As it's clear that this plan is winning, I think it's worth giving feedback on it, even if I don't fully agree with it.
Overarching suggestion: Since this is all one talky scene, it's plausible EJ gets through it all. A little addendum of "After meeting, carry out refined plans." might be good to get the stuff done (since otherwise we'd potentially be leaving a lot of scenes for Vel to carve through on Thursday).
- Kei, Snowflake, Crystal, Winterlight, Scalpel, Prism, Constellation, Spiral, Moonlight, Soar, Kitten, Whisper, Prayer, Kiss, and those-yet-unnamed.
How many of these are from the story...? Could cut some wordcount if close to 300?
- Dissuade: Kei's Clones are independent because her bloodline cognitively impairs her, but Shadow Clones (don't receive bloodlines) don't have this limitation
- Implication: For Orochimaru to gain this benefit, he must cognitively impair either himself/clones
Could reframe this with much fewer words, e.g. "Kei's mental bloodline impairs her, so SCs are closer to baseline. Orochimaru can't benefit without mentally impairing himself."
Though I guess I feel like a lot of it is excessively wordy.
- Misdirection: Leaf thinks Snowflake's a long-term Nara social experiment. Doubledown. Claim Snowflake's an experiment regarding directed personality drift, and Mari wasn't informed. (Controlling Variables. Rumor mill knows Kei and Mari aren't friendly.)
- Fake/backdate paperwork accordingly
On the one hand, we already voted this in and it was ignored. Could also be dramatically simplified: "Claim Kei's SCs are intentionally inducing long-term personality drift, faking papers and experiment notes to cover." or something.
- Get Other Clan Heads' Support?
- Currently, we only have Nara/ISC support.
- Hyuuga (among all the others) wouldn't approve of what Orochimaru's doing.
- Other noble clans may add weight behind "What Orochimaru is trying isn't the Will of Fire and we cannot tolerate this. Solve This Problem."
There's a clearer message here: If Orochimaru can attack Hazou and Kei, powerful and well-connected people (especially when there are Mori and Kurosawa in Mist that could be kidnapped!), he clearly will not stop when it comes to you. TBH if we weren't so pressed for solutions to not get killed by Oro, we cuold have done this before going to Asuma...
- Orochimaru shares data with Hazou only.
Why would he do this at all?
- Clan secrets are BIG, may ruin Mist alliance. How can we keep this secret?
This is tough. On the one hand, Ami will probably want to formalize this into a program and contract for Orochimaru to abide to, to make it clear to him that there's a game he has to play if he wants his prizes, and that breaking the rules will be clear and obvious -- and will invite retaliation. On the other hand, doing so makes it clear to Mist that their bloodlines are being researched by Orochimaru. I guess... they'll just have to suck it up? Orochimaru was equally capable of kidnapping Mori and Kurosawa as a missing-nin, so this is not a
dramatic change of status quo.
I... actually like the idea of pitching it to Ami as a game/contract thing like FGP. She'd probably have a better idea of how to balance the scales. Maybe framing it as collecting bloodline data for the clans explicitly could give them an incentive to participate? A carrot to the stick of breaking the rules being obvious defection.
- If we get the all-clear, fill our allies (Ami, Shikamaru, etc.) in on the plan and request feedback/help.
- Ami (in private):
- We made an agreement with The Ami, unity towards Kei's survival.
- Five Clans know things. Here be dragons? Fine. If Kei lives, then we'll gladly endure the Consequences.
- Anything you can tell us to persuade Orochimaru Snowflake is deadend research, please... even if it draws his focus towards us.
Could be dangerous, since we've already probably figured out too much IC. Also, I don't see why Hazou knowing more about the Five could help here. That said, I respect the blatant Forbidden Lore grab and approve, except given the wordcount.
Also, might be worth noting that there are OPSEC concerns? Don't want Ami finding out about Summon Army tactics from Hazou's leaky trap.
- Tsunade: Name price to attend procedure. If she doesn't, we're dead anyway.
Given that Tsunade is all about saving lives, I can't help but feel paranoid that she'll be offended by us trying to bribe her to save ours. Honestly, Hazou's good at heartfelt pleas. Did we even bribe her for Noburi/Yuno's wedding??
- When that happens, please remember: the Will of Fire can spark within anyone, anywhere.
What's this about? I don't see the purpose of this, could it be trimmed for wordcount?
Sorry if I'm not seeing obvious things in the plan, I haven't kept up with the thread or chats. That said, maybe my confusion will be helpful as an outsider's view.
