Remove ads

Questor Quest

Reader mode
Quickshot0 said:
@Nero200 My option was a simplistic suggestion of trying to call or message anyone who might be able to help while examining matters.

Presumably some saw it, but it didn't get any support beyond later options opting to try and call some one at school itself. Couldn't say why that is though, maybe they didn't think of that particular variation? Or they didn't think calling so broadly was wise?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I missed that. Fair cop, is a good general vote in case Ami knows more people than we can think of.

Skelm said:
They don't go to this school, I expect they won't arrive until it's all over.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It was noted that the not boyfriend has enough range to reach across the city. Decent odds one of the two rather powerful sister figures is close enough to reach out towards us and then tell us through the phone if this is a dead zone or similar.
Block might be one way only, or a sort of gravitational pull on psionic influence limiting it to the admittedly psycho-active school.
 
Quickshot0 said:
My option was a simplistic suggestion of trying to call or message anyone who might be able to help while examining matters.

Presumably some saw it, but it didn't get any support beyond later options opting to try and call some one at school itself. Couldn't say why that is though, maybe they didn't think of that particular variation? Or they didn't think calling so broadly was wise?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's not a bad idea in and of itself- it would be perfectly fine, if we weren't time-pressed to find Hikaru ASAP, knowing that he's about to get kidnapped and thus needing to be in contact with him (preferably eyes-on) immediately to find the culprit or at least details about the method used.

A general vote to call anyone might still end up with her calling him, but could just as easily end up with her ringing Amu or Utau or Rikka first and getting delayed in an extended conversation and miss the window for catching Hikaru.

Basically, I'm feeling the vote needs to specifically direct her to call and/or rendezvous with Hikaru immediately since I really don't feel like it's something she'd think of on her own, at least not with the kind of urgency to head off a kidnapping we know is imminent.
 
@PistachioCookies Fair enough, I guess in the end I don't want to risk Ami or the other psychics to much. That her being home and apparently safe doesn't necessarily mean there isn't the option of bad decision leading to much worse outcomes for others, or even her. Her sister probably is able of some degree of mental healing after all.

Still your idea could be right, just going for it full speed and trying to learn as much as possible.
 
Okay, here's one last plan (although I am not abandoning my previous vote).
[X] Pull out your phone and say there's urgent the student council needs to attend to. Call or grouptext Hikaru, Rikka, Amu, and Utau. Keep the line open.
-[X] Attempt to meet up with Hikaru immediately. If the door doesn't work, use best judgement - probably try the window or break the door down. Bring all three boys.
 
Skelm said:
You'll have to include both votes in the post for the vote counter to pick them up
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Correct. I'm going by approval voting (because first past the post is satanic), but the vote tally program only ever looks at your most recent post.

You can include as many vote blocks in that one as you like, just leave an empty line between them.
 
Hmm, I guess I'll try Horatio's new plan then, it seems like the best idea so far.


[X] Pull out your phone and say there's urgent the student council needs to attend to. Call or grouptext Hikaru, Rikka, Amu, and Utau. Keep the line open.
-[X] Attempt to meet up with Hikaru immediately. If the door doesn't work, use best judgement - probably try the window or break the door down. Bring all three boys.
 
I'll go with QS and Horatio, with the expectation that Ami will be smart enough include anyone else she can think of that might help. (Other ex-Chara hosts or psionics)

[X] Pull out your phone and say there's urgent the student council needs to attend to. Call or grouptext Hikaru, Rikka, Amu, and Utau. Keep the line open.
-[X] Attempt to meet up with Hikaru immediately. If the door doesn't work, use best judgement - probably try the window or break the door down. Bring all three boys.
 
HoratioVonBecker said:
[X] Pull out your phone and say there's urgent the student council needs to attend to. Call or grouptext Hikaru, Rikka, Amu, and Utau. Keep the line open.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Dunno how well that excuse will fly. Even back in Seiyo Academy, I'm not sure that student council activities were ever a get-out-of-class-free card. The Guardians mainly met after school in the first place and most of their extra-curricular activities took place then. More to the point, Ami's middle school is not Seiyo. If the Guardians had a ton of leeway back in Seiyo, it was only because the school principal Tsukasa was covering for them (heck, he was the one recruiting their members).

The student council in Fubuki middle school likely does not have the benefit of a psychic principal sponsoring them.

I'm more inclined to leave it up to Ami as to what excuse to pick rather than try and guess what might work. If it really is that convenient, she'll use it anyway. Personally, the only excuses I'd imagine have any solid guarantee of working are claiming illness or injury (either faking or actually injuring yourself to make an excuse) and only because no teacher looking to avoid a lawsuit wants to get their hands messy arguing with a child during a supposed medical emergency.

Meanwhile, I'm not down with just texting Hikaru. With Hikaru we very much want voice at a minimum and optimally full video. That's still assuming our phone actually works, of course.

This vote leaves the most important bit (text or full call) up to Ami when we want to direct her to use the option that gives us the most information* and then tries to be specific about something that can actually be OK left up to Ami (finding an exit excuse that works). For those reasons, I can't vote for this.

* I'm going to say right now -- I also fully believe that Ami would prefer to text if we gave her the choice, for the simple reason that she wouldn't want to embarrass or cause trouble for Hikaru or Rikka by ringing their cellphones in the middle of their classes. So I really do not want to give her the choice of texting. At all.
 
Last edited:
Oh damn, a Baughn quest! And Shugo Chara too! I'm going to assume this is still somehow canon to Shard of a Broken Sun. Rather curious how the quest would go with Non Non Biyori instead but alas.

Uh, vote. Well Ami is currently in a window seat, does the rest of the world still look like normal? Can she see anyone? Basically trying to figure out if the room was somehow just psionically cut off from the rest of the world or something more drastic was done.

[X] Make up an excuse to go outside

And then figure things out from there?
 
@PistachioCookies Well those are fair points, hmm. You do have some good ideas in your proposal, but you're rather more determined in heading towards Hikaru quickly though, which as I've already noted I was a bit less sure was a good idea or not. I'm also not entirely sure that you outright saying who should do certain things is the best solution, some freedom of option there might be better?
 
MobiusC said:
Oh damn, a Baughn quest! And Shugo Chara too! I'm going to assume this is still somehow canon to Shard of a Broken Sun. Rather curious how the quest would go with Non Non Biyori instead but alas.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's unrelated to Shards.

It's something I'm writing to prove to myself that I can keep a reasonable schedule, in advance of r resuming/restarting Shards. (it's complicated.)

The quest itself is legit, but would never fit in that universe. :p
 
Quickshot0 said:
You do have some good ideas in your proposal, but you're rather more determined in heading towards Hikaru quickly though, which as I've already noted I was a bit less sure was a good idea or not. I'm also not entirely sure that you outright saying who should do certain things is the best solution, some freedom of option there might be better?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I mean, I do believe that beelining for Hikaru to obtain as complete a picture of what's happening on his end is the best way to proceed given that the goal is to try and find him after he's taken as soon as possible. Hindsight is always 20/20, of course. It may turn out later that finding him quickly is not the best thing to do, that he's actually engineered his own disappearance for some reason, or that Ami and co. are already secretly compromised and whoever took Hikaru did it to keep him safe, etc. etc.

But in lieu of knowing what the QM has planned that seems to be the objective for now; in-story, it's the reason why Amu and Utau are digging through her flashbacks.

Is going straight for him the best way to get this information or lead to the best outcome? Again, not knowable. It could be that he's only slated to poof at the end of the segment and there will be ample time to find him before. It could be the same phenomena here will be repeated later on in the quest and has a weakness that can only be discovered by choosing the wait and examine options at this point.

We just don't know.

I'm pushing for rushing Hikaru because what we do know is that Ami physically survives (as do the 4 others in her group of six) so any risk to herself from throwing caution to the wind won't be quest-ending - they're plot-armored, as I said before. Physically, at least. Ami's body is still in good enough shape at the end that she's surfing the internet and eating dinner at her own house from something that's not a straw. The emotional damage? We already know this too. Ami inevitably ends up reeling from the loss at that point. Rikka probably even worse. And the best solution I can think of to fixing this is.... getting a bead on Hikaru so they have something to work towards.

Is doing a rush all return and no risk? No, because the survival of the extras are less than certain, the extent of Ami's emotional trauma is malleable and there might be other handicaps that get imposed if things go seriously south. The question is: are the potential risks too big to justify the potential returns?

Well, everyone will have their own thoughts on that. As you say, it's fairly evident what mine are at this point.

As for specifically saying who should do certain things not being the best option, I agree and Baughn made the same point earlier with the characters knowing the world and its history better than the players. So in those situations, dealer's choice can't be any less informed than what we have to work with.

But if we're in a situation where we're applying metaknowledge that the characters do not have, but we do - in this case, that of the future - shouldn't that be the right time and place to give the nudge?
 
Last edited:
On a sidenote, I've got a cold (or something) and a headache, so vote calling is delayed until I think I can realistically make use of the results. Probably tomorrow sometime.

PistachioCookies said:
Ami and co. are already secretly compromised and whoever took Hikaru did it to keep him safe, etc. etc.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I can assure you that Ami is not so compromised. That wouldn't make for good questing.

Considering the degree to which her and Amu are joined at the amygdala, you can probably assume Amu isn't in any sense compromised either -- it'd be hard for just one of them to be, without Ami noticing. The same goes for Utau, to a slightly lesser degree.
 
Last edited:
PistachioCookies said:
But if we're in a situation where we're applying metaknowledge that the characters do not have, but we do - in this case, that of the future - shouldn't that be the right time and place to give the nudge?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The meta knowledge we have being that Hikaru disappears, right. Trying to increase the information on that is logical of course, I'm just pondering the extra risks, being to reckless could have unknown extra dangers affixed to it. And now that I think about it might reflect on Ami's character going forward from here, if she's reckless in the past, she'd perhaps be so in general?


So in the end I guess I just want her to balance her risks differently. First making sure she's got things handled on her side before looking for more... Also it's kind of a trope that kids rush in to danger, when some times just informing the adults and giving them more chance to do things might have greatly changed the course of events.

I mean, can we really be sure that Utau and Amu and others might not actually be able to do something? By having their attention in the right direction that they'd have more chance to trace what's occurring? Or they could get to the school far faster then one might perhaps expect?


Hmm you know, I guess Ami would probably know best on that matter, no? Maybe we can word something together that balances on if much effort should be made to get help, against trying to get what information we can on what's happening right now?
 
Last edited:
Augggh. :(:o:mad:

Ami had all this stuff going on while I was planning a stupid dragon quest? I... don't even have any clue how to help, here. Even if I just tell her I know, I'd only distract her!

This is awful. I had no idea things like this could even happen. Um...

[X] Stay safe, but try your best to make sure Hikaru and Rikka will also be safe.
 
[:V] It is probably nothing important. Browse SV instead and hope it disappears.


[X] Pull out your phone and say there's urgent the student council needs to attend to. Call or grouptext Hikaru, Rikka, Amu, and Utau. Keep the line open.
-[X] Attempt to meet up with Hikaru immediately. If the door doesn't work, use best judgement - probably try the window or break the door down. Bring all three boys.
 
Skelm said:
And also that Ami doesn't get killed, kidnapped, or brainwashed herself. That's what makes rushing towards Hikaru the (relatively) safe option.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Strictly speaking, you just know she's okay later on. That probably shouldn't affect your voting habits, but I thought I'd mention it.
 
Quickshot0 said:
And now that I think about it might reflect on Ami's character going forward from here, if she's reckless in the past, she'd perhaps be so in general?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
A stealth personality vote?

I didn't think of that. Could be. Thought we already had one with the choice of username handle (that ended up being gardenGnostic) though and then we got bits of her personality from the character sheet, which made me think her personality already got locked in. I suppose it's possible she's still a work in progress.
Quickshot0 said:
I mean, can we really be sure that Utau and Amu and others might not actually be able to do something?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The fact that they need to interrogate Ami's memories means they didn't catch the whole thing in person; if they're doing that it means they know that they weren't there for the whole thing (if they were able to arrive at all) and suspect Ami might have seen something important before they came - so if they can come, it won't be immediately.

This is also one of the things that makes me suspect our phone will fail to work entirely and we'll just never reach them at all.
 
Michiru said:
Ami had all this stuff going on while I was planning a stupid dragon quest? I... don't even have any clue how to help, here. Even if I just tell her I know, I'd only distract her!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think you should keep writing the dragon quest. Ami wants to be distracted. She needs some friends who aren't involved in this, and don't just idolize her for no reason. Though maybe you could use your influence over Baughn to help out?
 
@PistachioCookies It's certainly possible the personality will see continued refinement over time, Ami is a bit of a blank sheet character wise after all. So unless @Baughn had a pretty firm idea from those votes alone, there is probably some malleability there.


And your analysis is right that there is definite risk the phone may or may not work. Though who knows if sticking it out the window could help if it didn't? It just bothers me to not try it as a high priority really, getting in contact with more experienced adults seems like the right thing to do. Work the problem from inside and outside if possible.

In the end I think our actions will determine how much chance each person has to get some level of information. So not informing them is basically saying they probably get no chance.


Also @Baughn basically just hinted that there probably is some level of risk and that we only really know she's mostly ok 'now', and do we really even know if the others are totally healthy and ok?



Well just consider me the voice of caution in this particular choice. The person bringing up things that perhaps shouldn't be entirely ignored. Hopefully it can help give inspiration to an even better solution yet.
 
Okay, I think it's time to call this vote.
Vote Tally : [???] Questor Quest Mystery | Page 3 | Sufficient Velocity [Posts: 65-141]
##### NetTally 3.0.3

[X] Pull out your phone and say there's urgent the student council needs to attend to. Call or grouptext Hikaru, Rikka, Amu, and Utau. Keep the line open.
-[X] Attempt to meet up with Hikaru immediately. If the door doesn't work, use best judgement - probably try the window or break the door down. Bring all three boys.
No. of Votes: 4
[X] HoratioVonBecker
[X] Axslashel
[X] Nero200
[X] Quickshot0

[X] Leave the classroom. Bring all three boys with us. Try not to get into any direct confrontations with the teacher while leaving, but don't worry about looking weird.
-[X] If we physically can't leave, have Daichi try to break down whatever barrier is in our way
-[X] If that doesn't work, drop the pretense of normality and have the students barricade the door with some desks
-[X] Call Hikaru and Rikka to see what state they're in and keep the line open to keep in touch
-[X] If we're able to leave the classroom, meet up with Hikaru and Rikka
-[X] If we can contact them arrange a meeting point, otherwise head to their last known location prioritizing Hikaru
No. of Votes: 2
[X] Skelm
[x] PistachioCookies

[X] Do your best to examine the situation from here
No. of Votes: 1
[X] veekie

[X] Excuse yourself to use the ladies' room, phone Rikka Hiiragi as soon as you're outside class, start running while your phone is pressed against your ear to wherever Hikaru is having class. Or where you think he's having class - you've probably spent enough time with him that he's told you at some point, but if not then you may have to guess or ask Rikka when she picks up. Because if there's anybody who can explain why you just suddenly stopped being able to sense the souls of anyone outside your classroom, it would be the guy who once headed an entire organization dedicated to researching and engineering technology to do with Charas and Eggs of the soul.
No. of Votes: 1
[X] RndCodeGen

[X] Make up an excuse to go outside
No. of Votes: 1
[X] MobiusC

[X] Stay safe, but try your best to make sure Hikaru and Rikka will also be safe.
No. of Votes: 1
[X] Michiru


Total No. of Voters: 10

That said I still have a cold-induced perma-headache, so this might take a couple of days. In the meantime... it might be obvious already, but I'm happy to answer any questions about the world / situation which the characters would be expected to know. I just can't infodump the whole thing.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top