Just brainstorming here. Trying to keep things unbroken and setting-appropriate, but I don't have a particular theme.
Pantry seal
A seal which can store and unstore multiple objects, with a significantly larger capacity than a normal storage seal. The seal fails if moved, which releases as much of its contents as there is space for; the rest is lost.
Reproachful Roar
A seal that produces a short strong directional gust of wind along a cylinder parallel to the surface of the seal. The seal comes in two variants; one with a timer, and one with a proximity detector.
Miner's Delight
A seal that powderizes a sizable hemisphere of rock below its surface. Harmless to objects with chakra. Does not affect gasses or liquids.
One-way glass
A seal that produces a plane that is reflective from one side, and transparent on the other. The plane is not solid, and only works below a specific (but reasonably high) brightness.
Staring into the Out
A seal that absorbs all light in a 10cm radius sphere around it. It appears as a pitch black circle when observed from any angle. The seal has a fairly short time limit.
Equalizer Amplifier
A seal that performs audio equalization, suppressing and boosting certain frequencies passing through a region. Audio passing through a section of the region may also be duplicated to the entire plane, which increases range but not volume.
Toaster Seal
This seal heats up (or cools down), up to a specified limit or until it fails. The seal takes a few seconds per 100K change. This seal is intended for cooking, keeping warm, refrigeration, and other QOL effects.
Sleep, my dearest
This is a seal taken from the quest; I did not invent it. Adding it here in case you've forgotten about it.
Puts the target to sleep. Requires contact. May have terms & conditions.
Viscous air
Similar to the Air Dome, affects a hemisphere of air between two seals. The air in the whole hemispherical radius becomes roughly as viscous as water. Breathing this air is uncomfortable but seems to be safe.
Trippy seal
Within a spherical surrounding area, objects glow with an intensity proportional to their chakra density.
Water walking
Solid objects in the surrounding area become hydrophobic; this includes active seals. The density of water increases by a factor of 2.
Poor-man's Summoning Seal
A pair of seals. Small chakra animals can be teleported between the seals, up to a moderate distance. The seals have slightly higher durability than the paper they are written on. An attempt to rip-off of the real thing, mostly unsuccessfully.
We can do something nice for Team Asuma (barbecue anyone?) specifically since they are really cool and stuff and we are thankful.
I dont think that we have some sort of grand debt to settle to their families, but I will support any Jolly Cooperation between our clans for its own sake.
To dodge Goo Bombs you have to roll against the sealmasters Sealing. Assuming Jiraiyas is 60 or so (its doublecost but he is arguably one of the best sealmasters around) then theyd have to make an Athletics check of >60 to beat it.
By an large, this is likely impossible for almost all Genin (perhaps Lee can do it?) barring super spikey builds and its extremely unlikely for a majority of Chunin (unless they minmax the shit out of their builds like we do).
Its not an unlikely scenario IMO that choosing to sell them would mean facing an enemy that has them at some point in the future. I would really rather avoid this until we personally dont have to care (All Hail the Godstats).
Hazō hesitated outside the firmly-closed door to Keiko's room. Keiko did not forbid her family from entering per se, as long as she was present, but unsolicited visits rarely met with a warm reception (Noburi, by contrast, left his door various degrees of open to indicate how welcome visitors were at any given time). On the plus side, this made her room ideal for having one-on-one conversations without risk of interruption, and that was what Hazō was going for today.
Appropriately to Keiko's preferences, the door was a mighty thing of thick wood and metal which couldn't possibly be opened without alerting anyone inside. Keiko had also insisted on keeping the "Cognitive Hazard Containment" sign on the front (any actual hazards had long since been removed or destroyed by ANBU specialists, and when Hazō asked what a cognitive hazard was, Kagome-sensei simply said, "You don't want to know").
"Keiko? It's me, Hazō. Can I come in?"
"Proceed."
It was a teaching of Mari-sensei's that a person's private space was a guide to their hidden self, but Hazō was never quite sure what that said about Keiko. Her bedroom was painted a light blue that shaded darker as it approached the ceiling, which was taken up by an enormous star chart in silver and midnight blue. Keiko had never once spoken of being homesick, yet Hazō couldn't help noticing that the constellations were painted as if seen from Mist.
Two walls were taken up by enormous bookshelves stuffed with books, scrolls and the occasional board game, as well as a wardrobe, a desk and an equipment chest. The oak furniture was standard across the compound—Mari-sensei had applied her powers to get a bulk deal from a helpless carpenter, and promised to get something more personalised once finances allowed.
A third wall bore an Intelligence Department world map which Keiko had wrangled out of Jiraiya, covered with illegible annotations and pinned scraps of parchment. Finally, hanging directly over Keiko's bed, between more bookshelves, was a huge cork board on a hook, always hung facing the wall. Hazō had no idea what was pinned to it, and didn't put it past Keiko to have trapped it to make sure it stayed that way.
Which naturally brought his gaze to Keiko herself, lying on the bed reading a book with a cover depicting... a young woman artfully bound in red silk rope.
"Oh," Hazō stammered. "I'm sorry, I-I didn't realise you were busy. I'll come back—"
"Not at all," Keiko said. "As it happens, I was just wondering whether to seek your help practising the material in this book."
Hazō froze in mid-escape. "I, uh, Keiko, I think you're a great girl and everything, but I have a girlfriend, and besides, there's the whole adopted siblings thing, and you're engaged, and—"
"I fail to see how any of that is relevant," Keiko said. "I merely intended to ask you to tie me up in an elaborate fashion, ideally in the privacy of my bedroom—or yours—so as to avoid potential interference from the rest of our family."
At this point, the combination of confusion, panic and inevitable visualisation overloaded Hazō's brain.
"Hazō? Is something the matter?" Keiko got up from the bed, book still in hand. "Have you been experimenting with strange seals without supervision again? Should I call Kagome? Or a Yamanaka expert?"
But by the time she got close enough to check his eyes for dilation, he could finally read the title of the book: Caught in a Bind: Escapology for Beginners.
"Oh! No, nothing is wrong, Keiko, nothing at all! Sorry to make you worry! Forget I said anything. At all. Ever."
Keiko gave him a sceptical look.
"So, uh, anyway, why are you reading about escapology?"
"Mari-sensei's recommendation. After I told her about a certain unfortunate night-time incident in the barracks, she explained to me, in her words, that 'a woman should be tied up only when she is in the mood, and only for as long as she is in the mood'."
"That seems strangely emphatic."
"She herself decided to learn the art after an incident involving a lover on an urgent mission to purchase more honey syrup from across the road, a door left carelessly unlocked, and some officials from the Mizukage's Office seeking a secondary debriefing. Enough said, I trust."
Apparently this was a morning for fascinating mental images.
Hazō shook his head to clear them away before Keiko could read his mind.
"Can we set tying you up aside for a moment? I actually had something specific to talk to you about."
"Oh?"
"The pangolins."
Keiko's expression shut down as completely if she'd placed a Multiple Earth Wall between them. "I do not believe I presently have anything to add on the subject."
"I do."
Keiko didn't say anything.
"Keiko, I think you're right."
"Is that so?" she asked warily.
"Yeah," Hazō said. "Back when we started this thing, I had no idea it was going to get so bad. But right now, that's just an excuse, and it doesn't matter. The fact is, I got us into this mess when I proposed the skytower plan, and now it's my responsibility to take the lead on fixing it."
"On the contrary," Keiko said coldly. "I am the Pangolin Summoner. It is my responsibility to know and understand the summon clans, not yours. It is my responsibility to mediate between the two worlds and preserve their balance. Your plan was implemented only as a result of my full approval, and only I was in a position to directly observe its effects and make necessary adjustments. I do not mean to downplay your role—neither conception nor execution would have been possible without you—but in the final reckoning, whatever the manufacturer's business plan may be, it is the dealer who chooses to place the weapons in unworthy hands.
"In any case, I am aware that I may be overreacting. I owe no loyalty to the Condor Clan, nor is it my duty to manage the politics of alien races. A true shinobi places her own mission above all else, especially one as important as Team Uplift's, and feels only pride at the efficient elimination of a shared foe. What do I know of the condors that I should care that the blood of their entire species is on my hands, or of their culture that I should care that I have single-handedly stolen it from them?"
She sat down heavily on the bed. There was still no expression on her face, but Hazō knew her well enough to see the tell-tale signs of how much effort that was taking. Any moment now, she'd find an excuse to retreat into the Frozen Skein and he'd lose his chance to support the part of her that needed it most.
Hazō is Compelled: Open Mouth, Insert Foot!
"Keiko," he said hurriedly, not thinking so much about the detail of the words as about the need to keep her emotionally present, "there is nothing wrong with caring about strangers. The whole point of Uplift is caring about strangers. I… I know it hurts. The people on the Sunset Racer were strangers too, and I still haven't forgotten that feeling of anger and helplessness and guilt after we failed to…" He bit his tongue, but it was too late.
Keiko didn't respond. Her stance shifted and her eyes lost focus. Hazō, feeling entirely new helplessness and guilt, waited, because this was not something that was safe to interrupt.
"I apologise," Keiko said tonelessly after a while. "I was allowing my emotions to interfere with my judgement. Having established that you are amenable to cooperation, I will consider the situation in more depth and attempt to evaluate our options."
"Keiko, you don't have to—"
She cut him off. "The need to prevent further harm on the Seventh Path is much more immediate than any personal concerns of mine, and must take priority over them."
Hazō sighed. "All right. I guess we can talk about it some more tonight, once Jiraiya is free. He must have a lot of experience handling diplomacy with the clans, and he was great that one time we asked him for help."
Keiko nodded.
"And Keiko… I'm here for you. If you want to talk about it, if you want help processing, or another perspective on your problems, or just a friendly shoulder to lean on from a safe distance, I'm always here."
"Noted."
His options exhausted, Hazō made his retreat. The door swung shut behind him, once more isolating Keiko from the rest of the world.
-o-
For maybe the first time in his life, Noburi was glad to be training with Team Gai. Not so much because it would let him get back to his sacred duty of reminding Hyūga of his place in the world, but because Tenten would be there, and with any luck hanging out with her would dispel the impenetrable aura of gloom that had been radiating from Keiko ever since Hazō tried to talk to her about the pangolin thing. Hazō's original comment wasn't wrong—depending on how bad Keiko was feeling, both of them coming to talk to her at once might have felt like an intervention. But Noburi should have insisted on leaving it to the professionals (i.e. himself), precisely to avoid this kind of scenario.
Keiko and Tenten, though... looking back, he really should have figured it out a lot earlier. They had this weird in-sync thing going where they were practically finishing each other's sentences like a married couple, minus the sentences part. But more than that, he couldn't remember the last time Keiko had complained about joint training with their so-called rivals (only so called by Lee, but Noburi tacitly encouraged it because Hazō's expression never stopped being hilarious). Keiko, who was allergic to the Spirit of Youth like Mari-sensei was allergic to monogamy.
Mari-sensei was obviously in on it. Seriously, how had Noburi never questioned "She's out seeing a friend" when, as far as he knew, Keiko didn't have any friends outside the Gōketsu? Of the rest, Akane had picked up on it around the same time Noburi did, Hazō was probably oblivious, Jiraiya didn't know her well enough, and Kagome was Kagome. On the whole, Keiko was playing the OPSEC game pretty well. If it hadn't been for that one incident of Hyūga-induced temporary insanity (weird how those words seemed to fit together so naturally), most of them still wouldn't have a clue.
Well, whatever. It wasn't like it made any difference to Noburi, who had totally gotten over his crush and wasn't starting to feel down just thinking about Keiko being in a relationship with someone else. Where was Hyūga, anyway?
"Where is Hyūga, anyway?"
"He won't be joining us today," Gai said. "But don't worry about the numbers being off—instead we've got a surprise guest appearance from Ishihara Akane!"
Nice. He hadn't had a chance to talk to Akane for a while thanks to the exams. Plus, assuming Hazō had used up his foot-in-mouth quota for the day, maybe those two could take the opportunity to make up.
"I don't see her. Is she late?"
"Not at all. Why, she's right over there!" Gai pointed to the shadow of the trees at the edge of the Training Grounds, where Tenten was receiving some kind of nondescript bag from Akane while bowing repeatedly. Curious.
As if sensing the attention, Akane turned towards them, then went still.
"You… didn't tell her we'd be training with you too, did you?"
"I decided to make it a pleasant surprise," Gai said warmly. "It seems her lack of success at the exams has left her feeling less than youthful, and what could be more brimming with Youth than a passionate physical encounter with one's lover?"
Oh, boy.
Hazō, coming up behind them, followed the line of Gai's pointed finger, then gave a probably-unconscious anxious smile. Noburi silently wished him luck. A lot of luck. "Beat a Hyūga at hide-and-seek" levels of luck.
"Gōketsu! My true rival! How I have waited to get my hands on your body and wrestle you to the ground!"
That could be a problem. Was Noburi really prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of his friend and brother's love? Was he, in his heart of hearts, a man who could selflessly spend several hours with Rock Lee for the greater good?
"Lee," Noburi said as he gripped him firmly by the shoulder and steered him towards another part of the grounds, "you're partnering up with me today."
"Splendid!" Lee exclaimed. "We will finally find out if you can drown me in your fluids before my Hard Fist penetrates the depths of your barrel!"
Screw selflessness. Hazō was going to be paying him back for this till the day he died.
-o-
"…"
"…"
Hazō's training with Akane was not going as well as expected.
"You're still upset, aren't you?" Hazō stated the obvious for lack of options. It wasn't a start that would win him any diplomacy awards, but he was trying to tread lightly. This was his chance to redeem himself for his failure this morning.
"It doesn't matter," Akane said heavily. "What's done is done. No matter how we feel, it doesn't change the fact that the right thing to do is to move on."
"I'm so glad to hear that!" Hazō beamed with massive relief. He'd been afraid that this would be a reprise of their last conversation, wherein a pained Akane would try to explain her feelings in her usual simple, clear way, and he would find himself misunderstanding what she meant and thereby failing to address the problem until it was too late.
"You… are?"
"Of course. I was afraid that what I did might have put some kind of rift between us, but I'm willing to move on if you are."
Akane nodded. "Yeah. I know it might take time to… sort out our feelings, but eventually…" She started again. "I don't want to lose you as a friend, Hazō. That would be the worst thing of all."
"You won't," Hazō said confidently. "If that's what you were worried about, I guarantee it's not going to happen."
At this, Akane finally smiled. Only a faint smile, but to Hazō it was still a ray of sunlight. "I'm glad."
"So… with that sorted out, do you want to get on with the training?"
"I guess we should," Akane said. "No matter what's happening in our personal lives, Leaf needs us to be able to work together as professionals."
"You're absolutely right," Hazō said. "I was worried about how things would turn out at first, but I'm glad we're on the same page."
-o-
There was only one thing better than intense physical exercise for taking one's mind off being a genocidal monster by proxy. That thing was intense physical exercise with one's beloved.
For these precious few hours, everything was perfect. Tenten was perfect—in every step, in every throw, every unspoken word and every concise instruction. The weather was perfect—sunny, brisk and with the promise of rain later in the day when she would be able to watch it meditatively through a window. Even Kei herself, though immeasurably distant from perfection, was at least in her element, a fish gliding smoothly through the sea of battle.
Her happiness was not without cost. The instant her attention slipped, she felt a spike of pain as a shuriken severed her right shoulder muscles. Then before she could regain her balance, two more sliced behind her knees. Tenten's aim was perfect like everything else.
Tenten looked questioningly at her as she slowly found her feet. Again?
Kei raised her hand in a motion of denial. Her muscles were making it quite clear that if she continued training without a break, they would commit ritual suicide and leave her to seduce Tenten while sprawled pitifully on the ground like a beached jellyfish.
Not that she intended to seduce Tenten. Not that she had any idea how to seduce Tenten, circumstances being what they were. In fact, she was not even sure why the thought had come into her mind.
She looked at Tenten again. The sweat glistening on her face. The chest moved by heavy breathing. The supple limbs and the expression of calm exhilaration. Question retracted.
Did Tenten ever look at her like this? Kei did not have a clear image of her body as it was seen by others. She had been told a number of times in her youth that she resembled Ami, mostly by their parents while they still hoped she would follow in her sister's footsteps. She had internalised this enough that the school bullies' accusations of ugliness had failed to move her (unlike most of the other, valid, criticisms), but in reality, she suspected she was quite plain, as she always was next to Ami. Beyond which, she had little skill with body language, no particular dress sense, and zero expertise in feminine arts such as makeup (which had never mattered before and now suddenly did).
Tenten, either oblivious to Kei's attention or too polite to comment, had moved ahead of her on their way to their favourite oak. This, too, raised questions. Was Kei crossing a line of how much it was permitted to stare at a person? Was she merely being excessively self-conscious as she often was? Was she permitted to spend more time staring at Tenten now that they were girlfriends? Were they girlfriends? That one night had felt like a confession, but it did not match any of the protocols described in the literature. Why was her love life so confusing compared to Hazō and Akane's?
Tenten stopped short of their familiar place between the oak's huge roots. She turned around, and there was a tension in her expression that Kei had not seen since that awful night when Rock Lee had decided to make them victims of his hideous tomfoolery. There was a piece of parchment in her hand.
Kei took it.
The brushwork was simple, elegant, precise, exactly as Kei would have expected. The content was like an arrow to the heart.
I'm sorry I cannot say this to you like a normal person. This is my limit. You have been trying to speak my language. No one else ever has. That is why there is something that I need to say in yours.
I know I seem stupid to you. I am not.
I think in images. Some are slow and detailed. Some are sequences almost too fast to track. Some are feelings, or made of feelings. My thoughts are as deep and complicated as other people's. But I don't know how to put them into words. I was alone for a long time, and I never learned. Trying to translate is hard, and slow, and I make mistakes. Writing this was hard, and slow, and I kept having to start over. I listen, and I read, and I understand everything. But the words I need don't come to mind when I need them. I will never speak the way you do. Please understand that I am not stupid.
Please understand.
Tenten was watching her as if her reaction was a matter of life and death. Kei could feel her heart begin to ache.
If Kei was a normal person, she could reach out and touch her. Hug her, hold her, show her acceptance and affection the way normal people did. Kei was not a normal person.
Kei could say something. She did not know what—but with the endless arsenal of words at her disposal, surely some of them had to be right.
Then, in a moment of crystal clarity that the Mori Voice would have envied, she understood. Tenten had spoken to her in her language. Now Kei would speak to her in hers.
Kei gathered all of her courage. She looked straight at Tenten. Then, with the other girl watching, she closed her eyes and slowly pressed the letter to her slightly-open lips.
Their gazes were still locked as her eyes opened. She took a backwards step. Another to leave the shelter of the canopy.
She tore the letter in two.
Four.
Eight.
Sixteen for good measure.
She cast the pieces upwards, and the wind snatched them away.
She broke eye contact, having said everything she meant to say. She made her way over to her place among the tree roots, lay down, and closed her eyes to make it clear that no response was needed. She could not hear Tenten's footsteps over the pounding of her own heartbeat, but through closed eyelids she could see the silhouette come, stand over her for a few long seconds, then lie down next to her—as ever, one tree root away.
Today they'd reached over one barrier to touch each other. Someday, this one too.
-o-
Rest of the plan to be left until the Sunday update. No voting unless @eaglejarl decrees otherwise. In the meantime, though, lest it be forgotten, +1 FP for accepting a Compel.
Something like "Wracked by Guilt" or "Haru has a Grudge", maybe? Or even "Overly Exciteable About Sealing" which would rarely gain us FP, but also not make important conversations dangerous?
Well, that was a rollercoaster. Masterfully written @Velorien , my heart feels like it got stomped on by Zabuza.
I'm happy for Keiko and Tenten though! Hazou's relationship foibles trod uncomfortably close to my teen years though, so maybe its the *QM's* who hacked into *my* Google Drive!
...
... Wounded Squeak In Kagome?
I am actually *very* proud and happy about seeing some generally positive and not sexualised Queer Content (TM) between two neuro-divergent/mentally ill young women, but the only image I have for that sort of thing is
I mostly just want to bash Hazou over the head with "Action Plan: Realise Akane Broke Up With You, Settle on Just Being a Good Friend to Her and Try to Move On" with no accompanying text.
How many votes would we need to get for that to end this stupid and frustrating subplot? 10? 20? 30? I think I can rally thirty people to vote for this if need be.
Something like "Wracked by Guilt" or "Haru has a Grudge", maybe? Or even "Overly Exciteable About Sealing" which would rarely gain us FP, but also not make important conversations dangerous?
Your Trouble Aspect is supposed to cause trouble by definition. But don't take it too badly. Remember, the thing that makes you awesome is the thing that makes you suck and vice versa.
Your Trouble Aspect is supposed to cause trouble by definition. But don't take it too badly. Remember, the thing that makes you awesome is the thing that makes you suck and vice versa.
The point of the trouble aspect is to get you FP semi-reliably by being an aspect that will cause compels/problems with some regularity. The issue I'm taking is that the degree of trouble this aspect is causing isn't worth the FP. So we should do what any normal FATE player would do and rename it into something less likely to completely ruin the character's life, taking a hit to FP if necessary.
No. Unless we bash Hazou on the head with the action plan equivalent of a stop sign, we are never getting rid of this subplot until it's blown up in our face in the most damaging way possible.
It sounds as if they've never been physical, and he already established the relationship as polyamorous, so many of the most blatant clues aren't actually indicative in this case. It's almost conceivable that he never realizes that they've broken up.
In any case, it's clear that the GMs are going to run this one out and out and out.
It sounds as if they've never been physical, and he already established the relationship as polyamorous, so many of the most blatant clues aren't actually indicative in this case. It's almost conceivable that he never realizes that they've broken up.
In any case, it's clear that the GMs are going to run this one out and out and out.
