[Exalted/SMT] Shard of a Broken Sun

[Baughn]

Friday's Sunrise, 14:50

[x] Actually, best to wait and see.
- [x] Just because you're waiting for a better opportunity doesn't mean you are incapable of driving you host into being more proactive, maybe messing a little with her bigger virtues or transmitting subconscious influences to act against injustice and suffering would help.

The moment passes.

Some boy walked up to the delinquents from behind, and words were exchanged. Amu couldn't tell what they said, but just like that it turned into a fight, one that took all four of them into a side-alley where she lost sight of them. The girls they'd been harassing escaped, walking past her while she tried to understand what she'd seen. She overheard them talking.

"That was scary…"

"I wonder if that boy is ok? Thanks to him we could run away, but…"

"No worries, I'm sure he's fine. He was strong, and fast as a cat…"

"But… I only saw a little, but they seemed to have knives."

"No… no way. Should we call the police?"

Cat? Can't be. Ikuto?

Now worried, she investigated the alley by walking past it in what she hoped was an inconspicuous manner. It was dark, cramped and filthy, full of garbage, and she could barely see a thing, so she had to double back and stare inside. There, on the ground a few meters inside, was that -

"Ikuto!" She screamed, running towards him. Was that blood on the ground? "You… you're hurt!" She could see Yoru, his Chara, keeping a close watch around but not really doing anything. He blinked when he saw her coming, then flew off into a huddle with Ran and the others… she didn't really pay attention, focusing instead on Ikuto.

Ikuto spoke up, barely audible. "…Annoying. Go away."

What? No! He was hurt, like hell she'd go away. She frowned and knelt next to him, digging through her bag for some kind of bandage but only finding a handkerchief. Clean, thankfully. The only wound she could see was on his cheek, and it was already clotting, so she dabbed at it with the piece of cloth.

Ikuto winced.

"So uncool. Laying around hurt, you're really like a stray cat…" She looked angrily at him, mouth set in a thin line. "What if you'd really been hurt, who's going to find you here? Wait, have you been hurt? Other than your cheek?"

He groaned. "I don't need a lecture… from a girl half my age. I'm fine, just tired."

She sat down and forcefully pushed her handkerchief against the wound, eliciting an "Ouch" and a quick shift away from her. Hmph, served him right for worrying her.

They sat there in silence for a while, as she surreptitiously kept an eye on him… well, snuck a peek every now and then. He really did seem to be resting, but what was with this location? Who'd sit down for a nap in the middle of an alley? Was he an alley cat, or what?

Why did he always end up saving her, even in situations like this?

Ikuto had his eyes closed, so after checking to make sure Yoru was looking the other way, she allowed herself to smile at him. It wouldn't do to let anyone see her being less than cool, but he deserved that much. Hoshina Utau didn't realise what she had, if she'd been a few years older she could have…

She rapidly shook her head, remembering the way her idol had practically thrown herself at the boy, the last time she'd seen them together. Maybe Utau-chan actually did, but that - that was way too embarassing, there was no way she could do anything like that! It took her almost a minute to get her blush under control, remembering that hug, though now the atmosphere felt awkward. Hotori-kun was nice, and funny, but why couldn't Ikuto have been her age?

The world really wasn't fair.

=======

"Ikuto?" She whispered.

"Yeah?"

"If you're not hurt, I should get going. You'll be fine on your own, right?"

He snorted. "Of course. That's what I keep telling you, pint-size. If anything, what were you doing walking into an alley like this, all on your own?"

She tried punching his side, but he caught her fist without effort. Dammit. At least he made it easy to get angry at him - now, where was Yoru?

Getting to her feet and looking around, she found Yoru giggling with with Miki and Su behind a garbage bag, while Ran was nowhere to be found. She snuck up from behind and grabbed him, much to Miki's amusement.

"Hey! What are you -" He gulped, looking her in the eyes from about five centimeters away. She smiled.

"You'll tell us if there's a problem, right? Or if Ikuto got hurt anywhere he's not saying?" She asked in a light voice, though the illusion of gentleness was somewhat broken when Miki floated up behind her and slowly drew a line across her throat. Yoru looked from the two of them to Ikuto, then back at Miki, who was now sitting on her shoulder and innocently painting.

"Yes, Ma'am!" He agreed, saluting when she let him go. Amu nodded happily.

"Good."

She grabbed her bag and walked off with a spring in her step. Ran and Su quickly floated after her, though she wasn't immediately sure how she knew that.

=======

"Traitor," Ikuto complained. "Whose Chara are you anyway?"

Yoru stared into mid-air for a second, then shuddered and flew down to hide in Ikuto's jacket. "You don't know what Miki's like when no-one else is around."

=======

You wonder whether, if your partner had survived, it would have opted to exalt this fellow. It might have worked out well, so it's too bad that isn't an option.

[ ] Focus on understanding Amu's soul
- [ ] With an eye towards optimising the initial exaltation
- [ ] With an eye towards long-term efficiency
- [ ] With an eye towards her motivations and personality
- [ ] Write-in
[ ] Take an up-close look at the world around you

A/N: The next exaltation opportunity is on Saturday, and nothing terribly dramatic happens in between, so by default I'll timeskip until then. However, you can opt to include non-dramatic scenes; please write in any requests. The pre-drama scenes include:

[ ] Dinner and evening with the Hinamori family.
[ ] School.
[ ] After-school tea with the Guardians.

These are not exclusive, vote for as many or as few as you'd like.

 

[pressea]

I don't care too much about the action vote other than reminding everyone that stunts are a thing. But we absolutely should get to know these characters before they die horribly, or Amu's grief won't have much impact.

[x] Dinner and evening with the Hinamori family.
[x] After-school tea with the Guardians.

 

[ShadowAngelBeta]

I'm honestly stuck between Long-Term efficiency and the Motivation and Personality votes. The Long-Term could keep from having problems crop up later that we might not be able to fix for even longer, which means possibly being crippled, but dat Conviction and Temprence!

Please note that Ikuto likes to wander a lot and usually ends up cat-napping on top of the Amu's School Building from time to time. Honestly I'm not sure how well the Guardians will handle things. Hotau and Ikuto have both seen a lot of crap and so might deal with everything going to hell better than most, but a lot of the Guardians are probably going to break emotionally and/or mentally at the very least. Tadase if he has people relying on him might be able to hold it together, his Chara is a King/Prince, and umm... cannot remember the name but one of them has a Chara for an actor(fubuki?) so they be able to look like they held it together, but... One of the one's later in the series had a Samurai Chara so they might do well if they are there.

Umm, there's our family, potentially dead weight (sorry, but I'm brutallly honest in my views and its fiction so...), but if Ami (little sister) is raised in that she might grow a... very helpful Chara down the line (Dream of Killing Demons maybe?).

 

[ShadowAngelBeta]

I also I just figured out how to spin Amu's and Ikuto's attraction without it being creeper territory. They're Soul Mates.

This is actually something I forgot that I came up with back when I first watched it, but the idea comes from this One Guy makes(finds?) the Humpty Lock and Dumpty Key and Prophcizes the holders of each item like Fifty years before Canon happens, and then Ikuto and Amu come along and get both of them. Ikuto just got born a few years early and/or Amu a few years late, but the Old Guy was trying to predict fifty Years ahead so some things were bound to get nudged around, *shrug* what can you do. But yeah Humpty Lock and Dumpty Key are kind of Soul Bound in that they only work for their intended user so... like I said, Soul Mates. They're attracted to each other, but not physically. Well not for quite a few more years anyway.

It also explains why Ikuto keeps pushing her away so much.

Poke

Click to shrink...

Uhh... seeing as the Exaltation Shard came through all of those demons could we possibly give her a feeling of impending doom, nothing distracting, but something that makes her really value the time she has left with everyone? Or maybe just a feeling that everything is going to change soon? Impending doom might be a little distracting.

 

[KnightDisciple]

[X] Focus on understanding Amu's soul
- [X] With an eye towards long-term efficiency

[X] Dinner and evening with the Hinamori family.
[X] After-school tea with the Guardians.

I also I just figured out how to spin Amu's and Ikuto's attraction without it being creeper territory. They're Soul Mates.

Click to shrink...

NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE. If she's seriously 10, NOPE.

Actually, wait, Baughn, is the person we've attached to actually a 10-year-old? If so, uh, pretty damn sure that's against board rules.

 

[Scia]

Actually, wait, Baughn, is the person we've attached to actually a 10-year-old? If so, uh, pretty damn sure that's against board rules.

Click to shrink...

SB had quest protagonist of this age and younger. Miazuki Stone and his Raziel quests, The slew of Naruto Reincarnations, stuff where we played Nanoha or Fate. It depends on how the interaction between her and the shard is written.
And in regards to romance, kill em all, it will work as a motivation for her and I got a refrigerator prepared for them.

 

[ShadowAngelBeta]

NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE. If she's seriously 10, NOPE.

Actually, wait, Baughn, is the person we've attached to actually a 10-year-old? If so, uh, pretty damn sure that's against board rules.

Click to shrink...

*Headesk* I'm trying to explain what's going on in canon with them without being a Creeper. Seriously pay attention to what I'm saying.

Souls, from certain POV, are immortal i.e. they don't care about age. Just reincarnation and their next life and such. Hence why they're ages don't match in canon (or at least tat's my head canon for it).

And if you have a problem with her being ten take it up with the person who wrote the manga! And besides they didn't even end up in a relationship until she was 18 in canon anyway.

You know what, I'm done. I wash my hands of this.

 

[Alectai]

Baughn has promised that creeperness will be cunningly excised from the plot, and there won't be any of that shit here. Amu is crushing on an older boy, And that's as far as it goes.

Now, we have two good options here.

"Long-term Efficiency" is something that'll help us out after DeSu 2's plot finishes off.

"Optimizing the Initial Exaltation" on the other hand may be important, as the long-term doesn't really matter that much if you die right away, and depending on what happens, Amu either dies from taking a bath in the Void, or she gets blown up by the Murdercone. And Dubhe is pretty fucking terrifying and one of the only things in the franchise that Voids Almighty based attacks (At least until it takes a truck to the icecream).

Still, at the same time, the Solar Exaltation provides quite a decent amount of punch even by default, and the DeSu cast isn't significantly above human for the fight against Dubhe, and canonically, they win without losses.

"With an eye towards her Motivations and Personality" looks like it means that there's less chance of causing problems from the Solar Exaltation being a weapon geared to killing titans in a bronze-age society.

Now, if I were to make a Guess, we're basically picking her starting Charm and post-exaltation ability/attribute spread.

"Short Term Efficiency" likely picks a lot of low hanging fruit to get a Lot of initial power, but doesn't leave much of a foundation, so we'll have to put in a lot of effort to pick up more exotic abilities. Going wide instead of deep.

"Long-term Efficiency" likely puts in the start of a powerful build that'll come into it's own over the course of DeSu 2, at the cost of flexibility in the short term. Going deep instead of wide, if you will.

"With an eye towards her Motivations and Personality" means that we'll likely decide on a suboptimal build, but our Charm choices are more likely to be abilities that Amu would want or need to use. Less long-term and short-term potential alike, but comes with her being eased into the role of a Solar Exalt and thus, more likely to be able to use the powers effective. In short, she's less likely to treat our abilities like a curse, or herself as a monster when the Shit Hits The Fan.

So, with that in mind...

[X] Focus on understanding Amu's soul
--[X] With an eye towards her motivations and personality. We may have picked her to give her a chance, and that requires power, but we're not a completely heartless hunter-seeker autonomous motonic construct. She's a bit young for the more traditional packages, and typical doctrine prefers mature hosts as they're more likely to adapt well to the influx of divine power. Some initial and long-term efficiency can be sacrificed in the interest of building a stronger rapport with the new Exalt, as such efforts are more likely to pay off over time, and increase the odds of her making effective use of the power.

[X] Dinner and evening with the Hinamori family.

 

[ShadowAngelBeta]

Poke

Click to shrink...

Can you come up with any stunts for these? I got the ideas, a bit anyway, but am not good with writing. I also forgot who a lot of Guardians were. Going by Chara's I think we have The Prince, The Actor, The Jock, The Baby, and maybe The Clown and The Samurai? so I don't really have any stunt ideas for them.

[X] Focus on understanding Amu's soul
--[X] With an eye towards her motivations and personality. We may have picked her to give her a chance, and that requires power, but we're not a completely heartless hunter-seeker autonomous motonic construct. She's a bit young for the more traditional packages, and typical doctrine prefers mature hosts as they're more likely to adapt well to the influx of divine power. Some initial and long-term efficiency can be sacrificed in the interest of building a stronger rapport with the new Exalt, as such efforts are more likely to pay off over time, and increase the odds of her making effective use of the power.

[X] Dinner and evening with the Hinamori family.
- Mother, Father, and Little Sister (If I remember Mom and Dad are hilariously indulgent to Ami)
[X] School.
- Ikuto hanging out on the roof, check up on him see how he's doing?
[X] After-school tea with the Guardians.
- Last chance to see friends most likely

 

[Alectai]

My stunt was rolled into my vote for the "Focus on Understanding.

 

[KnightDisciple]

New Baughn has promised that creeperness will be cunningly excised from the plot, and there won't be any of that shit here. Amu is crushing on an older boy, And that's as far as it goes.

Click to shrink...

Okay, that's fair.

Also, you make some excellent points about approach to the Exaltation, so....

[X] Focus on understanding Amu's soul
--[X] With an eye towards her motivations and personality. We may have picked her to give her a chance, and that requires power, but we're not a completely heartless hunter-seeker autonomous motonic construct. She's a bit young for the more traditional packages, and typical doctrine prefers mature hosts as they're more likely to adapt well to the influx of divine power. Some initial and long-term efficiency can be sacrificed in the interest of building a stronger rapport with the new Exalt, as such efforts are more likely to pay off over time, and increase the odds of her making effective use of the power.

[X] Dinner and evening with the Hinamori family.
[X] After-school tea with the Guardians.

 

[Happerry]

[X] Focus on understanding Amu's soul
- [X] With an eye towards optimising the initial exaltation

[X] Dinner and evening with the Hinamori family.
[X] School.
[X] After-school tea with the Guardians.

 

[arsdraconis]

if she's fated to die, do you think she doesn't have access to the demon summon program, and her exaltation would be the only thing letting her fight demons and command them?

 

[Alectai]

Of course she doesn't have access to the Demon Summoning Program.

In DeSu, if you don't have a Harmonizer, you are Fucking Dead against even the weakest demons.

Septenitrons are Not weak demons. Think an Angel from Evangelion, except that you need to fight them on foot, with a squad of mythical beasts at your back.

Dubhe alone probably kills hundreds in it's introduction alone. Just drops in, people are going "Why the fuck is there a floating ice cream cone just sitting in the middle of the road", and then it Fucking Explodes.

 

[arsdraconis]

played Desu2, Desu series is among those that overpower the magical attacker and made physical user scrubs

though Desu2 did have that passive that turns normal attack into almighty damage, but you get Holy Dance early and that's so much better than everything short of the AGI scaled multihit attack endgame

 

[Alectai]

Solars can pretty trivially get extremely reliable multiattacks. Holy Dance is badass, but it's still a bit of a crapshoot as to how many hits you get.

Meanwhile, Solar who focuses on multiattacks gets at least 6 attacks every time they hit it, and it's apparently not that hard for a Solar in this system to output Almighty-type damage.

We're not going to fall behind just because Solar Themes are more "Physical Skill" over "Black Majykks"

 

[arsdraconis]

Multihit/Multistrike is pretty god tier endgame though, and had we gone with Hinako, Dawn Caste with that...holy shit the amount of asskicking would've been unreal

 

[Anasurimbor]

[X] Focus on understanding Amu's soul
- [X] With an eye towards long-term efficiency

 

[veekie]

[X] Focus on understanding Amu's soul
- [X] With an eye towards her motivations and personality

No point loading her out with stuff that we can't get her to use.

[X] Dinner and evening with the Hinamori family.
[X] School.

 

[Hyacinthium]

AHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA

SHOUGO CHARA

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA I FUCKING LAUGHING WOKE UP GRANDMOTHER OH MY GOD

[X] Focus on understanding Amu's soul
--[X] With an eye towards her motivations and personality. We may have picked her to give her a chance, and that requires power, but we're not a completely heartless hunter-seeker autonomous motonic construct. She's a bit young for the more traditional packages, and typical doctrine prefers mature hosts as they're more likely to adapt well to the influx of divine power. Some initial and long-term efficiency can be sacrificed in the interest of building a stronger rapport with the new Exalt, as such efforts are more likely to pay off over time, and increase the odds of her making effective use of the power.

[X] Dinner and evening with the Hinamori family.
- Mother, Father, and Little Sister (If I remember Mom and Dad are hilariously indulgent to Ami)
[X] School.
- Ikuto hanging out on the roof, check up on him see how he's doing?
[X] After-school tea with the Guardians.
- Last chance to see friends most likely

Man I remember back when I was really into Shogo Chara, wasn't even on SB yet. Ikuto was my favorite and I shipped him with Amu so much.

Now I'm seeing people call it creepy and it's all so weird like wth? Man I thought Amu was 12 and Ikuto was only 14? Or maybe that's anime only and the manga is different?

It never seemed creepy then and it doesn't now.

 

[Baughn]

Let me just shut this down right now.

Amu is 10 and Ikuto is 17, yes. Amu has a crush on Ikuto; this is vestigial from canon, because if she didn't it would stretch the plot beyond suspension of disbelief. (It's also rather believable.)

Ikuto has no interest in Amu, save as a little sister-substitute, and for those better versed in SC lore he also has no interest in Utau. The inverse relationship is fairly irrelevant. Any further questions, please direct them directly to me and don't clutter up the thread.

I will note, by the way, that you'll find a 17yo Ikuto more useful than the anime's 14yo version (..was that right?) would have been.

EDIT: On a lighter note, some of you may not be familiar with the DS2 anime. That's a Crunchyroll link. I make no guarantees as to how closely I'll follow the anime, save for "not very", but it may give you some idea as to what you're up against. To get a very quick notion of that, try episode 4, 7:30.

 

[arsdraconis]

ds2 anime is a crime against god and nature, it is bad and you really shouldn't follow it

which is kinda sad, because p4a set a really good precedence for media conversion, despite the low quality animation every now and then

 

[Baughn]

It completely broke the metaphysics and ending, but - shinies. It quickly shows the scale of what's going on, in a way that you can't easily get without spending dozens of hours on the game.

That said, I'm explicitly following the game's storyline. The anime only counts insofar as it matches up.

 

[UrsaTempest]

DS2 Anime is... disappointing. Ah, well.

[X] Focus on understanding Amu's soul
--[X] With an eye towards her motivations and personality. We may have picked her to give her a chance, and that requires power, but we're not a completely heartless hunter-seeker autonomous motonic construct. She's a bit young for the more traditional packages, and typical doctrine prefers mature hosts as they're more likely to adapt well to the influx of divine power. Some initial and long-term efficiency can be sacrificed in the interest of building a stronger rapport with the new Exalt, as such efforts are more likely to pay off over time, and increase the odds of her making effective use of the power.

[X] Dinner and evening with the Hinamori family.

 

[Hyacinthium]

Man I am so hype for this.

This is going to be greeeeaaaaat~!