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Shards of a Broken Sun [Deprecated; see link in final post for remake]

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Skelm said:
I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Are you thinking that Tadase going back in time could end up retroactively preventing Amu from exalting etc.?
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It's not a problem of exalting, it's problem of invalidating safeguards against DeSu plot and Conception that are made when situation is restored from backup. Earlier I made a guess that DeSu and Conception plots are in unstable time loop when one plot happens, rewroten back with prevention mechanism, other plot happens, rewroten back with prevention mechanism for itself but without prevention mechanism for a first one, then first one happens again. Any other fucking up with timeline complicates things even more.
 
Digging out that old thing...
al103 said:
IMHO problem is in twenty xanatos pileup. Demi-fiend beats Conception and return world to normal? It's pre-DS2 world and shit happens. DS2 happens and world is restored... in pre-Conception state. For good ending it's actually needed that person with Root access had at least a bit of knowledge of each and every plot for "reset as before this shit only without N" would include each and every plot in the N.
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Well, we were just reminded (and Amu don't even know it yet) that there is at least one more plot in the pile-up.
 
ShadowAngelBeta said:
Wow, did not know that. On one hand, I want to see that timeline now. On the other hand, got some nostalgia induced fond memories of it and I'd rather not have them ruined.
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This is Shugo Chara, which is a children's show at heart. Naturally, the 'dark' timeline is only implied, with very little outright description. There's enough information for us to have some idea of what happened, though.

- Amu was a "normal" Chara-user, although still with three of them. (That very specific prophecy about her? Heh, yeah.)

- Utau and Ikuto's backstory still happens. Part of it overlaps with Tadase's, so he may not have dared to do anything about it. I imagine that Tadase would have been a very different person if he'd grown up with his big sister.

- Amu meets Tadase, gets a crush, etc. Tadase's own crush is actually on Ran, not Amu, but either way this is pretty typical puppy love. It doesn't last.

- Amy's charas eventually go away. Amu is heartbroken... As is Tadase.

- Several years later, when she's college-aged, Amu meets Ikuto and they just click. However, Ikuto is never able to settle down, and eventually he leaves in an attempt at searching for Utau (!).

Tadase then goes back in time to fix this and get them a happy ending.

This is all pretty uncertain, derived from what is at this point inconveniently vague memories, but I don't think it's too far from the truth. In particular, I'm not sure what Utau or Dia's roles were in this.

Note that, in this timeline, Amu and Utau don't meet. You can make your own guesses as to why.
 
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Baughn said:
This is Shugo Chara, which is a children's show at heart. Naturally, the 'dark' timeline is only implied, with very little outright description. There's enough information for us to have some idea of what happened, though.

- Amu was a "normal" Chara-user, although still with three of them. (That very specific prophecy about her? Heh, yeah.)

- Utau and Ikuto's backstory still happens. Part of it overlaps with Tadase's, so he may not have dared to do anything about it. I imagine that Tadase would have been a very different person if he'd grown up with his big sister.

- Amu meets Tadase, gets a crush, etc. Tadase's own crush is actually on Ran, not Amu, but either way this is pretty typical puppy love. It doesn't last.

- Amy's charas eventually go away. Amu is heartbroken... As is Tadase.

- Several years later, when she's college-aged, Amu meets Ikuto and they just click. However, Ikuto is never able to settle down, and eventually he leaves in an attempt at searching for Utau (!).

Tadase then goes back in time to fix this and get them a happy ending.

This is all pretty uncertain, derived from what is at this point inconveniently vague memories, but I don't think it's too far from the truth. In particular, I'm not sure what Utau or Dia's roles were in this.

Note that, in this timeline, Amu and Utau don't meet. You can make your own guesses about why.
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Dia seems... almost Hestia~esque. Basically about hearth and home. I always thought of her as Amu's dream of her mother, and wanting to be one without knowing what's really involved in that. Hence the cooking theme and warm, caring attitude, because that's primarily what she associates her mother with outside of her job.

So Dia breaks logic over her knee and gets some time-travel so Amu can have a family/be a mother in the (new) future.
 
ShadowAngelBeta said:
Dia seems... almost Hestia~esque. Basically about hearth and home. I always thought of her as Amu's dream of her mother, and wanting to be one without knowing what's really involved in that. Hence the cooking theme and warm, caring attitude, because that's primarily what she associates her mother with outside of her job.

So Dia breaks logic over her knee and gets some time-travel so Amu can have a family/be a mother in the (new) future.
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No, you're mixing Dia up with Su. Su is the one who is based on Amu's conception of her mother, which is why she's the big-sister type.[1]

Dia represents Amu's desire to... well, she said it herself. To shine, to overawe people who look at her; to be the sort of person a young girl would look at an idol and see, ignoring what Utau's life is actually like. Though, because this is Amu, she's also shoved a lot of highly meta desires about Charas into Dia.

Why yes, Dia is kind of solaroid.

1: Similarly to Uta, she also represents Amu's desire to be older, as a wish in itself, but since there's a lot more to it than that it makes her not as effective at it as Uta. I would place Su at fourteen-ish[4], effective, while Uta is effectively twice Ami's age. Ran and Miki are closer to being twins, despite Miki's attempts at reinventing herself.[2]

2: Though... to the degree that Miki tries to reject cribbing from Amu's mind, which she has occasionally been doing, what's left is a clone of eight-year-old Amu with Miki's own experiences on top. More often she's too busy to try.

3: Aka. "About the same age as Utau", but Utau doesn't have those same nurturing impulses. Su is a bit of a busybody, but she's too nice about it to bother anyone. Now imagine her ganging up on Amu with Utau, or... Eru.
 
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Baughn said:
No, you're mixing Dia up with Su. Su is the one who is based on Amu's conception of her mother, which is why she's the big-sister type.[1]

Dia represents Amu's desire to... well, she said it herself. To shine, to overawe people who look at her; to be the sort of person a young girl would look at an idol and see, ignoring what Utau's life is actually like. Though, because this is Amu, she's also shoved a lot of highly meta desires about Charas into Dia.

Why yes, Dia is kind of solaroid.

1: Similarly to Uta, she also represents Amu's desire to be older, as a wish in itself, but since there's a lot more to it than that it makes her not as effective at it as Uta. I would place Su at fourteen-ish[4], effective, while Uta is effectively twice Ami's age. Ran and Miki are closer to being twins, despite Miki's attempts at reinventing herself.[2]

2: Though... to the degree that Miki tries to reject cribbing from Amu's mind, which she has occasionally been doing, what's left is a clone of eight-year-old Amu with Miki's own experiences on top. More often she's too busy to try.

3: Aka. "About the same age as Utau", but Utau doesn't have those same nurturing impulses. Su is a bit of a busybody, but she's too nice about it to bother anyone. Now imagine her ganging up on Amu with Utau, or... Eru.
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Whoops. Right Dia, not Su.

Maybe Dia got a dose of "You can do anything" and ended up taking it up to 11 like any good solaroid?

Not sure what the 3rd point you're trying to make is. (Why would she being ganging up on Amu with someone else?)
 
ShadowAngelBeta said:
... Compassion Channel + Socialize Charms to convince them? *Whimpers*

... I thought we'd been pretty good about not over-working ourselves, especially for a Compassion 5 character.
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If by that you mean you haven't been missing out on sleep, yes. And you've actually taken the time to eat with family, and not even at maximum speed. But... Amu is still eleven, and she's now an eleven-year-old who hasn't done anything remotely describable as 'play' for multiple days, while stressing out and trying to fix everything at once. She's getting a little better about focusing, but she's still spending almost literally every waking hour on something she thinks will be useful to others.

Her various powerups ensure she's fundamentally unable to crack under the stress, and it's not like she doesn't want to do it. To the contrary; she's doing all this because she really, really wants to. The only reason she is getting sufficient sleep is that she knows medicine, and understands what would happen if she didn't.

But how do you think it looks to others? What would your reaction be if someone in your family acted that way? :)
 
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ShadowAngelBeta said:
... Wonder if their new super-powers helped them do all that without any issues? I would ask, depends on what I could observe for whether or not I believed them. And all our Chara's can do so pretty easily.
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Remember, all this is VERY recent. Just days ago, she was a mostly ordinary girl who sometimes pushed herself too hard trying to help people. She almost certainly got sick or hurt before doing this sort of thing.

And now she's doing it again, except she has gone above and beyond all possible feats of labor.
 
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veekie said:
Remember, all this is VERY recent. Just days ago, she was a mostly ordinary girl who sometimes pushed herself too hard trying to help people. She almost certainly got sick or hurt before doing this sort of thing.

And now she's doing it again, except she has gone above and beyond all possible feats of labor.
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Uhh... No, not really. She was actually a fairly stable kid. Almost got hurt pretty badly a couple of times in the course of being a Magical Girl, almost died the first time, but all those were from physical, in-the-moment dangers (And Ikuto and maybe her Chara's would be the only one's present for the last at least that would recognize how dangerous that was). She's never really done this kind of (what would normally be a) burn out from driving herself so hard.
 
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I'm sure you realize going from a normal kid to a work crazy like ethos with lots of dangerous risk taking would seem fairly concerning in multiple ways to a parent who previously had no reason to suspect such.
 
ShadowAngelBeta said:
Super. Powers.

We went over the history of Creation, but I don't think we ever explained what a Solar is. And they haven't asked either.
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That isn't an answer to the point. It's like saying super powers is the answer that will make you feel totally ok after knowing a young kid their entire life, and then suddenly strange things happen and strange things also happen to them and they suddenly start doing super dangerous things and overworking.

In that light super powers to me seems like an extra source of worry if anything, not something that sets one at ease. After all, how do they work? Are there any drawbacks to them? Can one trust this 'Exalt' thing at all? Are they going to die soon trying to save the world? Can the world be saved? etc etc etc.


As such, going back to my previous point, I hope you realize that this is a concerning development. Not being able to see how this could be concerning would be some what concerning all in itself...
 
Quickshot0 said:
That isn't an answer to the point. It's like saying super powers is the answer that will make you feel totally ok after knowing a young kid their entire life, and then suddenly strange things happen and strange things also happen to them and they suddenly start doing super dangerous things and overworking.

In that light super powers to me seems like an extra source of worry if anything, not something that sets one at ease. After all, how do they work? Are there any drawbacks to them? Can one trust this 'Exalt' thing at all? Are they going to die soon trying to save the world? Can the world be saved? etc etc etc.

As such, going back to my previous point, I hope you realize that this is a concerning development. Not being able to see how this could be concerning would be some what concerning all in itself...
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I can see it. I can understand it. I don't put any stock in it.

We're looking at it from Amu's side, so we're biased by nature. We know she's fine, but it sounds like they're planning an intervention when they don't even know what's going on and, are by that very nature, making assumptions about her.

And all those are answers they can never obtain either, its pointless to worry about them. Although that feeling of powerlessness can make things worse, but that usually manifests in some form of directionless anger that leads to lashing out most of the time. I doubt it will be so here though.

Amu is a Solar. She is different. I can see why they worry, but I can also see our score of Compassion 5 and know that Amu is likely very acutely aware of the state of the world such as it is. We have been delegating, we've been taking small breaks (a miracle in itself), we've been setting aside time for things like what we did with Ran.

That despite knowing this, Su of all people is setting something up, is setting me in a bit of a "wtf?" mode. Because she should be aware of all of this on some level.
 
It's possible what you think they might be up to might not be what they're actually up to.

Just like the author has mentioned the parents are fairly hands-off in how they work, so that also brings up questions. Instead I'd say it's more likely her peers that will bring up possibly valid issues on how she's doing things. Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean there aren't valid ones to find after all.


On a side note, not putting stock in to the point is in and of itself not pertinent to the point. The point being why would others possibly be concerned, whether it's a valid concern or not is kind of irrelevant. (Wouldn't be the first time people get things wrong... or possibly get it right, like say due to following certain lines of logic to their ultimate end, thus revealing a new angle on the matter in a sense.)

Besides, if you can properly predict people becoming worried, then one can try and take steps to avoid possible fall out from such worry being all to severe. Social management is a thing after all.
 
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ShadowAngelBeta said:
That despite knowing this, Su of all people is setting something up, is setting me in a bit of a "wtf?" mode. Because she should be aware of all of this on some level.
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For what it's worth? Su is doing no such thing. Everything you said about her is correct, and Su her her own concerns, besides.

"Imagine Su, Utau and Eru ganging up on Amu" was not meant to be confirmation that such a thing is indeed, or will be, happening. It's just a mental image. ^^;

As for Utau and Midori's point of view on this, you've already seen it.
 
ShadowAngelBeta said:
Amu is a Solar. She is different. I can see why they worry, but I can also see our score of Compassion 5 and know that Amu is likely very acutely aware of the state of the world such as it is. We have been delegating, we've been taking small breaks (a miracle in itself), we've been setting aside time for things like what we did with Ran.

That despite knowing this, Su of all people is setting something up, is setting me in a bit of a "wtf?" mode. Because she should be aware of all of this on some level.
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But they're looking at this girl quite literally carrying the burden of the universe's existence.

They can't tell her to stop. They should, but can't.

So what do they do then? What do the people who can't help enough do?

Find their own way to chip in.
 
Wow it's been a while. Let's see...

Sorry, this isn't the (long-awaited?) update, but recent events (people making cat noises at me) have convinced me that I need to make some sort of decision about the story. It's been kind of difficult; Shards was the first story I ever wrote that didn't immediately collapse, and all things considered I think I did pretty well. That's not to say I actually did well, on an absolute scale, but there are definitely bits of the story I can look back on and say they're actually good.

It isn't a story I think I can recommend to friends, but that's okay. I never really wrote it for the like counts.

...and now you probably think I'm telling you it's dead. Well, not quite, so please stop panicking. (Was anyone panicking? I kinda hope someone was... er, sorry about that. ;))

I've made several abortive starts over the last year at getting back into it. They've all failed, largely because one or two days isn't enough. I need to-reread large parts of it, I need to reconsider elements of the underlying plot that frankly suck, and then I need to somehow work that back in without producing any glaring inconsistencies. All of which takes more time than I've been able to dedicate in one blob, and has been demotivating when I end up with nothing to show for it; then, the next time I try, I've forgotten too much and have to start over. Fortunately it seems there are still people willing to poke me about it--you can thank Skelm, Twei and others that I haven't given up entirely. So, here's the plan.

I recently switched jobs[1], and as part of that I'm taking an extended vacation.

Six weeks of time, five of it without anything[2] planned other than writing, please, you will do that now, should be enough to work out all the issues and get back on the horse in a proper manner. Or, else, to work out that it's never going to happen. I therefore commit to, before those six weeks are out, get this quest out of its goddamned grave. In a less zombie-like fashion than the previous two attempts. I'll need to retcon parts of the Utau mini-arc to do that, but that should be fine; you never voted on it anyway. (So don't bother re-reading those just yet.)

Hopefully there'll be plenty of reading material to come, well before the end of that deadline. If not... then we can at least have a final Q&A, should anyone be interested.

This is melting candle girl, signing off for now.


[1] I'm now on the search machine-learning team, still at Google. It's been... interesting. Don't worry that I'll be too busy after the vacation to continue things, though; the hours remain normal.

[2] And photography, as below.

 
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I for one hope for more of this mix of weird but adorable slice-of-life and apocalyptic exalted narrative. Plus, there's good sci-fi mixed in, which is hard to come by.
 
Baughn said:
(people making cat noises at me)
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Meow. Meow meow meow! Meow meow.:ogles:

Unrelated, I was actually thinking about this today so it's kinda weird you posted here. It's a really unique story, and even though I never really got the chance to participate since I don't know most of the settings, I still really enjoyed reading it.

So kudos on that.
 
Baughn said:
...and now you probably think I'm telling you it's dead. Well, not quite, so please stop panicking. (Was anyone panicking? I kinda hope someone was... er, sorry about that. ;))
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I won't lie, up to this point I was feeling a profound sense of dread and sadness. As it is, I'm really damn happy this isn't dead, only dreaming.

This is a story that I can only call amazing and unique in all the right ways, and I love every moment of it. I can't overstate how happy I am that it will continue. :D
 
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