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Persona: HEAVEN (Persona/Sword Art Online/Isekai Multicross)

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Both paths is worthless as a choice, since it means we have to worry about both hitting 0 HP or having someone in our party hit 0 HP and it forces us to give more actions to the Shadow, which is a bad thing. Best to stick with either being worried about ourselves hitting 0 HP or being worried about others hitting 0 HP, especially since either of those choices do not interfere with Shadow Tag by making it worse again and they boost an important stat each (Mask for No Stress on party member hitting 0 HP, Grit for No Stress for hitting 0 HP ourselves).

[X] You... won't be that person anymore. Never again.
 
ThatGuyWithIdeas said:
Both paths is worthless as a choice, since it means we have to worry about both hitting 0 HP or having someone in our party hit 0 HP and it forces us to give more actions to the Shadow, which is a bad thing. Best to stick with either being worried about ourselves hitting 0 HP or being worried about others hitting 0 HP, especially since either of those choices do not interfere with Shadow Tag by making it worse again and they boost an important stat each (Mask for No Stress on party member hitting 0 HP, Grit for No Stress for hitting 0 HP ourselves).
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I think you're focusing excessively on the mechanical benefits rather than the theme of the choice. Do you want Lux's selfishness to be the true final self, rather than Hyori's wish to change being genuine or them becoming separate existences united only by history (and probably body in the world of flesh)?
 
[X] You... won't be that person anymore. Never again.
Unlocks trait: [Never Again]: When a party member's HP drops to zero, gain 2 Points of STRESS. You no longer gain STRESS for allowing yourself to drop to 0 HP.
>Your soul continues to unify.
>Your GRIT increases greatly! ♪♪♪♪♪♪.

afreaknamedpete said:
"The data for Dorz'l and Thrym for one, if you feel we owe them for their assistance.
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Pinna must live again, just to keep Silica happy, and Thrym surviving could be interesting for future arcs XD.
Also, my god, Sugou's rolls were trash XD. Literally, he was effectively curbstomped, we got out of that fairly untouched. The only good hit he did was his counter to Yuuki (along with a suicidal Harem member strike) that reduced her to half health. Apart from that, Sugou has rolled very badly overall, which was good for us.
 
Ferb_Ancos said:
Also, my god, Sugou's rolls were trash XD. Literally, he was effectively curbstomped, we got out of that fairly untouched. The only good hit he did was his counter to Yuuki (along with a suicidal Harem member strike) that reduced her to half health. Apart from that, Sugou has rolled very badly overall, which was good for us.
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He did manage a pretty damn good hit on our reputation, since we exposed our weakness there to see the ones in his ego. :V
 
afreaknamedpete said:
Asuna attacks rolls 6d6e5 = 5⊕ 4 1 6⊕ 5⊕ 3 → 3 successes against 5
Sugou rolls 4d6e5 = 5⊕ 2 5⊕ 4 → 2 successes against 5

Sugou takes 1 Damage
Sugou is defeated!
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...now that's what i call a kill steal :V

Ferb_Ancos said:
Also, my god, Sugou's rolls were trash XD
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They really were LOL.

While I did think Hiyori offering to sacrifice herself was a touch too far during the vote (but I otherwise really liked the write-in and I didn't really want to offer my own version that would have been very similar except for that) I actually really like how it ended up playing out so I'm glad it was there to offer the additional development/insight on the differences that still remain between Hiyori and her Shadow and how the current vote has her take another step down her path, whatever it ends up being.

[X] You... won't be that person anymore. Never again.
 
[X] You... won't be that person anymore. Never again.
Unlocks trait: [Never Again]: When a party member's HP drops to zero, gain 2 Points of STRESS. You no longer gain STRESS for allowing yourself to drop to 0 HP.
>Your soul continues to unify.
>Your GRIT increases greatly! ♪♪♪♪♪♪.

Be a better person one bloody step at a time.
 
[X] You... won't be that person anymore. Never again.
Unlocks trait: [Never Again]: When a party member's HP drops to zero, gain 2 Points of STRESS. You no longer gain STRESS for allowing yourself to drop to 0 HP.
>Your soul continues to unify.
>Your GRIT increases greatly! ♪♪♪♪♪♪.
 
afreaknamedpete said:
"Sugou. I thought I'd find you here."

Nobody can move. You can't even turn your head to look at the voice. It's one you don't recognize.

"Y... you..." Sugou's voice is rising.

"Get up Sugou. It's not over yet. Are you going to let your dreams end here?"

"W... why? Why are you here!? Did you come here to laugh at me!?" The Apathy melts away, replaced with rage and hatred.

"I would never do that. Despite what you might think I once considered you a friend. I'm here to offer you a hand, for old time's sake. But before that, I must ask that you stay quiet for a spell, as there's someone else I need to talk to."
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Oh god, we about to enter Phase 2?

afreaknamedpete said:
I quite liked the write-in, since it lets me progress the whole Shadow social link while in the middle of a fight! The vote is also important since it tells me in what direction to drive the character writing because for something like this, there isn't really a middle road.
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Well, at least you like it.
 
[X] You... will pick both paths. Become strong enough so you'll never have to choose.
No trait gained: The default is that you 1 STRESS whenever any party member reaches 0 HP AND when you reach 0 HP.
>Your soul begins to fracture. Shadow Tag rises to 25% (1/4 of all actions must be assigned to your Shadow)
 
[X] You... will pick both paths. Become strong enough so you'll never have to choose.

$10 says our Shadow gets the other half of the vote and, because of what we did, this is the only option to integrating our shadow long-term. I'd rather not have the final boss be our shadow, I like her too much.

They say they unify our soul, but... how to put it. There's multiple ways to apply that, not just what it looks like on the surface. It could mean, as I said above, unify as in each one takes half of the coin and balances the scale that way. My other thought is that it Lux is divided enough from us that our soul no longer includes her.
 
[X] You... won't be that person anymore. Never again.

Well, shit. Instead of Kayaba popping in to help us, as happened in canon SAO, now Kayaba is going to try and gas Sugou to preserve a HEAVEN.
 
[X] You... will pick both paths. Become strong enough so you'll never have to choose.

I honestly think this is the best vote both mechanically and character-wise. Risking two Stress points over other people dying in a video game is way too melodramatic and I think Lux getting more influence from this debacle is the most fitting consequence. We tried to force character development for a character we didn't care enough about to get out of Sugou's cage for a quick feelgood moment we didn't earn so it's only fitting that we reap the consequences of having to live up to our own hypocrisy.
 
[X] You... will pick both paths. Become strong enough so you'll never have to choose.
No trait gained: The default is that you 1 STRESS whenever any party member reaches 0 HP AND when you reach 0 HP.
>Your soul begins to fracture. Shadow Tag rises to 25% (1/4 of all actions must be assigned to your Shadow)
 
afreaknamedpete said:
That is not needed, contractor. I am already here.

​
With a single step forward he appears. This is your first time seeing him rendered in the virtual world, for when you borrowed his third eye, there was no need to manifest a body. Before you could tell yourself he was a figment of your imagination.
But now you have no such illusions.

Asuna, Gwen, Shiroe, and even all the members of OBERON's harem stop what they're doing and stare. Sugou, wounded and struggling to call forth his armor of ego, recoils at the very sight of your Persona.
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I hope someone brings up Nephren-Ka after all this is over. I want Hiyori and friends to really think about who's backing them after he almost caused top tier players like Asuna and Shiroe to be spooked.

afreaknamedpete said:
For I, myself, am all you humans!
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Now there's a iconic Nyarlathotep line!

afreaknamedpete said:
Asuna gives him not even a second to pause. She thrusts forward, but her rapier is caught on OBERON's shield. An «Immortal Object» barrier briefly flickers but with a single glowing stab Asuna's Augmented thrust shatters it and knocks aside the shield.

"Switch!"

Asuna shouts and without missing a beat Yuuki seemingly rises out of her shadow and bats OBERON away with a double-handed overhead blow. The two of them work in such tandem that even as Sugou recovers they're already closing the gap, Yuuki swinging with the sword, and Asuna flickering to the side.

"Lux!" Shiroe calls, tossing you a healing potion. "It's over. With ALO dying around us, OBERON has no more power left. All that's left is Sugou."

It's less of a fight and more of an execution now. Sugou awkwardly bats away Yuuki only to get his sword arm sliced off by Asuna charging in from his flank. He opens his mouth to taunt, to beg, to say something.

But Gwen just jumps over Asuna and rams her knife into his mouth.
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Real talk has anyone else noticed that we tend to do the lion's share in most of our fights but never get the kill? The Beast Gods? Khodumodumo does the most damage but Sigurd gets the kill. Norn? We do the most damage but Shiroe gets the kill. OBERON? We burn the entire fucking world to ashes to take him down and Asuna, Yuuki, and Gwen finish off the corpse.

And I can't wait to see the playerbases reaction that they didn't even get to the final boss before we crashed the game. The salt must be amazing.
 
[X] You... won't be that person anymore. Never again.
Unlocks trait: [Never Again]: When a party member's HP drops to zero, gain 2 Points of STRESS. You no longer gain STRESS for allowing yourself to drop to 0 HP.
>Your soul continues to unify.
>Your GRIT increases greatly! ♪♪♪♪♪♪.
 
[X] You... won't be that person anymore. Never again.
Unlocks trait: [Never Again]: When a party member's HP drops to zero, gain 2 Points of STRESS. You no longer gain STRESS for allowing yourself to drop to 0 HP.
>Your soul continues to unify.
>Your GRIT increases greatly! ♪♪♪♪♪♪.
 
One thing for the people that are voting for both paths -and don't take this as fact, take this as me giving my two cents:

Two paths is, narratively, the weakest of the choices offered (again, my opinion). It contradicts our feeling before of finally becoming whole again, setting us as character back to almost the beginning of the arc. It's a crossroads and I feel that we, soon, will be forced to take a path with how we see the world. And each of the other paths represent our mentality of living for ourselves, and only for us, albeit in different ways. We can go deep into this mindset, and fight for survive...a type of mindset that threw us in a world of hurt before, and still haunt us.

Or we can grow.

We can move past that. Move from a villain to a hero. A protector, just like one of our idols. Finally surpass the mark of Laughing Coffin.

Maybe I am overthinking things. But I feel that the narrative of moving from living for oneself by any means necessary to live to help others has it's charm. And, as of right now, we are a Persona Protagonist, so...
 
For both paths I'm pushing it so hard because of the previous speech that won. The thing is Hiyori was not ready to make that kind of decision and trying to force it out to speed up character development and cheap feels so it's only fitting for her to stumble at this point because we forced her to overreach. Hell, I'd make the argument that gaining two points of stress over people dying in a videogame isn't her growing at all, it's just sending Hiyori into a different kind of self-destructive spiral.
 
The main issue I have with the '[ ] You... won't be that person anymore. Never again.' vote is that it feels like we're taking a hard turn from what we've been doing. So far the vibe I was getting from our shadows conflict was accepting our own selfishness and coming to terms with our previous actions. It feels like pushing too far in the opposite direction and trying to be something we're not.
 
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