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

-Oof. Guessing trying to use the Dumpty Key to boost Amu's Mental Range wouldn't quite have gone to plan in that case either.
It's unwise to read to much in to Baughn posts like that, I'm not saying they'd deliberately put you on the wrong track... But just because they said something doesn't mean the original idea was bad. It's quite possible it was good and they said it a certain way because they had to give some kind of response and didn't want to give any indication on the merit of an idea.
 
I mean, if Baughn is suggesting Utau is "more safe" than Amu, I am really not sure how else that can be interpreted besides "Amu is risky".
The risk is that the Scavenger plot gets derailed again, which won't necessarily make for a good story—poor kids!—but there is some risk, yes. Can't deny it. If you feel like trying it regardless, then there's no reason for me to stop you.

Though I will once again point out that the Dumpty Key works perfectly well for Utau. She hasn't used it, since it's more of a keepsake than a tool for her... maybe it's time to change that?

=

Ikuto and Utau's father made them. Utau, it could be argued, has given the locket to Amu. She'd probably prefer Amu to keep it, but she's an understanding young woman. ...no, I'm not going anywhere in particular with this; just thinking out loud.
 
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Oh for...

[X] Forget about disguising the car, t'was a silly idea
[X] Pick up Utau, ask if they could borrow Nikaidou's car.

Either of these are fine, we're not very likely to be followed by reporters, and if we are switching cars will probably throw them off. The point of the original plan was that to an observer from Manticore we look like just another person driving down this street, with nothing to indicate that we're looking for the Scavengers or merit any closer investigation. Dodgy illusions or fake or obscured licence plates potentially break that. Just driving a regular, legal car in a regular, legal way, does not. If we need to make a closer approach we can park the car somewhere else and walk back.
 
Well, Hotsuin is about 70% dragon by weight. And you know what they say about dragons, fair maidens and knights covered in ketchup...

That analogy got away from me, and I'm not sure Amu counts as a fair maiden. But she's caught his eye, which automatically makes any moves against her seem highly dangerous to anyone who knows who he is. The school demon-ing was... extremely public.
 
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Either of these are fine, we're not very likely to be followed by reporters, and if we are switching cars will probably throw them off. The point of the original plan was that to an observer from Manticore we look like just another person driving down this street, with nothing to indicate that we're looking for the Scavengers or merit any closer investigation. Dodgy illusions or fake or obscured licence plates potentially break that. Just driving a regular, legal car in a regular, legal way, does not. If we need to make a closer approach we can park the car somewhere else and walk back.
I think Pistachio wants to park it close enough for it to be a practical getaway vehicle if we need to leave in a hurry? I dunno. We all seem to have very different ideas of the risks here.

Well, Hotsuin is about 70% dragon by weight. And you know what they say about dragons, fair maidens and knights covered in ketchup...

That analogy got away from me, and I'm not sure Amu counts as a fair maiden. But she's caught his eye, which automatically makes any moves against her seem highly dangerous to anyone who knows who he is. The school demon-ing was... extremely public.
Who actually knows Hotsuin has any particular interest in Amu? We've had one conversation, which he tried to walk away from, and it doesn't look like he's made any effort to pay attention to Amu since then. I don't know how many people even know that the one conversation happened.
 
Who actually knows Hotsuin has any particular interest in Amu? We've had one conversation, which he tried to walk away from, and it doesn't look like he's made any effort to pay attention to Amu since then. I don't know how many people even know that the one conversation happened.
Presumably Fumi Kanno, who was also there, and his cousin Lulu. Still not 100% sure that Kanno herself isn't involved with Manticore, most of the reason I give her benefit of the doubt is because Hotsuin keeps her close and if there's anyone he's got full awareness of for everything they get up to, it would be Kanno.
I think Pistachio wants to park it close enough for it to be a practical getaway vehicle if we need to leave in a hurry? I dunno. We all seem to have very different ideas of the risks here.
Even if the car is parked further away, covering Midori and running back to wherever the car was parked is likely going to be a lot easier to do than try to bodyguard her (probably literally with our body) for the 7-10+ minutes it would take to phone JPs and have them arrive.

There's also 2 other things I see the car being useful for - one is carrying injured passengers (i.e. if any Scavengers are already wounded when we arrive, or if Amu/Utau gets hit during the fight) and the other is kidnapping a Manticore agent if we decide they are easily overpowerable and can take one alive.
 
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We've had one conversation, which he tried to walk away from, and it doesn't look like he's made any effort to pay attention to Amu since then.
He's the head of an organization.

It wouldn't be surprising if he handed out orders to minions to keep eyes on various things, and to people already keeping an eye on Hotsuin, that would probably be reasonably public.
 
Vote closed
Scheduled vote count started by Baughn on Jan 19, 2024 at 3:00 PM, finished with 158 posts and 14 votes.

  • [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, 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] Forget about disguising the car, t'was a silly idea
    [X] Pick up Utau, ask if they could borrow Nikaidou's car.
    [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.
    [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][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. Ask Utau to try and put up Illusions to change the numberplate and color of the car, suggest her Dumpty Key might be of help.
    [X] Bring Hikaru's ward stone.
 
The winning Party vote is indisputably Amu, Midori and Utau no matter what you look at.

But the favored Approach vote is now split between (what I assume is) going on foot and using the Dumpty Key to boost range vs 3 variants of Wardriving.

Variant one was the original winning variant that just had us asking Utau and her forgetting she could use the Dumpty Key. That had 4 votes and ties with the Chaperoned Date approach. One is a variant that reminds her she could use the Dumpty Key (mine) and the 2 votes were for asking to borrow Nikaidou's car.

If you look at them as just Wardriving in general and collapse the variants, there's 7 votes for that approach.

Had the impression you would be doing that with the Wardriving votes and just going with the majority variant.
 
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These all involve driving, the plan vote just doesn't specify. It's still in top for the details, just barely.

EDIT: Except the one explicitly going "stroll", but that's just one vote.
 
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These all involve driving, the plan vote just doesn't specify. It's still in top for the details, just barely.
OK, well at least Amu is in position to be driven to the hospital when she collapses from using the Dumpty Key.
...
...
Seriously, when we get interrupted after Amu can't hide the brain pain from it and her mother asks what's wrong and if they need to drive to JPs state-of-the-art psychic treatment lab to get her head checked, I'm going to vote for Amu getting stupid and thinking it was Utau's fault and not the Dumpty Key's and tell Utau to do the scan separately instead of "as a dating couple".

Just so we can keep going with the Scavengers plot instead of heading to the hospital.

No really, I am serious, I am going to vote to blame it on Utau (her morale be damned) and not the Dumpty Key, just so Amu's mother glares at her and doesn't try to drive off with Amu and delay the house call.
 
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The vote doesn't actually say Amu should use the Key. And I'm fairly sure that wasn't the intent, either.
 
Well that's OK then.

I just got that impression from @Nero200 asking this:
The locket gave the rest of the Guardians access to Chara Transformation just by Amu being in the same 'scene' as them.
If Utau is coming with and wearing the Humpty Key, can Amu tap the Key for a similar discount/boost as the Locket normally gives?
That the plan involved Amu actually tapping the key to boost herself.

Silly me.

I'm glad I'm wrong. No further arguments on my part.
 
There's a peripheral effect from being nearby and/or emotionally connected to the person using the access key. The later discussion was about Amu actually using it herself, however, which isn't the same thing.
I kinda assumed there wasn't actually any difference between "primary tapping" and "secondary tapping".

Good to know there is a difference between them in terms of safety and that the plan will not be attempting the former.
 
I kinda assumed there wasn't actually any difference between "primary tapping" and "secondary tapping".

Good to know there is a difference between them in terms of safety and that the plan will not be attempting the former.
Yeah, I was meaning very much the same 'passive boost' the other Guardians got from being around Amu (Who was wearing the locket), not taking the key for ourselves / actively invoking it.
That seemed obviously risky / bad plan to me, even beyond the social issues of such.
 
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Even if the car is parked further away, covering Midori and running back to wherever the car was parked is likely going to be a lot easier to do than try to bodyguard her (probably literally with our body) for the 7-10+ minutes it would take to phone JPs and have them arrive.
While that is certainly a thing, if you are on foot there is no need to just stand in position you know. Psychics have long since demonstrated the ability to jump over small buildings while carrying people. So you can hop away in a way no one but some what competent psychics could follow anyway. And you could get somewhere public fairly quickly like that as well.

Truthfully anyone who could follow you doing that, would probably be able to follow the car as well.
 
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