[Touhou/Exalted] The Tourist
- Thread starter sasahara17
- Start date
Eirin is virtually indistinguishable from a Solar Exalt, excepting the lack of a Caste Mark and anima banner.
But even a Solar couldn't design something that another Solar couldn't figure out how to kill. Or at least not confer such immortality to a human being.
But even a Solar couldn't design something that another Solar couldn't figure out how to kill. Or at least not confer such immortality to a human being.
If you really think about it, it would be better to say that she is a solar exalted with the powers of a sidereal. Think how scary that would be in game terms
BadRoad
a thousand miles
In the Barrier Team's route for the Extra stage of "Imperishable Night", Mokou seems annoyed that she can't die, referring to "this inconvenient body" that she has "thanks to that lousy Kaguya".
It takes three doses of Hourai Elixir to grant full immortality. The first dose prevents aging and the second prevents disease. So, Eirin might have taken one or two doses, or she might have some entirely different tricks up her sleeve.
Again, if IoE, IoM is taken as canon, Moukou seems to have chilled out after that.
True.
That would be those "inferior-to-Hourai Elixir" drugs I mentioned.
Not a Sidereal. Not Astrology or Fate-manipulation.
Solar. Circle. Sorcery.
She changed the rotation of the Earth and sealed the entire planet from the moon!
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Eh? Please elaborate.
I go by clr that she may also have some fate manipulation with the whole use of probabilities to help spirit her people to the moon....
18
sasahara17
Just Another Random Author
- Location
- Brisbane City
Well, nice to see that my omake was (fairly) well received. After some thought, I decided to forgo my plan about jumping so far ahead and continue setting up the scenario. Enjoy!
-=-
They didn't spend too long creating their characters, for it turned out Renko had a plan in place. Essentially, what she'd wanted them to do was create characters as close to their real life selves as they could possibly get in the game system, powers included. This simplified the character creation process greatly the players already knew what they had in mind.
"Basically, the scenario I'll be running for you lot is that, one day out of the blue while you are minding your own business, the whole lot of you get abducted by some random omnipotent being and dropped feet first into creation," Renko explained once she'd helped Aya put the finishing touches on her own character sheet, "Aside from a small number of changes, for example Miss Aya here is now a human instead of a Tengu, I'm essentially putting you four into the exact same situation that I was in when I first ended up there."
"Well, that certainly sound like a plan… in theory." Reimu noted.
The idea of what Renko was trying to do made sense to Reimu. The Solar was getting them to act out the exact same scenario that she had found herself in all those centuries ago, allowing her friends to not only understand what it was like to be her but also who create their own story and have some fun along the way.
This was why she was dropping them in so quickly with so little prep time. Renko wanted them to know exactly what it was like to be lost and confused in a strange world, with so little understanding of the setting or so little idea on what to do… even if it was just for the 'prologue' tutorial session that is. There was just one problem.
"Aren't we a little bit too powerful?" Reimu rapped her hands against her character sheet sceptically, "I'm no expert to these games, but I'm pretty sure that allowing my make believe character access to all my powers right off the bat is going to be a bit stupid."
"Reimu's right. I mean, we're still supposedly 'heroic mortals', but I can already tell how dangerous our characters are," Sanae confirmed, her previous experience with role playing games supporting her belief, "You gave Marisa access to Master Spark right off the bat, Reimu can still no-sell anything with her ability to 'fly', I have all my miracles… don't most RPGs start you off at the bottom and get you to work you way to the top?"
"Hell, you gave us Yukari. I know for a fact the two of you are about an even match for each other. Isn't, she like, going to overshadow the rest of us, ze?" Marisa pointed at the smiling gap youkai off to the side, who had been mostly silent until now. "I dunno about you, but a game where one player outshines the rest isn't going to be very fun. I want to be awesome too!"
"You don't have to worry about that, Marisa. I'm not playing as Yukari Yakumo," Yukari cheerfully corrected Reimu, causing the other players to look at their last minute addition in surprise. "I'm playing as Maribel Hearn, university student and a normal human being."
"You're kidding us." Aya whispered softly, her entire body vibrating in excitement.
"Nope. I figured that since Renko was giving you an introduction into her history, I might as well make good on my promise to show you all what I was like when I was about her age as well.
"Basically, Merry from back then," Renko nodded with a hearty laugh, "Don't worry, Maribel didn't even have a fraction of the power back then that she has now. If anything, you'll probably need to babysit her until she can get her bearings!"
"Okay, now I am really interested in this game." Reimu said, managing to keep the rush of enthusiasm out of her voice.
Ever since she'd found out from Renko that Yukari had once been a regular human being so long ago, the shine maiden's curiosity had peaked. For such an obscenely powerful individual, Renko had such humble beginnings, and as old friends that meant sometime in the distant past Yukari had been the same… just an ordinary young woman swept up by forces beyond her control.
Who had Maribel Hearn been? How had she become the Yukari Yakumo that she knew so well? Reimu couldn't help but want to know.
Well, she was about to find out.
"This… this is incredible. I get to see a bit about what THE Yukari Yakumo was like while she was a human," Aya said to herself with glazed over eyes and a dopey grin across her face. "By playing this one game, I'm getting three stories at once. BEST. GAME. EVER."
"No shit. Any game that lets me outshine Yukari is something I just gotta play!" Marisa whooped in excitement.
"I still am a bit worried about these character sheets though." Sanae frowned as she flipped through them, "Not even my old characters from Princess: The Hopeful had stats like this. We're some of the most powerful people in Gensokyo, too. Won't the game be too easy?"
Renko burst out laughing.
"Too easy she says! Oh trust me, kid. You're going to need all that shit." Renko informed her in between chuckles, "Besides, when I ended up there I retained my original power. It'd be unfair for me to take away yours while I still had mine."
"You have a power?"
"Telling the time from the position of the stars. Well, I've expanded on it a fair bit since then, but that's beside the point," Renko took a few deep breaths and managed to calm down. "Being an Exalt in creation isn't about being powerful. Right from the get go EVERY Exalt is powerful. Even the weakest ones have the ability to change to course of history if they play their cards right. What being an Exalted is about is how you choose to use that power."
"I take is this is something you learned from experience." Reimu observed.
"You have no idea," Renko sighed nostalgically, clearly thinking of someone she used to know, "Basically, me giving you all these powers off right at the start only changes the kinds of things you can deal with at your stage of the story. Granted you're all a lot more capable than me when I was your age, but the challenges are all the same. Trust me, you're going to need those powers."
"Hm, I'll take your word for it." Sanae frowned.
"Anyway, enough chit chat. Let's get started."
Grabbing one of the many notebooks she had at her utility belt and flipping it open, Renko tore a page out of it and threw it in the air.
"Renko, what…" Reimu began, only to be interrupted when the ripped page exploded, flooding the room with colour and light.
Marisa's homely dining room faded away as their surroundings were suddenly replaced with the rights and sounds of a crowded bazaar filled with throngs of people. The architecture around the group was distinctly Arabian, and the people around them were most definitely not Japanese. Strangely enough, while the hot midday desert sun shone down from above, the air still nice and cool like it had been before the transition.
And Renko herself had disappeared, leaving Reimu, Sanae, Marisa, Aya and Yukari alone in this strange environment.
"What the hell!" Marisa exclaimed, clearly dismayed by this development. "How'd we get here? Where'd my house go?"
"Relax, Marisa. This is just a hologram," Renko's disembodied voice happily informed them. "Terrestrial Circle Sorcery I came up with in between the wars, just for fun… not that most of my more studious colleagues thought it was proper use of sorcery, the prudes."
"Where is this place?" Sanae asked.
"Chiaroscuro, city of glass spires and the most important port city in the Southern Threshold, pulled directly from my own memories. So, what do you think?"
"I think I am liking this more and more." Aya nodded enthusiastically, her journalist notepad out and already scribbling away. "Holy shit, maybe I can even do a tourism review about this place. Game review, two biographies and now an article about a foreign city? I'm set for the next month!"
"Renko's giving us a chance to see an entirely different city, and all you can think about is writing for you paper. Gee, Aya. Talk about having a one track mind." Reimu couldn't help but shake her head in amusement at Aya's eccentricities.
If she was honest, Reimu couldn't help but be impressed herself. Clearly Renko had put a lot of thought into this for their benefit, after all. She'd have to thank her new friend later.
But for now, it was time to have some fun.
"Ladies, welcome to creation."
-=-
A/N – yep, even when running an RPG as a Storyteller, Solars don't do things in half measures. Anyway, my plan is to do one more snip about this omake to tie up the prologue before getting back to the SDM. As fun as writing for this is, I've been putting off the main story for it and really shouldn't be doing that.
As for Mokou, I should probably clarify that I have no plans for her playing a large role in this story (other than getting into fights with Kaguya of course). If I do feature anything about Renko trying to get around the Hourai elixir, it'll probably be set after 'the Tourist' proper. Thanks for reading!
-=-
They didn't spend too long creating their characters, for it turned out Renko had a plan in place. Essentially, what she'd wanted them to do was create characters as close to their real life selves as they could possibly get in the game system, powers included. This simplified the character creation process greatly the players already knew what they had in mind.
"Basically, the scenario I'll be running for you lot is that, one day out of the blue while you are minding your own business, the whole lot of you get abducted by some random omnipotent being and dropped feet first into creation," Renko explained once she'd helped Aya put the finishing touches on her own character sheet, "Aside from a small number of changes, for example Miss Aya here is now a human instead of a Tengu, I'm essentially putting you four into the exact same situation that I was in when I first ended up there."
"Well, that certainly sound like a plan… in theory." Reimu noted.
The idea of what Renko was trying to do made sense to Reimu. The Solar was getting them to act out the exact same scenario that she had found herself in all those centuries ago, allowing her friends to not only understand what it was like to be her but also who create their own story and have some fun along the way.
This was why she was dropping them in so quickly with so little prep time. Renko wanted them to know exactly what it was like to be lost and confused in a strange world, with so little understanding of the setting or so little idea on what to do… even if it was just for the 'prologue' tutorial session that is. There was just one problem.
"Aren't we a little bit too powerful?" Reimu rapped her hands against her character sheet sceptically, "I'm no expert to these games, but I'm pretty sure that allowing my make believe character access to all my powers right off the bat is going to be a bit stupid."
"Reimu's right. I mean, we're still supposedly 'heroic mortals', but I can already tell how dangerous our characters are," Sanae confirmed, her previous experience with role playing games supporting her belief, "You gave Marisa access to Master Spark right off the bat, Reimu can still no-sell anything with her ability to 'fly', I have all my miracles… don't most RPGs start you off at the bottom and get you to work you way to the top?"
"Hell, you gave us Yukari. I know for a fact the two of you are about an even match for each other. Isn't, she like, going to overshadow the rest of us, ze?" Marisa pointed at the smiling gap youkai off to the side, who had been mostly silent until now. "I dunno about you, but a game where one player outshines the rest isn't going to be very fun. I want to be awesome too!"
"You don't have to worry about that, Marisa. I'm not playing as Yukari Yakumo," Yukari cheerfully corrected Reimu, causing the other players to look at their last minute addition in surprise. "I'm playing as Maribel Hearn, university student and a normal human being."
"You're kidding us." Aya whispered softly, her entire body vibrating in excitement.
"Nope. I figured that since Renko was giving you an introduction into her history, I might as well make good on my promise to show you all what I was like when I was about her age as well.
"Basically, Merry from back then," Renko nodded with a hearty laugh, "Don't worry, Maribel didn't even have a fraction of the power back then that she has now. If anything, you'll probably need to babysit her until she can get her bearings!"
"Okay, now I am really interested in this game." Reimu said, managing to keep the rush of enthusiasm out of her voice.
Ever since she'd found out from Renko that Yukari had once been a regular human being so long ago, the shine maiden's curiosity had peaked. For such an obscenely powerful individual, Renko had such humble beginnings, and as old friends that meant sometime in the distant past Yukari had been the same… just an ordinary young woman swept up by forces beyond her control.
Who had Maribel Hearn been? How had she become the Yukari Yakumo that she knew so well? Reimu couldn't help but want to know.
Well, she was about to find out.
"This… this is incredible. I get to see a bit about what THE Yukari Yakumo was like while she was a human," Aya said to herself with glazed over eyes and a dopey grin across her face. "By playing this one game, I'm getting three stories at once. BEST. GAME. EVER."
"No shit. Any game that lets me outshine Yukari is something I just gotta play!" Marisa whooped in excitement.
"I still am a bit worried about these character sheets though." Sanae frowned as she flipped through them, "Not even my old characters from Princess: The Hopeful had stats like this. We're some of the most powerful people in Gensokyo, too. Won't the game be too easy?"
Renko burst out laughing.
"Too easy she says! Oh trust me, kid. You're going to need all that shit." Renko informed her in between chuckles, "Besides, when I ended up there I retained my original power. It'd be unfair for me to take away yours while I still had mine."
"You have a power?"
"Telling the time from the position of the stars. Well, I've expanded on it a fair bit since then, but that's beside the point," Renko took a few deep breaths and managed to calm down. "Being an Exalt in creation isn't about being powerful. Right from the get go EVERY Exalt is powerful. Even the weakest ones have the ability to change to course of history if they play their cards right. What being an Exalted is about is how you choose to use that power."
"I take is this is something you learned from experience." Reimu observed.
"You have no idea," Renko sighed nostalgically, clearly thinking of someone she used to know, "Basically, me giving you all these powers off right at the start only changes the kinds of things you can deal with at your stage of the story. Granted you're all a lot more capable than me when I was your age, but the challenges are all the same. Trust me, you're going to need those powers."
"Hm, I'll take your word for it." Sanae frowned.
"Anyway, enough chit chat. Let's get started."
Grabbing one of the many notebooks she had at her utility belt and flipping it open, Renko tore a page out of it and threw it in the air.
"Renko, what…" Reimu began, only to be interrupted when the ripped page exploded, flooding the room with colour and light.
Marisa's homely dining room faded away as their surroundings were suddenly replaced with the rights and sounds of a crowded bazaar filled with throngs of people. The architecture around the group was distinctly Arabian, and the people around them were most definitely not Japanese. Strangely enough, while the hot midday desert sun shone down from above, the air still nice and cool like it had been before the transition.
And Renko herself had disappeared, leaving Reimu, Sanae, Marisa, Aya and Yukari alone in this strange environment.
"What the hell!" Marisa exclaimed, clearly dismayed by this development. "How'd we get here? Where'd my house go?"
"Relax, Marisa. This is just a hologram," Renko's disembodied voice happily informed them. "Terrestrial Circle Sorcery I came up with in between the wars, just for fun… not that most of my more studious colleagues thought it was proper use of sorcery, the prudes."
"Where is this place?" Sanae asked.
"Chiaroscuro, city of glass spires and the most important port city in the Southern Threshold, pulled directly from my own memories. So, what do you think?"
"I think I am liking this more and more." Aya nodded enthusiastically, her journalist notepad out and already scribbling away. "Holy shit, maybe I can even do a tourism review about this place. Game review, two biographies and now an article about a foreign city? I'm set for the next month!"
"Renko's giving us a chance to see an entirely different city, and all you can think about is writing for you paper. Gee, Aya. Talk about having a one track mind." Reimu couldn't help but shake her head in amusement at Aya's eccentricities.
If she was honest, Reimu couldn't help but be impressed herself. Clearly Renko had put a lot of thought into this for their benefit, after all. She'd have to thank her new friend later.
But for now, it was time to have some fun.
"Ladies, welcome to creation."
-=-
A/N – yep, even when running an RPG as a Storyteller, Solars don't do things in half measures. Anyway, my plan is to do one more snip about this omake to tie up the prologue before getting back to the SDM. As fun as writing for this is, I've been putting off the main story for it and really shouldn't be doing that.
As for Mokou, I should probably clarify that I have no plans for her playing a large role in this story (other than getting into fights with Kaguya of course). If I do feature anything about Renko trying to get around the Hourai elixir, it'll probably be set after 'the Tourist' proper. Thanks for reading!
Pensive Rumination
Praise me more?
- Location
- Australia
Okay, wow, I put this off for a while. I'll probably manage to get the latest snippet for this checked tonight, but don't expect me to start with the latest SAO/XCOM chapter compilation until the weekend. Might do some of the snippets for that though.
Editing snippets is easy, it's when you try to do entire chapters in one go that your brain starts to turn to mush.
Not exactly the word your looking for I think, and in the sentence you said she 'staggered' in. Perhaps "stumbled" would be better.
Editing snippets is easy, it's when you try to do entire chapters in one go that your brain starts to turn to mush.
"An aisle"
"it was as"
"on her"?
Doesn't quite make sense. Perhaps, "squeaked out", "managed to say", "said", etc.
Repetition, you already mentioned that Reimu grabbed Renko 'by the arm'.
"Reimu, now back in her shrine maiden outfit" or "Reimu, now garbed in her shrine maiden outfit". 'Garbed back' doesn't quite make sense and it should be 'shrine maiden outfit' not 'shrine maiden's outfit'.
Missing commas
saunter: to walk in a slow, relaxed manner.
Not exactly the word your looking for I think, and in the sentence you said she 'staggered' in. Perhaps "stumbled" would be better.
Missing comma.
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Pensive Rumination
Praise me more?
- Location
- Australia
Missing comma
Sounds a bit weird. Perhaps "already had a familiar framework to start with."?
That first highlighted comma can go. The next two are needed.
Another missing comma.
"sounds"
"to"
"That"
"and"?
"of"
"hand"
"on/of"
"giving"
"her", she was correcting Marisa, right?
"fraction of the power she has now back then." Flows better.
"of" sounds better.
"when"
"the"
"it"
"right off the bat" might have been the idiom you were going for. Alternatively, you can just use "at the start".
Missing comma
"in"? "hanging from"?
"sights"
While 'prudes' works, it usually has connotations of a stiff attitude to sex, so it doesn't feel quite right to me. Maybe something like "snobs" or even "egotistical bastards".
Sounds a bit off, also bit of an understatement. "a city from an entirely different dimension", perhaps?
Pretty sure that needs to be capitalised...
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kinglugia
Hora hora~
Renko confirmed to be a SB/SVer.
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
Well she couldn't really say they were abducted by their future selves who had ended up going back in time only to find out that they were the ones to send their past selves to Creation.
Spectrum
Tell me a secret~
- Location
- Behind you~
I hope you don't just use these info-dumps as an opportunity to copout and not actually write these scenes in the main story.
Feng Lengshun
Z-Program Researcher
- Location
- Indonesia
I've been interested in it for a while and I have to ask, do you guys have any good recommendations to get myself familiar with Exalted? I generally prefer reading actual stories though, so maybe some fanfics or something, I dunno.
On the omake above, Aya's dialogue felt a little out of character. Not in the substance, but in how she speaks them. Though it was kind of weird that she has reservation on playing the game when she's pretty sharp when it comes to scoops and quite easy-going. Maybe you should take a look at her scripts (from the fighting game, but if you want to read BRiJR then go ahead) again.
On the omake above, Aya's dialogue felt a little out of character. Not in the substance, but in how she speaks them. Though it was kind of weird that she has reservation on playing the game when she's pretty sharp when it comes to scoops and quite easy-going. Maybe you should take a look at her scripts (from the fighting game, but if you want to read BRiJR then go ahead) again.
BadRoad
a thousand miles
Probably "piqued", unless she literally cannot get more curious.
I found a free tutorial online that teached me about the mechanics and the basics of playing Exalted here: http://jyenicolson.net/exalted/ which lets you play through the prologue of a Heroic Mortal who Exalts near the end of the prologue. Then I started to read the Core Manual for the second edition.
Those are probably not exactly what you are looking for but there aren't terribly many stories about Exalted, I think either I've missed most of the fanbase or the fanbase isn't interested enough in writing stories online (probably prefer actually playing.) for it to have more than a handful fics that avoid sturgeons law. I'll just list what I've found for fanfics that are readable:
Cast In Gold an exalted/Neon Genesis Evangelion crossover. Shinji Exalts, also manages to avoid the wannabe badass Shinji unless I'm completely misremembering. You've probably heard of these two but I'm listing them anyway: Earthsscorpions A green sun illuminates the void at spacebattles and ffdotnet, a crossover with Familiar of Zero. Louise Exalts, as an Infernal. Also on spacebattles and ff, Glorious Shotgun Princess, A Mass Effect crossover by Gregg Landsman, where Female Shepard exalts and the ME universe in general is a bit different from canon.
Finally we have Twin Suns Burning a Naruto/Exalted crossover (also on SB) by Ryuugi where Sasuke Exalts as an Infernal, unfortunately probably dead near the end of the Wave arc. Similarly the Freedom Stone forums seemed to be a good place for non-crossover stories of Exalted but it's mostly dead at this point. Sorry for the long post. I hope I were able to help. Somebody more experienced probably can help much more.
Feng Lengshun
Z-Program Researcher
- Location
- Indonesia
Yeah, I know of that tutorial/guide, but I keep on losing interest on continuing it due to the amount of terms it dropped. I haven't even gotten to the story part of that tutorial, if it exists, three times I've tried it. And I don't know if I could this time around.
...doubt it, as I've been ignoring the tab for a few hours now.
...doubt it, as I've been ignoring the tab for a few hours now.
kinglugia
Hora hora~
Feng Lengshun
Z-Program Researcher
- Location
- Indonesia
I'll try to continue it tonight, but can you guys explain the important basic concepts such as pools, motes, charms, etc.? I'm a total noob to the game, I'll admit (it didn't help that tabletop game aside from monopoly aren't popular here).
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
Is English a second language for you?
because Pool = pile of available currency (in this case, motes aka magic points), and Charm = magic trick/spell are basic common English.
because Pool = pile of available currency (in this case, motes aka magic points), and Charm = magic trick/spell are basic common English.
Olive
Silent Princess
Mote (of Essence): Power source for the abilities in Exalted and also building blocks of Creation, being some sort of atom equivalent, IIRC.
Pool: Motes of Essence available to an individual, calculated as a function of the character's attributes.
Charm: Essentially magic, but still notably distinct from Sorcery.
Feng Lengshun
Z-Program Researcher
- Location
- Indonesia
Actually, yes. But other than that, charms, pools, and motes felt more like part of specific game terms than normal terms. It's like "Level". Unless you are familiar with the subject, by default you're going to assume it was a substitute for "Stage" rather than "Character's Level of Power".
Thanks, been wondering about it and that guide didn't exactly talk about it either.
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
Given how much cultural penetration Dragonball Z has achieved, I dispute this notion.
Feng Lengshun
Z-Program Researcher
- Location
- Indonesia
I was talking in the context of RPGs.