Shards of a Broken Sun [Megaten/Shugo Chara/Exalted]
- Thread starter Baughn
- Start date
- Crossover
@PistachioCookies given this, do you mind modifying your base plan accordingly, or is there some other disadvantage I haven't considered? Thanks.
It's meant to be a replacement for Ami and Midori heading back together:
Instead, Ami wakes up, notifies Tsumugu about this being the last check-in for a while (since she's physically next to him, sleeping), then calls Hikaru and physically travels back to the house by car or something while Midori sticks with the party in the meantime. (I'm only considering this because its faster than the previous option we came up with, and I don't know whether Amu and co have the patience to wait around for that long, or if time matters in this scenario)
Instead, Ami wakes up, notifies Tsumugu about this being the last check-in for a while (since she's physically next to him, sleeping), then calls Hikaru and physically travels back to the house by car or something while Midori sticks with the party in the meantime. (I'm only considering this because its faster than the previous option we came up with, and I don't know whether Amu and co have the patience to wait around for that long, or if time matters in this scenario)
Were the context not them being both his daughters, this really would be a FBI open up moment, wouldn't it?
- Location
- Laniakea
Question is, how long would Ami take to get back to Amu? If she and Midori pop down to the front door, we know it will be 15 minutes before they call Tsumugu (and pick up Hikaru's Astral Projection, unless he ventures in and meets them halfway) and then 15 minutes to get where Amu is for a 30 minute round trip.
If she wakes up, the alert to Tsumugu and phone call to Hikaru is instantaneous - but will she be able to get back to Amu in 30 minutes?
Especially since I assume that this bit:
Means she'd be heading back with the non-astral, physical Hikaru.
Is she really going to pop down to Hikaru's house, hop on the bus with him and work their way back through the Scavenger's House in 30 minutes?
- Location
- Laniakea
Too bad Amu's tapped on WP. To make those drinks she'd need to channel Su for the extra Illusion dot/specialty, which would require WP.
Utau might be able to borrow Su, but unless the Dumpty Key cuts the cost of it for her, that would need 2 WP instead 1.
Utau might be able to borrow Su, but unless the Dumpty Key cuts the cost of it for her, that would need 2 WP instead 1.
I don't think Amu is WP-tapped yet. Baughn's posts have indicated she still has WP to spend.
I don't know if we'd need to spend WP for this, but there are several reasons we might not. One reason is the Dumpty Key - Amu would have gotten a +1 to the default "tear the place open" option from the key, even on an action that didn't involve Utau. The key might give her all the boost she needs to create refreshments. Another reason is that she already loaded Ran earlier, and the WP payment for that might still be good for loading Su - it's not clear. A third is that it's not clear whether she actually needs a boost in the first place.
@Baughn?
I'm starting to have some unpleasant suspicions about Nanako's well-being.
...the Scavengers' memories are messed up:
Theoretically, could Nanako be one of the Scavengers?
- Location
- Laniakea
.....Oh damn. That might be why the result of trying to sing Yui's traumas to the forefront can't be predicted.
It's probably going to undo whatever mindwipe she got subjected to and we don't have a clue as to what her previous identity was.
If it does completely unravel the mindwipe, the whole dungeon is liable to thoroughly morph since she's probably going to undergo a sudden, complete personality change when her former identity returns.
Can't believe I forgot about them being mindwiped.
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I was wondering about that too, but since the QM said it was a lot faster.. (taxi/Tsumugu driving would make more sense in trying to be fast)
But given Hikaru's Projection's closeness and his absurd Mental Range we could be having his Projection over, something that doesn't really make a difference to me given Ami?
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Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
That complete roundtrip would take more than thirty minutes, true. Fortunately Hikaru has already been taking steps that would speed it up, but you're not going to get faster results than "go out, grab Hikaru, come back".
On the other hand there's no reason Amu would wait for Hikaru to get here, unless you specifically vote for that. He's… well, it's bringing a nuke to a knife fight.
On the other hand there's no reason Amu would wait for Hikaru to get here, unless you specifically vote for that. He's… well, it's bringing a nuke to a knife fight.
That would not cost WP, and she has enough left to manage even if it did. Your reasons are valid, but on top of that this is basically cosmetic; caffeine doesn't make you less tired, it only makes you feel less tired. I'm usually willing to bend the rules a little to add amusement value.
- Location
- Laniakea
Eh, why not, we can try Su's Happy Fun Cooking Time For Refreshments And Stress Relief.
If she can do chocolate cookies, she can probably just hot chocolate fine too. Dunno how good it would taste, given the cookies are apparently bland. But if cognitive rules apply like in Persona, caffeine-based beverages being a well known pick-me-up might translate to a bit more energy in Dreamland.
I do feel like keeping Ami within 15 minutes distance might be better, just because we have no idea what will happen afterwards and having her in the vicinity might be able to provide options if the whole cognitive place suddenly expands and reconfigures itself around us. She does still have that Navigation skill, Naoto doesn't so far as canon goes.
If she can do chocolate cookies, she can probably just hot chocolate fine too. Dunno how good it would taste, given the cookies are apparently bland. But if cognitive rules apply like in Persona, caffeine-based beverages being a well known pick-me-up might translate to a bit more energy in Dreamland.
I do feel like keeping Ami within 15 minutes distance might be better, just because we have no idea what will happen afterwards and having her in the vicinity might be able to provide options if the whole cognitive place suddenly expands and reconfigures itself around us. She does still have that Navigation skill, Naoto doesn't so far as canon goes.
Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
Er, I don't think I ever claimed they're bland? They're serviceable, and much better than a typical thirteen-year-old would make—which actually makes them fairly good.
Her cousin is a professional patisserie, and has taught her some tricks.
Her character sheet says Amu's mother bakes better ones. This is true, but Amu isn't an unbiased source on this.
- Location
- Laniakea
Oh good. I was assuming her mother - who unlike cousin Shuu does not work as a professional patissier - wasn't actually particularly proficient at baking cookies and took that statement on the character sheet as being meant to indicate that Amu's own were subpar by general standards.
Nice to know Naoto will not be wondering about the possibility of food poisoning as soon as it hits her mouth.
......Hopefully.
Nice to know Naoto will not be wondering about the possibility of food poisoning as soon as it hits her mouth.
......Hopefully.
Well, at the end of the day, I want to see Hikaru on-screen and interacting with us before the end of the chapter - I can't imagine us ever knowing enough to intentionally call him over after this before the literal Apocalypse with your description of him?
(Well, and given he got 1 dot of Integrity in 6 months I can only assume he doesn't have enough XP, and surely giving him more XP is a good way to prepare for what's coming given his high base dots?)
Also, I think Midori might be more comfortable with having a way to go Nope to this situation if things go even further south, than she would be discomforted at having a pocket nuke next to her?
Why not? Might as well open a distraction (and inadvertently serve as a brief for Naoto on their abilities) from all this, it'd probably help to go in with a better mental state.
@Baughn
...now that Utau does know of Shadow Selves, is trying to convert this into a regular Shadow Self ala previous discussion feasible, and if it is what's the difficulty?
Also, is Layering/Filtering a valid specialisation for Clairvoyance? (Stuff like "send information beyond certain range to trash can", or "only input physical data, or magical data, or mental data" with the option of using multiple layers at once with assistance at higher dots?)
...now that Utau does know of Shadow Selves, is trying to convert this into a regular Shadow Self ala previous discussion feasible, and if it is what's the difficulty?
Also, is Layering/Filtering a valid specialisation for Clairvoyance? (Stuff like "send information beyond certain range to trash can", or "only input physical data, or magical data, or mental data" with the option of using multiple layers at once with assistance at higher dots?)
Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
Define 'this'. The shadow laboratory?
Even if Utau now knows that shadow selves exist (she doesn't, but that's something which could come up in conversation early in the update, which goes for most of these options), that doesn't mean she can perform the necessary soul surgery. Not even Kana could successfully do that without a lot more help than she's had.
It would be somewhere around a difficulty eight roll, unless I'm completely misunderstanding what you're trying to do.
Yes, though to a certain extent the first of those ends up simply being 2/3-dot clairvoyance as previously specified.
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Huh, difficulties more than 5 exist: Good to know, I thought DC > 5 is just straight impossible.
You got the interpretation of what was actually written right, although I missed word(s) when typing: Converting it to a normal Shadow Self fight like it would be if things weren't so broken - in other words, the one of the write-in(s) that Nero was talking about last voting cycle.
Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
Ah. That's quite different from taking something that's not a shadow self and turning it into one.
And yes, difficulties more than 5 exist. You'll be intimately familiarised with them by the end of the world, I expect. Anyhow…
Knowing what they're supposed to be like, Utau could make a good attempt at provoking one. YMMV on results, though if all your assumptions are correct then it'd be difficulty two or so. Those fights don't usually take a lot of provoking, it's just that you're in the wrong place.
- Location
- Laniakea
I always figured half the point of write-in options (not necessarily stunts, but just write-ins in general stunted or otherwise) was to try and find approaches that could cut down the difficulty of achieving a desired outcome.
If we are ever stuck in a situation where the best options are all Difficulty >5, I feel like that would mean we somehow majorly screwed up somewhere along the line by making such a chain of bad choices, we left ourselves completely without the resources to attempt any alternative approach of lesser difficulty.
*Looks for terror reaction*
1a: This would mean that we are expected to face such situations, and be desperate enough to not nope out of those options immediately
1b: ...and what if you fail said options?
2: Short of having an Excellency available...
5 (Attribute) + 5 (Skill) + 5 (Psionic) + 2 (Stunt) + 2 (WP) + 1 (Lock/Key) + 2 (Expert Assistant) = 22 dice which is about the limits of what we can get, and looking at 1b that's still not very reassuring...
(And I have my extreme doubts we will be able to get an Attribute to 5 - 4 months of full time training = infeasible before the end of the world? Or even a Skill for that matter..)
Well, ain't that the load bearing statement of all time, right?
To be fair, the Conception situation is definitely something that would call for such DCs, I'm far more concerned about it happening often enough beforehand for us to be familiarised with such things here
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- Location
- Laniakea
Hopefully not, during the first version of the quest, Conception basically happened with no warning. In this version, we have some time to stop Hikawa so if Conception gets triggered by him anyway, it means we failed to stop him in the leadup. Because of how early it happened last time, there also weren't many resources available to try and stop it. There was the Exaltation Shard and the Dragon Stream to throw at Kagutsuchi and that was about it.
Having more similar world-ending events dropped on of us with no warning would be cheap.
Then again, we also potentially have more resources at our disposal now than last time.
Specifically, Ami has seemingly met Minato Arisato while in the Dreamlands while making Amu's birthday present. She probably didn't know what he's doing there, but could find out he's stopping the moon from crashing into Earth if she talks to him more.
It may therefore be possible in the face of another world-ending threat - given the right circumstances - that said threat could be manipulated into placing itself between Earth and the Moon and that Minato could be convinced to break the Seal. Thereby dropping the Moon ontop of whatever it is we needed to get rid of.
There is unfortunately a genuine question of whether even dropping the Moon on Kagutsuchi would be enough to stop it, but it's a potential option we didn't have last time.
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- Location
- Laniakea
I just had a very disturbing thought in regards to Yui's situation.
@Baughn - What stats did Amu use for that stunt where she contained the fox shadow? Pretty sure it burnt WP, how much more would be needed if she tried to repeat that stunt on a full-blown Shadow Self instead of a lesser shadow and would it be possible for an assistant (i.e. Utau or Ami) to foot the cost if it's too much for her to pay upfront?
@Baughn - What stats did Amu use for that stunt where she contained the fox shadow? Pretty sure it burnt WP, how much more would be needed if she tried to repeat that stunt on a full-blown Shadow Self instead of a lesser shadow and would it be possible for an assistant (i.e. Utau or Ami) to foot the cost if it's too much for her to pay upfront?