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Shards of a Broken Sun [Megaten/Shugo Chara/Exalted]

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Quine said:
What has the rest of the class been doing all week? They already went back to school on Monday.
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Nothing terribly important. They had their tests, and honestly not much Amu could do on hers would shift things now, but bureaucracies will do as they will.

It's been two weeks of not very much schooling, plus some teachers getting to think up their own lectures or study sessions for once. To be honest, they all needed the break.
 
...Hoy, what's going on here. Miki was meant to be our chosen Boon. Trying to take an axe to the head of our Boon just one arc into the quest doesn't seem very kosher.

Granted, Miki always was the most suicidal of Amu's Charas what with how she thought the best thing to do in her introductory episode was to run away from Amu and hide until she disappeared from Amu having no belief in her. But Miki is also Amu's would-be self - and I never got the impression that Amu aspired to do a Saaya and melt down in a blaze of self-sacrificial glory. That was absolutely the wrong thing to pick up from her, looks like Amu needs to go back and return a few more fragments that got stuck in Miki.

[X] No, Miki, absolutely not
- Dia didn't put in all that effort swimming us through the Road of Stars to find everyone's Chara Eggs again back when they disappeared, only to have one of them now deliberately try and get themselves cooked in a frying pan.
- Hello. Miki. Are you feeling OK. If not, that likely means Amu is also not feeling OK. And you had better tell mummy now, so you two can get the cuddles and feel better.
- Ran. Su. Which one of you put Miki up to this during that brainstorming session and how much cheek-pinching is needed to convince the two of you to not also try and do the same thing.

I do wonder how true it is about Miki's important parts being with Amu. Personally, I suspect it may be true enough that, if the worst were to happen, Amu could travel the Road of Stars to find her again and bring her back - though this would probably require burning the monthly Dia and I suspect Miki would be missing at least some of the recent memories leading up to her demise if that were done.
Baughn said:
"Can you bring one of your friends?" her mother asked, her voice trembling slightly. "Utau? Nagi-chan? Kukai, even?"

Amu shook her head.

"Kana doesn't... they don't know any of them. It's got to be me, Mom. I can't explain, it's- not my story to tell, but I'm the only one who can help them. I won't get hurt, Mom, I promise. Don't stop me. Please."
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Kana does know Utau. They met at the birthday party and had their little telepathic mano a mano.

Kana maybe doesn't trust her, but seems to me unlikely to shoot her on sight, since she's been made fully aware of how close Utau is to Amu... plus, Utau is one of the characters I'd give a fair shake at actually being able to survive an attempted mind crush from her.

The fact Amu doesn't have any faith in Utau, of all people, meeting with Kana again is concerning. I hope this is not a side effect we are seeing of Amu letting too much Kana into her brain.
 
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PistachioCookies said:
...Hoy, what's going on here. Miki was meant to be our chosen Boon. Trying to take an axe to the head of our Boon just one arc into the quest doesn't seem very kosher.
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There are many, many reasons why this vote exists mostly to give me a chapter break. But also. So much conclusion-jumping. :V

No comment on Miki's state of mind, but charas in general seem very aware that they're not real people. Miki's hardly a chara anymore, however.

PistachioCookies said:
Kana does know Utau. They met at the birthday party and had their little telepathic mano a mano.

Kana maybe doesn't trust her, but seems to me unlikely to shoot her on sight, since she's been made fully aware of how close Utau is to Amu... plus, Utau is one of the characters I'd give a fair shake at actually being able to survive an attempted mind crush from her.

The fact Amu doesn't have any faith in Utau, of all people, meeting with Kana again is concerning. I hope this is not a side effect we are seeing of Amu letting too much Kana into her brain.
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Editing error, sort of; she expands on that in the next chapter. The intent (and original wording) was that the others don't know Utau. Which is not exactly true—Naomi does—but the overall point still holds. Amu is by far the least likely person to get shot at. Anyone else, even Utau, would be greeted with suspicion.

*Adjusts*

Which doesn't mean she couldn't come with, but... Amu.

(The vote asks for Utau's help to dress Amu up. Midori overrode that. It doesn't ask for Utau to come with, or she would have. Should she? That's up to you, really...)
 
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Baughn said:
(The vote asks for Utau's help to dress Amu up. Midori overrode that. It doesn't ask for Utau to come with, or she would have. Should she? That's up to you, really...)
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Given there's no write-in permitted this chapter, I guess that's a moot point either way. At least Amu's parents (and Ami) know where she went and will call people if Amu fails to return in a timely manner.
Baughn said:
There are many, many reasons why this vote exists mostly to give me a chapter break. But also. So much conclusion-jumping. :V
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If Ran and Su didn't put the idea into Miki's head, we must still check to make sure Miki didn't put the same idea into the minds of Ran and Su.

But seriously, even if Miki isn't (permanently) on the chopping block for this event, proposing to use Miki's newfound capabilities so she can serve as a punching bag is, well, asking her to get punched at some point.

Not quite sure that was what people had in mind when they voted in Miki for the Boon - I mightn't have been there for that vote, but I got the impression that people were hoping more to leverage the size of her brain rather than the thickness of her skull, based on the comments.
 
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PistachioCookies said:
Given there's no write-in permitted this chapter, I guess that's a moot point either way. At least Amu's parents (and Ami) know where she went and will call people if Amu fails to return in a timely manner.
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Well, yes, that vote is already done. Not that this will be over and done in a single update, so I suppose wait and see.
PistachioCookies said:
If Ran and Su didn't put the idea into Miki's head, we must still check to make sure Miki didn't put the same idea into the minds of Ran and Su.

But seriously, even if Miki isn't (permanently) on the chopping block for this event, proposing to use Miki's newfound capabilities so she can serve as a punching bag is, well, asking her to get punched at some point.

Not quite sure that was what people had in mind when they voted in Miki for the Boon - I mightn't have been there for that vote, but I got the impression that people were hoping more to leverage the size of her brain rather than the thickness of her skull, based on the comments.
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Then it's a good thing you discovered this is a problem now, instead of when she gets isekaied...

I don't think there's a single person in this story without some form of issue, often an entire magazine subscription. Amu's parents, maybe.
 
I guess if one really wanted to maximize ones safety, one could always chara change with Miki? That would truly be full strength Amu after all with the highest level of skill she currently can have. And it would be a clear cut way of going against her point of view as well, no throwing away of Miki's.

I wonder if one could use such a means to more quickly learn skills from Miki as well though, hmm...
 
Baughn said:
Then it's a good thing you discovered this is a problem now, instead of when she gets isekaied...

I don't think there's a single person in this story without some form of issue, often an entire magazine subscription. Amu's parents, maybe.
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Well if Truck-kun ends up being in this story, I imagine he wouldn't have much of an issue. It would be just another job well done for him, while he keeps trucking on.

For the record, I never personally saw Miki as being especially brainy amongst the Charas - just more creative and artistically inclined. Her introductory sequence highlighted her apparent flaws as having a potential for mood-swings and a tendency towards emo-ness.

I expect Miki to start wallowing in emo and questioning her own self-worth and utility in the aftermath of Amu's rejection of her grand plan, before someone with an actual brain bothers to point out that advertising oneself as a human shield is not how you push up your market value.
 
PistachioCookies said:
Well if Truck-kun ends up being in this story, I imagine he wouldn't have much of an issue. It would be just another job well done for him, while he keeps trucking on.

For the record, I never personally saw Miki as being especially brainy amongst the Charas - just more creative and artistically inclined. Her introductory sequence highlighted her apparent flaws as having a potential for mood-swings and a tendency towards emo-ness.

I expect Miki to start wallowing in emo and questioning her own self-worth and utility in the aftermath of Amu's rejection of her grand plan, before someone with an actual brain bothers to point out that advertising oneself as a human shield is not how you push up your market value.
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Well, I'm pretty sure the exaltation shard already got trucked! Transit in progress, at least it's got company.

More seriously, I don't find emo to be compelling writing, and isn't Amu the goth girl in the room? Not that she's doing a great job of it. 😅 But Miki... you're kinda right. She isn't the most cheerful person, is she? I'm not sure I'd go as far as to assume she'd lock herself in her room and sob into the pillow, though.

It's, hmm.

Midori and Tsumugu were assuming that their hands-off parenting style worked. But even in canon it meant they missed an entire magical girl story of sorts, complete with Amu having chunks of concrete bouncing off her... even if it all worked out, there's probably some timeline in which that didn't. Moreover there's all the ethical issues with– everything, really, though less Amu than Utau, Ikuto, Easter as a whole, Nikaidou, Lulu, Hikaru...

They're going to need a firmer hand.

Left to her own devices, Miki probably would flounder for a few months and then figure herself out. If she got very unlucky, that might be enough time for something bad to happen. Fortunately, and unlike every other situation like this, Miki actually has parents. Parents who are motivated to keep a closer eye on her.

This vote was– I don't think it's much of a spoiler– a vote for Amu's immediate reaction. Not for Midori's, because there's zero chance that any sensible adult would let a thought pattern like Miki's go uncorrected.

Let alone her mother.
 
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Baughn said:
Miki... you're kinda right. She isn't the most cheerful person, is she? I'm not sure I'd go as far as to assume she'd lock herself in her room and sob into the pillow, though.
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No, but I can see her noticeably sulking and brooding and doing a pile of knock-off paintings styled like Munch's The Scream and playing funeral marches if given access to a piano.

....Actually, if this were canon Shugo Chara, she would become an X-Chara if seriously denied, but since Miki doesn't actually represent some secret inner desire of Amu's to go out in a blaze of glory, I wouldn't think she'd offer to go at all if she legitimately thought there was a genuine risk of her turning into scrambled egg.

Though I COULD see her coming up with the idea of acting as a body-double if she did get a swollen head and seriously didn't think there was much risk in it.

She would still brood like a penguin after being told her amazingly creative idea was actually a dumb one.
 
ShadowAngelBeta said:
You uh, know this is rare, right?
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Look, I'll take them when I can get them.
PistachioCookies said:
....Actually, if this were canon Shugo Chara, she would become an X-Chara if seriously denied, but since Miki doesn't actually represent some secret inner desire of Amu's to go out in a blaze of glory, I wouldn't think she'd offer to go at all if she legitimately thought there was a genuine risk of her turning into scrambled egg.
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Even in canon Shugo Chara, it's not like there's any risk of charas turning into X-charas from having a random desire of theirs rejected. Happens often enough; Ran drove Amu nuts sometimes. It has to be a rejection of whatever is core to them, on a fundamental level.

Reminds me a fair bit of Shadows, actually.
 
Baughn said:
Even in canon Shugo Chara, it's not like there's any risk of charas turning into X-charas from having a random desire of theirs rejected. Happens often enough; Ran drove Amu nuts sometimes. It has to be a rejection of whatever is core to them, on a fundamental level.
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Yeah, that's what I meant - since Miki doesn't represent some kind of Shirou-Emiya-from-Nasuverse-die-to-save-people drive from Amu, rejecting her plan wouldn't be a serious denial of existence. It would just be an insult in regards to her planning abilities, which would make Miki cross, but in the figurative way and not by growing an actual cross on her forehead.

....I actually wonder how Ami would react if Miki openly started sulking around the house.

I have this sinking feeling that, in direct contrast to her parents, Ami would be supportive of Miki and end up becoming an enabler for whatever other ill-considered ideas ended up popping out of her imaginative mind.
 
PistachioCookies said:
Yeah, that's what I meant - since Miki doesn't represent some kind of Shirou-Emiya-from-Nasuverse-die-to-save-people drive from Amu, rejecting her plan wouldn't be a serious denial of existence. It would just be an insult in regards to her planning abilities, which would make Miki cross, but in the figurative way and not by growing an actual cross on her forehead.

....I actually wonder how Ami would react if Miki openly started sulking around the house.

I have this sinking feeling that, in direct contrast to her parents, Ami would be supportive of Miki and end up becoming an enabler for whatever other ill-considered ideas ended up popping out of her imaginative mind.
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*checks character sheet* No, it turns out that Ami is not, in fact, stupid.
 
...And yet, still not smart enough to consider why trying to "tell the reporters to go away" would be not such a good idea.

Turns out, being able to do sudoku better than Amu does not guarantee good judgment.
 
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Quickshot0 said:
I guess if one really wanted to maximize ones safety, one could always chara change with Miki? That would truly be full strength Amu after all with the highest level of skill she currently can have. And it would be a clear cut way of going against her point of view as well, no throwing away of Miki's.

I wonder if one could use such a means to more quickly learn skills from Miki as well though, hmm...
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On the other hand, using Miki for her buff might send the wrong message about where her value as a person lies. We need to be careful about that kind of thing.

I wonder what we can do to psychologically reinforce Miki's personhood. Get her her own wardrobe? But the practical realities of actually using real clothes seem like they'd be awkward and inconvenient for Miki, so that could easily backfire. Take her along as a full-size participant in family outings? It'll mean drawing even more awkward attention, but I think it's worthwhile.

I wonder if JP's can get Miki some ID. Hotsuin already knows about her, although none of them know her full capabilities.

Baughn said:
Amu sank back into her seat, head full of thoughts about Ami again. Dad joined them at the table, and Ami herself rushed in not a minute later, her eyes full of glee. The five of them sat down at the table. Mom served Miki using a tiny, cardboard plate.
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I wonder what happens to Miki's food after she eats it. I don't think she poops...
 
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Quine said:
I wonder what we can do to psychologically reinforce Miki's personhood.
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There's a problem in whether Miki currently wants to reinforce her own personhood and individuality.

As the QM pointed out, canonically-speaking, Charas are typically quite aware of their statuses as Charas and know that they are entities born from a Heart's Egg, tied to that person's sense of self. Miki in particular fully expected Amu to quickly give up on her and expected that she would disappear in short order during their initial encounter.

She likely doesn't realize that she's somehow done a Teddie and graduated from being a Chara to being a bit more substantial. Whatever the hell she actually is at this point. Mechanics-wise, we know it's because we picked her as a Boon, lore-wise no idea how it got implemented, I'm currently assuming something along the lines of how Teddie went from being a hollow bear suit to a boy-band member knockoff via a prolonged bodybuilding regimen in Persona 4 (except given it's Miki, sculpting her own chiseled features was probably done with an actual chisel).

The basic notion of being able to exist separately and independently from Amu would probably be the biggest shock to her before anything else, once it sinks in, the rest can come in due course. But she actually needs to come to terms with that first. Though given she got picked as our Boon, that's probably going to be a matter of 'when' rather than 'if'.
 
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I missed this vote, but I'm, uh, not convinced Miki is as immune to physical damage as she thinks she is. Having an illusion physically broken is effectively having something you were supporting with your own soul crushed by Kagutsuchi, after all.
 
Skelm said:
I missed this vote, but I'm, uh, not convinced Miki is as immune to physical damage as she thinks she is. Having an illusion physically broken is effectively having something you were supporting with your own soul crushed by Kagutsuchi, after all.
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Miki is definitely vulnerable. We've seen all sorts of nasty shit happen to charas, and to chara-adjacent entities like shadows. But if we actually need to worry about illusions taking physical damage in general, that's going to seriously suck. Every illusion we make becomes a vulnerability.

Looking at precedent, the biggest precedent for illusions taking damage so far would probably be the bolas and honey we threw around in the big fight. Those would have gotten burned up by lava blood when Nadeshiko took out the strixes. As for the effects of getting those illusions destroyed... hard to say.

Nothing obviously bad happened immediately, at least. It's possible illusion destruction might have contributed to the mental abrasion issue that got Amu hospitalized, but so much shit happened that day that we have no reason to attribute the abrasion specifically to illusions getting destroyed. Amu took an attack from Saaya, touched the rift with her mind, activated Dia, gave up the Humpty Lock, summoned a demon into her own head, pushed herself to what the medical expert demon decided was her limit, then pushed past that participating in the fight...

Whether or not Amu took any backlash from getting those illusions destroyed, it definitely worked out a lot better than if her physical body had taken that much lava damage, at least.


You know... charas are normally invisible to most people. With this quest's psionics system, if chara bodies are psionic constructs, I wonder if that means Amu can make psionic constructs in general that are invisible to most people.
 
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