TomoFlake (Original Tokusatsu-Adjacent Quest)

1.2 -- Journal of the Iron Vow

At the time you knew you were going out for Judo. It was your first year, and after the hell that was high school, college was, if anything, a relief.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, aside from Ichigo himself, none of your friends from the judo club were there. Their exam scores were always middling at best, and your best guess from hearing some of them talk was that they were largely traditionalists-- people with heavy parental expectations and even heavier legacies.

The second thing that struck you about the place-- or, at least, the club itself-- is how outlandish everyone but you looked. It's like they got out of high school, decided they were glad that was over, and rinsed the black dye out of their hair and cut it as wildly as they could manage. The gi were similarly in tune with each girl's aesthetic.

One of them stops the both of you, and in a heartbeat, you despair. She's everything you had hoped to grow up to be. Tall, warm, confident. Red hair of a color that is almost certainly dyed to get that way, even if she was a redhead naturally. Her gi was a little careworn, but had seen as much care as it had tough days. She looked down at you, smiled, and looked back at Ichigo. "Boys' team is over there."

You raised your hand when Ichigo walked over to the boys' side and let up a cheer. "I'm here to join."

The woman blinked, then her expression softened. "Mm. We'll be doing tryouts all this week. What did you say your name was?"

"... I didn't. Torioi Mei."

Saying your name made a few of the prospective team members look up, and some of them even seemed to recognize you. "Oh, it is Torioi," one of them said.

"Well, there's a good start. Name's Sakaki Hanabi," she said, and you can just tell she spelled it weird. "I'm the captain of the team this year. Let's see how you work with the team."

With not much else to say from the captain, you were left with a simple enough task to write down in your journal--

Inciting Vow: I swear I will join the judo team.
Rank: Troublesome

And remembered how you justified it to yourself at the time. You had your own ambitions, of course, but you made a promise to, among other things, keep Ichigo safe. This was the perfect ambition to see that along.

Of course, all well and good to say. But one thing to hold a goal in your heart, and another to see it writ.

"I'd be glad to," you said, bowing politely, as you had been taught.

The circle was soon drawn between yourself and one of the seniors who was trying out again this year. A streak of green hair matched eyes that were probably contacts, and she had, a bit tastelessly, torn the lower half of the sleeves in her gi. "So you're Torioi? I'm Yagami. I've heard a lot about you from the people who came in after me. It's good to see someone with a little fire."

You weren't sure how to take that, and simply nod. "I'll look forward to your instruction, then."

It quickly became clear that they bring Yagami out when they wanted to crush the dreams of those with ambition, but neither the talent nor the experience to be in a college team. She took a certain delight in not just landing the throw, but landing it in a way that meant you had to roll or shift to avoid injuries. You win as often as you lose, but the fact was, after half an hour of this, you were not only still standing, but found you were enjoying yourself immensely.

After all, it was exactly this kind of moment that made you want to shine the hardest.

Yagami, however, seemed confused by how you kept getting up. "You're pretty good," she said, when the time had come to switch partners.

"I had to learn to fall a lot," you explained. "After all, my main training partner was the friend I came in with."

Yagami paused, and looked over at Ichigo, who at that moment was participating in a group movement exercise. She looks back at you with a slightly more interested appraisal. "Is that so? Interesting."

... Well that was an odd way to put it. "Why so? My parents introduced him to me early on in elementary school."

"Ahhh, so you go that far back?"

You nodded.

"Very interesting."

You got the strangest feeling that there was a half of this conversation you were not privy to. "Well, good luck with the next partner. Don't tear them apart too hard."

She paused, blinked, and then laughed, a big, loud, belly laugh that rang out across the practice floor. "You got it, Torioi!"

You squared up with another freshman and your practice continued.

#

After practice, you and Ichigo met up to head back to the apartments. "What did you think of the place?" he asked, once the group had broken up.

"How do you mean?" you replied. "Did something seem out of place to you?"

"I dunno, I just felt like I was being... watched." Ichigo shrugged his shoulders like he was trying on an ill-fitting coat.

You remember sighing at the time, but this was really where it all began. "I mean, we are trying out for a serious club. Of course we're being watched."

"That's... Not quite what I mean," Ichigo said. Once again you found yourself irritated at the closemouthed nature of everyone around you. "But yeah, that's probably it, isn't it? Are you planning to go for it?"

You nodded. "Yeah. What about you?"

"I don't know," Ichigo said. "I seem to fit in well enough but I can't help but feel... Jumpy. But I guess a year off will do that to you, huh?"

You nodded again. "And if it's not, I'll help."

#

April 19th, Saturday.

You of course kept, and continue to keep, your own apartment immaculately clean as you go. You wish you could say the same for Ichigo, who seems to leave an explosion of mess no matter what he was actually doing. You had long since given up on making his bed properly. He insisted that sleeping on top of the blankets was the right way to sleep, and since he never seemed tired, and his back never hurt, you weren't about to tell him no.

Still, taking out the trash once in a while would be nice. But then, such has been your life since middle school.

This time, however, there was someone to help:

[] Sakaki-senpai, who lived nearby and was jogging her way to the college for a morning workout.
[] Yagami-senpai You have not formed a specific bond with Yagami-senpai, and while she would normally greet you, she's not going to be caught dead taking out others' trash for them.
[] Someone from the girls' softball team, looking to scout you out.
[] Someone from the girls' archery team, hoping to scout you out.
[] [WRITE-IN RULE] This character must be from a major sports team in the university. They may be sketched in terms of archetypes and descriptions, but their final details are up to me. I reserve the right to veto a character.

This is an approval vote; vote for as many or as few of these characters as you like. You can even vote for Yagami, but it will change the nature of the scene a little.

Voting will open in 45 minutes and remain open until 9PM Thursday.

Hm, before we go any farther, I should explain how rolling is going to work, even though I can't pin it yet...?

When I ask for a "check +<stat>", I will note any adds you have for that move, and then I will need:
-- 1d6 plus the stat and those adds, which are Your Dice,
-- and two 1d10 rolls, called the Fate Dice.

If the d6+ meets or exceeds one d10, it's a weak hit. If the d6+ meets or exceeds both, it's a strong hit. If it's less than both, it's a miss, and we shall have to Pay the Price. Yes, this is softer than Ironsworn. That's intentional.

There is one special case-- Doubles on the Fate Dice indicate a plot twist, for good or for ill. It is, definitionally, always a strong hit or miss, and these represent strokes of fortune. While these are sometimes ignored if the Oracles don't seem relevant, they are always a strong hit or miss, and will be scored accordingly.

At the most extreme, Two Ones is always a Major, beneficient twist of fate. Two Tens is always both a miss AND a Major Plot Twist.

When I say you may "Reroll one die", it means precisely that-- either Your Die or one of the Fate Dice.

When I say you may "Reroll any dice", it means that you get one reroll, Yahtzee rules-- pick any dice you want to keep, and re-roll the others.

General considerations:
-- HARD is the stat of physical strength, directness, and physical endurance. It's for things like lifting boulders, pushing cars, and delivering a hammer blow.
-- QUICK is the stat of manual dexterity, snap aim, fast-talking, and sprinting. It's for things like confusing people, sleight of hand, deception, and picking locks.
-- THOUGHTFUL is the stat of keeping our wits about us, staying cool under pressure, making plans, and understanding information. Chances are, if you have a plan, at least some of its execution comes here. This is also the stat we use when rolling initiative (not that we'll be doing that often.)
-- RAPPORT is the stat of kindness, compassion, charisma, and mental strength. It's the stat you roll when making Iron Vows, calling on bonds, or rallying your sisters in battle. This stat is always important, but in this quest it's essential. As a special note, Testing Bonds is a +RAPPORT roll, and so are certain magics.
-- RESOLUTE is the stat of courage, loyalty, and sheer force of will. It's a special case stat, usually used for Enduring Stress. While RAPPORT seeks to make bonds, RESOLUTE seeks to maintain one's iron in the storm.
-- LUCK is a special stat. You will never roll it directly. Most of the characters you meet don't have it; instead it's replaced by their MAGIC-- be that the more human witchery of SHADOW, or DIVINITY, or some other thing. You, as an entirely normal human, we swear, have LUCK instead. Once per full week, you may reroll any die once, to save you from a horrible twist of fate. Your LUCK is then expended.

-- BODY and STRESS are the trackers you might expect them to be-- physical and mental energy. They may never be above +5.
-- MOMENTUM is also special. It goes up as we get hits, or if there's fan art or fan fiction posted in the thread, that'll get +1 momentum too. It goes down as an option when we Miss. At a player's option, upon seeing the result of the dice, they may instead opt to burn momentum, which changes the result of the d6 to our current Momentum. At the end of burning momentum, the momentum resets to +2, and begins rising and falling as our fates do. Momentum may never rise above +10.

Assets
Assets bend the rules in the character's favor. We start with three and may add more later.

Bonds
Bonds are people you are directly connected to. These are people with whom you have worked together on problems, defended the lives of personally, or undertaken and completed quests for.

Each Bond fills the bond track one tick. As a special consideration for this game only, You may bond with a person more than once, but be warned, Bonds can be Tested and fade if stressed.

Bonds are incredibly important if and when we end this Quest.

DIFFICULTIES
Any form of progress track, from Vows, to Journeys, to Delves, to extended combat, has an associated difficulty. Progress gets filled in boxes, four ticks to a box. You'll note that Bonds are also a track, in this same regard-- every Bond fills the track one tick.
[] empty
[/] one tick
[X] two ticks
[⁎] three ticks
[⁑] full box

Only full boxes count for checking progress directly against Fate.

• Troublesome things are things that will inconvenience you, and might do a little harm, but generally aren't that powerful. Think an unarmed tough, or joining the Judo Club when you got to Nationals in high school and had several awards from it. Progress on Troublesome things goes three full boxes at a time.
• Dangerous things are on an equal footing with you-- they are risky to take on, and will challenge you if you aren't careful or lucky. Marking progress on dangerous is done two boxes at a time.
• Formidable things are a little bit tough. They're longer quests, or a fight against tough opponents, or several on relatively equal footing with you. Formidable tracks fill one box at a time.
• Extreme things are not attempted lightly. They're deadly quests, long delves, combat against ancient beasts, or journeys on foot across half the continent. Extreme quests take two ticks every time they make progress.
• Epic things are exactly what they sound like-- the stuff of legend and song. Fight gods, shake the heavens, reach enlightenment, satisfy a memory of your parents that will not remember you. Epic undertakings mark one tick per progress, just like the Bond track does. (Truly, the most epic thing is the friends we made along the way.)

Progress and Menace

When you overcome obstacles, secure support, or win out over opposition to completing your goals, you get progress! Progress is good.

Some vows have Menace. Usually, this represents rivals, major opponents, or the time-sensitive nature of the Vow. (You can't be somewhere by the next full moon if it's already passed!)

Menace is another form of clock-- In this case, it was to avoid being caught with a bunch of actual escapees. It is individual to each Vow or Progress track in which it applies.

If the menace track fills, we must immediately roll to fulfill Progress (be it "reach your destination", "Fulfill your vow", etc) or accept that our objective is out of reach ("Forsake Your Vow").

Most importantly, You must have at least as many boxes filled as Menace to Fulfill A Vow.

Failures
As a QM note, I will fail Mei forward, which is to say, I will not cut off any avenue because of a roll of the dice, no matter how costly.

That said, Mei has the option to learn from her mistakes, one tick at a time-- specifically, whenever she scores a miss. When she has a chance to rest and recover properly, and takes it, she will attempt to Learn From Her Failures, a progress check off how many boxes of Failure have been filled.

ETA: The Doubles and the Oracles.
ETA 2: Re-roll rules.
ETA 3: DIFFICULTIES.
ETA 4: How ticks work, and Learn From Your Failures.