For a short time you wore a human shape to better understand their perspective and nature. Mostly, you discovered that their means of communication are woefully inadequate, that they are not overly welcoming to strangers, and that your crippling of the plague has been attributed to the Lady of Green Places. Still worse, it seems that the plague, your first adopted child, has been driven into extinction. To lose one’s children is a natural enough thing in uncivilised times, and so you moved on rather quickly to adopting the local domestic animals.

Most homes now have at least one of your devoted children watching and reporting to you of the goings-on in this village. More importantly, though, you have brought a human into your family. Your first sentient child, touched by your power and granted an innate talent for life magic

Years will pass before your “investment” matures enough to be useful, or for your many spies to gather a coherent picture of the village life here. In the mean-time, you feel your powers begin to grow, stimulated by the adoption of so many and your heightened understanding of humanity.

Welcome to Outsider Quest

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QM twitter: @OutsiderQuestQM
Character Paste:
http://pastebin.com/QgXjNVTm

Skill Tree:
http://pastebin.com/sXE41Zbs

>Please select two skills to acquire

How active a role do you plan to take in your child's life? You've learned that her name is Katherine, and you can communicate with her, but until she is an adult she remains highly malleable.

Will you:
>Allow her to be raised as a normal child
or
>Meddle in her upbringing (How?)

Additionally, you've found that your actions on this world thus far have been attributed to the Lady of Green Places. Do you
>Accept this, stealth is your most potent weapon
or
>Make some attempt at gaining recognition from those you saved (If so, how?)

>>42705847
Awareness
Enhanced understanding

>Allow her to be raised as a normal child
>Accept this, stealth is your most potent weapon

Gonna wait for at least two more votes.

>>42706092
I'll Second if we can meddle a little.

Would communicating with her subconscious and in dreams be possible?

>>42705847
>meddle in her upbringing
Send her educational dreams. Make her a prodigy.

>Accept this

>>42706592
Certainly

Apologies for the delay. I'm here now.

Hrm. Consensus is for meddling with her, but to what degree? Waiting for a tie-breaker, given that >>42706592
seemed neutral.

>>42707222
Dream Education.

Writing. In the meantime, vote on the rapidity and quality of that education.

>Neo's "I know kung-fu" moment
>A slow build-up of information and comprehension
>Anything in between

>>42707513
>A slow build-up of information and comprehension

>>42707513
Teaching her as an imaginary friend.

Then dream figure until she acknowledges in lucid dreaming of her own.

See what her natural gifts lie in and use those.

>>42707513
>A slow build-up of information and comprehension

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You feel something blossom within your mind, a new segment of your consciousness taking root and integrating itself with your essence. Before you dance a million million sparks that flare and die and are replaced as you watch. comprehension comes as quickly as the image itself; you are seeing the minds of your children, the life-cycles of their thoughts. The animals you’ve brought into your family, intelligent though they are, remain simplistic in terms of consciousness. Few thoughts last long, and they tend to be driven by base desires more than reason or higher purpose. The child, though, is a symphony of shining nebulae. She has not yet reached the interconnected complexity of an adult mind, but the groundwork for forming self-consciousness is present.

Curious as to how those that are not your children appear, you turn your attention to the priestess at the town square and her mostly ambivalent audience. Here you see broad strokes of color rather than pinpricks of infinitely bright light. You understand that the priestess is scared at heart, that she worries she is merely here to act as a stand-in for someone else. From the crowd you can, for the most part, confirm her fears. They have heard better, and not too long ago either. Your focus on this small event brings to your attention a third revelation; You know where your children are without looking. You feel them, some sleeping, some hunting, a few engaging in primitive flesh-based mating.

1/2

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It is the girl’s thoughts that draw you in more than the others. The near-random firing of sensations and memories, the lack of control or comprehension. You recognize this from books left by mad long-dead scholars in your old home: A dream.

It is simple for you, the Infiltrator of Hearts, to slip into her unconscious thoughts and gaze into her inner world. It is a simple place, but a comforting one. There is almost nothing here but blue, above and below. Peace practically radiates from Kat’s dreamscape, the very picture of a child’s untroubled sleep. Your mask keeps your presence from distorting the dreams around you unintentionally, and you take some time to experiment.

For how long will you experiment with dreams?

>A full year (Free skill gained; Dream manipulation)

>Months (May unlock future dream-related skills)

>Weeks (You can influence Katherine’s dreams, but those of others will require more time)

Never seen this quest before, seems cool, gonna lurk

>>42707985

>A full year (Free skill gained; Dream manipulation)

>>42707985
>A full year (Free skill gained; Dream manipulation)

Cutoff. Unanimous vote.

>>42708252
Oh, about the skills we gain. I wanna pick "Light Touch" and "Silent Subjugation"

>>42708452
Ah, you're a bit late. I already incorporated the earlier vote into some of the previous posts.

See
>>42707805
here.

I'm willing to ret-con if enough people feel strongly, but I doubt it.

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Time is something you’ve rarely needed to care about, and you certainly aren’t going to let it get in the way of your ambitions. You do not notice the first day slip by. You do not notice the first week slip by. The first month receives only faint recognition of its existence. Crouched in a corner of Katherine’s brain you begin the work of understanding dreams. First you investigate the apparent dilation of perceived time, gently pushing and prodding her dreams into extended voyages through the unconscious, or brief dips into her imagination. The former has few results other than increased memory of some scraps of the dream before waking, while the latter begins to erode at her ability to think when maintained for too many nights.

Next you investigate the individual feelings, the dancing sparks of emotion that comprise her dreams, Emotions lead into images, sounds, sensations, and these feed back into emotion once more. Creating stable elements within the dream proves more difficult than you’d anticipated, let alone forcing her conscious mind to retain complex information. Associations overlap with your attempts at construction, and so you turn your attention to that as well. The color blue and safety are linked, but green has similar but distinct connections in her mind. Magic initially is intimately bound up with terror, but you find that by associating a mother-figure and guidance with it eventually leads to acceptance.

>>42708508
Ah, so we went for an increased humanity and the ability to see what our children do? Darn.

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When you emerge, it is with something close to smug satisfaction at your own ability to learn and to manipulate mortal minds. This will greatly simplify the process of educating the child, and possibly with future efforts at shaping people to suit your purposes. In the year that you’ve been “away”, not much has happened. The priestess has sunk somewhat further into her melancholy state, as reported by her slightly over-eager pet ocelot, who also goes on to talk about squirrels, chasing things, and multiple attempts to exchange genetic information with another of its own species.

It seems that in your absence, your numerous adopted children have reached a level of mental aptitude that could be favorably compared to that of a very slow child, with the exception of Kat, who is that child. You fear you may have done some slight permanent damage there, but you’re certain that your gifts to her will more than make up for it in the long run. This general increase in intellect has been ignored by almost all of the townsfolk, who see it as yet another blessing bestowed upon their village by the Lady. So far your spies have proved somewhat useful, but you find yourself growing frustrated by their inability to grasp concepts well enough to relay more information from overheard conversations.

>Taking a break for an hour and a half. Feel free to make write-ins for plans to expand your spy network or otherwise make use of your plentiful time

>>42708676
Also the ability to read people's motivations and emotional state.

>>42708772
Welp, maybe it's time to ask the priestess why she stays in a position that brings her so little joy. Maybe its time to try and guide her to a new calling. She's certain to be grateful...

>>42708792
.... Perhaps you should clarify your approach?

Hrm. Archiving and resuming at a later date.

>>42707988
agreed. Writing is good so far, lurkers gonna lurk

Maybe we should try to slowly infiltrate the green Lady faith, slowly warping it into our own, say we are the green Ladies mother or something, add a few more daughters of different colors to act certain ways when really its just us using several faces.

Maybe create some kind of mythical beast protector of the town, half seen in shadows.

What is our build/end game here?

>>42713967
Establish a meeting with the Lady herself.

Have tea and biscuits. Compliment each other's children but imply our children are still better.