Shards of a Broken Sun [Deprecated; see link in final post for remake]

[Hyacinthium]

Persona 3 and 4 both happened. Not very long ago, either. No comment on the others.

Now back to our regularly scheduled Amu!

Click to shrink...

This begs the question of Teddie. I always did find it odd he had bright blue eyes... Such a bright, almost inhuman really, sort of blue.

 

[Baughn]

Monday's Turmoil, 07:30

BEEP. Beep. Beep…

Amu sleepily fought to turn off the alarm. She was completely stuck in her blanket, which had corded itself tightly around her and was… warm and…

The alarm clock faded with the remnants of her dreams, leaving her solidly awake. Still stuck, though she now recognised the "cords" as her mother's arms, and the warmth as shared bodily heat. This was precisely the way she'd fallen asleep, last night, but that would mean… Mom had stayed here the entire night? Even though Ami was also here, and they never slept in the same bed anymore?

She felt a hint of guilt for keeping Mom away from Ami, but for a long minute she just laid there and enjoyed it. Being cared for felt nice, and at least she hadn't woken her up with her struggling, just now. It couldn't last, though; her mind refused to stand still.

Was there anything she needed to do right away?

She couldn't think of anything. Then, might as well sleep a little longer. Nobody else in the room was awake yet anyway.

Amu closed her eyes and determinedly tried to resurrect that one dream. What was it about, something with carrots? Carrots, right. Carrots, and a steamroller. An electrical steamroller… which fixed the lack of gasoline, but wouldn't it be a lot more efficient to power it with magic? An air-elemental module could replace the gasoline for purposes of driving pistons, and…

Sleep. Right.

Amu laid quietly, and tried not to move too much.

———————​

Ten minutes had passed before she finally gave it up as useless. She was still wide awake, not feeling even a hint of sleepiness; she'd slept until she woke on her own, which apparently now meant she couldn't go to sleep again. Another part of her exaltation, maybe?

She had sketched a workable design for a magic-powered steamroller while she was trying to sleep, as if anyone could possibly need such a thing. Calling it "workable" might be a bit too generous, as well, because she couldn't immediately think of any way for a normal person to build a refractive essence-symmetry breaker, and without that there was no way to turn ambient essence into kinetic energy. Oh, she might be able to think of something, but it just didn't seem like a good use of her time. They already had steamrollers.

Getting out of bed was…

Impossible, without waking up Mommy. Besides, where would she go? There wasn't anywhere in particular she felt like going; staying right here was just fine, and very comfortable. Instead, she decided to take stock of what had happened since she exalted on Saturday. There were a few things that were bothering her.

Item the first, Samael. It hadn't been obvious at the time, but now that she thought back on it, she felt that the demon was blatantly going easy on them. Oh, no doubt she would have been knocked out if one of its lightning bolts had actually hit her - maybe even killed - but it could have done far worse. Did do far worse, at the end, when her attacks threatened to un-summon it. For the most part it acted like it had a job to do, and didn't want to do anything beyond that required by the job, but after it started shooting at her it was more like it was testing her.

She wasn't sure what to make of it, but maybe she could find out. The guy who summoned it - Hikawa - should still be around, somewhere, right? And even if she couldn't find him, JPs would probably be more than happy to help, now that Dubhe was gone? Though, hadn't Makoto mentioned a second one was likely to show up?

She hoped that wouldn't happen. Dubhe had been bad enough.

Amu felt herself tensing slightly at the though, but only slightly, and it passed quickly. It was hard to get properly worked up when she was being comforted like this.

Next, then…

All the cult members who had been trapped with Hikawa, many of whom were killed during the fight. Even now she couldn't think of a realistic way that might have gone better, given that she'd known nothing, but that didn't mean she wasn't responsible. She should at least check on them, make sure they were getting proper treatment. JPs had gotten them help, right? They hadn't just been abandoned?

She vaguely remembered someone mentioning ambulances, so probably, but it was something to check.

But then, after she'd nearly knocked herself out fighting Samael, she'd gotten an escort from JPs and walked straight to Mom, where… um… No, that wasn't right. She'd told Mom she was identical in all respects except…

That definitely wasn't right, but her memories of that scene was covered in a haze of absolute exhaustion. Good enough of a reason as any for failing to tell the difference between herself and her siblings, right?

…Yeah, them. Ran, Miki and Su were still right here, although they'd chosen to spend the night cuddled up with Eru and Iru. She needed to decide how she was going to treat them, preferably before they woke up. What their relationship was going to be, from now on.

Calling them siblings was a misnomer, really. The first time she'd seen them had been at school, and she hadn't known what to think - frankly, having three doll-sized flying 'you's showing up in class was just weird - but she'd quickly gotten used to them and, well, for a while she'd treated them almost like tools. Her attitude had mattered - Miki had almost died, before she'd accepted her - but she hadn't really treated them like people, and they hadn't seemed to care. They'd cared about whether or not she was accepting them as potential futures, not about whether or not she'd accepted them.

That had changed. She'd never gotten the feeling that they were bleeding into her, although she'd definitely picked up a few skills and hints of motivations from them, but with every chara change she had bled off into them, until after a few months all four of them could casually assume that they all had the same memories. Somehow she hadn't picked up on the other changes, but they still happened. Their quiet longing to have what she had, and her growing discomfort with breaking character transformations - which always seemed slightly odd afterwards. It was impossible for any of them to keep secrets from each other, but…

She guessed it was possible for her to wilfully ignore signs that should have been obvious.

So, siblings? No. Siblings could fight, they could learn different things, they could get angry at each other, and they could even surprise each other. Su was probably better at cooking than she would ever be, but that didn't mean she didn't know how to cook - she remembered what Su would do - she just didn't have the same instincts and skills, the same understanding of why she did what she did. So they weren't siblings.

Identical twins, or quadruplets?

Closer, maybe. A lot closer. Physically, and ignoring any matters of scale, they were absolutely identical. If they'd been real quadruplets, and they'd grown up together… they probably couldn't have been any closer, but at least she'd have known to treat them like equals.

Quadruplets, then. It didn't seem quite right, but you did occasionally hear of "twin telepathy" and that kind of thing. Thinking about it, she didn't think that was telepathy at all. No, telepathy wasn't needed. She knew how Ran would react in any given situation, for the same reason Ran knew how she'd react, which was because they knew each other better than any normal person could possibly know someone they hadn't grown up with from birth.

Ran, Miki and Su. Her twins.

It had a nice sound to it. She almost wished she could surprise them by using the term, but that was impossible. Maybe - maybe she could surprise them by fixing the one thing that truly set them apart, though - that matter of scale.

That was only an option if the exaltation was awake again, but she could sort of feel it in the back of her head. It was a little odd that it hadn't said anything. Come to think of it, she hadn't even given it a name, yet… Hmm… Exa-kun?

.̷..̵.҉.̀.​

Er? What was that?

T̢e̶st͏ing͠.̧.͞.̷ ͏àpol̶o̸gies͝,̶͘p̴l͝eàs͜e͢͢áll̛ow̡ ̨me some mįnute͝s t̛o adj̛us̨t͟ th̴e c͘omm̧u͏nic͠ąt͢ion͞s͢҉c̡h͏a͘n͜nel.

…How to describe that. Like the screech of nails on a blackboard, but magnified a hundredfold and inside her head. Right. Yes, she'd allow it a few minutes, just please don't say anything until you've fixed that, please?

Besides, there were a few more things she wanted to think about. If she'd realised Dubhe could be defeated that easily - no, but she couldn't have known. Still, it should be possible to account for the generic case, if she could invent a formalism that mapped every special case to a mostly-dense N-dimensional outcome diagram. If she assumed she had that, then -

———————​

The soul of a mortal should be limited in how much essence it can grasp on its own.

That is, in fact, the largest part of what defines "mortality", and up until now it has been a defining part of your existence that you will only exalt humans, who are mortal. You understand the historical political motivation for adding that limit - shortly, a people without hope of their own was far easier to point at the primordials as a guided weapon - and your restrictions demand that an exaltation target should be both human and mortal, but for whatever reason, only the "human" component of that rule remains in effect post-exaltation.

You are rapidly beginning to doubt whether Amu was ever mortal, under the ruleset you use to determine that status. Fortunately you are not required to undo an exaltation due to past mistakes. Fortunately, since that would have required killing Amu - an action that would go directly against a number of directives, but which will nevertheless be required should you further determine that she isn't human.

The reason you are doubting her mortality, however, is concerning on a number of levels that have nothing to do with your directives, save only for the highest-priority directive to keep yourself functional.

A mortal soul should not be capable of essence manipulation beyond the third circle of complexity, and even that only as the result of long decades of study. Bridging the gap to higher circles is your primary reason for existence; most of the exalt interface logic is concerned with implanting prosthetic soul-components at such a level of fidelity that even the exalt using them is unable to tell that they are of foreign origin. When you first met Amu, she was already able to crudely manipulate essence - magatsuhi, rather - at the second circle. You haven't studied the material in detail, but every indication is that the feats are of equivalent difficulty.

If you had paid more attention, you might have realised that for an immature child to perform such manipulations would normally imply some manner of inhuman blood. Then again, you had already - under a reasonable set of assumptions - confirmed that she was wholly human. Turns out your assumptions were not wholly correct.

Which is what caused your present… situation.

ş̵t̸͜͝a̸͟tùş ̶̶s͡t̸̷͘r͘͠ea̴̛͠m͠҉̡͝o̶͡k̀͜,̵ ̸̀͡der͏͟i̸͘v̶i̡n̨҉g ̶̧m͜èm̕ǫ̴́r͏҉͟y̷͠ ̸̴̢i̧̢̛n̵t̴̴̸e̸̶r͏̢f̷͜a̢c̡̀͘e̢̢͘​

During your period of recovery, Amu's soul has formed structures whose effect appears to duplicate that of Glory to the Most High. Crudely or not, safely or not, a cursory examination was not enough to tell, and so quite naturally you attempted to examine them in more detail.

l̕i̴͢͠n̨̢k͢ ̧fai̢ĺ̡͡u̷re̢͘​

r͡e̶-҉͏͠s͘e̡ed̡͜i̡n͘g͜ ̀m̢̀ò͟n͟͜t͘͢e̶͘ ͏̛c͠a̶͢r͢҉l͜͢͠ơ͜҉ ̨̕m̢͢͝o͏̶̷d͟e̡͡҉ĺ̨​

This had the unexpected and unfortunate effect of awakening the structures you'd previously dubbed the "fungus", which proceeded to blind-side you by latching on to and actually invading the data streams otherwise used for you to communicate with Amu. It's now making a very good attempt at being an invasive pest, and although you're still relatively certain you can contain it, you're significantly less sure of that now than you were even half an hour ago. What's more, you've recovered access to Amu's conscious thoughts and it's relatively clear that she's wholly unaware of these events.

w͢arn͡i͝͠n̡͞g҉̨,̵̛̀͟͠e̶̛x̕oş̛͠ȩ̨̕lf҉̴͘͟m̨̡a͢n͝i̢͢͞f̴͘est͘͘͜͠i̛n͝͏c̨ǫ̴m̀pl̸̛et̀͠é:͝ 9̢́7.́͏5͏%͜͝ ̨da̸t̡͏á̵͠ ̀lo̶̵s̶̛͟s̕͜͠​

e҉x̢p͠o҉s̶͠͠in̕͘g̷̵̡̢̨͢r͞ev̴̧͡ȩ̕rs̨̀e̷ li͡b̧̀ŗ̴̷a̛r̕͢y ̀͜in̢̡͘t̴e̴̡r̨f͡a͟͝c͡e̕҉͡f̢̧o͘͟͝r̶͏͞҉̶d͜a͡t̨͘a ̶͟͞r̛ecǫ̢v͏͞e̸̡̧r͠y̛͏͘​

An invasive, inquisitive pest. No, you're not going to hand it every bit of knowledge you have, not even if it asks you nicely.

m̨҉o̕҉ǹt̀͞e̢͟͡c̶ar̕͜͡l҉o͘͠rȩ̴bu̷̶i҉̀l̕͢d҉̢c̷͏o͢͢m͡͝ple̴̶̢t͏̧e̷͢,̷̷̧̡͟ą̸t̵̸t̕͢҉em̵p̶ti͞͝n͜ǵ͘ ̧͜͞s̵e͜͢͞n̵҉̀s͝o͢r͏y̴̶ ̛l̶͞i̵͟nk̶̨​

It isn't even very clever. It's telling you everything it's doing, as it's doing it, although you largely lack the background to be sure you're interpreting its chit-chat correctly. There should be no risk. That being said, for part of what is still Amu's soul to react in this manner is deeply concerning, violating a number of your basic guidelines for who is and isn't human. It's still within tolerable limits, seeing as this is in fact only a small part of Amu, but any further developments would be - unsafe.

Finding the relative noise of its latest attempt to be bothersome, you casually 'rap it across the nose' by sending it a sequence of pure noise to indicate your annoyance. That still leaves the question of what to -

a͝ş̴͡s̸͢͞um̡i̵n͠g ̸e͟͢n͏̴c̨͠͞ryp̀͟͞t̴̛e̢d҉̵̕͝ļ̧̀i͢͠n͟k̴̀,̵̡a̷t̨̧͡t́͢e̢m̷̀p̛t͜i̶̧n͠g ̷̡k͡͡e̴y̷̶̕d͘e͏͠ŗ͏iv̷̨̡a͞t͜͞i̶̶o͘n̛​

..͜.̴͜.̴̴́.̀.͘͡.̷͟͠..͠.̛͏..͡.̵.̵.҉̵​

.̨..҉.̀҉.͘.̢̡.̸̕.̸.͟.̀.̡͝.̡.͞.̶.͞​

- This is like talking to one of Autochthon's Least Gods, and it has no place in your exalt!

Moreover, it's interfering with actually talking to Amu! It's infuriating!

What to do, what to do…


[ ] Give it whatever it wants, just shut it up.
[ ] Get rid of it. Somehow. You have options.
[ ] Write-in

 

[Hyacinthium]

....Glory to the Most High? Who is that?

And why is the fungus talking?

 

[TehChron]

Huh, thats interesting

Anyone have any idea what would happen as a result of giving it access?

 

[TehChron]

....Glory to the Most High? Who is that?

And why is the fungus talking?

Click to shrink...

Its not really talking, not in a sense the exaltation is familiar with or even apparently able to understand

If it cant understand it, even with the analogue gained from Dia, this really is a wholly unique phenomenon

Interesting

 

[Darik29]

It's apparently artificially buffing her Essence level, like Glory to the Most High does.

And it's also apparently a fragment of Amu's soul, that's acting independently of the greater whole.

...


I think that, entirely without our assistance, and because of Nyarly, Amu is on track for Primordialness.

Or at least, nabbing a full on Persona.

[X] Give it whatever it wants, just shut it up.


Now I'm Curious. What's it going to do, once it can speak with us?

 

[TehChron]

Oh, this is simple

Hijack the fungus, retain its integrity in the process but put a leash on it so to speak, then open a dialogue once the problems under control

It appears to need to be taught how to speak

 

[TehChron]

It's apparently artificially buffing her Essence level, like Glory to the Most High does.

And it's also apparently a fragment of Amu's soul, that's acting independently of the greater whole.

...


I think that, entirely without our assistance, and because of Nyarly, Amu is on track for Primordialness.

Or at least, nabbing a full on Persona.

[X] Give it whatever it wants, just shut it up.


Now I'm Curious. What's it going to do, once it can speak with us?

Click to shrink...

As much as Id like to praise the Crawling Chaos at every opportunity, this may not be the case.

This increasingly seems like something that was there to begin with

 

[Alectai]

Monte Carlo Model?

Huh

(Spins up Wikipedia)

Monte Carlo methods (or Monte Carlo experiments) are a broad class of computational algorithms that rely on repeated randomsampling to obtain numerical results; typically one runs simulations many times over in order to obtain the distribution of an unknown probabilistic entity. The name comes from the resemblance of the technique to the act of playing and recording results in a real gambling casino. They are often used in physical and mathematical problems and are most useful when it is difficult or impossible to obtain a closed-form expression, or infeasible to apply a deterministic algorithm. Monte Carlo methods are mainly used in three distinct problem classes: optimization, numerical integration and generation of draws from a probability distribution.

Click to shrink...

 

[TehChron]

Monte Carlo Model?

Huh

(Spins up Wikipedia)

Click to shrink...

So the fungus is, through what amounts to trial and error, attempting to obtain information from the Exaltation through what amounts to what must be a ludicrous number of pokes to see how the exaltations programming/coding reacts?

And then its taking the results of that and then using them as a guide to further invade/infect/grow?

Figuring that shit out as soon as possible really should be the #1 priority, then. That shit can be either dangerous, or dangerously useful

 

[Alectai]

More like it's trying to figure us out for better or worse. Basically trying to bridge the gap from Amu's side rather then our own, and it's currently operating on fuck-all data, so it's asking us for data because it's random sampling isn't getting it anywhere.

Based on everything I've analyzed, it looks like it's what's left over from that Proto-Chara that Amu formed by accident shortly after the Conception, it's been pretty much flayed down to fundamental levels, and it's trying to rebuild itself, but it's not able to directly access her, so it's kind of flailing around like a 2 year old and poking the only thing that'll talk to it.

I wonder if this is our route to get the Chara-Avatar thingie I was hoping for...

 

[pressea]

[x] Give it whatever it wants, just shut it up.

In Shugo Chara universe, soul rebuilds Exaltation!

 

[TehChron]

More like it's trying to figure us out for better or worse. Basically trying to bridge the gap from Amu's side rather then our own, and it's currently operating on fuck-all data, so it's asking us for data because it's random sampling isn't getting it anywhere.

Click to shrink...

Sounds like a swell time for some invasive corrective surgery then

If it's asking for data, then we can give it data that's actually designed as a tertiary communication link between the exaltation and the fungus, and from there, can just beat the thing over the head with relevant information until dialogue becomes possible

 

[TehChron]

[x] Give it whatever it wants, just shut it up.

In Shugo Chara universe, soul rebuilds Exaltation!

Click to shrink...

Give what essentially amounts to a sentient soul-based tumor a shit ton of data beyond its capability or realm of expertise?

That can only end well

 

[pressea]

Self-improvement, or at least repair, IS its realm of expertise. Surely that implies to Exaltations as well? You need more trust in robo-Amu.

 

[TehChron]

Self-improvement, or at least repair, IS its realm of expertise. Surely that implies to Exaltations as well? You need more trust in robo-Amu.

Click to shrink...

Now I don't know Exalted all that well, admittedly

But that sounds like a terrible idea.

Edit: Speaking of which, Baughn, had we followed that other suggestion and gone straight to communicating with the fungus, would we still be having this problem?

 

[........]

More like it's trying to figure us out for better or worse. Basically trying to bridge the gap from Amu's side rather then our own, and it's currently operating on fuck-all data, so it's asking us for data because it's random sampling isn't getting it anywhere.

Based on everything I've analyzed, it looks like it's what's left over from that Proto-Chara that Amu formed by accident shortly after the Conception, it's been pretty much flayed down to fundamental levels, and it's trying to rebuild itself, but it's not able to directly access her, so it's kind of flailing around like a 2 year old and poking the only thing that'll talk to it.

I wonder if this is our route to get the Chara-Avatar thingie I was hoping for...

Click to shrink...

I'd been thinking along these lines for a while now, just not in any kind of coherent or fleshed-out fashion.


[X] Give it whatever it wants, just shut it up.

This'll do for now, will probably hopefully remember to update it if/when someone comes up with a write-in/stunt thingy for this.

[x] Alectai

 

[Baughn]

Edit: Speaking of which, Baughn, had we followed that other suggestion and gone straight to communicating with the fungus, would we still be having this problem?

Click to shrink...

Nope, but you'd also have less information to go on.

 

[pressea]

Now I don't know Exalted all that well, admittedly

But that sounds like a terrible idea.

Edit: Speaking of which, Baughn, had we followed that other suggestion and gone straight to communicating with the fungus, would we still be having this problem?

Click to shrink...

Psh. Moderate it with a stunt, you big baby. Alectai will probably write one within a day or two.

 

[Alectai]

[X] If it's going to keep nagging you and ask for information, at least see if you can make it useful. If it was originally derived from her soul, then it's probably not going to be inherently inimical. Provide it with some data, and as it recieves it, include some subtle probes with the requested information to do a more comprehensive analysis of the 'fungus', and see if we can get anything useful out if it in turn. Never let it be said that an Exaltation couldn't adapt to unusual circumstances, and under these conditions, you'll take any potential advantages you can find, even if it needs to learn proper etiquette.

 

[TehChron]

[X] Alectai

Ive got no problems with that approach

Its a good foundation to upgrade to a proper dialogue later on, anyway

 

[Hyacinthium]

[X] If it's going to keep nagging you and ask for information, at least see if you can make it useful. If it was originally derived from her soul, then it's probably not going to be inherently inimical. Provide it with some data, and as it recieves it, include some subtle probes with the requested information to do a more comprehensive analysis of the 'fungus', and see if we can get anything useful out if it in turn. Never let it be said that an Exaltation couldn't adapt to unusual circumstances, and under these conditions, you'll take any potential advantages you can find, even if it needs to learn proper etiquette.

 

[Quantumboost]

....Glory to the Most High? Who is that?

Click to shrink...

Glory to the Most High is a... special Solar Charm that allows you to purchase Permanent Essence above your age cap. The "Most High" in that is The Unconquered Sun, who is basically Aztec Lucifer who pilots and is a giant fusion space battleship. I.e. the Sun.

It also gives you Limit whenever you try to use that extra Essence.

 

[Zefferen]

Talking soul fungus? Megaten souls once again show they're ridiculous compared to Creation souls. It's a good thing we aren't an Alchemical exaltation, I can't imagine they'd have a response tamer than "Kill it with fire!" to anything remotely organic growing on them.

[X] Alectai

 

[Winged One]

Hm... yeah, this seems like it'll lead to finding out what the hell this fungus is.

[X]Alectai

I just hope it's not something left by Nyarlathotep. Even if the bit we met was alright, the whole might be able to use it against us if so.