattoos will bring nothing but trouble. The Ebon Dragon's likely worse and much harder to plan around. So staying and using Kairossa's passive regen ability will give us plenty of time to augment ourselves into something awesome.

So my vote is for whatever we need to win the social combat. Preferably impressively enough to get everyone off our back, but not impressive enough for everyone to think "where the hell did THAT come from?"

Buffing beauty is great, but only by 1 dot. Hard to explain going from "very pretty" to "Helen of Troy" using only a bath and some makeup. The rest we can put into social scores, maybe try to learn a social power of some sort through Wordblood so we don't trigger our oath?
>>
No. 488345 ID: 370c40

We might have enough time to hunt down those other criminals, so we should ask Kairosa about them. Even Akatrina can't have any real complaints about us helping Peregrin hunt down some slavers. I think at the moment we are underneath the town?
>>
No. 488346 ID: 9fdf60

It occurs to me, might we be able to make a power word to free Saulanna of any influence that may strike us while conversing with the others? Perhaps 'FREE' or... maybe we could scream 'BE CONTENT' at them so they feel secure and unthreatened or curious about Saulanna?

That might let us put the majority of our power into generating TW, while still preserving our freedom.
>>
No. 488348 ID: cee89f

As suggested in the discussion thread, pray to Luna for make-up tips. She's the prettiest lady we know and this should count as something an average Moon Hero should know. =3

Heck, if nothing else, her reaction will be hilarious.

>>488191
We should probably divide our attention, with a greater focus on social abilities. We need to remain independent.
>>
No. 488349 ID: 908c2d

...I would like to strenuously downvote risking something as potentially dangerous as communing with a goddes who may discover what we are for something as frivolous as makeup advice.
>>
No. 488350 ID: d628b1

Social focus! Remain independent!

But as far as committing TW generation goes: that's only likely to generate any Will after we've dealt with the current problem anyway, so focusing the passive generation on buffing our passive generation seems sensible.
>>
No. 488351 ID: 899f12

Spending 3 TW to increase TW generation sevenfold is extremely tempting, but it won't actually matter for another day anyway. Thus we should keep some TW in reserve for emergency uses, and if we turn out not to need it, we can then upgrade Efficiency. I'd say spend 6 TW on improving Wordblood, and bank 4.

If my understanding is correct, if we buy something we've been directing passive TW towards early, we waste that which we have passively generated. We also waste TW if we redirect passive generation before it is finished.

Given that there may be feeding opportunities in the near future, passive TW is best directed towards things that:
-Have a low cost, so we can change relatively quickly without wasting TW.
-Are adaptable and generalistic in nature, given that we cannot (yet) predict the future.
-Are things we probably won't want to buy early, using active TW.
Might, agility, toughness and beauty fit these criteria, as do moon abilities. Titan abilities also mostly fit, but given that they can be chosen ahead of time and do more specific things, they seem like a better candidate for active TW when we know what we need them for.

Of the physical attributes, I'd say beauty is actively bad for us in the slightly longer term, given that our aim is to avoid drawing attention. Might, agility and toughness are most obviously useful in phyiscal combat. Of these, toughness and agility seem to work best with our large power pool and ability to recover quickly.

Of course, a moon ability is the most interesting choice, so I'd say we go with that.
>>
No. 488362 ID: 3ceba0

I vote split.
>>
No. 488363 ID: 242c19

Focus on the social powers to maintain our independence. Keep a tiny amount of titan's will in reserve for emergencies during the upcoming social battle. If everything goes well, we won't need it and can then put that will towards power generation afterwards. But yeah, put the vast majority of this towards maintaining our independence.
>>
No. 488372 ID: b978d0

>>488351
Actually, that's a very good argument for where to direct passive TW generation. The rest of my previous suggestion stands, but directing passive generation to physical stats and moon powers makes more sense. Starting with either Dex or Moon powers first.
>>
No. 488408 ID: 5d121c

>>488349
Why? I mean, her spouse is a Titan. She'd be sympathetic to us. She could even get us in touch with Gaia.
>>
No. 488414 ID: f2c20c

>>488408
Discussions go in questdis, but let me sum up.
A) Simply contacting Luna will not reveal our nature; we'd have to reveal it on purpose.
B) Luna would at LEAST tell the Unconquered Sun about us if we revealed ourselves, and he's not likely to take it lightly. She might be sympathetic, but he probably won't be.
C) The current plan is to get a reputation in the world as a hero before thinking about revealing ourselves to Luna- that way we have evidence that we're not a danger to the world. That gives us a much better chance at not getting hunted by the Gods if they find out about us.
>>
No. 488463 ID: ffcde3

She might not tell Sol. Trickster deity and all.
>>
No. 488473 ID: 059ca3

Delaying our growth slightly is a bad thing, but hardly the end of the world. And we can regain power expended by hunting out more ghosts as well. It's a temporary setback that can be mitigated in the future.

However, losing independence has the potential to be quite bad. I therefore suggest putting it all into social.

However after the social waters are navigated, come what does, I would like to thereafter endeavor to increase our growth as much as possible.
>>
No. 488481 ID: e92f17

>>488414
>B) Luna would at LEAST tell the Unconquered Sun about us if we revealed ourselves, and he's not likely to take it lightly. She might be sympathetic, but he probably won't be.

Assuming he'd look up from the Games long enough to care. Luna's the only Incarnae capable of stepping away.
>>
No. 488482 ID: bf54a8

>>488481
a titan would be one of the things that can take the games away from him forever, so yes he woud care.
>>
No. 488485 ID: f2c20c

GUYS. Discussion goes in questdis.
>>
No. 488493 ID: 4eb46d

Divide attention between the two. In this world and all others, balance is the key.
>>
No. 488530 ID: 334456

Voting independence.
>>
No. 488549 ID: 6d6b47

Congratulate Wordblood on his beautiful new wings!
Now, devote all resources to social powers, we need to remain independent.
Also, we need to pray to Luna at some point, maybe when we get out of the Inner World.
>>
No. 488551 ID: 31b692

Improve our social defences
>>
No. 488562 ID: 7f2a1b

Divide and conquer.

(i.e. voting "divide attention between power and independence")
>>
No. 488591 ID: 58fa63

You know - now that the world has become more spacious it's a good time to poke around a little. Check the pool to make sure we haven't left the wate^H^H^H^Htime running outside. Then let's all admire Wordblood and Kairosa's respective zones. Then let's have a look inside the shelter.

Then we can ask Wordblood for advice on an arsenal of reclaimable 1TW advantages for the next confrontation. After that we can discuss Wordblood's plan for words of power, and we can fill Peregrin in on the progress to ensure his continued loyalty.
>>
No. 488606 ID: 7f2a1b

Also in favor of stopping for a moment and enjoying the (internal) scenery. Maybe even try to commune with the Hero Soul somehow.

And yes, by "stopping" I do mean that we should not be wasting outside time with our internal affairs.
>>
No. 488846 ID: 761add

INDEPENDENCE

Annd devote power generation to improving power generation. We're gonna need dat.
>>
No. 488996 ID: 4411c7

We are not a hero, much less a Moon Hero, without our INDEPENDENCE. Go for that. Super socialite powers activate.
>>
No. 489234 ID: 0298a0

devote everything to gaining power. EVERYTHING.
>>
No. 489282 ID: af25e0

Power won't do us much good if we're under someone else's thumb. Focus on independence.

>>488606
Maybe if we visit the highest point in our internal world we'll unlock something. But seriously, we should check out the woods and the temple-looking structure that just appeared.
>>
No. 489290 ID: 519f47

I say divide and CONQUER.

That aside, I wonder if we could draw Peregrin inside our realm now. Think he would like to see a healthy titan from the inside
>>
No. 489292 ID: dde055

How to avoid enemies and make friends: INDEPENDENCE!
>>
No. 489392 ID: 03bae0

Another vote for focusing entirely on social abilities for the moment. Power doesn't mean anything without independence.
>>
No. 489444 ID: 7b7de0

This is Exalted, a setting where Charisma is nothing short of overpowered. Go full SOCIAL ! Diplomance their faces off !
>>
No. 489638 ID: 1c7e1b

Social Independence! GO!
>>
No. 489910 ID: f5588d

Independence! Go, go, go!
>>
No. 490113 ID: 384bf5

Divide and conquer!
>>
No. 490189 ID: a5228d
File 135996723598.png - (128.24KB , 600x500 , talkboutabilities.png )
490189

>Compliment Wordblood's wings

The remark appears to make him a little self-conscious, as he folds them down by his sides. But he still seems pleased.

>The choice

Saulanna feels that her independence is most important, but still finds herself thinking that power shouldn't be completely discounted. If she put two or three measures of Will towards Kairosa's Generation, and used the rest for social support... that sounds like a good balance.

"Now my Soul Force has been upped, mistress, you can spend 3 Will to up my Generation to 3. Given that I've already committed Power to improving that, that'll give you a measure of Will every week! If you want me to dedicate production towards more Generation, then that would improve it to one per day. I'd need to up my Soul Force again first. So in total, it'd take seven days for the next level."

That would leave seven measures of Will to help her deal with the other Heroes. Assuming she uses one of those to upgrade her Beauty, that would be six measures left.

"Spending six would get my World Reading up to the level where I could read a target's Heart's Desire, my lady, as well as tell how many will points they have remaining and an idea of the numbers they're using for attack and defense. I should mention, this ability will also serve in physical combat. For now, though, it will serve well for making tactical considerations. In particular, if you can make arguments that involve a person's Heart's Desire, you will deal them an amount of extra damage that bypasses their normal defenses. I admit, however, it's not the most straightforward advantage, and it will leave nothing to go on with. It would also be hard for Kairosa to reclaim much Will afterwards."

"Thus, you likely want to consider other powers."

>>
No. 490190 ID: a5228d
File 135996728756.png - (150.27KB , 600x500 , wbexplainin.png )
490190

"I've already given some examples of abilities I can develop, based on abilities I used to possess when I was part of He Who Bleeds the Unknown Word; but it's become apparent that the more we develop, the further I will go from my original state. That's good! Abilities aren't set in some cosmic stone; we can try to invent new ones ourselves. As such, I'm going to tell you how developing such powers works, beginning with the principles underlying them, and foremost of all with Soul Force. Every magical creature works in somewhat different ways, but we can all be judged by that common standard. Aside being a pure expression of power, the different levels of Force are the marker for certain standards and limits. They represent enlightenment as well as sheer energy. I can tell you what these different levels mean mortal creatures and for spiritual beings such as gods and devas. I cannot speak for ghosts, though, and -"

"And I can tell you what they mean for Heroes!"

"That would be useful to keep in mind for yourself, my lady. Now then; start at the beginning. A Soul Force of level 1 is the standard for unremarkable mortal creatures and the very least of spirits. These are beings shaped entirely by their environment, whose spirits cannot push back against the world. The least god of, say, an individual pen, is barely conscious, spends almost all of its time asleep and has no power save, perhaps, in the extreme, performing minor maintenance on its tiny domain. Mortal humans of this level are actually much more powerful, as they at least can use their flesh-and-blood bodies to exert what will they have. Generally, however, they lack that will unless driven to it by their environment."

"If they had the will, then the free choice to step beyond the mundane will elevate them to what we would call Heroic mortals, at Soul Force 2. Similarly, normal humans or animals who develop the ability to use magical Power are elevated to this level, if they were not there already. Gods at this level are the most minor overseers, typically tasked with herding the least gods. The god of a house, for instance. Again, they spend most of their time asleep and have limited intelligence. This is the minimum level at which Devas can exist, and those are particularly weak, about the level of animals in their Titan's world-body. The magic of creatures that have Soul Force 2 is useful, certainly an advantage, but has clear limits, and for the most part it only somewhat enhances abilities that they already possessed.They are still only barely more than the least of creatures."


"Heroes start at 2, generally because they were already Heroic mortals! It takes a little time, but they'll always level up to 3 after a month or two for their mortality to wear off a bit. They get their Boosts and maybe one or two abilities for other minor number bonuses until then. They're better than a normal mortal for sure but still can't do anything that'd really surprise anyone. That's not counting the core abilities, though!"

"We'll talk about those at the end, Kairosa. So, then: Soul Force 3. Where we are. Aside from exceptions - which, again, I'll get to - magical powers at this level are what you might call "the best of the least". This is the level where gods - the god of a forest or a village, say - are autonomous enough to have distinct personalities, and the level of the most basic Common devas who have any true consciousness. Spiritual beings can perform obviously magical feats, but nothing truly impressive."

"Heroes at this level have magic that allows them do stuff at just about the lowest point where you stop believing they're a normal person. This is when Moon Heroes can do stuff like grow armour plates on their skin, or like a Sun Hero could shoot down a black bat in the middle of the night when it's foggy. But for the most part, they're still really only using their magic on themselves."

"Soul Force 4 is when magical beings can start exerting real power, albeit temporary, over the world around them or in indirect ways, though nothing major. The god of a city could, for example, make all the bells in their domain ring, or temporarily push away the influence of the Wyld from their walls. A deva of this level is a weak Commoner who has tried to make themselves stronger, or a normal example of a more powerful Common species."

"Heroes at this level do obvious magical stuff, like running up walls or across water. It's also when they can start using magic to enhance others."

"5 is the maximum possible soul force for enlightened mortal creatures. Aside from Heroes, I suppose. This is when magical creatures can not only exert power over the external world, but also really subvert the nature of their subject, or even create energy and simple objects "from nothing". The most powerful Common deva species begin at this level."

"This is when Heroes start doing really crazy stuff, like forming swords out of light and whatsuch. Soul Force 5 is also the minimum for learning sorcery, it gets you Emerald Circle spells. Emerald sorcery can bind and control lesser magical creatures, give you some mind control over another individual, turn your skin to bronze, and shoot giant birds made of fire."

"At Soul Force 6, you begin to enter the lowest echelons of what you might call the immortal forces. The least of the heavenly gods - gods of abstract concepts rather than, say, physical locations - and the very least of a Titan's Noble devas might have this level of Soul Force. A being of this level can work some subversive influence over broad domains, and if they concentrate their power, can entirely transform a specific target."

"This is the level for Sapphire Circle sorcery. Dragon Heroes can't use it at all! It's used to summon the trapped Titans' Noble souls, teleport dozens of miles, turn a normal human into crazy monster, that stuff.

"Finally, for now, a Soul Force of 7 is the limit for beings of the Terrestrial sphere. It's the highest that the champions among the Common devas or that the gods of the material world can achieve, and has the power to leave large-scale, permanent changes on the world, if it can be harnessed. Beyond this level, through 8 to 14, is the domain of the celestial gods, Noble and even Lordly devas, and other beings that are bound to a higher level of existence. 15 is the last level, but that is merely a representation of the level at which numbers no longer matter, such as with the Incarnae and the ruling Lord devas of the most powerful Titans."

"7 gets you the Adamant Circle of sorcery, which is the highest. Aside Titanic beings, who are more just using their natural powers that look like spells, only Sun Heroes and their derivatives can use it. It can, like, blow up a city. It's pretty good! Heroes can't go past 7 until they've lived more than a mortal lifetime, and most of them don't, even then."

That's... pretty complicated.

"Ha ha! Yeah, it is."

"And about to become more so."

"You see, there are caveats and exceptions. For a start, core abilities transcend the normal limits. These are powers that are central to one's being, such as my ability to understand and use all languages. Like a mortal's ability to walk or breathe, it is simply part of what I am. Gods can hear prayers directed towards them, devas can act as a conduit for their progenitor, and so on. Some magical creatures who have their magic contained in their bodies rather than under their will have very low Soul Forces, but are objectively more powerful than the number would suggest."


"Sun Heroes can tell what time of day it is, Moon Heroes can shapeshift, that sort of thing. And you all get like better resistance to disease and fast healing and that."

"You can also talk about centrality of abilities. Magical beings all have their own specific nature; abilities that do not fit they cannot do, while abilities that fit within that nature come more easily to them. For example, as a Lord deva, I am defined by my Purpose and Element. As an Aide, I am suited to helping others, and so I would get abilities that grant power at a lower level. If I combine both of those factors - by helping someone to understand - I can do it even earlier. Hence, why my presence endows you with my ability for comprehension. As a deva, I also find everything easier within my Titan's body, and can in addition derive some power from my fellow devas. I can more easily gain abilities connected to the concept of Time, for example, because I am connected to Kairosa. Hence why almost all of a Titan's devas will have powers associated with that Titan's overarching themes."

"It's the same but different for other magic people. Gods get more power from being worshipped and have more powers in their specific "god-of" territory. And Heroes are like.... like the Hero Soul is a representation of the perfect ideal of specific kind of hero? And they get stronger by harmonizing with it! Like, aside just shapeshifting, Moon Heroes are better at trickery and survival powers than they would be at glorious perfection powers, which are what Sun Heroes do. Even if like, logically you should be able to shapeshift into being perfectly beautiful, a Sun Hero will get a better effect by doing their thing."

"Your being a Titan can have unusual effects as well, my lady. You, Saulanna the Queen deva, have a Soul Force of 3. But Saulanna the Titan has an effective Soul Force of 9! If I'm right in my judgement, you may be able to put Moon abilities and other powers at our disposal that are beyond your personal limits. In fact, I believe you already have! Your Moon Claws ability, for example, seems a better fit for a Soul Force of 4, which you only had in combination with myself."

"So, given all of that information... what sort of powers do you think we should be able to develop? If you come up with some general ideas, we can try to refine them into specifics."

>>
No. 490193 ID: 5d121c

I have to say I like these Soul Force levels much better than the original Essence levels. We are at level 9, eh? Is that just added up between our Devas linearly? How well hidden is it, would a powerful god be able to tell?

I still really like the World Reading ability. If only because it would give so much interesting insight into different characters. We could know who to trust if we needed to, and who to shun. Though I suppose it might make us develop a bleeding heart for even the worst types, on the whole.

Let's see. We need social combat abilities. We have the Lunar theme, the Language theme and the Time theme to work with. Not counting anything like "humanity" for Saulanna the Deva.

Looking at that from an elemental combination perspective, we could do things like... shapeshift language? Manipulate the time flow of a conversation?

I don't know, the only specific thing that comes to mind for me is an ability that would subtly manipulate the flow of the conversation in a way that would allow us to play the various players off of each other, since that would be perfect for our situation. Make the words coming out of their mouths sound more or less threatening to the other side, or even create misunderstandings. Wordblood's nature should be good for something like that.
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No. 490194 ID: cdc7fd

So as a Titan, we possibly have a Soul Force of 9 and central themes we know we have are Trickery, Survival, Aiding, Words, Feeding, and Time.

I'm thinking a power that let's us Persevere(Survival) in the face of Strong Arguements(Words). Perhaps via making the weaknesses of arguments more apparent, in which case maybe it could use World Reading as a base to give it a firmer foundation?

Defensive Social Magic should be our first priority I think, as the oath with Akatrina had no time limit and specified we couldn't use our magic to influence her. Using it to keep her from influencing us is still on the table, and still remains viable against the Lunars.
>>
No. 490195 ID: f2c20c

>>490190
Oh christ, so many possibilities.

We're at SL 9 effectively, so we could probably make a power strong enough to blow up a city, couldn't we?

Well. We're about to go into social combat, so we need something geared towards that... How about an ability that allows us to just plain SURVIVE social combat better? A gigantic Will pool, or regenerating Will, or a huge social defense bonus. We were thinking about boosting Beauty, so something similar but more subtle might hel- Wait a minute. Making a new Moon Hero ability has a drawback. We were sworn to not use Moon Hero abilities that would influence Akatrina. So if we are to make a new ability for this current situation that could affect Akatrina, it needs to NOT be a Moon Hero ability- it needs to be Titanic in nature. Also, it can't be overt, obviously.

Still, a Moon Hero ability that is defensive in nature would be fine. It would influence ourselves, not Akatrina. So a huge Will pool boost or general defensive bonus or regenerating will would all work fine. We just can't boost our offense via a Moon Hero ability for this encounter.

Alternatively... an ability that lets us tell what people are planning to say? That relates to Time and Communication. That by itself could give us a huge tactical advantage since Akatrina is obviously building up to something.

An ability that helps us plan what to say, or get better phrasing? Aide and Communication there. Feels like a copout though.

A passive boost for Wordblood that gives him a bonus to his defensive coaching? Oh, or, a more widespread similar ability, that gives us a Will/defense bonus from any supporting arguments, including from mortal allies in social combat (like the two Moon Heroes in this situation). Sortof like a more defensive version of Scent of Victory.
>>
No. 490198 ID: 14d963

Potential social abilities can be broadly divided into three types:

* Attack abilities, which make us better at convincing or manipulating others, whether by augmenting social attacks or influencing their minds in another manner.
* Defense abilities, which make it harder for others to influence us, whether by weakening their attacks or healing ourselves.
* Support abilities, which help us outmaneuver opponents and obtain tactical advice without directly improving attack or defense.

I think we should balance our efforts between all three and avoid overspecializing.

We already have a very good candidate for a support ability (Wordblood's mind reading), so I'd like to come up with ideas for the other two.



The detailed explanation of Soul Force is interesting, but... doesn't seem that important right now? I guess we should beware of allowing our (Saulanna-the-Queen's) Soul Force to go up to 8 until we're ready to announce our presence to the world, since a young Hero with that much power would an immediate giveaway. (And even then, we shouln't rush up all the way to 7 too quickly.) As for Saulanna-the-Titan, well, it's a little late now, so let's hope it isn't a problem.
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No. 490199 ID: c6319f

Could we make a power that lets Wordblood aid us more directly by adding his Soulforce onto Saulanna's when determining her pool of will points? Pooling our 'social hp' together, if you will.

Other ideas:
-A power that makes Saulanna more adaptive to changing topics, resisting it maybe? Or being better at instituting her own changes?
-A power that gives us a passive social boost by timing the words we say for greater effect. Delivery is key, after all.
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No. 490200 ID: 13742d

certainly perception. she can already sort of stop time and ponder, I'm sure she could do the same through some power to sort of perceive things as if they happened way slower and have a way better chance to plan her next move and react to incoming blows or something.

she could perceive the concentration of knowledge around her. maybe access it remotely merely by willing it so, and grasp said content far more effectively than a normal person. I'm thinking reading books at first, reading minds later on, etc.

oh, and maybe she can see things around her without looking.

she may be able to predict the future without actually looking into it by calculating a lot of probabilities like a computer, like the Observers from Fringe.

also she will definitely be able to magically pull a jillion squirrels out of a hat
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No. 490206 ID: dd2f7f

I really like the idea of redirecting the flow of the conversation to play off other participants - words, trickery, and shapeshifting fit into this.

Also how about making our words sound different in meaning to different participants - would work well for balancing and playing off people.

We let our opponents wear themselves out on a topic each thinking they've already convinced us, so not actually influenced us, and then go for the kill (a solution that suits us) when they are all low on will and/or power.

We may need to raise our Dickery for it though, as pointed out it would need to be a titanic ability assuming our bond is still active.

Hmm we still don't have stealth abilities so Kat, or the lunars may notice somethings up - how about this double meaning ability looks like something we've been manipulated by someone else into saying?

So Kat thinks it's the Lunars, and the Lunar's thinks it's Kat? I like the manipulation behind the manipulation behind the manipulation there.
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No. 490207 ID: 77cb34

Christ on a stick, this is an impressive update.

I dunnnoo, as far as usefulness goes, being able to read your opponent's Heart's Desire is pretty sweet. There's definitely some room for misdirection since we're trying to play two stronger forces off against each other.

And we should really decide on a Heart's Desire of our own. Something like "Grow into our full potential as a Titan and repair the broken cycle of reincarnation" or the like, unless we want something more specific.
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No. 490215 ID: 3bad4c

Reviewing our little rules:
>>/questarch/453156
>"If these two don't want to take your deal, they can do what they like with no help from me. But I'll swear not to use any of my Hero magic to influence you, if you swear a similar oath to not use your mental influence magic, as well as not trying to deceive me in any way. Deal?"
Items:
* No Hero magic.
* Do not aid the Lunars.

Well, the last round had a little issue with EMOTION popping in. Would it be possible for Kairosa giving a time-based effect where it's much easier to CALM DOWN after a social attack raises EMOTIONS?
I imagine it would be a minor ability, costing maybe 1TW and a bit of power per use. I'd say postponing the Beauty increase might be worth that.

Other than that, I'd like to see a tripling of the willpower pool - but that would mean opening Wordblood and Kairosa to the effects of the same arguments. This sounds less like spending TW and more like a manoeuvre to switch around social RESILIENCE and willpower REGENERATION. You know, just having the option there so that big hits can be absorbed, while regaining willpower can happen during the smaller hits.

If Kairosa's(?) calm = 1TW and Wordblood's reading = 6TW that sounds great.

So we can trade up to 3MP to the devas before the Soul Fire shows up? Also good! Perhaps just pass that along to Kairosa for now? We weren't at full MP when we left, so best to not arrive with it full.
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No. 490241 ID: 03bae0

Could we get an ability to read others' motivations? Not their Heart's Desire, but the specific thing they're aiming for when they make an argument. Knowing exactly *why* someone is trying to convince us of something seems like it would be incredibly useful in judging the worth of their arguments, as well as giving us an idea of who we can trust.

This feeds into Wordblood's abilities of Understanding. It also won't be excluded by our pact, since we only promised not to influence Kat. We didn't outlaw using Hero powers in conversation for other purposes, such as understanding her.
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No. 490245 ID: d628b1

Very much liking the ideas of predicting people's arguments - I could see that working particularly well on offence, by predicting their counters so you can prepare and torpedo the ways they'd argue against us.

Might also work as a defence against emotional manipulation - giving us time to consider things rationally without getting too worked up.
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No. 490250 ID: 908c2d

Geeze. Lotta stuff.

Well, from that, we can get an idea of how far we'll need to be before we get noble and common devas. Assuming the Lords have to be stronger than their nobles / commoners, we have to get them past soul force 6.

Whatever. Let's see how many potential powers we can brainstorm based off the things we're good at.

Things to work with: Aiding, Words, Feeder/Energy manipulation, Time, Shapeshifting/adaptability, moon tricksy stuff.

That's actually a pretty good skillset to start with, for social stuff. Wordblood is all about aiding our words, which is the core of making arguments. The lunar exultation is about being trickys, and sneaky, and adaptive, which is is key to adapting arguments, reacting to changes, and getting around your opponent's defenses. Time gives us connection to the rhythm and flow of the conversation, and possible foresight into what is to come.

Hmm. Gonna need a bit more work shaping those into discrete abilities, though.
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No. 490310 ID: b6178d

Food for thought, guys.

If we create abilities, why not try to at least create one or two abilities that incorporate ALL our Devas affinities? Wordblood's skill in understanding (and therefore predicting) language, the Lunar Hero Soul's innate affinity for Trickery and Kairosa's time manipulation? Stack the deck, as it were.

For example, a titanic social defensive power going by 'Sudden Interruption/Distraction', for when you absolutely positively need to distract from or deflect an argument that would've otherwise damaged or wrecked you badly.

It incorporates understanding language (seeing where the argument is going, how badly it's going to affect you) and how you might slink your way out of it, timing (Kairosa's sense thereof) to sense it coming and deflect it before it reaches its logical conclusion, as well as stealthy trickery (a Lunar hero soul's favorite) to bust out the moves necessary to escape the argument; perhaps by making it -appear- like we 'got' the point and took damage, when we really didn't.

Investing more Will in it might make it apply offensively as well; as in, you deflect the argument AND damage your opponent at the same time by turning your distraction/interruption into a counter move. Should make for some nice off-balancing social action.
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No. 490387 ID: 52d91f

>>490194

I like the idea of having a "Here's all the weaknesses in that argument" power.
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No. 490400 ID: faae35

You know, I really think we haven't factored in what Saulanna the Queen Deva has for things like core abilities. Any Moon powers come primarily from the Hero Soul, which is established as a separate entity from Queen Saulanna and will most likely split off from her later on. So what aspects would she have by herself, then? It's been mentioned that she'd probably have some kind of attunement to Sorcery, and probably would have something like adaptability to represent the skills humans have.

Just something to consider with all of this.
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No. 490439 ID: 406926

I'm thinking about what Kairosa said earlier, about events not really becoming real for a while, until after their ripples of causality have had a chance to spread out a bit and cause effects which themselves have caused effects and so forth, solidifying everything. I bet we can exploit that.

All the Heroes that we're dealing with right now only work in the present, right? They have no particular awareness of the past or future- whereas we most definitely do. This means that if we change the past or future on them, they might not even be able to realize that anything happened because they don't have any perception abilities capable of telling them what's going on; all their perceptions are focused on what is instead of what was or what will be.

So how about an ability that reaches back into the past and changes what someone else just said? That plays to our time, trickery, and word affinities, and while it's likely to be limited in just how powerful of past statements it's able to effect and how much change we can actually make, the ability to alter the past choices of our opponents even a little could be utterly priceless.
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No. 490451 ID: 695191

I would like a way to use Power Words without having to say them out loud. It's just too obvious and suspicious as it is now. I was thinking we could speak a words power into a piece of paper to cast it from later. Speaking during a frozen moment would do the trick too, but seems rather more powerful and part of a larger amount of time bending tricks we will eventually be able to do.

And on that note:

>Bullet Time (Arrow Time?)
Slow down our perception of time without altering actual speed, allowing perfect response time and manual dexterity without anything being noticeable besides us being very skilled.

>Time Stop
A kind of upgrade to the power word, so that even the target doesn't realize anything happened. Also an area effect, excepting only us.

>Alter Momentum
It's a small step between time and speed, so being able to speed up a thrown or fired weapon (or throw it while sped up) seems like a basic offensive trick we could do. Also do the reverse defensively. Applying this to jumps and falls is also fun.

For Wordblood, his World Reading is great to advance, Power Words will always be useful, the reading and relaying of information in all forms is wonderful to have.

>>490207
>Heart's Desire
I think it should be more general, so it applies to a wide variety of situations. "To repair and improve this flawed Creation" seems pretty close.
>>
No. 490456 ID: 14bafe

>>490400
Oh, remember when she was contemplating creating a Feeder Soul, and was mildly set off when it was suggested that she use Will as the element?

"the concept of Will actually seems very appealing! But the thought of making a deva based in that Element feels distinctly uncomfortable. She's not sure why; but she feels a little insulted by the suggestion, somehow. She feels an implication in it that she's deficient in terms of willpower, herself"

It was kind of like the implication that Wordblood felt when we were considering making a feeder soul that could improve us in the social combat front;
I think that Saulanna's element might be Will.
>>
No. 490458 ID: f2c20c

>>490456
This would be a good time to attempt to bring that subject up.

WHAT is Saulanna's deva Purpose and Element? Surely Kairosa would be able to tell us, since she tasted her.
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No. 490466 ID: 31b692

I recommend a social Defensive power, something that will let us absorb, reflect, or deflect the heavy hits.
It would also be great to be able to at least see what numbers we're up against. Knowing the heart's desire is too expensive at the moment.

I agree we need to decide on our own heart's desire, both to help us focus and to give us extra defense against enemies controlling us.

Perhaps a power that allows us to predict what the opponent will say the sentence before they say it, then Wordblood can preface it with a disagreement to soften the effect if it's dangerous, or if we have the right answer, we can preemptively counter their argument. It would also throw off opponents if we seem to know their arguments better than they do.
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No. 490474 ID: 14d963

Everyone keeps talking about defensive powers. Those are useful, but I really think we shouldn't overlook offensive powers. Remember, in the last conversation, we barely did scratch damage against Akatrina, with many of our arguments bouncing off to no effect. At that rate, even if our defense is perfect, we're never going to accomplish anything more than a stalemate.

And remember, at the very beginning of the story, we deemed Saulanna to have an AGGRESSIVE personality. We need to be able to take control of a conversation.

We need to do something about this, even if it's just reading some books on the subject as suggested previously.
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No. 490476 ID: cdc7fd

>>490474
If we use Titan magic against her, even if she doesn't notice what kind of magic it is, the fact that we can and not trigger the oath will be very telling. That's why we're focusing on Defensive social magic. Also, we don't need to convince her of things, we need to maintain our independence. She can't keep throwing the same argument at us. A stalemate is perfectly fine for the situation we're in.
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No. 490501 ID: 7008f9

A defensive social ability is definitely desirable. We want to survive the social encounter by preserving our understanding of the words that we use at a particular point in time, as we used them at that point.

Basically, we articulate our opinion that we think that Akatrina and the Lunar Heroes should give us a month or two to work on our magical experiments before thinking about any tattooing or dragon-diplomancing.

Then we invoke our defensive power, hardening this position so it is super-hard to change our mind on that point. We should build in a weakness that we can only have one Hardened position at a time. That will make the ability cheaper, and it will let the others content themselves scoring some social points on issues we can afford to let go.
>>
No. 490506 ID: 695191

>>490476
Neutrality towards us for both parties, but we also want to avoid conflict between them. Some sort of active peacemaking might be important for that.
>>
No. 490515 ID: 26f8fb

Upgrade beauty, upgrade beauty, upgrade beauty.
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No. 490520 ID: 1b13d3

>>490456
Maybe, but I get the feeling her Element might be something like Humanity itself (even the opportunity to be chosen by a Hero soul is an aspect of humanity). You might well be right though. I'd like to find out, so let's see what we feel about this notion:

We have enough TW to make another Deva and recover our SF. If there is such a thing, we could make a Guardian Deva. And have its element be Will. Will is a strong foundation for a guardian in the physical domain, but conversely it could also act to shield our own thoughts and opinions from unwanted influences. Together with Wordblood they could possibly be effective at deflecting willpower damage from social attacks. And, since its purpose would be based around upholding and relying on our Will rather than providing it as a Feeder would be, it would not imply that we have a deficiency of Will. Unless, of course, that Element was our domain all along.
>>
No. 490522 ID: 695191

>>490520
>>490456
Her element might be Will, but more generally Will is simply not suitable for a Deva which is supposed to be subordinate to her. It would make that deva the driving force of the titan, the source of its collective Will.

That doesn't work, and for a simple reason; Saulanna is the queen of her titanic being and her Will is law.
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No. 490601 ID: 695191

Here is an idea for a strong power, that involves all of our current talents at once:
Rewriting History.

Not changing history, but the memories and records of it. And as opposed to Kairosas ability to read the past, the further back and less consequential the event in question the easier it'd be to modify. Of course since this can effect the world as a whole - perhaps even the gods memory of it - it's still a very powerful ability. If we end up with a deva of Perception or Memory or similar it'll be even easier to pull off.

The biggest possible problem is if the history we recreate opposes Samsara. If it were the destiny of the 4th sons rather than the 3rds there would be some kind of issue I'm sure. Maybe it would be harder, maybe it'll raise alarm bells, or changing history in such a way means changing samsara itself. Maybe.
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No. 490606 ID: 1c7e1b

Just in the realm of the most powerful things we can develop are themes of Shapeshifting, Words and Time. I think in that case, we could easily come up with the power to alter the memories of others.

That would be Shapeshifting the Knowledge someone has of the Past.

So yeah. Incredibly useful, and likely easy to use. Alter Memory.
>>
No. 490615 ID: d628b1

Cool but likely very difficult to achieve, especially if we want it to be at all subtle.
>>
No. 490729 ID: 09ae2c

Suggested Titanic power:
Firm Opposition Policy
The Lead soul makes a open, worded statement (e.g. "We will not be convinced to abandon our servant, nor submit ourselves to Lunar Tattooing, nor align with any foreign power or agent.") All souls adopt the policy and become convinced of its truth, regardless of evidence. They treat social attacks on the stated policy as a direct challenge to their Hearts Desire. A lunar soul is fickle, however and so the policy only holds for one Lunar month.

Has the weakness of possibly immunizing yourself to a good idea, so should be used very carefully.
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No. 490735 ID: 695191

>Ok after some word of god explanation, choosing weak powers we can use short term.

Wordblood

-Sharpest Tongue: Wordblood spends power to increase the will damage of our arguments by a small amount, by choosing words and grammar that is more effective against the target. Alternately, some kind of critical hit effect.

-Subtext Detection: Discover hidden meanings and intent behind things said. Grants insights into half-truths and other trickery.

Kairosa

-Forked Path Oracle: Consider a decision between to specific actions or action or inaction, detect which of them feels more favorable. Only good for feeling out immediate consequences, nothing long term or complicated is detectable.

-Power Rush: Gain a large amount of power immediately surpassing normal maximums temporarily. Sacrifice all regeneration for an extended period of time.
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No. 490737 ID: 9db85e

Personally, I'm fine with simply the World Reading ability. That thing's pretty awesome.

Though some ability to help heal damage would be useful too. Or one that would make us more convincing.

As it is, I really like World Reading. Super-duper usefull in both this situation, and others, particularly if we can read the hearts desire of the person we're up against. That's like... super secret achilles heel or something.
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No. 490741 ID: 7008f9

>>490729
Sounds nice. Useful, but with the right kind of caveats to make you think twice about using it. I'd vote for it, but I want a cooler name.

Forging the Heart's Truth?

Definitely a good Wordblood power.

Here's a nice Kairosa power:
Time for thought:
This power slows down your perception of time as you consider something, allowing you to consider an ideal response. Useful in social situations as you try to pick holes in an argument or calm down from a stressful statement, but also good in combat. Unlike retreating to the Inner World, this is not disorienting.
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No. 490749 ID: cdc7fd

From disc
>And, while Wordblood said that he can get Time abilities because of Kairosa, that's an upgrade to the level of "maybe" from the level of "nope". So his ability to get time powers is weak, unless said powers are already also linked to his own themes, and even then, the time element has to take second place.

So, he can get something that does touch on Time as long as it's second place to Words. So something that diffuses someones ability to properly deliver an inspiring argument by slowing the rate at which Saulanna hears her social opponent, throwing off their delivery and intonation from her perspective so that while she may hear the words, the force of personality behind it becomes garbled.
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No. 490758 ID: b6edd6

I vote against things that directly change the Heart's Desires of us or our souls, especially inexpensive spells that do so. Directly changing major parts of our mind(s) is extremely risky to begin with, and is definitely not something to be done with cut-rate methods. (Even with a temporary change, during its duration we could get up to all kinds of trouble like making more changes if we mess it up.)
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No. 490844 ID: 9a1961

The dragons silver tongue. saulana is naturally friendly and unimposing in words. negates bonus defenses to her arguments, including the defense for ones hearts desire.
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No. 490863 ID: c29f74

>>490741
this sounds like a very useful set of powers, and are very good at making sure we don't get talked into something. time for thought sounds especially useful since we know one of our opponents is going to be using half truths extensively.
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No. 491038 ID: cee89f

Had a couple other ideas. Here's some suggestions:

Wordblood:
-An ability that makes things someone says sound more/less trustworthy than they actually are.
-Something that we say is what the other person feels or thinks about what we just said, rather than what they actually hear. (For instance, if we said, "That chef is untrustworthy", the person would hear, "Why is that man holding a meat cleaver?". Or "There's something outside" becomes "Did you hear that?")... not sure i'm explaining this one well, semantics and diction were never my strong suits.
-An ability that turns all of our will damage into a emotional damage (a la Contempt) or all emotional damage into will damage

Kairosa:
-Erase the last few seconds from someone's memory. Not enough to do anything of any real importance, but it's enough time to undo a mistake.
-This one, I'll admit, i'm not entirely sure applies to everyone. When I talk to someone for too long, I start to get sick of talking, and just want to end the conversation. Kairosa could make an ability that brings that frustration point on sooner.

Saulanna:
-Moonsilver Tongue: When someone hears Saulanna speak, they 'forget' things that would contradict what we say.
-On Deaf Ears: Saulanna spends MP to negate will damage from an argument presented.
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No. 491115 ID: c817fb

>>491038
>Saulanna:
>-On Deaf Ears: Saulanna spends MP to negate will damage from an argument presented.

Raccoon's Contempt: Saulanna spends MP to negate Will damage from an argument, but it doesn't work if she is getting a meal for listening to what they are saying.
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No. 491116 ID: cfa8a1

Fox's Clever Cant:Because we need to invent the Code of the Road.
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No. 491141 ID: 5d2638

A mental adaptivity power that could work as a Moon Hero power: create an internal "container" to bottle a certain type of emotion for 1 point of Moon Power, which cannot be replenished while the power is in effect. This allows you to siphon a particular emotion into the container so that you are no longer affected by it. You can still become affected by that emotion again as per normal, but you can continue siphoning it away at will. However, when you cease maintaining a bottle it shatters and you are instantly affected by the accumulation of all the emotion that you sealed in the bottle.
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No. 491342 ID: 9ddf68

for powers that we could use in social combat
wordblood- see hearts disire would be useful
the trick he uses to lessen damage to our will should be boosted a little and maybe make it so he can add on to what we say to put a little more punch into our attacks

Kairosa- would it be possible to make a warning system, like before we pick a topic you could tell us what the chances of us winning in that topic are since you can feel what the future might bring (like for example 'topic A will be a bit rocky but doable, well topic B will be an uphill battle)
Also the ability to slow time down a bit so we can have a little more time to think what to say and how to phrase what we will say

and Saulanna- work on shape shifting, with this i mean with shape shifting we could alture our buity and any time so we can have it up in social combat situations but lower out in the real would so not to get to much attention to ourselfs
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No. 491415 ID: b6178d

Hang on a tick. Didn't we want/need some sort of telepathy ability?

I suggest the "Silent Second Opinion" ability from Wordsblood; connect minds with someone else so they can offer advice, suggestions and, say, helping REFUTES, without them having to commit audibly. Should be handy as long as we keep a trustworthy retainer like Peregrin around; he can work as a second bulwark for us, in addition to Wordsblood's own efforts.
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No. 491420 ID: 5d2638

>>491415
Good thing you remembered that. Silent communication channels could help us immensely.

Seconding this suggestion
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No. 491441 ID: e2f69c

I'd like an ability that makes our meaning clear to anyone it is directed at, regardless of the form it is conveyed in. That way we can literally dopeslap knowledge into people.
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No. 491446 ID: 4a328b

Right now Wordblood can do one action each social round, right? Either healing us or making an emotional appeal?

What about an ability to let him get TWO actions in each turn? A time + communication ability. Can Kairosa help with that, too?
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No. 491453 ID: 2eac65

Well, we need to increase our resistance to persuasion. We already have the ability to internally refute arguments with help from our devas; perhaps we could gain the ability to alter our internal timeframe so that we could think in more detail about what's going on around us, and our devas (both of them) can make multiple arguments to support us each "turn"? Without messing with our connection to the outside world? That ties in with all our themes: Kairosa's themes of time and of managing our internal processes, Wordblood's themes of assistance and information, and our own theme of transformation (because we'd be "transforming" our mind), so it should be very effective. Maybe call it something like "Deep Thought Flow".

It'd also be helpful if we could track the flow of information to and from our mind. The two visiting Moon Heroes are able and willing to use invasive magic to alter our thoughts without our knowing; keeping track of that could make a crucial difference.

We should ponder a way to increase our persuasiveness as well. Some specific ideas:

Radiant Script: Enchants our speech or writing to ensure that others will understand it clearly. Messages can be read through stains or darkness, and speech will be heard over ambient noise and through any object that muffles it, so long as it can be perceived at all (one could read in darkness, but not through a solid wall, for example). In conversation, it will ensure that our words are understood perfectly by other parties, without a lack of attention, contempt, stubbornness, or other biases getting in the way (this function would not seem overtly magical, since understanding others in conversation is normal).

This would tie in with Wordblood's theme of communication and his theme of assistance, by aiding others in understanding. It would help us persuade others, because people who believe things strongly have a tendency to misunderstand or dismiss arguments to the contrary. It wouldn't ensure perfect success, of course, since people can disagree with things they understand, but it would certainly help.

Forked Words: Words can mean many things depending on how they are used; sometimes, they can mean many things at once. This technique allows the user to make a single claim with multiple meanings, allowing her to target different people at the same time, or affect a single target with multiple arguments simultaneously.

Echoing Message: This will enchant a statement made in speech or writing, so that it will freshly reappear at an opportune time. A written message will become invisible on the page, revealing or changing itself at a later time, when the right conditions come to pass. For spoken words, this ability will ensure that the listener recalls our words clearly at the proper time; in a debate, this will allow a social attack to affect the target again in a later turn, if a point is brought up where it would still be relevant.
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No. 491606 ID: c54cd1

Not sure about the specifics, but my vote is for defensive style social abilities. We need to ensure we have a fallback or two to prevent our opinion from being shifted about going with our unwanted guests.

Plus, even defense serves as our offense. The MOON HEROES seem likely to leave us alone (at least for a while) if we show we're not some easily manipulated dupe. When we stand our ground, that will fortify that opinion (although they've already seen a bit of that from us, which is good). The DEATH HERO is a bit more of an unknown, especially if Peri's right about her being sent to observe whatever we are. That said, if she's anything like her master, she'll likely withdraw and try a different strategy if met with too much resistance. That buys us time, which we're in sore need of. With that extra time, we can fortify ourselves with boatloads of Titan Will passively, so by the time we have to deal with them again, we'll be much more secure.
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No. 491672 ID: 9e0824

>>490729
This is probably the social defence we want. We don't have a real Heart's Desire yet, and may not want to inscribe one upon ourselves so soon... but being able to temporarily fake it should help defend against random social mischief.

>>491453
Yeah, I think the best use of Time is definitely information rate. As a Feeding Soul, Kairosa isn't really designed to help us with the problem at hand much, but given that her essential function is to process the information streams from the souls we're eating, she should be able to branch out and handle the much simpler information streams from our ordinary perceptions... at least until we pick up a Seeing Soul to handle that for us explicitly.
Similarly, I like understanding as coming from Wordblood. It seems to fit him much better than any sort of trickery or negation.
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No. 491678 ID: 105826

Faking a Heart's Desire for a temporary span of time is pretty cool conceptually.
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No. 491710 ID: 406926

Some more ideas for abilities which might prove useful, though perhaps not all at the current time:

Kairosa:
Magic of Tomorrows would let Kairosa draw on points of Titan Power that she hasn't regenerated yet; alternately, when she's at her maximum power but would be regenerating points, it would "bank" the excess points generated by sending them into the future for this ability to call on when she needs them. This effectively means that she can draw on much more magical power than her Soul Force would imply is her maximum as long as she either paid in advance or pays it back later. This ability seems extremely powerful- but it's also exactly within both of Kairosa's purviews, so I think we've got a shot at making it happen.

Twisted Moments would let Kairosa change an event that just happened to something else. Given her current level of power, I would expect it to be limited to events very similar to what happened, or which were just as likely to happen- for the moment. Even so it could still be exceptionally useful in both physical and social combat.

Echoes of Samsara would let Kairosa gain bonuses to doing something so long as it is very similar to an event which has happened before- the closer to the original event, the bigger the bonus. This has obvious utility in a huge number of situations.

Splintered Perception would let Kairosa negate social attacks against herself (or others?) by manipulating the target's perception of their opponent's argument such that while the entire thing is still heard, from the target's perspective it comes out sounding broken, stilted, and possibly mixed in with other perceived events from the target's timeline.

Wordblood:
Will of Many would let Wordblood gain bonuses in whatever activity he's engaged in- combat, social, whatever- proportionate to the number of allies working alongside him toward the same objective. Potentially it could give all allies bonuses proportionate to their number eventually, but that might be a bit beyond us right now.

Hearts As One would let Wordblood combine the Willpower pools of all allies engaged in a social encounter into one large willpower pool, as their understandings combine and interests align with one another. This means that any social attack which would normally affect them all individually instead has only one target, so it does less total damage; however, it does mean that if this pool hits zero all allies are simultaneously convinced of the topic- they stand or fall together. There would potentially be upgrades to this ability later that give everyone involved bonuses to coordination or something for as long as they remain in the group, but perhaps not right now.
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No. 491877 ID: 4cf388
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491877

"Ha ha, looks like you've got a lot to get through, Wordblood!"

"Yes, yes. You'll be helping me, you know."

"Ahem. First things first. I might need to make some clarifications. First of all, the abilities you're coming up with have to be for one of us, individually. For me or for Kairosa, or Moon abilities for yourself, my lady. And, although I did say I can take shades of Kairosa's powers onto mine, they would be slight. If you want to look back at what I said about Soul Force, any Time-related powers I could get would be as for a much lower rating than what I possess. Combination powers have a little more leeway, but any powers I develop have to be predominantly related to my own themes, and any Time-related effects would be secondary. Distantly secondary, at that. Now, as an Aide, I can develop abilities to enhance my fellow devas, but then the way it would work would be, as an example, Kairosa developing an ability, and then myself developing an ability that I use to enhance that one."

"Second, what it means for you to have an "effective rating" of 9. Essentially, your physical body, as it becomes a Titanic avatar, draws power from all of us, together. Hence, you gain the passive benefits of that rating, in the way of your capacity to resist hostile magic, the total amount of Power you can draw upon, and yes, a greatly inflated supply of Will Points in social combat. Some of your suggestions ran along that line, but it's an advantage you already have. Titans get a huge boost to their confidence and, indeed, stubbornness, due to the psychological support of having their devas at their backs. Full-grown Titans can be effectively impossible to convince about anything through normal social combat methods; you're not there yet, of course, but you still get the advantage. Although, similarly, any creature with a high Soul Force is simply harder to convince that they're wrong about anything."

"As for what your combined power means for developing abilities..."


"It's only your Moon abilities that you can get higher than you should, for now!"

"Yes. As I understand it, your Hero Soul is explicitly designed to enhance your physical body. We, sadly, are not. So, although we do have our influence - I can sense a connection to your physical body, myself, a little - your body draws most of its identity from you and from your Hero Soul. For now. As such, you may be able to develop appropriate powers from those sources that are above your own personal Soul Force. It is uncertain, however, and such... erm... "cheat" powers, if you excuse the term, may have limitations that won't apply once you've matched their prerequisites properly. The lower power they are, the better your chance to develop them, and the better if they match your Titanic themes somehow, as well."

"Oh, I should say! Your Moon Hero Soul doesn't just have themes of Trickery and Survival, it has lots of stuff. Protection and chaos and life and night and animals and monsters and fear and madness and hunger and pregnancy and blood and love and rage and mist and suchandsuch, and such. And you have a raccoon totem manifesting it so you have extra themes of like theft and sneakiness and masks and all that mythological symbolism whatever. But when it comes to what powers you can develop, at least at the lower Soul Force levels, it's mainly about animal stuff. Either actually imitating specific "animal powers", sort of thing, or some kind of mental "instinct" thing, like having a danger sense or being able to tell if someone doesn't like you or something. Actually drawing down the divine essence of Luna for powers of madness and illusion and chaos lasers is a level above that again."

"You said the Hero Soul was like an "ideal of a certain kind of hero", Kairosa, if I remember right? So it likely demands a little more from you in exchange for its powers than we do, my lady. Powers related to endurance might require you to have a certain level of Toughness, for example."

"Yep!"

"Right. Let's move on to specific ideas for abilities, then. Oh, and just as a reminder... remember, you will have to spend Power to use most abilities beyond your inner world."
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No. 491878 ID: 4cf388
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491878

There's a concern that's on Saulanna's mind.

>Can Saulanna's high power be detected? By a god, perhaps?
"Uh, well, not too easily! Most of your power is bound up in your inner world, which is another realm of existence. So even people with magic-sensing powers shouldn't be able to pick up on your mojo unless you're actually throwing a ton of magic around right in front of them. On the other hand, if someone was actively suspicious of there being a little Titan around, and was looking and checking for signs, they might sniff you out. Aaaaaand probably most people can get a sense of something weird about you, they just won't know what it is."

Hmm. That's a little less reassurance than Saulanna would like.

>World Reading seems really useful!
"I'm happy to hear that you think that, my lady. However, I must say that it can be limited. Knowing someone's Heart's Desire, for example, is not much use if it turns out to be completely unrelated to the discussion at hand."
"True enough, Wu-blu, but on the other hand, I've been meditating on that a bit! I think you're underestimating the thematic resonance with mistress and her Hero Soul. They both have some capacity for reading humans and other living creatures already, so with the pile-on to yourself, maybe your Reading will be a little stronger than you think? Like, maybe you'll be able to read MalAffections at level three as well, on top of Heart's Desire. That's more chance to be handy!"
"... "Wu-blu"?"

>Making people misunderstand each other
"Mm... perhaps. Not yet, however. As an Aide, I'm the only one of us for now that can make abilities that directly affect others, but only for the purposes of helping them, not hindering them. The idea of subverting understanding rather than helping it is also... uncomfortable to me. But, it is within the range of my themes, by opposition. I can already do... something like that, if you recall."
"One of a Lord's Noble devas usually manifests as a representation of their opposite, right? So you might get, like, a confusion or silence deva some time. What would I get? Stasis or something?"
"That's often the case, yes. I wouldn't make a premature guess. To get back on topic, keep in mind that any power you exert on people besides yourself can potentially be defended against, particularly in the case of powerful Heroes."

>Defensive Moon ability
"Well, Moon Heroes do get protection stuff! Some sort of animal thing, maybe. Like... an ability than enhances your attachment to stuff that's your "territory"? Draw on that "GRRR, MINE" impulse, you know? Maybe an ability where you spend some MP and then for a while you treat something that's somehow "yours" as if you had an Affection for it."

>Knowing what people are going to say
Saulanna thinks there's an innate problem with any ability that would depend on identifying what someone is going to say, whether it's to counter or interrupt or any other defensive purpose. The social attack is a representation of how Saulanna is influenced by people's arguments; the information they give her and the points they highlight. If she knows what they're going to say, then she's actually just doing their job for them!
"Only in regard yourself, my lady; and without the benefit of their charisma. It would be a helpful ability if you're dueling with someone over the persuasion of a third party. And it's certainly a possible ability for me to have! The only caveat is that it would have to be able to go off by itself. Either I'd have to prepare and "hold" it for use in advance, or create a version where it automatically activates to tell you you should act, in which case it would be draining my Power to fuel itself without your direct control. In any case, it's a power that would need me to have some World Reading to build off. Level two, I think."

>Knowing the motivation for an argument/what a person is getting at
"Again, possible, but it's a form of mind reading, and would need World Reading as a prerequisite at quite a high level."

>Bonus to deva coaching
"Well, I could use my own Boost, I think. One point of my Power for a bonus of 3."

>Making your words carry different meaning for different people.
"Directed subtext, or making one target understand you better, or in a different way? Hmm. I think that would be possible, yes. I do already have my ability for sending messages, so it shouldn't be hard to build off that."

>Time-based calming
"Ooh. Giving yourself time to reflect and get objective again, without the whole discontinuity thing you'd get from just dipping back in here? Tricky. But possible. Or, could kind of... imbue you, with the objectivity that suits an eternal immortal whose existence is beyond the span of ages. Like me!"
"Like... you?"
"Sure! Wub, I have got crazy patience. Trust me."
"I... Alright, I'm drawing the line, please. Do not call me... that. Anyway. Yes, you can do that. It actually may fall into the relatively slim line of generic Titan themes. Though dispassion isn't always a benefit, you know. Getting yourself worked up over a particular subject is a good way to prevent yourself from being persuaded on it."

>Changing what someone has already said, before it gets heard
"Oh boy. Uh, I don't think I can manage that. Maybe some kind of combination ability with Wordblood helping me? But not for ages. At least, not if you want the person who said it to not realize something's up. Double if you don't want them to pick it up on the Loom of Fate. Even without all that, still, nowhere near doing it yet."

>Altering someone's memory
"It's possible, or would be if I was stronger, but difficult against the unwilling or even the simply unaware."

>Time shenanigans with use of Power Words
"Like, stop time, say it, start time again? I am way off from time-stoppage in the outer world, mistress. Even then, it still happens, people will know something was up."
"You could... er. Hmm. Well, this is a little close to the whole... inter-deva mental influence thing... But using Power Words in your inner world wouldn't be detectable from outside, my lady. I think... well, perhaps the specific case of using one to dispel mental influence, maybe... I... could use a Word on... you? Oh, ugh. I feel a bit unclean just thinking in that area. Just forget I said it. None of them seem to use serious mind control powers thus far."

>>490739
>"Firm Opposition Policy"
Saulanna isn't sure she wants to articulate this idea, given how Wordblood seems to react to the idea of direct mental influence being used between devas. Perhaps it wouldn't count, since she's the Queen? But she actually feels a little uncomfortable about it herself.

>>490735
> "sharpest tongue"
"I could gain an ability to let me endow others with the benefit of my own Boost, my lady. A bonus from use of language is within its dominion, I'm sure."
>subtext detection
"I already grant you the ability to understand hidden meanings, my lady. Unless you mean hidden meanings the person themselves doesn't intend to deliver? Psychological slips and the like. Little clues. That may be possible. Having a level of World Reading first would help."
>"Forked Path Oracle"
"Ooh. I can try, mistress! Can't guarantee 100% accuracy since I'd be only getting a feel and not actually looking directly, but it could work. You'd need to tell me what "favourable" is whenever I use it, though."
>"Power Rush"
"That's doable, too. I tell you, though, you can't move a lot of Power around without someone noticing, even if you're just using time shenanigans to steal from yourself!"

>>491038
>sound more/less trustworthy
"That's more in the range of your own Moon Boost, my lady, if used with your Inspiration or Dickery."
>turn will damage into emotion damage, or vice-versa
"Er. That's a little... inorganic? The mechanics are just representations. And it's not really in-theme for any of us... Well, maybe some sort of beast psychology where there's no rational comprehension and only emotions matter, your Moon abilities might produce something like that..."
>social exhaustion
"Making people lose energy and get tired faster? I think I can do that. I'm not strong enough to use my abilities to directly affect others, yet, though."
>directly blocking Will damage
"That thing Wordblood thought of there might work. It's probably conditional or something, though, like you'd only be able to use it against arguments that threaten something you're protecting, or the like. You gotta zone in on those themes, mistress! Samsara's gotta be your friend!"

>emotion bottle
"I don't think that fits into any of our ranges, my lady. It sounds dangerous, as well."
Hmm. Saulanna... isn't sure. An ability that shifts her emotions away until later... yes. Somehow... yes, she might be able to do that. She doesn't quite understand how, but... some part of her can try that. Yes.

Yes.

>telepathy
"Well, my lady, I can already send messages to people. Perhaps I could develop another ability that would allow me to devote Power to maintaining a bond, and allow myself to speak to them as much as we like for free, while it's active? As for receiving messages, I can get an ability off the side of World Reading, at level three, that would allow us to hear any prayers directed at us. That would serve."

>making our meaning clear
"I could do an ability that ensures we're understood as intended, my lady. It could even work over environmental factors, like speaking over noise. An aide to teaching, too. That could well be useful! If not so much for our immediate situation."

>extra actions for Wordblood
"That's possible, but not quite yet. Perhaps with another level of Soul Force, I could do it."

>>491453
>tracking "flow of information"
"I'm... not sure what exactly you mean?"
"Just sensing when magic is being used on you, maybe? You can probably get a Moon ability on top of your Sight Beyond Sight that does that."

>>491710
>"Magic of Tomorrow"
"Well, I can learn to do it, but again, moving a lot of Power around quickly isn't subtle. And as for the Power I would get on top of when my pool is full, well, that's the Power I use to spin into Titan's Will, you know! It's not just wasted."
>change what just happened
"Not yet, mistress. And it takes a lot of power! Enough that you would have been able to change it when it happened to begin with, with more besides. And dangerous. And noticeable! Small changes I suppose wouldn't be too bad, I guess, and not too hard or expensive if chance was a factor and you're just changing how the dice came out. Still, risky stuff!"
>"Echoes of Samsara"
"Well, samsara ssssoooort of works like that already, so I could try just enhance the effect. Though you know, it's not exactly so much about the repetition as it is the significance of the repetition, you know? And all the like... similarities, and symbolism and stuff coming together... it's hard to explain. I can do something, though."
>"breaking" perception
"I could do that. It'd only blunt them a little, though, depending on how important the raw charm of the words is. Sounds sort of annoying to put yourself through, as well! And you'd have to use it in advance."
>"Will of Many"
"Ah. Er, hmm. I can already use my Boost to help me help others, and I could learn abilities to endow others with magical enhancement, but unfortunately it doesn't work in reverse. I have no special facility to gain anything by receiving aid myself."
>"Hearts As One"
"Well, for us, this is effectively the case already. Forming unified groups with others? Possible. A little beyond my power at the moment."

That's about all that Saulanna's thought of so far, in regards magical abilities.

As for other thoughts...

>Heart's Desire

"Yes, you could do with one. As a Titan, especially, and a deva, you need to find your Purpose. However, you can't merely decide on one. It is your choice, but it is a choice you have been living, that shows itself in your deeds. All I can suggest is that you reflect on your experiences, and in time, you will come to realize what it was that was driving you all along."

"Well, mind you're not too old-fashioned, Wu-Blu! There's never been a Titan kid before! And part of growing up is changing when you become an adult. And part of being human is being able to change, and we're part human! Maybe she can develop a temporary Desire and Purpose that'll just do until the big one comes along."

"I... suppose so. It would be strange, but there has been stranger."

"Well, there you go, mistress, a ton of stuff to think on. Whatd'you say? Any other ideas, or do you want to pick out your selection now?"
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No. 491895 ID: 7003a8

>>491878
I'd like to suggest getting an openly accepted proper mother/daughter relationship with Luna as your Heart's Desire.
Having Luna helping you work out a place in the world and using her knowledge and skills to watch out for mistakes that could cause you endless grief?
Having Sun not trying to kill you or have his Solars keep you under constant scrutiny?
Being able to, in at least some small way, repay Luna for saving your physical life and metaphysically birthing you?

Naturally, this implicitly requires trying to make Luna proud of you. It would be very difficult for somebody to sway you into something that would displease Luna, which would likely include anything a certain titan-backed deathlord would have you do.
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No. 491898 ID: 4a328b

I'd like to put forth RETAINING INDEPENDENCE as a possible heart's desire
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No. 491902 ID: 370c40

World Reading is only sounding more and more useful. If only we had an extra two or three TW to deal with we could get World Reading to 3, pick up that prayer receiving ability, and still pick up a couple other abilities to round things out. Wordblood's Voice in the Dark already lets us talk to Peregrin, if we could listen to him as well that would solve the problem of stealthy communication completely. Still think we should hunt down another ghost using the information we just got from eating those guys. One more criminal is all we need, even an incredibly weak ghost would be plenty. Also the point of Beauty might help us pick up Beauty linked Moon abilities, so we should strongly consider that.
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No. 491909 ID: 9ddf68

well for hearts disire thing I feel we should focus on Saulanna becomeing a better sorcerer. at lest for now. Both Wordblood (or Wu-blu as he is now known) and Kairosa said Saulanna should look into it and if we can get to soul force 7 and learn Adamant Circle of sorcery we should be set unless we actually do have to fight a god or titin. And hell with sorcery in the long term we could help the ghost people because didn't they say something about having some kind of magic lacking issue or something (it's always good to have friends/place to ditch to incase shit hits the fan).Also it does seem we aready have some kind of long term goal and that's to become a titin, but if we have to becacome a certian kind of titin like gaia for life and that mechanical titin guy for technology could we become the titin of sourcory and magic since we already seem to have a follower who is following us because of our magic or would that be kind of an oxymoron since Kairosa said that sourcory is just a less effective form of titin magic
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No. 491914 ID: 7008f9

We should just passively boost our soul force, since it makes us harder to persuade. Maybe take a time-based calming effect on top of that.
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No. 491920 ID: 3bad4c

Oooh! Maybe this (given my last ideas turned out to be useless):
(Numbers are placeholders for WB to figure out)

Teach the Teacher for Wordblood
Goal: Unravel deception by prodding the attacker for more information.
Ability type: Social combat manoeuvre, after taking will point damage.
Description: Parry and riposte.
After taking up to Wordblood's Soul Force x 3 will points of damage the speaker can act like they don't fully understand the implications and invite the opponent to explain their argument further. The speaker points out flaws in the argument. It is only against deceptive points/arguments. It is based on the assumption that keeping a deceptive argument straight is much more taxing than not being deceptive.

Effect: The speaker regains the willpoints taken in the previous attack, and also gains a (3WP?) resistance to further Dickery based social attacks from that opponent for the duration of the social combat.
Activation requirements: The attack this was a response to must have a Dickery component, or this ability will have no effect.
Check: Intuition+Sleuthing must match or exceed the Dickery component of the attack, else the ability will fail.
Duration: This takes the speaker's turn, no matter how many times the speaker or opponent actually gets to speak.

Power Cost: 1 per 6 will points taken.
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No. 491923 ID: cee89f

... I got one more.

Clouded Thoughts: Put the mind of another into a distracting fugue that makes it difficult for them to think. Perhaps through lust or fear?

>"Like, stop time, say it, start time again? I am way off from time-stoppage in the outer world, mistress. Even then, it still happens, people will know something was up."
>"You could... er. Hmm. Well, this is a little close to the whole... inter-deva mental influence thing... But using Power Words in your inner world wouldn't be detectable from outside, my lady. I think... well, perhaps the specific case of using one to dispel mental influence, maybe... I... could use a Word on... you? Oh, ugh. I feel a bit unclean just thinking in that area. Just forget I said it. None of them seem to use serious mind control powers thus far."

Well, how about this: could you speed up time for our Titan-body instead of stopping it for the world? The effect would be similar to super-speed, or a regular time-stop. Any negative affects from aging or somesuch would probably be countered by our own titanic nature and the ability to alter our bodies.
>>
No. 491936 ID: 908c2d

>drawing down the divine essence of Luna for powers of madness and illusion and chaos lasers
...that sounds like the best power ever. When we can we do that? :V

>Wu-blu
...that is an adorable pet name. And Kairosa makes a good argument, with the resonances. Word reading seems worth getting. Especially since a good many of the other abilities Wordblood considers would seem to need it as a prerequisite. Whatever else we get, getting WR to 2 or 3 seems a good idea.

>emotion bottle
...I agree that one seems dangerous. Especially since Saulanna feels it somehow fits with her nature. We should treat carefully around things that deal with our unknowing purpose and element until we understand them.

>>491898
...and doing good! We're out to be an independent meddler. Basically, kicking ass in the name of the moon (and ourself).
>>
No. 491937 ID: 03bae0

I really like subtext detection. Putting some points towards World Reading is sounding like a better and better idea, too.
>>
No. 491946 ID: 14d963

>Heart's Desire
This is something that will take care of itself sooner or later. As we see more of the world, it is only a matter of time until we come across some part of it that we decide needs changing.

Our current lack of ambition is due to our limited experience and knowledge.

So, I think our provisional Heart's Desire should be simply to explore and learn about Creation. Taking sidequests, such as Gevin and Ruive's music box dealie, would be a good way to keep us moving and seeing new stuff. Samsara knows you can't do sidequests for long before stumbling across a main plot.

>Powers
One thing I'm gaining from this is a reminder not to overlook the value of Boosts for simple numerical advantage, which is sometimes all we need (especially for offense). Our oath prevents Moon Boosts, but outsiders shouldn't be able to detect a Word Boost when we're just using it internally to improve our own eloquence, right?

The "making our meaning clear" and "knowing what people are going to say" abilities sound interesting, but as Wordblood noted they're best suited for social situations other than the one we're in now, so I'd file them away as suggestions for later.

Echoes of Samsara is another of those things that sounds thematic but isn't very useful right now - we don't have a lot of prior experiences to draw on yet, and I'm not aware of any of our prior incarnations having been in a highly analogous situation. Though, the last person to try to control us (Peregrin wanted to recapture us for experimentation) ended up being our thrall instead, so would we be able to derive anything from that?

World Reading and Forked Path Oracle both sound promising, but as support abilities, they only give tactical advice rather than direct bonusses. World Reading had several potential spinoff powers mentioned (four!), so it sounds like it'll be very useful once we're able to buy out the full tree - how much we can get on our current budget, I'm not so sure of.

>>tracking "flow of information"
>"I'm... not sure what exactly you mean?"
>"Just sensing when magic is being used on you, maybe? You can probably get a Moon ability on top of your Sight Beyond Sight that does that."
Yeah, something like that. Stuff like which magical senses Garmir (or Akatrina) is using and what they're telling him about us.

>"As for what your combined power means for developing abilities..."
>"It's only your Moon abilities that you can get higher than you should, for now!"
So the important thing here is that we still have to boost our Queen to 5 before learning Sorcery. That gives us some guidance on where to prioritize Kairosa's generation, then.
>>
No. 491971 ID: 9e0824

For Saulanna:
We should improve Sight Beyond Sight to let us identify magics used on us. Being able to tell what's going on is the better half of countering it.

For Wordblood:
We should focus on the World Reading. Most of the stuff we want is further down the World Reading tree, but we should be able to grab the World Reading synergy for reading Mal/Affections now, that'd be useful.

Kairosa:
Forked Path Oracle seems most immediately feasible/relevant, let's do that.
>>
No. 491974 ID: 406926

>>491878
>Saulanna's eyes in that picture
None of that! We are very smart and this is very important, we must focus carefully and not be overwhelmed by the possibilities.

>Wu-Blu
>Wub
Kairosa, you're cheerful and bubbly and wonderful, but it's not nice to call Wordblood by a name that he's not comfortable with. Please only use nicknames that he's agreed to, okay?

>I think... well, perhaps the specific case of using one to dispel mental influence, maybe... I... could use a Word on... you?
Moving on the discussion of general magical principles here... can't we just use Words on an effect we want to get rid of directly, or even all effects on us, instead of using it on ourselves and thus anything on us by extension? Less changing ourselves and more... giving us a shower, metaphorically, to wash us clean of nasty, grimy magics that we've picked up. If necessary, we could probably come up with a Power Word specifically to achieve that effect, or maybe Wordblood could even get a titan ability it do it- looking after someone's mental/magical health and hygiene falls squarely under assisting them, after all.

>Maybe an ability where you spend some MP and then for a while you treat something that's somehow "yours" as if you had an Affection for it.
This seems excellent and I back it- because Peregrin and everything he owns are Saulanna's. All the other Heroes are trying to take her out of her territory, drive her away from her stuff. Scoring some applicable Affections could greatly strengthen us in the next social clash, it's not an offensive ability so we'd be free to use it even with our oath, and as we don't think it has other prerequisites that's only a 1 Titan's Will cost.

>"Forked Path Oracle"
Utility for Kairosa, and should be good in multiple situations- I'm good with it.

>"Echoes of Samsara"
And this should be good for an offensive bonus, if a conditional one, again via Kairosa- between this and the above she'll be able to provide us with solid backup. Unfortunately her Titan Boost isn't likely to apply in social combat situations, so investing in abilities that let her reliably do something useful with her magic seems prudent.

>Directed subtext, or making one target understand you better, or in a different way?
This could be invaluable considering that we're in social combat with multiple groups that we need to convince of different things. Let's get it.

>World reading
This seems like this will let us build toward a LOT of other potential abilities, plus it's useful on its own to bring us more data to work with. Let's invest in at least one level.


To summarize, we have 7 Titan's Will right now. I'm thinking we should spend them like this:
-1 Beauty
-1 Saulanna Affection-via-possessiveness ability
-1 Kairosa Forked Path Oracle
-1 Kairosa Echoes of Samsara
-1 Wordblood Directed subtext ability
-1 Wordblood World Reading
-1 banked for emergencies

It's important to keep at least one point of Titan's Will in reserve as an "oh shit" button, I think. Ideally we'll be able to find more souls to eat before we get involved in more heavy social combat, but if we can't, the above setup would leave us... well, not exactly great, but far more capable than last time, at least. With clever tactics and some planning with Peregrin we'll have a good shot at making it through okay.
>>
No. 491977 ID: f2c20c

>>491895
It would also make us much easier to be swayed by the two moon heroes, and we want to be independent of THEM too.

I think a good temporary heart's desire would be to end the slave trade in these lands. That would make independence important to us, because we certainly couldn't do that if we were shipped off somewhere else. That, or... become the leader of these lands and guide the ghost civilization towards benefiting the world? Personally I think Saulanna has, generally, been working towards easing the pain of those passed. Perhaps we can include the dead Titans in this.

It's harder to define her Purpose. Restorer?

>>491878
>if someone was actively suspicious of there being a little Titan around, and was looking and checking for signs, they might sniff you out.

Oh dear. I bet Akatrina was told by the Dragon's Shadow to check for signs of a Titan, that's why she let us go off to "the bathroom", and why she strongly evaded the question of why she was here. She knew that if the Moon Heroes caught wind of her suspecting there was a Titan here, that she'd be endangering said Titan. She will likely notice that we're stronger now. What we've done will confirm her suspicions. That's not so bad though, we don't mind if the Dragon's Shadow knows we're a Titan, we just have to hide it from the Gods. We should try to rebuff her in a way that doesn't give her the impression we're taking the side of the Gods though. I wonder if she will take it easy on us after figuring us out? Not try to poke at us so hard, and merely gauge our motivations for a better mission report?


Alright, let's brainstorm a bit more here.

How about an ability for Wordblood to add an extra oomph to our arguments? Either by rephrasing them or directly making them more powerful?

Or an ability that would allow us to ignore the opponent's Charisma and Mental-attribute bonuses, both when presenting arguments and receiving them? That would let us take on more powerful opponents, like Akatrina, without having as many issues. This would be similar to the Titan-dispassion ability Kairosa suggested except more focused and still allow our emotions to come into play.

How about an ability that would let us see when people are trying to deceive us? Then we could ask to end the Deal with Akatrina, and still reap the benefits while allowing us to use Scent of Victory again.

I really like the idea of being able to use Kairosa's past-reading from range. We could just walk into a room and look into its past. It would be an ASTOUNDING information-gathering tool. I want to get at least one rank of World Reading. Two would be quite useful as well. Three is debatable.

I kindof like the emotion bottling ability, as it would be useful to push away inconvenient emotions during social combat, and allow us to properly control ourselves in other situations. It would also let us, say, bottle up anger or other useful emotions to let out when they would benefit us. However, I am definitely worried about its inherent dangers. From how Saulanna reacted, I suspect the ability would have ties to madness via the Hero Soul. If we do grab the ability at some point we would want to use it very sparingly. Possibly NEVER use it to completely bottle an emotion- only use it halfway or something. In any case, it wouldn't be of great use in this situation so we shouldn't get it now.


On an unrelated note, I think Kairosa is sortof assuming that she will become the Queen at some point, and is using her astounding *patience* to wait for the right moment to take over. She talked about spending TW on Wordblood on her own, and later on suggested that she apply her passive generation to herself without taking into account that we'd need to raise Saulanna's SF before hers. It would take eleven days, not seven (actually wouldn't it take eight days to raise her Generation and SF both from 3 to 4?). After we're done with this sort of conversation, can we try to make it clear that we're in charge here and she is not going to take over? Instead of assigning her passive production to upping her Generation stat, we could apply it to Saulanna's SF instead for safety's sake, and to get an earlier benefit from it. I'm not saying Kairosa is power-hungry or thinks we suck, but she probably thinks she'd just make a better Queen overall, since Saulanna is working with the handicap of starting as human. It might even be a subconscious belief. We can warn her that due to our unusual nature, Saulanna not being Queen might break things. The Hero Soul might try to 'follow' the new Queen, but since it's tied to Saulanna it would get torn in two directions and bad things are sure to follow. She also seems to be playing games with Wordblood via the nickname thing. She knows that Wordblood considers his name to be important, so she should show some respect for it. Is she uncomfortable about it because it reminds her of someone who was lost to the great war? In that case then they should agree on a nickname- is Wordblood okay with Wu-blu? Or would something less truncated work, like "Wordy"? Or maybe she's trying to get him to give up on the name entirely, by being stubborn and patient about it, because she thinks it's for the best.

...that conversation might be best done 1-on-1.
>>
No. 491978 ID: 5d121c

>>491895
>I'd like to suggest getting an openly accepted proper mother/daughter relationship with Luna as your Heart's Desire.

I like this. Maybe we could get something like this as a temporary purpose, until something big comes along.
>>
No. 491980 ID: 695191

Leaving an old hearts desire behind when it is achieved seems like a fairly easy matter. A good current hearts desire would be for "Independence and Respect from those who would control us." Later on we can grow into something grander like "unfucking all of Creation" as a purpose.

Forked Path Oracle (or different name?) should cost us 1 Will to get, and putting the other 6 into World Reading seems like the best plan. It leaves us with nothing to fall back on though, so perhaps we should keep the other 3 points for generation on hand until a little later in case of emergency.

Also, ask Kairosa if and how she can undo powers to regain Titans Will (this came up elsewhere, but not in quest). Inform Wordblood that the concern about information flow was exactly about the concern of our nature being divined upon by Akatrina earlier or by anyone through any means. I suppose we aren't strong enough to really do anything about that, but perhaps we can at least detect it? Also inquire as to his opinion on nicknames.
>>
No. 491982 ID: 2ecfc9

Heart's Desire: To grow and spread your influence across Creation and beyond.
>>
No. 491983 ID: 2ecfc9

Giggle at the name Wu-Blu, give Kairossa a treat for her cleverness.
>>
No. 491986 ID: 695191

One other idea: Ask Wordblood about the possibility of inscribing power words onto paper in written form, thus using their power later without shouting it out loud.
>>
No. 491991 ID: 370c40

>>491974
The only thing this spending plan is missing is 6 more Titan's Will. So that we can get World Reading 3 and the prayer hearing upgrade to it. So a single Soul Force 3 ghost, probably?
>>
No. 491993 ID: dd2f7f

>>491974

This seems a solid plan, although if we need to pick and choose due to higher costs and prequisites, I'd like to go for directed subtext, so we can play off our opponents against each other.

As I really don't want to take a social focused Death Hero straight on, especially if she's scouting for Titans. Plus we need to work at it to get the best out of it, making it much more fun than passive flat bonuses.
>>
No. 491994 ID: 84b8a7

>>491895
I have to agree with this Heart's desire for now at least. Luna gave us power and freedom. I really miss her and can not wait to talk with her again. Sadly thats a ways off still but I suspect by making it our heart's desire it'll give us a drive and focus that will carry over into all the quests we undertake.
>>
No. 491997 ID: 1c7e1b

Did Kairosa imply that we can just choose from a list of Powers? Because that's way more favorable than the open-ended brick wall we've reached.

Please give us a list of available Powers. PLEASE.
>>
No. 491998 ID: 908c2d

>>491997
Maybe a more in quest phrasing: if they have any ideas of their own, we're certainly open to suggestions!
>>
No. 492005 ID: 99f6c6

Time stop sounds like a very useful ability, but stopping the flow of time in the outside world sounds cumbersome and as Kairosa said way out of her current ability.

But how about a pseudo-timestop effect? If Kairosa can make Saulanna’s body move faster trough time then from her perspective everything else will move slower, increase her passage through time enough and it will from her point of view look like everything else has stopped, or move so slow that there is no practical difference. Even a small increase can have useful effects both in social and regular combat.
>>
No. 492020 ID: 6aef5b

I was too distracted by "Wu-Blu" to comprehend half of what was said afterwards. what I did comprehend didn't convince me it wouldn't be best to shove all TW into TW generation, however.
>>
No. 492057 ID: 695191

>>491997
More like they screened out all the ideas that won't work, and confirmed what are better ideas. Now we're working on what to do, how to do it, and introducing a few variants and new ones since we know what basically works.

I don't think we can completely know what powers will be until we take them.
>>
No. 492432 ID: 2e706e

My vote is;
Spend however many points Forked Path Oracle will need
Rest into World Reading

And let Kairosa and Wordblood interact as they will, can't mother a whole kingdom. As for how we talk to WordBlood, I'd think we rather respect him and his opinion, might as well use his full name.

Then lets finally get out of our head. We've got some time to act on other things, eat some books Peregrin might want to show us, or at least try to start teaching him and ourselves Words.
-------------------------
So, more ideas

View of a Hundred Eyes
Transform Titanic power into extra time inside the mindscape for Devas to compose supporting thoughts, speak to us, and observe a situation.

Would it be easier to read peoples past, like Heart's Desire or just larger past actions? Going through related facts instead of their soul, so it's less obtrusive.
Maybe also something like 'how someone came to learn something' - Reading their words, and seeing their words' history.
e.g; how Akatrina ousted the Moon Heroes on manipulating those tribes, or seeing more of that information Peregrin was oath bound not to talk about.

Do the actions Wordblood aids have to take a rhetorical/literature twist, or can he add a pure 'boost power' to anything?
Can he apply his own powers as a boost? Like, he has some Feeding improvements, can he aid Kairosa with those values?
Or can he take something like World Reading, and apply it to Forked Road Oracle, giving a broader sense of whats going to happen according to a decision?

Instead of some magic based Firm Opposition Policy, could we sit down for a pow-wow and just talk about how letting Dragon's Shadow or Moon Heroes have any big influence on us at this point isn't a good idea for our future growth, and let that give us some resolve based willpower, or a temporary Mal?

Oh, and how much power would it take for Kairosa to reinstate the dead Calendar for a small area? Just a thought.
>>
No. 492520 ID: 66ff59

before spending points, i want to hear what does Wordblood think our best bet to win the next social encounter. it is the utmost importance and a bunch of cool powers that may be useful in the long run might not be the best way to go right now.
>>
No. 492521 ID: 7f2a1b

Consult devas for ideas.
>>
No. 492540 ID: 47a120

Is it at all possible to manifest additional bodies in external world or be in two places at once? (perhaps via time shenanigans?)
We could have one go with the lunars and one stay here.

>>492520
>what does Wordblood think our best bet to win the next social encounter.
Define winning? Resisting brainwashing is great... but Social Kombat requires a topic the two sides disagree on.
Even if hypothetically we can convince anyone of anything we want in tomorrow's discussion... what is it we actually want?

If we can resist brainwashing is there any reason NOT to go through lunar bootcamp (and either reveal self or skip town the day before getting the tattoo rather then foolishly telling people you are not getting it)? Any reason not to be open with akatrina (she clearly knows) to establish communication with shadow dragon?

Basically:
1. Resist brainwashing
2. Get training from anyone willing to give it.
3. Make friends with anyone willing to.

Specifically I think we should:
a. Find and eat uncaught slavers tonight, use TW to make a stealth deva. (hide being a titan, hide and escape if we make enemies, additional devas provide a huge defense bonus in social kombat as EACH gets a turn to counter argue)
b. Spend remaining TW to get devas abilities
c. Meet Akatrin alone before our meeting time with the lunars to establish relations with shadow dragon.
d. At morning meeting with lunars agree to go to bootcamp. (Moon attributes and saulanna's own SF can be unlocked/improved via training unlike WB and K abilities which require TW)
>>
No. 492545 ID: d628b1

I'd avoid too much contact with the Dragon until we're more sure of our place in the world. A young blank slate of a hero with no Heart's Desire? Sounds like exactly the sort of thing he'd love to mould into a tool for his nefarious plots. We should work out who we are before involving ourselves with him.
>>
No. 492673 ID: 4eb46d

Saulanna
-the ability to make two arguments simultaneously, while seeming to only make one. (Could possibly be wordblood as well)
-a subtle phrase drop that essentially acts as an argument, but doesn't seem like one. Essentially, Saulanna says something that seems unrelated, and all who hear it feel swayed (basically, they feel the effect of a social attack). However, no one who hears it can remember Saulanna uttering the sentence. (Moon hero masking aspect?)
-Some sort of identity sealing ability? Like, a "mask" that she can don when conducting clandestine activity?
Wordblood
-He says get world reading. World reading is legit as sliced bread. Let's get it.

Kairosa
-A speeding-of-argument ability? Like, allowing Saulanna to make an argument so fast the opponent has no time to react?
-An ability that gathers power as Saulanna successfully completes actions? Like, if she successfully makes an argument, she gets some power. Then if she does something else successfully, she gets even more. A stacking power increase?
>>
No. 492783 ID: faae35

Uh guys, maybe we should consider something a little more immediate right now, like how the moment we leave our inner world we'll be bombarded by the intense feeling of absorbing 2 souls at once?
>>
No. 492899 ID: 695191

This is a bit different but... since there is a small avenue for our devas soul forces to be channeled through our hero soul into our body, what if we had a power to force that possibility? One that isn't actually defined in its effects (except perhaps to be some kind of advantage), but simply calls upon all of our power to create one massive and unpredictable effect at or near our total soul force. This is very much a last ditch emergency thing and probably not a good idea to get now but it still bears consideration.
>>
No. 493093 ID: 07ec57

"Wub"

Wordblood, He Who Aids in Understanding, Dragon Deva of Dubstep!

We already basically have Timestop for the purpose of Social combat. All we have to do is switch up our awareness in here and we have all the time in the world. We can totally do that if we hit a hard spot. Or just be safe and stop after every comment to come up with the perfect retort.

Honestly, what we really need are a pair of aces up our sleeve: something offensive and something defensive. We already technically have a pretty strong defensive one, as Wordblood can negate comprehension of an argument, but I'd rather have an alternative that doesn't hurt him.
>>
No. 493140 ID: 08a3db

I know it is important to have enough social powers that are not moon powers.

I only have ideas about non-social moon powers right now.

I think we should meditate and figure out Garmir's Hero Soul tracking ability. Whether and how easily we can get it will tell something about how our 3-9 SF compare to Garmir's. Some abilities for tracking ghosts might also be useful, and might be related to that ability.

I'd like to see if it is possible to develop moon powers for stealing Noble Souls. This might be a way to kill Hell Heroes.

We should try and see if we can find some moon powers that will let us understand our inner world better.
>>
No. 493221 ID: faae35

Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way. Peregrin's told us when we ate the soulcrafter that Saulanna becomes one giant magic beacon when she consumes souls, which means that we're probably looking at a fast response from at least one of the three other Heroes, if not all three of them. There's no chance of Peregrin spiriting us away in the shadows, since we're gonna be lit up like a bonfire. Something that will be more than a little suspicious should any of them spot us.

As an aside, all this talk of stuff like the masking aspect leads me to believe that if/when our hero soul does become a deva in it's own right that it'll most likely become our stealth soul. Which makes a lot of sense considering.
>>
No. 493294 ID: 3bad4c

With the way Kairosa did that consuming I somehow wonder if there will be any outside show at all, she's just that good.
>>
No. 493312 ID: faae35

>>487279
"> Out in the world, Saulanna feels her SOUL FIRE surge! The strength of the FULL MOON fills her body!"

Yeah... She's good but she's still newly born. Besides, we never made any sort of suggestion on making that a non-issue.
>>
No. 493335 ID: 695191

>>493294
This has been addressed already: >>484599
>And I think I can do something about your Soul Fire, if, uh. If you don't mind a little pain.

So yes she can restrict the Soul Fire, but Saulanna isn't going to like it much. But by default it probably won't be as bad as when Wordblood did it.
>>
No. 493482 ID: 4a328b

Oh! Would getting Kairosa an ability to quickly mask Soulfire be possible? Or can she already do that?
>>
No. 493488 ID: 9ddf68

On the issue of soul fire, does it burn anyone or something if we get close enough to them with it, because Peregrin was holding us when we devoured those two soulds earlier and it did say we went up like a bon fire
>>
No. 493576 ID: b80673

Soul fire is harmless unless you are dragon-blooded or using charms/sorcery to manipulate it.
>>
No. 493626 ID: e92f17

>>493488
>>493576
At the point where it's in full flare, but not yet totemic, objects that contact it may become damp and warped, as if they'd been left exposed to damp night air for many days. As we're currently casteless, the effect depends on moon phase. During full moon we're twice as fast, can leap twice as far, and doubles Strength for performing Feats. During new moon and calibration, it cloaks us in shadow and makes charms and spells easier to use. In between, we can use it to make ourselves look like someone someone else trusts, and if we use too much power, protects our identity.
>>
No. 493785 ID: 64c06d

Hrm...Something that just struck me-Soul force basically grants a passive 'shield' to magics right?
Seems to me then that's how Saulanna's going to get to the point she can't hide-other heros won't be able to use magic on her much, if at all.
At that point...If I'm right about how Titans work, she might get something akin to a 'power aura' where just by being somewhere she makes things more 'real' as it were. I dunno what that would do aside from magics Saulanna likes hanging around more and whatnot, but something possibly to run by WordBlood...
Would it be possible for Kairosa to learn to do that 'stasis' trick she did to the souls she ate, and make that an ability?
Another power might be making other things/people do the 'words of thoughts on skin thing' that WordBlood does?
That, I think could be useful...
And as a final trick suggestion, some sort of 'study time' ability, that helps people learn/understand new concepts in a shorter amount of time.
>>
No. 494018 ID: 6c2edc
File 136116721613.png - (141.52KB , 600x500 , kairosaspatience1.png )
494018

>Heart's Desire

As Wordblood just said, Saulanna can't just choose a Heart's Desire. His explanation is useful, but really, she can... feel it? Sort of. Even if it's temporary, it has to be something that fits her, who she is, what she's done. Talk is cheap, and thought is cheaper. What desires have her actions reflected?

For example... Luna? Luna is great. Saulanna really feels a deep affinity for her, as perhaps might be expected. An admiration, even. She's a god! Worship is something that feels entirely appropriate. And having her approval would be really wonderful! But how much interaction has she had with her? Not a lot. Saulanna's grateful for what she did get, but there was a strong feeling that Luna had only a little interest beyond her own trickstery agenda. Which is fine! How many Heroes must Luna have greeted at their own moment of rebirth, over the ages? She can't expect Luna to have any great attachment to her. Particularly being a god, a god of gods really. They don't think like humans do. And on the other side of things, Wordblood and Kairosa, who Saulanna does feel a deep and intimate connection to already, both have strong feelings about Luna as one of the gods who betrayed the Titans. And, to be honest, part of that feeling has already rubbed off on her. Luna's done some pretty horrible things.

"Plus she's pretty crazy! Do you know how she was made? She was Oramus' project, mainly. He made five different moons and then had them all fight each other, and she won, and then she ate all her brothers and sisters and took their powers and souls. Which is actually a good demonstration of samsara, now I think of it! When a Moon Hero eats something's heart to learn how to take its shape, it's a reflection of what Luna did, so the resonance of the mortal event with the primeval divine event makes things easier. Without that, learning shapes would be way way harder!"

... Yes?

"Heh heh. It'll be relevant later. Wordblood's rubbing off on me."

"I am? How so?"

... Anyway. Yes, Luna is great. But Saulanna hasn't actually done anything that reflects a particular attachment to her, so there isn't any particular momentum or investment to it. "Ending slavery in these lands" would be better, since she has actually acted against slavers. A little. Incidentally. "Retaining Independence" would be even moreso, since that feels like her main goal recently. But, on the other hand, she bound Peregrin as her servant, which sort of fits that but also sort of doesn't. Easing the dead, becoming a leader, none of these feel quite right. These are motivations, and Saulanna feels various shades of attachment to them or lack thereof, but was there another motivation behind those motivations? What sort of desires should a half-formed human-beast-hybrid Titan-child like Saulanna be reasonably expected to have?

When she thinks about her Heart's Desire in the future, she needs to think back on her own experiences. Knowing what you choose is simple, but knowing what you feel can only be done by reflecting on yourself.

>>491977
>On an unrelated note, I think Kairosa is sortof assuming that she will become the Queen at some point

"Wh... Oh! Oh, well... wow, I suppose I can see that. I wasn't doing that consciously. But... I guess... sort of, on some level, part of me... does want that! I guess. Because... I'm Time? I encompass everything, so everything feels like it should be subject to me. But I don't really! I love you, I want you to be Queen! And even if something happened to you, really, it's probably not a good idea for me to be a Queen. Like, ever. I don't know if I could be trusted with it. I mean, I kind of want to eat everything!"

"Everything?"

"Yeah. I mean, I want to, but I don't want to, you know? Not yet. I will."

"You will."

"Eventually!"
>>
No. 494019 ID: 6c2edc
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494019

"I'm a Feeding soul, right? I consume. And I'm Time. So, I am that aspect of Time that consumes. And Time consumes everything. Animals, mortals, mountains, seas, gods. Titans. So I'll eat everything, in Time. Like, not all at once! I'll eat some things, one by one, and in the meantime there'll be new things. So it could go on forever. But still."

"I'll eat the gods, one day. I'll eat the Titans, one day. I'll eat you two, one day, and I'll eat myself, one day! Not yet. I hope it'll be a really really long time until then. I hope it'll be so long from now, it'll seem like forever. But I will. And part of me wants to. Really wants to. I'm hungry. But don't worry, it'll wait. Like I said."

>>
No. 494021 ID: 6c2edc
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494021

"I am really

really

patient."

>>
No. 494026 ID: 6c2edc
File 136116754509.png - (116.19KB , 600x500 , kairosaspatience4.png )
494026

>>
No. 494027 ID: 6c2edc
File 136116757986.png - (118.94KB , 600x500 , kairosaspatience5.png )
494027

"That sounds reasonable. So, ideas?"

>>491920
>Teach the Teacher
"I can see this as an upgrade to an ability that allowed me to sense deception. Or perhaps to that subtext-reading ability mentioned earlier. Both could be very useful."

>>491923
>Clouded thoughts
"It sounds more like a Moon ability, though perhaps I could manage it myself, eventually. Confusion is within my domain by opposition, so it requires more from me than more directly suitable abilities."

>"time stop" by speeding up self
"Aha, well, that's actually what I meant in the first place! Actually stopping time for the rest of the world is leagues way harder even than that, like full-grown Titan of Time stuff. At the level I am now... well, maybe I could soak up some time and store it, and then release it at some later point to make you move twice as fast? It'd give you an extra turn's worth of action, once, before it had to be charged up again. I could improve how much I could hold later. Not much good in social combat, though, you'd be speaking all fast."

>>491977
>add oomph
"That would be my ability to bestow my Boost on others, my lady. It would cost one measure of Will."
>ignore charisma/mental bonuses while keeping personal emotion bonuses
"That sort of mental partitioning is beyond us for now, I'm afraid."

>>492432
>View of a Hundred Eyes
"Time in here isn't an issue, mistress! You have as much as you'd like! It's just that the longer you stay in here, the more disorientated you become when you go back out!"
"And there is simply a limit on how many arguments one can make, given a certain amount of information to work on."
>reading specifics of people's pasts
"Going into such detail, my lady... actually "reading their story"... is a much higher level of World Reading. Or another upgrade I could place on Kairosa's ability. However, I could not both extend the range of her powers and enhance them at the same time; not until I was more powerful again. I could upgrade other abilities of hers as well, but again, it would be a separate ability of mine to do so."
>bestowing boosts
"If I learn the ability to grant my Boost to others, then their benefit from it would be limited as it is when I use it on myself; they would be assisted in language-based tasks, or in their efforts to aid others."

>>492673
>make two arguments/hidden argument
"Hmm. It might be possible to encode subtext into an argument that the target picks up on subconsciously. That's an ability I could have. Or a Moon ability to more directly slip an argument under a target's memory by magic could also be possible, if you can persuade your Hero Soul to relinquish it."
>identity sealing
It sounds possible, as far as Saulanna's Heroic instincts for what she can do tell her. It doesn't seem directly advantageous at the moment, though.
>speeding argument
"I can't really get into the more metaphorical aspects of my Element yet. Like, maybe one of my noble devas will be Haste or Speed or something, so it's possible, but not yet."
>gathering power with success
"Ehh... it's not really very Time-y. And you sort of have something similar with the Groove system."
"The what??"
"The... uh. Wait. Err. Ha ha. Sorry! Little Time hiccup, there. We haven't gotten to that yet! Just wait, we'll get there."
>>492899
"This too. You'll see. I'll be explaining it. Or maybe Luna. Not quite now, anyway."

>Ability to undo expenditures of Titan's Will
"Right now, mistress, my Reconstitution ability can undo and reclaim one measure of Titan's Will. That's straightforward with one-dot spendings, but anything that cost more than that just becomes dormant and useless until we spend the Will again. If I had Soul Force 4, I could upgrade it to reclaiming 2 or less."

>Written power words?
"Tricky. You could write Runes, but they require more power and finesse to create, as you need to bind and contain their magic. If you consider normal power words as being similar to a form of sorcery, writing runes would be like a higher circle. We're not that powerful, yet."

>Don't call him Wu-Blu

"Ha ha, ok. Sorry, Wordblood."

"... That's all right."

>Soul Fire

"Right, that! Ok, basically, Auto was really smart when he made the Hero Souls, but he couldn't do anything about the hosts, since they were already made. Turned out that humans are a liiiiiittle bit too fragile to hold on to a lot of Power. The Hero Soul itself could store the extra, but transferring it into their host's body to be used was dangerous. Beyond a certain level, a residue built up, like static, at the point where their bodies and the Soul met, and it would hurt them! Kill them eventually! So Heroes have some essence that's already in their bodies that they can use safely, and then they start pulling from the Hero Soul and that's dangerous. So Auto built a kind of vent in to clear away the residue, and that extra power being pushed out of your body fills up your soul territory and becomes your Soul Fire!"

Soul territory?

"Yeah. A little space around you is "yours", like, your clothes and your personal possessions and like an inch or two out. The venting basically sets it on fire. But again, Auto was smart! He built in a system so the energy being dumped would automatically power some extra enhancements, customized to what kind of Hero Soul it was. 'S genius."

"Now, what I can do is, I can try to divert that extra energy into myself. But it's really inefficient, so even though I'm absorbing energy, I'll still end up losing a dot of Power just to push the Fire down one level. There are five levels of Soul Fire, see. One when your brand glows slightly, one where it burns brightly, one where you're glowing, one where you're burning and finally where it fills out completely and shouts the shape of your heroism. But that last one fades by itself as soon as you stop spending Power. So, if you were burning, I could push you down to just glowing, for a total price of one dot of Power. And... well, since I'm blocking the vents to do it, I can't quite stop it from hurting you like the original problem was. So you'll take a point of damage for every level I push you down, too. But if you're in your war form, you can regenerate, right? So no problem. I can upgrade the ability later as I get more powerful, so I can do it for free and maybe even gain Power, and maybe your body will get tougher as it becomes less mortal and more... Titan-y."


More pain, then. At least it can't be as bad as... that time.

>Wordblood's advice on winning next social encounter

"Do research, my lady, so you come armed with evidence. Perhaps isolate that Garmir fellow, who seems an easier social target, and get information from him, while dissuading him from anything that would trouble us? Dulahan may have come with an entourage that would be similarly attractive to mine for knowledge. Plan with Peregrin, so he can assist you. Explore your territory here, if you can find time, to make yourself more reluctant to leave it. Come up with other favourable outcomes, besides the single one you want most, that you can aim for if you cannot reach as far as you hope. And choose ahead of time, on the chance that you think you will fail, which side you would prefer to win."

Hmm.

Saulanna's strongest feeling is that she should buy up World Reading, perhaps sacrificing an increase to Beauty or Generation to get its offshoot upgrades. Or finding another ghost to eat.

"Reviewing the memories we just received, other ghosts nearby who were involved with slavery include: a merchant and her assistant for whom the slave trade was a part of their business; an animal captor who occasionally aided slaving; and some sort of barbarian chieftain with a spectral retinue. Those are all, unless you're considering pettier criminals."

Forked Path Oracle seems the next most appealing, and Wordblood's subtext-reading ability.

What's the plan?
>>
No. 494033 ID: 9ee360

>>494019
>>494021
Huh. We accidentally created a sort of incarnation of death.

As interesting / scary / oddly comforting as that is, that view kind of assumes we survive long enough for her to outlast any of those things. There's not an unreasonable chance we may not.

(Why's it comforting? It's the old knowing your death thing. No matter what happens, in the end, she's what's waiting for them. Which is kind of... nice, in a way. Especially since she's basically their daughter).

>what buy
beauty, word reading, and offshoot ability. No idea which one, though. We got like a million choices.

>Plan with Peregrin, so he can assist you.
Perhaps we could do that next? Does Wordblood's breath of life allow us to pull Kaan safely inside our inner world while we got time stopped? We could introduce him properly to you guys, and get him started on that Titan-power we were thinking of doing. And do some planning while we have the advantage of time on our side.
>>
No. 494036 ID: 370c40

>>494027
Planning with Peregrin should probably be what we do next. We need to discuss with him those other ghosts involved in the slave trade, and our plans for later. Even if we don't plan to eat any of those other ghosts, we probably don't want anyone involved with the slave trade actually still doing it, so we might want to capture them anyways. And at least one of those guys is probably completely deserving of being Titan food.

As for expenditures, I'd say 3 TW to will generation, then focus generation on Saulanna's Soul Force, since we need to raise that next anyways before we can raise Kairosa's. Then for the remaining 7, 1 to Beauty, since we can get away with it, and probably at least 3 to World Reading, so we can get the second level of it. We want the third level but we can probably get another ghost to eat. The other 3 should probably go towards Forked Path Oracle, and the subtext reading upgrade, and save one for emergencies. Ideally we want to get another 4 TW to get World Reading 3 and the prayer hearing upgrade to it, and then anything else we get can go towards our next Deva, or generation, or some moon powers or whatever.
>>
No. 494037 ID: 793f35

We should purchase world Reading at the very least, plan a bit with Peregrin, and hunt down another ghost...that way we can have 3 avenues of preparation.
>>
No. 494039 ID: 406926

>>494018
>When she thinks about her Heart's Desire in the future, she needs to think back on her own experiences.
You know, more than anything else, we seem to spend our time wondering what exactly it is that we want, and what the right thing to do is. Maybe our Motivation is some variety of the old "know thyself" bit. To know who we are, to know what we want, and to do it; that seems to be the problem always before us.

But maybe that's getting a little bit too introspective.

>>494021
I can't think of a nicer deva to have inevitably devour us all, Kairosa! Thanks for holding off.

>>494027
>maybe your body will get tougher as it becomes less mortal and more... Titan-y
Is this something that will happen naturally as we grow as a Titan, or is it something that we should be bearing in mind as requiring an allocation of Titan's Will to make happen?

>Right now, mistress, my Reconstitution ability can undo and reclaim one measure of Titan's Will.
To me, this means that focusing on tiny expenditures is relatively harmless. We can invest and take back 1 TW abilities all over, right? So if we focus on investing in potentially changeable choices, we'll retain the option of completely changing around our loadout when we're preparing for a different encounter.

Thus, while it's a departure from much of our discussion thus far, I would tentatively plan to invest a good chunk of Titan's Will in 1-TW combat and tracking upgrades (including physical Talents) so that we can locate and devour as many of the identified slaver ghosts as possible prior to our required meeting with the other Heroes. Depending upon our level of success, we can then reallocate some or all of the Titan's Will used for those upgrades to social endeavors in order to be as well-armed as possible for that engagement. We might not have to reallocate anything, if we end up with a huge windfall of TW from our hunting, but we can't count on that.

>barbarian chieftain with a spectral retinue
Aim for this slaver ghost first if at all possible. They're likely to have at least some Leadership, which we need in social combat for topic shifts. Likely to be personally powerful, which grants us more Will. Also present are multiple minions who are also guilty, which grants us more Will.

The other two ghosts can probably be captured (hopefully subtly) by Peregrin's agents and then devoured without requiring direct action on our part.

In line with this plan, we could buy:
-All 1-TW physical upgrades
-World reading
-Forked path oracle
-Kairosa's one-turn speed-boost ability

All the above can be erased and redone if necessary. We hold the rest of the TW and buy up abilities on the fly, as we need them to complete our objective of rapidly acquiring more ghost slaver TW- they'll let us pull Power Words from nothing, get Moon Abilities for tracking, or do whatever else we happen to need to ensure success.

By the way, guys: Perhaps we can use a teleportation Power Word as a potential escape method if everything goes to hell? Wordblood, a cost estimate on such a thing would be appreciated.

In any case, discussion of plans with Peregrin should occur prior to any expenditures of TW. Unless, of course, we can use refundable expenditures of Titan's Will to make our Inner World hospitable to other creatures and bring him inside, thus gaining endless time in which to plot with and learn from him with no significant resource expenditure- if that's the case, then we need to get him in here for plotting and we can spend the TW needed and then take it back when we're done.
>>
No. 494044 ID: 77cb34

>>494021
Oh. My. God.

...

She is STILL the absolute very cutest even when she's terrifying.

Honestly, I can't think of a better way for existence to go out than being slowly, patiently nom'd by Kairosa.

Okay! We only promised to not use our Moon Powers on Akatrina herself, so social fu on her retinue will be smashing. It's important to gain their impressions of their work to get a better idea of what the Dragon's Shadow is like, he's kind of a great looming bad guy right now and he might actually be that! But it's important to form that judgment out of knowledge and not ignorance.

Plus if Kairosa takes nips out of the people who have interacted with Akatrina, we can get not exactly a complete picture but some ideas without letting her know what's up.

Meanwhile I'm all in favor of more World Reading, and maybe some running about our world. Saving/Fixing Creation(tm) is kind of a cliche Heart's Desire, but if that's what we want to go for then we had better see a bit more of it!
>>
No. 494050 ID: 4a328b

World reading 3 [6]
Forked Path Oracle [1]
Subtext Detection[1]
Let WB use his Boost on others [1]

Save one point to buy beauty once you clean yourself up.
>>
No. 494052 ID: 9e0824

>>494027
>>494033

For all that, I find it hilarious that Wordblood finds the idea quite reasonable. Titans are just like that; we can't have a part that feeds without having a part that hungers.

In all seriousness, though, I think we're pretty much settled on World Reading and Forked Path Oracle.

The only thing not mentioned in the last summary that I think we should devote serious attention to is the Hero Soul upgrade (mentioned a while back) to our Sight Beyond Sight that lets us perceive magic in use around us... call it 'Instinctual Essence Understanding' or some such. We need that to defend us in social and physical combat against powerful magics, and minor things reading subtext or increasing beauty pale in comparison.
>>
No. 494058 ID: 9ddf68

Word reading seems to be a must so i say go with that

As for our hearts desire thing, At this point I think it is far to eairly to actully pick one. I mean we have only been alive (as a titin) for less then a day and some people can go whole life times without any kind of goal or 'hearts disire', so I think we should back off for now untill we can learn more of the world around us and try to pick one again when we have a little more solid ground to stand upon so to speak

As for the upcoming social combat thing I say try and get as much info about the Shawdow knight form Peregrin then find Garmir and get some info on the other moon warrior, maybe even test out some of our new social combat abilities on him. If we are still lacking in knowlage for the shadow knight then maybe we could go looking for anyone she brought with her to see if they can give us more info on her
>>
No. 494065 ID: 9db85e

I <3 Kairosa SO SO MUCH. That should be our hearts desire, eating everything. I love it.

It works with wordblood too, as attaining knowledge is also a form of eating everything. We can devour the universe while storing it all as knowledge in a library in our internal world. <3

Anyways, I'm voting for going full blown world-reading route, then also tracking down some more ghosts and going the forked path oracle in tandem. I really really want them both.

We're intelligence type. The more knowledge the better.

Then we can absorb some books on leadership and diplomacy and the like and spend some time digesting the information in our internal world. Sounds good to me.

For an alternative, perhaps more appropriate Hearts Desire, I like the idea of amassing enough knowledge and power to take our rightful place as our Titanic heritage should dictate, and force the world that has ignored us to bow to our presence.

We will be the queen of ALL titans, and lead creation into a new age of peace and prosperity for gods, titans, mortals and ghosts, all together.
>>
No. 494068 ID: f2c20c

>not valid heart's desires
Well... okay. I think, in general, we've been trying to be a hero. We want to do good things. We want to save people, and not have to eat souls.

Upgrade Beauty, World Reading to 2, and analyze what possible side abilities there are to it. That's 3 of our 7 TW we have reserved for social combat stuff, leaving 4 more.

Wordblood being able to use his Boost on us is an easy +3 offense, that seems like a good 1 TW expenditure. Wait, how long does it last and how much does it cost? Can he do the Boost on himself *and* Saulanna at the same time, for +3 offense and +3 healing? Heyyy, doing a Boost on Saulanna should let her change the topic if she wants, won't it? Unfortunately that would reveal that we've boosted ourselves somehow, because the stat check is the same each time, meaning if someone fails to change the topic once, they'll never be able to do so.

Forked Path and subtext-reading are also nice, yes. We'll still have another TW left to spend on something else, too!


I do think we should still spend 3 TW on Generation, because that's what we decided on. We should probably tie its TW generation to something we can improve faster than Generation. That way we don't tie up the generation to something we can't improve for over a week. Besides, we might wind up eating a couple more souls today, so we can dump that TW on Generation. Oh, we could tie it to raising World Reading, since it's useful but we probably don't need it at 3 yet! That would take 3 days, or maybe less if we get more TW to raise Generation again before it's done.
>>
No. 494091 ID: 5d121c

Let's take Kairosa out to the well of Oblivion and have her eat it, to see what happens.
>>
No. 494107 ID: 14d963

I don't think we have the time to go hunting for other ghosts just now. We postponed the discussion by maybe a day or so. Tracking down and arresting anyone who isn't already imprisoned in a soul crystal likely takes longer than that, especially if we're trying to do so without being obvious about it.

>"Do research, my lady, so you come armed with evidence. Perhaps isolate that Garmir fellow, who seems an easier social target, and get information from him, while dissuading him from anything that would trouble us? Dulahan may have come with an entourage that would be similarly attractive to mine for knowledge. Plan with Peregrin, so he can assist you. Explore your territory here, if you can find time, to make yourself more reluctant to leave it."
This is sound advice, and I think we should do all of it. Starting with the "plan with Peregrin" part, and checking for any relevant books to absorb.

>"Come up with other favourable outcomes, besides the single one you want most, that you can aim for if you cannot reach as far as you hope. And choose ahead of time, on the chance that you think you will fail, which side you would prefer to win."
If we can't maintain our independence, plan B is to go with the Moon Heroes, learn a bit from them, then try to slip out before actually getting the tattoos. Plan C is to get the tattoos and then try to find a way to remove/subvert them later.

We're not trusting the Dragon's Shadow until we've grown large enough to throw him.

>"What's the plan?"
First I want that Moon Ability for sensing magic. Then Forked Path Oracle and/or World Reading.

Actualy, World Reading would be especially useful if we're trying to chat up Akatrina's entourage - it lets us tell which people in the entourage are easiest to manipulate.

>>494068
>"Heyyy, doing a Boost on Saulanna should let her change the topic if she wants, won't it? Unfortunately that would reveal that we've boosted ourselves somehow, because the stat check is the same each time, meaning if someone fails to change the topic once, they'll never be able to do so."
There are nonmagical ways to gain a numerical boost, such as invoking a Heart's Desire or Affection. So if they can't sense the magic directly, they can just conclude that it's an issue we care particularly strongly about.
>>
No. 494133 ID: 1c7e1b

Yeah, just buy up World Reading.

It's pretty pointless to suggest powers here, we keep getting told "No" in various ways: We're not powerful enough, it's not useful enough, that's outside of our purview. We really should just be given a LIST of what we can choose. Everything we come up with will get shot down anyways.
>>
No. 494136 ID: 5a87ab

sacrifice beauty AND find more souls to eat. then put it into word reading. if it was my choice I'd gather it all towards increasing generation, but I'm just one guy.

anyway maybe we should talk to Perry about that.
>>
No. 494137 ID: a9bac4

"I am really really patient"

Ah, good. I was looking for a reason to NEVER SLEEP SOUNDLY AGAIN.

Oh, something I should question, Wordblood, when we were in Round 1 of the social combat, was our collective Soul Force taken into account (sans Kairosa by virtue of having not actually existed yet)? Or does that boost not apply?

As for
>>
No. 494138 ID: a9bac4

ability selection, my vote is for primarily base ability modification (beauty, for instance) to carry us through. Under no circumstances should we try and augment Kairosa's passive TW generation just yet. Those upgrades may be the only ones we get and the upcoming social combat is the only important thing for the moment. We get some room to breath, THEN start generating it sufficiently quickly that the three of us become insanely powerful. I have no real opinion on the specific powers. Just hope we have some sort of hard hitting attack trick and maybe an emergency defense.

(Sorry about that)
>>
No. 494143 ID: f922dd

>>494133
You're missing the several things that didn't get "shot down" (and a lot of them weren't as much "shot down" as "this'll require further investments to unlock them"). If nothing else, we've essentially built up a sort of 'tech tree' of stuff we could pick up later on. A number of them're ideas I think our quest author wouldn't have thought up on his own.

At any rate, we have enough to get World Reading 3 and Forked Path Oracle. Those sound like decent investments. And there's always the option of sacrificing a little investment in something else to get us a little more.
>>
No. 494165 ID: 6d4a47

There's a part of Saulanna's powers we've been ignoring.
It's her Dickery talents.
Sure, she's better at Leadership, but that's more or less all she's got, for the most part.
Dickery, on the other hand, has those Expert Deception and Intimidation competencies that we've overlooked. This, was probably because WordBlood got spooked by the Lunars... But Saulanna didn't have that reaction to Peregrin at all, or Akatrina.
Here's my plan, complete with variations on what we want.
1.Full Moon plan.
We get all the heros together again, like in the library. And then we say something like this:
"Deception. That's the Dragon's calling card right? Isn't it odd how quick you wanted a truth bind? Come to think of it, you REALLY haven't done much of any lying since you've came. I'm willing to bet you SUCK at any sort of deception! But wait, aren't you one of his heros? Ahh, but there's the rub! By your benefactor's reputation, no-one would want to engage you in a contest of tricks! Not only are you a Dragon hero, but according to Askalaff, you also are specialized in negotiation! There's no better combination for lying! No one in their right mind would DARE challenge you!
And THAT IS YOUR LIE! You lie about being a liar by the company you keep! So you can trick others into accepting your truth bind, and hammering them with it!
So let's do this differently this time. Bind yourself only to deceive, and let's see how much you know about that!"
Chances are, she'll splutter and not have a strong response to that. At that point we can say this:
"Hah! Just as I suspected, you're around the Dragon as an Opposite to his Deception! Well, that trick was pretty clever, but I've had enough of prancing about pretending to be a weak human!"
Now, we can tell Peregrin about this next part, or we can be tricky about it, and only mention the True Name Oath loophole to him(good Dickery+deception test, this.) beforehand.
He'll probably react to this, as will Akatrina. We'll leave Akatrina to G-dawg and Ask, hit Peregrin with Power Word STOP, possibly transform into warform, grab him and get out of the way.
Once the screaming stops, we meet up with the Lunars, and get out the shadowlands.
2. Half-moon plan.
Similar to the first, but harder. We should first ask the Lunars if they don't mind drawing the dragon's wrath by killing Akatrina, and possibly mass pray with them to Luna, and spill the Titan secret, which will solve the Tattoo issue.(Be sure to mention Dragon's proximity, because as bad as a new Titan under her service might be, a new Titan for the dragon to mold will be much worse. Plus she might start seeing Blood Moons heros dividing her own forces as well as the way the Solars are split threefold.)
At that point, we do as above, remove us and Peregrin, let Lunars kill Akatrina, and then we either can send them off, OR possibly have Peregrin appear, only to find the dead Akatrina, and then submit to the Lunars and let them go.
3. Eclipse Moon
This one's tough, since we're working from the opposite direction. Basically we call the meeting, and outright announce that we will join the dragon. But beforehand, we find Akatrina, and inform her of this, so we can work together to kick Lunar butt. In particular, I think we should wait until Askalaff goes for a spell, STOP on him, and once he's hoisted on his petard, help bring down Garmir.
This plan IS risky up-front, but doesn't have much in the way of long-term threats-unlike Akatrina who kinda has diplomatic immunity (we kill her, dragon comes crashing down on us/Peregrin, which also is why we have outside Lunars as the one who kills Akatrina.) I don't think there's anyone looking out for the Lunars, plus if it's still night, they might not see anything even if they ARE looking.
I'be got more to bash Akatrina with if we decide on that, and ideas to prevent long-term issue with TDS for us/Peregrin, but I'll wait and see what the rest of us decide on.
Note: We should probably try and think of a way to capitalize on yellow/fear, between that being Akatrina's mood when we last checked, and Saulanna having expert intimidation, we've got the tools to be really really scary.
>>
No. 494174 ID: 1c5a88

Oh woow damn, Kairosa. Aawesome.

>"Ehh... it's not really very Time-y. And you sort of have something similar with the Groove system."

Oooh, stunting? Do tell!
>>
No. 494191 ID: 66ff59

>>494021
right.
lets NOT give Kairosa any more soul force any time soon. we should keep her 1 SF lower than us at any given time. we really shouldn't let her urges get any stronger than we are.
>>
No. 494202 ID: 695191

>What sort of desires should a half-formed human-beast-hybrid Titan-child like Saulanna be reasonably expected to have?
To find some kind of place and purpose in the world. Nothing like Saulanna has ever existed or was supposed to. She is a threat at best to every power there is, and simple knowledge of her existence could set all of creation against her. Be it by trickery, alliance, destruction, or in combination she has to keep that from happening. Our hearts desire will surely an expression of that. Perhaps it will simply be a desire to belong.

>"This too. You'll see. I'll be explaining it. Or maybe Luna. Not quite now, anyway."
Ok now I'm fine with ambiguous reference to unexplained future events, but saying Luna could be talking to us about a titan power requires an explanation. Or is it simply coincidence that another lunar power has that benefit for us?

>Right now, mistress, my Reconstitution ability can undo and reclaim one measure of Titan's Will. That's straightforward with one-dot spendings
Just to be sure, there is no limit to how often we can do this? Reconstituting four powers at once is fine?

Spending-wise, I suggest World Reading 3 for tactical advantage and Forked Path Oracle for avoiding risk. Spend the other 3 on generation, and dedicate them to the subtext reading ability. That'll give us the power in 24 hours.

Next, we should work on making this place breathable so we can get Peregrin in here and work on strategies.

>>494191
Oh there is no reason to worry, she's just expressing the inevitability of things. Speaking less as our deva as she is as time itself, and especially the aspect of entropy.
>>
No. 494251 ID: 0ea418

Soul Force makes us better at everything, including not getting persuaded to do stuff. At this point, I still think we should boost that.
>>
No. 494259 ID: cee89f

>>494021
....

Let's uh... keep that between us, okay? I'd rather not have Creation be aware that you're going to try to eat it.

>Heart's desire
Let's table this for now. We don't have a lot to define it with and gaining a heart's desire for the soul purpose of having one probably isn't a good idea anyway.

>Powers
Forked path oracle, beauty and world-reading. Leave the three dedicated to generation, though, since they're already dedicated and such.
>>
No. 494260 ID: 14bafe

>>494191
Sweet. We just created the concept of Entropy. I hold the exact opposite opinion about Kairosa's soul force. She wants us to be queen, she is sure she'd be terrible at the job, and the only thing that's changed is that now we know why she thinks she'd be terrible at it.

>>494136
Also, supporting this all the way.
Forget increasing beauty, we have so many more important things to invest in. Eating the slavers might be a good temporary heart's desire though, I'll vote for that one.
We have hours before dawn, we could probably get the big guys eaten before we have to do social combat again, particularly since our vassel can teleport things through darkness, and it's currently Titan-Night.

And then we can increase the power of the second law of thermodynamics in this universe.
>>
No. 494262 ID: 5d98c3

Guys, you're all missing something important in your reactionary flipping out. Kairosa is US, and she is ENTROPY. She's saying that Creation shall eventually be consumed by Time, not that she wants to kill everything ever. No drastic action Is necessary, the only thing we need to do is to create an opposite counterpart focused on Creating instead of feeding. Which is US because WE'RE A TITAN. So yeah, Entropic urges? No biggy.
>>
No. 494345 ID: 689652

World-reading, subtext-reading, Forked Path Oracle.

Then bring in Peregrin (assuming he can survive in here) and get to scheming. We want to maintain our independence, so our best bet is probably making Akatrina think we're leaving with the Lunars (she'll look there, rather than here), and then getting rid of the Lunars later (bonus points for style if we get rid of them by making them think we're going with Akatrina, so they also won't look here).

Once Peregrin is aware of our goals and has had some input, we might want to see what we can learn from Akatrina's entourage - unless Peregrin has a better idea?
>>
No. 494350 ID: 5d121c

>>494262
Indeed, we should make something like a rebirth healing deva. They'd balance each other out.

That, or take Kairosa out to the well of oblivion and have her eat it, to see what happens.
>>
No. 494354 ID: 9ee360

>>494262
Who's flipping out? Most of the reactions seem pretty accepting, actually.

And yeah, of course no drastic action is necessary. Kai was just cautioning us she isn't sure she could be trusted in a position where she has has to control herself, herself. All we have to do is just not put her there.
>>
No. 494364 ID: f2c20c

I'm fine with Kairosa being essentially the Reaper of Time. She said she's in no rush, so she'd basically only eat the gods/titans/us when it was time for it to happen.
>>
No. 494439 ID: bb2145

I get the feeling Kairosa and Saturn might get along... assuming they didn't want each other dead, at least.
>>
No. 494448 ID: faae35

Not that it matter's anyway since one of her Devas is bound to be her opposite, much like how Wordblood will have an opposite capable of stuff later.
>>
No. 494468 ID: aeee00

Hmm.

Hey, Kairosa: can you eat the Fae for TW? Because a trip to a Wyld zone could be fun!
>>
No. 494496 ID: f39091

I think Kairosa has just earned another title: She Who Waits At The End Of Time.

I'm pretty much in agreement with everyone else, especially W>>494202. I do kinda want to keep enough leftover to increase Beauty, though mostly I'm just curious what Saulanna will look like afterward.
>>
No. 494498 ID: 491910

>>494350

That's an idea. But first - I wonder if she could eat The Principle of Consumption.
>>
No. 494502 ID: ceb7ce

>>494496
She'll get an extra cup size. XD
>>
No. 494561 ID: 409543

>>494502
Beauty means more than that!

...That said, you're probably right for one effect.
>>
No. 494711 ID: 8b31e5

If we boost Saulanna's soul force will that give her any new abilities? Because higher SF definitely did that before...
>>
No. 494716 ID: 370c40

>>494711
Yes, any time we raise soul force to a level we haven't reached before we gain a new ability. The only reason we didn't gain one for Saulanna this time is because this is the SECOND time we've reached this soul force, because we reduced our soul force to create Kairosa.
>>
No. 494811 ID: 7008f9

So not only will higher SF make Saulanna harder to beat in Social Kombat, it might also give her an ability that could be useful in it? That sounds like my kind of gamble.
>>
No. 494835 ID: b10a66

>>494561
Beauty does mean more than that. That's why her hair will also go up a size.
>>
No. 494922 ID: 3d4b0d

Stats are gifts that keep giving! If we can get a good return I'd boost those and Wordbloods bloodwording telepathing.
>>
No. 495056 ID: 1c7e1b

>>494835
Don't forget her butt will also get bigger.
>>
No. 495060 ID: 92c81e

>>495056
I'd like to think Beauty is more subtle than that.
>>
No. 495066 ID: 5d98c3

>>495060
This is Exalted. Beauty is not more subtle than that. Especially not for Moon Heroes.
>>
No. 495073 ID: 491910

>>495056

Beauty is subjective, but stats are absolute. Therefore it stands to reason that her butt will be bigger for those who like big butts and simultaneously be smaller for those who prefer smaller. A paradox butt, if you will.

Now that this matter is cleared up we should try to keep all further debate over butts and busts in the discussion thread: http://tgchan.org/kusaba/questdis/res/8407.html
>>
No. 495184 ID: 695191

Gentlemen, it isn't just about size! There is shape, softness, the way it jiggles... quality over quantity, you know?
>Anyway I prefer Saulannas current delicious form.
>>
No. 495284 ID: 50fe24
File 136159756623.png - (75.42KB , 600x500 , upgradesclarity.png )
495284

>>494202
>saying Luna could be talking to us about a titan power requires an explanation

"It's not a Titan power, though! It's something everyone can do, if they've got... uh, I don't know what the word would be. But all the different sorts of Heroes have it, and a bunch of other creatures as well. It's an extension of the bonus for doing things the awesome way! Luna told you that if you did things that were cool she would give you a bonus. And that's true, she sort of does! But the truth is that it's like the Hero Soul itself, she gives it to you, metaphysically, but she can't really keep it from you either. Anyway, if you ask her about it, she can explain it to you. But, if you don't, I'll do it instead! But I'll wait until we have a situation where we can see it in action."

>>494468
>can you eat the Fae for TW

"Eehh... I can, but they're sort of... empty. I'd only get a little."

>>494133
This conversation has been a bit chaotic. Saulanna decides that, for convenience, she should list all the upgrades they've discovered they can get, in an orderly list.

For Wordblood:
- World Reading
Level 1: Detect Will Points/Health Points (1tw)
Level 2: Detect enemy attack/defense stats (2tw)
Level 3: Detect Heart's Desire and possibly Malaffections (3tw)

- Blessing
Wordblood bestows the benefits of his Boost onto another creature.(1tw)
- Secret Subtext
Wordblood weaves a hidden meaning into a statement, detectable only by a specific target of his choosing. This consumes his action per turn and so cannot be done at the same time as another action without taking the multiple action penalty.(1tw)
- Seeing the Tongue Slip
Wordblood detects nuances of a target's speech and body language that reveals the thoughts behind their words.(1tw)
- Comprehension
Wordblood ensures Saulanna is understood as she intends to be understood, granting a bonus to honest social attacks or attempts to teach. Overcomes bars to understanding, such as excessive local noise. Cannot assist deliberate deception.(1tw)
- Divine Listener
Requires World Reading (level 3). Allows Saulanna to hear any prayer directed at her. (1tw)
- Bond of Understanding
Wordblood devotes 2 points of his Titan Power to a target, allowing him to carry telepathic messages to and from them. (1tw)
- Enhancement: Taste of Time
Requires World Reading (Level 1). Allows Kairosa to use her ability to taste history without physical contact.(1tw)

For Kairosa
- The Perspective of History
Kairosa lends Saulanna the perspective of a being that is outside time, eliminating all penalties or bonuses from temporary emotions.(1tw)
- Forked Path Oracle
Presented with a selection of options, Kairosa attempts to get a feel for which option is more "favourable". What is favourable must be described. Total accuracy not guaranteed.(1tw)
- Borrowing from the Future
Kairosa sacrifices future Power regeneration to gain Power now. Immediate Power gains are only half what would have been regained naturally later; excessive use interferes with Will Generation. May be detected.(1tw)
- Will Generation
Level 3: One measure of Titan's Will once per month. Improved to once per week with Will Compression. Improved to once per day if dedicated to a target. (3tw)
- Save the Moment
Kairosa stores one turn's worth of time, which may be released later to double Saulanna's speed for on turn, giving her another action. (1tw)

For Saulanna (Moon abilities):
Note: Saulanna must commune with her Hero Soul to gain abilities. She has not tested this process and it is not guaranteed to work or to lack consequences.
- Territoriality
Saulanna chooses something that is somehow "hers" and counts it as a Mal/Affection for a time, gaining all appropriate bonuses and vulnerabilities.(1tw)
- Only the Voice Matters
Saulanna lets her mind momentarily sink to an animalistic state where rationality no longer matters, only feelings. All Will damage is blocked, but any play on her Emotions is doubled.(1tw)
- Self-Awareness
Saulanna precisely identifies all magical effects that are influencing her while her Beast Senses are active.(1tw)

???
- Swallow Your Passion
Saulanna pushes her Emotions into a "bottle" where they no longer affect her. When the ability's effect ends, all stored Emotions return in force. Source of this ability is unknown. (1tw)

Power Words
- Clarity (3tw purchase, 5mp/tp use)
Eliminates all mind-affecting magical effects on a target, positive or negative.

Currently, Saulanna thinks World Reading, Forked Path Oracle, Seeing the Tongue Slip and Wordblood's Blessing seem most useful. She's not sure how far to take World Reading, though, and she still feels attached to the ideas of upgrading her Beauty and spending 3 will on a Generation upgrade. So, she has to choose between those.

She can also talk to Peregrin first. Or after. Maybe hunt down some more souls.

However... she has a feeling that once she talks to Peregrin, she'll have to start involving herself more in the outside world again. Events will proceed as they're not doing now. Although she can return here any time, she thinks that once she talks to Peregrin, this time spent in her internal world will be coming to an end, for now.
>>
No. 495286 ID: 4a328b

SAULANNA THERE IS SOMETHING STARING AT YOU

ON YOUR LEFT

Beauty [1]
TW generation [3]
Forked Path Oracle [1]
World Reading 2 [1+2]
Seeing The Tongue Slip [1]
Wordblood's Blessing [1]
>>
No. 495287 ID: bf54a8

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
>>
No. 495288 ID: 370c40

>>495286
This is good.

ALSO OH GOD WHAT IS THAT
>>
No. 495289 ID: 5d98c3

>>495284
Oh hai Dragon's Shadow, deific mass of evil and sadism!

Anywho, I'd steer clear of most of the Moon abilities, but for Self-Awareness. They seem to just kinda make you more vulnerable to classy gents like Peregrin, and the only thing you're fighting socially are classy gents, at this time.

I suggest we get the Perspective of History, as that should help us against whatshernames' emotional manipulation.
>>
No. 495291 ID: e92f17

>>495284

>"It's not a Titan power, though! It's something everyone can do, if they've got... uh, I don't know what the word would be. But all the different sorts of Heroes have it, and a bunch of other creatures as well. It's an extension of the bonus for doing things the awesome way! Luna told you that if you did things that were cool she would give you a bonus. And that's true, she sort of does! But the truth is that it's like the Hero Soul itself, she gives it to you, metaphysically, but she can't really keep it from you either. Anyway, if you ask her about it, she can explain it to you. But, if you don't, I'll do it instead! But I'll wait until we have a situation where we can see it in action."

This sounds a lot like Stunting, which is the Pattern Spiders seeing you try to do something awesome, so they tweak fate to make it easier to pull off so they get an awesome show.
>>
No. 495292 ID: 9ee360

Hey! Green and Red eyes in the dark! Who is that?

Greet them with poise.

>Buy
(1tw) Beauty +1
(1tw) Forked Path Oracle
(1tw) Word Reading level 1
(2tw) Word Reading level 2
(1tw) Seeing the Tongue Slip
(1tw) Bond of Understanding
(1tw) Secret Subtext
(1tw) Comprehension
(1tw) Blessing

> Swallow Your Passion
This power scares me, and I vote against it until we discover how or why it works, and where it's coming from.

>once she talks to Peregrin, this time spent in her internal world will be coming to an end
Don't do that, yet, then!
>>
No. 495294 ID: 9ddf68

World Reading Level 1 at least for WB
Will Generation for K
and Self-Awareness for S
hold on to or dump the rest of skill points into something else but I feel that those three abilities should be invested in at this time
>>
No. 495299 ID: 65ddc7

Either those are the ghost souls or someone is scrying in on us, odd considering they would have to scry at the same time we are frozen in real time. I think our expansion our mind has attracted the attention of someone very powerful. I think we should drop this for now, or at least a short moment, and pop back into the normal world to update Peregrin. His input may be useful.
>>
No. 495300 ID: 76b151

Could be something already outside of time.
>>
No. 495302 ID: 9ee360

>>/questarch/194724
Oh, and I just checked. Those eyes match what the dragon's shadow looked like in our memory flash. It's him.

Say hello to the super-being stopping by your mind unannounced.
>>
No. 495304 ID: 3bad4c

Punch those eyes! BAM!
I doubt a Titan like the Dragon's Shadow is easily offended by someone defending their own territory.
>>
No. 495306 ID: 50fe24
File 136160201086.png - (51.24KB , 600x500 , upgradesclarity2.png )
495306

>>
No. 495308 ID: 50fe24
File 136160237640.png - (131.29KB , 600x500 , upgradesclarity3.png )
495308

There's nothing there.

"I... think I might have seen something... for a moment...?"

"No way, we're time-locked! Outside's not moving, so nothing from outside has time to get in. Besides, we'd notice! Maybe it's your memory settling? Might make you hallucinate a bit."

"... I was hoping my memory of the ancient world would improve. But..."

...

... Upgrades. That's what we were talking about.
>>
No. 495310 ID: 04b86a

Maybe the Dragon's Shadow had Akatrina slip a deva in here? Shadows are good for hiding things, and we aren't very strong yet.
>>
No. 495312 ID: 695191

>>495308
Your inner world is too dark, will it into brightness. Bright as the daytime sky.
>>
No. 495317 ID: 9ee360

>so nothing from outside has time to get in
...unless it was already inside. Hiding in the shadows. Maybe agreeing to Kat's deal wasn't the best idea after all. (Excuse me now while I go back and check all the updates for hidden sets of eyes in the dark).

It doesn't have to be a full Titan or deva, either. Just a projection, or avatar, maybe. Note it only had 4 eyes- the dragon's shadow has 5. It was missing the upper right- or kept it closed.

We need to deal with this before the time stop ends. If this thing is a spy of some sort, we need deal with it before it can report to its master (assuming of course that it is not already too late).

>>495312
That would be Kai's domain, I think! Change the time in here from night to day.
>>
No. 495318 ID: f2c20c

>>495315
I really do not think we should kill this thing, if we can uncover it. If it's a deva, then... that's like killing part of the Dragon's Shadow. It would be a declaration of war.

Instead, I think we should talk to it and explain what we want, and how our unique composition means we can't side with either the Gods or Titans. Send a message back to the Dragon's Shadow, essentially, that we wish to remain neutral. Maybe even help broker peace, and fix things?
>>
No. 495319 ID: 4a328b

>>495309
It could've also been when we did the shadow walk thingy.

In terms of lighting up the place, the only really glowy thing in here is our hero's soul. We should try communing with it, anyway! And maybe get it to light the place up?

If it's hiding/spying on us I don't really want to talk to it right now, myself. I'd be happier if we could find it and kick it out.
>>
No. 495320 ID: 14d963

I suggest getting:

(Wordblood:)
1 TW: World Reading (level 1)
2 TW: World Reading (level 2)
1 TW: Blessing
1 TW: Seeing the Tongue Slip
1 TW: Comprehension
1 TW: Bond of Understanding
(Kairosa:)
1 TW: The Perspective of History
1 TW: Forked Path Oracle
(Saulanna:)
1 TW: Self-Awareness
Total: 10 TW

And later on we'll redact three of those (we can decide then which) to get:
3 TW: Will Generation (level 3)

Notes:
- Just to be clear, Wordblood needs Blessing to share his Boost, even when just sharing with Saulanna's Titanic self?
- This is assuming The Perspective of History is something we devote Power to use. If it's ALWAYS on, that's dangerous and we shouldn't get it.

>"Outside's not moving, so nothing from outside has time to get in."
Time is already wonky in the Underworld, and that's specifically due to the Dragon's Shadow doing, so I wouldn't put it past him to find some way to synchronize with our timestream.

(I didn't check the thread for the hour and fourteen minutes between those updates, so I have NO IDEA what people are talking about, and can only assume that they're not crazy and there was in fact something suspicious-looking that was later edited out...?)
>>
No. 495322 ID: 52d91f

>>495288
What? What?

I don't see anything!
>>
No. 495323 ID: 4a328b

Saulanna, how would you feel about making a new deva? Say, a Perceptive deva? Too soon after the last one, or no?
>>
No. 495324 ID: 18436c

6 for Worldblood's World comprehension, Will generation 3, and SELF AWARENESS
SELF AWARENESS
>>
No. 495325 ID: 18436c

Saulanna, something is in your territory. It's in your lair. Hunt it and eat it.
>>
No. 495330 ID: 370c40

We COULD spend TW to find and isolate the intruder.
>>
No. 495332 ID: e92f17

>>495322
Open up the image in >>495284 and look really close at the black area.
>>
No. 495336 ID: f2c20c

>>495284
Well, if we're going to vote regardless of the lurking shadow creature...

1 TW: World Reading 1
2 TW: World Reading 2
1 TW: Blessing
1 TW: Seeing the Tongue Slip

1 TW: Forked Path Oracle
3 TW: Will Generation

1 TW: Self-Awareness.

10 TW total.
>>
No. 495337 ID: 695191

>>495332
Or go check the discussion thread, where its posted with the eyes considerably brightened.

>>495330
Actually... yes. If we could buy that power for 1 TW we can just rewind it later. Let's not even think about how to do it, just reach out with the purpose of finding what is or was there.
>>
No. 495339 ID: 3bad4c

I suggest some sort of spectrum sight ability that allows one to easily see the difference between very similar colours. 1TW, easy to unspend, do it now. :)

You can't seriously list "Source of this ability is unknown." and then not actually investigate.
Ignore us and we might have to become unpleasantly loud.

Yes that is the only time the eyes have been visible this entire thread.
>>
No. 495340 ID: 9e0824

Upgrade Vote:
World Reading 1-2 (3)
Seeing the Tongue Slip (1)
TW Generation (3)
Forked Path Oracle (1)
Self-Awareness (1)
Beauty (1)


Perhaps more importantly, let's investigate the shadow thing. Personally, I'd suggest a diplomatic approach instead of a confrontational search; anything that can observe us here is pretty much by definition a Titan (or part of one, at least), and we want friendly relations with the other Titans. More of a "I know you're there, so you may as well come out and talk" rather than an aggressive scouring of the hidden shadows of mindspace.
>>
No. 495342 ID: b6178d

Upgrade vote:

World Reading 1-2 (3tw)
Clarity (3tw) (AND IF NECESSARY, USE IT)
Comprehension (1tw)
Blessing (1tw)
Seeing the Tongue Slip (1tw)
Self-Awareness (1tw) (AND THEN ACTIVATE BEAST SENSES IF NOT ALREADY ON)
Will Generation (3tw)

This should leave us 3 tw in reserve. We honestly don't need a full 6 tw in reserve, as most useful Power Words or abilities that we can presently make use of seems to be in the 1 to 3 tw cost range, and we're only really keeping a reserve for emergencies... so we don't have to double up on that particular slush fund.

I also suggest we have Kairosa use her POWER/WILL COMPRESSION and dedicate the next point of Titan's Will to the 'Save the Moment' ability, which seems useful but not immediately necessary.
>>
No. 495356 ID: 695191

Anyways, onto votes:
>World Reading 3 (6)
>Seeing the Tongue Slip (1)
>Forked Path Oracle (1)
>Divine Listener (1)
>Beauty (1)

This is for optimum tactics. We can later either rewind 3 powers for regeneration or catch some souls.

>>495324
>>495344
I like self awareness, but that requires communing with the hero soul first. Not a bad thing probably, but it is still a thing. If we do that I vote for it in place of beauty.
>>
No. 495366 ID: 14bafe

I cannot believe how dense I am. Being able to rewind the point of beauty when we no longer need it in a completely immediate sense takes away all my misapprehension on using the TW on that for our current social situation. Once we have those guys out of our poofier hair, we can just rewind the thing and put it to a better use.

>>495336
It's still our least useful option though, so voting for this allocation.
>>
No. 495371 ID: 612027

Saulanna, if you want to live, do as we say! Colour your sky with bright stars and cast out the darkness that would intrude upon your Inner World.
>>
No. 495376 ID: 96dde8

>>495308
Saulanna, we saw something. stop doubting us!
you're a moon hero, trust your instincts!

>>495318
>implying that sending a deva to spy on us is not a declaration of war.
>>
No. 495379 ID: 1d42e3

Something to keep in perspective also that the Dragon's Shadow is also a reflection of the Id. The base desires of man that usually have to be suppressed by the conscious mind in order to maintain function in society. That being said, I don't think it's that unusual that he may be slithering around in your inner world. Then again the theory that your previous deal allowed him in does bear merit.

However for course of action, I would suggest trying to keep this Deva here in your inner world for as long as possible. We don't want him reporting anything or giving Akat anything that could give her an advantage. Then again that's easier said then done for the Dragon's Shadow hates being bound and that might filter down to his Noble Souls.
>>
No. 495380 ID: 76b151

We have 10, we gained fifteen from those two souls and had 1 measure from before. We used 6 to up everyone to 3 SF.

>>495320
I think this sounds best. Though if we do decide to hunt down the slavers associates selling those back won't be necessary.
>>
No. 495382 ID: 976ee5

I approve of communing with our hero soul anyway.
>>
No. 495390 ID: 5d98c3

We should put a point or two into Clarity.
>>
No. 495397 ID: 7008f9

Voting:

- Saulanna's Soul Force up to 4 (What cost?)
- Wordblood's World Reading level 3 (cost 3)

Can Only the Voice Matters (1tw) and Swallow Your Passion (1tw) be combined for an invincible social combo?
>>
No. 495399 ID: 96dde8

honestly, i'm not sure it's a deva at all. i suspect it's something Akatrina did when we shook hands, making the fact that this place is time locked irrelevant. i guess it could be a deva if Akatrina could carry one and put it inside us? i don't really know how that works.
whatever it is, if Akatrina did it we can assume she know we are a titan. and that means we can assume her boss knows as much as well.

about the upgrades.

what would happen if we combine Only the Voice Matters and either Only the Voice Matters or The Perspective of History? would that make us basically immune to everything?

as for my vote:
World Reading (levels 1 and 2): 3 wp
Seeing the Tongue Slip: 1 wp
Bond of Understanding: 1 wp
Forked Path Oracle: 1 wp
Self-Awareness: 1 wp

that leaves 3 wp.
we need either The Perspective of History or Swallow Your Passion for obvious reasons. i vote for the latter because of curiosity.
if they can be combined with Only the Voice Matters we should take that one as well.

that leaves 1 or 2 wp.
since this is an emergency, i say we take Borrowing from the Future to get a few extra precious wps. we need them NOW after all.

as for the last point (if applicable) i'd say raise beauty because the alternative (comprehension) will probably only give a comparable bonus.
>>
No. 495400 ID: 52d91f

If we get Forked Path Oracle, Seeing the Tongue Slip and Wordblood's Blessing that's three points. Another 3 points will get us Generation and three more will let us max world reading, leaving us one point to boost Beauty.

That sounds good to me.

(I think I'll also vote that Kairosa use her TW Generation and Time powers to focus on us improving our Soul Force for the time being.)
>>
No. 495401 ID: 96dde8

>>495400
>>495397
it takes 6 wp to max world reading, people. not 3.
>>
No. 495402 ID: 7008f9

Can we eat the intruder deva for more TW? There's a thought.
>>
No. 495404 ID: 7008f9

>>495401
Oops. Not sure if it's worth it, then. Could you get 2 SF upgrades with what we've got now (4->5)?

Definitely sticking with suggesting at least 1 SF upgrade, so long as we can afford it.
>>
No. 495408 ID: 47a120

>>495318
We have an option to take a power from unknown source, the source must be this shadow dragon within us.
I think we have either been "gifted" a shadow deva of stealth (only deva that could hide from the others) by the shadow dragon via akatriana (who heavily insinuated she knows what we are via dialog) or this is one of the dragon shadows own devas who is spying on us (possibly intentionally letting us see glimpses of it) and has gifted us the bottle emotions ability.
Notice that our world is large and shadowy at its borders, whether these gifts are in good or bad faith depends on its method of creation and goals. Even if it is in good faith and is a deva made out of saulanna herself and be 100% loyal to her without any trojans it still works in his favor:
1. Making us more like him.
2. Potentially making us feel we owe him something
3. Marking us appear to be his ally and officially unholy (shadow) via divine law to the gods (thus the gods more likely to spurn us and attack us thus making us seek his protection)

It is hardly a deceleration of war, more like placing a child monitor on a fetus. Since we cannot win a fight and he hasn't tried mindraping us yet (which he supposedly heavily opposes with his history) I suggest we CALL OUT for a bit of friendly conversation.
>>
No. 495427 ID: 406926

>>495308
>There's nothing there.
But there was.

>No way, we're time-locked! Outside's not moving, so nothing from outside has time to get in.
But we let it in already, when we let Akatrina pact with us.

It's vitally important that we get to the bottom of this situation. If the Dragon's Shadow already has an agent inside us, we could be in a great deal of trouble- we need to know what it knows, and just as importantly, what it's reported.

The most obvious step, since this is a creature of shadow hidden in the darkness, is to twist the nature of our inner world so that there is no darkness- only light. Saulanna's nature as a Moon Hero might be of some help here; control over the light-analogue of the inner world has likely fallen to her moonlight aspect.

If that fails, we can stack ourselves with a few awareness abilities- first, World Reading and the Enhancement: Taste of Time boost for it. That might allow Wordblood to see or Kairosa to taste the essence of any intruders, though it's a long shot. Forked Path Oracle is worth buying in general and might be usable to guide us in taking a course of action which would reveal this intruder.

If all else fails, we could burn TW directly to make the presence of the infiltrator obvious, thereby forcing a confrontation.

Once we've found the thing, then the issue of how to deal with it can be handled. Until we've located it, though, spending Titan's Will on things that won't help us with finding it should be avoided- this is important, and we cannot unfreeze time until it's dealt with appropriately and our inner world is entirely under our own control.
>>
No. 495431 ID: cee89f

... Kairosa, in the underworld, time flows according to DS' will. Would that let him get through the time lock somehow?

... Or maybe it came in when Akatrina grabbed our hand?

...

*sigh* forget it. (WE are sure there's something in here but Saulanna's not, she just knows we set off alarm bells in her head) Let's upgrade and get out of here. Whatever that thing is or isn't, we likely can't do anything about it right now.

... But maybe we should move our seeing soul up in the schedule. Just in case.
>>
No. 495437 ID: faae35

Uh, would Clarity remove it though? It might be good idea to consider getting it, despite the high cost.
>>
No. 495449 ID: fb474d

here's a thought. the reason Kairosa can't (or rather shouldn't) see the future is because if she were to see a possibility, her being a titan would make that possibility a certainty, right? well what if we get a nontitan in here and kai would let them see the future and they would relay the possibilities to us? it would require her to learn a new power to allow another to see the future instead of her but it just might work
>>
No. 495463 ID: d1efde

>>495308
>>495284
Okay, so there's eyes in the darkness around our inner world. Well, I'm just going to point out something that was already mentioned by Wordblood back in the last thread (http://tgchan.org/kusaba/questarch/res/399781.html#448119):

>"I've been reviewing our information, my lady. As a Death Hero of the Blood Moon Caste, she can indeed bind oaths that are spoken aloud, provided her hands are in contact with those of the parties involved, and possibly including herself. The link created will allow her and the oathbound an awareness that will inform them the moment the contract is broken, and by whom. She may at such point also choose whether or not to visit the oathbreaker with magical retribution. One-sided oaths such as she suggests are possible, and though she's unlikely to punish herself for breaking it, you'd at least know that she had."

>"However, her caste also has the ability, given particular effort, to learn the magical abilities of other beings, including gods and Titanic devas, if she has a tutor. A tutor such as, for example, any of the innumerable offspring of the Dragon's Shadow himself. I'm not even sure of the range of her normal powers, so I can make no guess as to what else she could do with a handshake!"

^So yeah, this brief notice of something odd needs to be taken very seriously. Even if this isn't one of the Dragon's Shadow offspring, if it's just a representation of the oath we took with Akatrina, the very fact that it's in here with us means that it's "aware" of our nature and all Akatrina needs to do is ask us if we're a titan to find out if were a titan.

That said I'm leaning towards it being one of the DS's devas. We already knew DS was suspicious of Peregrine's experiments and that Akatrina was a spy in addition to an ambassador. It only makes sense a deva would be sent to identify things she might not be capable of recognizing.

Need to deal with this.
>>
No. 495482 ID: 7003a8

>>495319
"Self-Awareness" would let us identify any riders we've picked up, and since we can manifest Beast Senses for free inside the inner world we could easily track the entity down.
>>
No. 495498 ID: ad90ae

"Who's there? Show yourself!"

Hey, it might work. Costs you nothing to try.
>>
No. 495530 ID: 7008f9

After some thought, I definitely support opening negotiations with the creepy shadow dragon thing. This could be our chance to come to an arrangement with the Dragon's Shadow without a social specialist at the other end of the table. Maybe.
>>
No. 495540 ID: 268ba5

>>495530
>without a social specialist at the other end of the table
>dragons shadow
Yeah, no. There is maybe some advantage to not have a middleman, but by no means is he not a master of social-fu.
>>
No. 495552 ID: 5d121c

>>495312
Do this. Brighten things up.
>>
No. 495558 ID: 52d91f

>>495401
It says three in that post up there.
>>
No. 495562 ID: 3dd384

Made a bigger post at >>/questdis/67836 with a strategy for our next discussion with the other three Exalts (which informs my votes here). Encourage you read it.

Short version: let's play to our strengths and take advantage of the fact that it's just us, not Peregrin, who promised not to use magic to influence Ms. Dullahan (his offensive magic in this area is probably more powerful anyway). Focus on defending ourselves and gathering information, pass what we learn to Peregrin so he can make with the flashy arguments.

But before we do any of that stuff, we've got a snake to catch.

[1 TW] Self-Awareness

Then, unless something goes wrong,

[1 TW] World Reading 1
[1 TW] Bond of Understanding
[1 TW] Seeing the Tongue Slip

[1 TW] Forked Path Oracle
[3 TW] Will Generation 3
-> [Earmark: Saulanna Soul Force 4]


with 2 TW remaining.
>>
No. 495661 ID: 47a120

>>495336
This...

>>495308
>"No way, we're time-locked! Outside's not moving
Didn't shadow dragon destroy the calender and claimed the power to control the passage of time.

>Light up
Lets make this plan C, as it is not exactly diplomatic to use light on the dragon shadow.
Plan A is to call out an invitation to talk "I have sensed you, please reveal yourself so we may talk".
Plan B is to use Self-Awareness to find whatever it is.
If neither of those work only then try light.
>>
No. 495668 ID: f2c20c

>>495308
He got in when you made the deal with Akatrina. Remember, the feeling of something coiling around your neck? That's where this came from.

I dunno if it's the Dragon's Shadow himself. A full Titan hiding away inside you would be super obvious, surely? This might just be one of his Nobles. It might even be the source of Swallow your Passion.

If you do have a foreign entity inside you sent by the Dragon's Shadow, then the jig is up as far as he's concerned. I think we might want to hold off on upgrades until we know what this thing is and how it's affecting you... and what that means for the coming social combat.

So! Ask it to reveal itself. Don't try to force it out with light or attack it just yet. If it doesn't come out on its own after we make it clear we know it's there, then warn it that if it doesn't come out you will be forced to take measures against it. THEN we can try to do something drastic. First thought is to change the environment manually so that there's nowhere it can hide. I'm not sure we need light for that- we might be able to achieve the same effect by simply making the place indoors instead of outdoors, or otherwise limiting the space so that you're not surrounded by darkness.
>>
No. 495674 ID: 83304a

screw beauty, take the generation upgrade. and then forget all the other stuff and take another generation upgrade.
>>
No. 495682 ID: ec7d87

Really really really don't take the Bottle power until and unless we know where it's from.

Also, putting in a counter-vote against looking at Will Generation. We can rollback for that, we're much better off buying a bunch of cheap powers before the confrontation and then respending into Generation after that.
>>
No. 495695 ID: c54cd1

Time locked, eh? Now who do we know has the ability to muck about with time, has a vested interest in knowing about our growing Titan powers, a reason to know we have growing Titan powers, likes hiding in the dark and has been known to sport a third eye between his other two in the artwork?

Spectacular, we have the Shadow of All Things in our head. Maybe.
>>
No. 495699 ID: 3dd384

>>495695
>>495668
>>495661
I'm not yet convinced that it's really the Dragon's Shadow, and not just magic that uses his Essence. But on the offchance it is, I suppose diplomacy is called for.

(Don't lay down ground rules; he's the kind of guy who will break them for the sake of breaking them.)
>>
No. 495842 ID: 084186
File 136176859762.png - (125.91KB , 600x500 , thedragonmaybe.png )
495842

>It's the Dragon's Shadow!

"Yes, I don't know any likelier suspect; he's close enough, he's good at going where he's not supposed to go, he's good at subterfuge, and his attention is already focused on this place. Motive and method. Though it seems odd, as well. The Dragon's Shadow I remember could easily be subtle, but in... unsubtle ways. He lied, but he lied to your face. He liked to show off, even while he was in the middle of a potentially calamitous ruse. He was- "

"- a massive attention whore?"

"Mm. I wouldn't have put it that way, but yes. He was... darkness. Good at concealing things, but obviously present himself. But... that was a long time ago. He must certainly have changed since then."

"Wordblood, this is really interesting, but why are you talking about the Dragon's Shadow? We were talking about getting new abilities."
>>
No. 495843 ID: 084186
File 136176864520.png - (124.51KB , 600x500 , thedragonmaybe2.png )
495843

"Wh... because of the eyes in the dark! We all turned to look and they were gone. It's probably the Dragon's Shadow."

"... Are you feeling all right? Come on, we need to decide what to buy."
>>
No. 495844 ID: 084186
File 136176872139.png - (137.54KB , 600x500 , thedragonmaybe3.png )
495844

"No, hold on, this is important! There's something in here with us!!"

>Turn up the light!
>Brighten things up
>something is in your territory
>find and isolate the intruder
>investigate the shadow thing
>cast out the darkness
>there's eyes in the darkness
>stop doubting us!

...

...

... Wordblood looks stressed for some reason.
>>
No. 495847 ID: 084186
File 136176891195.png - (91.00KB , 600x500 , thedragonmaybe4.png )
495847

>>495320
>Wordblood needs Blessing to share his Boost, even when just sharing with Saulanna's Titanic self?
"Ehh, the "Titan" self is still mostly just a human body. Wordblood needs a mind to use his stuff on."
>assuming The Perspective of History is something we devote Power to use
"That's right!"

>>495323
>Saulanna, how would you feel about making a new deva? Say, a Perceptive deva? Too soon after the last one, or no?
"Too soon". Definitely.

>>495449
>what if we get a nontitan in here and kai would let them see the future
"Ooh, that's kind of a tall order. I'd have to put part of them Outside. They'd probably go crazy?"

Saulanna decides to get the Will Generation upgrade and set it to her own Soul Force, for 3 TW - that'll take three days - and World Reading at level 2, again for a total of 3 TW. She'll also get Forked Path Oracle, Seeing the Tongue Slip and Wordblood's Blessing, all for 1 TW each and reversible. Those all seem the most useful. She'll also try to persuade her Hero Soul to give her Self-Awareness. Perhaps she should do that first, to see if it works? If not, she'll get Beauty.

"Well, it's a little high-powered, but only barely, and it has some theme resonance, so it should work. And it's not like you're going to get the same history overload I got, mistress! At least, I don't think so..."

Is this plan ok Y/N?
>>
No. 495848 ID: 9db85e

I like it, but I'd rather devote the 3 tw for generation to another level of world reading instead.

So, yes, but I'd like less focus on generation for now, personally.
>>
No. 495850 ID: 76b151

>>495848
Honestly I agree, Generation should wait until after we're outta danger of being convinced of something we don't want to do.
>>
No. 495851 ID: a31717

>Wordblood looks stressed for some reason.
Saulanna, I would like to suggest trusting Wordblood. For some reason, he sees/saw something you and Kairosa didn't see or can't remember seeing.

I'm not sure why this is. Maybe because it was with you before Kairosa was formed? It could have built in hiding from her when she was made. I'm not sure how it's affecting you, though.

>Is this plan ok Y/N?
Yes, and supporting doing the communing first.
>>
No. 495852 ID: 6c6bb5

>>495844
>>495842
Oooo clever, misdirection and slight manipulation, he's good whoever he is. We don't seem to be getting anywhere trying to deal with our little intruder. So the plan is good and if you have enough time why don't you try a little experiment. Set off a uncomfortable space and then set limits that no one is to enter it, trespass, etc. Make it all official and put some legalese onto it and make it a legally binding contract and things. If he who is jerking poor Wordblood around is here that might be a giant magnet to him. A chance to sneer at authority, escape from being bound by anything, and an illicit thrill from doing this.
>>
No. 495853 ID: 04b86a

>She'll also try to persuade her Hero Soul to give her Self-Awareness. Perhaps she should do that first, to see if it works? If not, she'll get Beauty.
Yes. Yes, do this first. And then use it to see if there's anything currently affecting you that shouldn't be there.
>>
No. 495857 ID: f2c20c

>>495847
No upgrades! Not until the threat has passed. If upgrades are all you two care about then that is how we will leverage dealing with this threat! In fact, if this invader is trying to get us to focus on upgrades, not spending TW may be important!

Wordblood, point out that Saulanna's got access to a strange emotion-bottling power she can't identify the source of, and for some reason both her and Kairosa are ignoring the presence here with us. As if their emotional reactions are being bottled up.

We're dealing with a stealth-Purpose Deva with some sort of emotional Aspect. Like a Hider of Emotion. You are somehow immune to it, possibly due to your aspect and purpose? We find it easier to communicate with you?

Tell them our plans since they seem to be ignoring them. At the VERY LEAST, commune with the hero soul first, Saulanna! It might be able to defend us from the shadow deva.
>>
No. 495860 ID: f2c20c

OH GOD THERE ARE NEARLY-INVISIBLE GREEN TENTACLES ON EVERYONE

On Kairosa, Saulanna and the Hero Soul! Only Wordblood is free of the influence of this Deva.
>>
No. 495865 ID: 7003a8

>>495847
Get Self-Awareness NOW. Everything else can wait.

Then USE self-awareness to find the intruder inside yourself.
We can decide what to do AFTER that.
>>
No. 495866 ID: a31717

>>495860
...oh hells. Those are hard to see. Had to tilt my laptop screen back 45 degrees or so.

Worldblood, you're on your own here. An outside force has compromised the rest of your family/self. It's up to you to save them.

Purchase power word clarity. And use it on them!
>>
No. 495885 ID: cee89f

>>495843
... This is very creepy. And Saulanna seems to be forgetting too.

...

DANGER DANGER ENEMY CLAWS OUT FIGHT FOE ENEMY DANGER THREAT THREAT DEATH DANGER CLAWS OUT THING IN THE DARK EVIL ENEMY FOE DANGER DEATH THREAT DECEIVER ENEMY DEATH DANGER FOE ENEMY DARKNESS DANGER SHADOWS SHADOWS SHADOW SHADOW DRAGON CLAWS UT DANGERDANGERDANGERDANGERDANGER CLAWS OUT DANGERDANGERDANGER PERIL DANGER!!!!!!!

... Nothing?

*sigh* Okay, grab self-awareness first.

>Tentacles around Kairosa
There are some around Saulanna, too - they're a bit easier to see since they go over the few gray areas in our inner world...

>>495857
It's doubtful we can get this thing without upgrading - i think it's trying to distract us from it, not necessarily to get us to buy upgrades. Judging from how Saulanna is reacting, it's more of a memory-wipe than mind control.

EDIT: Sorry for the off-topicness, post merge and subsequent deletion, but is anyone else having issues posting in the discussion thread? I get this error message:
"Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 100663296 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 6209833 bytes) in /home/tgchan/kusaba/inc/classes/board-post.class.php on line 550"
>>
No. 495886 ID: bdb3f8

(tentacle visibility is quite susceptible to monitor tilt if you have a screen where that is a thing.)

If Wordblood cannot communicate better than tentacles can misdirect, then we are proper fucked. But that said, tentacles are using power and Wordblood is just talking right now. Maybe he can try using some of his fancy communication specialty to inform people of what he knows.
>>
No. 495889 ID: 84b8a7

Fight off these tentacles! Self Awareness go! Akatrina is gonna so get her ass kicked for this...
>>
No. 495898 ID: 5da860

>But that said, tentacles are using power and Wordblood is just talking right now.
You know, that brings up a good point. Memory manipulation is stated to be "difficult against the unwilling or even the simply unaware". Though it would obviously be less difficult for a deva specialized in it, it will still very likely cost some energy to use.
What I am getting at is that fancy magic takes power to use while talking does not, so Wordblood can theoretically outlast this manipulation if he repeatedly brings the subject up. I don't think our enemy can keep casting mind magic forever, but we have plenty of time to spend in here.
>>
No. 495900 ID: 3dd384

Saulanna: Yeah, sounds good. Get Self-Awareness first - communion with your Hero Soul is the biggest unknown and if something goes wrong we want to let that influence our decision-making (including possibly switching plans to learning Clarity if something goes wrong).

Wordblood: Sometimes "aid" involves independent action. You're in the know here, and it looks like you're the only one. So! Keep an eye out. Hopefully Saulanna can take Self-Awareness and be, well, aware of the threat. In case that doesn't pan out, how about... just sort of reaching over and biting a >>495867 >>495884 tentacle? See if it reacts! :)
>>
No. 495909 ID: 4eb46d

I WILL SUFFER NO TRESPASS. CAST OUT THE INTRUDER.

...

But yeah. Self-awareness so we can see what is exploring our brain. Beauty isn't really that major of a priority.
>>
No. 495910 ID: 4a328b

Let's KEEP AN EYE on this situation. Don't let those hard to see tentacles get you, Wordblood! Maybe Peregrin has some way to deal with this junk.
>>
No. 495924 ID: 78c6ea

Wordblood: sometimes "aid" involves BITING
>>
No. 495934 ID: baa530

Yes. Sometimes aiding a person means that direct action is required.
You aren't just some scattered words on a breeze here.
>>
No. 495935 ID: f2c20c

A counter-point is that the intruder is doing nothing, as far as we can tell, except trying to keep its presence unnoticed.

If I were the Dragon's Shadow, I would want to cover all my bases. I would expect deception, and thus would want a method to ensure that I know the true nature of the newborn Titan. A Deva sent deep incognito and ordered to ONLY watch fits this bill. What would he have to gain from interfering with our development? I believe that his angle of attack as far as recruiting us is concerned is Akatrina. This intruder is here to make sure we aren't conspiring against him.

Wordblood, perhaps you can... reassure the intruder by asking Saulanna directly how she plans to approach future dealings with the Dragon's Shadow. We want the spy to see and believe that we are not planning to act against him. Ironically the best time to do that is now, when the spy is working to directly conceal its presence from Saulanna and thus would expect an honest answer.

So far I believe we've been suggesting to Saulanna that she deal with him in the future as someone to possibly cooperate with in exchange for information and resources. We kindof need to gather information about his new nature, though. Like you said, he must have changed considerably.
>>
No. 495947 ID: 3dd384

Gonna try something.

Hi, new friend! If you can perceive this text, I'd like to be the first to welcome you to Saulanna Rockblossom Incorporated. Let's go over some ground rules, okay?

1) If you're already a part of us - that is, properly a part of Saulanna's soul hierarchy, as I suspect - I'm sure we can come to an agreement, and it'd be downright silly for us to eat you. That'd be autocannibalism, and I think Kairosa's got the right idea about that sort of thing being best suited for the far future (if ever!). So in short, if you can perceive this text, I think we can keep the reactions to you from being too drastic.

2) Using mental influence on your peers and boss is really sort of rude. Not rude in the blunt-but-necessary way, rude in the really-bad-first-impressions way. Hiding like this breeds distrust, and I'd like to trust you, but it's hard to do that in a situation like this... and I think it'll be even harder for Saulanna to trust you if the first she learns of you is Wordblood's panicking and a Charm that says you've got hooks in her brain. So loosen up those tentacles and let us get a good look at you! A little show of goodwill goes a long way. :)
>>
No. 495954 ID: bf54a8

wait, a TRACE! tentacles don't come from nowhere, follow them from a tip to the source. worst case BITE one. you are a dragon! you don't take this shit.
>>
No. 495956 ID: 14d963

>Is this plan ok Y/N?
Y.

(Though maybe with Comprehension as a backup plan instead of Beauty.)

But first, figure out what's spying on us.

Plan A: Attempt to commune for Self-Awareness (which was going to be our next step anyway), try to use it and see what we can detect.
Plan B: CLEANSING BY LUNA'S HOLY RADIANCE!
Plan C: Wordblood takes matters into his own teeth.
Plan D: Panic. (Invest in costly Power Word? Consult Peregrin?)
>>
No. 495958 ID: 5d121c

Right, we may as well spend some TW for an action if it's going to reveal whatever is going on. Light things up, make thoughts clearer.

Or maybe make a power word for it? Something like "Clarity", "Reveal" or "True Sight" (the word isn't in english, so the translation can be more than just one english word I'm sure).
>>
No. 495963 ID: 9e0824

Hmm. I was pushing for diplomacy earlier, but this thing is definitely being unfriendly. I was pushing for Self-Awareness earlier, but the Hero Soul is also affected, so that might not work.

Accordingly, I think the situation is bad enough to justify an 'oh shit' expenditure on a power word; let's drop Clarity and see what's really going on. So do that now, like, RIGHT NOW.
>>
No. 495965 ID: de590a

thrash around and grab for tentacles.
>>
No. 495971 ID: 96dde8

>>495844
hold on. is that the hero soul? is that thing around THE FUCKING HERO SOUL!?
that can't be good.

err, this looks more like an unnatural mental influence than anything else right now. wordblood, i know you hate to do that but you may need to break it. looks like you're the last one not under it's effects.

here's my theory: Saulanna got it when she shook hands and Kairosa came after it was so she also "contracted" it when she was born. that leaves you, mister flying dictionary.
and the hero soul, but i think the hero soul was part of Saulanna before Kai came about so that might explain why it also has the snake thing, if it even has it at all.

mind you, if it does self awareness isn't going to work probably.

tl;dr
Wordblood: DO SOMETHING FOR CRYING OUT LOUD
>>
No. 495974 ID: 370c40

Willing to spend TW on Self Awareness and Clarity both if necessary, here. We can make up the TW later if we have to but having the Dragon's Shadow in our head is a serious concern.
>>
No. 495975 ID: 1c7e1b

I'm not sure if we can do anything about this Wordblood can do. Unless the Dragon's Shadow deliberately avoided disguising himself completely from Wordblood or if he CAN'T due to Wordblood's past as a previous deva for another Titan. Either way, we are powerless to prevent a full-fledged Titan from doing anything to us. We're too weak.

We need to be aware he's there, but just be glad we're not dead yet and hope to subvert his influence on us later.
>>
No. 495984 ID: cee89f

Wordblood.

DO NOT buy Power Word: Clarity. Not yet. We already have a power word that may do the job.

Use Power Word: Stop on the creature - stop hiding, stop your mental influence, etc etc. See if that works before delving that deeply into our Will pool. Delve into your titan power if you have to - this is important, Saulanna would agree if she wasn't being influenced.
>>
No. 495985 ID: 7008f9

Try fucking that thing up with a power word. Buy a new one if the first don't work.
>>
No. 495992 ID: a12965

Yes let's go with that upgrade plan.

Wordblood seems to be the only part of us that can see or react to the dragons shadow. We need him alone to negotiate our way through this.

Wordblood, ask the dragons shadow to let us be, that we will commit to not opposing him if he would just speak with us more openly.
>>
No. 495995 ID: ca5e0c

Communing with the Hero Soul to obtain Self-Awareness FIRST. And by first I mean right now.

If that is a trojan horse we'd do better knowing about it. It's funny that people would treat Akatrina and the Lunars like enemies, but when there's something IN OUR WORLD that's MESSING WITH US, they're all like "oh hello there why don't we be friends!"
>>
No. 495996 ID: ce346f

Y

Go with the plan.

Talking about the Dragon's Shadow when we haven't established that is what is happening can cause trouble.

If it is a manifestation of the curse that Time was talking about, upgrading it into a deva incarnation of that curse, then having time eat that Deva, is not something we should be doing yet.

Those planned upgrades for Wordblood, will, if nothing else, help him track socially tampering in our mindscape. Or it might reveal everything.

Do the plan, while staying alert, and being prepared.
>>
No. 496009 ID: 406926

>>495847
>Is this plan ok Y/N?
This seems reasonable, if a bit heavy on the generation side of things. Let's start it off by giving Wordblood his Titan's Will to use.

>>495847
Dammit, Wordblood! You're the essence of communication as devoted to assistance, and the person you need to assist the absolute most is in a kind of trouble that only you can communicate to her! This is exactly within the essence of what you are- take action! Burn some power, take some of that Titan's Will they're talking about giving you and solve this problem!
>>
No. 496031 ID: f2c20c

>>496009
Whoa, let's not be hasty. Wordblood taking the TW and doing stuff with it without Saulanna's permission would be like usurping her!
>>
No. 496034 ID: a31717

>>496031
No, it wouldn't. Wordblood is her aide. Her right hand. Her number one. And damnit, it's the job of the number on to know when his captain isn't fit and make the right decision for him. Her.
>>
No. 496045 ID: 9e0824

>>495984
Pretty sure Stop doesn't work that way; it's been defined as affecting physical motion alone, IIRC. So it won't help.

>>496031
Well, yeah, that is a very serious matter. It essentially amounts to the whole inter-deva mental influence thing. Then again, it's the one, specific, really important case of that, being 'freeing us from outside unnatural mental influence'. Knowing full well that it's a dangerous line to cross, I still think it's important to do, and I feel that Wordblood, being our Aide, can be trusted with the power. Maybe he doesn't have the mystical authority to immediately spend TW on grabbing a new word, that's a valid point. Accordingly, we don't want to push that point unless it's absolutely necessary. But if Wordblood can't figure out another way to save us here, we'll have to take the chance.
>>
No. 496049 ID: 76b151

... I think I'm gonna agree, instead of the 3 on TW generation we should spend it on Clarity. Until we know what this thing is we cannot proceed with anything.
>>
No. 496078 ID: d1efde

>>495844
Wordblood are those faint tentacles something that's "physical" in the inner world or just a representation of outside influence? And regardless of which they are, can you inflict some kind of harm on them?

>>495847

Come on Saulanna, there's a foreign entity in your inner world and it has its translucent green tentacles all over you!

>Is this plan ok Y/N?
No, I don't really like that allocation. I think the Will Generation is a poor investment at the moment and we should put the points for that in something that will help us with the upcoming Social Combat.
>>
No. 496084 ID: d1efde

>>495844
Is that the Hero Soul in the background? Why is it tinted green now?
>>
No. 496092 ID: 4eb46d

I think the plan is sound. But.

Self-awareness plx!!!!!41@!1!2!!
>>
No. 496096 ID: 9ddf68

>>495867
>>495884
calmly and quietly ask WB what the hell we are going to have to do to fix this and how the hell they got in here in the first place.
As for the plan, sure sounds good to me but unless we need those TW to get the tentacel things out I say go for it
>>
No. 496172 ID: 96dde8

>>495847
>"Ooh, that's kind of a tall order. I'd have to put part of them Outside. They'd probably go crazy?"
so a mad oracle then? that sounds cool and fun. we just need to find someone who would be ok with going crazy or is already crazy
>>
No. 496177 ID: e4e49c

N

No, do not buy. This is what the intruder wants. For everyone to burn all of that lovely Titan's Will on upgrades, and suddenly have nothing left with which to cast out the intruder. No specialized tools to defeat them.

Before anything else, buy only upgrades that cast off mental control.

Wordblood, if they won't stop talking about upgrades? Demand on the spot, or make yourself, Power Word Clarity and use it. Take initiative, spend extra Titan's Will to make it happen, or convince them that buying Clarity now is the wise first choice, use it, and THEN buy the rest.

But if you don't take control, they'll blow all of their Titan's Will, or too much of it, and leave everyone at a disadvantage with the intruder.
>>
No. 496178 ID: 76b151

Going with this. Two things will help us discover this intruder:

The first and most immediate is Clarity, the other is Self Awareness will take some time but is perhaps better as it covers other aspects.

I believe we should invest in both immediately before anything else. Then we can decide on what to do with the other Titan's Will.
>>
No. 496187 ID: e4e49c

Also, something to think about Wordblood:

>"Yes, I don't know any likelier suspect; he's close enough, he's good at going where he's not supposed to go, he's good at subterfuge, and his attention is already focused on this place. Motive and method. Though it seems odd, as well. The Dragon's Shadow I remember could easily be subtle, but in... unsubtle ways. He lied, but he lied to your face. He liked to show off, even while he was in the middle of a potentially calamitous ruse. He was- "

You're seeing it happen. Right here, right in front of you. The Dragon's Shadow is manipulating your family right in front of you. You aren't affected. Is it because you're immune?

Or is he letting you watch your family hammer the nails into their coffin, just because he can? Just so that one person can properly appreciate how thoroughly he has won?

Power Word Clarity. Immediately. Before the Dragon's Shadow can adapt and twist your family further against you. Argue that protection against mental influence is of paramount importance, and that in fact you think it'd be wise to buy it now and ensure everyone is safe, and so that we can use it in the future.

Or preferably, take initiative and craft it now, yourself, and use it.
>>
No. 496204 ID: 8b9215

Something is in here. Combat mode. Boost perception.
>>
No. 496249 ID: 07cabe

>>495847
I vote against will generation, we need it NOW not in a few days/weeks
>>
No. 496288 ID: a12965

>>496249
Hmm maybe. But if we get three point of will generation and set it to a 1 TW we'll have it in one day. The whole 3 TW towards soul force can wait until we eat another ghost.
>>
No. 496295 ID: 4a328b

Tentacle: Make Wordblood forget about this for now so we can get on with the purchases like normal and get back to real-time.
>>
No. 496308 ID: 92c81e

STAY STRONG, Wordblood. Do not falter. Clarity seems like a great idea right about now. Our inner world is our shelter, our domain. We cannot operate cohesively without our safety being guaranteed.

To those who said Power Word Stop can work like Clarity, yes, some of the time that could work, but its far too risky to go without the mental protection that Clarity affords, especially right now.
>>
No. 496313 ID: 7008f9

>>496308
Okay, I'm convinced. Changing my vote to grabbing Clarity and using it right now.

TW generation is a stupid investment right now. We have 3 encounters TODAY that we need to win. We can eat a ghost tomorrow and buy our TW generation then. We'll only miss out on a single day of generation.
>>
No. 496383 ID: b83d14

Clarity.
>>
No. 496390 ID: b978d0

Wordblood: Try tracing back one of the tentacles to it's origin. The core of the entity that they belong to is likely to be much easier to point out to the others, especially if you challenge it directly forcing it to switch gears from stealth. Your breath just got an upgrade, can you spray the intruder/tentacles with something sticky and easily visible? Would make manipulation based invisibility more difficult when covered in spray paint or similar.

Saulanna: SNAP OUT OF IT! YOUR MIND IS BEING ATTACKED! SHIELDS UP! RED ALERT! Resource management can wait till later, there's an intruder to deal with.

For the time being: NO to any TW expenditure until the intruder has been properly identified and dealt with.
Mental manipulation is a direct attack, and needs to be treated as such. A harsh response to the intruder is justified at this point.
>>
No. 496526 ID: 47a120

>>/questdis/68103
First thing you should do before buying ANYTHING is bringing peregrin inside here, he could help.

Then you should buy ONLY self awareness and PW: Clarity and use both of them; save the rest of the TW till after you see how this play out. Be insistent.
>>
No. 496531 ID: 99ca92

>>496526

that means not buying anything during the internal phase
>>
No. 496546 ID: 460361

Maybe those eyes in the dark are that slick thing that went up Saulanna's spine when she shook hands with Akatrina.
>>
No. 496594 ID: 2eac65

Saulanna: Put the upgrading on hold. If Wordblood has something that's worrying him, that definitely deserves attention. And if he can't communicate it to you, something is wrong. Communication is his fundamental nature, and he's very loyal; he wouldn't be panicking about something without a good reason. Put upgrades on hold and talk about this with him.

Or, if that's not convincing, then consider this: you have powers whose origin you aren't familiar with. This could be a way of accessing new and exotic abilities, the likes of which you've never thought of before. Explore it, to fully realize your potential.

Wordblood: If something is keeping her from understanding you, then the Comprehension ability might get through to her. If that doesn't work, then it's most likely messing with the Queen's memories, taking away your words after they reach her.

Perhaps you could convince her to go through with a test of sorts: say certain phrases, and have her repeat them back to you, to see if she can hear them accurately. If that doesn't work, say something one word at a time, ask her to repeat each one individually, then to repeat them all in sequence. Or to repeat them in reverse order. If she can do each word individually, but not all of them together, then it's probably triggered by awareness of specific secrets.

Alternatively, ask Kairosa to see the recent past. That might get around the block.

Perhaps a different ability would help in this situation. One that solidifies the mental bonds between Devas so that they can communicate more quickly and easily, with their minds alone instead of by speaking? You could say it would help her recover Willpower.

Or the ability to know when and how others perceive us. Since your nature is communication, it should be in-theme to tell how our communications are understood by others (for example, if they can understand the language we're speaking). Should help us fine-tune our arguments to our targets. Of course, the real reason is to confirm the presence of the intruder.

On another note, do you have any clue which Deva this is, specifically? Three red eyes, green tentacles, mind alteration? Anything come to mind?

Kairosa: At the risk of sounding rude, you're being impatient. What Wordblood's saying might not make sense yet, but he must have a reason for saying it. Whatever he's getting at, it's probably a good idea to let him go through with it.

On an unrelated note, could you make an ability to keep certain memories fresh in our mind? For example, if someone betrays us, we could use that ability on the memory "That evil, lying witch betrayed us!" and if she tries to convince us to trust her again, that will help us resist her social influence. Might also help us against memory erasure, if we ever come across such a thing. It should be in-theme, since memories are closely related to "time", and keeping them from fading works with your purpose of managing our internal time.
>>
No. 496716 ID: 76b151

I'm going to say no to bringing peregrene into our inner world while we're dealing with this threat. He is after all a hero of the being we're probably against.
>>
No. 496768 ID: d1efde

>>496526
That's a horrible idea. In order to do that we'd need to temporarily release the time lock. That could let whatever's in here with us get out.
>>
No. 496778 ID: ec7d87

Do NOT get with the powers whose origin you're unfamiliar with. There's too much risk that they're INTRUDER POWERS.
>>
No. 496780 ID: 4224e5

>>496546
Duh.
>>
No. 496782 ID: f5588d

This is probably as a result of our accepting that The Dragon's Shadow isn't that bad of a guy. We need to tell him to fuck off.
>>
No. 496794 ID: 14bafe

>>496526
Isn't there no air in the inner world? We'd also be suffocating him to death, unless we suddenly invested will into making our minds habitable for people.

Will generation is a terrible investment right now; we'll get the same returns by straight-up up upgrading Kairosa's soul force, and until we do that the generation rate is to slow to really matter.
>>
No. 496799 ID: 370c40

>>496794
Will generation is not improved by soul force, it's capped by it. Increasing her soul force won't increase TW generation. It just increases the level we can upgrade Will Generation to.
>>
No. 496803 ID: 3fc386

Don't buy anything yet. Whatever is in here with us is compromising our devas and is now reaching for us! It also seems quite interested in having us discuss our potential. Order Wordblood and Kairosa to get away from our hero's soul, it was designed to combat titans so it is either the problem or the solution. If it is instinctively fighting us we can convince it to stop, otherwise we need to get it to help us fight off our intruder.
>>
No. 497431 ID: c5e94a
File 136229109682.png - (70.94KB , 600x500 , wordbloodmiserating.png )
497431

>yes
>no
>no Generation
>no upgrades!
>wait
>put the upgrading on hold
>don't buy anything yet

Saulanna... is concerned about Wordblood. She doesn't know what's wrong, but he looks to be trying to think through whatever it is, himself. And she does trust him. She doesn't want to do anything big while he's busy. He's important.

She'll wait until he feels better. They have time.

>Wordblood
>point out/tell/say/ etc.

"I don't think they can hold on to anything I say about this problem. This is... bad. But..."
>>
No. 497432 ID: c5e94a
File 136229113391.png - (96.93KB , 600x500 , wordbloodmiserating2.png )
497432

>OH GOD TENTACLES

"I can see them, barely. It's hard to focus. And I can... hear it... feel it. It's so distant. No, not distant. Reclusive? Trying to hide itself from me."

>DO SOMETHING
>BITING
>take Will
>use Power
>Stop/Clarity

"I should do something. But... hiding itself is all it seems to be doing. When I tried to point it out, it got worse. I don't want to push it further, I might just escalate this to something worse. And this doesn't... feel right."

>Are you immune?

"It's possible. A deva's Element can interact with things in odd ways. A Light deva could be immune to powers of darkness, say, or a Silence deva to magic based on sound. This might be something similar."

>The Dragon's Shadow is mocking you

"If he could do this much, he would do more. He could keep them unaware while he laughed in my face, telling me everything I'd been doing wrong, teasing, mocking, bragging. Saying he'd had sex with my relatives. This is different. The more aware of it I become, the more it doesn't feel like him. It feels like something else. What little I can see, what I can sense... this sound, not truly a sound but the essence of it..."
>>
No. 497435 ID: c5e94a
File 136229126322.png - (105.10KB , 600x500 , wordbloodmiserating3.png )
497435

"Like a growl. Like the hiss of a snake, and like the hiss of acid on stone. The distant echo of a scream of anguish. I feel a pain, not mine, but not totally removed. Burning desire. Wrongness. Awareness of wrongness. A tension, of balance needing to be restored. Destruction. It's near, but trying to stay away. It's afraid of me."

"No. Not afraid. It's... ashamed of me? ... No. Ashamed isn't the right word. Too weak. The feeling is deeper. Remorse. Grief. Despair, yearning, frustration."

"And... not of me. Because of me."


>>495947
>Hi, new friend!

:hurt:
>>
No. 497436 ID: c5e94a
File 136229130587.png - (88.02KB , 600x500 , wordbloodmiserating4.png )
497436

>>
No. 497437 ID: c5e94a
File 136229141487.png - (83.69KB , 600x500 , wordbloodmiserating5.png )
497437

"I can't sense it any more."

"... But it's still here. I know it. It'll come back, if... if it has to. I'd better not pressure it. But we do need to talk about this. Somewhere safer. See if you can find something for the others to do, in the meantime. Something... safer."

>>
No. 497438 ID: c5e94a
File 136229147316.png - (53.60KB , 600x500 , wordbloodmiserating6.png )
497438

>>/questdis/67921
>>
No. 497439 ID: 76b151

Well if we need to do something while we try to straighten this out elsewhere. We should Commune with the Hero Soul. Its the only thing we have to do that will take a great deal of 'time'
>>
No. 497441 ID: 9ddf68

>>497435
Whatever that is, it looked almost, sad here
Anyway that is a topic for another time and place like WB said. Lets go with what we picked before our new friend decided to stop by and chat.
>>
No. 497442 ID: f2c20c

The safest thing we can do right now is check out the tent! Communing with the hero soul qualifies as 'big', I think.
>>
No. 497443 ID: d6ef5d

(Psst! Wordlbood snuck off to dis to talk with us about this stuff).

>>/questdis/68369
>>
No. 497448 ID: 662219

do the upgrades for now. I don't think we need to vote for which anymore, just whether to do them or not. and I say do them.
>>
No. 497454 ID: 406926

>>497438
Well, with Wordblood gone... we can explore our internal world a bit, perhaps? We haven't taken a really good look around since increasing our Soul Force. Maybe we'll learn something about ourselves by examining the central island closely.

When that's done, if he's still not back we can commune with our Hero Soul. He won't be able to really help us with that anyway.
>>
No. 497459 ID: d6ef5d

>>497454
I can get behind this idea. Saulanna, poke around the inner world for a bit and try communing with your hero's soul while Wordblood works through what was bothering him. We'll make sure he gets back to you when he's ready, and then we can do upgrades and all.

Like you said, we have time.
>>
No. 497479 ID: 7f2a1b

Poking around in the inner world sounds good. Maybe ask Kairosa about her orrery-thing?
>>
No. 497510 ID: ec7d87

Sounds like a plan.

(Remember the BADWRONGHATE Kairosa got off the Hero Soul? I think the Thing is related to that. It does seem to be echoing the more monstrous side of the Moon Hero's animalistic shapeshifting, and it feels some sort of kinship with the fragment of the defeated Titan...)
>>
No. 497524 ID: d1efde

The upgrading can wait until Wordblood has dealt with what's bothering him. We're timelocked after all, no rush. While we wait for him to come back let's go check out the inner world again. When you raised your soulforce it changed, looks like there's plenty of new things to see.
>>
No. 497531 ID: 0909a0

Saulanna, perhaps talk with your soul hero before buying stuff? it might be important
>>
No. 497547 ID: 9e0824

Yeah, it seems like an appropriate time to commune with the Hero Soul. That's the first part of doing the whole upgrade thing, after all, so we may as well.
>>
No. 497572 ID: 4ea23f

Wait. What if this is the fragment of the Wild the Great Curse inflicted on the Moon Heroes? The Chimerical essence that warps and twists the unmarked, if they're not careful?
>>
No. 497574 ID: 78c6ea

The only thing that could have gotten in here besides the Dragon's Shadow is that Great Curse...
>>
No. 497578 ID: 4a328b

We should check out some of our inner world while Wordblood's doing whatever it is he's doing. Then when he gets back, we can point out all the cool stuff that's here!
>>
No. 497582 ID: bdb3f8

>>497459

Kairosa said there was a problem with hero souls, and to ask about it later when her mind had a chance to settle. >>480878
Is it later yet?
>>
No. 497671 ID: 52d91f

I vote for communing with the Hero Soul. Because that can't possibly be a bad idea with the GC running around.
>>
No. 497986 ID: 47a120

Are we still continuing this thread or are we supposed to continue in questdis? since the last post here from jukashi pointed us at questdis and we actually had a bit of plot development there.
>>
No. 498172 ID: 368bd2

Is there any chance this is some kind of leftover from WordBlood's existance pre-Saulanna?
>>
No. 498183 ID: 14bafe

>>498172
>>/questdis/68395
>>
No. 498210 ID: 3dd384

>>497435
>:hurt:
It's okay! Take your time.

>>497454
>>497459
>We should check out some of our inner world while Wordblood's doing whatever it is he's doing.
I like this suggestion!
>>
No. 498215 ID: 65ddc7

>>497986
Spoilering most of my post that's not my suggestion.

Go to quest dis to talk to WB about what is going on in depth and figuring out exactly what it is. Here we are still giving options/ideas to Saulauna.

It seems we have a popular opinion that this is the Great Curse at work. I know little about it since this quest and the authors web comic are basically my introduction to this universe. And I don't really know how I feel about suggestion the possibility of it being the great curse to saulauna, since it might fall into the category of meta information. At least not without talking to Kairosa and WB some more.


I think we might be a bit in over out head on this, I think we should phase back into the real world and talk to Peregrine, he may know something. And his input on our upgrade options may be valuable as well. Plus we might be able to get some more ghosts to consume to improve our upgrade options some more. We might also want to consider contacting Luna about this if it turns out to be very serious. But at the moment it doesn't seem to pose any immediate threat. We do need to make some long term plans to deal with it though. It seems like the kind of thing that drives most other Exalts to insanity, either because it's part of the wyld taint, something related to the titans(known for being crazy sods) or something else. We can explore the rest of the inner world when WB gets back to us and when we can get back to discussing our upgrade some more at the same time.

Plus we have been in our inner world for some time. The longer we are here the more disoriented we get. Don't want to pass out after being in here for hours, take a break. Maybe do some light book absorbing.

As for out upgrades, I think we should favor upgrading our ability to upgrade over anything else, become our own power generator. Along with WBs reading ability, information is power. It would also raise alarm bells if we suddenly jumped up in beauty by a full point, so I am totally against that idea.
>>
No. 498224 ID: 3dd384

>>498215
>Plus we might be able to get some more ghosts to consume to improve our upgrade options some more.
I favor keeping ghost-eating to a minimum from here on out. Kairosa can give us our fill of TW - all she needs is some time.
>>
No. 498227 ID: 370c40

>>498224
I favor eating every ghost from now on.

Not really but we will have the ability to undo it later.

Also I want to know if Kairosa can eat other things, like gods, or elementals, or demons, and whether we can intercept the souls of humans, Exalted, Dragon Kings, Jadeborn, and weird things like Behemoths and eat those too.
Hopefully the answer is yes.
>>
No. 498280 ID: 47a120

Saulanna, take a look inside the tent, lets see whats in there.
>>
No. 498653 ID: 5abbb3

>>497435
Greetings, honored guest! Can we help you with your pain, please?

[SOOTHING, WELCOME, CALM, RELIEF, HEALING]

>>
No. 499216 ID: cbc67c
File 136288669055.png - (132.82KB , 600x500 , communewithherosoul.png )
499216

>try communing with the Hero Soul

Saulanna is not quite sure how she's supposed to do this

"Stop thinking so much! If you were a normal human, using your Hero stuff would be instinctive. Especially as a Moon Hero! Just do what comes natural."

Hmm.
>>
No. 499217 ID: cbc67c
File 136288672634.png - (140.73KB , 600x500 , communewithherosoul2.png )
499217

Saulanna reaches out, and touches the Soul of the Hero of the Moon.
>>
No. 499218 ID: cbc67c
File 136288677083.png - (127.37KB , 600x500 , communewithherosoul3.png )
499218

Suddenly, she feels older.

The awareness of years passes through her, of centuries, of millennia. It feels like the turning of the sky, and the passing of light and shadow over her face. The sensation of memories, not known, but hovering below the surface of her mind, on the tip of her tongue, like dreams that she just woke from. She feels that, if she stayed like this, pushed a little deeper, brought herself a little more into focus, she could remember things. Places, people, events, skills. The taste of blood in her mouth, scent filling her lungs, muscle flexing, mind open to the world, cold silver light flowing through her veins. If only she could make herself fit the feelings, make herself better, more worthy, be what she's supposed to be, then she would be able to remember how to do... things.

Saulanna understands.

The Hero Soul represents an ideal. Using it as an example, she can teach herself; the more her own identity resonates with the divine, platonic essence of the Moon, the more power it can give her. She'll become able to access the memories it carries, and use them to learn new Competencies, shapeshifting and moon abilities - even use her transformative magic to alter her body and soul, raising her Talents, even the mental and social ones. The Hero Soul is an instrument of growth, created explicitly to make its host stronger; it can safely improve her in ways she couldn't manage otherwise. It's exactly what she needs.

But that would all take time, ideally. She's not supposed to cheat with it - she's supposed to earn it. A normal human probably couldn't survive the unfettered power it would need to make direct, instant changes, in any case; not mentally, even if physically. She's supposed to train, practice, meditate, put in an effort of will. Change herself. That's part of the heroic ideal. How is she supposed to bring Titan's Will into the equation?

...

She can sense the... shapes, the hollows that her existence has to fit into, that will allow the Hero Soul's essence to flow through her. She can try to use Titan's Will on the Hero Soul to bridge the gaps, or she can use it to alter herself to match the virtues of Lunar heroism.

Either method feels... uncertain. This isn't the way it was designed to work. She doesn't know what the consequences will be, and they might not be immediately obvious.
>>
No. 499222 ID: f2c20c

>>499218
Neither. Don't use TW for this. Think of how disappointed Luna would be in you if you CHEATED to fully utilize the power she granted you. It's not in our budget, anyway.

Other points I could make: Altering the Hero Soul means that you are messing with something you don't understand, and you might break things in it. Altering yourself in such a fundamental way is hugely taboo and dangerous! You might break yourself!

Let's just check out the tent.
>>
No. 499226 ID: d6ef5d

>>499222
I agree with this. Our idea was to attempt to commune and earn power. Not... to cheat. We don't want to try hacking ourself, or our hero's soul. Either could have disastrous consequences.
>>
No. 499229 ID: 42f90a

I don't think it would be very wise to try and force things with TW so I think we should just leave the hero soul alone for now as it was meant for mortals not titians so while I think it would be better If we earned that knowledge I don't think we should stop using TW to help us either. We have both and I find it to be asinine to ignore one for the other for any reason
>>
No. 499254 ID: 77cb34

There are no rules. Break them anyway!

Use Titan's Will on the Hero Soul to bridge the gaps, we probably need this power somewhere on the order of 'yesterday.'

Yes I'm aware we Exalted somewhere on the order of yesterday!
>>
No. 499255 ID: 78c6ea

Do the Virtues of Lunar Heroism involve intricate body tattoos? Because we already know about that.
>>
No. 499260 ID: e3aff6

>cheating
Isn't trickery an aspect of the lunar ideal?

Still, I don't think we should use TW on this right now, both because we are short on TW and because we don't want to pump more titanic power into our Hero Soul when titan power and Hero Soul interaction is our primary suspect for the source of the green intruder.
>>
No. 499264 ID: 3bad4c

Well, let's consider that Kairosa has the ability to unspend TW.
In this context, tricking the Exaltation Shard with expenditures of up to 1TW in an aspect should be fine. (Especially 'cause Moon -> Trickery)
I don't think going beyond that without actually earning it would be a good idea though.

Altering yourself to match the ideals might be best done once you're at the stage when you can create nobles so you can use a surrogate to observe the changes wrought.

None of this is likely to change your motivations, just how you're most likely to approach problems.
>>
No. 499266 ID: 4a046b

the heroes soul is an extremely complicated and powerful spiritual super weapon, messing with it without knowing exactly what your doing could very easily backfire. lets not try anything clever with it until we have a better understanding of exactly what makes it tick.
>>
No. 499270 ID: 9e0824

Self-Awareness is important, but... I vote against using TW on the Hero Soul directly; messing with what we do not comprehend and such. If there's an easy way to use TW on ourselves to better gain that awareness, then that would work, but I don't think it's a good idea to try altering ourselves to fit the mould.
>>
No. 499286 ID: 7f2a1b

>>499218
Do neither of those things. Instead, go look around the changed internal world. Perhaps ask Kairosa about the orrery thing?
>>
No. 499288 ID: 256d52

Saulanna's already not going to develop normally and I don't think it's right to let her Moon Hero portion be completely overshadowed by the explosive growth of her Titan side.

I think that Saulanna changing herself to fit the Hero Soul's ideal is closer to the its intended usage. Just... don't let those old memories floating around in there overwhelm who you are, OK Saulanna? The ghosts have been alright so far, but there's a lot of pent up memories in there.
>>
No. 499289 ID: 76b151

>>499288
Honestly? I agree. We aren't a normal hero. And to match our Hero''s growth with our Titans growth we're going to need to take shortcuts. It'd be nice to grow naturally, but frankly we don't have time to do it that way. If it means taking on the traits of the Lunar archetype then that isn't necessarily a bad thing. We already are headed in that direction afterall.

As for using TW to bridge the gaps? I don't think thats wise. These souls were made to fight the Titan's afterall and there probably will be bad side-effects.
>>
No. 499292 ID: 47a120

There is nothing wrong with cheating.
There is a lot wrong with ignorantly damaging yourself or a priceless weapon by cheating without knowledge.
We can live without Self Awareness for the time it will take to gain it via training... or the time it takes to learn enough to cheat properly.

Go check out the tent.
>>
No. 499293 ID: 370c40

Don't screw around with the Hero's Soul if we don't know what'll happen.
>>
No. 499294 ID: 1546a9

too reckless. use the TW on upgrading yourself instead.
>>
No. 499302 ID: 63261d

We need more information.

Use one and only one point of Titan's Will on the Hero's Soul. This will give us some sense of what kind of consequences this kind of 'cheating' will have, and let us make a more educated guess on whether the risk is worth the possible gain.
>>
No. 499307 ID: 3dd384

>>499218
"Using TW on the Hero Soul" sounds like a bad idea.

An ultimate tutor and guide and source of power, designed for war against the Titans, might not necessarily have a safeguard against Titanic magic - after all, it was created by a Titan and a god who loved a Titan.

But they were also designed, I think, to be hardened - indestructable by Titanic magics. Even in the battle when our predecessor got their soul crushed, the Hero Soul endured.

If there's anything that will make our Lunar nature rebel against us, it's an attempt to use the basis of Titanic reality shaping to hotwire it.

I guess the alternative is to either put Self-Awareness aside for now, or "become more Lunar". I'm tentatively okay with either. There's a good argument that says that practice and effort would make you more Lunar anyway - that that's the point of practicing at it. But at the same time, permanent self-modification, especially among Lunars, always makes me think of that old poem about the maiden who threw her heart away rather than contemplate her beginnings (http://www.geocities.ws/the_incunabulum/exalted/sidereals/themast.html). It's the path that leads to Chimerism if you follow it far enough. Conversely, learning Self-Awareness the old-fashioned way is safer long-term, but more dangerous short-term (since it means, y'know, not having Self-Awareness until we learn it).

So like I said, I'm tentatively okay with either option. Just don't try to use TW to mess with the guts of the Hero Soul.
>>
No. 499313 ID: ce346f

Can the Hero Soul be used to consult with Luna?

Hold off doing anything with TW until Wordblood is back.

Spend time meditating on her own identity and the nature of the moon.

Long term, try to commune with hut.
>>
No. 499369 ID: 52d91f

>>499222
Luna is like the friggen Goddess of trickery and cheating.

We should totally cheat our way to Lunar enlightenment.

The only question is, do we want to mess with our nature to better fit the Lunar ideal (with the attendant mental/physical changes) or do we want to build a metaphysical energy converter to channel energy which our soul might not be capable of handling?

I say, ask Kairosa and/or Wordblood what they think. Perhaps our Lady of Time can give us an idea of what actually might go wrong with the process.
>>
No. 499370 ID: 52d91f

...Actually, what are the virtues of Lunar heroism?
>>
No. 499373 ID: cd1119

Do both at once. Or neither. Find the synergy, the compromise, the place between you and it. Not forcing one to be the other. Open Titans Will to it but do not press it, open yourself to the Heros soul but do not surrender yourself. See if something better than either option becomes possible. See if you can find a new way and meaning for it and yourself to work.

Ideally, we'd find a way to avoid making large immediate forced changes and instead find a new (preferably expedient) path of growth.
>>
No. 499381 ID: 256d52

>>499370

To take my own shot at it:

Survival. Adaption. Chaos. Change. Trickery. Consumption. Protection. Inspiration. Madness. Passion. Love.

Decide who you need to be, then kill them and take their face. A Moon Hero's strength lies in becoming that which they are not. They can become something that you cannot be, and so you cannot counter their otherness. Whether it's a form you cannot harm, or a shape you cannot recognise, or a new idea that they shepherd into creation.
>>
No. 499382 ID: cee89f

This is WAY too risky.

Leave it.

At least for now.
>>
No. 499383 ID: 14bafe

>>499369
By cheating through modifying the hero soul to better fit us, we are changing ourselves to be more like the ideal trickster, and, like the raccoon our spirit animal is, using available tools to help us with our growth.

Also, the Souls were originally created by a titan, Autothectron or however you spell him, and putting more attention and power into fine-tuning this particular one shouldn't have any negative effects. At the most, it would closer attune the soul from that titan to THIS titan, the one who is now in possession of it.

I'm all for spending one TW on bridging that gap.
>>
No. 499396 ID: 49e805

Don't spend TW on this. Instead, spend some more time getting a sense of what it expects you to be to lend you power. And spend that point on beauty like you planned.
>>
No. 499454 ID: 893ae9

they are both too dangerous and will remain so until we know what we are doing. we should leave those options for later, when wordblood and kairosa can do their analytical thing better.

don't do either for now
>>
No. 499486 ID: 1c7e1b

I'm also up for neither. Forcing Titan's Will on the Hero Soul feels wrong. A Moon Hero can be powerful enough without taking shortcuts. We'll take the time to train. That's what downtime and montages are for.
>>
No. 499487 ID: e5ff28

Do itttt. The best of persuers og knowledge ALWAYS mess with powers beyond their immediate comprehension. For kbowledge! For power! For the future!
>>
No. 499498 ID: 7f2a1b

You shouldn't spend any TW until you have consulted your aide (WB). While he's busy, why not examine how the other areas of the inner world have changed?
>>
No. 499533 ID: d24baf

Change of plans!

I say you should spend 3 TW and raise the Soul Force of the other soul
>>
No. 499540 ID: 14bafe

I think one TW will do it for now; raising soul force from zero to one, or one to two. Maybe one to Devafy it, and one to raise the soul force? We definitely won't need three though.

I'd like to reiterate that we have a plan already, and that beauty is the least important part of it. Having another Deva would be far more important, and we can use the TW dedicated to it/self-awareness/bridging the gap between us and the hero soul, and if necessary the Seeing the Tongue's Slip TW to create it.
>>
No. 499543 ID: 370c40

>>499540
Beauty was the only part of our plan that was actually a direct increase to our social combat ability. I really get the impression that everyone is underestimating what a point of Beauty does.
>>
No. 499578 ID: b0b9bc

>>499533
"raise the Soul Force of the other soul (Green)"
Seconded. It'll be better able to communicate that way, so that you can learn more about it, and it might even help in social defense.

Is Saulanna even going to understand that advice though? She's being offered a power by Green but doesn't know about Green itself. So maybe my advice should be:

Saulanna, try directing TW at the source of whatever's offering that emotion-bottling power!
>>
No. 499585 ID: f2c20c

Guys, don't get ahead of yourselves. Wordblood's not done talking to us about it, yet.
>>
No. 499586 ID: 334456

>>499533
Thats like the definition of jumping the gun.
>>
No. 499725 ID: 3fdec7

Maybe we should by the Bottled Emotion power? to see if any more powers come from that source?
Even if we get the power we don't necessarily have to use it.
>>
No. 499726 ID: d6ef5d

>>499725
I don't know. The ability itself seems more dangerous and double edged that it is directly useful. I'd be reluctant to spend precious TW on an ability just to divert points to greenie. Especially if there may be other ways to go about it.
>>
No. 499743 ID: 3fdec7

Its only one point, Kairosa can take the TW back if it fubars.
>>
No. 499744 ID: cfa8a1

Yo, Saulanna, while Wordblood is off in La-La Land you should ask Kairosa for fashion advice, or if she's considered how she wants to be worshiped when the Time comes!
>>
No. 499764 ID: 49e805

Instead of spending three points on generation we could spend them on efficiency, since we're planning to go eat another ghost anyway.
>>
No. 499765 ID: 65ddc7

Leave it be. Spending valuable Titanic Will on it right now is a gamble. We have no idea what would happen. What we need right are upgrades we know will be useful to us in the coming days.

Once we become vastly stronger though, to the point of gaining Titanic Will on a scale that we have no idea what to do with it all. Then we experiment, it will be our ace in the hole when shit hits the fan.
>>
No. 499814 ID: 9db85e

I kind of like the bottled emotions power. I like perspective of history better, I think, but bottled emotions isn't bad either.
>>
No. 499839 ID: 9d3dcd

Lets spend three will on efficincy.
>>
No. 500123 ID: 52d91f

As long as we're communing with the Hero's Soul, we might consider seeing if we can find a way to naturally stabilize our Caste, without the addition of the tattoos other Moon Heroes use. That might help get the other two Moon Heroes off our back.

...Admittedly, being the first Moon Hero to stabilize her own Caste in a thousand years might cause us other problems with them, but I'd still like to vote for the No Moon Caste if it comes up.
>>
No. 500150 ID: 4e4a2a

I just thought of something.
Saulanna, can you ask Kairosa to try communing with the Hero Soul?
My thought is this: It might be that ALL Devas of Saulanna could learn to draw upon the hero soul, and use it's powers, by aligning with it. Now, I don't know what that will do or how it will work, but I'll wager it will change the way the energy system works a bit!
As of right now, there's the Moon Pool, and the two Titan Pools, for Saulanna, Kairosa, and WordBlood respectively. Now, here's the thing-Saulanna is also a Deva-she should eventually gain her own powers in addition to what she gets from the Hero Soul..But as is, it seems like Saulanna's powers pretty much is confined to pulling on the Hero Soul/ using it! Seems to me that the proper set-up, or rather, what might be the ideal set-up, could be basically making the Hero Soul availible for all Devas, and based on their connection to the Ideal the Hero Soul represents! So in effect, while Saulanna might resonate With the side of Lunar Heros that sneak around, WordBlood might perfer the enhanced senses, while Kairosa capitalizes on the drinking heart's blood to gain new shapes!
Titan and Hero can be seen as opposites, but I think they could grow together, and work in harmony, to create something amazing!
Might even be a workaround/ method to controlling your caste-just have whoever attuned to it do their thing, kind of like how Titans normally work!
>>
No. 500242 ID: d6ef5d

(So people reading through this thread in the future don't have to go hunting through the dis threads for them, here's more sneaky Wordblood discussion).

>>/questdis/68833
>>/questdis/69100
>>
No. 501123 ID: 5ba6f3

... Do not even think about raising the soul force of the Chimera soul.
>>
No. 501177 ID: f2c20c

>>501123
It's not a chimera.
>>
No. 501414 ID: 3d20f2
File 136382853251.png - (94.09KB , 600x500 , communewithherosoul4.png )
501414

>don't cheat
>don't risk it
>it's too dangerous

... Right.

When it's other people's souls, of course, no problem. Rend them down to raw energy, go ahead. Making someone into a resource to be used, a material to be crafted, that's no big deal, it's not the absolute most extreme way to dehumanize someone. Not, even if you can put them back the way they were, or make them even better in every way, a violation on the deepest most personal level, pulling apart every memory, every source of identity they ever had, Peregrin. It's no big deal. She's a Titan, she's just more important than everyone else.

Though...

... that is pretty much true.

...

... Message received, then.
>>
No. 501415 ID: 3d20f2
File 136382856579.png - (164.42KB , 600x500 , communewithherosoul5.png )
501415

Saulanna decides not to try coaxing upgrades from the Hero Soul at this time. That means she won't be able to get Self-Awareness right away, so her plan for TW spending has to be updated. She'll take a dot of Beauty, instead. She also feels she needs to cast some eye to the long term, so she's going to take Generation as well, and set it to her own Soul Force. That Emotion Bottling power seems oddly attractive, but not enough to overcome the unease it makes her feel. The rest of the plan will go on as she had laid it out before, as well, if there are no further objections.

>>499744
>ask Kairosa for fashion advice, or if she's considered how she wants to be worshiped

"Ooh, I was thinking of going for like, a guild of thieves, only they're like archeologist historian magic thieves, and they're my secret priests as well! That'd be cool."

>ask Kairosa to try communing with the Hero Soul

"Sorry, mistress, won't work! The Hero Soul's keyed to work with creatures that have a material body to work with, and humans by preference. You're still mostly human, and even if you become more deva-ey, you'll still have the main connection to the body and a core of humanity that'll keep you connected. I'm a weird time spirit monster, I'm way too alien to what it was designed for for it to work for me! Not the way it was meant to work, anyway, I'm sure it has some influence on me. Not that way, though."

Looks like Wordblood's back! What now?
>>
No. 501425 ID: bdb3f8

Man Saulanna, how did you ever let us them talk you into rendering souls into their base components in the first place?

But I think the reasoning offered for not doing it to yourself is more a matter of uncertain results and preserving limited resources, not of your own relative worth.
>>
No. 501426 ID: 14bafe

Well, since he reads "I SEE EVERYTHING IT IS STILL HERE", you might want to... completely ignore the this obviously unimportant detail and go look inside the tent-thing to see how it changed when your SF went up.
>>
No. 501432 ID: d6ef5d

(One more sneaky Wordblood conversation)
>>/questdis/69229

>>501414
What, no! It is a big deal doing that to people, even if we can theoretically reverse some of it now! That's why you struggled so much over the soul eating. It is a big deal, no matter who or what you are- and it should not be taken lightly.

Being reluctant to attempt soul surgery on yourself, or a part of yourself, doesn't mean intrinsically devaluing the souls you've consumed out of necessity, or considering yourself to be "better". You did what you did because you had to. You're cautious now because it is dangerous, and you do not understand the possible consequences of your actions.

There is nothing wrong with self interest- with trying to protect yourself- even if this sometimes comes at the cost of others. That's a harsh, complicated choice all living things eventually face- titan or no. Especially since you're responsible for more than yourself, now. You have others who depend on you.

...and yes, what Peregrin did to you was terrible. But you cannot dwell on that now. You need him, and if he had not done as he did, Wordblood would still be dead and alone, and Kairosa would never have been born. If you could choose, would you really condemn the two of them to nothingness in favor of whatever it was you lost?

You may not remember your past, but you are a still you. You have a strong will, your motivation and drive, and a moral structure that struggles to comprehend the strange problems of Titan-dom. You may have lost your memories, but you have not truly lost yourself.

>archeologist historian magic thieves
...so her worshipers would be Indian Jones and Jackie Chan (Adventures)?

This girl has fantastic taste, I must say.
>>
No. 501433 ID: f2c20c

>>501415
I wasn't saying you shouldn't modify yourself because you were super important, I was saying you shouldn't do it because I'm not sure if it's something a Titan should do, or could do safely.

Wordblood, Kairosa, how dangerous and acceptable would it be for Saulanna to modify herself to fit the Hero Soul's standards? Also, Saulanna, can you give us more details on what the modification would do? I mean you didn't say exactly what you'd be changing.

That's just talk, though. Let's keep moving. Onwards to the tent to take a looksee inside it.
>>
No. 501434 ID: 14d963

Just buy the stuff already.

Also: since Efficiency of Consumption is only relevant when we're actually eating stuff, can we redact some of our current purchases to get a couple more TW for spending? As long as we use it on one-costers, we can always shift the TW back if we run into a ghost we want to eat. (Is there anything else we've bought that we won't need for a while? The wiki doesn't have a running list of our expenditures.)

Then look around our world or go talk to Peregrin or something.
>>
No. 501438 ID: 52d91f

>>501414
Hey, I said to cheat!
>>
No. 501446 ID: 49e805

Relate what you learned from communing with the Hero's Soul, get the upgrades, and go explore your world-self some more. Let's start with the tent!

Also: It's not that it's too dangerous or you're too important to mess with yourself EVER, just that it seems a bit too dangerous RIGHT NOW
>>
No. 501448 ID: cee89f

>>501414
(You know you're not playing consistently when your own character starts to sass you.)

Remember the Soulsteel guy? One of the (if not THE) absolute worst examples of human scum your world is capable of producing? That still sparked a moral debate on whether or not it was okay to eat him. We only went through with it because it was needed - Determination, remember?

It is a HUGE deal that we're eating people - we just don't have much other choice at the moment. Heck, every time we bring it up, somebody somewhere starts a massive moral debate over the issue, DESPITE the fact that we need to do it.

And even considering all of that, we don't know what it will do to you.

>[What peregrin did to you]
This would've been a GREAT argument to bring up with the slavers if it genuinely bothers you all that much

>>501415
The plan's okay as long as Kairosa can reverse it later for efficiency upgrades if need be.

>>501432
Kairosa + Indiana Jones OTP.

...

Stop looking at me like that.
>>
No. 501451 ID: 2595b0

yeah, go ahead and do the rest of the plan and get out of here.
>>
No. 501452 ID: 9ddf68

No one here has ever taken the eating of other's souls lightly or really viewed you as more important then everyone around you because you were a titian. We asked you to absorb them because we had no idea what to do, were being hunted for reasons we didn't fully understand, and were just trying to find some way of becoming more then helpless. Well I'm not saying that makes it ok I'm just saying that we never told you to devour them because we saw them as nothing more then food, not once. If you really want to you could make some kind of memorial for all the souls you have absorbed. Just some kind of orb or wall or something that well show you the face of anyone who was absorbed so that they wont be forgotten, even if they were scum in life, and after life as it seems, at least this way we can give them a kind of grave or marker so they won't just be considered food. I know that's not perfect but it's a start.

As for what to do next lets explore our little world a bit before we go back to the real world, it would be nice to see how we've grown and help get our minds away from these darker thoughts.
>>
No. 501465 ID: 47a120

>>501432
Exactly this.
>>
No. 501487 ID: 3dd384
File 136384528203.jpg - (59.96KB , 375x392 , gladiolus.jpg )
501487

>>501414
I'd like to not have to do any more ghost eating than necessary. Even if you can put them back together afterwards, I think I agree that it's not automatically morally okay (although Peregrin definitely managed to find souls for whom it seemed to be conveniently better than the alternatives). Hopefully it won't be necessary to be less picky than we have been so far - obviously, buying up Kairosa's abilities will help with that, although just as obviously, we can't spare all our TW on building for the future right now (not to rehash the same argument we've been having for a while).

But what I really wanted to mention was this: thanks for feeling so strongly about this. It means that whoever you were before all this began, you're finding your feet again. Knowing what you want makes you strong. Knowing what you think is right gives you direction.

In the end, all we can do is offer advice and moral support. You're the star of this show, and you need to be the one to decide what it all means. I may not always agree, but I'll be rooting for you.

>>501415
No objections.

I'd still like to take a look around your Inner World before returning to prosaic reality, but if you're not interested in that, that's fine.
>>
No. 501492 ID: 9db85e

No! Do the self surgery! Its the best kind of surgery, after all! For science!

Where's your sense of adventure and curiosity?
>>
No. 501536 ID: b6178d

>>501492

Busy being trampled by the sense of enormity realizing what being a titan entails, if I were to guess. It's hard being responsible. You have to know when to take time off from fun and games.


>"Ooh, I was thinking of going for like, a guild of thieves, only they're like archeologist historian magic thieves, and they're my secret priests as well! That'd be cool."

Stamp of approval. So much approval.
>>
No. 501542 ID: 9db85e

>>You may not remember your past, but you are a still you. You have a strong will, your motivation and drive, and a moral structure that struggles to comprehend the strange problems of Titan-dom. You may have lost your memories, but you have not truly lost yourself.

And don't forget, you can still read the past of your belongings from before Peregrin "changed" you in order to find some clues to who you were, if you care to discover the secrets to your past.
>>
No. 501548 ID: cff2a9

>>501414
Yeah, that seems pretty much right, with one note: Eating people is fine, just don't do it to good people. The act of consuming souls is no worse than killing someone for their crimes, and being a titan, you are totally within your rights to make such judgements. But if you start just doing it to anyone you can in order to get more power, then you've crossed the line.

Though I think you really should pump TW into the hero's soul after all this is done.
>>
No. 501552 ID: cee89f

>The souls we eat are dicks
Yeah, that too.

Wordblood: In the same vein as Kairosa's question, what kind of worshippers would you like? Say, ninja-librarians?
>>
No. 501611 ID: e29d20

Suggestion: buy Swallow Your Passion; it seems useful.
>>
No. 501613 ID: da61c0

>>501414
it's good that you feel bad about what you did to those souls. cherish it. but remember that we did that because we had to, and those particular souls belonged to bad people.
>>
No. 501614 ID: 22d58c

Do be careful how far we take the "we only eat the souls of dicks" reasoning. Dickishness is often subjective.
>>
No. 501624 ID: 370c40

Ultimately, with the exception of probably the first two ghosts we ate before we really knew what we were doing and when we were just trying to survive, the souls we have eaten were those who had done far worse than eating a soul will ever be. The soulsteel trade was an abomination, and anyone involved has to, at the very least, be contained. We can't let them run free. Maybe something can be done with those souls in the future...maybe. But right now we don't have the power, or the influence, or the time. We have to focus on not becoming the puppet of The Dragon's Shadow, or even worse some nutbag Lunar Elder.
>>
No. 501630 ID: f2c20c

On a side note, how about for your Purpose and Element:

Queen of Souls?
>>
No. 501636 ID: a0e459

>>501432


he's right, especially about our hesitance to alter our heroes soul. Keep in mind the heroes soul is a complex spiritual super weapon, designed explicitly to kill titans. modifying something like that blindly is essentially a roundabout method of suicide.
>>
No. 501667 ID: 9ec147

how about the Queen of Squirrels? besides, a queen is a profession, not a purpose.
>>
No. 501680 ID: 9e0824

No objections to continuing on.

I think we're pretty much done here, really. There are some lingering plot threads, but that's appropriate; just because we've paused time shouldn't automatically mean that we get to resolve all our internal issues forever.
>>
No. 501724 ID: ce346f

I think there is still a significant case for investigating the house.

I'm also interested if we can do anything with an extended period of meditation in time stop.
>>
No. 501751 ID: 069893

can we look at the tent now?
>>
No. 501916 ID: a2c3dc

Look at the tent, then get moving in the outside world. (The tent's probably been upgraded due to Saulanna's increasing SF.)

Make a note to update Peregrin on everything and assure him you'll start teaching him as soon as you're not in immediate danger of being talked into anything dumb.

Plan to study theology and ethics when time permits.

Also when time permits, look into how to power up the devas so they can talk to Peregrin directly. WB might have something important to tell him...
>>
No. 501985 ID: ce609b
File 136407897680.png - (80.21KB , 600x500 , saulannaconsideringherself.png )
501985

>souls

... Saulanna doesn't know what she was expecting, or what she was thinking, exactly.

Up until now, she's had other things to occupy herself with, aside from... aside thinking about what she's done. Maybe she didn't want to think about it. Maybe she was expecting things to be more... even-handed? That she'd put herself to some risk for her needs, as well as using other people, and that would make her feel better about it, somehow. The risk is higher, for this, but the potential rewards equally greater. Part of her still wants it to be that way, but it's stupid, in retrospect. Impractical. Maybe just another excuse. And she knows that she had misgivings every step of the way, that part of her wanted to take different paths, and she'll probably be remembering her own doubts well into the future. But she has to act, make choices, and she's done what occurred to her and what seemed a good idea, at the time. She would be second-guessing herself either way.

It seems to her that she can't go five steps without a dozen thoughts going through her mind, but thought and action are different. She's the one who decided to follow the paths she did, and perhaps she's just... reflecting on her decisions.

Her mind isn't just a single line running straight on the same track forever. It seems part of her has a problem with what Peregrin did to her, but at the same time, she sort of likes him, and is even grateful for what he did. She could never regret anything that led her to have Wordblood and Kairosa with her - or so she thinks to herself, at first prompt, feels to herself, an insistent scream from her heart, that they're hers and she loves them and she would never ever let them go ever. But it doesn't stop her from wondering what she's lost. She seems to have a problem with consuming souls, as well, but at the same time, she feels she needs to do it again. Part of her wants to do it again. The part that understands when Kairosa says how hungry she is. The part that feels confused, and afraid, and wants to be stronger, wants everything to be easier, wants to see her and her devas grow and become what they're meant to be. And the only thing stopping her is herself. Peregrin has to do what she says, and she doesn't think he'd object too much, regardless. Not on any moral grounds. Wordblood is pleasant and likes humans, but at the same time he seems to still think of them from the position of a creator, half seeing them as a resource to be harvested, as they were at least partly made to be. Kairosa would probably be enthusiastic about it. All manner of practical problems with devouring souls present themselves, of bad reputation and being feared and hated, but liberal application of Titan's Will seems like it could solve anything. So all she'd need to do, to solve the problems with eating souls, is to eat more souls. And the thought frightens her. The desire to grow, to become stronger, more complete... a few doubts still run in their tracks around her mind, but so far, it's probably the closest thing to a Heart's Desire she has. It wouldn't take much more for her to be sure of it.

With the infinite time to spend in here, thinking, perhaps Saulanna is just beginning to try and sort all these different thoughts out, in her head. But thought is cheap, and past a certain point, she can't come up with any further answers for herself. She'll need to go on, and in time, the things she does - and the things she doesn't do - will help her figure out who she is.

And she doesn't think there's much left to do, in here.
>>
No. 501986 ID: ce609b
File 136407901641.png - (187.41KB , 700x500 , wordbloodslibrary.png )
501986

Saulanna takes a final look around.

Wordblood's island, or platform, or whatever it should be called, has grown but not significantly changed in its themes. It has an air of incompleteness about it; pillars with no roof, floors with no walls. Other things seem unusual, as well. The bookshelves fit, but other aspects of the place seem strange. A cobblestone road, a street lamp, and a pair of wooden protrusions that put the mind to nothing more than a dock of some sort. The mist which flows from the central fountain only adds to the impression, as it flows down and out into empty space, only to spread out in a growing pool of dense fog.

"I actually feel as much mystery as you, my lady. A certain urban quality seems to be apparent, but I don't recall ever having had much in particular to do with cities. The mist, on the other hand, seems like it will eventually grow to surround all our islands, like a sea. Perhaps it will even become able to support weight, for our lesser devas to swim and sail upon, one day, and connect all the lands of our inner world. I feel a sense that, although it originates through me, this mist has a significant part of each of us within it."
>>
No. 501987 ID: ce609b
File 136407906639.png - (142.35KB , 700x500 , kairosaspad.png )
501987

Kairosa's home seems far more solid, complete in itself. It seems mainly made from stone, but if stones they are, they radiate a sense of endurance beyond even that of mountains; though roughly cut and softened as if by weather, there is a sense that endless years of rain and wind would leave them as whole and solid as they are now. At the center, rings of something like metal, though it reflects no light, slowly rotate around each other, some barely fast enough to see the motion. More strikingly, violet stars hang above the entire edifice, linked in strange constellations.

I'm going to mark important things in the sky, mistress! Symbols of big events, and images full of meaning for us and our world. See, we have our own Mask, and there's the Scepter, the Waiting Man, the Tome, the Crescent, the Devourer? One day, I hope to fill our sky with them, and let them move across it. Perhaps they'll even hint at the future, if people find out how to read them!
>>
No. 501988 ID: ce609b
File 136407912812.png - (109.62KB , 600x500 , backatthetent.png )
501988

And that leaves the tent. Here, at the center of her world, Saulanna feels herself centered, as well. Perhaps her senses have sharpened, or perhaps it is just the contrast with everything else, but standing here, she feels more comfortable, more grounded. There is a sense of restfulness, here, and the tent seems to radiate it most of all. Whatever is inside, it feels... familiar. But in a distant way, not personal. Like... if you grew up in a place, where rain came almost every day, and you moved away to a desert, and lived there for years, and then one day water began to fall from the sky...

... that kind of familiarity. But although she feels it, she doesn't know what it might be.

Wordblood said the tent reminded him of the first dwellings humans ever made for themselves; just as her clothes, he thinks, are like the first human garb. Something about the tent does make Saulanna feel a little more human. The tent itself. What lies inside feels different again, though... enticing. She wonders what it could be.

And yet... going in doesn't seem appropriate. On some instinctive level, Saulanna feels that it's not time. It's not a hugely insistent feeling; there's no intense wrongness to the idea of entering the tent. She just... feels like it doesn't make sense. She thinks about doing so, asks herself if she wants to, and the answer feels like: "why would you want to do that?"

What could the tent be for, that she's not supposed to be doing yet?
>>
No. 501989 ID: 76b151

>>501988
Alright if its not time to enter then its not yet time. All things come and if theres one thing we do have its time. Assuming we live through this we have an eternity.
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No. 501990 ID: 7dbd6b

It seems obvious to me.

The tent is for resting. You have too much to do to stop and sleep.
>>
No. 501992 ID: f2c20c

>>501985
Oh. Gatherer of Will? The Builder of Will? Keystone of Will? Uniter of Will? Uniter seems right. It might even be Uniter of Power, or Uniter of Souls. We're getting quite close though.

>>501988
The tent's a place you can have privacy. For enticing, private things. It's for sex.

Right now, you're not in the mood, and... there's nobody to have sex with anyway, is there? Kairosa's got no lower body at all, and it doesn't seem like Wordblood has any bits. If Peregrin was around, the reason for not entering would be a bit different. Instead of "Why?" it would be "Not yet.".

Make with the upgrading. We're about done here, but you could bring in Peregrin temporarily to show him how things are going.
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No. 501996 ID: 04b86a

>>501985
Eating souls for Titan's Will can solve all of our problems. It doesn't even need to be especially harmful for who we eat; within a few days we'll be able to restore everyone we had eaten in as good a condition as they were before the consumption, ready to continue existing for ages to come. Perhaps even a better existence, with our help! Perhaps there's a comprise to be found, there, between eating the souls of people we don't like and waiting for a reasonable amount to generate. We can simply find some ghosts who are willing to be eaten to help us grow faster, and then soon after we can bring them back and spend a few Titan's Will to give them a boon of some sort as payment. A boon made using even a few measures of Titan's Will is exceptionally valuable, and is therefore something people would line up to be eaten in order to obtain. We gain, they gain, and there are no moral quandaries because no one was forced into it.

>>501988
A tent like that would be for shelter and privacy, and sleep as an extension of those two. There's no need for shelter here, and we don't need any privacy at the moment, either, nor do we need to sleep, so there's no need to enter.
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No. 501997 ID: d6ef5d

>>501986
Possibly the openness and the water are tied into Wordblood's broader responsibilities for our world? He's not just Words- he's also the Aide. He's got the responsibility for the breath of life, the blood of our world, helping others, and keeping the lines of communication open.

In that light, spreading water and air, and an open place to make sense.

>>501988
If it's not time to go into the tent, it's not time to go into the tent. You'll know when it's right to see what's inside.
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No. 501998 ID: fcd183

Tents are made for shelter, to protect you from the elements, to keep out the elements. It might have something to do with your past so you don't want to know what you were like bake then or afraid to see what you have become but ultimately it's your choice. Do you want to go in or not.
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No. 502000 ID: cee89f

Inner world is best world. I'm really excited to see where it goes. Even moreso than the outer world, strangely enough.



>Tent
It's for sex/self-pleasure. You're not going in because your arousal isn't high yet. You should fix that and see if it feels more inviting~

...

Hey, somebody has to say it. With that out of the way...

Theory: It may be a place where you can cut yourself off from your many magical influences and just be human for a while. It seems off to you because your identity is so greatly defined by your connection to both the Lunar Soul and your titanhood.

Another possibility is that the tent puts your body on instinctual auto-pilot - like how a person will do things without thinking about them, going in there would put your mind in a fugue and you'd just go through motions.

Or more likely it's going to be a titanic function we either don't know of yet and don't need right now, or wouldn't affect the Queen soul. In the former's case, there's nothing we can use it for right now. In the latter's case it feels confusing specifically because it doesn't do anything to the queen.

>>501992
... Would you believe I typed the sex thing BEFORE hitting refresh and seeing this? ^^'

>>501990
Possible but if that's the case, why would the Queen need to go somewhere specific to sleep when it's the outside body that needs sleep?

Upgrade and invite Peregrin in, if he can survive now.
>>
No. 502006 ID: 49ba4e

I imagine that the tent has a functional purpose, like the pool. Maybe entering the tent takes us back into our body proper.

>>502000
Of course! What is the one stat that has been holding us back the whole time? Commit all Titan's Will to raising our Arousal attribute.

PS: don't actually do that.
>>
No. 502007 ID: db498b

Makes me think of something which has yet to develop. Something that is growing, that has yet to be complete. Like a half-formed thought in the back of your head, a collection of information without meaning and feelings without purpose, waiting to be a sudden realization another day. That's my impression, anyway. In any case, if you feel that way it's for a reason and you should let it be for now. But as an experiment, imagine for a moment that we brought Peregrin in here, and he suddenly decided to enter the tent, how would you feel about that? Angry? Uncomfortable? Embarrased? Because we will bring him in here later, and this may come up.

>A certain urban quality seems to be apparent, but I don't recall ever having had much in particular to do with cities.
He Who Bleeds The Unknown Word didn't, but as the deva of language and knowledge in a titan that is also human, the association between the two is indirectly linked to the development of cities. After all, hunter-gatherers weren't exactly known for their expansive libraries.

Kairosas star reading devices is very interesting, but not as much as the constellations themselves. Ask her what exactly each of them mean.

There is one other unexplored area, check out those woods behind the tent for anything of interest. Also... look around and see if anything unusual is around, not connected to the areas of our devas. Some half formed structures, the beggining of new paths, formations around under and above the more obvious things, etc.

>>501992
It might have the aspect of privacy, but I doubt that's the whole of it.
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No. 502011 ID: 14d963

>"See, we have our own Mask, and there's the Scepter, the Waiting Man, the Tome, the Crescent, the Devourer?"
Hmm. The Tome, the Crescent, and the Devourer seem like symbols of Wordblood, Luna/the Hero Soul, and Kairosa. The Mask represents raccoons. So what are the Scepter and the Waiting Man, then?

Anyway, I'm curious about the tent, but we have all the time in the world. (Literally, as long as we can keep Kairosa safe.) There's no need to rush it if Saulanna doesn't feel it's the right time.

Make purchases, then go talk to Peregrin.
>>
No. 502012 ID: d04875

I can't believe that no one is getting it.

The tent, and the small grove of trees around it, is Saulanna's section of her inner world, and as such is representative of her soul and personality. Now, we've already noted that Saulanna has no Heart's Desire, no Purpose, and no Element. Saulanna's personality is still forming, still being moulded into the titan, benevolent or malevolent, that she will one day be. That's why we shouldn't go in the tent.

If we were to go in there now, we'd probably just find a small picture of Peregrin and nothing else. It's not the right time to go in the tent because we were literally born yesterday.
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No. 502014 ID: 76b151

The scepter is a symbol of leadership and the waiting man is the servent. Obvious ties with our new acquisitions.
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No. 502024 ID: 49e805

Tents are for sleeping! Maybe.

Anyway, let's get back to real-world time.
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No. 502088 ID: a869cb

ah, nostalgia. probably something from your past. if you don't feel like you're ready to deal with that stuff, don't.

I can't wait for Wordblood's fountain to become a grand landmark and for Kairosa's constellations to cover all our skies. I say devour all the souls you like. with time on our side, it is merely like you are borrowing them from existence for a tiny little moment.
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No. 502089 ID: 9ddf68

random thought that has nothing to do with the tent or inner world but when we ate those two souls earlier and activated our Soul Force thing were we light up like a bonfire, does it actually burn people who get to close to it? I ask this because When we ate those guys Peregrin was holding us so I'm just wondering if we are going to come back to the outer world to find we just set him on fire and are now trapped however deep inside of the catacombs he brought us to or not.
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No. 502093 ID: 47a120

>>502012
>>502007
These do make the most sense.
I think its time to return to the outside world.
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No. 502100 ID: 520816

>>502089 [re: "soul fire" being harmful]
No, for Moon Heroes. It's just silvery moonlight that at worst leaves the surroundings seeming like they've been left outside for several humid nights. Death and Hell Heroes' auras, though...
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No. 502103 ID: b24894

So, we've got problems. And the problems can be solved by getting more powerful. And the biggest obstacle in our way to getting more power is our own reluctance to eat souls. Sure, I can accept that - Saulanna is human after all. Humans don't act optimally most of the time! They have all these emotions banging around in their head, it's a wonder they ever get things done at all.

Ah, Suggestion! If we can make stuff like that Emotion Bottle thing, is it possible to just develop an ability that removes our reluctance to eat souls (and any future doubts we would have about having developed Reluctance Removing Prana, for good measure)? It would be Will well spent, I think, since we'd start getting more Will even faster than Kairosa's generation stuff. And with all the new souls going through the ol' grinder, we might hear more from Greenie even sooner. I like that chap.
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No. 502104 ID: f2c20c

>>502103
That is ridiculous. No.
>>
No. 502107 ID: 47a120

>>502103
>Spend TW to modify main char to ignore suggestions I disagree with
In world, there is no reason she couldn't do that.
But meta, there is no way a sane DM would allow such.
Furthermore everyone who votes against eating souls would vote against removing the reluctance to eat souls, combined with people who are ok with eating souls but against such soul surgury for one reason or another
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No. 502140 ID: 334456

>>502103
Did you really ask if we could upgrade Saulanna so that people couldn't argue against your position? Seriously?
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No. 502150 ID: cee89f

>>502103
*facepalm*

Kairosa: What can you tell us about what the stars mean/represent (so far)?
>>
No. 502182 ID: 8247d0

Maybe the tent is where her heart's desire is kept.
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No. 502196 ID: 6bc7ac

Hmm, I find it curious that our Mask is looking different from canon Mask (which is a constellation of sneakery and Sidereals broke it a bit). Did it get fixed or is it also different in universe?

The rest are original... Are they original in-universe as well or do they normally belong to the new maidens?
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No. 502277 ID: 104dc3

We need to thank Peregrin, get to the library, and then moon heroes dragon's shadow.
>>
No. 502280 ID: ecd0ab

>>502277
Going directly back into it is pretty much exactly what we were told not to do. We have to find a better strategy before directly engaging them again. We were given multiple suggestions of how to do that. Akatrina and Askalafsdlaslff both have centuries of experience at this, we have less than a day. We need to be TACTICAL about it.
>>
No. 502291 ID: 1a6990

Man, our devas get much cooler sections than a tent. Best to leave it alone for now, let it have its mysterious content for the time being.

We should get ready to return to conventional reality. We could use P's input before we make the final decision. Plus, he might have more general advice for our upcoming 3-way social combat.
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No. 502317 ID: 1c5a3a

The idea that we can unmake and remake people to suit our whims, with no thought of their feelings, is a wonderful way to step onto the greased slide of hubris that ends up with yet another overthrow of the Sun Heroes, with our overthrowers feeling entirely justified.

As a punishment and preventative for terrible criminals it can be appropriate; it's like a more final execution. But we should /always/ be aware of the full implications of what we're doing when we do it.
>>
No. 502374 ID: 2eac65

>>501985
>Heart's Desire
Well, that's an interesting question. Saulanna seems to like gathering power, and exerting dominance over others, but I don't those are the core of her motivation. LIkewise, morality and kindness are important to her, but they aren't what make Saulanna, Saulanna. So what have we been doing?

Well, the first thing we did when we met Gevin was to decide to aid him in his personal quest. Mainly because we felt sympathy for him, but there was also a desire to have a goal. We were without guidance, so we shared his life's goal as a way of having one ourself.

We've come across many sources of information, and we've always been keen on exploring them. Partially because knowledge is power; we were born lost and confused, so we seek to learn all we can about the world so we know what we can do and what we shouldn't do. Partially because learning is fun and exciting; the world is full of many fascinating things, and we don't want to miss out. Partially so that we can judge things properly; the world is very complex, and if we make a decision without knowing some crucial details, we could make a horrible mistake. We seek to understand the world, so we know our place in it, and how we can and should react to it.

We've been subjected to mental influence more than once, and we've fought against it with all we had. Whether it was external, like Peregrin's mind-controlling voice, or internal, like her budding addiction to human souls, losing control of her own thoughts is more frightening to Saulanna than anything else. She wants to make sure that it's her own will that defines who she is and what she does, not a force that she can't control.

At its core, Saulanna's Heart's Desire is "Facilitate her own self-determination." To gain power, so that she can mold herself into what she chooses to be. To be the Queen of her own mind, so that she can make that choice for herself. To defend herself from those who might seek to control or destroy her. To study the world, so she knows where she stands in it, what she could do, what she should do.

Now, this is all from the perspective of a newborn, and as such it's not likely to last forever. As we grow in power and knowledge, there's a good chance that we'll find a different, greater purpose, probably one that involves helping the world and its peole. But that's a long ways off. Before we can decide how to fix the world, we need to understand it first. We need the power to make our choice a reality. And we need to be in a position to choose.
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No. 502395 ID: 5d121c

The tent is likely for all manner of domestic things such as shelter and having a family. In the case of a deva's tent, the unreadiness to enter Saulanna feels could be have many reasons. Maybe she just isn't ready to rest and relax right now, it's not an appropriate moment for that what with the titan Saulanna barely having a foothold on survival. Maybe the family that is implied by the tent should be created in the old fashioned sense, as is appropriate for a symbol of humanity, and she'd need a husband or at least a lover for that. Maybe it's just because the time isn't right to bust out noble devas yet.

Maybe those last two would go together down the line. I kinda like the idea of her kids being her nobles. It would make perfect sense considering the theme of humanity. Deva-Saulanna's only themes right now are being human, wanting power, wanting safety, and wanting those last two things for those who are closest to her. Which would translate perfectly into a royal sort of motherhood.

But it's definitely not something that should be worried about just yet. As the sense from the tent she gets says.

>>502374
She likes gathering power, but exerting dominance isn't a very common theme here, at least in comparison. Covering her ass is a better way to say what she's doing. Keeping herself and her own safe would be an overarching theme for both of those, so maybe that should be her desire. She's definitely shown to be protective of her devas.

>>502317
And owning a kitchen knife is a wonderful way to step on the slippery slope of being a serial knife murderer.
>>
No. 502414 ID: 9e0824

>>502374
> Facilitate her own self-determination.

I like that. It seems appropriate; not a desire to do some specific thing, or follow some specific path... rather, it's a desire to have the freedom to choose, instead of being forced into some kind of mold. Having that freedom, ultimately, means gaining power, since there are any number of things that stand in the way of our ability to do as we wish. In comparison with what a Heart's Desire would normally be, it's a little vague, since it sets no bounds on what we might ultimately want to do... but it feels appropriate, for a would-be Titan; a Heart's Desire equally as appropriate at the moment of our birth, at the moment when we rise to challenge the powers of a world that constrains us, at the moment when we victoriously ascend to rule over the remnants of the last fallen age, at the moment when we preside over a glorious new age of our own design, and at the moment when all things come to an end and it is down to just ourselves and the encroaching chaos of a world come apart. A truly Titanic desire, suitable for all times and conditions; ultimately, we want to be able to choose, to do what we wish, to be free of the constraints of people and laws and conditions not of our own making. It transcends smoothly from the foundling's desire, to be free of those who would seek to dominate us; to the titanic desire of a creator of worlds, discontent with the limitations of her own powers and the wreckage of the framework of ages past, thinking ahead to the possibilities of creating an entirely new reality from the Formless Chaos itself.

It's perfect.
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No. 502415 ID: 14d963

This doesn't sound like much of a Heart's Desire to me, not so much because I disagree that it's something we want and have been actively pursuing, but rather because it's something that pretty much everyone wants. No sane DM would give you combat bonusses for saying "it has always been my Heart's Desire to not die", because that's kind of assumed and already built into the combat rules.

I like the rest of >>502374's analysis, though, which is nicely put.

It's also worth noting this:
>Well, the first thing we did when we met Gevin was to decide to aid him in his personal quest. Mainly because we felt sympathy for him, but there was also a desire to have a goal. We were without guidance, so we shared his life's goal as a way of having one ourself.
I think it's a good sign that, even when we were lost, confused, and scared, our first instinct was to help others.
>>
No. 502421 ID: b50bd5

>>502415
Not entirely true in Exalted (or in reality) that everyone wants self-determination. In canon there are "akuma" who've given that up for power. Saulanna briefly considered adopting Peregrin as one but rejected it as being arguably a Fate Worse Than Death -- which is another reason to pick self-determination as a defining motive for now. Still, eventually you have to pick a goal beyond "setting my own goals" unless you're flopping around randomly.

>>502374
Heh, we're starting to define the First Saulanna Excellency charm! One thing I notice is that there's no consideration in that for her Lunar nature. No raccoon theme or anything. I suspect that'll change once she gets out of here and learns more about the state of the world. She's just really pre-occupied with the thought of being talked into something.

<b>Time to get going</b>, right?
>>
No. 502456 ID: d04875

>>502415

Speaking of, we never managed to find her actually, and we do still have her Schnozzlepoints. Naturally, we can't exactly blow off Askalaff and Dullahan, but we can't forget that we do eventually need to find her, since Gavin is still wandering around the castle.
>>
No. 502497 ID: 9e0824

>>502415
>>502421

Facilitating self-determination isn't quite that hollow, though. Mortal beings are inherently subject to all manner of constraints, and even immortals and gods are heavily bound. Even the Titans find their actions restricted by the state of the world, by those that oppose them, and by Samsara. Ultimately, then, the Desire for self-determination includes essential facets of 'gaining power' (to better preserve freedom) and 'opposition' (to resist external influences of every kind). This makes it harder for Mal/Affections and such to be imposed upon us, but makes the ones we do form more primal and important, since they are the truest extensions of the choices we make. Essentially, we would have no single cause that we hold as primal in importance other than simply being ourselves, free to choose... as such, we are indeed free to choose, but those things that we do wind up choosing, even trivially, will be a lot more central to our identity, and difficult to shake loose at a later time. Accordingly, our Desire wouldn't simply be a hollow formless thing, fluttering on the breeze; it'd be a thing that slowly develops over time, maturing as we do, shifting to reflect the choices we make, the precedents we set. At all times, we seek foremost to protect our own ability to choose, to extend our will to give our choices more weight... but at the same time, all our choices, as reflections of that will, follow us as manifestations of our will to choose, continuing to define us for far longer than such trivial choices might for a being grounded in another sort of concern.
>>
No. 502519 ID: dcbab6

>>502374
you voiced my opinion as well in regards to the heart's desire
>>
No. 502558 ID: 7475da
File 136441936923.png - (193.22KB , 600x500 , readytogo.png )
502558

>What do the constellations mean?

"Ha ha ha! What fun would it be to just tell you, mistress? It's a fun little mystery for you to unravel yourself! Tell you what, though. Every one of them is drawn from an important event in your Titanic existence! Try looking back on everything you've done that you remember, and maybe you'll find where they come from; and then maybe you can figure out what sort of symbolism they're supposed to have!"

>spend Titan's Will on...

Her mind simply can't move on from this, it seems. Saulanna decides she needs to finally get on with spending it as she had determined she was going to spend it, instead of letting herself waver and doubt all the time. If she doesn't stick to what she's already decided, she'll never get anything done!

"Alright, here we go!"

>Titan's Will 10 -> 7
>Kairosa's Will Generation is upgraded to level 3!
>Will Generation has been time-enhanced and devoted to improving Saulanna's Soul Force. Estimated upgrade time: sunset three days hence.

>Titan's Will 7 -> 4
>Wordblood gains World Reading! World Reading upgraded to level 2!
>By spending a dot of Power, Wordblood can activate this ability, allowing him to detect a target's Health Points, Will Points and other active statistics.

>Titan's Will 4 -> 1
>Kairosa gains Forked Path Oracle!
>Wordblood gains Seeing the Tongue Slip!
>Wordblood gains his Titan Blessing!

Saulanna keeps one measure of Titan's Will for now, intending to use it to upgrade her Beauty when appropriate.
>>
No. 502559 ID: 7475da
File 136441943117.png - (187.91KB , 600x600 , readytogo2.png )
502559

>time to get going

Yes.

"Take care, my lady."

"Remember, you can come back in any time you like!"
>>
No. 502560 ID: 7475da
File 136441948918.png - (153.65KB , 600x500 , readytogo3.png )
502560

And the world returns.

Peregrin looks concerned, and seems surprised by something, but he isn't saying anything. Oh, hold on. He did say something, didn't he? Only just now, from his perspective. He asked if Saulanna was feeling well.

Well, in fact, as she senses herself fitting back into her body again, she feels pretty fantastic! She'll...

...
>>
No. 502561 ID: 7475da
File 136441951789.png - (107.92KB , 600x500 , readytogo4.png )
502561

>>
No. 502567 ID: d04875

Were we this tall before?

Somehow I remember us being almost the same height.
>>
No. 502568 ID: 7475da
File 136441999736.png - (108.01KB , 600x500 , readytogo5.png )
502568

>>502567
>>
No. 502570 ID: 7475da
File 136442007316.png - (109.39KB , 600x500 , readytogo6.png )
502570

"Oh."

"Um."
>>
No. 502571 ID: 7475da
File 136442011528.png - (75.70KB , 600x500 , readytogo7.png )
502571

"Ok, so, er. No problem. You can fix this!"
>>
No. 502572 ID: 7475da
File 136442015848.png - (34.84KB , 800x700 , titleend.png )
502572

"... I think."
>>
No. 502573 ID: 7475da

(And a concealment bump...)
>>
No. 502574 ID: 7475da

(or two...)
>>
No. 502575 ID: 7475da

(or three...)
>>
No. 502576 ID: 7475da

(... or four. For the right measure.

And we're done!)
>>
No. 502586 ID: d04875

How far away from being able to reform souls that we devoured again?

I was rereading the quest and now I really want to give the poor captain his soldier back.
>>
No. 502588 ID: e9140c

screw the captain and his soldier. in fact, let's eat him too.
>>
No. 502590 ID: d6ef5d

>>502586
We ate the soldier before we got Kairosa. She explicitly said she could only undo things we'd done after she came into the picture. The mobster and soldier are gone for good.
>>
No. 502603 ID: cee89f

Ask Wordblood and Kairosa about shapeshifting/spending TW to remove these changes, particularly the size. We're trying to NOT let anyone know something is up. I'd say suddenly growing three feet is going to be an issue.
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