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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Immortal Lurker said:
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Keiko does, indeed, feel romantic love strongly. But I'd say that maybe the manner in which Snowflake and Keiko feel love is different. Maybe Keiko's love language is "quality time" whereas Snowfake's love language is "words of affirmation" or perhps even "physical touch." We already know that Keiko spends a lot of time with Tenten, to the point where it's been slightly interfering with Keiko leveling up her Shadow Clone technique. Well, Snowflake has already shown herself to be both more socially apt and... conversationally gifted than Keiko, being free with her opinions and words. So between that, and a lack of being touch-adverse, I could see Snowflake feeling/expressing those feelings in different ways than Keiko. Especially if Snowflake's nature as a shadow clone precludes "quality time" as her love language.

As for Snowflake's role in Keiko's romantic life... I don't think she has one. If the two of them cannot share certain memories due to the agency/autonomy interaction due to the FS, and if romantic feelings fall under that category, then the memories/feelings of loving someone wouldn't transfer between Keiko and Snowflake. As for boundaries? I'd say that since Snowflake doesn't seem to love either Tenten or Shikamaru, Snowflake doesn't mind not being a part of their relationship polygon --other than, perhaps, some distant feeling of loneliness that comes from a single individual seeing two close friends in a relationship.


Cariyaga said:
Do not call up that which you cannot put down.
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*lounges, sipping tea*
I'm down for it.

Shrooms said:
polyamory is an optimization problem
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I can't tell if you're speaking in favor of polyamory as a possible solution or not, so I'll simply point out that we can't assume that the parties involved would be agreeable to that. Not everyone is built for a mulit-party relationship --be it a dynamic in which everyone involved is each other's partner, or otherwise. It's a possible solution, and one that would led to interesting story arcs for the quest as a whole, but we don't know what exactly what type of relationship Hazou's character wants.

We know that he wants a loving marriage of equals, styled after the sort of relationship his parents had, but not much else. He's tried an open relationship with Akane and Ino, but that burned everyone involved. Does that mean he wants to stick with the "culturally default"dynamic that is monogamy, try out polyamory, or try to seek out an open relationship once more? We know that Hazou still has feelings for Akane and may or may not pursue a relationship with her. If Hazou is more comfortable with polyamory than monogamy, is he going to have to force himself into a monogamous role with Akane? She didn't seem too happy with the open relationship style that she and Hazou tried last time, but she might be more comfortable with an interconnected polyamorous dynamic. These are the sort of things Mari meant when she asked Hazou "what type of relationship are you looking for" and "what do you want in/from a relationship?"

There's also the QMs' perspectives to weigh in. I'd rather not ask them to write a multi-party relationship if they're not comfortable doing so.

TL;DR: Polyamory is a possible solution, but only if the characters are okay with it and the QMs are comfortable writing such a dynamic.
 
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RandomOTP said:
Keiko does, indeed, feel romantic love strongly. But I'd say that maybe the manner in which Snowflake and Keiko feel love is different. Maybe Keiko's love language is "quality time" whereas Snowfake's love language is "words of affirmation" or perhps even "physical touch." We already know that Keiko spends a lot of time with Tenten, to the point where it's been slightly interfering with Keiko leveling up her Shadow Clone technique. Well, Snowflake has already shown herself to be both more socially apt and... conversationally gifted than Keiko, being free with her opinions and words. So between that, and a lack of being touch-adverse, I could see Snowflake feeling/expressing those feelings in different ways than Keiko. Especially if Snowflake's nature as a shadow clone precludes "quality time" as her love language.

As for Snowflake's role in Keiko's romantic life... I don't think she has one. If the two of them cannot share certain memories due to the agency/autonomy interaction due to the FS, and if romantic feelings fall under that category, then the memories/feelings of loving someone wouldn't transfer between Keiko and Snowflake. As for boundaries? I'd say that since Snowflake doesn't seem to love either Tenten or Shikamaru, Snowflake doesn't mind not being a part of their relationship polygon --other than, perhaps, some distant feeling of loneliness that comes from a single individual seeing two close friends in a relationship.




*lounges, sipping tea*
I'm down for it.



I can't tell if you're speaking in favor of polyamory as a possible solution or not, so I'll simply point out that we can't assume that the parties involved would be agreeable to that. Not everyone is built for a mulit-party relationship --be it a dynamic in which everyone involved is each other's partner, or otherwise. It's a possible solution, and one that would led to interesting story arcs for the quest as a whole, but we don't know what exactly what type of relationship Hazou's character wants.

We know that he wants a loving marriage of equals, styled after the sort of relationship his parents had, but not much else. He's tried an open relationship with Akane and Ino, but that burned everyone involved. Does that mean he wants to stick with the "culturally default"dynamic that is monogamy, try out polyamory, or try to seek out an open relationship once more? We know that Hazou still has feelings for Akane and may or may not pursue a relationship with her. If Hazou is more comfortable with polyamory than monogamy, is he going to have to force himself into a monogamous role with Akane? She didn't seem too happy with the open relationship style that she and Hazou tried last time, but she might be more comfortable with an interconnected polyamorous dynamic. These are the sort of things Mari meant when she asked Hazou "what type of relationship are you looking for" and "what do you want in/from a relationship?"

There's also the QMs' perspectives to weigh in. I'd rather not ask them to write a multi-party relationship if they're not comfortable doing so.

TL;DR: Polyamory is a possible solution, but only if the characters are okay with it and the QMs are comfortable writing such a dynamic.
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It's a joke I've made several times over the course of the quest, I basically bring it up anytime someone besides Akane is implied to have any interest in Hazou whatsoever. I do however wholeheartedly believe this quest is actually a romcom quest and the number of healthy relationships you can maintain simultaneously marks how successful you are, which means we haven't won until every character is tied up in a complex web of relationships with almost every other character
 
Shrooms said:
It's a joke I've made several times over the course of the quest, I basically bring it up anytime someone besides Akane is implied to have any interest in Hazou whatsoever. I do however wholeheartedly believe this quest is actually a romcom quest and the number of healthy relationships you can maintain simultaneously marks how successful you are, which means we haven't won until every character is tied up in a complex web of relationships with almost every other character
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I mean... have you seen the way Hazou eyes up his lists? There was even an intervention about it. Poor Akane... even if she dates Hazou, she'll still have to share with Hazou's lists.
 
Shrooms said:
number of healthy relationships you can maintain simultaneously marks how successful you are
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Ah yes.

The "Ninshou" ability.

I too wish to rediscover this lost art and utilize the power of connections against our foes.

All shall tremble before the awesome magic of our friendship!
 
We gotta get Akane her summons some time down the line, so we can be "The Yonnin" instead of piggybacking on The Sannin's title.

Edit: Also, the Sannin's summons are based off of an old Japanese version of rock paper scissors. Frog beats Slug beats Snake beats Frog. We'll need to come up with a new one for our Yonnin's summons :p.
 
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Twofoe said:
We gotta get Akane her summons some time down the line, so we can be "The Yonnin" instead of piggybacking on The Sannin's title.

Edit: Also, the Sannin's summons are based off of an old Japanese version of rock paper scissors. Frog beats Slug beats Snake beats Frog. We'll need to come up with a new one for our Yonnin's summons :p.
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RandomOTP said:
Well... Akane is training with Tsunade...
>.>
<.<
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Well we should be getting actionable information on the otter scroll next update. So able to move on this soon
 
Oneiros said:
Well we should be getting actionable information on the otter scroll next update. So able to move on this soon
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And we can set up some stuff to run in the background while we're sleuthing! Set up missions with the Tower about walls, metal testings, do something with the aquifer, nudge the skyglider experiments along, set up a village-wide bounty on learning the Yamanaka Mental Stability jutsu... so many things ^.^
 
So... eaglejarl brought this up on the Discord and I sort of picked it up and ran with it.

I've got a couple things that I'd like to do for the next update(s):

First, I'd like to expand the Gouketsu program that Hazou mentioned during the last update to avoid such abuses to the whole of Konoha. We should work with Ino on this, as she is shown to care and have the wherewithal to do things about it.

Second, I'd like to work to create a counselling program, for ninjas and civilians alike. The last months have undoubtedly been rough, and future ones will be too, setting entirely aside the possibilities of upcoming war, and creating a strong standard for mental healthcare of those that we can, is well within our preferences.
 
Cariyaga said:
First, I'd like to expand the Gouketsu program that Hazou mentioned during the last update to avoid such abuses to the whole of Konoha. We should work with Ino on this, as she is shown to care and have the wherewithal to do things about it.

Second, I'd like to work to create a counselling program, for ninjas and civilians alike. The last months have undoubtedly been rough, and future ones will be too, setting entirely aside the possibilities of upcoming war, and creating a strong standard for mental healthcare of those that we can, is well within our preferences.
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Provided that we work with Ino on this --since the Yamanaka are the closest things to experts on the mind in MfD --I'll go ahead and precommit a vote towards plans that focus on that. Well, reasonable plans. That means no telling Tsunade that she needs therapy.
 
Cariyaga said:
We should work with Ino on this, as she is shown to care and have the wherewithal to do things about it.
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RandomOTP said:
Provided that we work with Ino on this --since the Yamanaka are the closest things to experts on the mind in MfD --I'll go ahead and precommit a vote towards plans that focus on that. Well, reasonable plans. That means no telling Tsunade that she needs therapy.
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I'll go one step further and suggest that we should ask Ino if she would be willing to have her clan's civilians start to disseminate their basic level (or put another way, in no way classified) psychology either themselves or through our GED. Having civilians able to help other civilians with psychological problems would help alleviate the Yamanaka's manpower shortage (as we saw with her sending a genin with us) as well as allowing civilians to talk to people they can actually open up to as opposed to clan ninja who terrify them by existing in the same postal code as the civilians.
 
Cariyaga said:
So... eaglejarl brought this up on the Discord and I sort of picked it up and ran with it.

I've got a couple things that I'd like to do for the next update(s):

First, I'd like to expand the Gouketsu program that Hazou mentioned during the last update to avoid such abuses to the whole of Konoha. We should work with Ino on this, as she is shown to care and have the wherewithal to do things about it.

Second, I'd like to work to create a counselling program, for ninjas and civilians alike. The last months have undoubtedly been rough, and future ones will be too, setting entirely aside the possibilities of upcoming war, and creating a strong standard for mental healthcare of those that we can, is well within our preferences.
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This is going to be political dynamite, including the possibilities of civilians disclosing corruption and blackmail.
 
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