"What’s a Bookwyrm to do? Alina knows that she has been reborn, that she was once a world-bestriding legend in a time of desperate danger. But when an ally of her past imperils her new life and new family, she’ll have to scrape together her former power and magic if she wants to save them. Starting with talking, toddling and the dark art of the potty.."
Reincarnation: May Come with Teething Problems
is a Exalted fanfic written by drakensis for National Novel Writing Month 2020, and made available on Archive Of Our Own, FF.Net, Spacebattles, Sufficient Velocity and Stardestoyer.net.
The story starts with the destruction of Creation, around a century after the normal timeframe for the setting. The Bookwyrm, a powerful Dragonblood, attempts to get reincarnated into a fragment of Creation that's been broken off to act as a seed for reconstruction. However, he is instead reborn in his own past, into House Tepet - who are destined to be shattered by the Bull of the North.
Reincarnation: May Come with Teething Problems provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Alina is a rather small girl but she's also a deadly dangerous martial artist who can punch well above her small weight.
- Anyone Can Die: As Alina gets older and enters more violent conflicts, people around her sometimes pay the price for that violence. Even she has died - it's the start of the story.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Breaking up a dojo and severely injuring a teacher are one thing, but don't mess with the fish pond.
- Badass Bookworm: Alina's past life was literally called the Bookwyrm. He was known for reading, kung fu, crafting and fathering children. She notes that of these four things reading was the one that she considered a pleasure, the others were simply necessary. As for badass, she is and was a Terrestrial who operates as a full equal to Celestial Exalted.
- The Big Guy: Udano pretty much fills this slot.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: Alina is quite small and the leader, Udano is quite large and the follower.
- Blue Blood: Alina is quite improbably well-bred, in terms of visible Terrestrial Exalted heritage, as was her previous incarnation. It's why Demarol adopts her in her infancy.
- The Clan: The Demarol household, a sub-set of House Tepet, which is in turn part of the Scarlet Dynasty.
- Cool Old Guy: Old Man Spider.
- Cute Bruiser: Alina is small, blonde, punches demons, gods, mountains and other Exalted into submission.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Udano and later Erika become Alina's friends after fights in the same school dojo.
- Demon Slaying: Alina practises Golden Janissary style, a martial art entirely built for slaying demons. It's quite effective.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: How the story starts. Alina's past life calls up the Kukla, Creation's single most powerful Elemental, and leads it on a rampage through the mostly victorious armies of the dead before killing the Ebon Dragon, himself and all Creation - to cover for the fact that his Circle have carved off a chunk of Creation to rebuild around. Not bad for a 'mere Dragonblood'.
- Genius Bruiser: while it's somewhat exaggerated due to her having a headstart, Alina did invent the technique of turning jade into thread and weaving artifacts - which is promptly classified as a breakthrough. And she did managed to effectively master a celestial martial art before she was fifteen, beating the previous record by years.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: House Tepet and the Realm are not nice, but nor are their enemies.
- Alina's own past life was by no means a paragon.
- Happily Adopted: Once adopted, Alina is treated just like Demarol's biological kin. Emari and Yrina are evidence that this is considered normal.
- The Heretic: Alina noted that in her past life she rewrote the Immaculate Texts to remove the Sidereal's deliberate inaccuracies, which caused a schism in the Immaculate Order.
- As he notes, if the Celestial Bureaucracy was in a position to do anything about him unsealing the Kukla, he would be in big trouble. (The Kukla was sealed away by the Unconquered Sun).
- Her past life and Peleps Deled apparently fought a duel over it. Deled lost.
- Intangible Price: Alina's past life gave up the ability to experience for romantic love. She's not sure if that still binds her or not. Or if it was worthwhile.
- Little Miss Badass: let's just remember that by the end of the story, Alina is barely fifteen years old.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: because Dragonblooded live long lives and raise children in household creches, Alina has a sibling-like relationship with Icole, Hunt, Doreg, Nalan and Opiha.
- Alina's past life fathered a frankly absurd number of children.
- New Meat: The Tepet legions bolster their numbers partway through the campaign by bringing in a number of young Dragonblooded volunteers. And they are volunteers - Udano and Hunt both came, while it's noted one Cathak ran away from home with a stolen grimcleaver to join the war.
- Person of Mass Destruction: The Kukla is unleashed in the opening of the story, devastating much of Creation almost incidentally.
- Really Gets Around: Not uncommon among Dragonblooded, but Alina's past life took it to extremes.
- Squishy Wizard: While it isn't mandatory in Exalted, Samea was like this. Once Alina got her hands on her, the Solar didn't stand a chance. Of course, getting hold of her was a harder than it sounds.
- Iyuki proved even more vulnerable.
- Red Baron: Alina has earned the nickname 'Sunslayer' for her list of Solar kills. She doesn't particularly appreciate it.
- Supernatural Martial Arts: Alina practises several, some of of which the Immaculate Order would consider heretical.
- Underestimating Badassery: The Sidereal Crane severely underestimated his ability to throw Alina under the bus for Lyta's death.
- War Is Hell: The war between the Tepet Legions and the Bull of the North more or less wrecked the kingdoms where it was fought, even before Fallen Lapis was destroyed. Farms have been ravaged, villages and towns sacked, most adults have been drafted to fight or support those who do.
