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Kingdom Hearts X(cross): Cadunt ad Caelum

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[X] Go on ahead, alone. You'll travel faster with less chance of being caught. If there is a stronger Heartless up ahead, better that you find out quickly.
—[X] Report back to the others with everything you can glean. Try to coordinate and work together as a team to bring it down. You'll forfeit a large share of the Lux and probably come last in the leaderboards, but at least everyone will be safe, right? You don't think they'd hold you back a year for passing with a low score...

WanderingTwix said:
Shouldn't this be lowered to 150 because it's our union instead of being increased?
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I think that these are already advanced techniques given

ZerbanDaGreat said:
[Anguis] Spellweaver: Proficient (0/375 Lux)
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And as such it makes sense for them to be more expensive

After all it wouldn't make sense for us not to know at least some basic techniques of our union
 
[X] Go on ahead, alone. You'll travel faster with less chance of being caught. If there is a stronger Heartless up ahead, better that you find out quickly.
—[X] Report back to the others with everything you can glean. Try to coordinate and work together as a team to bring it down. You'll forfeit a large share of the Lux and probably come last in the leaderboards, but at least everyone will be safe, right? You don't think they'd hold you back a year for passing with a low score...
 
ZerbanDaGreat said:
Yes because I'm an idiot (but no, it's to 180 :V)

Yes because I'm an idiot who shouln't have left this so late.
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ZerbanDaGreat said:
On Limits and Magic:
Limits and Magic are umbrella terms for the supernatural physical and magical techniques available to those with a Keyblade as a shortcut to power. Limits trend towards the physical -albeit many feature or integrate magic prominently- and Magic governs different elemental proficiencies. These evolve in both power and applicability when enough Lux is spent exploring them. While there is no hard and fast MP gauge to govern usage of these abilities, they do imply an especially great investment of stamina in a fight. Lesser tiers also remain available when evolving them to higher tiers.

Basic (75 Lux) - Simple, straightforward and reliable. Able to be integrated into a combat style and unleashed without much difficulty.
Evolved (200 Lux) - More advanced, a greater exploration of the element or technique in concept and application. Spells of this tier gain the 'ra' suffix.
Mastered (500 Lux) - The defining technique in a fighting style, or the last word from afar in magic. Elements or techniques of this tier hold little to no secrets to the user. Spells of this tier gain the 'ga' suffix.
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But aren't Evolved Limits supposed to cost 200 Lux?
 
Having thought on it a bit, I'm gonna go with this:

[X] Go on ahead, alone. You'll travel faster with less chance of being caught. If there is a stronger Heartless up ahead, better that you find out quickly.
—[X] Report back to the others with everything you can glean. Try to coordinate and work together as a team to bring it down. You'll forfeit a large share of the Lux and probably come last in the leaderboards, but at least everyone will be safe, right? You don't think they'd hold you back a year for passing with a low score...

Specifically, we should report back and coordinate with Lapis. She wants the chance to smack things around that aren't just Ephemer's leftovers, and we want 1) her to not get chumped (this is a bit of an assumption on my part, but not a wild one, right?), 2) to not have to fight something on our own, and 3) to not have to split our Lux five ways. This way we can both be winners!

Unless the Lux from a given Heartless is an indivisible unit, in which case splitting things two ways isn't really different than splitting them five ways from our perspective because we'll probably still get nothing.
 
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[X] Go on ahead, alone. You'll travel faster with less chance of being caught. If there is a stronger Heartless up ahead, better that you find out quickly.
—[X] Report back to the others with everything you can glean. Try to coordinate and work together as a team to bring it down. You'll forfeit a large share of the Lux and probably come last in the leaderboards, but at least everyone will be safe, right? You don't think they'd hold you back a year for passing with a low score...
 
[X] Go on ahead, alone. You'll travel faster with less chance of being caught. If there is a stronger Heartless up ahead, better that you find out quickly.
—[X] Report back to the others with everything you can glean. Try to coordinate and work together as a team to bring it down. You'll forfeit a large share of the Lux and probably come last in the leaderboards, but at least everyone will be safe, right? You don't think they'd hold you back a year for passing with a low score...
 
[X] Go on ahead, alone. You'll travel faster with less chance of being caught. If there is a stronger Heartless up ahead, better that you find out quickly.
—[X] Report back to the others with everything you can glean. Try to coordinate and work together as a team to bring it down. You'll forfeit a large share of the Lux and probably come last in the leaderboards, but at least everyone will be safe, right? You don't think they'd hold you back a year for passing with a low score...
 
ZerbanDaGreat said:
Anguis. You remember now. Years ago, when Foreteller Ava kindly asked your class to choose a Union you believed deep in your heart you would belong to, you swore yourself to them. You reasoned that since you already felt more of a call to the mystic more than the martial in training then the School of the Cobra would nurture that greatest - and in the deeper recesses of your heart you feared how you would fare in some of the situations the other Unions throw their members into. So you made your choice, took your badge. And you were happy.
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Eyyyy shit yeah, I was a bit iffy at the start but I'm super fucking down for this. I'm pretty enthused for being in the Sneaky Stealthy Spy Union with a person who has a low-key cowardly streak. Who hates direct, stand up fighting and wants to minimize the exposure to people they actually care about. Who absolutely prefers the idea of being the scalpel making the clean, precise, surgical strike than the warrior brawling it out on the front lines. Who can, pretty deftly, be talked into aiding and abetting all kinds of shady shit for the sake of keeping the peace, for keeping secrets and protecting their friends, because What This Person I Care About Doesn't Know Won't Hurt Them And I Hate Hurting Loved Ones Above All.

I'm excited!

Also

>all these people voting for the buddying up


[X] Go on ahead, alone. You'll travel faster with less chance of being caught. If there isa stronger Heartless up ahead, better that you find out quickly.
—[X] Take it on your own, while you're still fresh and ready for anything. With no one to share the Lux with, you're certain to top the leaderboard. And with all those Shadows, the others should at least gather enough Lux to satisfy their Foretellers, right?

These people aren't our friends, we explicitly barely know them and they barely know us, we've just been shoved together on a team for the Forest of Death style obligatory anime examination. If you read the passage on how they're fighting they're pretty clearly a team that's loosely just wading through the trash mobs. Not really working together, no signs of actual co-ordination, aaaand they're all doing better than us.

And have no real obligation to bail us out if shit gets save for the "if one of you eats it you all fail" implication. Plus:

ZerbanDaGreat said:
Union Cross, so named as one of the rare few times when a member from each Union must work together. Ordinarily to face a particularly powerful threat in need of a diverse fighting force, but in this case it's merely another part of the test. How well will you fare when you're thrown to the wolves, when the only ally at your back is one you just met? Can you pull through? Will you cooperate? Will you excel? Will you make your Union proud, or fall behind?
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There's a lot of metrics here and they're not all congruent, at least a few are at odds. This isn't just a clean, objective grade: How Well Do You Impress Your Union is a pretty big factor and there's the implication that appealing to Anguis more directly will absolve us of at least a few other sins (namely, by gathering intel on the other promising candidates). That said us ending this with no Lux is a bad look and a bit of an embarrassment for our faction, so ideally we want something that'll show off our ability to deliver calculated blows to maximum effect, ideally while also displaying a healthy streak of ruthless opportunism and a good head for when and where to take risks, to gamble. Because that's what being an Anguis is all about.

Even if we get dinged for going off on our own, pulling out ahead in a very Anguis way is going to appeal to the people whose opinions actually matter to us (we have a pretty tight-knit monkeysphere per chargen) and! Sows some pretty neat seeds of future conflict as we become That Killstealing Fuck to the rest of the protagonist team.
 
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TenfoldShields said:
These people aren't our friends, we explicitly barely know them and they barely know us, we've just been shoved together on a team for the Forest of Death style obligatory anime examination. If you read the passage on how they're fighting they're pretty clearly a team that's loosely just wading through the trash mobs. Not really working together, no signs of actual co-ordination, aaaand they're all doing better than us.

And have no real obligation to bail us out if shit gets save for the "if one of you eats it you all fail" implication. Plus:



There's a lot of metrics here and they're not all congruent, at least a few are at odds. This isn't just a clean, objective grade: How Well Do You Impress Your Union is a pretty big factor and there's the implication that appealing to Anguis more directly will absolve us of at least a few other sins (namely, by gathering intel on the other promising candidates). That said us ending this with no Lux is a bad look and a bit of an embarrassment for our faction, so ideally we want something that'll show off our ability to deliver calculated blows to maximum effect, ideally while also displaying a healthy streak of ruthless opportunism and a good head for when and where to take risks, to gamble. Because that's what being an Anguis is all about.

Even if we get dinged for going off on our own, pulling out ahead in a very Anguis way is going to appeal to the people whose opinions actually matter to us (we have a pretty tight-knit monkeysphere per chargen) and! Sows some pretty neat seeds of future conflict as we become That Killstealing Fuck to the rest of the protagonist team.
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This is pretty close to my assessment, though I'm not familiar enough with Kingdom Hearts (anymore) to know what being an Anguis is really all about (I assumed they'd be pretty risk-averse tbh). My main issue is that I don't think we're gonna be able to take on a more powerful Heartless by ourselves and will end up having to get bailed out by strangers anyway, which is much worse.

We're sneaky stealth with an aversion to combat; I doubt we're going to catch up to them by joining them outright, and there's no telling how impressive information on random rookies will be if they all turn out to be washouts (kinda doubtful that will be the case due to trope rules, but realistically it's possible) and we have neither any Lux nor any cooperative ability to show for it. At least this way we get to show more ability to cooperate and coordinate with others. If they don't play ball, that's on their heads.
 
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[X] Go on ahead, alone. You'll travel faster with less chance of being caught. If there isa stronger Heartless up ahead, better that you find out quickly.
—[X] Take it on your own, while you're still fresh and ready for anything. With no one to share the Lux with, you're certain to top the leaderboard. And with all those Shadows, the others should at least gather enough Lux to satisfy their Foretellers, right?
 
DeepWaters said:
This is pretty close to my assessment, though I'm not familiar enough with Kingdom Hearts (anymore) to know what being an Anguis is really all about (I assumed they'd be pretty risk-averse tbh). My main issue is that I don't think we're gonna be able to take on a more powerful Heartless by ourselves and will end up having to get bailed out by strangers anyway, which is much worse.
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I know jack about Kingdom Hearts too but just going off of Chargen and some of the fluff on the skills, Anguis emphasizes a balanced approach to physical combat ability and magic, integrating the two and employing both of them in equal measure. Beyond that: Anguis is explicitly the Union of spies, scouts, and intrigue-types with a generous dash of the sorcererous. They're the left hand of the ruling Union, Unicornis, and are tasked with watching their brother and sister factions. It means that they're set apart from the rest of the others in a significant way, regarded with a wary kind of respect and a generous measure of distrust. They know your secrets, knowing your secrets is their entire deal, but nobody likes that itch-between-the-shoulderblades feeling of being observed.

You're not wrong to say that they're risk averse but I think it's only part of the whole story. Because to actually do their jobs, to watch the Darkness and keep tabs on their brothers-in-arms Anguis absolutely has to take risks. So it's mostly a matter of constantly taking in information, gauging the odds and deciding when and where to commit and once you do hard-committing because hesitation can and will trip you up and fuck you up and leave you exposed. They go for that crucial blow that brings the whole thing down rather than just kicking down the door and beating face.

But yeah to cycle it around: Aevum hasn't seen much, if any, actual combat and is pretty well rested overall so if there's any time for it it's right now. Taking into account the fact that it's a test so they're not going to be throwing in, like, Dire Helljaw Skullfuckers at us it's probably something that an increasingly worn out team could take together in the mid-late stages. Or one person going in full could manage if they got the jump on it and got lucky.
 
[X] Go on ahead, alone. You'll travel faster with less chance of being caught. If there isa stronger Heartless up ahead, better that you find out quickly.
—[X] Take it on your own, while you're still fresh and ready for anything. With no one to share the Lux with, you're certain to top the leaderboard. And with all those Shadows, the others should at least gather enough Lux to satisfy their Foretellers, right?
 
TenfoldShields said:
I know jack about Kingdom Hearts too but just going off of Chargen and some of the fluff on the skills, Anguis emphasizes a balanced approach to physical combat ability and magic, integrating the two and employing both of them in equal measure. Beyond that: Anguis is explicitly the Union of spies, scouts, and intrigue-types with a generous dash of the sorcererous. They're the left hand of the ruling Union, Unicornis, and are tasked with watching their brother and sister factions. It means that they're set apart from the rest of the others in a significant way, regarded with a wary kind of respect and a generous measure of distrust. They know your secrets, knowing your secrets is their entire deal, but nobody likes that itch-between-the-shoulderblades feeling of being observed.

You're not wrong to say that they're risk averse but I think it's only part of the whole story. Because to actually do their jobs, to watch the Darkness and keep tabs on their brothers-in-arms Anguis absolutely has to take risks. So it's mostly a matter of constantly taking in information, gauging the odds and deciding when and where to commit and once you do hard-committing because hesitation can and will trip you up and fuck you up and leave you exposed. They go for that crucial blow that brings the whole thing down rather than just kicking down the door and beating face.

But yeah to cycle it around: Aevum hasn't seen much, if any, actual combat and is pretty well rested overall so if there's any time for it it's right now. Taking into account the fact that it's a test so they're not going to be throwing in, like, Dire Helljaw Skullfuckers at us it's probably something that an increasingly worn out team could take together in the mid-late stages. Or one person going in full could manage if they got the jump on it and got lucky.
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Hm, okay, I'm pretty convinced by that logic. That said, you're implying a level of flexibility for the Anguis mindset that isn't present in the votes. If we're spies who are all about assessing risks and being opportunistic, wouldn't it be better to make the decision only after we've seen it and at least have an idea of whether we can take it out on our own? Depending on how risky it looks, we take credit for taking down the boss while everyone else was wasting time with the trash mooks or we go back and get everyone, pretending we were going to play ball all along. Seems far more fitting for a cunning snake than deciding one way or the other right now.
 
Sounds like fun

[X] Go on ahead, alone. You'll travel faster with less chance of being caught. If there isa stronger Heartless up ahead, better that you find out quickly.
—[X] Take it on your own, while you're still fresh and ready for anything. With no one to share the Lux with, you're certain to top the leaderboard. And with all those Shadows, the others should at least gather enough Lux to satisfy their Foretellers, right?
 
DeepWaters said:
Hm, okay, I'm pretty convinced by that logic. That said, you're implying a level of flexibility for the Anguis mindset that isn't present in the votes. If we're spies who are all about assessing risks and being opportunistic, wouldn't it be better to make the decision only after we've seen it and at least have an idea of whether we can take it out on our own? Depending on how risky it looks, we take credit for taking down the boss while everyone else was wasting time with the trash mooks or we go back and get everyone, pretending we were going to play ball all along. Seems far more fitting for a cunning snake than deciding one way or the other right now.
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Tbf that's partly 'cause that's getting into the if-then stuff that Quests can slip into where voters, by habit or a sorta conservative/cautious nature, try to get as much done with a choicepoint as possible or cover as many bases as they can. Like if there was an option that was exactly the midpoint between "take it on if you can but team fight it if you can't" everyone would probably just vote for that because it's got the upsides of both with the downsides of neither and then it's not much of a discussion or debate at all.

So this is just more an artifact of quest-structure I think. The "if you can't fight it you're going to need to run away like a Huge Hero or get bailed out" is implicit to the decision imo, and Zerban's otherwise trying to force like- commitment would be the word I think? Make us commit to a clear course of action, each with their own risks and opposed possible rewards.
 
[X] Go on ahead, alone. You'll travel faster with less chance of being caught. If there isa stronger Heartless up ahead, better that you find out quickly.
—[X] Take it on your own, while you're still fresh and ready for anything. With no one to share the Lux with, you're certain to top the leaderboard. And with all those Shadows, the others should at least gather enough Lux to satisfy their Foretellers, right?
 
TenfoldShields said:
Tbf that's partly 'cause that's getting into the if-then stuff that Quests can slip into where voters, by habit or a sorta conservative/cautious nature, try to get as much done with a choicepoint as possible or cover as many bases as they can. Like if there was an option that was exactly the midpoint between "take it on if you can but team fight it if you can't" everyone would probably just vote for that because it's got the upsides of both with the downsides of neither and then it's not much of a discussion or debate at all.

So this is just more an artifact of quest-structure I think. The "if you can't fight it you're going to need to run away like a Huge Hero or get bailed out" is implicit to the decision imo, and Zerban's otherwise trying to force like- commitment would be the word I think? Make us commit to a clear course of action, each with their own risks and opposed possible rewards.
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Tbf, if any situation was the best kind to do that in, it'd be one where the character actually is aspiring to be the kind of person who hedges their bets like that. There's something to be said for establishing right off the bat that the main character can coldbloodedly plan to deceive their comrades about their motives in order to make themselves look better, too, but ultimately that's far less risk-reward than the other options. It's a bit anti-thematic (and also makes my inner powergamer a bit sad, not gonna lie) but I've seen just that kind of overly-detailed decision tree voting happen often enough to understand why it'd be a terrible idea, so think I'll just go ahead and switch votes. :V

[X] Go on ahead, alone. You'll travel faster with less chance of being caught. If there isa stronger Heartless up ahead, better that you find out quickly.
—[X] Take it on your own, while you're still fresh and ready for anything. With no one to share the Lux with, you're certain to top the leaderboard. And with all those Shadows, the others should at least gather enough Lux to satisfy their Foretellers, right?
 
[X] Go on ahead, alone. You'll travel faster with less chance of being caught. If there isa stronger Heartless up ahead, better that you find out quickly.
—[X] Take it on your own, while you're still fresh and ready for anything. With no one to share the Lux with, you're certain to top the leaderboard. And with all those Shadows, the others should at least gather enough Lux to satisfy their Foretellers, right?
 
Was initially thinking of teaming up with the others to avoid antagonizing the group as most of them are (or well in canon, anyway who knows here?) important characters, while still letting us rack up some lux versus going ahead and coming back with info and probably being left with barely anything, or getting wiped from going solo, but I'm convinced.

[X] Go on ahead, alone. You'll travel faster with less chance of being caught. If there isa stronger Heartless up ahead, better that you find out quickly.
—[X] Take it on your own, while you're still fresh and ready for anything. With no one to share the Lux with, you're certain to top the leaderboard. And with all those Shadows, the others should at least gather enough Lux to satisfy their Foretellers, right?

On a side note,
We're sticking with Blaine here as his name despite the new info, and his name probably being a reference to the Brain virus?
Brain (computer virus) - Wikipedia
 
Shura12305 said:
On a side note,
We're sticking with Blaine here as his name despite the new info, and his name probably being a reference to the Brain virus?
Brain (computer virus) - Wikipedia
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Imma keep it real witchu chief, no matter the story justifications or references being made, I am not going to suffer the 'smart guy' being named fucking Brain in anything produced by my hands.
 
ZerbanDaGreat said:
A simple sleeveless black top leaving your narrow, rounded shoulders bare. Long gloves that fade evenly from black at the bicep to midnight blue at the fingertips - you got used to wearing gloves to prevent spell backfire as a cadet, it's just become a habit now. An ankle-length, royal blue half-skirt affixed at the waist by a silver clasp, frozen mid-ripple in the glass as if underwater. Black shorts and leggings with silver-chased shoes beneath that. And -hah- even your powder-blue hood is up.
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So I've got some questions. What's the body type like? How old is she? What kind of face has she got, a sleepy looking one or? What's her hair like? How is her hood attached to her clothes?
 
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Camellia said:
So I've got some questions. What's the body type like? How old is she? What kind of face has she got, a sleepy looking one or? What's her hair like? How is her hood attached to her clothes?
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Oh god I'm sorry my alerts borked or I would've seen this sooner. Right, so;

1) Aevum is nonbinary. That can be difficult to naturally convey in a second-person narrative but I referred to them as 'they' in the character sheet informational posts.
2) Feminine but athletic, following the Defence>Magic>Strength attribute priority. So crap for muscle definition and definitely androgynous but the lean muscle to be going leaping around and slinging keys around.
3) 16 currently, but the quest will cover multiple years as they advance in their Union so if this is just a general illustration it could be from later in that timeline too.
4) Depends, if you're doing their image on the Station of Awakening then they're asleep but generally they've got a more intense and intelligent kind of look on their face since part of the training is to be observant and think things through.
5) About shoulder-length and kind of wavy, mostly kept back and out of the eyes apart from maybe one or two bangs.
6) Either it's a part of their top or it's just a sort of free-floating hood they threw on like a bit of loose gear going in a free head slot - Anguis has a kind of hood theme going on to evoke the hood of a cobra, so whatever form works best.
 
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[X] Hang back and observe. They've got it under control so far, and sometimes information can be just as valuable as Lux. You may come last in the leaderboards, but a detailed report to your Foreteller about some of the best and brightest in the other Unions may earn you a commendation yet.

Stand Still, Stay Silent, Secure Secrets.
 
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