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More directly than the dishonesty, this chapter really drove home for me how much we (as in both Hazou and the playerbase) infantilize, distrust and disrespect Yuno. We're not treating her like an equal in personhood, we are acting like we're trying to trick a not-especially-bright child.

We don't use this level of kid-gloves for Kagome, for Bear-summoner guy...
Yuno is in some ways more unpredictable simply due to us still lacking context for how she'll react due to Isanese culture, but otherwise yeah, it comes off as... icky.
 
Where did the 60 come from, I expected 74? If we can sandbag our Goo Bombs, it removes the incentive for Chunin/Jounin to bum/buy/swipe S-rank Goo Bombs from the Genin. removing this incentive seems helpful, and easy to do.
If we can't sandbag our Goo Bombs, this is all moot.
Goo Bombs roll max(60, Creator's Sealing) vs Ath. So if a Sealing 40 chunin sealmaster reverse engineers them, their GBs will roll 40. But it tops out at 60.
 
My pre-timeskip wishlist (not all of these are mandatory):
  • Make some progress cleaning up the fallout from Hidan's visit and fixing our reputation
  • Vote in an estate plan
  • Decide what we want to do in terms of Necromancy/A-day, or at least figure out a range of options we might pursue depending on what the future holds, then determine what prep work we need to do and get the ball rolling
  • Determine if any of our 3D sealing ideas (e.g. doping) will work or if we just need to grind ES
  • If possible, get Shadow Clone for Kagome and/or Yuno, or at least work out a plan for this with Mari and Kei
  • Negotiate Goo Bomb deal with Ino
  • Discuss with Mari, Kei, and Snowflake how we want to handle Ami long-term. What will happen if we bring her in on FOOM?
I've added a few items to this list, and will be keeping it updated to help us keep track of what we need to do (link in my signature). I encourage my fellow timeskip partisans to pitch in if they think anything is missing. I believe that with focused effort we can initiate a timeskip within 4-6 updates.
 
I've added a few items to this list, and will be keeping it updated to help us keep track of what we need to do (link in my signature). I encourage my fellow timeskip partisans to pitch in if they think anything is missing. I believe that with focused effort we can initiate a timeskip within 4-6 updates.
Mostly looks good, thank you for tracking this. I'd be careful to avoid bloating the list and delaying the timeskip.

Discuss with Kagome
  • We'll try to get you Shadow Clone
Why do you think bringing Kagome in on FOOM or giving him SC is a good idea?
Do you have a reason think he won't leak these secrets into public knowledge withing a fortnight? Or do you find that an acceptable cost for getting Kagome SC?

I've seen a few players mention this, can anyone link me to an explanation of the thinking?
 
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Why do you think bringing Kagome in on FOOM or giving him SC is a good idea. Do you have a reason think he won't leak these secret into public knowledge withing a fortnight? Or do you find that an acceptable cost for getting Kagome SC?
I'm not sure if telling him how to FOOM is a good idea, but I think getting him clearance to use SC would be fine, and probably quite useful. It's not as if he's going to accidentally blurt out the detailed instructions on how to use the jutsu.
 
There is zero chance that we get Kagome SC. We've done this like 3 times and every time we get told it's not possible
 
Not entirely happy with this, but it's the closest to my position that I've seen. Will provide constructive criticism later
[X] [Jashin] Jashin is a real and powerful entity that has legitimately chosen us to carry out Uplift. We're going along for the ride because we intend to Uplift anyways, and Jashin is more than welcome to support that.
But the second option would mean that we aren't willing to trade and compromise with Jashin. Which is not true for my model of Hazō, nor what I currently support OOC.
Rafin sums up my position. Jashin is a willing partner with whom we have common interests. It's Hidan I think is the problem, not necessarily Jashin Himself. We want Jashin to continue to support us, which implies we should be prepared to compromise sometimes. Although we also have red lines.

Also, what does "believe in Jashin" mean here?
I think we can interpret Velorien's 'believing' as 'devotion'. His benchmark are devotees like Yuno and Hidan. They would make significant sacrifices in order to please Jashin, presumably. As I understand it, Hazou would not. Well, perhaps once under S-rank duress; probably not more.
Which is why reframing our potential devotion to Jashin is important, if devotion to Jashin's attractive to the hivemind. It might work if Hazou's devoted to Jashin by virtue of the birth aspect only: Hazou believes Hidan is interpreting Jashin wrongly, as indiscriminate massacres are not in Jashin's interests. This path lay Schism and conflict with Hidan, but tbh conflict's a forgone conclusion anyway.

Yuno was willing to listen to our arguments, which leads me to believe her psychopathy can be guided. She is open to us, and if we understand her better, we can make sure she stays satisfied and doesn't go too far.

Hazō recognizes that he can't solve the mess on his own.
When can he/we ever?
I don't think anyone will take Yuno seriously, or perhaps they will feel concerned for her. Noburi will probably be in a bind, and may have to do another Couple Counseling with Pa and Ma.
Yuno, though? How would she feel if no one cares about what she really cares about? Again, Yuno feels isolated and misunderstood; if she had had ANYONE who understood her as much as Hidan, then her conversion might have happened differently. She probably needs someone she can talk with openly, without judgement, so she can feel normal. How do we provide that? Could Noburi manage that?
 
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[X] Action Plan: Yuno/Jashin
voting for this because I think this topic is important to address, but as-presented I don't think this particular plan is something EJ will enjoy writing at all. Would like to see other plans mentioning Yuno
Agreed. For one it's offloading planning to NPCs. It's honestly more of a placeholder to do the bare minimum if we collectively don't have any better ideas. Nonetheless it is hard balancing QM enjoyment with concrete IC consequences. I'd say that it's worth the XP hit in this case, but QM enjoyment isn't about XP. XP is supposed to just be an additional incentive to keep the Quest fun for those who put the most work in.

Wait why do you think that a plan with 4 sub meetings is one that's better for EJ
I want to mention that "If Mari agrees" is supposed to be a deliberate out from having to write those sub-meetings. And I feel like at least some of those meetings have stakes? Though I might be misunderstanding what kinds of stakes are stake-y enough.

I would really like to believe that Hazō and Team Uplift can handle this without too many directions, although I don't know if that's true.
Hazō literally ignores doing obvious communication stuff if unprompted. Sometimes he even fails if prompted in a plan. Recent example: Not talking to Kei about the Jiraiya scrying experiment.

But yeah, maybe "Hazō-pilot takes care of the Yuno problem with the help of the family" is a valid write-in. @eaglejarl What do you say? Is it?
had something similar in mind.
Hazou has faith in Jashin in the sense that Jashin is supporting him. It's not a mercenary relationship, although there's still at that stage a lot of give and take. Jashing doesn't have to help Hazou, and Hazou doesn't have to subordinate himself. They are partners, hopefully with the same endgoal. They probably want the same thing (the continuation of civilization). When they don't, that requires some degree of flexibility so both parties keep faith in each other. For Hazou it means 'allow me to do neat, unreplicable stuff sometimes', for Jashin it's "sacrifice me some people sometimes".

Also: the civilian massacres are Hidan doing what he thinks Jashin wants. We have reasons to believe Hidan is a Hindrance even to Jashin Himself; so I don't rule out that Hazou could honestly believe in the Jashin-that-wants-prosperity; if Jashin actually wants us to massacre innocents, then our faith is broken because that is not how we saw our relationship.
This is much more beautifully put than my own awkward attempts to say the same. Thank you. Jashin as a potential partner, not Jashin as a source of morality and meaning or Jashin as an object to exploit.

very important that we talk to Noburi *before* Yuno. Please make a note that we send here to report the mission to the tower while Hazou runs home to speed-brief Noburi and anyone else available. If you prefer, stalling Yuno personally while a SC runs home would also work.
I intend to vote for this plan if you make this change(or if you satisfactorily explain why it's a bad idea)
I didn't include that because I'm not sure we're allowed. It would involve timeline shenanigans, due to the previous plan covering two days, with sealing after the beast hunting mission.

@eaglejarl et al, what say you. Rushing to Noburi to warn him and apologize might be more fun than meetings about how to salvage the situation 24+ hours later.
Which is why reframing our potential devotion to Jashin is important, if devotion to Jashin's attractive to the hivemind. It might work if Hazou's devoted to Jashin by virtue of the birth aspect only: Hazou believes Hidan is interpreting Jashin wrongly, as indiscriminate massacres are not in Jashin's interests. This path lay Schism and conflict with Hidan, but tbh conflict's a forgone conclusion anyway.
If Hazō actually believes that Jashin aligns fully with Hazō and that Hidan is just wrong about most of his own religion, based just on winning a few games of chance, then Hazō is wholly and self-servingly deluded. I'd rather not deliberately make our MC an idiot.

This is not a monotheist world. There is no reason to treat Jashin like modern liberal monotheists treat their own scripture. As far as we know Jashin is a real and concrete entity working within what passes as the laws of physics, with its own wants and limitations. Just like the Sage of Six Paths was. And we sure as hell don't get angry with Kagome for blasphemy just because we have aligned ourselves with the Will of Fire either.

In any case, we also have to be honest that a god of mass murder can only ever be an ally of Uplift in the short to medium term. Because in our utopian vision of the future there are supposed to be no more wars and no more death penalties. And probably no painful terminal illnesses or legal maximum age limits either. This is an irreconcilable philosophical difference we have with Yuno, because the murder is what attracted her to the religion in the first place. But it doesn't have to be a practically insurmountable difference, because eliminating all state sanctioned murder is still far off from our priority list.
 
[X] Interlude: Legitimately Anything Wholesome. The Last Few Weeks' Updates Have Been Stressful AF

[X] [Jashin] Jashin is a real and powerful entity that has legitimately chosen us to carry out Uplift. We're going along for the ride because we intend to Uplift anyways, and Jashin is more than welcome to support that.

[X] Interlude: Kakuzu and Kagome have a talk

Old Gods are supposed to be something to fear

And for that Asuma (who is also the Sage and/or lupachanzed) wiped them out.

Kagome was right all along.
 
PSA: This update will be an interlude.

It's a short voting cycle and there's important political stuff going on. Also, through a combination of things that was 95% poor choices of bedtime on my part but very slightly trouble getting to sleep and therefore I'm focusing on the latter in order to escape blame, I ended up with less than 5 hours sleep and can predict that this will not be a good writing weekend.

Which is a shame because I was super excited to write the doping experiment.
 
[X] Harumitsu Meets Honoka
[X] Honoka and Kagome
[X] Jin and Haru, Buddy Cop Drama
[X] Mio and Noburi, A Grief Shared
 
God, this, honestly. We've been rushing between fires since before Akane died. Arguably before even the EM Nuke experiment, but definitely after.

Man my brain has to be so weird. Cause I have literally the opposite feeling. Basically nothing has happened and we've mostly just been spinning our wheels waiting to grind sealing and FOOM XP
 
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