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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Goal of these training plans is to get everyone except Akane the full bonus to stealth that skywalkers grant. Chose to level Roki instead of capacity for Hazou because Akane is also a bottleneck now in our travel time

[x] Training Kei: Stealthy Ninja
Stealth 12 (12)
Stealth 13 (25)
Stealth 14 (39)
Stealth 15 (54)
Save 28 exp

[x] Training Noburi: Stealthy Ninja
Stealth 12 (12)
Stealth 13 (25)
Stealth 14 (39)
Stealth 15 (54)
Save 18.5 exp

[x] Training Akane: Stealthy Ninja
stealth 13 (13)
save 3 exp

[x]Training Hazou: Stealthy Ninja
Stealth 11 (11)
Stealth 12 (23)
Roki 10 (33)
Roki 11 (44)
Roki 12 (56)
Save 38 exp
 
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[x] Training Kei: Stealthy Ninja
[x] Training Noburi: Stealthy Ninja
[x] Training Akane: Stealthy Ninja
[x] Training Hazou: Stealthy Ninja
 
[x] Training Kei: Stealthy Ninja
[x] Training Noburi: Stealthy Ninja
[x] Training Akane: Stealthy Ninja
[x] Training Hazou: Stealthy Ninja

I don't think we'll be allowed to train Roki on the move, but I approve of the stealth training.
 
[x] Training Kei: Stealthy Ninja
[x] Training Noburi: Stealthy Ninja
[x] Training Akane: Stealthy Ninja
[x] Training Hazou: Stealthy Ninja
 
A civilian managed to get lucky against Noburi. Can't let that happen again.

[x] Training Kei: Stealthy Ninja
[x] Training Noburi: Stealthy Ninja
[x] Training Akane: Stealthy Ninja
[x] Training Hazou: Stealthy Ninja
 
[x] Training Kei: Stealthy Ninja
[x] Training Noburi: Stealthy Ninja
[x] Training Akane: Stealthy Ninja
[x] Training Hazou: Stealthy Ninja
 
Whatever action plan ends up winning should include:
  • Getting to the other Rivers locations.
  • Giving Akane our present.
  • Continuing to integrate Minami with the team.
  • Misc. prep.
    • Stocking up on water for the Wind meeting (mind control drugs in water).
    • Training plans.
Here's a sub-Action Plan for the first dot.
  • Get to the other Rivers contacts.
    • Use Skywalkers to move from Shimoura to the other places, one at a time.
      • Make sure that when ascending or descending we aren't spotted.
      • We should be using chakra water to speed our movements, and refill as needed.
    • Whenever resting, do so using Skytower technology.
      • Keep a standard watch out for flying chakra monsters.
    • Make contact.
      • Everyone going to the contact together is too conspicuous (esp. with Kagome and Noburi's barrel).
        • Hazou and Keiko, the team's liar/diplomat, can go make contact
        • Minami uses her bloodline to keep watch on both the team and the surroundings.
      • Use Henge to turn into the appropriate cover, based on our knowledge of the contact.
        • Discuss this beforehand; between Hazou, Keiko, and Minami this should be easy.
      • Make sure we're prepared.
        • Minami and Akane have seal loadouts, courtesy of Hazou and Kagome.
          • Seal loadouts means that they have the same seals in the same quantities we have: explosive tags, PMYF, Skywalkers, etc..
        • Everyone's topped off with Noburi's chakra beforehand.
        • We have misterators for blocking LOS and for absorbing chakra through mist (clan secret, only Noburi gets to say this part).
      • Deliver the message, and ask if they have more messages to send or need "short-term muscle".
        • Don't commit to giving muscle to the contact; discuss with the team first.
 
What I'd like is, next time we stop for the night, ask Akane to give Minami her own talk about the team. Not as lengthy and in-depth as Hazou's was, but a look from someone who knows us well. A fellow Leaf ninja's word should carry more weight, and Akane is good at figuring out the sensitive stuff.

It's obvious Minami doesn't quite get Keiko's limitations, among other things, and maybe someone else explaining CCnJ will make her more willing to believe it's a thing we use.

I'd like us to chat with Noburi. Ask him about his experience with our last mission. Share disbelief that everything went without a hitch, because seriously, when was the last time that happened? If we have sufficient privacy - during a watch maybe? - ask about how he feels about sister!Keiko.

If he asks, admit that the idea was Akane's, but it's a good one, and if we haven't asked him sooner, well. We're asking now. He knows how we are with people, anyway. And who the people person on this team is :)
 
I'd also like to hear some ideas on what we could get for Kagome to repay him birthday-giving us 60k plus change 10 months early :V

I'm thinking, find him that chocolate with chili peppers.

It's a good combo, and someone who likes spicy foods and chocolate like Kagome will surely enjoy it.

Granted that brings us right back to "where do we get money" but it's not urgent or anything. Mostly, someone brought up we'll be passing by chocolate island, and it would be nice to take advantage of that.

Maybe barter another ninja mission.

...

I wonder if we can get Mari some kind of ~amulet of blessing for the young bride~
 
Cariyaga said:
In fairness to Homestuck, I went in without having heard anything about it (a friend mentioned Problem Sleuth to me but said nothing of Homestuck) and thoroughly enjoyed it, so... YMMV.
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I loved most of it the second or third time I started, but the massive, systematic pacing issues were obnoxious. In fact, let me take the opportunity to type up a review I've been stewing on for... half a year, maybe?
Rose could have had a really interesting arc, but it was shortcircuited by her future self just... going to sleep, followed by Alpha Rose going completely insane for no satisfying reason.
I think it would have been amazing if Doomed Future Rose had used Blood magic to contact Alpha Rose, reveal a bit of background about the game, and offer to fuse using yet more magic that she's discovered but is also really sketchy, and Rose saying yes, because if their session is supposed to be really difficult then the powerup might be the problem or it might be incredibly necessary to their success, and she'd prefer to save her future self.
It would preserve Alpha Rose's agency, give us a little more background on the game from early on, and ramp up the tension for the Jack Ace reveal.
The first Interlude took way too long for something that seemed unrelated to the main plot, interesting though it was. When it did connect to said plot, I didn't even catch it until the recap.
Basically, it was full of interesting ideas that didn't get enough exploration, while simultaneously keeping Jade's falling to her death from proper resolution. It was obnoxious. And kind of skimped on the endearing wackiness that I loved in Act 1, presumably because Troll Culture is kind of alien already.
Also it took way too long to explain Troll Romance, so Aradia/Eqiuus looked like really awful character assassination (that look of pure joy when she saw Sollux visiting! Why would she switch to some stalker with rapist overtones in his design of her robotic shell?) instead of simple Kismessitude.
I started out really hating her, but then I found her really sympathetic. Doc Scratch also got one of the very best lines, during that; "Look at that. The short time I have allotted for arguing with a child has expired. What do I know, anyway? Maybe you are a girl with free will, and you aren't going to kill your friend. Enjoy your haunting."
By the time she died I didn't hate her at all, and her arc crystallized, in my mind, as a child soldier who becomes penpals with a kid from a first world country, and dies the day before they meet. Very tragic, very poignant, and not without a shred of hope for her revival... Which makes her comeback in Act 6 so very annoying. She seems to have ignored a lot of her earlier development, and it's part of why I haven't actually finished the comic, but that mostly falls under general problems with Act 6.
This is a big one. For most of the comic, the only things that die are the nameless, possibly-non-sapient Underlings. (And even then, killing that first Imp over a stuffed rabbit bothered me. It didn't actually seem dangerous, just making comical attempts at intimidation.)
And then the parents die. No fanfare, no epic martial arts battle. And I think: what was the point? Why bother bringing the parents into the game, hilarious though DAD's antics were, if they don't do anything important except die? Such passive pieces don't deserve that much time and buildup, and additionally, MOM still hadn't explained her connection to Skiaianet, or what Skiaianet is. It was very unsatisfying. (Not least because there was no awesome fight scene to mitigate it.)
I had basically the same problem with the trolls dying. What was happening? Why would you waste so much time briefly showing characters you're just going to kill? And why is Gamzee even able to kill Eqiuus, let alone an enraged Nepeta, without being reduced to thematically-appropriate confetti? And I'd sort of liked Eridan, so him suddenly turning Murderous Yandere felt unwarned and unwarranted. Sollux asking if the voices being silent means they doesn't have to die anymore was deliciously tragic, though, and Aradia's speech to one of the dead Daves was great. "He is not yet comfortable with his own mortality. But people like us have to be! We must be prepared to die a thousand deaths before our journey's done. The master we serve demands it."
Why a three year wait. Why on two separate vehicles. Why make John stir-crazy and cynical, promising a distinct lack of really fun meetings in the future. Why make Vriska unsympathetic and Tavros, who I also sympathized with, really unsympathetic? Why? Why?
Jane messing up when she tried to confess to Jake felt completely understandable and very cringeworthy. I've never done that, or really anything like it, but I can totally see it all the same.
Dirkbot was uncomfortably pushy with Jake, and regardless of my views on homosexuality,* I am certain that gender had nothing to do with the discomfort. Also the whole "Bro Strider makes porn, and the B2 iteration has done so since age 14 at minimum" has made me uncomfortable since it was introduced.

*In short: I see marriage as a social structure and incentive for parents to raise their children, and, historically, to provide legal protection to women (and sometimes to men, I assume?). The 'LGBT movement' looks like a bunch of conflicting ethos' with poorly-thought-out social consequences, and I suspect it's doing more harm than good, but other people having sex is rarely my buisness. Actually, my biggest problem with them (or at least works that feature them) is how pushy they tend to be about bringing it up.
The basic style is simple and distinctive, sometimes cute. The other styles vary from 'okayish' to 'ow, that's awful not a good match for this story'. (Mostly around the beginning of the Sorceress Rose arc, which only compounds my dislike of it.)
The longer animations are almost invariably impressive, particularly considering their release schedule. Makes me wish he'd had a chance to meet Monty Oum. Overall, it must have taken a lot of work, to the point that I can understand putting the Doomed Future Dave video in the main sequence, instead of having Dave show up, prototype himself, and link to it. (Although I suspect that would work better for pacing.)
I liked the first RPG artstyle better than the second, but both were serviceable. They're just even worse at pacing than the comic, presumably because I'm a completionist and the dev team was inexperienced.
At least the character designs are pretty solid, and the Strife Specibi are a brilliant concept. I would have been pretty happy to swap 90% of the Troll arc for more Alchemy, because Broken Caledscratch and Fear No Anvil are really awesome, and I want to see how many legendary weapons can be usefully combined.
Whoever else has read Homestuck, I'd love to hear your comments. I recall @Velorien being an enthusiastic fan?
 
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Lailoken said:
Has any thought been put into storage seals, minus the storage dimension? Just plop the extra space into the current universe instead and let it warp and shear before it destroys itself. It could be silent, extremely potent, and have an almost surgically precise area of effect cutoff.
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Just gonna cast my vote for plan: NOT THIS.
 
Like, it's actually less dangerous than a standard storage scroll. Instead of pulling together an entire different bubble dimension out of space warp and then tearing a hole through reality to get into it you're just expanding or contacting the space-time fabric in the universe you're already in. That's something that ordinary mass and energy already do completely naturally without any chakra involved at all.
 
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Lailoken said:
Like, it's actually less dangerous than a standard storage scroll. Instead of pulling together an entire different bubble dimension out of space warp and then tearing a hole through reality to get into it you're just expanding or contacting the space-time fabric in the universe you're already in. That's something that ordinary mass and energy already do completely naturally without any chakra involved at all.
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The determination of seals' danger has relatively little to do with the energy required (though large amounts of energy are also dangerous, but seals mostly bypass that) and more to do with what adjacent-effects in researching a seal would be. What do you think are possible results in attempting to expand or contract local spacetime?
 
Muer'ci said:
What I'd like is, next time we stop for the night, ask Akane to give Minami her own talk about the team. Not as lengthy and in-depth as Hazou's was, but a look from someone who knows us well. A fellow Leaf ninja's word should carry
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Rather than talking to Minami about the team, I like the idea of encouraging Minami to talk to the team about herself. Help them understand who she is and where she's coming from and what her own experience as a ninja is.

There are good in-character reasons, but also it's likely to be more interesting to read because it'll have new information for the players.
 
Personally I'd say just leave it up to Akane what to talk about. The end goal is to make sure team cohesion is good; new information, while entertaining, is orthogonal.
 
Cariyaga said:
The determination of seals' danger has relatively little to do with the energy required (though large amounts of energy are also dangerous, but seals mostly bypass that) and more to do with what adjacent-effects in researching a seal would be. What do you think are possible results in attempting to expand or contract local spacetime?
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Plus, seals vary massively in complexity of effects. Storage scrolls and Explosive tags are both beginner seals. By all rights, storage scrolls should be insanely complex and hard to make, but instead they're easy, so complexity of seal is not really correlated with complexity of effects. Manipulating local spacetime may be simpler than storage scrolls, but that doesn't suggest that a seal to do that would be anything less than horrifically complex.
 
Getting Minami to talk would be good tho. Ask her about how she made chuunin, let her show off a bit.

Not sure what kind of stories we could share. Maybe tell her about how we used to cross the ocean before Skywalkers? Warn her about sea critters, at least.
 
Cariyaga said:
The determination of seals' danger has relatively little to do with the energy required (though large amounts of energy are also dangerous, but seals mostly bypass that) and more to do with what adjacent-effects in researching a seal would be. What do you think are possible results in attempting to expand or contract local spacetime?
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Click to shrink...

Largely the same as attempting to expand remote space-time while tearing a hole through reality to get to it, minus a good number from not needing to involve other dimensions at all. Lots of gravitational shear forces at the interface, which is something we've already deliberately maximized while breaking storage seals into macerators.
 
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