Bunraku (Samurai Mecha Quest)
- Thread starter Omicron
- Start date
- Original
Khona Moshr
Pink Flamingo Cabal Healer(they/them)
- Location
- Alabama
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X]Accept Ondo's words
[X]Ask lord Summer to pay for Harvest's repairs.
[X]Ask lord Summer to pay for Harvest's repairs.
al103
Grumpy Russian Bear (SV edition)
- Location
- Russia, Krasnoyarsk
[X]Reject Ondo's words (You must write in a rationale.)
-[X] It's injustice to your dead lord. He's dead and so his line, his city is being ripped by vultures... the only thing that lives is his memory. You are part of said memory - and you don't want to be last bit of his legacy to be like that.
-[X] It's injustice to your dead lord. He's dead and so his line, his city is being ripped by vultures... the only thing that lives is his memory. You are part of said memory - and you don't want to be last bit of his legacy to be like that.
[X]Accept Ondo's words (Acquire trait, "Aku Soku Zan.")
[X] Ask lord Summer to pay for Harvest's repairs.
[X] Ask lord Summer to pay for Harvest's repairs.
Grosstoad
Birdbrain - Dick - Rules-Lawyer - Creeper
[X]Reject Ondo's words (You must write in a rationale.)
-[X] While it is indeed truth in his words, that Tomoe the protector of Okami died that day, Tomoe the avenger had also the laid appeasement to her lord's burial ground: His and his family's killers lie broken and scattered around them, the demon army broken and retreating with their tail between their legs.
-[X] Was it enough? The sting and guilt of failure remained, and her thirst for vengeance was glutted. In that, she becomes a directionless spirit. Perhaps, if she hadn't come to Summer, she would have truly become a hungry ghost. But she had made a new oath, and to betray that will make her twice the oath-sworn.
[X] Use your favor to replace Ondo's Bunraku. You would not even have the boon without it's sacrifice.
Unsure on what to ask... Though I think having the boon be the repair cost is kind of odd, since it was broken in the line of duty.
EDIT: Put in my choice of boon.
-[X] While it is indeed truth in his words, that Tomoe the protector of Okami died that day, Tomoe the avenger had also the laid appeasement to her lord's burial ground: His and his family's killers lie broken and scattered around them, the demon army broken and retreating with their tail between their legs.
-[X] Was it enough? The sting and guilt of failure remained, and her thirst for vengeance was glutted. In that, she becomes a directionless spirit. Perhaps, if she hadn't come to Summer, she would have truly become a hungry ghost. But she had made a new oath, and to betray that will make her twice the oath-sworn.
[X] Use your favor to replace Ondo's Bunraku. You would not even have the boon without it's sacrifice.
Unsure on what to ask... Though I think having the boon be the repair cost is kind of odd, since it was broken in the line of duty.
EDIT: Put in my choice of boon.
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- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Basically the system of bunraku ownership and maintenance is designed so as to create an ever-escalating binding of the samurai to the lord, so as to enforce centralized control over the terrible weapons of war that technically belong to individual warriors. A bunraku belongs to a samurai, but every time it gets damaged they have to come politely ask if the lord would be so generous as to pay for the repairs, which puts them further and further in the lord's debt and makes them dependent on his continued good will.
Powerful noble families pay for their own repairs and maintenance (and keep their own staffs to that purpose), which affords them a high degree of autonomy and makes them a potential rebellion risk. Lords hate that, and put the screws on smaller families and lone warriors to prevent that kind of thing from spreading.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
[X]Reject Ondo's words (You must write in a rationale.)
-[X] Destruction of injustice, while necessary, has to have an underlying meaning and purpose to it. A vengeance is empty if only ruins are left in its wake. Tomoe may have failed in her duty, but it not like her duty or the sentiment that led her to accept it ceased to exist because of it. Protection of humanity is intertwined with laying waste to its enemies, but if it comes to choosing one, she'd choose the former. There has to be something after the war.
-[x] Besides, it is rare for people to care where their salvation comes from. She may feel inadequate as a protector, but are her shame and guilt reason enough to let others suffer?
-[X] Destruction of injustice, while necessary, has to have an underlying meaning and purpose to it. A vengeance is empty if only ruins are left in its wake. Tomoe may have failed in her duty, but it not like her duty or the sentiment that led her to accept it ceased to exist because of it. Protection of humanity is intertwined with laying waste to its enemies, but if it comes to choosing one, she'd choose the former. There has to be something after the war.
-[x] Besides, it is rare for people to care where their salvation comes from. She may feel inadequate as a protector, but are her shame and guilt reason enough to let others suffer?
[X]Reject Ondo's words (You must write ina rationale.)
-[X] Destruction of injustice, while necessary, has to have an underlying meaning and purpose to it. A vengeance is empty if only ruins are left in its wake. Tomoe may have failed in her duty, but it's not like her duty or the sentiment that led her to accept it ceased to exist because of it. Protection of humanity is intertwined with laying waste to its enemies, but if it comes to choosing one, she'd choose the former. There has to be something after the war.
-[x] Besides, it is rare for people to care where their salvation comes from. She may feel inadequate as a protector, but are her shame and guilt reason enough to let others suffer?
[X] Ask lord Summer to pay for Harvest's repairs.
-[X] Destruction of injustice, while necessary, has to have an underlying meaning and purpose to it. A vengeance is empty if only ruins are left in its wake. Tomoe may have failed in her duty, but it's not like her duty or the sentiment that led her to accept it ceased to exist because of it. Protection of humanity is intertwined with laying waste to its enemies, but if it comes to choosing one, she'd choose the former. There has to be something after the war.
-[x] Besides, it is rare for people to care where their salvation comes from. She may feel inadequate as a protector, but are her shame and guilt reason enough to let others suffer?
[X] Ask lord Summer to pay for Harvest's repairs.
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Pandemonious Ivy
Panties, Revolution. Big Drawers. Parachute.
InterstellarHobo
Cosmic Vagrant
- Location
- No Fixed Planetary System
I'm definitely inclined to reject. I'll consider it more.
As for boon, can we pay harvest's repairs ourself?
Would rebuilding Ondo's mech be an acceptable boon? (I can provide reasons WHY we want to ask for this if needed)
As for boon, can we pay harvest's repairs ourself?
Would rebuilding Ondo's mech be an acceptable boon? (I can provide reasons WHY we want to ask for this if needed)
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Summer is a large rice producer, one of the Empire's few wheat producers, and has a limited but relatively unique ability to manufacture certain low-key magical creations, such as the blue lanterns, which they can sell elsewhere. It also manufactures exceptional steel, although most of it goes to its own military. It produces and exports a number of cultural goods, such as music, theatre plays, and artists mentored in the city. It also has a number of skilled artisans in various crafts. As you saw upon first approaching the city, it has a very few flying ships, which allows it to cheat the physical limitation of trade routes and export further.
Marketplaces are, uh, marketplaces. I'm not sure what you're asking.
You're not going to be able to pay Harvest's repairs in full, although you will be able to pay some of the cost with a windfall coming in the next two-three updates. If you want to get Mitsuko's workshop to repair Harvest without the lord's order she will probably try to gouge you for non-monetary compensations.
You may end up being offered "free" repairs if you agree to help her field-test amazing and absolutely unsafe prototype technology on your bunraku, for instance.
You could absolutely ask to have Ondo's armor repaired as your boon. This would free him of whatever ominous task lord Summer just implied he would have to fulfill, and would put him greatly in your debt.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
Nvm, misread the question. Still, that makes me wonder.
What do we know about the world beyond the Land of Four Seasons? We've heard there is an oni kingdom to the west... and that's kinda it.
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...sounds like more like a freebie than compensation.
(Unsafe? Who cares. Everybody knows prototypes are the awesomest 
)Hmm, tempting.
NaanContributor
Provider of delicious flatbread, and nothing else.
- Location
- Hawaii
Ondo is full of it, though a lot of the samurai honor system was stupid, so I'll try not to hold it against him. He's definitely bitter about the loss of his Bunraku though, even if he says otherwise.
[X]Reject Ondo's words (You must write ina rationale.)
-[X] Destruction of injustice, while necessary, has to have an underlying meaning and purpose to it. A vengeance is empty if only ruins are left in its wake. Tomoe may have failed in her duty, but it's not like her duty or the sentiment that led her to accept it ceased to exist because of it. Protection of humanity is intertwined with laying waste to its enemies, but if it comes to choosing one, she'd choose the former. There has to be something after the war.
-[x] Besides, it is rare for people to care where their salvation comes from. She may feel inadequate as a protector, but are her shame and guilt reason enough to let others suffer?
[X] Use your favor to replace Ondo's Bunraku. At least part of the responsibility for its destruction lies with you after all.
[X]Reject Ondo's words (You must write ina rationale.)
-[X] Destruction of injustice, while necessary, has to have an underlying meaning and purpose to it. A vengeance is empty if only ruins are left in its wake. Tomoe may have failed in her duty, but it's not like her duty or the sentiment that led her to accept it ceased to exist because of it. Protection of humanity is intertwined with laying waste to its enemies, but if it comes to choosing one, she'd choose the former. There has to be something after the war.
-[x] Besides, it is rare for people to care where their salvation comes from. She may feel inadequate as a protector, but are her shame and guilt reason enough to let others suffer?
[X] Use your favor to replace Ondo's Bunraku. At least part of the responsibility for its destruction lies with you after all.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
i try
I'm not particularly satisfied with my worldbuilding, to be honest. Or rather, I like the setting I've constructed, but I'm unsatisfied with my ability to weave it into the narrative of each update.
Summer mostly trades with Autumn, Spring, and the as-yet unnamed region to the south of it, down the Pearl River. Some of its merchants also trade with Winter but that's generally seen as a bad thing because Everybody Hates Winter.
The Land of Four Season is notably self-contained for a domain of the Empire; it has natural border to the east and part of the south and the dangerous ashlands to the north beyond Winter. The Land of Hundred Rivers, where Iron Raven came from, is to the south-west of it, directly underneath the growing oni kingdom west of Autumn. The Imperial City is some distance to the east, past Spring and the mountains.
Tomoe has a very good knowledge of the abstract points of the Empire's geography, although she is fuzzy on their actual politics; she's pretty much like a good geography student whose maps are a decade out of date. However, the more details I put into lands beyond the Four Seasons, the bigger the world I have to manage to interconnect and the more risk I run of throwing in inconsistent things, so I haven't much detailed anything beyond the scope of what's relevant to Tomoe's life. If a new threat or opportunity arises from beyond the Land of Four Seasons, I will provide the knowledge Tomoe would have at that time.
The unnamed region to the south directly borders the sea, that's something of note. The Four Seasons are landlocked but still have relative proximity to maritime goods.
[X]Reject Ondo's words (You must write ina rationale.)
-[X] Destruction of injustice, while necessary, has to have an underlying meaning and purpose to it. A vengeance is empty if only ruins are left in its wake. Tomoe may have failed in her duty, but it's not like her duty or the sentiment that led her to accept it ceased to exist because of it. Protection of humanity is intertwined with laying waste to its enemies, but if it comes to choosing one, she'd choose the former. There has to be something after the war.
-[x] Besides, it is rare for people to care where their salvation comes from. She may feel inadequate as a protector, but are her shame and guilt reason enough to let others suffer?
[X]Ask for a title of land - it is likely to be very small, but without one you're still half a ronin, no matter what your title says.
Land grants wealth and some independence, but it binds us to him and commits us to staying. It's the choice to look forward.
-[X] Destruction of injustice, while necessary, has to have an underlying meaning and purpose to it. A vengeance is empty if only ruins are left in its wake. Tomoe may have failed in her duty, but it's not like her duty or the sentiment that led her to accept it ceased to exist because of it. Protection of humanity is intertwined with laying waste to its enemies, but if it comes to choosing one, she'd choose the former. There has to be something after the war.
-[x] Besides, it is rare for people to care where their salvation comes from. She may feel inadequate as a protector, but are her shame and guilt reason enough to let others suffer?
[X]Ask for a title of land - it is likely to be very small, but without one you're still half a ronin, no matter what your title says.
Land grants wealth and some independence, but it binds us to him and commits us to staying. It's the choice to look forward.
- Location
- New Delhi, India
.... You know, here's a good idea for how you can weave in worldbuilding and plot; make the main character a historian who's just looking at a number of subjective, heavily falsified historical record and trying to piece together the true history of a secret magical duplicate of Japan.
cB557
voOOP
When you say he expects this, do you mean that that's the obvious thing to do so he figures that's probably what we'll go with, or do you mean he expects it like, that's what a puppeteer is supposed to do when given this offer, use the favor to repair the thing we use to serve our lord.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The former.
InterstellarHobo
Cosmic Vagrant
- Location
- No Fixed Planetary System
[X]Reject Ondo's words (You must write ina rationale.)
-[X] Destruction of injustice, while necessary, has to have an underlying meaning and purpose to it. A vengeance is empty if only ruins are left in its wake. Tomoe may have failed in her duty, but it's not like her duty or the sentiment that led her to accept it ceased to exist because of it. Protection of humanity is intertwined with laying waste to its enemies, but if it comes to choosing one, she'd choose the former. There has to be something after the war.
-[x] Besides, it is rare for people to care where their salvation comes from. She may feel inadequate as a protector, but are her shame and guilt reason enough to let others suffer?
[X] Use your favor to replace Ondo's Bunraku. You would not even have the boon without it's sacrifice.
-[X] Destruction of injustice, while necessary, has to have an underlying meaning and purpose to it. A vengeance is empty if only ruins are left in its wake. Tomoe may have failed in her duty, but it's not like her duty or the sentiment that led her to accept it ceased to exist because of it. Protection of humanity is intertwined with laying waste to its enemies, but if it comes to choosing one, she'd choose the former. There has to be something after the war.
-[x] Besides, it is rare for people to care where their salvation comes from. She may feel inadequate as a protector, but are her shame and guilt reason enough to let others suffer?
[X] Use your favor to replace Ondo's Bunraku. You would not even have the boon without it's sacrifice.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
He sees us in a visible discomfort and offers us a way out, a path to do away with guilt trips and re-establish ourselves. We may not like what he is saying, but that's because there is little to like about the whole situation we found ourselves in. He means well, at least.
And whatever else he says, one thing he is absolutely right about. We can't make our failure known to others as easily as we let it slip from our tongue just now. We won't find understanding among our peers. Tomoe might want to appreciate she can have that kind of conversation with Ondo at all.
He is also being perfectly honest when he says we were not his defender today. He is a warrior whose life belongs to another, he does not need rescue... and therefore isn't obliged to feel grateful for one.
But most people who aren't samurai would feel very differently about it.
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NaanContributor
Provider of delicious flatbread, and nothing else.
- Location
- Hawaii
Technically speaking we did defend him, because he'd be buried in rubble right now if we hadn't shielded him with our Bunraku. Just because he was imperiled while performing his duty doesn't change that.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The honor culture of the Empire's samurai is fraught with issues. In some respect the way it constrains actions and the behaviors it incentives can be infuriating. It has led to more than one tragedy in history, and to some extent the people of the Empire recognize this; when someone performs I Can't Believe It's Not Basilisk as a theatre play, the audience mourns the fact that their society led two loving youths to such terrible fates. People who aren't part of the samurai culture often see it with contempt; criminals often mock their honor as meaningless, while the poor often see it as a justification to hurt them.
That said, culture is a complicated thing. In many ways the ways in which the honor culture constrains its nobility has positive side effects. Samurai very close to their lords who fail them and survive their masters' death are expected to commit suicide in part because of a genuine sense that this is what is proper, but also in part because it actualizes trust - historically in the Empire, in times when such things did not happen, a lord's "most trusted advisor" would often end up being the one to stab them in their sleep once sufficiently bribed. If you know your right hand will not survive you, you can truly rely on them.
Similarly, whenever a warlord starts talking about how the rules of war and honor in battle are stupid and meaningless and only serves to cause more deaths as wars drag on, and tells his advisors that they are now going to act Efficiently and Pragmatically in order to Secure Certain Victory - that usually ends in mass graves, a breakdown of social trust, the loss of even the pretense of wisdom and philosophy in a now completely ruthless warrior caste, and people standing in the ashes shouting "What have I done?"
The society of the Empire is in many ways stifling and its base assumptions cause a lot of issues, such as Tomoe who would normally be expected to commit suicide just because That Is Proper. But it's not completely unfounded, or unproductive.
That said, culture is a complicated thing. In many ways the ways in which the honor culture constrains its nobility has positive side effects. Samurai very close to their lords who fail them and survive their masters' death are expected to commit suicide in part because of a genuine sense that this is what is proper, but also in part because it actualizes trust - historically in the Empire, in times when such things did not happen, a lord's "most trusted advisor" would often end up being the one to stab them in their sleep once sufficiently bribed. If you know your right hand will not survive you, you can truly rely on them.
Similarly, whenever a warlord starts talking about how the rules of war and honor in battle are stupid and meaningless and only serves to cause more deaths as wars drag on, and tells his advisors that they are now going to act Efficiently and Pragmatically in order to Secure Certain Victory - that usually ends in mass graves, a breakdown of social trust, the loss of even the pretense of wisdom and philosophy in a now completely ruthless warrior caste, and people standing in the ashes shouting "What have I done?"
The society of the Empire is in many ways stifling and its base assumptions cause a lot of issues, such as Tomoe who would normally be expected to commit suicide just because That Is Proper. But it's not completely unfounded, or unproductive.