Jump 370: Exalted - The Solars

Jump #370: Exalted - The Solars
>Page of Swords, reversed: The approach of an unexpected challenge, met with muddled thought and unjust action.
It was at this moment that Crux knew he fucked up.
>Location: Gem
>Identity: Scholar
(>Caste: Zenith)
What did that line say? Oh well, I guess it wasn't important.
>Drawbacks: (+800) Burning Bright, Child of the Earth, Yozi-Friend, What's A Combo?
I'm not sure what the deal is, what with certain parties here having some version of the perks I could have bought, if perhaps a bit less effectively. And the whole thing where there are minor demons that seem to be following in my wake is annoying. It probably doesn't help that I could swear I've seen this setting on /tg/ in the past, but I've never been here and definitely don't have any powers from this setting at all, perks aside. But that's okay because I'm a mid-game jumper who's been to a number of places where this sort of power level wouldn't be entirely unexpected... right? I can take it. Right?
>Pages And Words (Free, Scholar)
Not that I need it, because I already have it, but speed-reading is nice.
>Brought To Light (1600, Scholar)
Now here's a useful perk. I can think of all kinds of conspiracies that need to be pulled out into the sun so that people can know their conspirators for who they are.
>Mind of the Sun (1300, Scholar)
Now this... I have to admit it is interesting. Forging artifacts is a thing I do as a matter of course - I have a constant influx of exotic materials of several kinds that I draw on - but the empowered aspects to it... getting the abilities to build tools that can play with souls... oh, yes, that is something right down my alley. Later on, anyways.
>The Three Circles of Sorcery (1000)
Sorcery being as rare as it is... well, I'll be focusing a great many efforts into expanding my abilities in this regard as much as possible. Few use magic here, but the local magic is very, VERY interesting.
(>Unconquered (600))
Well, that seems to be another thing that I don't have access to at this time. Tsk. Whatever it is, I bet it would have helped me an awful lot during my stay!
>My Prayers Be Heard, My Will Be Done (500, Zenith)
Might as well just embrace godhood at this point considering all of the deity-type powers that I have behind me. Gods looking upon me as an equal, prayers always being answered in some way... it's good to be connected, even if I'm not a Solar.
>A Shepherd of Light (300, Zenith)
And this works quite nicely with the previous one - if I were to start a religion or even simply have individuals worship me, it would empower me nicely... never mind that this already empowers me via other means.
>Body Strengthening Liquor (200, Zenith)
Solars sure as hell know how to party. I'll be studying this to figure out just how it works later. Might be a new way to empower individuals.
>The Arachnid's Needle (0)
Now this is an interesting thing. Forget combat acupuncture, forget everything in the needlekind strife specibus, this right here is where it's at. Amateurs could use it to weave the impossible into glorious crafts. Me? This is what I'll be using to tweak the fabric of space and time when the time comes.

Spoilers, incidentally: that time is not going to be coming during this jump.

Now I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail about how things went in this jump. Generalities are fine. Especially when the sum total knowledge of the Exalted setting was locked away while I was here, which meant other sparks of exaltation were likewise inaccessible. Not gone, just... no context in which to identify and use the powers.

Dealing with demons hounding me and those around me, that wasn't something that was new, frankly. Some gave me a run for my money, others were trivial to deal with. The Second Circle demons, though? Those had a tendency to kill me. Granted, I have so many ways to survive being killed that it's not even funny, but... I still burned some extra lives on them before I learned that the only way to deal with them is to practically go all-out as quickly as possible. Overwhelming force right out of the gate. And even at that, I STILL was rendered effectively dead several times.

Much of my time was spent dealing with Solars, seeming to be some sort of out-of-context empowered being who was neither mortal nor a god as they knew it, and apparently my ego wrote some checks that my body couldn't cash. Who knew that those damn Solars would punch as hard as Kaguya? Except without prep time beforehand, I had to burn extra lives. With the demons I could at least fake it, but with the Solars, even faking it didn't work.

And then when my magic hit a tipping point I was finally able to-

>"Hey Crux! Found you again, you hypocrite!" BAM.
FFFFFFFFFF- nope, dead again.

There goes my last extra life, time to lay very, very low for the remaining two years. I'd rather deal with the demons than these cheating bastards. I'm supposed to be the one that cheats, damn it.

Huh, maybe they were right to call me a hypocrite. But then, as Doc Holliday is reputed to have once said, my hypocrisy knows no bounds. And why should it? These guys get the Unconquered Sun, I get Unbound Hypocrisy. It all even out, surely!