Is Hazō talking to himself? Is this entire conversation taking place in Hazō's mind?
Hazō is always ready to simp at a moment's notice. Do not call his bluff.
Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
- Thread starter eaglejarl
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- Tags
- naruto rationalist romance armageddon is looking better and better damn you kishimoto explosions everywhere explosives solve everyone if in doubt surrender to the mercy of zabuza it seemed like a good idea at the time looks like a really bad case of being a jōnin my god. where does the lore end? precommitting is the winning plan screaming in kagome screw the rules i have explosives something bad might still happen sometimes you gotta sociopath stabby zabby subsection c of paragraph 9 should include we can weaponize this so hard
- Location
- United States
Just following up, thanks. Have the rolls or the seal difficulty been decided yet?
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Should have said Hinata. Fixed, thanks.
Not done yet, sorry.
- Location
- The Soviet Republic of Canuckistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Aaay, ally get. Maybe not a friend, yet, but we're friendly and our interests are mutually-aligned. Good stuff.
@eaglejarl, AFAIK we have observed one set of lenses: those in the telescope. Are these (effectively) just that lens, scaled up/down? Or are they unique lens designs (flatter/thicker/etc.)?
I think it might be worth mentioning to Shino that we can only copy designs. Whether or not this is strictly true, it's another reason that the Aburame remain critical in this endeavor: we can copy their lenses, but we need their engineers to do the actual development. If we want a different telescope, we need them to come up with the shape. Telescopes are paired lenses, and Hazo just doesn't have the time in his day to fiddle around getting the combination correct.
More to the point, if we knifed them in the back, we'd have made an enemy. I, for one, am tired of making enemies. We have a lot of those and Asuma has explicitly instructed us to make no more. You don't piss off the Nara because there are shadows everywhere you go. You don't piss off the Aburame because there are bugs everywhere you go.
Aight, he's cracked it. The question is what he mentions to Hinata, what he keeps private, and how he plays it.
...is Hazo genuinely surprised that there are risks in associating with us?
Hopefully Naruto is coming around, and I really hope that Hazo heard 'take offense too easily' and he's going to learn that you can have dominance competitions that you win and win decisively without going thermonuclear.
Sage of the Seven Paths, I love Shino.
Assuming he isn't playing us.
Nice to have felt him out a little on the topic, too. We absolutely need to de-escalate with the Hagoromo but if they come for us, we can probably rely on some level of support from the Aburame.
Hmm. I don't know that I love that, especially when we're going to be lying to her. Hopefully the blatant nature of the lie helps.
Awesome. Question: are these cut gems? Sapphire and Inoite and whatever else we can make? I figure that the Hyuuga are into the whole gem-processing supply chain. I want in with their artisans as much as anything else. A sapphire the size of your fist is one thing, but if we can make smaller sapphire jewelry affordable for the merchant class, we can create and control an entirely new market.
Like, seriously. We might even be able to make a middle class out of this.
Oh, before we get going too hard, we should throw a big pile of gemstones at the hospital, or at least a whole bunch of money. And we should have Noburi deliver it personally as thanks for his apprenticeship, if he thinks that'd be a good move.
Can we endow the Goketsu Jiraiya operating theater? Can we be really, really consistent in our use of the word 'endow' and insist that everyone else be similarly consistent?
No rolls? Is this because she didn't contest our lie, because she's so far above us that it didn't matter, something else?
In any case, I'm proud of that lie (answers all of the questions, like 'why are these not like any gems I've seen literally anywhere else ever', while raising a bunch of other questions she can't answer independently or ask without being rude) and it's nice of her not to press on it even further.
Okay, but please tell me she's also politically savvy enough to have recognized that we're here at least a little bit because if we don't come to her, we've made another enemy. Given a choice between kicking off a conflict and probably taking a bit of a financial hit, we chose to take the hit. It comes with benefits, sure, but please, let everyone see this for what it is: the clear signal of a new era of pro-social interaction on the part of the Goketsu. New estate, new us. We're still weird, but it's a friendlier weird.
I would have liked to see Hazo be explicit about that. Maybe everyone will read between the lines? But being very clear with everyone that we're tired of making enemies is both good for our reputation and because it'll make its way back to Asuma.
Wait, what joke? Aren't they exactly that?
Still, good pro tip, Ino.
I am so damn happy right now. I mean, maybe she's playing us? But that would be a pretty convoluted plot. 'Hello, we found this big pile of money, would you like to have some of it' is a hell of an opening line when building a relationship between organizations. I expect she'll keep her options open, but on the personal front? Maybe we should marry Ino. The jokey back-and-forth means she's spent a few minutes in our presence feeling positively inclined towards us. If we can get that up to hours over the coming months/days, human biology means that she'll like us more than she did before. We're pretty likeable when we try. I expect she'll be Shino-level friendly with us in pretty short order if we put our backs into it.
Yeah, she shouldn't have stepped to us. Minato's poetry did psychic damage, but like all the psychic damage we've taken, we walked away a changed person with new and unnatural abilities.
Hopefully Ino doesn't find out.
Hm. I hadn't considered that this might melt Neji. We can keep it in our back pocket for when we get Akane back, as she'd properly appreciate the Turtle scroll.
Question for the QMs: will things like the telescope endeavor and the gemstone trade now happen smoothly in the background? What work is required on the part of the playerbase (e.g., what do we need to put in plans) to keep it rolling?
- Location
- United States
The difficulty of the AB seal as well?
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Also: does this finally cure our financial consequence?
- Location
- The Soviet Republic of Canuckistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Why Noburi? He doesn't add much.
I'd really rather approach this as if we're asking questions as opposed to making definitive statements. This is true for a variety of reasons; I think it'll get us better results overall compared to locking into specific ideas early.
For example, in this case, I'd say something like 'were all possibilities around TA's disappearance investigated thoroughly? doesn't seem like it'
Do we know that they entered Fire in the morning? They could have been embedded for a while with a weird path.
Again, asking questions and stating facts without drawing inferences.
Again, asking questions. I'm likely going to write a similar plan but my spin on it.
Again, asking questions. Including Kagome in the meeting right off the bat would be smart: he can speak to this.
We figure she had warning based on the attack site?
Why couldn't they have used chakra?
Again, asking questions, or at least presenting our inferences instead of making definitive statements. Way less likely to come across crazy.
We don't know she was softballed and we've already heard Asuma say that mindwalking is off the table. He's in possession of all the relevant facts - at least, we can assume he read Naruto/Shikamaru's report.
I'd like a copy of that report.
Barring indebting ourselves to her, I think we should just tell Ami everything.
Again, I'd like to ask questions: 'how should we approach Asuma' has a different flavour than 'what do we do - tell Ino? Asuma?'
Weird character in here. Again, looping K in at the start seems smart.
There's no Shikamaru discussion in this plan.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/They/Them
Wait, that was an option? So many plans to update, an entire treason to forget about...
Nice touch.
Crushed velvet and that Clan Head's smile
Crushed velvet in that slow, Fire style
A new religion that'll bring ya to Youth's spring
Crushed velvet that we briiiiing
If your wine carries notes of alarm, surprise, and resignation, I advise to spit it out posthaste.
Is it about what they have to offer? Yes, having things to offer is good, but not only can we get filthy rich together, we can both help the other get filthier rich through reaching farther and in more directions by having two Leaf voting clans' resources and reputations. Also, friends. Friends!
Hazō: *has no political training, can't lie to save his life*
Also Hazō: hey, I can probably fool a Clan Head who's been trained in politics all his life, can't I?
AAIIIIIEEEE
AAIIIIIEEEE
Why, Hazō, sometimes it feels like your ideas and values come from somewhere else than the Elemental Nations. By the way, I was Orochimaru this whole time. Not yet paranoid enough, nephew. Out interference, innit?
And not for treason. Technically. That might be worth noting. Also, everyone knows about that despite it happening with only Jiraiya and ANBU, huh?
Hazō (Deceit) 3d100 -2d100 (not even trying): 32
Hinata (Deceit) 17d100: 17 wait, what?
Hinata was reeling. "Ten thousand?" she choked out. "Of this size and purity? I even thought I counted six, but you're right, there are seven here."
A clear invitation to up the ante, mocking his miscount? Hazō refused to be caught on the back foot.
"Closer to twelve thousand, maybe."
There! Politicking was easy as long as you were funny and everyone knew you were.
Hinata took a step back. This much could destroy the Hyūga's... well, everything. And these were reaps of war. Was Hazō declaring that he could destroy and pillage any treasure at all, no matter the size? Certainly, the Gōketsu seemed rather... unshackled by convention, and had a penchant for wide-scale destruction, if the ANBU rumours were to be believed (when your eyes can see through walls, flesh, and bone, no amount of hush-hush can prevent your clan from lip-reading confidential conversations), but still, that was excessive. Did this mean war? She had to make sure.
"Of course, it is important for each to have their place in the Leaf. Just as the younger amongst our ranks can both take or bring much to Leaf, the elder clans can be a mediating influence, or a guide through all of it. What do you think we arrange something? Our interests align."
Hinata (Diplomacy) 9d100: 405
Hazō (Diplomacy) 3d100: 63
"I... I will need to think about this. Akane's death obviously changed things, but... this is a big commitment."
Hinata nodded as he walked away, his face blank as if lost in thought. Of course. As far as he was concerned, the entire conservative bloc may as well be responsible for his first love's demise, even though a partnership with the Hyūga was, obviously, something none would refuse.
Hazō walked away, clamping down on the Iron Nerve to keep his face blank as if he weren't panicking. Akane's death did force him to reconsider his relationships, but for Hinata to offer to marry him... He needed a talk with Mari. And a drink with Sasuke. And for Kagome to check everyone's ears.
... Okay so, they will actually marry won't they
A shame there is no Hyūga to simultaneously be a sealmaster and a summoner, because I don't believe Neji's observations would be useful, if the Byakugan even turns out to give anything good. I also want to be on record as saying that the person whose eyes see everything should not be brought close to the pack of omnicidal monstrosities, at least two of which have displayed sight-based cognitohazardous properties, and that's if they're not sight-based reality warping properties.
- Location
- The Soviet Republic of Canuckistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I can't imagine it does, because we haven't gone to market, but once we have, I expect it'll get there pretty fast.
What's the opposite of a consequence?
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
A taggable Aspect? "First Clan with ES50" sounds accurate.
- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
Always good to keep in mind: a stat in the 20's is not bad. A stat in the 20's is the pinnacle stat of a low-tier superhuman. It represents a large amount of active training that shines through in the character's skillset and competence in that area of expertise.
- Hazou is, by characterization, an honest person: he doesn't often use his Deceit stat (narratively, the tricks and tools of deception that he's learned).
- Hazou's Deceit is substantially lower than his combat or research stats: he is far more impressive as a sealmaster and even as a combatant than as a liar.
- Hazou routinely interacts with Jounin+ social specs: he frequently loses battles of Deceit against foes who are far more skilled than him.
It's important to keep this in mind because our perceptions and behaviour shape the narrative and the narrative in turn shapes our perceptions. The idea that Hazou is bad at lying (or, more broadly, that you need stats in the 30's or 40's to achieve "baseline ordinary human competence") can wrongfully affect not only our expectations of what Hazou can accomplish but the narrative's descriptions of his capability. I do not want Hazou to start being depicted as a bad liar, so I take efforts to contextualize his skill level and remind myself of his true objective capabilities, no matter how quickly we fold against someone like Asuma with sky-high socials.
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- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's because it wasn't a lie. You were blatantly advertising the fact that it was untrue and that you were simply refusing to answer the question. That's as per the plan.
The plan specified that it should stay as subtext.
The joke was the blatancy of saying "I'm currying favor".
Very cool. I love that song -- all kinds of positive memories associated with it. <3
EJ: Ooh, that's funny. Should I award a 'QM laughed' XP? I didn't *literally* lol but it was pretty damn funny...
EJ: *takes psychic damage from reminder of Augjev* No XP for you!
- Pronouns
- She/Her/They/Them
Yes, Hazō can lie when it's not to save his life
More seriously, civilians with resources could still lie laps around us, right? Mayor Emiya and the Vermilion Sigh/telescope merchant, along with a few different heads of Chivalrous Organisations
The system doesn't really model civilian accumulation of XP. So I'm unsure if this is true. I think that they just mostly don't interact with the mechanics, but narratively might be able to keep up with some ninja.Yes, Hazō can lie when it's not to save his life
More seriously, civilians with resources could still lie laps around us, right? Mayor Emiya and the Vermilion Sigh/telescope merchant, along with a few different heads of Chivalrous Organisations
Unless the QMs want to weigh in and say that (for example) civilians do accumulate XP, just at a reduced rate, and they can't buy any skill that needs chakra.
- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
Indeed, social stats aren't particularly boosted by ninja magics so the heights of the stat are available to sufficiently-trained civilians as well as ninja. I'm... not sure which of those people are hovering around 30-40 and which, if any, are up in the 50+ zone, so while we might still lose a social contest against a talented civilian with proper tutoring and a monofocus on social stats, I'm not sure we'd lose it by much.Yes, Hazō can lie when it's not to save his life
More seriously, civilians with resources could still lie laps around us, right? Mayor Emiya and the Vermilion Sigh/telescope merchant, along with a few different heads of Chivalrous Organisations
- Location
- The Void
- Pronouns
- She/Her
- Location
- The Soviet Republic of Canuckistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Excellent - the person who wrote that section of the plan must be a handsome genius.
Nuts - the person who wrote that section of the plan must be a hideous moron.
On the positive side, we'll get to have more conversations with Hinata where we can say the quiet part out loud. And maybe spark a revolution in Konoha politics where people say what they mean in conversations by implying that's part of the Goketsu secret sauce.
Which it is. There's just no sauce on this dish.
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This doesn't ring true to me. If they roll Awareness vs. Akane's Trapmaking (with time ladder assistance) a 50 could easily beat that. That's sufficient to breach her perimeter. Doesn't seem necessary to say this.
Why do you think she definitely had warning? When Canvass was smelling the attack site. She noted that one member of the enemy squad approached Team Akane via stealth and cased the camp. Then gathered their teammates for the attack. That says to me that the team lost their Awareness vs Stealth roll and got ambushed.
Why do you think this?
Overconfident statement IMO. It is certainly suspicious and this is a possibility. But there are other possibilities.
Did this not happen? We had a funeral. Hazou as far as I know is acknowledging she's dead.
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- Location
- United States
Bumbing this @eaglejarl
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Eeeh. Maybe, maybe not. As per the rules doc, civilians can invest in any stat that doesn't require chakra to use.Yes, Hazō can lie when it's not to save his life
More seriously, civilians with resources could still lie laps around us, right? Mayor Emiya and the Vermilion Sigh/telescope merchant, along with a few different heads of Chivalrous Organisations
However XP is also earned through challenging one's self, and ninja basically spend every moment they have training. I doubt civilians have a similar amount of free time. I suspect this would be reflected by the average civilian having a lower natural XP rate than the average ninja.
It was a good plan that led to good things, so you should be proud.
Personally, I'm hoping that we get the chance, one day, to thank Hinata for her help saving Kei from Orochimaru's Table. She has a big deposit in the ROTP bank of goodwill for that).
This positive interaction will lead to a road where that happens ^.^
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- Location
- Europe
We're probably annoying the Minami clan, Jiraiya and them wanted to buy up their stuff.
At some point we're probably going to get some comment about this, but it shouldn't be too relevant. Hopefully.
- Location
- The Soviet Republic of Canuckistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hopefully we keep up with Mama Minami. Maybe a big pile of sapphires can broker the peace.
- Location
- Somewhere
I am not sure if Plan "The Hokage Had Our Girlfriend Killed And We Need To Investigate It" is a good idea at our current level. Maybe after we resurrect Nagato we can safely figure out what really happened.