I'd consider it to have just one or two "posts", but yes.
The Argent-Eyed Heiress (Naruto/Exalted)
- Thread starter FixerUpper
- Start date
- Crossover
Not QUITE that bad, keeping in mind the number of population reset events they've been getting, the high attrition of families where they are pressed into combat as tweens, the short span of ninja history...really, any family which manages to maintain at least one jounin every generation for three generations probably could get away with the title and enough savings to buy holdings if they wanted.
- Location
- The Temple of the Winds
that's part of my point. At least the first part. No sure what the jounin for three generation is supposed to be for...
With such regular cullings, ether by world wars or simple mission death turnout, the clans really should be having a lot more children.
We should see six to ten children per couple that gets old enough to retire in the village and raise their family.
Maybe one or two of those would go on the civilian life (or desk ninja i guess...), a couple would die as early genin, a couple more as regular chunin and a last couple as jounin or as "old age" starts to hit them, which with a little bit of luck leaves them with a couple of living children in the end to take their parents place and continue the clan's obligations.
Instead we get single children and, rarely, a couple of siblings instead.
By all reasonable logic that kind of birth rate and death rate should have made then extinct a long time ago.
My thoughts on that is that clans fall all the time. Most clans are likely founded by someone within the last 5 generations, and they don't have the culture to accept a broodmare strategy of any sort.
So the 'typical' clan cycle:
-Talented ninja makes it to Jounin(they may have a Chunin/Genin heritage prior, doesn't matter much). This happens around their late 30s. They soft-retire off the frontlines, marry their true love, and spend the next 10 years popping out and raising kids.
--Here's the first drop out, shinobi dedicated enough to make it to the big leagues are not known for strong interpersonal relationships. A lot of them are going to stay married to the job until they are physically unable to, or are otherwise weird and incapable of settling down.
-The original pair produce maybe 3 kids over 10 years, spacing 2 years between them. They're each trained as ninjas.
--The next choke. Without an actual mutation advantage, odds are good that they're just ordinary ninjas and none of them are as good as their parents in their prime. You lose some of them to casualties. Maybe one of them is exceptional
-So if all three kids survive, maybe one of them is talented Jounin grade, and the parents PROBABLY aren't genius investors, they grow up, hit their peak in their 20s and spend the next 20 years popping out a kid every 3 years.
--You hit the next chokepoint: You can't afford to raise 18 kids to elite standards. Reputation is a thing too, they can't suck or your clan sucks.
Resource chokes are a nasty one
- Location
- The Temple of the Winds
you initial assumption seems strange considering how famous most of the clans are. At the time of canon we've had, lets say three generations since the founding of the village system.
I just can't believe that the clans only were only a couple of generations old when they founded/joined Konoha...
I mean, sure it works for say the Lee Clan, but come on...
I just can't believe that the clans only were only a couple of generations old when they founded/joined Konoha...
I mean, sure it works for say the Lee Clan, but come on...
you initial assumption seems strange considering how famous most of the clans are. At the time of canon we've had, lets say three generations since the founding of the village system.
I just can't believe that the clans only were only a couple of generations old when they founded/joined Konoha...
I mean, sure it works for say the Lee Clan, but come on...
How long has it even BEEN since the Sage?
Not sure, but it's been about a thousand years since Kaguya.
Blasted population reset buttons.
About 30-40 generations then, the very oldest bloodline limit clans might actually have respectable population counts(we know the Uchiha, the Hyuuga do, the Uzumaki USED to, the Senju seems to be somewhere in the middle), though we don't know the threshold beyond which their bloodline traits are too dilute to use, inbreeding between branches can help with that at the cost of genetic defects(see Ootsutsuki), but its super difficult when so many clans claim descent from a singular heroic figure, who were presumably the original mutation source.
So hardest part is probably maintaining your population above the inbreeding threshold for bloodline clans. If you fail to get there before your trait dilutes too much, or if you fall from that you're done for.
The Hyuuga even having a use for the Caged Bird Seal kind of points to them having so many members they're having trouble keeping the eyes in house.
Its a bit easier for secret technique clans, but the more they teach the more likely that it leaks out eventually from some dissatisfied clan members.
In this case secret technique clans should be mainly limited by prosperity and ability to ingrain loyalty. With a lesser bottleneck in that since the techniques are handed down by hands on inheritance, theres only so many experts who can teach a new generation.
Then you have all the rest, which don't have any special hallmark, just a bunch of consistently competent ninjas. But with no special hallmark, not much reason to announce their clan is there?
All this rather reminds me of the chinese trade clans(China's equivalent to the European Guilds, where an extended business is run by an extended family), with all the same flaws in that the whole thing, all their secret techniques and sources have a tendency to either be stolen and become common or else die with the family of origin when war, famine or plague take them out.
FULL MOON re-write 3
The clock ticked.
In the silence of Hinata's hospital room, empty now, except for her, the noise was shatteringly loud. The broken windows had been boarded up, and the lights turned off, leaving the room half-shrouded in shadow. Something tickled her palm, she looked down: a single kikaichu crawled up her thumb: she smiled at it, weakly, before tucking it away in her hair.
Next to her bed, the broken mirror shone weakly with jagged, reflected light.
She moved to push it face down, then stopped, hand trembling.
Do not deny the truth you see before you because it is undesirable.
"I know," she murmured.
A half dozen fractured Hinata's mouthed along with her, the light on their brows evidence of her… she didn't know what it was. Injury? Mutation? Poisoning?
She turned away.
She had heard that in other countries, bloodlines were revered. And in others, abhorred to the point of death. Not so in the Leaf. In the Leaf, you were something not quite monster, and not quite man. And now, now she was not quite a Hyuuga.
She was forced to clamp a hand around her wrist, which badly wanted to shake.
Cousin Neji might get his wish after all: Father had never bothered to hide his disdain for his eldest daughter. An excuse such as this – and it was arguable if it even was an excuse, there were rules, passed down since time immemorial, as to who was worthy to inherit – would be more than enough to disown her.
Frustrating. She had – she had power now.
But so did many others. That did not make them worthy of inheriting the Clan.
And this pittance of power would hardly be impressive enough to overturn the traditions of two score and more generations. And worst of all-
'-remain the same person. You do not wish to fight, merely impress.'
-it was a power shackled to her.
Before she could think it through, she brought her hand up in the modified snake seal, veins bulging across her face and around her eyes.
"Byakugan!"
Her vision expanded, taking in the length and breadth of the Konoha General Hospital for just an instant, leaving her half-formed impressions – pigeons roosting on the roof, an orderly tripping over a poorly placed extension, an ANBU operative absently petting a dog, a young boy with a breathing mask over his face – before they narrowed in on the room, then narrowed further, focusing on the single shining figure within it.
If she could blink, she would have. She was definitely not suffering from chakra exhaustion.
If anything, she had too much.
The chakra at her hara, her navel, where chakra was molded and formed, was astonishingly solid, a bar of pure light where there was usually a mere suggestion of lavender energy. She'd only seen such vigorously developed chakra coils before in senior ninja… and Naruto.
She saw her coils pulse and quickly moved on from that thought.
She followed the flow of her chakra from her hara up the governing meridian to the branching meridians in her skull, then down to those in her limbs. Besides the obvious strength of the chakra pathways, it was, in all respects a normal, healthy, well-developed chakra system. Even the strange stone upon her brow seemed to be composed purely of organic matter and normal chakra.
Had her… she wasn't sure what to call it - second chakra seemed so childish and insubstantial a name – integrated with her existing chakra network? She could see the faintest traceries of silver, but strangely enough, it existed outside of her chakra network, residing instead within her musco-skeletal system. She looked closer: magnifying her vision, watching as the traceries became a string and then a rope and then a road, flowing from cell to cell, permeating each to such an extent it became hard to tell whether it was something foreign to her cells, or being produced by them.
She wished, briefly, that she had fought harder to learn the skills of a medic-nin, even if it was not seen as a proper occupation for an heiress to the Main House. She'd at least know enough to know whether or not to be concerned.
She focused closer on the stone, looking closer, looking deeper, there seemed to be something there, something that looked like –
She blinked.
Neji stood in front of her, bruises purpling the arm not covered in bandages, one finger swollen to almost twice its usual size. She nearly stumbled – she was standing again. Around her, the glare of the stadium-grade lights shone down from the ceiling. Around her was the arena, the Sound observation area devastated, the grounds cracked and broken in places, evidence of sudden, too violent motions.
"You are in the range of my divination."
"What?" she said.
She was struck twice.
Her eyes widened.
Four times.
A dull ache had begun to throb where Neji had hit her.
Eight times.
Pain, minor, annoying, fatally disruptive, erupted like noxious blisters over the surface of her skin.
Sixteen -
Her fist slammed into the side of his face, but not nearly deep enough and by now every move she made tingled with phantom pins and needles. He jumped backwards, spitting a glob of bloody saliva, his expression full of crimson teeth.
"Is this how the Heiress of the Main House fights?"
Hinata didn't answer. She could barely squeeze close her fist it was trembling so badly.
Even so, she was faring better than her cousin. How had she not noticed it before? Blood was dripping down his bandaged arm and now that she was looking for it, it was clear the bones in both his arms had been cracked, one badly enough he had been forced to reinforce his muscles with chakra and use them as a makeshift cast.
With aching slowness, her fists relaxed into open palms. Licking her lip, she swept a shaky leg backwards, raised one hand palm forwards, and kept the other one low, at her waist.
Her cousin breathed deep, flaring his nostrils.
They both kicked off the ground, hurtling towards each other.
He struck first.
It was a masterful blow, aimed at the base of her neck, seeking to end the fight. It succeeded.
It was here her conscious memories of the fight between them stopped.
Her body, however, had not.
Even as he struck, her palm lashed out, argent chakra crackling around the outline of her hand, nearly too bright to look at, before slamming into her cousin's upraised arm. It deformed, the chakra hastily sent to reinforce the bandages he'd wrapped around his forearm doing little to protect flesh or bone.
He slammed into the ground and rolled to a limp, messy stop, injured arm hanging low.
In response, she merely stood there, neither attacking nor retreating.
He attacked again.
She matched him. She could see with every step, every blow, every motion, her every spar with her father, and her every night spent training, body flowing with the power of pure muscle memory, no will or intent required.
Gai-sensei might have been a superlative taijutsu master, but there was none better at the art of the gentle fist than her father.
Her form was perfect, and her actions, if without passion, then also without fault.
The strongest taijutsu style that existed within the Leaf.
The strongest and, in many ways, the cruelest.
The Hyuuga excelled at defense. Even without the kaiten to defend herself with, Hinata knew, objectively, that only a handful of genins exceeded her in this area. To fight Neji, whose injuries had grown increasingly numerous and increasingly severe as their bout went on, while he had but a single arm, and not attack was like letting him dash his remaining hand to pieces against the walls of a mountain. Every blow he delivered she returned, not bothering to hit his tenketsu with the jyuken, merely slapping his arms away with enough force to tear them from his body.
The ideal Hyuuga. The ideal heiress.
When his second arm fell limply to his side, his breaths coming in in short, sharp rasps, it seemed less like the culmination of a long, arduous bout, and more like the last moments before an execution. Still, just as the fight had never gone out of her eyes, they had not gone out of his.
Neji said something, words vague, distorted.
…are perfect.
She saw her own expression split into a grimace of pain, then anger. She saw, for the first time, her body begin to gather chakra.
"No!" she wanted to say, to shout, but this was a memory.
Her body flowed forwards, movements full of deadly, liquid grace. Low, beneath his awkward defense. Her palm went up.
It was a movement aimed for his chin, but missed him entirely, the chakra released through her palm so thick and concentrated it flew through the air instead of dissipating, slamming into the ceiling blowing through the lights, raining glass shards and sparks all over the ground.
Neji, caught in the periphery of the attack, was blown away, hitting the ground in a roll which didn't so much stop as shatter against the wall, burying him in it.
His arms twitched, once, then twice, but he did not get up.
Slowly, she watched herself fall, upraised arm banging against the ground as she finally finished falling.
The fight was over.
/End Chapter One
In the silence of Hinata's hospital room, empty now, except for her, the noise was shatteringly loud. The broken windows had been boarded up, and the lights turned off, leaving the room half-shrouded in shadow. Something tickled her palm, she looked down: a single kikaichu crawled up her thumb: she smiled at it, weakly, before tucking it away in her hair.
Next to her bed, the broken mirror shone weakly with jagged, reflected light.
She moved to push it face down, then stopped, hand trembling.
Do not deny the truth you see before you because it is undesirable.
"I know," she murmured.
A half dozen fractured Hinata's mouthed along with her, the light on their brows evidence of her… she didn't know what it was. Injury? Mutation? Poisoning?
She turned away.
She had heard that in other countries, bloodlines were revered. And in others, abhorred to the point of death. Not so in the Leaf. In the Leaf, you were something not quite monster, and not quite man. And now, now she was not quite a Hyuuga.
She was forced to clamp a hand around her wrist, which badly wanted to shake.
Cousin Neji might get his wish after all: Father had never bothered to hide his disdain for his eldest daughter. An excuse such as this – and it was arguable if it even was an excuse, there were rules, passed down since time immemorial, as to who was worthy to inherit – would be more than enough to disown her.
Frustrating. She had – she had power now.
But so did many others. That did not make them worthy of inheriting the Clan.
And this pittance of power would hardly be impressive enough to overturn the traditions of two score and more generations. And worst of all-
'-remain the same person. You do not wish to fight, merely impress.'
-it was a power shackled to her.
Before she could think it through, she brought her hand up in the modified snake seal, veins bulging across her face and around her eyes.
"Byakugan!"
Her vision expanded, taking in the length and breadth of the Konoha General Hospital for just an instant, leaving her half-formed impressions – pigeons roosting on the roof, an orderly tripping over a poorly placed extension, an ANBU operative absently petting a dog, a young boy with a breathing mask over his face – before they narrowed in on the room, then narrowed further, focusing on the single shining figure within it.
If she could blink, she would have. She was definitely not suffering from chakra exhaustion.
If anything, she had too much.
The chakra at her hara, her navel, where chakra was molded and formed, was astonishingly solid, a bar of pure light where there was usually a mere suggestion of lavender energy. She'd only seen such vigorously developed chakra coils before in senior ninja… and Naruto.
She saw her coils pulse and quickly moved on from that thought.
She followed the flow of her chakra from her hara up the governing meridian to the branching meridians in her skull, then down to those in her limbs. Besides the obvious strength of the chakra pathways, it was, in all respects a normal, healthy, well-developed chakra system. Even the strange stone upon her brow seemed to be composed purely of organic matter and normal chakra.
Had her… she wasn't sure what to call it - second chakra seemed so childish and insubstantial a name – integrated with her existing chakra network? She could see the faintest traceries of silver, but strangely enough, it existed outside of her chakra network, residing instead within her musco-skeletal system. She looked closer: magnifying her vision, watching as the traceries became a string and then a rope and then a road, flowing from cell to cell, permeating each to such an extent it became hard to tell whether it was something foreign to her cells, or being produced by them.
She wished, briefly, that she had fought harder to learn the skills of a medic-nin, even if it was not seen as a proper occupation for an heiress to the Main House. She'd at least know enough to know whether or not to be concerned.
She focused closer on the stone, looking closer, looking deeper, there seemed to be something there, something that looked like –
She blinked.
Neji stood in front of her, bruises purpling the arm not covered in bandages, one finger swollen to almost twice its usual size. She nearly stumbled – she was standing again. Around her, the glare of the stadium-grade lights shone down from the ceiling. Around her was the arena, the Sound observation area devastated, the grounds cracked and broken in places, evidence of sudden, too violent motions.
"You are in the range of my divination."
"What?" she said.
She was struck twice.
Her eyes widened.
Four times.
A dull ache had begun to throb where Neji had hit her.
Eight times.
Pain, minor, annoying, fatally disruptive, erupted like noxious blisters over the surface of her skin.
Sixteen -
Her fist slammed into the side of his face, but not nearly deep enough and by now every move she made tingled with phantom pins and needles. He jumped backwards, spitting a glob of bloody saliva, his expression full of crimson teeth.
"Is this how the Heiress of the Main House fights?"
Hinata didn't answer. She could barely squeeze close her fist it was trembling so badly.
Even so, she was faring better than her cousin. How had she not noticed it before? Blood was dripping down his bandaged arm and now that she was looking for it, it was clear the bones in both his arms had been cracked, one badly enough he had been forced to reinforce his muscles with chakra and use them as a makeshift cast.
With aching slowness, her fists relaxed into open palms. Licking her lip, she swept a shaky leg backwards, raised one hand palm forwards, and kept the other one low, at her waist.
Her cousin breathed deep, flaring his nostrils.
They both kicked off the ground, hurtling towards each other.
He struck first.
It was a masterful blow, aimed at the base of her neck, seeking to end the fight. It succeeded.
It was here her conscious memories of the fight between them stopped.
Her body, however, had not.
Even as he struck, her palm lashed out, argent chakra crackling around the outline of her hand, nearly too bright to look at, before slamming into her cousin's upraised arm. It deformed, the chakra hastily sent to reinforce the bandages he'd wrapped around his forearm doing little to protect flesh or bone.
He slammed into the ground and rolled to a limp, messy stop, injured arm hanging low.
In response, she merely stood there, neither attacking nor retreating.
He attacked again.
She matched him. She could see with every step, every blow, every motion, her every spar with her father, and her every night spent training, body flowing with the power of pure muscle memory, no will or intent required.
Gai-sensei might have been a superlative taijutsu master, but there was none better at the art of the gentle fist than her father.
Her form was perfect, and her actions, if without passion, then also without fault.
The strongest taijutsu style that existed within the Leaf.
The strongest and, in many ways, the cruelest.
The Hyuuga excelled at defense. Even without the kaiten to defend herself with, Hinata knew, objectively, that only a handful of genins exceeded her in this area. To fight Neji, whose injuries had grown increasingly numerous and increasingly severe as their bout went on, while he had but a single arm, and not attack was like letting him dash his remaining hand to pieces against the walls of a mountain. Every blow he delivered she returned, not bothering to hit his tenketsu with the jyuken, merely slapping his arms away with enough force to tear them from his body.
The ideal Hyuuga. The ideal heiress.
When his second arm fell limply to his side, his breaths coming in in short, sharp rasps, it seemed less like the culmination of a long, arduous bout, and more like the last moments before an execution. Still, just as the fight had never gone out of her eyes, they had not gone out of his.
Neji said something, words vague, distorted.
…are perfect.
She saw her own expression split into a grimace of pain, then anger. She saw, for the first time, her body begin to gather chakra.
"No!" she wanted to say, to shout, but this was a memory.
Her body flowed forwards, movements full of deadly, liquid grace. Low, beneath his awkward defense. Her palm went up.
It was a movement aimed for his chin, but missed him entirely, the chakra released through her palm so thick and concentrated it flew through the air instead of dissipating, slamming into the ceiling blowing through the lights, raining glass shards and sparks all over the ground.
Neji, caught in the periphery of the attack, was blown away, hitting the ground in a roll which didn't so much stop as shatter against the wall, burying him in it.
His arms twitched, once, then twice, but he did not get up.
Slowly, she watched herself fall, upraised arm banging against the ground as she finally finished falling.
The fight was over.
/End Chapter One
chrisleech
The Finder of Things Left Behind
- Location
- Jacksonville, Florida
Are you planning on restarting this quest with the full moon stuff you've been posting as a starting point, or will this remain just a story from now on?
Or it allows her to do something like viewing alternate possibilities, and it just so happens that "alternate possibilities" include things that are functionally the same as what she experiences.
That was... odd. I doubt she has an Artifact from her Past Life, most Exalts just don't bother thinking of that with how powerful and "immortal" they are. I would have guessed she was referring to her caste mark since it is flaring, but organic matter?
Unless Essence is interacting oddly with cells as we define/know them. Which is could easily be from how she described her Essence flows through her body.
My immediate guess is that she viewed some of her accumulated Potential (read: things she did to get XP), but I wouldn't even begin to guess at how other than that she peered so close at her Essence that she read it and all there was to really read was that piece of potential so far.
And that ending to the fight seemed less like a Past Life intervention, would expect much more... issues to crop up from that because her Past Life is suddenly up and talking, and read more like a... last stand Charm or something? Her body would keep fighting past Incapacitation to the best of it's ability until any hostiles were dealt with or she was dead I would guess.
Unless Essence is interacting oddly with cells as we define/know them. Which is could easily be from how she described her Essence flows through her body.
My immediate guess is that she viewed some of her accumulated Potential (read: things she did to get XP), but I wouldn't even begin to guess at how other than that she peered so close at her Essence that she read it and all there was to really read was that piece of potential so far.
And that ending to the fight seemed less like a Past Life intervention, would expect much more... issues to crop up from that because her Past Life is suddenly up and talking, and read more like a... last stand Charm or something? Her body would keep fighting past Incapacitation to the best of it's ability until any hostiles were dealt with or she was dead I would guess.
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chrisleech
The Finder of Things Left Behind
- Location
- Jacksonville, Florida
I thought that she was viewing her moment of exaltation, which was branded into her soul.
That's possible too. I did say I was guessing.
Granted I'm trying to guess based on what I know about both settings (quite a bit, though not nearly everything), but still guessing.
This is kind of the point at which I would restart the quest with what is written up to now acting as the first post, or let it become its own thing. I'm still mulling between the two options.
Like, there are some really fun scenes that kind of wrote themselves that probably won't happen if this becomes a quest, but a quest has its own advantages.
I'm actually not sure of the exact mechanics, but I wanted the chapter to start with 'damn Neji is still OP,' and end it with the Memory Mansion where Hinata replays the fight and realizes he is actually barely keeping up with her. I don't know how I'd fluff it - maybe the extra -0 HLs of Monstrous Vitality technique represents her body taking over when her conscious mind gets knocked out, maybe it was a one-off thing that only happens during her exaltation, maybe it is just a thing that happens sometimes. Hell, Ippo did it once or twice, no explanation necessary.
MEMORY MANSION METHOD
Cost: 4m; Mins: Intelligence 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: ComboOK
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: Any Intelligence Excellency
The corridors of the mind are scattered with the neglected relics of experiences. Witches explore this archaic mindmanse like a dusty temple. This Charm plunges the Lunar into a meditative trance essentially identical to sleep (though she may remain standing) for an action, during which she relives one full scene from her past. This recollection is perfect, to the extent that the Lunar may derive training from it, or make Awareness or Investigation rolls in order to notice details that she had not previously considered relevant – she can even use Charms like Other Mimicking Thoughts to gain further insight into past situations. If any of the Lunar's intimacies are relevant to a relived scene, the recollection is treated as a scene spent reinforcing them.
If something happens that would normally wake the Lunar from sleep (such as a loud noise or a wound) she is made subconsciously aware of it, and may choose to end the Charm early, recalling only scattered fragments of the memory. If the Lunar recalls a memory which has been tampered by anyone other than herself, that influence becomes Obvious and she may freely reject it. This Charm can be used while inactive.
Cost: 4m; Mins: Intelligence 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: ComboOK
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: Any Intelligence Excellency
The corridors of the mind are scattered with the neglected relics of experiences. Witches explore this archaic mindmanse like a dusty temple. This Charm plunges the Lunar into a meditative trance essentially identical to sleep (though she may remain standing) for an action, during which she relives one full scene from her past. This recollection is perfect, to the extent that the Lunar may derive training from it, or make Awareness or Investigation rolls in order to notice details that she had not previously considered relevant – she can even use Charms like Other Mimicking Thoughts to gain further insight into past situations. If any of the Lunar's intimacies are relevant to a relived scene, the recollection is treated as a scene spent reinforcing them.
If something happens that would normally wake the Lunar from sleep (such as a loud noise or a wound) she is made subconsciously aware of it, and may choose to end the Charm early, recalling only scattered fragments of the memory. If the Lunar recalls a memory which has been tampered by anyone other than herself, that influence becomes Obvious and she may freely reject it. This Charm can be used while inactive.
MONSTROUS VITALITY MANIFESTATION
Cost: 1m; Mins: Stamina 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 7)
Keywords: ComboOK, Stackable
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Any Stamina Excellency
It was a creature out of a fantasy, a monster from off the edge of the map, and it simply would not die. The Lunar
gains a single temporary 0 health level (Scroll of Errata, pp. 12), which vanishes when this Charm deactivates. The Lunar can choose to have any wounds she suffers bypass this temporary health level and instead damage her normal health track. This Charm can be stacked up to a number of times equal to the number of Obvious Charms the Lunar has active – each mutations he bears that is not native to his current shape is considered to be
an active Obvious Charm for this purpose, as is every level of flare his anima is undergoing. Excess applications of this Charm automatically deactivate, taking their temporary health levels with them.
Cost: 1m; Mins: Stamina 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 7)
Keywords: ComboOK, Stackable
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Any Stamina Excellency
It was a creature out of a fantasy, a monster from off the edge of the map, and it simply would not die. The Lunar
gains a single temporary 0 health level (Scroll of Errata, pp. 12), which vanishes when this Charm deactivates. The Lunar can choose to have any wounds she suffers bypass this temporary health level and instead damage her normal health track. This Charm can be stacked up to a number of times equal to the number of Obvious Charms the Lunar has active – each mutations he bears that is not native to his current shape is considered to be
an active Obvious Charm for this purpose, as is every level of flare his anima is undergoing. Excess applications of this Charm automatically deactivate, taking their temporary health levels with them.
- Location
- The Temple of the Winds
Why not both ?
i feel the worst part of the quest system is that QM feel obliged to basically have every chapter end with a vote, and it always ends up with a protag that always lacks a overall agenda. Let alone a feeling of character growth...
I feel i would work much better if there were only votes every dozen chapters, and have the votes be limited to what the character would reasonably do.
Oh, that's fine. I just didn't recognize the charm is all.
Oh yeah, a question: How did the Gaara v Chouji fight go?
Golden Lark
The First Fiction User
There is narrative wiggle room for Exaltation scenes; in the game it is acceptable for a fresh exalt to be operating 'above' their chargen specs - using higher-tier charms and power levels just for one scene, running on 'automatic' as the Exaltation settles in.
This is also an opportunity for slivers of previous-life experience to shine through; while Hinata had a perfectly viable martial art familiar to her body, her personality was unsuited to the necessary violence for victory. Fragments of an earlier (higher valor) exalt could have shined through - using, at the least, instincts and reactions from the Exaltation in tandem with the techniques the current body could reflexively pull off; however jyuken shenanigans would have been off the table due to the sudden change to her own body's chakra plumbing. Precise injections of chakra are kind of difficult when you suddenly have 1000% more pressure behind them.
This is also an opportunity for slivers of previous-life experience to shine through; while Hinata had a perfectly viable martial art familiar to her body, her personality was unsuited to the necessary violence for victory. Fragments of an earlier (higher valor) exalt could have shined through - using, at the least, instincts and reactions from the Exaltation in tandem with the techniques the current body could reflexively pull off; however jyuken shenanigans would have been off the table due to the sudden change to her own body's chakra plumbing. Precise injections of chakra are kind of difficult when you suddenly have 1000% more pressure behind them.
4. Not A Real Vote
Below is the text of the vote. It is not a real vote so do not bother. Feel free to comment as to its contents: if this starts up for real I will start it in a new thread.
Tentative Rules
1. There will be no mechanics. Like, sure, there might be a character sheet but it's going to be about as important as the character sheets you see in Fate Stay Night (so kinda, until the story says nah).
2. I'm running with this as if it were a story. You will have input as to the general direction and playstyle of the character, but write-ins are not by default allowed and sometimes Hinata will lose or make non-optimal choices and that's okay.
(Sometimes, she'll get an inexplicable powerup and that's okay too)
3. This is a drama-free quest. Don't come in here with the mindset that Hinata really needs your vote to win or the quest will burn down and everyone will die because a) that's never helpful, b) I used to like it when my threads blew up dramatically but I'm past that age now, c) I'm still debating bad ends, but if there are any bad ends, you'll be allowed to reset. So just be cool.
Quests are weird because you are generally supposed to provide a playstyle (i.e. crunchy mechanical bits people can fight over) as well as a story.
I may, upfront, ask how it is you want Hinata to develop and then move forward with that.
Chouji jumped down, got really big, and a hot second later when it became super clear that just made him a bigger target he immediately surrendered.
In the anime version it was super dramatic, a slow-mo focused on him, then followed by a record scratch, the sound of an explosion, and white smoke which, when cleared away, showed Chouji on his hands and knees going: I GIVE UP!
This is a fusion, more or less. Bijuu are exalt-adjacent，which means: kind of, but I haven't worked out what they are.
QM Note: So, let's try this again.
The vote is to select which charms she retains past the moment of her exaltation. Note that since mechanics are not being prioritized, charms basically operate off of a 'what would this look like in Naruto-verse?' logic. Body-Optimized Pursuit is a form of superspeed, monstrous force technique is superstrength - don't worry about the numbers so much except in a relative sense.
Hinata starts with the following physical stats: Str 3.5, Dex 3, Stamina 3. At chargen, i.e. right now, for each charm chosen of the appropriate attribute, she gains .5 in that attribute. For each two charms chosen of the appropriate attribute, she gains a free excellency. Any charm that requires an excellency as a prerequisite does not for the purposes of this quest. For the sake of comparison, part 1 Kabuto has roughly the same baseline physical stats, having Str 3, Dex 3.5, Sta 3.
Hinata is a lunar, whose might defies reason. She begins play with the Second Strength Excellency - Essence Assured, Memory Mansion Method (+.5 int), World-Enduring Evolution (+.5 sta), essence 3, the kerisgame mote reactor and two of the following charms:
[x] MEMORY MANSION METHOD (LOCKED IN - do not vote for this)
[x] WORLD-ENDURING EVOLUTION
(LOCKED IN - do not vote for this)
[x] BLOW FOR BLOW (STRENGTH)
[x] SKY BOUNDING MIGHT (STRENGTH)
[x] BODY-OPTIMIZED PURSUIT (STRENGTH)
OBJECT IN MOTION TECHNIQUE (STRENGTH)
[x] MONSTROUS FORCE TECHNIQUE (STRENGTH)
[x] HERD SHREDDING HURRICANE (STRENGTH)
[x] SUDDEN SNAP SHADOW (DEXTERITY)
[x] MONSTROUS VITALITY MANIFESTATION (STAMINA)
Now please choose one of the following gentle fist charms. Although Hinata does not start with one, she will develop it over the course of the first arc. You should probably not argue based on practical merits, but which one would make for the most impactful scenes. Her skin growing scales that disperse the force of her father's kaiten, the Hyuuga compound's walls blown down, family members scattered like ninepins, permanently crippling a major foe, that sort of thing.
[x] HINATA-STYLE MOUNTAIN SHATTERING VOID PALM (STRENGTH)
[x] HINATA-STYLE GENTLE FIST STRIKE (DEXTERITY)
[x] HINATA-STYLE TECHNIQUE-DENYING ADAPTATION (STAMINA)
The vote is to select which charms she retains past the moment of her exaltation. Note that since mechanics are not being prioritized, charms basically operate off of a 'what would this look like in Naruto-verse?' logic. Body-Optimized Pursuit is a form of superspeed, monstrous force technique is superstrength - don't worry about the numbers so much except in a relative sense.
Hinata starts with the following physical stats: Str 3.5, Dex 3, Stamina 3. At chargen, i.e. right now, for each charm chosen of the appropriate attribute, she gains .5 in that attribute. For each two charms chosen of the appropriate attribute, she gains a free excellency. Any charm that requires an excellency as a prerequisite does not for the purposes of this quest. For the sake of comparison, part 1 Kabuto has roughly the same baseline physical stats, having Str 3, Dex 3.5, Sta 3.
Ninja are roughly analogous to DBs and should be treated as such, jutsus being their charmtech. While Hinata cannot learn every possible jutsu, any jutsu that a ninja is capable of is at best equivalent in strength to something Hinata herself could accomplish. Certain lunar charms are thus going to be strengthened, e.g. Naruto's shadow clone technique is far and away better than the TAW Monkey's Brother Method.
Naruto ninja of jounin grade are treated as having dragonblood-like excellencies, being able to add dice up to a cap of their abilities and specialties (abilities being nin-gen-tai and the specialty being the grade of the jutsu). These excellencies must be purchased for each jutsu, making most ninja specialists of a handful of techniques.
Ninja considered prodigies can use dragonblooded excellencies as written, running them on abilities as opposed to specialties.
Truly exceptional ninja, such as Tsunade, have learned how to mimic the overwhelming might of the lunar exalted and may have a single attribute running on the equivalent of a lunar excellency. This is the TAW excellency which means Attribute+Ability dice cap.
The jinchiruki can access a tailed beast mode that increases their strength and replenishes their chakra: in rough terms, they gain access to excellencies and a mote reactor. Lunar exalted have a mote reactor too, and of superior quality that starts when they flare their anima.
Naruto ninja of jounin grade are treated as having dragonblood-like excellencies, being able to add dice up to a cap of their abilities and specialties (abilities being nin-gen-tai and the specialty being the grade of the jutsu). These excellencies must be purchased for each jutsu, making most ninja specialists of a handful of techniques.
Ninja considered prodigies can use dragonblooded excellencies as written, running them on abilities as opposed to specialties.
Truly exceptional ninja, such as Tsunade, have learned how to mimic the overwhelming might of the lunar exalted and may have a single attribute running on the equivalent of a lunar excellency. This is the TAW excellency which means Attribute+Ability dice cap.
The jinchiruki can access a tailed beast mode that increases their strength and replenishes their chakra: in rough terms, they gain access to excellencies and a mote reactor. Lunar exalted have a mote reactor too, and of superior quality that starts when they flare their anima.
Hinata is a lunar, whose might defies reason. She begins play with the Second Strength Excellency - Essence Assured, Memory Mansion Method (+.5 int), World-Enduring Evolution (+.5 sta), essence 3, the kerisgame mote reactor and two of the following charms:
[x] MEMORY MANSION METHOD (LOCKED IN - do not vote for this)
The corridors of the mind are scattered with the neglected relics of experiences. Witches explore this archaic mindmanse like a dusty temple. This Charm plunges the Lunar into a meditative trance essentially identical to sleep (though she may remain standing) for an action, during which she relives one full scene from her past.
[x] WORLD-ENDURING EVOLUTION
(LOCKED IN - do not vote for this)
Gods and kings have been been cast down and slain, but beasts survive. While this Charm is active, the Lunar dramatically accelerates her natural healing processes. However, the Lunar's internal biology shifts in strange ways to better rejuvenate her, making it more difficult for others to heal her. The Lunar can activate this Charm even when she is inactive.
[x] BLOW FOR BLOW (STRENGTH)
Futile attacks are deflected by the hides and blades of Luna's chosen, aggression the defence they need. This Charm is used in response to an attack, allowing the Lunar to use her Strength in place of her Dexterity and allows her to ignore all penalties that apply to her ability to block an attack. If an attack is successfully blocked, the lunar throws her foe backwards, her sheer might tossing her first back even as it jars and disorients her foe.
[x] SKY BOUNDING MIGHT (STRENGTH)
The strength of the Moon's Chosen batters the ground beneath them, forcing it to aid in their elevation. While this Charm is active, the Lunar can jump to absurd heights. This is accompanied by an Obvious display of terrain deformation, the ground cracking or rippling under the force of her leaps. She suffers no damage from falls; it is instead inflicted on the ground where she lands.
[x] BODY-OPTIMIZED PURSUIT (STRENGTH)
Shifting her chakra flows and her muscles alike to claw out as much speed as she can, the Lunar becomes leaner and sleeker, a thing of horrifying rapidity and raw power. She adds her Strength to the pool she uses to calculate her Move and Dash actions.
OBJECT IN MOTION TECHNIQUE (STRENGTH)
Muscles bulging with power, the Lunar charges forward. Anything in her way only has itself to blame. This Charm allows the Lunar to make a single reflexive attack against any inanimate object she comes into physical contact with while moving in a dash or jump. If that attack reduces the object into its damaged health levels, her passage is unimpeded and she completes the jump or dash without slowing, shattering a new path. Attacks should be appropriately resolved against the obstructing object; if she is obstructed by a tree branch, damage should be resolved against that rather than the tree as a whole.
[x] MONSTROUS FORCE TECHNIQUE (STRENGTH)
The Lunar's blows shift to hit harder and faster, a blur of violent motion ending in a flash of animalight as their foes are sent flying. This Charm supplements a physical attack, greatly increasing its raw power and blasting the lunar's foe away.
[x] HERD SHREDDING HURRICANE (STRENGTH)
The wrath of the Lunar Exalted tears through enemies and unfortunate bystanders. The Lunar's furious strikes unleash a fleshpulping shockwave that affects all objects and characters within a short distance of herself. The Lunar may freely exempt any targets she has a positive intimacy towards, and neither she nor objects she owns is ever a target.
[x] SUDDEN SNAP SHADOW (DEXTERITY)
With a flourish, the moonchild casts out the darting reflection of a deed. This Charm enhances any instantaneous Dexterity-based action undertaken by the Lunar, allowing her to pierce through space itself to reach her foe.
[x] MONSTROUS VITALITY MANIFESTATION (STAMINA)
It was a creature out of a fantasy, a monster from off the edge of the map, and it simply would not die. When incapacitated the lunar's body continues to fight independently of the lunar as if it were at full health. This seeming excellence is a lie though, the lunar has no conscious control over their body, and despite the show of vigor, it is exceedingly fragile. It completes the last know intent the lunar had and immediately falls over. Examples of such intentions include: defeat this foe, destroy this bridge, defend this passage, flee from this battle, etc.
Now please choose one of the following gentle fist charms. Although Hinata does not start with one, she will develop it over the course of the first arc. You should probably not argue based on practical merits, but which one would make for the most impactful scenes. Her skin growing scales that disperse the force of her father's kaiten, the Hyuuga compound's walls blown down, family members scattered like ninepins, permanently crippling a major foe, that sort of thing.
[x] HINATA-STYLE MOUNTAIN SHATTERING VOID PALM (STRENGTH)
Among the arsenal of techniques that the Hyuuga have developed over the course of their many years of warmaking, the gentle fist's sole concession to long-range combat are the variations of the vacuum palm which, in any case, was developed by accident, the grandmaster who created it intending instead to mimic the furiously spinning chakra of a mighty beast he had witnessed.
After spending a moment to gather energy, a transparent cone of pure concussive force emanates from Hinata's palm, sending her foes flying in an awesome display of power. Depending on how much energy is fed into the technique, it can cover a greater and greater amount of area. In this cone of devastation, the air itself screams before being replaced by absolute silence, chakra constructs, unattended and fragile objects are blown away, while hardier structures are reduced to their damaged health levels.
Similarly, those who are struck are blown away. Ninja who are of lesser essence than the user are knocked out, those who are of equal essence are conscious, but unable to use their chakra for up to an hour, while those of greater essence are merely physically flung away.
After spending a moment to gather energy, a transparent cone of pure concussive force emanates from Hinata's palm, sending her foes flying in an awesome display of power. Depending on how much energy is fed into the technique, it can cover a greater and greater amount of area. In this cone of devastation, the air itself screams before being replaced by absolute silence, chakra constructs, unattended and fragile objects are blown away, while hardier structures are reduced to their damaged health levels.
Similarly, those who are struck are blown away. Ninja who are of lesser essence than the user are knocked out, those who are of equal essence are conscious, but unable to use their chakra for up to an hour, while those of greater essence are merely physically flung away.
[x] HINATA-STYLE GENTLE FIST STRIKE (DEXTERITY)
The Hyuuga's reputation grew ever more fearsome as they learned how to affect the chakra network of others, damaging internal organs with but a touch. The lunar is kinder: what she brings is not pain, but death.
The introduction of toxic lunar essence to the average chakra system destroys it. Upon a successful strike, instead of damage, the limb is permanently crippled, capable of neither physical movement nor molding chakra. Normal essence users recover after about a day. For chakra-users, this can be mitigated by being of higher essence than the lunar, being a sage or jinchiruuki, or having a medic-nin whose essence is higher than the lunar's heal you.
The introduction of toxic lunar essence to the average chakra system destroys it. Upon a successful strike, instead of damage, the limb is permanently crippled, capable of neither physical movement nor molding chakra. Normal essence users recover after about a day. For chakra-users, this can be mitigated by being of higher essence than the lunar, being a sage or jinchiruuki, or having a medic-nin whose essence is higher than the lunar's heal you.
[x] HINATA-STYLE TECHNIQUE-DENYING ADAPTATION (STAMINA)
The greatest constructs of chakra are mere phantasms compared to the essence of the world, let alone the essence of the sun, moon and stars. Whereas the Hyuuga have learned to keep the world at bay through the Heavenly Spin, the lunar knows how to imbue their anima and body with the permanence of the ever-changing moon.
This Charm can be activated whenever the Lunar's body, mind, spirit or traits would be affected by a chakra-based technique, rendering it Obvious to her. If she wishes to reject it, her anima flares with brilliant light, countering it completely. She is, for that scene, immune to that technique. If she wishes to be immune to other techniques, subsequent uses of this charm manifests a single mutation of her player's choice appropriate to the rejected chakra effect – This protection – and the mutation it is associated with – naturally fades at the end of the scene.
Alternatively, the Lunar can use this Charm at a cost of one Willpower to remove any mutation affecting her. These removed mutations are added to her form library, though they are not associated with any particular shape.
This charm cannot be used to dispel chakra effects that are based on chakra whose source is other than the chakra naturally generated by the human body. Sage techniques, bijuu chakra, lunar charms, and so on are thus not valid targets for this charm.
Chakra effects are specific and must interact directly with Hinata in order for her to be able to activate this charm. An earth jutsu that creates a rock out of thin air to strike Hinata would shatter against her anima, but an earth jutsu used to soften the dirt she is standing on would still make her sink and an earth jutsu that throws existing rocks would still need to be dodged or endured. As a limitation, this charm only functions if Hinata understands how it is she is being affected by the chakra. If, for instance, she does not realize that the Nara's Shadow Imitation Technique depends on her shadow linking up with the user's, she cannot reject it.
This Charm can be activated whenever the Lunar's body, mind, spirit or traits would be affected by a chakra-based technique, rendering it Obvious to her. If she wishes to reject it, her anima flares with brilliant light, countering it completely. She is, for that scene, immune to that technique. If she wishes to be immune to other techniques, subsequent uses of this charm manifests a single mutation of her player's choice appropriate to the rejected chakra effect – This protection – and the mutation it is associated with – naturally fades at the end of the scene.
Alternatively, the Lunar can use this Charm at a cost of one Willpower to remove any mutation affecting her. These removed mutations are added to her form library, though they are not associated with any particular shape.
This charm cannot be used to dispel chakra effects that are based on chakra whose source is other than the chakra naturally generated by the human body. Sage techniques, bijuu chakra, lunar charms, and so on are thus not valid targets for this charm.
Chakra effects are specific and must interact directly with Hinata in order for her to be able to activate this charm. An earth jutsu that creates a rock out of thin air to strike Hinata would shatter against her anima, but an earth jutsu used to soften the dirt she is standing on would still make her sink and an earth jutsu that throws existing rocks would still need to be dodged or endured. As a limitation, this charm only functions if Hinata understands how it is she is being affected by the chakra. If, for instance, she does not realize that the Nara's Shadow Imitation Technique depends on her shadow linking up with the user's, she cannot reject it.
Tentative Rules
1. There will be no mechanics. Like, sure, there might be a character sheet but it's going to be about as important as the character sheets you see in Fate Stay Night (so kinda, until the story says nah).
2. I'm running with this as if it were a story. You will have input as to the general direction and playstyle of the character, but write-ins are not by default allowed and sometimes Hinata will lose or make non-optimal choices and that's okay.
(Sometimes, she'll get an inexplicable powerup and that's okay too)
3. This is a drama-free quest. Don't come in here with the mindset that Hinata really needs your vote to win or the quest will burn down and everyone will die because a) that's never helpful, b) I used to like it when my threads blew up dramatically but I'm past that age now, c) I'm still debating bad ends, but if there are any bad ends, you'll be allowed to reset. So just be cool.
Quests are weird because you are generally supposed to provide a playstyle (i.e. crunchy mechanical bits people can fight over) as well as a story.
I may, upfront, ask how it is you want Hinata to develop and then move forward with that.
Oh, that's fine. I just didn't recognize the charm is all.
Oh yeah, a question: How did the Gaara v Chouji fight go?
Chouji jumped down, got really big, and a hot second later when it became super clear that just made him a bigger target he immediately surrendered.
In the anime version it was super dramatic, a slow-mo focused on him, then followed by a record scratch, the sound of an explosion, and white smoke which, when cleared away, showed Chouji on his hands and knees going: I GIVE UP!
This is a fusion, more or less. Bijuu are exalt-adjacent，which means: kind of, but I haven't worked out what they are.
[Hinata shaped hole in wall]
Hmm, looking at the trio, I have to wonder how willing HInata would be to actually USE them. She's always been a textbook case of someone with Compassion much higher than her Conviction, unable to fight save to protect another.
Bonded demon in their soul tells me some kind of Infernal hack.
I'm not sure what the faux vote is for and what we are supposed to comment on/do?