Shards of a Broken Sun [Megaten/Shugo Chara/Exalted]

I dunno.

Suzushina Yuriko may not be a thing, but Imagine if it were a certain black-haired young man with a right arm able to Break any psychic effect or construct upon contact.

Would be rotten luck to run into, or so you'd think. Until you realize this guy is also hyper-specialized and doesn't do so well when actual weapons are involved. There are only 2 things he's really any good at - breaking psychic stuff and preaching. Incidentally, Micchan would also love him and have a huge crush him.

But I think we could take that guy.
We have no reason to expect to find someone on this trip who specifically hard-counters all our abilities, but has no response prepared for knives. If we do find someone who hard-counters all our abilities, the appropriate response will be to run, not to try throwing a real knife (without TK?) and hope it works. (And if our TK does work, we have better options than knives.)
 
.......It was mostly a joke, that was meant to be a Toaru/Raildex reference.

But there is actually a reason. Such a hyper-specialized psychic - one who nullifies psychic abilities, but can't handle mundane weapons - would be the perfect attack asset for an organization who needed to hunt psychics, yet couldn't afford to trust their own. He would be sent alongside handlers armed with mundane weapons, who aren't just there to back him up, but meant to shoot him if he tries anything funny. He wouldn't be given a gun - he'd mainly be there as a psychicproof shield and walking set of psychic handcuffs.

Running away from trouble and letting someone more well-armed deal with it would be ideal, but let's face it - if that were always possible to do, this wouldn't be much of a quest.
 
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Nothing to see here, I just need an (actually unrelated) dice roll.
Baughn threw 3 6-faced dice. Reason: Micchan's situation Total: 10
6 6 3 3 1 1
 
Aww great. So Micchan is secretly suffering in the background - or else if not actually suffering, at least ran into trouble that could have resulted in her suffering, contingent on a dice roll.

Probably mind-read somebody she wasn't supposed to. Not sure whether the 10 is good or bad thing for her.

Either way, means we now have a good idea what the next plotline is going to be once we're done with the Scavengers (assuming "unrelated" means that whoever Micchan met with wasn't linked to the Scavenger business).
 
Either way, means we now have a good idea what the next plotline is going to be once we're done with the Scavengers (assuming "unrelated" means that whoever Micchan met with wasn't linked to the Scavenger business).
Don't read too much into that. Instead, read too much into this!


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6gGE9kxe1M

It's only about 70% accurate though.
 
All you gotta do is follow the Director, guy saved Amu from one reality break, why not the rest of them too?

......Unless the current one's mind has been corrupted by demons and is about to unleash them all in the name of salvation, and it's really the successor Director, his twin sister Miyako, that we need to follow.

But surely our good friend Hotsuin is more reliable than that, eh?
 
[X][Party] Amu, Midori, Utau
-[X] Suggest that Midori and Utau don disguises, or at least permit an Illusion to disguise their faces when going out.
[X][Approach] Psychic Wardriving: Pile into the family car. Use psionic abilities to check the house and surroundings while driving past. Tell Utau to try and put up Illusions to change the numberplate and color of the car.
[X] Bring Hikaru's ward stone.

That was on purpose. There's no point in rolling a d20 when I don't have twenty different outcomes.
I was thinking d10 rather than d20, but I guess this means you wanted to choose between... 16 different outcomes? Or maybe... eh, whatever.
 
I was thinking d10 rather than d20, but I guess this means you wanted to choose between... 16 different outcomes? Or maybe... eh, whatever.
It's three rolls for her level of competence at three different points in time. YMMV on how great that progression is, but if this were some kind of major event then I wouldn't likely be leaving it up to dice. Paranoia kills!

Bonus picture of Makoto in her current situation. Remember, Amu's classmate?

= = =

Anyhow, the vote closes in 23 hours.
 
Bonus picture of Makoto in her current situation. Remember, Amu's classmate?
The electricity user.

Makoto's full name wouldn't happen to be Makoto Kino, would it? Her eyes aren't green in this image, but given there were 5 girls in her battle group and one of them had healing powers that felt like Amu's "moon-shard".......
It's three rolls for her level of competence at three different points in time.
So it's not a single somebody she shouldn't have tried to read, it was 3 different people. One went fine. One went too well. One sucked.

At least we'll likely get Hikaru's help with whatever it is, since the fiasco is invariably going to drag in Ami. That means potentially access to Easter assets. If nothing else, THEY won't need to take 3 hours to fetch us a boombox and an SUV.
 
Makoto's full name wouldn't happen to be Makoto Kino, would it? Her eyes aren't green in this image, but given there were 5 girls in her battle group and one of them had healing powers that felt like Amu's "moon-shard".......
No... and if anyone were to gain powers from the Moon around here, they'd inevitably be destruction-focused. If anything, she's modelled off Mikoto.

Apart from electricity and running, she's also excellent at cooking!
 
No... and if anyone were to gain powers from the Moon around here, they'd inevitably be destruction-focused. If anything, she's modelled off Mikoto.

Apart from electricity and running, she's also excellent at cooking!
Please, please tell me she doesn't have a whole army of clone sisters running around everywhere who refer to themselves in the third-person (ignoring that in Japanese it is apparently considered cute to use your own name to refer to yourself).
 
Please, please tell me she doesn't have a whole army of clone sisters running around everywhere who refer to themselves in the third-person (ignoring that in Japanese it is apparently considered cute to use your own name to refer to yourself).
It's not a crossover. It's barely even a cameo, and this is somewhat offtopic. But in the interest of reducing your paranoia: Mako-chan has four siblings. Two older brothers, an older sister, and a younger sister. She also has a father, though her mother died three years ago. She does not have any clones, twins, magical duplicates or other indications of Misaka-ness, and her super-strength was developed through sheer self-defence from regularly having to armwrestle her brothers over whose job it is to do the dishes after her cooking.
 
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Vote closed
Scheduled vote count started by Baughn on Jan 15, 2024 at 10:01 PM, finished with 111 posts and 14 votes.

  • [X][Party] Amu, Midori, Utau
    [X][Approach] Psychic Wardriving: Pile into the family car. Use psionic abilities to check the house and surroundings while driving past. Tell Utau to try and put up Illusions to change the numberplate and color of the car.
    [X] Bring Hikaru's ward stone.
    [X][Party] Amu, Midori, Utau
    -[X] Suggest that Midori and Utau don disguises, or at least permit an Illusion to disguise their faces when going out.
    [X][Approach] Psychic Wardriving: Pile into the family car. Use psionic abilities to check the house and surroundings while driving past. Tell Utau to try and put up Illusions to change the numberplate and color of the car.
    [X] Bring Hikaru's ward stone.
    [X] Plan 'Chaperoned Date'
    -[X][Party] Amu, Utau and Midori
    --[X] Let's not take the entire family, since well. Amu has been being chased by the media. Her family is going to be recognisable.
    --[X] Utau is a 'better' psionic to have as back up for an emergency.
    ---[X] Utau is going to be very annoyed if Amu dives into another situation without her, and there's no reason not to bring her. Disguised, of course.
    --[X] Ask Midori for permission to read just her emotions while investigating / during conversation with the Scavengers.
    ---[X] We don't want Amu having to avoid a certain 'area' or blocking her ears.
    -[X] Miki, Ami and Tsumugu stay at home.
    --[X] Let's not bring another psionic kid in range of the group that kidnaps psionic children. Ami is very capable, but Kana hasn't solo'd Manticore yet, so they've clearly figured out mental defences to some extent since the Scavengers escaped.
    --[X] Miki is already passing out, she is not going to be useful for this, especially since we don't know what her actual psionic abilities are like this, or if she can still Chara Change with Amu.
    ---[X] Ask about this, if Miki is up to answering.
    --[X] Tsumugu knows JPs the best, and they are our emergency button. Him being outside of active event range seems useful.
    ---[X] Give him Lulu's number if there isn't a better JPs number available.
    -[X] Bring Hikaru's ward stone thingy - it might be useful.
    -[X][Approach] Collaborate with Utau, using the Key for it's boost, to check at range. Hopefully higher range than the sidewalk.
    --[X] Amu and Utau will know what their max range is, and if they can use their bond & the Key to take it further.
    [X][Party] Amu and Midori
    [X][Approach] A casual stroll past the Scavengers. Just some random passersby.
    [X] Plan 'Chaperoned Date'
    -[X][Party] Amu, Utau and Midori
    --[X] Let's not take the entire family, since well. Amu has been being chased by the media. Her family is going to be recognisable.
    --[X] Utau is a 'better' psionic to have as back up for an emergency.
    ---[X] Utau is going to be very annoyed if Amu dives into another situation without her, and there's no reason not to bring her. Disguised, of course.
    --[X] Ask Midori for permission to read just her emotions while investigating / during conversation with the Scavengers.
    ---[X] We don't want Amu having to avoid a certain 'area' or blocking her ears.
    -[X] Miki, Ami and Tsumugu stay at home.
    --[X] Let's not bring another psionic kid in range of the group that kidnaps psionic children. Ami is very capable, but Kana hasn't solo'd Manticore yet, so they've clearly figured out mental defences to some extent since the Scavengers escaped.
    --[X] Miki is already passing out, she is not going to be useful for this, especially since we don't know what her actual psionic abilities are like this, or if she can still Chara Change with Amu.
    ---[X] Ask about this, if Miki is up to answering.
    --[X] Tsumugu knows JPs the best, and they are our emergency button. Him being outside of active event range seems useful.
    ---[X] Give him Lulu's number if there isn't a better JPs number available.
    -[X] Bring Hikaru's ward stone thingy - it might be useful.
    -[X][Approach] Collaborate with Utau, using the Key for it's boost, to check at range. Hopefully higher range than the sidewalk.
    --[X] Amu and Utau will know what their max range is, and if they can use their bond & the Key to take it further.
    [X] Plan: Contactless Check-In
    -[X][Party] Ami and Amu
    --[X] Ami's the more experienced dreamwalker, and this shouldn't put either of you in direct physical danger
    -[X][Approach] Use Dreamwalking in order to contact Kana to figure out why she stopped texting you, and whether she's in danger
    [X][Party] Amu, Miki, Midori, Tsumugu and Ami
    [X][Approach] A casual stroll past the Scavengers. Just some random passersby.
 
OK- I gotta admit, there might be something there about shorter and more concise votes. Work Smarter Not Harder, Time Is Money, KISS Not Makeup and all that... or, less charitably, maybe just Twitter brains and TikTok conditioning.

But type less, profit more, I guess.

At least sometimes.
 
Right. I missed this earlier, but- Utau can't handle illusions of that type. She's worse at it than Amu, actually. Very much mentally focused.

Amu can roll for it. It'll be difficulty 2, Illusion + Perception + Awareness. She has a decent shot.

Ami would automatically succeed, but I don't think Midori would let her come, all things considered.

I can reopen the vote, if this will be a problem.
 
Does Ami actually have to be there for the Illusion to be maintained? We know she can make things that last, like Amu's present - or would an Illusory coat of paint that sticks around outside her Mental Range take a prohibitively long time for her to produce and set back the setup time by so long that it would require a vote on it?

EDIT: There is a mundane alternative that I can think of, which is to drive to Utau's place to pick her up (instead of have her come to us) and then borrow Nikaidou's SUV for the trip, but that would also probably require voting for it (unless Utau were to suggest it on her own when Amu calls and invites her). And I guess that would also only work if it turned out it was the boombox rather than the SUV that needed 3 hours for Utau to find.
 
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Does Ami actually have to be there for the Illusion to be maintained? We know she can make things that last, like Amu's present - or would an Illusory coat of paint that sticks around outside her Mental Range take a prohibitively long time for her to produce and set back the setup time by so long that it would require a vote on it?
Insightful.

The simple answer is that they don't know. Some of her work seems to last forever—there's no hint of degradation on the gift she made for Amu, or the trinkets she's pulled out of dreams. Others easily fade; the cave she made under the living room coffee table was perfectly real, in that she was able to touch it and go inside it, but it disappeared within a few minutes of Ami losing interest.

Illusion 2 is the threshold at which you can make things you can touch (without using telekinesis), and things that last, but it's fair to say that the latter requires a lot more work.

Ami herself thinks that if she spends fifteen minutes on it, she can make an illusion that'll stay there for an hour at least. It's up to you if you want to believe her.

For what it's worth, she's very much up to going along.

EDIT: To clarify, the difficulty Amu has with hiding the number plate is basically that she has to keep doing so, consistently, while unable to see it.
 
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I'll leave it to other people to have their say whether they think it's worth reopening the vote for it.

I could see it being 50-50 on needing to disguise the car.

Their vehicle might very well be followed by reporters. But they could still get away with not being noticed if nobody actually sees them park and exit given they are in disguise. And if they never end up exiting the vehicle, it wouldn't really matter anyway. Depending on what interrupts them during their trip (i.e. Manticore attack), @Quickshot0 had the point that there's a possibility having cameras around might be an inadvertent benefit.

On the other hand, they could be followed by reporters. And depending on what they run in to (i.e. Manticore attack), may not want to leave their numberplate exposed.

I don't know how much appetite there is for reopening the vote, though.
Ami herself thinks that if she spends fifteen minutes on it, she can make an illusion that'll stay there for an hour at least. It's up to you if you want to believe her.
Could Miki do it, or does her arts specialization as a Chara not carry over to psionically painting vehicles as Big Miki?

What about a joint action between Ami + Amu or Ami + Miki?
 
Could Miki do it, or does her arts specialization as a Chara not carry over to psionically painting vehicles as Big Miki?

What about a joint action between Ami + Amu or Ami + Miki?
She's never tried. In theory yes, it could well carry over; in practice Miki has simply never experimented in this manner, it's not something a chara does. Of course she blew out that wall quite thoroughly by turning herself into Big Miki, but that in itself is the product of months of effort. Ami is far more inclined to play with illusions because they're neat and pretty; Miki wants them to be for something, even if it's just 'for a portrait'.3

Of course she's more than likely to change her behaviour once she's seen that it matters, but that's not going to help straight away.
 
She's never tried. In theory yes, it could well carry over; in practice Miki has simply never experimented in this manner, it's not something a chara does.
Smol Charas don't, but Miki-fused-with-Amu AKA Amulet Spade wields a giant paintbrush and had no problem throwing paint everywhere. Honestly, most of my assumptions about what Big Miki would be capable of psionically are based on what Amulet Spade would be capable of.

Getting the impression that's not really guaranteed to be the case anymore.

For this particular event, considering we can just tell Miki she's painting "for a full-body decal artwork" on the car, I'm not actually too concerned about Miki's mindset needing to be in the right place, moreso whether anything she makes would actually last a whole trip and back and could be done quickly.

EDIT:
If anybody does want to reopen the vote, some options I can think of are:

[ ] Pick up Utau, ask if they could borrow Nikaidou's car.
[ ] Ask Ami/Miki if they can make lasting Illusory car decals and/or a fake numberplate that will hold up for the trip.
[ ] Bring Ami along, ask her to actively hold up an Illusion on the car.
[ ] The old-fashioned way - smear mud on the numberplate and deface the body to make it harder to recognize, fix it later with Suu.
 
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You'll have a couple of hours. If no-one decides to change their vote within (let's say) 4 hours, then I'll go ahead and call it. FWIW, the chance of getting followed by reporters isn't that big really.
 
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