I don't know anything about Exalted and this opening didn't spark my interest, but
>the idea that you won’t be roaming around as an amnesiac makes you feel somewhat better. Somewhat.

[x] Eat something. Anything.

I had no idea what Exalted was either, but that's what Wikipedia is for.

[X] You have stuff, right? Check inventory.

Hopefully we got some Starmetal or Soulsteel stuff.

[x] Food is for the weak. Explore immediately!

[x] Eat.

A little more on our stats would be nice. What's our caste and who's our other main Yozi? Adorjan and the Ebon Dragon, perhaps? What's our essence? Do we possess the Sorcerous Enlightenment of (Yozi) or supernatural martial arts?

Most important, do we possess transhumanistic charms such as Murder is Meat or Witness to Darkness?

I'm a big Exalted fan, so I'm quite pleased.

just checked the wiki, It seems there are a fuckton of charms.

>>151264
Yes, charms are the life-blood of Exalts. An Exalt without equipment and without support can still annihilate armies and turn the course of nations so long as that Exalt possesses the right charms and the essence to use them.

A starting character (representing about a six-month old Exalt) has about 10 charms. Since this seems to be a more experienced Exalt, his selection of charms can be much larger depending on what he's been doing.

Come to think of it, it sounds as though he's got either the Ebon Dragon's Golden Years Turned Black charms (corrupt memories) or SWLIHN's Mind Spider curse (mind-wipe).

[X] You have stuff, right? Check inventory.

Since it's not exclusive to the other two, we might as well get it out of the way. We can eat in about a minute of story time, after we review our equipment and supplies. It is always important to know what we have access to, so that we can abuse it properly.

[x] Eat And Check Inventory

As you look around you for items of an edible nature, you pat yourself down to make sure you haven’t lost anything. Luckily your unconscious Wyld voyage does not appear to have stolen any of your trusty items from you.

More unfortunately, the attack from your opponent (What was his name again? Something bloody pretentious, even though you can’t remember) had taken you by surprise earlier. You had been under the assumption that you had escaped from people in your past, lurking near the borders of Creation. The Solar had suddenly popped out of nowhere in the middle of the village marketplace, taking you completely by surprise and without the majority of your old demonic weapons. Who knows, if you had had your man-portable Marmoreal Cannon with you at the time, things might have gone differently. But instead he had forced you to flee with only the weapons you always carried concealed on your person.

The most obvious is your Shade Knife, currently in it’s scabbard and concealed under your cloak. You never bothered to draw it since you know from past encounters that a melee fight with Pretentious McStupidname would have only ended with you bleeding out on the floor. The idea of your highly acidic blood spraying all over him is entertaining but pointless.
The Shade Knife is a small weapon, a mere three feet long and was forged from black Malfean iron. It is capable of moving virtually on it’s own accord, jumping in and out of shadows. When you first had it forged, it used to wriggle uncomfortably in your hands but has since then been properly tamed.

Along with the Shade Knife, you also have your Infinite Jade Stabbing Knife. Forged by a formerly-close friend of yours out of the remains of an Infinite Jade Chakram you salvaged from an Immaculate monk, it appears to be a weighted throwing knife made of blue jade that has been so tainted with vitriol to have turned black. You can throw the knife as many times as you wish and it will never leave your hand. Instead a phantom knife splits off from your hands in the direction you wish.
Effectively this lets you throw as many knives as you wish without running out.

You have a strange feeling that this makes you oddly…derivative of someone else. You have no idea why and you’ve never felt like this at all before.

You shrug it off. Under your tunic you wear a customised tainted starmetal pendant around your neck. It holds what might be perhaps your greatest treasure, a scale picked from Oramus Him/Her/It-self that has been bathed in the unpredictable energies of your personal Manse.
Such a treasure allows you a one-time chance to escape death through weird quantum dickery that you don’t quite understand. You have always worn it and never let it out your sight.

As well as being caught without the more awesome of your weapons, you’ve left your armour behind as well. Granted, you never wanted to wear the Three Hundred And Thirty Thirsty Fangs again but even a light tainted orichalcum breastplate or so on would have been nice. But you wore no such thing today, due to both not wishing to break cover in the village and a deep-seated lack of paranoia that a year or so of peace had bred into you. You might need to work on that.

You wear a pair of loose cloth pants and an unadorned tunic. Above both of these you have a large travellers cloak that you like to think makes you look mysterious and cool but really makes you look like a homeless vagrant. You also once had a rather nifty hat but you lost it in the Wyld.
You’re not sure how to feel about that last bit.

You groan as you complete your survey of your surroundings. There’s a lot of trees, a lot of dirt and a lot of rocks but nothing that looks reasonably edible. You consider yourself somewhat of a connoisseur, as it sounds cooler than just calling yourself a glutton. You would much rather eat proper food. But a rumble from your stomach tells you that beggars can’t be choosers.

You sigh as you scoop up a handful of dirt and start cramming it into your mouth, feeling the rotten leaf-mould slide down your throat. You grab a stick lying on the ground and start gnawing at it, biting it into pieces and swallowing it before jumping up and ripping a section of bark from a nearby tree, cramming it into your mouth as fast as possible. Your hands scrabble along the ground for something else, anything else before landing on a small pile of pebbles. You gulp down the small stones as quickly as you can, swallowing them whole.

As you do so, you feel the minature Essence reactor that is your stomach ignite, vaporising everything that passes down your gullet and converting them to motonic energy. Your immense hunger satiated you belch loudly, a small whiff of hellfire escaping from your mouth as you do so.
Goddamnit, that must have been a sorry sight! As always, you feel vaguely ashamed of yourself to be eating trash along the ground, even if it was the only way. As you thought before, you’ve always preferred to be eating finer things, such as gold, silver and priceless artifacts.

But hey, since you’re already eating trash for food, why stop now? It’s not like your dignity can sink any lower.
As you scrape some dirty leaves into your mouth, you hear a faint giggle somewhere in the clearing. Someone has been watching you eat various forms of forest refuse.

Your dignity can always sink lower.


[ ] Call out a challenge, demanding that they reveal themselves.

[ ] Pretend you heard nothing, locate the watcher and take them by surprise.

[ ] Ignore it completely. Fuck you, random forest person.

[ ] The writer is an imbecile. Clearly you should instead write in something better.

Before anyone cries mary sue: this is just how Exalted is. Everyone is a walking powerhouse and everything is over-the-top.


[x] Call out a challenge, demanding that they reveal themselves.

>>151263

You are of the Ebon Dragon's Fiend Caste with Kimbery as your Patron Yozi. Your Charmlist however, is far from limited to just those two as you've never really specialised, preferring to pick up Charms from every Yozi you can find.

The sole exception to this being She Who Lives In Her Name, who you dislike. You have gone out of your way to never bear any Charms influenced by her, save for that one time when you woke up after the Thing Infernal with a killer hangover, no memory of the night before, some of your xp missing and Chirality Prohibition Index sitting in your Charmlist.

You are Essence Five, as you consider yourself to have been somewhat of a Big Deal before you went rogue.
You don't know any Martial Arts but you have Sorcerous Enlightenment of the Ebon Dragon along with a few Emerald Circle spells. Your favourite spell would have to be summoning a Swiss Army Knife of the First Circle First Circle Demon, as it is a very versatile spell.

[x] Pretend you heard nothing, locate the watcher and take them by surprise.

"Now, this will just be Our Little Secret, yes?"

>>151275

MC is so far remarkably [i]under[i/]-the-top for someone of his grade. His Oramus Hearthstone is impressive but both the Shade Knife and the Unlimited Jade Shenanigans are low-tier artifacts.

>>151277

That is a Charm you have, yes.

>>151275

MC is actually remarkably under-the-top for an Essence 5 Exalt. The only thing he currently has on him that even suits that image is his Oramus hearthstone.

>>151277

That is a Charm you have, yes.

>>151279
>>151280

Sonnovafuck. I thought I lost the first post through Internet Shenanigans and ended up reposting.

I'll be off herpaderping in the corner now.

[x] Flatter the watcher using lies - approach it as a supplicant seeking assistance and praise its strength and cunning. Bolster this using the First Ebon Dragon Excellency.
[x] Scan it using Insignificant Ember Intuition once it's in sight.
[x] Pump it for information about our current location.

No point in antagonizing the locals and no point in planning more until we find out what this watcher is. I'd bet on fairies and while I'm a little bit tempted to start collecting minions - there's no point to that when one, fairies are useless and two, we can summon first-circle demons for anything and everything we need.

For reference, Oramus is a he, although I'm not quite sure what that means in relation to a dragon that creates and establishes conceptual boundaries. I'd be amused if Yukari turned out to be Daendels the Unfettered Heart on sabbatical though.

>>151280
Since the character doesn't possess Unshattered Tongue Perfection, will we run into problems communicating with the locals?

Also, does the character possess Shintai charms? And more importantly, do we possess Cecelyne's wish-granting charms? It seems unlikely since most Green Sun Princes find two excellencies too expensive, but being able to play Kyubey would be a big help in social situations.

[x] Ignore it completely. Fuck you, random forest person.

Dignity is overrated.

[x] Pretend you heard nothing, locate the watcher and take them by surprise.

[x] Pretend you heard nothing, locate the watcher and take them by surprise.

>You don't know any Martial Arts

awww...I was gunna call Armageddon Nightmare Duel at the first chance i got.

>>151287

No Cecelyne Wish Charms I'm afraid. As for Shintais, MC doesn't have one. He has two, Black Mirror and All-Devouring Depths.
Language is an entirely different and weird issue.

Time to be writing now.

[x] Pretend you heard nothing, locate the watcher and take them by surprise.

>>151296
Black Mirror Shintai, eh? Fun.

For those who're unfamiliar with Exalted, All-Devouring Depths Shintai lets the Green Sun Prince turn into a shoggoth while Black Mirror Shintai lets the same Exalt become someone or something's clone and use their capabilities.

[x] Pretend you heard nothing, locate the watcher and take them by surprise.


You crouch down, continuing to poke around in the ground for things to eat. The giggles stifle themselves a few moments later, as if the speaker was afraid you would hear them. Instead you make no outward reaction, getting up and looking around under the guise of continuing to forage.

You’ve never been particularly good at perceiving things in the first place so you dig inside of yourself to bring up a shadow of a shadow, calling on the influence of the Ebon Dragon to guide your path.
As much as you ended up disliking the Yozi himself, you have to admit that some of his Charms are pretty useful.

Using the Ebon Dragon Excellency locks your next action to be one as (somewhat) befitting the Shadow Of All Things in exchange for the competency boost in whatever area you desired.
Which is fine by you. You were planning to do this sneaky and underhanded anyway.

As you continue your act, you feel your role sliding into place more easily as your skill at deception increases. At the same time, your perception of the area around you expands. At first your awareness expands to only how it used to be, negating the negative effects being in such heavy daylight has on you. It quickly extends beyond, alerting to you every rustle in the bushes, every fall of a leaf, every beat of a wing-

…There you are.

The spy is behind you and to the right, lurking behind a tree. You make your unsteady way slowly to their hiding spot, to all appearances just aimlessly wandering around for more food. You keep your back turned to the spy as you do so.
As soon as you get even remotely close, you leap backwards and draw your Shade Knife.

Swinging it around in a wild arc you bring it’s tip to the throat of the spy who gives an small shriek and stumbles backwards, knocking her head on a tree branch and falling over.

Pointing your blade out in a threatening manner, you move forward to interrogate the sp- Oh hell.
It’s just a girl. Nothing but a mere green-haired child in a blue dress. You go to lower your blade momentarily before you see her wings stretched behind her back, at which your Shade Knife immediately goes back to pointing at her throat again.

Let’s see…you might be back in Creation proper but you have to be close to the Wyld still. Wyld means Fae. And this ‘girl’ reminds you nothing more than of one of those winged homunculi that serve the Fae lords. But than again, there is no uniform shape amongst the Fair Folk. The spy could just as easily be a Fae commoner or even a Raksha noble.

…Or just a Wyld mutated mortal. But it’s better to assume the worst.


[ ] Demand at swordpoint to know her plans and those of her raksha masters.

[ ] Ask her what she was doing but in a rather more polite fashion, without incriminating her of being a Fae. But still at swordpoint.

[ ] The longer we spend talking, the more likely she could be summoning reinforcements from the Wyld. Suffer not the Fair Folk to live.

[ ] You’re just being jumpy. There are huge amounts of regular mutated mortals this close to the Wyld border. Lower your sword and apologise.

[ ] The writer has forgotten his place. Remind him of it with a far superior different option.

[X] This Fea bore witness to you lowering yourself to barbarianism, eating dirt/grass
-[X] Demand she embarrass herself in some similar fashion.
-[X] Demand at swordpoint to know her plans and those of her raksha masters.

Well...MC does believe he is in the wyld, not sure why he wouldn't take appropriate measures of caution.

... Actually, are we sure we're in Creation proper, and not just in an unusually Creation-like waypoint or a little stabilized pocket in the Middlemarches?

[x] Sheathe your weapon. "Sorry about that. You startled me."
- [x] Shake her hand (or poke her in the forehead with your finger, if you have to). "This'll be Our Little Secret, right?"
- [x] Don't actually assume she's not Fae, and don't actually let your guard down. Just look like you are. (The Ebon Dragon's Excellency still applies, right?)

For reference:
http://wiki.white-wolf.com/exalted/index.php?title=Charms:Our_Little_Secret

>>151308

As hilarious as the idea of slinging around OLS is in general, it's required to be silencing the witness of an act of depravity.

Not sure if seeing some homeless bum with phenomenal cosmic powers eating dirt counts as witnessing an act of depravity.

>>151308
While I like the cut of your jib, sir, it seems to me that the examples given for acts of depravity and the happenings here are on completely different levels.

[x] Sheathe your weapon. "Sorry about that. You startled me."
-[x] Don't actually assume she's not Fae, and don't actually let your guard down. Just look like you are.

Getting errors here so sorry for any multiposts.

[X] This Fea bore witness to you lowering yourself to barbarianism, eating dirt/grass
-[X] Demand she embarrass herself in some similar fashion.
-[X] Demand at swordpoint to know her plans and those of her raksha masters.

[X] Sheathe your weapon. "Sorry about that. You startled me."
- [X] Don't actually assume she's not Fae, and don't actually let your guard down. Just look like you are.

[x] Sheathe your blade, but don't let your guard down. Ask any questions politely.

[x] Sheathe your blade, but don't let your guard down. Ask any questions politely.

What's so bad about Fae?

>>151325

In Exalted, Fae are basicly Eldritch Abominations. Or at least the True Fae are.

>>151325
Raksha (Fae or Fair Folk) predate Creation and the establishment of causal relationships. Most Raksha desire to unmake Creation and return it to pure chaos, others use it as amusement, all feed on human hopes and dreams until what remains is no more than an emptied husk.

Creation's impression of the Raksha is unpleasant in main because of the Balorian Crusade. Although the Raksha launched incursions throughout Creation's existence, the last incursion combined with the Great Contagion to kill nine in ten of all creatures in Creation.

[X] Demand at swordpoint to know her plans and those of her raksha masters.
-[X] Apply Golden Years Tarnished Black to her memory of spying on you.

>>151330
Wow. Those guys sound like jerks. Good thing Touhou fairies aren't anything like that...

Hangover's gone. Writing times are now.

[x] Sheathe your weapon. "Sorry about that. You startled me."
-[x] Don't actually assume she's not Fae, and don't actually let your guard down. Just look like you are.


Hmph.
Her reaction didn’t display the typical display of Fair Folk emotions (or lack thereof) but she could just easily be faking a more innocent reaction. Beyond your former master, they are one of the most accomplished masters of disguise and deception. But then again she could actually be double-bluffing you, attempting to make you think that her disguise is suspicious if only to manipulate to her own ends. But it could just as easily be a triple-bluff where you believing the former is merely an attempt to lull you into a reaction she wants and it’s just as likely that it could be a quadr-
Fuck it. This is why you don’t like them. At least with the Ebon Dragon’s trickery, you knew where you stood. You wouldn’t like it, but you knew it.

But now you’re just wasting your time on pointless speculative bullshit about second-guessing raksha. Better to just get on with it.

“Sorry! You startled me there.”

You slide your sword back into it’s sheathe, looking as if your eyes were down and on the blade, while actually keeping a careful watch on the winged girl. If she were impatient enough, this would surely be the time for her to attack.

The girl looks up at you uncomprehendingly and you nearly slap yourself. Of course she didn’t understand you. You’d been speaking in a dialect of Riverspeak by habit, the common language of the village you had secreted yourself away in during your hermitage. Stretching your brain a little to remember, you say the same words again in Old Realm, the universal language of First Age scholars across Creation and the native speech of spirits, gods, demons and Fair Folk.
You have met some who claim that use of Old Realm predates Creation itself but you’ve always been a little unsure of that.

Whatever the reason, this seems to do the trick as the girl replies in kind.
“Seen a lot of people get ‘startled’ before. Never seen anyone do that.”

“I’m afraid I can’t comment on the quality of the people you’ve met, but I don’t react well to surprises much.”
You reply with a smiling face, wheels turning in your head. Little girls are usually not fluent in Old Realm as a rule. If she isn’t a raksha, than she’s some kind of spirit or little god at the very least. You slide one of your hands into your Infinite Jade Stabbing Knife pocket as you talk. Gods can be nice people but you know from past experience that they don’t tend to get along with the champions of Hell, no matter how retired or rogue you might be.
“What’s your name, young lady?”

“Eh? I don’t know. People just call me Daiyousei. What’s yours?”

You don’t answer right away, instead choosing to frown at her ‘name’. Names in Old Realm tend to have distinct meanings. Either this dialect of Old Realm is odder than you thought or that word is from a different language because you don’t understand what it means at all.

“Daiyousei,-”

“That’s my name! You can’t have it.”

You sigh.
“No, I mean what does that word mean? Daiyousei?”

Now it’s her turn to be puzzled.
“It means exactly what it sounds like. Great Fairy.”

You hate it when you’re right.


[ ] Raksha might be living fairytales but every story has an end. In this case it’s you. Through murder.

[ ] Murder is too rash for now. You need to interrogate it on your surroundings, location and the content of devious raksha plans.

[ ] The same Ebon Dragon-ness that makes you vulnerable to sunlight makes you able to sense most deceit. You can feel no guile or cunning behind this one’s actions. Ask her what she means.

[ ] Raksha plans within plans. She wouldn’t just tell you this for no reason and if you can’t sense it, that just means that she’s just that good. Just continue the conversation as is and attempt to figure out the careful web of deception she is spinning.

[x] Raksha plans within plans. She wouldn’t just tell you this for no reason and if you can’t sense it, that just means that she’s just that good. Just continue the conversation as is and attempt to figure out the careful web of deception she is spinning.

Haha, this is great. Guy is going to go nuts when he meets a real schemer.

[x] Be nice and ask her what she means.
[x] Keep a hand on a blade - being nice doesn't mean taking chances.

Our character has Witness to Darkness and a heap-load of other Ebon Dragon charms - the chances that a random Fae-thing can out-manipulate him is . . . improbable. Besides, we can always shunt her into the Darkness Beyond Existence later if the conversation breaks down, becomes boring, or whatever.

[X] Raksha plans within plans. She wouldn’t just tell you this for no reason and if you can’t sense it, that just means that she’s just that good. Just continue the conversation as is and attempt to figure out the careful web of deception she is spinning.

Time to try and outthink and outgambit someone who has no plans, no gambits and no ulterior motives. How could this possibly result in a hilarious misunderstanding?

(Edited due to spelling failure)

>>151347
The guy keeps saying he's reformed and doesn't like the Ebon Dragon, so I can't imagine he'd willingly do such a horrible thing to an innocent. You jerk.

I'm just assuming something called "Darkness Beyond Existence" is a bad thing, here. Maybe it's a nice place? I don't know. Sounds like something Rumia might manipulate.

>>151350
Um, I voted to trust the fae-critter and question it in a nice and polite manner. Shunting it into the darkness beyond existence should only be done if the conversation goes horrifically bad (for it) and we need to put it down permanently, though I'm hard pressed to think of any reason why we might ever want to do that to Daiyousei.

For reference, hurling the opponent into the darkness beyond existence is a permanent solution to spirits that auto-resurrect. It hurls the spirit in its moment of death into emptiness where it remains unchanging and imprisoned with neither rescue nor recourse. It's up there with being forged into soulsteel in terms of how terrible it is - at least soulsteel and its components can be destroyed.

[x] Raksha plans within plans. She wouldn’t just tell you this for no reason and if you can’t sense it, that just means that she’s just that good. Just continue the conversation as is and attempt to figure out the careful web of deception she is spinning.

She won't fool us! Unless she does. Then? Damn.

>>151347

>Our character has Witness to Darkness and a heap-load of other Ebon Dragon charms - the chances that a random Fae-thing can out-manipulate him is . . . improbable.

That's true. But in the same fashion, MC is way too used to Manipulation-offs that a Fae being completely upfront and honest can make him suspicious that manipulation is actually happening and he just can't see it.

> The same Ebon Dragon-ness that makes you vulnerable to sunlight makes you able to sense most deceit.

... wait, what? News to me. that part is working. Nemesis Self Imagined Anew would let us learn her Motivation, at least....

(I know almost nothing about the raksha, but ... wouldn't Daiyousei appear to be a minor Fae?)

>>151356
Not sure, I believe that a Creation native might also mistake Daiyousei for a minor god of some sort. For example, dreamflies aren't all that far off from Touhou fairies in general appearance.

Essence-Dissecting Stare would also be real useful right about now.

>>151356
Wait, vulnerable to sunlight? How vulnerable are we talking, here?

>>151358
Very minor penalty to all actions undertaken in direct sunlight in Creation. Depending on how you want to rule that, that either means the light of the Unconquered Sun in Creation itself or any sunlight outside of the Green Sun Ligier in hell.

>>151359
Oh, good. I was thinking it was vampire level.

[x] Raksha plans within plans. She wouldn’t just tell you this for no reason and if you can’t sense it, that just means that she’s just that good. Just continue the conversation as is and attempt to figure out the careful web of deception she is spinning.

Hopefully this will still result in friendliness with Dai, as well as some info on our surroundings, but the prospect of the MC furiously trying to unravel the schemes of a little kid is too good to pass up.

>>151360
You should be more concerned that the protagonist finds it near impossible to persuade people using charisma and has to manipulate them instead. It's part of the same charm that imposes the penalties in direct sunlight.

On the other hand, the protagonist can see through darkness and finds it much, much easier to see through the manipulation of others. Furthermore, if someone blinds the protagonist, the protagonist can see despite it at the cost of essence leaking from his eye sockets.

All these permanent changes in one charm - Witness to Darkness.

>>151360
Oh, it is; it's just Dracula-level rather than Nosferatu-level.

Also, I am now imagining Remilia as a child of Dracula, the Lesser Dragon, Fetich Soul of the Shadow of All Things... and, yeah, you can guess who her mom is, too.

>>151362

So your saying that if Ex-Rumia becomes a thing, she's completely fucked against us? I'm down with that.

[X] Raksha plans within plans. She wouldn’t just tell you this for no reason and if you can’t sense it, that just means that she’s just that good. Just continue the conversation as is and attempt to figure out the careful web of deception she is spinning.

>>151364

With the way some of these charms are sounding, it seems like 90% of Touhous would be compleatly fucked, as opposed to the regular level of fucked the other 10% would be.

>>151366

Charms can be powerful yes, but the majority of them draw from your mote pool, which are basically mana points and is very finite.

[ ] Raksha plans within plans. She wouldn’t just tell you this for no reason and if you can’t sense it, that just means that she’s just that good. Just continue the conversation as is and attempt to figure out the careful web of deception she is spinning.


You nod your head in a friendly fashion and say nothing of great importance. You can’t feel any deception from this fairy but you know more than anyone else that the sixth sense given by your improved eyes is not infallible. Suitably tricky social traps can still pass by undetected.
And while the Solars and the Primordial-kin are the indisputed kings of manipulation and mind-trickery, the Fae are damn good seconds. Stepping into a conversation with an old raksha who knows his way around human interaction has been the last mistake made by many Exalted. And while this girl looks like a lesser Fae at best, the forms and characters of the Fair Folk are mutable. An elder Shaped patron and trickster-queen with Essence levels rivalling the Yozi themselves could easily have the form of a harmless seeming young lady.
It has been a long time since you’ve danced this way, but the old moves should still be there. If nothing else, you merely have to prolong the conversation until you can see through her plot.

“Great Fairy you say? What a nice title.”
You make your first move with a particularly bold action, one that acknowledges her dropped hint of her true self and powers. The fairy could see it as such but it could also be interpreted as a meaningless nothing said by a man ignorant to the nature of the Fae. It could also come off as a challenge, stating directly to her that you understand the game she’s playing and mean to return in kind. Or it could be just a statement of fact.
As you said, it is a rather bold and reckless move with the potential to give the game away or shut down other avenues of conversation depending on how she interprets it. But with long years of practice your face and body remain completely normal as you speak, giving away no signs beyond the regular, forcing her to accept the statement as ambigious in it’s implied meaning. It might make her wary but such direct implications could just as easily set her back on the wrong foot.

Your move, Daiyousei.

“It is, isn’t it? I don’t remember who named me that though, it was long ago. It’s a really cool name! Most fairies don’t even get names in the first place.”

…Well played, Fae.
Innocent and harmless to superficial readings but you can pick out at least half a dozen veiled meanings to take away from it. And looking to her face and body for tells is a useless endeavour. All you can see is childish movement and pleasantries. Once again, the elaborate details of her deception completely bypass your eye’s sight, ringing in as a complete honesty and truth instead.
But what less could you expect? It is becoming abundantly clear, as if her skill wasn’t already established from bypassing your eyes earlier, that you are dealing with a consummate master of deceit here.
Even now you are having trouble divining just which hidden meaning she intends to imply. Having a conversation like this is like duelling blindfolded as both combatants attack and defend on the mere sound and presence of their opponent, clear sight of the enemy’s attacks denied to them. With such dissembling on both sides, neither of you will know if your implications have the effect you truly wish or ever be sure of the exact nature of the other’s response.
You find your heart pumping slightly faster. You have not had a battle of wits against such a worthy opponent for a very long time.

“That must be nice. I guess you hear it a lot, given what you are.”

“Not really. I don’t get no respect, even though I’m waaaay[i/] better than most fairies.”

“Ah? I suppose that makes sense with your title. Among the local Fae, you must be the strongest.”

She breaks out laughing, almost falling out of the air as she tries in vain to control herself. You just keep walking, forcing her to stop in order to keep up with you.
“Something I said?”

“Not as such. More the [I]way you said it. …It’s a fairy thing, you wouldn’t understand.”

“I see.”

Oh, how the battle raged. Your words were filled with nothing but bold superficialities hiding biting and puzzling remarks. She was holding her own however, with a gale of countless possible hidden meanings. The laughter had been a very nice touch, diverting the conversation in a bold fashion that was impossible to challenge for what it was lest you be the first to break cover.
You’ve managed to keep her talking but you have yet to discern her true motive beyond her clear threats of nearby reinforcements.
Such a battle! You feel that you had gotten some palpable hits in there, though her façade has yet to show a flaw. And in turn you are having a very difficult time figuring out just what information she is getting from you.
Such a perfect storm of wit and fire, with no combatant clearly superior to the other!

In lieu of deploying an immediate counter to her latest veiled mockery, you slow your walking pace by a fraction. You shortly drop behind her slightly. You make great pains to never leave her peripheral vision though, lest she become suspicious. When you’re relatively certain she can’t keep a perfect eye on you, you burn two motes and activate Insignificant Embers Intuition.
It’s time you get a look at her level.

A sheen of invisible fire rolls across your eyes as you invite Malfeas’ jealous technique in, causing a momentary green glint to flash across your eyes. Hopefully you’d moved far enough into the edges of her perception for her not to notice. Rather than immediately return to her main field of vision to assuage any suspicious she might have about your movements (which could just as easily make her more suspicious about you doing something back there, given you moved back and then forward again right after), you keep your movement consistent with the slower walking pattern you established.

Your greatly enhanced vision maps the area around the fairy, pinning her every movement and twitch, no matter how small. The information you get back is disquieting. No signs or tells of deception whatsoever. How can she be fooling Witness to Darkness and your enhanced sight at the same time?
A small thought slowly hits you. Maybe she hasn’t been planning anything for you. Maybe she has been completely honest this entire time, just as your eyes told you.

…Which would mean that this entire conversation so far has been you duelling an opponent comprised entirely made of nothing but your imagination. Damnit. It was a bit odd on how the two of you seemed so evenly matched.

That's a little incredibly embarrassing actually. Best to keep that to yourself.

But all of this is crowded out of your head by the secondary information retrieved through your Intuition. Beyond enhancing sight, it can also retrieve and analyse the target’s Essence rating. You usually get information on the strength and formation of Essence patterns as a variety of colours you taste and odours you hear through a curious synesthesia.

There’s nothing. According to your Charm, this girl has no Essence. Which is ludicrously impossible, given that every object in Creation is formed of Essence patterns held together by motonic physics. Motes of Essence form the building block of everything, that indivisible energy that holds and creates all energy and shape. If there’s no Essence, than nothing should exist. Even a pebble or a leaf or a mortal should register as having Essence, even if it’s rating is very low.

Before the Intution fades completely, you shake your head from side to side to get in as much vision as possible.
It’s nothing. Nothing here registers as having even the slightest trace of Essence. Not. A. Goddamn. Thing.

Daiyousei looks at you curiously as you sit down heavily.
“What’s wrong mister?”

“But..”
You can barely even comprehend such a thing. Essence is a constant, even in the furthest reaches of the Wyld to the playgrounds of the Shinma.
“…Than what is everything made of!? What are they?”

Daiyousei grabs by the shoulder lightly and looks at you with concern. You look back, staring at the girl who is apparently built and constructed to completely alien laws and principles.
“Fairy. Where am I?”

“The Forest of Magic, of course. Are you alright?”

“Which is where?”

“…Gensokyo. This is some pretty basic information.”

“Gensokyo…Gensokyo”
You roll the word around in your mouth attempting to recall it and drawing a blank.
“Hey do the terms Yu-Shan, little gods, Pearl Court, Wyld, Creation or Exalted mean anything to you? How about the Realm?”

“Yu-what? And I don’t think Suwako appreciates height jokes either.”

You stare at her wild-eyed for a few seconds before you open your mouth again, speaking in a hollow voice.
“By the Enthymemic Law of the Endless Desert Announcement No 52 Subsection A2, I declare that mental influence against my personage is forbidden.”

“If you’re going to spray more nonsense words at me, I’ll leave.”

You let your breath out. Your Counter-Pronouncement of Enthymemic Law didn’t find any mental influence or Shaping to eradicate. Everything you are perceiving is the truth, regardless of how impossible it is.
“Daiyousei, I’ve a feeling that we’re not in Creation anymore.”

“…That’s it, I’m leaving.”

“No! Just give me a moment.”
If only the problem was as small as being outside of Creation. You’re not just outside Creation, you’ve sprung clear of the infinite Wyld surrounding it and ended up somewhere…else.
The theory of multiple universes was never seriously proposed in the history of Creation beyond that one First Age incident with the Loom of Fate, so you’re having a hard time to find words to fit your feelings.

“Fuck.”
That’ll do it.

[ ]Deal with ramifications of being in entirely different impossible world later. Seek Daiyousei's aid.

[ ]Go mad from the revalation. Begin poorly thought out tantrum rampage.

[ ]Deal with it later, but ditch the fairy.

[ ]It doesn't matter what your infallible mental influence eradication Charm said. FAE TRICKS.

[ ] Write In

>>151372
>completely fucked up italics

Herp Derp etc

Oh man. I was thinking this was gonna be boring because it was a crossover and because the beginning was as average as you can get in this site, but that last scene redeems it completely, and then a little more.

But I do hope you have a plot planned.


[x]Deal with it later, but ditch the fairy.

[x] Deal with it later, seek Daiyousei's aid.

So . . . the character has shifted to another interjunction of the shinma? Cause, not much else makes sense if the locals aren't made out of essence. I'm surprised he's not more freaked out.

[x]Deal with ramifications of being in entirely different impossible world later. Seek Daiyousei's aid.

[x] Deal with ramifications of being in entirely different impossible world later. Seek Daiyousei's aid.

>>151373
You know, you can delete posts. In addition to being useful for doubleposts, it's also helpful when you make a mistake. Just copypaste your post into the message field, post a fixed version, delete the post with errors, and nobody will ever know you made a mistake. And even if they did, they can't prove it.

[x] See, where I come from, everything's made out of little bits of essence. Here, it's not like that. What the hell is everything MADE of?

As much as I like Daiyousei, there doesn't seem to be much reason for him to seek her out. Fuck it.

[x] Deal with ramifications of being in entirely different impossible world later. Seek Daiyousei's aid.

[x] Deal with ramifications of being in entirely different impossible world later. Seek Daiyousei's aid.

Haha oh wow this is quite possible one of the single best updates I've read in a long time, and i'm not even halfway through it.

[x] Deal with ramifications of being in entirely different impossible world later. Seek Daiyousei's aid.

[x] Deal with ramifications of being in entirely different impossible world later. Seek Daiyousei's aid.

So how fast does essence/motes or whatever regenerate?

>>151394
I'm uncertain as to the exact details and can't access the books at the moment, but here's what I recall.

Essence is measured in motes. It regenerates at 4 motes per hour if the character is at ease and 8 motes per hour if the character is in a relaxed state such as sleep. Since the character has a Mortality-Entangling Gem, that's another 10 motes per hour.

Furthermore, motes can also be regained through stunting. In setting, this is due to pattern spiders, so it might not function in Gensokyo.

Most charm costs range from 2 motes to 10 motes. For example, using Loom-Snarling Deception to disguise the character as a fictitious person complete with a fictitious fate costs this character 5 motes while smiting an opponent with carcinogenic sun-light costs 3 motes.

[x] Deal with ramifications of being in entirely different impossible world later. Seek Daiyousei's aid.


So what is this?
Did your Wyld misadventure somehow cause you to stray past the shinma themselves until their conjunctions were different enough to hold an entirely new reality? A bubble of reality defined by Nirguna’s non-existence in the same fashion but with every other Shinma taking different relative stances?
But no. For such a drastic difference in lack of Essence, even Nirguna must be gazing upon you differently, or at least it would if Nirguna existed. But what other Shinma have been altered and what possible interjunctions could they be in to create an existence so alien in basic laws and yet so familiar looking in shape and appearance?

This world is one of concrete shape so Nirakara clearly exerts a level of influence here equal to the amount it did when the Primordials pressganged it into defining Creation.
From meeting and talking to Daiyousei, you know that Namadiksha, Nirvishesha and Nirvikalpa are both in superficially similar positions here as they are in Creation. There is light and darkness so Naraka is at least vaguely the same. Nirupadhika in this world goes without saying as location and space clearly exist here, though a worrying thought reminds you that the Way could only seem the same, and there could be manifestations of a vastly different space/location dynamic that you just can’t see yet.
Hell, Daiyousei didn’t recognise the mention of the Wyld in the first place. Either they call the inevitable border of chaos between their world and that of the shinma by something else or Nirupadhika could be wrapped around Gensokyo in the same way that Nirakara borders Creation.
But there obviously had to be a difference in their conjunctions somewhere for this world to be so fundamentally different. Maybe with something less obviously apparent such as a difference in Dharma or Neti Neti.
…Maybe something to do with Advaita Iraivan. How would you even begin to predict the differences that could come from that?

Wait. No. This is stupid.
Stop it.

This has to be one of the most pointlessly stupid tangents of thought you have ever been on. Attempting to desperately grasp the differences in this new world by thought experiments on shinma placing?
Ugh no. This isn’t the sort of stuff you should be thinking about. This is just bullshit metaphysics wankery. The shinma could be completely different and it’s not like you even really understand how they work anyway. You just like to pretend you do. Keep this up and you’d just start eating your own fingers.
Best to simply keep a level head and focus on what’s in front of you.

And what is in front of you is that you are a stranger in a strange land. A land that you know very little about, which is something you intend to rectify immediately. Thankfully you have already obtained what could be termed a native guide.

“Hey Daiyousei, I realise this might sound a little odd but could you tell me more about this Gensokyo? I guess you could say I’m not from around here.”

A look of comprehension slowly dawns over her face.
“I get it now. You’re one of them, aren’t you?”

“Them?”

“An outsider. We get a fair few of them from the outside world every couple of years.”

“You do?” you say as you file away the term ‘outside world’ to ask about later.

“Yeah! Most of them end up getting eaten by the wild forest youkai on their first day. I’ve never actually gotten to meet one of you before you died actually!”

“Well I don’t intend on dying any time soon, aheh. Now, what kind of nations does Gensokyo have?”

“Nations?”

“Nations. Countries? Power blocs? Tribes? Villages? Local geopolitical landscape?”

At least one of those terms must have clicked for the fairy because she thinks for a moment before launching into an explanation of the landmarks of Gensokyo and the people thereof.

As was mentioned before, this is apparently the Forest of Magic that apparently holds little but aggressive wild monsters and evil witches. Nearby is a ‘Human Village’ (Note: Ask human what the actual name is later), a ‘Bamboo Forest Of The Lost’ filled with rabbit people (???) and a large lake nearby which incidentally, is also Daiyousei’s regular stomping grounds. Beyond that lake is a ‘Scarlet Devil Mansion’ and is apparently filled with vampires.
You don’t have the foggiest idea of what a vampire is supposed to be, though the jumbled description the fairy gives reminds you of some form of hungry ghost or an Abyssal.

After those locations, her already questionable descriptions get a lot more vague as she admits to have never travelled that far from the lake.
Brilliant.

Have Exaltation, will travel:

[ ] Investigate the ‘evil fairyhunting witches’. You’re already in the Forest after all.

[ ] Get her to guide you to the mortal village. At least you’ll be more likely to find a context you can easily understand.

[ ] Check out the bamboo forest and the rabbit-people

[ ] Sure the lake itself sounds utterly insignificant but there’s a mansion behind it. Can’t go wrong with mansions.

[ ] Why are you taking directions from Daiyousei anyway? Find someone else who isn’t a fairy.

[ ] FAE TRICKS

>>151376
>But I do hope you have a plot planned.

Yes I do. But I'm in a pretty lackdaisical mood and dislike rails in general so it's not going to be hitting the MC in the face right away or anything.

[x] Get her to guide you to the mortal village. At least you’ll be more likely to find a context you can easily understand.

Hopefully we can trade up when it comes to information sources.

[x] Investigate the ‘evil fairyhunting witches’. You’re already in the Forest after all.
Anyone who hates fairies is okay in my book.

>dislike rails
Hooray!

[x] Get her to guide you to the mortal village. At least you’ll be more likely to find a context you can easily understand.

Wait, so if nothing here is made of essence, and therefore not, strictly speaking, a thing at all, how are we getting motonic energy from eating random forest debris? Are they close enough to actual, essence-filled things that our magic stomach still works?

I'm assuming motonic energy gets its name from motes, which are in turn made of essence. As pretty much all I know about Exalted is what has been explained in this thread, I could be entirely wrong. In that case, please correct me.

[x] Investigate the ‘evil fairyhunting witches’. You’re already in the Forest after all.

>>151411
Good question. One possible answer might be that the character carries the rules of his existence around with him because he is an Exalt. For example, his perfect defenses continue to trump perfect attacks because that is a rule carved into his existence by that which became the Heaven-Violating Spear and he sustains that rule through his presence.

>>151411

That's a very good question.

Ahh, Green Sun Princes. Personally, I prefer Defilers who favor Malfeas, because you can get up to some hilariously awesome shit when you start twisting the laws of physics with the lack of restraint of Malfeas. Also, you can go and act like a miniature Evangelion.

[X] A world that isn't composed of Essence is impossible. Since the Wyld only contains everything that is possible, while the Beyond of Oramus contains everything that is not. Thus, we are in the Beyond, and should pray to Oramus to rescue us.
[X]Find something valuable to sacrifice to Oramus for the prayer attempt (probably a wild animal we'll ritually sacrifice). Alternately, if we lack skill in Performance, ask the fairy where the nearest temple is. If we do go to a temple, make sure anything sacrificed has at least a little Essence by smearing a bit of blood on it. Ghosts love the stuff for a reason, after all.

>>151417
Addendum:
[X]If we're on bad terms with Oramus, pray to Luna instead. Legend has it she tossed a raksha that bested the Unconquered Sun to the Beyond, so odds are she can retrieve us as well.

>>151418
I dunno - the Beyond should be a lot more impossible than this particular shinmaic confluence. Hell, all the big ones seem to be present - considering that we exist, possess shape, possess name, communicated, and exists in some kind of space-time.

On the other hand, moon Incarna is best Incarna and I see no problems with begging him/her/it for help.

>>151418
If it was bested, why aren't they calling it the Conquered Sun?

>>151420
Laashe (the super-faerie) did not so much beat the Unconquered Sun as he setup the scenario such that the Unconquered Sun became unwilling to smite Laashe with his infinite-damage spear. Had the Unconquered Sun been willing to strike through the souls that Laashe used as hostages, the Unconquered Sun would've won with or without his Aegis. Of course, since the Unconquered Sun wasn't willing, he lost.

But here's the fun part - Luna cast Laashe into the Beyond, an existence that seems to be composed of impossibilities that cannot exist in Creation. Since Laashe became part of the Beyond, his existence became impossible. As such, Laashe never beat the Unconquered Sun because his existence was never true.

Or, of course, the Unconquered Sun is a title and him losing doesn't count against it. Considering that he still holds the title of Our Guarding Star despite being absent from his duties for tens of centuries, this also seems probable.

>>151419
It contains everything that's impossible by the metaphysics of Creation's laws. This includes things like "The Pole of Earth is the Center of Reality, and all positions are defined relative to it," and thus the Beyond should contain things like every parallel Creation, since the Pole of Earth of *this* Creation is not the Center of *that* Creation.

"Absolutely everything is made of Essence" is probably another one of those laws whose being broken condemns you to being a part of the Outside as well. The fact that true resurrection and time travel are possible in Gensokyo are also points in favor of it being Outside, though the PC doesn't know that those are possible in Gensokyo yet.

>>151422
I don't believe that enough information has been disclosed about Oramus and the Beyond for us to truly pin down what the Beyond consists of. Available evidence suggests that what lies in the Beyond is impossible and cannot be, but provides no hard definitions for what is considered impossible and cannot be.

Personally, I'm inclined to think that the Beyond is much weirder than alternate confluences of the shinma because of Laashe. He is clearly mentioned as never having existed when he is cast into the Beyond, something that I don't consider true if he was only tossed into an alternate existence. Still, this is only personal interpretation of very vague statements and can only remain so until more information is released.

[X] Get her to guide you to the mortal village. At least you’ll be more likely to find a context you can easily understand.

[X] Get her to guide you to the mortal village. At least you’ll be more likely to find a context you can easily understand.

Can't you guys take a hint? Who cares about how he got into Gensokyo?

>Wait. No. This is stupid.
>Stop it.

>This has to be one of the most pointlessly stupid tangents of thought you have ever been on. Attempting to desperately grasp the differences in this new world by thought experiments on shinma placing?
>Ugh no. This isn’t the sort of stuff you should be thinking about. This is just bullshit metaphysics wankery. The shinma could be completely different and it’s not like you even really understand how they work anyway. You just like to pretend you do. Keep this up and you’d just start eating your own fingers.
>Best to simply keep a level head and focus on what’s in front of you.

>>151431
He does? He'd like to get back to his home, presumably. Or not. He is a fugitive there.

I'm mildly interested in what all that Nirpadidoo shit meant, if anyone feels like explaining fantasy metaphysics.

>>151431
Because it's interesting.

>>151432
Alright, here's an explanation - the shinma are entities/concepts that define the rules of existence through being their opposite. For example, Nirguna is the shinma of existence and it defines existence through being nonexistent. Since Nirguna does not exist and thus occupies the conceptual space of nonexistence, all else cannot be nonexistence and therefore must exist.

Creation exists at the confluence of multiple shinma. Picture a Venn diagram where the circles represent the influences of the shinma and the overlap being separate possible states of existence. Because Creation lies under the influence of Nirakara, the shinma of shape, entities in Creation possess shape. Because Creation lies under the influence of Nirvikalpa, the shinma of communication, entities in Creation can communicate with one another. And so on.

A list of important shinma include Nirakara, Nirguna, Dharma, Nirvishesha, Nirvikalpa, Nishkriya, and Nirupadhika. Respectively, these shinma permit entities in Creation to possess shape, to exist, to be corruptible and imperfect, to possess identities, to communicate, to conflict, and to stand in space-time. Other shinma exist, but these are the ones laid out in canon.

>>151433
Nirakara also allows Raksha/Fae to enter Creation, as those entities are normally without a set form in the chaotic Wyld around the world. They 'pass through' it as a Gateway, allowing them to gain solid form and exist in a logical world. Alternately, when Creation-born gain mutations from exposure to the Wyld, they are essentially passing through Nirakara in the opposite direction, losing their logical 'solidness' to become more fluid.

Pic is entirely unrelated.

>>151432
Shinma define certain concepts by being their complete opposite and therefore bringing said concept into being as a comparision.
Dharma is so pure and shit that it makes corruption exist everywhere else and so on. You really don't need to understand though since MC doesn't really know how they work either.
His little shinmasperg was just him desperately trying to rationalise his current situation in any way possible before common sense kicked in and told him he was being stupid.

[X] Get her to guide you to the mortal village. At least you’ll be more likely to find a context you can easily understand


As interesting as those nearby witches sound, going to the nearby human settlement is far more sensible. When it comes to getting information, humans would be much preferable to fairies.
As nice as Daiyousei is, you don’t entirely trust the quality of her information. It’s vague at best. And how can a fairy never travel beyond their own forest? What else do fairies even have wings for?

A few minutes of walking later and you find that they apparently have wings for the sole purpose of strafe bombing you.

You duck to the side as another burst of coloured energy bullets sprays past with a high pitched giggle as the group of fairies swing around to begin another bombing run.
“Friends of yours?”

Daiyousei sighs and rolls her eyes, looking rather embarrassed to be in the same species.
“Only occasionally. Er…a lot of fairies are very easily excitable and not that…intellectually there, if you know what I mean. Any kind of incident or magic can get them flying around shooting danmaku everywhere.”

“Something magical that stirred them up? Like say, someone appearing in Gensokyo out of nowhere?”

“Maybe! But they don’t mean harm, they’re just idiots.”

Sidestepping another energy burst, you put a huge amount of effort into raising your eyebrow in the driest way possible.
“They don’t mean harm. Yeah, I can see that. It’s very obvious in the way they’re shooting at me.”

Watching them flit about the forest canopy, you take a dramatic pose with your hand outstretched in their direction. When they wheel around to begin another run, that’s when you’ll strike with your Star-Piercing Spear charm.
You have long since surpassed the need to summon Malfeas’ spear for this, preferring to manifest the beam attack through various parts of your body. You can just see how it’ll happen now. The first fairy will turn just in time to get her face melted by your first shot, your second cosmic blast ripping the fairy behind her in half and so on.

Yes, that’s how you’ve always done it before and that’s how you’ll do it now.

The fairies begin to pirouette in mid-air, changing their course to head back to you. You keep your arm steady as they turn, following the same pattern as they did earlier. Too easy.

Which is why it comes as a surprise when you just…freeze up. You have them completely in your sights, more than ready to weaponize your own Essence against them. So why didn’t you?
Instead you just stand with your arm raised in an impotent gesture signifying nothing as they swoop over you. You barely have the presence of mind to get behind a tree for the latest volley.
You…you can’t bring yourself to kill. Not again, not after all of those other times and what you swore. All of this effort you’ve put into your hermitage is something you cannot break lightly. You can’t find the steel within yourself to do it. Not even for these things.
Which makes you think, would you have really killed Daiyousei as you had been pondering to do not that long ago? Or would you have just frozen up like now?

Which just makes you more surprised when Daiyousei herself shoots all three fairies down, causing them to explode into little puffs of sparkles.
“What happened to ‘they don’t mean it, they’re just idiots’?

“Huh? Oh right you wouldn’t know. Fairies don’t die when they’re killed, we just reform later.”

“Really? Well, that really cheapens my moment of crisis back there.”

“Pardon?”

“Nothing. Let’s keep going.”

You continue your path through the forest, rarely moving faster than a slow walk, the fairy hovering impatiently over your head. You could be going faster but why bother? You’re not in any hurry. I mean, where could you hurry to? No sense of urgency whatsoev-

An incredibly loud noise ruins the silence of the forest as a tremor runs through the ground, threatening to throw off your balance. A few moments later and you hear the sound of a tree falling over nearby.
You look at Daiyousei but she just shrugs in return. She doesn’t know what’s going on.

[ ] Investigate the noise.

[ ] Get Daiyousei to do it for you. She can fly, can’t she?

[ ] Screw it, things like this probably happen all the time. You said you were going to the village, you are going to the goddamn village.

[X] Screw it, things like this probably happen all the time. You said you were going to the village, you are going to the goddamn village.

[x] Get Daiyousei to do it for you. She can fly, can’t she?

This sounds slightly funnier than the other options.

[x] Get Daiyousei to do it for you. She can fly, can’t she?

What do your fairy eyes see, Daiyousei?

[X] Screw it, things like this probably happen all the time. You said you were going to the village, you are going to the goddamn village.

>die and come back to life
This should be a major "WUT" moment for the PC. In Exalted, once something dies, it's dead. No take-backs. That applies to the raksha as well, though they've got a charm that lets them convert lethal to non-lethal damage and fake death when rendered unconscious by it. It's a part of Exalted's theme of being a game of Epic Tragedy and actions having consequences.

If he has Mind-Hand Manipulation,
[X] Grab a fairy with Mind-Hand Manipulation, and crush it to death. If it's a creature of the Wyld, you'll bypass the Raksha death-fakery by shredding their substance to severely to convert to non-lethal damage (by dealing Agg damage).

>>151463

Not as much as a WUT moment as you would think. Spirits and gods can all reform from death, which is why you need special Charms to kill them permanently.

>>151464
True. That slipped my mind. They don't reform if you use spirit-killing charms to off them, though.

>>151463

I'm a little curious as to why you would vote to do something like that after the information we've learned from the past few updates.

>>151466
So he could determine if they were actually raksha or not.

>>151476
All raksha are made of Essence. Nothing here is made of Essence. Therefore, nothing here is a raksha.

>>151463
The character has no SWLIHN charms except the one that creates cults.

[x] Get Daiyousei to do it for you. She can fly, can’t she?

>>151464
It's a shame that we can't test Radiant Fury Dissolution (assuming that we have this) on something without probably drawing more attention than we want.

>>151457
Wait, so our infernal has:
-Malfeas's weapon-creation tree, along with Insignificant Embers Intuition.
-An unspecified number of Kimberry charms, but at least enough to learn All-Devouring Depths Shintai.
-Some of Adorjan's speed-enhancers.
-Counter-Pronunciation of Enthymemic Law.
-Chirality Prohibition Index
-The Ebon Dragon Excellency, along with his first sorcerous initiation, and enough other charms to know Black Mirror Shintai.

This means that, by my estimation, we have at minimum:

-7 Malfeas charms
-10 Kimberry charms
-2 Adorjan charms
-3 Cecelyne charms
-1 SWLIHN charm
-15 Ebon Dragon charms

for a minimum of 37 charms. He almost certainly has a lot more than that, given that the above guess at what charms he has leaves out several basic competencies, meta-excellencies, and so forth.
And he's nicely set up for going Devil-Tiger once he hits essence 6.

Jesus Christ.

>>151480
D'oh. Minimum of 38 charms, counting the sorcerous initiation (but not the spells).

[x] Screw it, things like this probably happen all the time. You said you were going to the village, you are going to the goddamn village.

Going off on ADD tangents all the time is not a good way to figure out what the hell is going on here.

[x] Get Daiyousei to do it for you. She can fly, can’t she?

>>151487
Come to think of it, this option means that the character doesn't possess Earth-Skimming Gale Tread and can't fly through running right?

[x] Screw it, things like this probably happen all the time. You said you were going to the village, you are going to the goddamn village.

These options aren't mutually exclusive. We can convince Daiyousei to fly above the treetops for a bit while walking/flying toward the village.

>>151463
>Exalted's theme of [...] actions having consequences
>Grab a fairy with Mind-Hand Manipulation, and crush it to death

... delicious, delicious irony.

[x] Screw it, things like this probably happen all the time. You said you were going to the village, you are going to the goddamn village.

Invoking Oblivious Monkeys Prana.

[x] Get Daiyousei to do it for you. She can fly, can’t she?

This story is unexpectedly good. Reminds me a bit of Curtain Fire Troubleshooting Game, in fact.

>>Reminds me a bit of Curtain Fire Troubleshooting Game, in fact.

I GET IT ALREADY. I'm working on it. Jeez.

Also, don't compare the new guy's work (which, so far, is actually pretty good) to my steaming pile of mediocrity. You'll discourage him.

>>151520
>>151515

Yea yea thanks for reminding us that you're still alive by replying to yourself in an active thread. Now get back to work.

>>151522
You sure they're the same guy?

No posts recently on account of being buried underneath Christmas. Faggotry of the writing nature will resume shortly.

Saged for not being writing.

Actually now that I come back to look at it, there seems to be a tie between getting Daiyousei to check it out and ignoring it in favour of that sweet, sweet possible exposition village.

Next vote for either breaks the tie.

[x] Get Daiyousei to do it for you. She can fly, can’t she?

>>151551

Sweet! Was hoping it was gonna be delicious side-quest.

[ ] Get Daiyousei to do it for you. She can fly, can’t she?


A large part of you just wants to keep going towards the village. You might not be in a rush but doesn’t mean you have to check out every little explosion that happens on the way.
Besides, it could be the work of some kind of horrible giant monster or suchlike. It could attack you if you went and bothered it, which would get annoying.

But on the other hand, if it were some monstrous beast from beyond the stars, than leaving it alone and walking away from it would only mean that the monster is now behind you.
And you don’t have to show up in the village right away anyway. As strange as everything is, there’s nothing actually urgent about your situation. Why shouldn’t you indulge your curiosity?

Now, you could walk there straight away and blunder into whatever situation it is in what would no doubt be a comedic manner or you could get your native guide to fly above the treetops and scout it out first while you relax on the forest floor.

You know what option you’re taking.

“So are we going to have a look or not?”
The fairy hovers over you as you find a reasonable looking place to sit down in.

“Not quite, Daiyousei. I will be staying here while you fly up over the canopy and scout.”

“No.”

“Eh? Why not? Aren’t you interested at all?”

“No it’s not th-, I mean, yes of course I am! But just because I agreed to help you find your way to the village doesn’t make me somebody you can just order around to do jobs for you! Why can’t you just go yourself?”

You look at her before your gaze slowly drops to the ground. You let your face become more downcast and hidden.
“I…I see. I see why you’re angry with me, Daiyousei. Here I am, just some pathetic mortal human from Outside, dropped in a world he can’t understand. Just a sad and broken man, so very very far from home. I’m so weak and helpless, unable to even fend off a few fairies. I can see why you’re disgusted in me. I deserve it. I can’t even fly, so I can’t possibly see what I’m going to be walking into. Just leave me, Daiyousei. Leave me to rot like all the humans who fell into here. I’m too weak, too pathetic for you to bother with me. I’ll go there alone.”

You start walking in the direction of the explosion, your shoulders hunched and your footsteps slow.

“No wait! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to make you think that! I’ll go fly up there and scout it right now!”

“Thank you so much for your kindness, great fairy. Now get to work.”

Having located a good spot, you sit down heavily and lie down, waiting for Daiyousei to finish her job. Ah yes, that’s the ticket. A nice bit of a calming lie-down to help get your thoughts in proper order to deal with this strange world…
You find yourself reflexively reaching up to angle your hat so it lies over your face, only to remember that you lost it in your little Wyld misadventure. Darn.

A few seconds later and you see Daiyousei flitting about the treetops again, calling something out to you. You return the favour, not bothering to move from your prone position.
“Daiyousei! Daaaaiiyouuuuseeeeiiii! What do your fairy eyes see?”

She calls back to you but her small voice is lost in the distance, becoming something indistinct. You mull the idea over for a few seconds before you start looking for a good tree.
Oh, there we are. A nice big tall one, going right up to the top.

You flip yourself upright in a single motion, eyeing the distance between yourself and the tree. Perfect.
You start a run, accelerating to inhuman speeds easily. When you reach the tree, you don’t slow at all, instead swinging one of your feet up and slamming it into the bark. You continue your mad dash, running up the vertical side of the tree. You dodge around the branches, running upside-down along the overhang of one too big to avoid easily.

Reaching the top of the tree, you stop running and let gravity take hold on you once more. You catch hold of a thick branch as you do so and end up swinging at the top of the tree, above the canopy.
“Sorry, I couldn’t hear you properly down there. What did you say?”

The fairy is staring at you in a way that could be interpreted as murderously.
“What happened to all that ‘I’m so helpless I can’t get over the canopy to have a look oh woe is me?’ stuff?”

You shrug.
“It’s all in the past now, Daiyousei. What did you see?”

She sighs heavily before she replies.
“There’s a big clearing over there where there wasn’t one yesterday. A whole bunch of trees have been blown away and pushed over by something. And there was a girl underneath one of them.”

“Well, we can’t have that. Let’s go.”

You leap from your branch and start running over the canopy without fear of falling. As long as you can keep up a run, you need not fear such petty things as ‘balance’ or ‘weight’. Where there are no branches to run on, you dash along over the leaves, which do not bend or rustle the slightest underneath your weight.
Daiyousei catches up with you after a moment, flying alongside you.

“So all that you said to me earlier, those were all just lies right?”

“Stop focussing on the past. It’s unhealthy.”

You slide down the side of a tree as you enter the newly made clearing, hitting the ground with a heavy thud.
Daiyousei was right. Something hadn’t been too happy over here.

Fallen trees (or the pieces of them) were strewn everywhere, the ground itself ravaged and broken. Kicking aside a dirt clod the side of your head, you walk in further.
The first thing to catch your eye is a scythe of some sort, embedded into a large boulder.

You grab the handle and idly attempt to pull it out. Alas, the weapon is buried in the boulder far too deeply, with only a small amount of the blade itself actually visible.

Hmph. The boulder itself is made of a mineral completely unknown to you, some kind of black-grey rock. Giving it a bit of a kick lets you see some singed rope of some kind underneath it. Curiouser and curiouser.

A cry from Daiyousei reminds you that there’s apparently someone buried underneath all of this.
Following the fairy, you find a red-haired young woman pinned underneath a fallen tree. She seems to be unconscious.

[ ] Find a way to move the tree off of her.

[ ] That sounds suspiciously like work. Get Daiyousei to lift the tree for you.

[ ] Maybe you don’t want anything to do with this. You have vows not to kill people, not to help them out or prevent other forms of suffering. Just grab the interesting looking scythe and walk away. It’s your scythe now.

[ ] Write in.

[x] Find a way to move the tree off of her.

To be precise, use Corrosive Pattern Infliction to turn that tree into either dust or something hilarious.

[X] Grab the scythe and throw it with all your strength in the general direction of the human village.
[x] Find a way to move the tree off of her.

[X] That sounds suspiciously like work. Get Daiyousei to lift-
[X] Nah, just find a way to move the tree off of her.

>>151555
>[X] Grab the scythe and throw it with all your strength in the general direction of the human village.

I'm thinking really hard, and I can't think of a single reason anyone would want to do that.


[x] Find a way to move the tree off of her.

>>151558

Because MC is in a new and strange land, you can't just assume the people you meet are friendlies.

If she is indeed friendly, then she knows where to go to collect her weapon.

If she isn't friendly, then that one less deadly weapon at her disposal.

You and I both know that Komachi isn't likely to attack MC, but i'm pretty sure he isn't gifted with such meta-knowledge.

>>151558
When she wakes up, we tell her we never saw her scythe, refuse to help her look, then find it ourselves.

It either wouldn't fly far or would cut an obvious path through the woods, though.

[X] That sounds suspiciously like work. Get Daiyousei to lift-
[X] Nah, just find a way to move the tree off of her.

>>151559
No point, the scythe is buried in the stone and the protagonist can put her down faster than she can retrieve it. And that's without taking into account that she's already hurt and unconscious. Besides, scythe or not, it's not getting through the protagonist's perfect defenses.

[X] See if you can't wake the person for an on-the-spot interrogation... er, 'interview.' If they're friendly/not a threat, you can get the tree off them. If they are something you'd rather avoid, keeping them there is in our best interests.

>>151562
There's a simple solution to this problem - the protagonist can read someone's essence rating and essence aspect using Insignificant Embers Intuition. Essence rating tells him a bare-bones estimate of the person's might while essence aspect tells him a rough estimate of what that person is.

>>151558
They would if they're a complete idiot.
>>151559
There is nothing here that makes hurling a deadly weapon toward the human village any less of a stupid idea.

[x] Find a way to move the tree off of her.

Goddamn errors.

>>151563
That would help if people here were made of Essence, but, as we have seen, they are not.

[x] Find a way to move the tree off of her.

>>151559
Ok, I can see the intention, but there are so many things that could go wrong, better ways to go about it and unknown factors that I can't understand why you'd choose that particular course of action.

Oh well.

[x] Find a way to move the tree off of her.

[x] Find a way to move the tree off of her.

Specifically, Corrosive Pattern Infliction it into a kasa (the kind of hat) decorated with stylized writing, with variously sized verdigris-streaked bronze chimes dangling from the brim. Take hat. Wear hat.

[x] Find a way to move the tree off of her.

In the style of >>151571, but skip the verdigris on the chimes. Given that my job involves wirebrushing a lot of the stuff off of pipes, funnels, and firehose nozzles, I think I'm qualified to say that it's a hideous color.

>>151566
Good point, I forgot about that one. Oh hell, it doesn't matter much - either the trapped person is strong enough that a boulder isn't much of a convenience or it is. If she is that strong, we can probably take her in her current state or at least be able to run. If she isn't, well, lending people a helping hand usually puts you a bit further in their good graces.

[x] Find a way to move the tree off of her.

Corrosive Pattern Infliction into a kasa. The conical kind, sugegasa. Also, chimes would just look silly. No chimes.

According to Wikipedia, kasa can refer to a number of different kinds of hats, so I picked the kind I like best. Additionally, the Vietnamese name for that type apparently means 'leaf hat', so it seems appropriate for something made from a tree.

[x]Find a way to move the tree off of her.


You spend a few seconds examining the fallen tree before stepping back. As the local trees go, it’s pretty damn big. Wide enough that you’d need at least three people with their arms spread to ring the trunk and as long as a reasonably long thing, it must have been one of the largest trees in this part of the forest.
A regular mortal would have been crushed to death by this, the woman underneath merely unconscious. That said, you could have come to the conclusion that she was more than a mortal just from the surroundings in which you found her really.

Now, how are you going to move this?
For a brief moment you consider getting Daiyousei to lift it for you. The mental image of the little fairy struggling to move the immense tree provides a small moment of amusement before you shelve the idea.
You can do this yourself with only a small amount of exertion.

Walking up to the tree you spread your hands before placing them on the bark. Let’s see…you don’t need to do the whole tree, just the part that’s on top of her. Shouldn’t take much effort at all for something as simplistic as this.
Hell, you might as well get yourself a nice hat out of it as well.

You push your hands into the tree as you initiate Corrosive Pattern Infliction. Coils and bolts of a disgusting black energy spring forth from your hands as you pump a small amount of your own Essence into the object, surrounding and covering the tree. The wood boils and warps as your own spent Essence is drawn from you in order to react with the tree’s own motonic structure, twisting it into something else of your own devising.

Wait….
This tree doesn’t even have a motonic structure! You curse as you realise that you’d forgotten about the ramifications of this world and the effects it could have on some of your Charms.
But rather than simply failing entirely as you expected, the energy begins to surge out of control! You feel yourself drawn even closer to the trunk as your own Charm betrays you, the transformative act sucking extra Essence out of your personal stores against your will.

Watching with a grim fascination, you feel your stolen Essence spread out and permeate the fallen tree. This is something entirely new, something you’ve never seen before. As surprised as you are, you accidentally allow the process to fully escape your control.

Rather than form an interesting and stylish hat, the entire tree collapses into an immense puddle of sticky black goo. Poking the puddle with your bare foot, you note that it is extremely sticky and viscous, not to mention being incredibly foul-smelling.
You haven’t messed up a Corrosive Pattern Infliction this badly for quite some time but given the circumstances, you feel you can be forgiven. Besides, it did remove the tree.

Not only that but it also woke up the woman trapped underneath it quite handily.
She gives off a choked scream, which only lets the goo get into her mouth. She thrashes around for a minute or so, in which you do your best to suppress your laughter. Daiyousei does not follow your example however and actually falls out of the air in a fit of giggles.

The red-haired woman stands up, wiping the ooze out of her eyes and frantically spitting as she does so.

“Eurgh! What-…Blegh! What the hell? What….”
She pauses for a moment, not entirely able to fully express her indignation.
“What? WHAT?”


[ ] Apologise and say you did it when clearing a large tree off of her. Entirely accidental, of course.

[ ] You have no idea about it. All of that gruesome shit was already there when you got here. Maybe a parting gift from whoever did all of this to her in the first place? Lie like crazy, confirm nothing.

[ ] Ignore her cries entirely. Just introduce yourself and ask her about the scythe and the general devastation.

[ ] Blame Daiyousei for everything. You tried to stop her, you really did.

[ ] Write In

This is pretty cool to read, and from the looks of it there's not as much metagaming as something like Doll's Quest.

[x] Find a way to move the tree off of her.
[x] Might as well hold onto this scythe for now...

>>151585
Well this is pretty god damned embarassing.

[x] Apologise and say you did it when clearing a large tree off of her. Entirely accidental, of course.

[x] Apologise and say you did it when clearing a large tree off of her. Entirely accidental, of course.

Oh, right. No essence. Sorry, Komachi. Still, it could have been worse. We could have turned the tree into lava or acid or something.

Anyway, hopefully we have a charm that can help clean her off.

[x] Blame Daiyousei for everything. You tried to stop her, you really did.

She's laughing too hard to mount a defense! Attack!!!

[x] Blame Daiyousei for everything. You tried to stop her, you really did.

When will you learn to control the violent fairy magic you posses, Daiyousei? We can't keep covering for you like this.

[x] Apologise and say you did it when clearing a large tree off of her. Entirely accidental, of course.

Although trolling people for fun and profit is hilarious, we should save it for someone more deserving than Daiyousei. I'm sure we'll get the chance to counter-troll later.

[x] Apologise and say you did it when clearing a large tree off of her. Entirely accidental, of course.

[x] Blame Daiyousei for everything. You tried to stop her, you really did.

Since Gensokyo fairies are pretty much just anoying pranks waiting to happen, even Daiyousei said that fairies are idiots, this is a pretty safe way of getting the conversation started.
We came to see what happened, she's a fairy she couldn't help it, at least you're not injured, by the way who are you and why are you lying unconscious in a crater, blah de blah...

Of course, Daiyousei might get a bit miffed that we're blaming her, but he should be able to talk his way out of that later.


Also, when we're helping Komachi we should make sure to get a good look at the black goo so we can find out just what the hell happened.
We were going to create a hat, and we got something like crude oil. Not as planned.

[x] Ignore her cries entirely. Just introduce yourself and ask her about the scythe and the general devastation.

It's in the past, stop thinking about it.

[x] Apologise and say you did it when clearing a large tree off of her. Entirely accidental, of course.

There's no help for it; we'll just have to go full Devil-Tiger so we can use our reflecting soul as a hat.

[x] Apologise and say you did it when clearing a large tree off of her. Entirely accidental, of course.

>>151600
Nah, we create a third-circle deva that represents our fondness for hats and then it creates seven little second-circle deva that represent the full range of its hat-centric existence. And then perhaps those seven not-so-little second-circle devas will create countless first-circle hat-based demons.

[x] Apologise and say you did it when clearing a large tree off of her. Entirely accidental, of course.

[x] Apologize and say you did it when clearing a large tree off of her. Entirely accidental, of course.
[x] But that was all in the past. Introduce yourself and ask her about the scythe and the general devastation.

[x] Apologize and say you did it when clearing a large tree off of her. Entirely accidental, of course.
--[x] But that was all in the past. Introduce yourself and ask her about the scythe and the general devastation and the being unconscious under a tree.

[x] Blame Daiyousei for everything. You tried to stop her, you really did.
You guys are a bunch of goody two shoes. Have some fun, damn it.

[X] Ignore her cries entirely. Just introduce yourself and ask her about the scythe and the general devastation.

We're a Fiend.
We can totally take charge of this whole conversation, with enough Manipulation.

[X] Ignore her cries entirely. Just introduce yourself and ask her about the scythe and the general devastation.

>>151606
Yeah, but doing that kind of thing for too long, too much, and most importantly while identifiable has a good chance of leading to a not-so-pleasant road that ends in adventurers coming after you to stuff you in your own intestines. Be smart-evil, not troll-evil.

>>151609
Couple points

We have a benevolent writer. He's not offering these choices to screw us over.
And even if he does screw us over for laughs, who cares? He's competent enough to make an entertaining story either way.

of course, you should still take the goody two-shoes options if you want to see them. but saying we shouldn't take other options out of fear of consequences is just silly

>>151610
I simply believe that if a character is going to do something evil/selfish/hilarious, that character should do it in a suitably spectacular manner.

Stealing a man's horse and then punching him in the face is boring compared to starting a three-sided civil war in the Realm in order to steal their empire. Impersonate a Dragon-blooded officer in the stronger faction and then lead his men on a false-flag operation on the leader of the strongest allied house - succeed but be sure to be identified. Laugh when the person that was impersonated gets shanked and then start running supplies to all three sides, while using their distraction to steal their empire.

Rather than conning a single merchant out of his possessions, convert an entire metropolis to a cult dedicated to the character. Buy up grain, drive up grain prices through bribing the Celestial Bureaucracy/blocking the trade routes/burning the fields using deniable agents, and then summon large quantities of mana-locusts that cause those who eat them to worship the summoner. Mill the locusts into the grain and then either sell it on the cheap or distribute it as an act of good citizenship. Bam, instant political and spiritual power amongst a significant portion of the population.

Blaming Daiyousei is lame and boring when there's so much more that can done once the character has a better mental map of this place.

>benevolent

That's what he wants us to think.

This whole introduction is all a cleverly disguised set-up for a Rumia insta-shark end, followed by a 6 month hiatus.

>>151612

Aw shit, the jig's up. How did you knooooow?

>>151613
Is that so?

[x] Ignore her cries entirely. Just introduce yourself and ask her about the scythe and the general devastation.

>>151611
I'd sooner see the look on a conned merchant's face (or a pissed fairy) than take over an empire. It's more... personal. And less convoluted. But whatever, this is why we have voting.

>>151613
Fuck yeah! I wish to be the sort of Exalt Rumia can eat.

>>151619
Fair enough, to each his own and so on.

[x] Apologize and say you did it when clearing a large tree off of her. Entirely accidental, of course.

"So why did you turn the tree into goo?"
"I had to get it off of you."
"I can appreciate that, but why did you turn it into goo?"
"... I was trying to turn it into a hat..."

[ ] Apologise and say you did it when clearing a large tree off of her. Entirely accidental, of course.


“Terribly sorry about that!”

The woman immediately turns on you, taking your apology as evidence for your culpability in this incident, which to be fair, it is. Forestalling her complaints, you keep on talking.

“I was just trying to move a rather immense tree that was crushing you, that’s all.”
You make a sweeping motion to the area of devastation surrounding you both, fallen trees included.
“And well…ahah…I had a bit of an embarrassing accident really. I really didn’t mean for all of that…whatever this stuff is…to appear. I was really trying for a hat. Honest.”

Rather than draw out a smooth apology, you find your tongue stumbling as you attempt to form the words. Not only that but the entire thing sounds…off, with a slight mocking tone that you didn’t intend.

Needless to say, this does not mollify her at all.
“Really? What the hell made you think this was a good idea!" Just dumping this shit on me! I have ha-”

She’s cut off as Daiyousei interjects on your behalf.
“No, he’s telling the truth! I was right here behind him the entire time! He didn’t mean to do this.”

As the fairy and the woman argue, you sit down on top of a toppled tree to collect your thoughts. Damnit, Witness to Darkness. That accursed Charm given to you by the Ebon Dragon might give you pure sight and the ability to perceive manipulation, but at only at the cost of twisting and destroying any pure or honest attempts of socialising into awkward lies that nobody can accept. You made the heinous mistake of attempting to be truthful and even after all the distance you put between yourself and the denizens of Hell, the Shadow of All Things still manages to find a way to punish you for it.
You contemplate doing some kind of melodramatic screamed curse up towards the sky, perhaps dropping to your knees as you do so.

But you don’t because that would be silly. You instead settle for kicking a rock and bruising your foot. Phenomenal cosmic power, tiny amounts of dignity. Sounds about right.

Getting back to reality, you note that the woman seems to have been somewhat mollified by Daiyousei running interference on your behalf. You’ll definitely have to remember to thank her for that at some point. Eventually.

You walk on over to both of them, only stopping as Daiyousei suddenly blasts the redhead in the face with a jet of water. It doesn’t seem to be an attack though, as Daiyousei continues the beam, washing the disgusting muck off the other’s body.

“I didn’t know you could do that.”

She looks at you mischievously.
“Lake fairy, remember?”

“Right. That makes sen-wait what are you doing?! Argh!”

Rather than listening to you talking, Daiyousei instead sprays you in the face as well. For a tiny moment before the jet hits you, you contemplate getting out of the way. Wouldn’t be too hard. A few motes and you’d avoid every drop.
In the end you just settle for being sprayed in the face like a normal person.

“Argh! Come here, you…you…double fae!”

Cursing theatrically, you start chasing Daiyousei around the clearing, swinging your sheathed sword at her playfully. She manages to evade you for the first few strokes before she stops flying entirely and lands on the ground in a fit of laughter. A few moments later and you join her.

Well, that was fun enough. You turn back to the redhead, who is now mostly clean of the ooze that had formerly coated her from head to toe. You permit yourself a microscopic eyebrow raise as you do so. Well, she cleaned up nice enough. Maybe it’s the Ebon Dragon in you but you’ve always had a soft spot for pretty redheads, even when they’re evil demon-worshipping bitches that were technically engaged to your boss at the time.

“We might have gotten off on the wrong foot.” You extend your hand out to her. “My name is _________.”

She looks at your hand uncomprehendingly for a few long seconds before you just let it drop back to your side.

“My name’s Komachi”, she replies in the same odd dialect of Old Realm that Daiyousei’s been speaking.
“And I’m pretty sure my face is up here.”

“No doubt it is. And as much as I’d love to continue our exchange of pleasantries, I must admit to being rather curious to this…well, this everything. It’s not every day I find a lady pinned underneath a tree surrounded by complete devastation.”

She lets out a long groan as she finds the scythe embedded into the boulder.
“I’m as surprised as you are. She was a bit more than I thought she was. Aaah, I’m not even supposed to be reaping, I was happy with just the boat.”

Grabbing the scythe by the handle, she pulls it out without exerting herself in any visible way. The already large crack in the boulder rips open as she pulls the weapon out, unleashing a loud crack! and a small detonation that nevertheless manages to somehow shake the earth.
“…Bloody magic rocks. How many of them did she even have?”

You have no idea what she’s talking about but you file the words away for later thought. Anything you might say is interrupted by Komachi collapsing against a tree and sliding down to the ground. For a moment you think she’s fallen unconscious again only to realise that she’s just fallen asleep.

Your hands ever so slowly creep towards the interesting scythe, reaching out to-

“Don’t touch it.”

“Oh, I thought you were asleep. You’re pretty good.”

She grabs the scythe and pulls it closer to her prone form.
“I wasn’t trying to look like I was asleep. I was just getting a rest.”

“So do you mind telling me a bit more details about what actually happened?”

Komachi mumbles something to herself before reaching into a dress pocket and pulling out some kind of circular clock on a chain. By its shine, she either takes very good care of it or just never uses it.

“Kyaaa! Of course.”

“Mind letting me into the loop? Even a little bit?”

“I think my boss will be coming to check up on me soon. She was concerned about this case. I wouldn’t stay around, unless you feel like getting lectured.”

You look back to Daiyousei, who replies with a shrug. She has no idea what this is about either.

[ ] Follow her advice and leave.

[ ] Ask her about this boss of hers

[ ] Use Corrosive Pattern Infliction to make some alcohol. Sit down and share a horrible-boss bitchfest.

[ ] Write In.

Which reminds me, I should probably post MC's Charmset with an explanation soon.

Eventually.

[X] Use Corrosive Pattern Infliction to make some alcohol. Sit down and share a horrible-boss bitchfest.

Oh yes.

[x] Use Corrosive Pattern Infliction to make some alcohol. Sit down and share a horrible-boss bitchfest.

Fuck yeah, bitching out your boss who will inevitably end up hearing the entire thing. I'd love to hear a lecture, too.
Maybe Corrosive Pattern Infliction will actually work this time??

Deleted >>151625 in order to change vote.

[X] Use Corrosive Pattern Infliction to make some alcohol. Sit down and share a horrible-boss bitchfest.

We can use manipulation to lure Komachi into revealing more honest than usual information about her boss and their department when venting.

[x] Ask her about this boss of hers.

I'm interested in what Shikieiki has to say, and pattern recognition says we shouldn't mess with CPI any more.

>>151626
>>151627
>>151628
You wanna make some more black mud, then?
[x] Ask her about this boss of hers.

>>151629
One event is not a pattern. He might be able to force his own essence out of his body and shape that, now that he's prepared for it.

>>151630
It's possible that the character failed the initial attempt rather than it being outright impossible under local conditions because the item turning into something useless and unpleasant is the outcome of failure of Corrosive Pattern Infliction. At worst, we lend some creditability to our claim that the incident was an accident when we fail once again.

So this is the aftermath of a fight between Komachi and Tenshi due to the Komachi's organisation not recognizing Tenshi's immortality, as in SWR.

Unless I'm mistaken, Exalteds are immortal, so depending on the specifics of our immortality and whether our 'records' are available in Gensokyo, we might get into a fight. The fact that Komachi didn't immediately attack us is a good sign, though.

[x] Use Corrosive Pattern Infliction to make some alcohol. Sit down and share a horrible-boss bitchfest.

>>151630
I doubt it would be an available option if MC didn't at least think he could do it. It was even said before that what happened before was because he let it slip out of his control.

[x] Use Corrosive Pattern Infliction to make some alcohol. Sit down and share a horrible-boss bitchfest.

Don't worry guys, it looks like we got Daiyousei, Ace Attorney on our side.

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to a fairy. If you cannot afford a fairy, one will be appointed for you.

[X] Use Corrosive Pattern Infliction to try to make some alcohol. Be prepared for more of the same, though.

>>151631
That'd be a lot of Essence. (He's made of Essence the same way you're made of atoms.) Still, it did something, so I figure in the worst case we can probably figure out what it was that it did, and then make a custom charm And Nirakara Blinked (or whatever) that does it right.

>>151634
> Unless I'm mistaken, Exalteds are immortal
You are: they're long-lived and supernaturally resilient, but they can be killed, and will (normally) die eventually.

Also, the plural is "Exalts" (and the singular, while we're at it, is "Exalt"; stress goes on the first syllable in both cases).

>>151637

You seem to have misused the colon in you attempt to correct someone else's grammar. Just sayin.

[X] Use Corrosive Pattern Infliction to make some alcohol. Sit down and share a horrible-boss bitchfest.

[X] Use Corrosive Pattern Infliction to make some alcohol. Sit down and share a horrible-boss bitchfest.

Also, this girl is cute.

>>151644
The cutest.

>>151638

Sorry to break it to you, but >>151367 did, in fact, use a semicolon properly.

Anyways, let's [x] Use Corrosive Pattern Infliction to make some alcohol. Sit down and share a horrible-boss bitchfest.

I'm going to laugh when it takes us eight or nine tries to get it right.

>>151638

Sorry to break it to you, but >>151367 did, in fact, use a semicolon - which is to say, ; - properly. If it had been a colon - which is to say, : - you would be completely right.

Anyways, let's [x] Use Corrosive Pattern Infliction to make some alcohol. Sit down and share a horrible-boss bitchfest.

I'm going to laugh when it takes us eight or nine tries to get it right, just like the Out Of Memory error is going to do to the number of times I hit Reply for this.

[x] Use Corrosive Pattern Infliction or a Kimbery poison-making charm to make some alcohol. Sit down and share a horrible-boss bitchfest.

Also, do we have any of the Cecelyne "boss around gods" charms? Meeting Yamaxanadu with any of them active would probably be hilarious.

>>151637
Unless he's become a Devil-Tiger (removing the Green Sun Prince age cap) and taken (Yozi) Eternal Essence, which makes you unkillable (except to spirit-killing charms).

>>151650
>>151649

Try actually clicking on the post I was replying to, instead of substituting some random post from another thread.

>>151652
Character's Essence 5 - (Yozi) Eternal Essence needs Essence 7. He can still pick up Triumphant Howl of the Devil-Tiger if he has Ascendancy Mantle of (Yozi), but there's no reason to think that he has either charm.

At first glance I thought this story would be about one of these guys.

>>151654
This is true; I was just pointing out that it's not necessarily true for all Infernals.

>>151656
Ah, my apologies for leaping on you then.

Other methods for solving the 'looming mortality' problem also include the classic celestial peaches (unless I'm misremembering the fruit) and celestial booze. Obviously, this means that we will need to steal Tenshi's hat. And her sword and then her peach trees if we ever head on up.

[x] Use Corrosive Pattern Infliction to make some alcohol. Sit down and share a horrible-boss bitchfest.


Let it never be said that you’d pass up a chance to drink freely and have yourself an old-fashioned bitchfest. It is a sacred tradition that has been passed down the ages, dating back to the very beginning of time before Creation had ever existed, when the Primordials played their games in an old world now forever lost. All the way back when the Primordial Sea, who’s waves bordered all things was approached by a living gap that had creeped it’s way into existence through cracks in the shinma.

It had been during when the Mountain And The Beast Upon It still held kingship amongst the Primordial court but the future had made itself by known by the signalling of the true king, the Empyreal Chaos.
Deciding amongst themselves, they had decided to ignore King, in hope that He would think that they had not heard Him. But in the Mountain And The Beast Upon It’s decision, he had not taken the vote of either the Primordial Sea (who had not attended) nor that of the living hole (who’s mere existence was still debatable).

It was said that the Primordial Sea and the Darkness (for though no light existed and thus no dark, it was still called such) did counsel amongst each other about the actions of those who would hold themselves as their superiors. The Ultimate Darkness had taken offence at the unity and coherency of purpose that the other Primordials had in this matter, for this sapient hole thrived in empty antagonism. The Primordial Sea herself was filled with rage and spite that they had dared made decisions without her and on these matters they talked and complained.
And on that day before days, the first bitchfest about one’s bosses had been born.

Given that when light and virtue had finally been created, the sapient emptiness solidified into the Ebon Dragon, your Caste Yozi and that the Primordial Sea was also known as Kimbery, your Favoured Urge Yozi, you feel that you are in a unique position to take part in this honoured tradition of shared spite and discontent.

“Lectures?”
You sit down on the ground next to her, Daiyousei fluttering somewhere behind you.
“Man, the ones that always tell you what to do are the worst.”

Komachi starts a bit before apparently recognising something in you, a kindred spirit perhaps?
“Oh? You have experience in this?”

“You know it! I’ve had my share of bosses that thought they could dictate morality to me. I always end up zoning out at about the point when they’re talking on the virtues of hard work.”

The redhead rolls her eyes.
“Oh, do I ever know that feeling. I’d just be taking a short rest by the river sometimes but when I open my eyes she’s already there talking at me about responsibility. I really was going to star work again shortly, it was only a little nap but it’s always the same, no matter how many times I tell her!”

You grab one of the large black-grey rocks that have been lying around and give it a little shake.
“Preach it, sister! The last boss I really had, he didn’t actually do any of that stuff. But he was such a colossal dick. Like you wouldn’t believe.”

A flare of black energy envelops the rock as you fire up your Corrosive Pattern Infliction again. This time you aren’t surprised by the extra Essence draw and keep your concentration steady this time.
Daiyousei flinches back and screws up her face reflexively as she sees you do this again.

Hmmm, let’s see…You don’t really want anything too alcoholic for this. You need something that’s relatively sober but still recognisably booze. Oh! That ought to do it.

The energy dissipates, revealing your hands to now be full with a large covered jug and three small brass cups.
Setting the cups down, you lift the cover off the jug and pour out three portions of clear liquid.

Komachi looks only somewhat surprised by your actions, so people pulling alcohol out of nowhere probably isn’t too odd of an occurrence around here. Good to know.

A more pressing problem is the disturbing emptiness you’re beginning to feel. You’ve just used the last of your personal mote pool. Which is fine, as you have your peripheral mote pool still completely untapped, which is over twice the size of your personal motes anyway.
The only problem is that drawing from your peripheral is going to start up your anima and that’s a real bugger for personal interaction.

Komachi picks up her cup and gives a small sniff. Her face lights up.
“Oh, sake! At least you know how to please a girl~”

She takes a small sip and promptly stops, her face going through some interesting contortions.
“Actually,” you say. “It only looks and smells a bit like sake. It actually tastes like, or so I’m told-”

“Yeah, I know what it tastes like.”
She looks at you oddly.
“You have some …interesting tastes in booze.”

“It’s quite very common where I come from.”
You neglect entirely to mention that said place is Hell, where bonewine is a very common drink amongst demons and quite possibly the least alcoholic drink you could easily find there. Of course, most people in the Demon City tended to drink something stronger, if only because it was far safer than drinking the water, which tended to drink back.
Frankly, you’re more than a little curious about how Komachi knows what bones taste like.

You pick up your own cup, shaking it a bit to watch the alcohol slosh around in its traditional brass container. Despite her earlier surprise, the redhead across from you is already refilling her cup.

“Hey. Hey! What are you doing?”
Daiyousei is suddenly right in your face. Not flying either as sitting down does a great job at bringing you to eye level with her.
“She said that her boss was coming. Aren’t we going to leave? What about the village?”

“Don’t worry Daiyousei. I already poured one out for you too.”
You pick up the third cup and swing it in front of her.
“Fairies drink, right? You can join us in complaining about our bosses.”

“I don’t know about you but I don’t even have a boss! Besides, there’s nothing wrong with her!”


Five minutes later…

“Soo…soooo then she went and just left it at that! Can you believe that! Waiting right until the spring to do anything? She still won but…”
Daiyousei slams the empty cup down in front of you, stopping to catch her breath. You dutifully pour her another cup.
“And then she…just her, never me…and then sheeeeeee…”

Her eyes roll up into the back of her head as she slowly keels over from her seated position. She’s already snoring by the time she hits the ground.

“I thought fairies could hold their liquor better…”

The lady shinigami (you having learned the name of her vocation in the elapsed time) next to you snorts derisively.
“Amateur.”

“Now where was I?” You attempt to jump back to your earlier topic.
“Right. Well, it wasn’t all bad really. There was this amphelisia I knew, lot smarter than the rest, called Vrastiras, who helped me a lot. He, or was it a she? You know I don’t think I ever asked actually…He was like my personal secretary at the time. Really loyal fellow, even after I left. Nice guy, you’d have liked him…her…whatever. Amphelisiae are really very nice as far as demons go, really. Not that it really helped the matter with the boss, but in the end you just have to know when to cut your losses right?”

She nods carefully, only having understood a small part of your story and none of it’s implications.
‘The Outside World sounds like a really complicated place.”

“Amazingly so. So those were my problems, tell me more about yours.”

She takes another sip before she continues.
“Right. I can’t be too hard on her really because her hearts in the right place but she is so uptight and bitchy sometimes. I swear, she acts like she has some kind of divine right to be ruling it all over you. Well she kinda does but it doesn’t mean she has to act like it all the time, you know?”

You nod slowly as you put your cup down, your eyes flicking back and forth from Komachi and the forest behind her.

“Do this! Do that! Don’t sleep on the job! Go reap a Celestial!”
Komachi says all of this in a mocking high-pitched tone, her face screwed up into a comical exaggeration of seriousness.
“Just from the way she acts, I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a second one of those bloody sticks of hers and it’s been jammed right up h…she’s flown in right behind me hasn’t she.”

You nod again, your eyes still going back and forth from the shinigami and the small girl that’s come up behind her.
“Predictably so, I’m afraid.”

You’ve spent a large amount of your long life in Malfeas, the living demon realm filled with nothing but impotent rage, self-disgust, rage, rage and more rage.
And yet somehow, all of this seems to pale in comparision to the green haired newcomer. Despite her carefully calm and composed face, you can almost feel the anger just blistering off into the atmosphere surrounding her.

Komachi turns around very slowly, hiding the cup behind her back in a ridiculously futile gesture.
“Aheh….the Yama…what a pleasure to see you…”

[ ] The jig’s up. Pick up Daiyousei and run.

[ ] Stay around, try to hang in the background and just watch. Hope she doesn’t notice the passed out little girl off to the side.

[ ] Greet this newcomer in a friendly fashion, offer her a drink.

[ ] Write-In.

[x] Stay around, try to hang in the background and just watch. Hope she doesn’t notice the passed out little girl off to the side.

I wonder.... Can a Yama hold her liqour? Would write a write-in for that but I'm way too tired.

here's the thing: considering the different physics, does the mote pool actually recharge in Gensokyo?

[X]Offer her boss booze. Use Daiyousei's cup.
[X]Stunt it! We need to start regaining motes, and without the ability to respire them (and possibly no cult in Creation to grant prayer-essence), stunts are probably our best source of Essence.

[X] The jig’s up. Pick up Komachi/Daiyousei and run.

>>151660

That's a very good question.

[x] Greet this newcomer in a friendly fashion, offer her a drink.

I'm well aware of Shikieiki's depiction in most of fanon, but still, shouldn't she be standing at least equal in height to Komachi? As for essence, is the hearthstone still functioning?

>>151660
Here's another thing. Considering there's no ambient Essence, does he even have a peripheral pool here?

[x] Stay around, try to hang in the background and just watch. Hope she doesn’t notice the passed out little girl off to the side.
-[x] Turn Daiyousei on her side and cover her partially with your cloak.

Do fairies cure hangovers by killing themselves?

>>151665
Yes, he would. IIRC, basically, Essence is stored in the soul; the anima. With the Exalted, their soul gets so bloated it actually extends outside their body; when the Essence stored inside this part of the anima is used, it glows and forms the Anima Banner.

>>151663
He should regain Essence from stunts and from charms that grant it, like Life-Blighting Emptiness Attack. Take a look at the rules for regaining Essence in the Underworld, for instance.

And on that note, we should probably look into buying some cows or something to slaughter with Life-Blighting Emptiness Attack to regain Essence.

>>151664
Maybe, maybe not. If it isn't, then its power won't work, either. Assuming that's an Hearthstone, and not an Artifact, like it sounds like it might be.

>>151667
One problem - there's no essence in the local critters. Life-Blighting Emptiness may or may not work since it doesn't drain essence so much as convert it based on converting some sort of nebulous 'life' factor. It's one of those things the character'll need to test later, like his demon summoning.

>>151668
Can't tell for certain - but it sounds like it's either the Mortality-Entangling Gem or its artifact equivalent. Bathed in a manse's essence, aspected to Oramus, ensuring that the character splits into two upon death - one dead and one living. It seems needlessly complicated for it to be an artifact that duplicates the hearthstone when its description fits so perfectly.

[X] Greet this newcomer in a friendly fashion, offer her a drink.

This is most likely going to backfire like a motherfucker, but I'm sure we can handle it. I mean, having been in hermitage for however-long-it-was has to be worth some karma points, right?

We might want to consider getting some Overdrive motes, so Life-Blighting Emptiness Attack won't go out of our main motepool.

We need that to get alcohol, after all!

You know, I like this Komachi of yours, so I hope we'll get to hang out with her some more.

[X] Greet this newcomer in a friendly fashion, offer her a drink.
-[X] Be Sly about it - we don't want Witness to Darkness to screw us over again.

[x] Greet this newcomer in a friendly fashion, offer her a drink.

Surely she too has a boss about whom she would like to bitch?

[x] Greet this newcomer in a friendly fashion, offer her a drink.
There is no way this could possibly go badly for us.

[x] Greet this newcomer in a friendly fashion, offer her a drink.

I'm sort of curious as to how Shikieiki will see our Infernal; the darkest black ever (due to the Ebon Dragon) or green, since Malfeas IS in charge of everything Infernal.

[x] Greet this newcomer in a friendly fashion, offer her a drink.

>>151679

I.E. if we're Someone Else's Problem?

Which the Infernal might actually be. Putting aside being from another world/universe/reality, remember that Shikieki's advice to some of the Youkai in PoFV is for them to act more Yokai-like. She may, after a fashion, WANT us to act like a Fiend.

[x] Greet this newcomer in a friendly fashion, offer her a drink.


Well, this situation looks like it could use some emergency defusing. Picking up Daiyousei’s cup, you refill it before holding it up to the light.

“Ah, you must be this Shikieki I’ve heard so much about! As it would so happen, one of the places here was just freed up!”

You stand up, nudging Daiyousei’s comatose form off to the side as you do so. With a quick step, you interpose yourself between the two of them.
“I’m sure we can all step back from this situation and relax a little! Did not a wise man once say that to drink and be merry was to-”

You’re not interrupted. Instead, your voice dies down to a halt on your own as she looks at you. Her face is strange. No, not in any deformity or odd expression, not in any way you can pin down really. You can’t describe it but something about the way she’s looking at you (the eyes?) makes your skin crawl.
“Stop looking at me like that.”

A moment later and without any discernible change, the feeling stops. Despite your own experience, you can’t quite gauge the expression that the Yama is directing at you. Confusion? Anger? You can’t tell.

Whatever it is, you can almost feel her previous anger deflating like an inflated gallbladder that’s sprung a leak. She steps past you to face Komachi.

“How did the reaping go?”
She’s speaking in a quiet tone and has actually started smiling. You don’t know whether you should be surprised or not.

Komachi is taken back, unsure on what Shikieki is doing.
“…It didn’t go very well, no. She slammed me under a tree. …Can I go back to the ferry job?”

A complete silence is her only answer
“Aheh…” she laughs nervously. “It all went black for a bit and then this guy ended up waking me up.”

“After which you realised you failed and that the most clear and proper action for something as important as this would have been to inform me immediately, yes?”
She’s still smiling but that’s no longer reassuring at all.

The shinigami frantically looks over to you and the rest of the clearing for a moment, as if she was gauging routes of escape.
“…Yes?”

“But you didn’t.”

“Not immediately, no. But there were a lot of other factors and there was a huge mess and I…”

As Komachi keeps talking, the green-haired woman pulls out an odd-shaped wooden stick from her sleeve. Looking over her shoulder, you notice the engraved writing on it change to a litany of words such as ‘Sloth’ and ‘Irresponsibility’.
As it does so, you see the stick dip downwards, as if it’s weight had increased to something immense. She nearly drops it before she grabs it in both hands to brace it.

“…and well, I thought it would be fine if it was only faaaargh!”

Komachi’s words are cut off as the Yama drives the stick onto the top of her head. The sound of impact can be heard throughout the clearing, causing Daiyousei to roll over and mutter something indecipherable in her sleep.

“Owwwwww! That one hurt more than usual! What did you do, stuff it with lea-”

And again.

“Kyaaaaa! What was the second one f-”

And a third time.

By the fifth strike, you’re seriously considering stepping in but after that Shikieki stops, testing the weight of the rod between her hands before nodding. For the first time since the start of your encounter, she gives up her faux smile.

“What am I going to do with you, Komachi?”
Her voice is suddenly incredibly weary and old, far older than her appearance would indicate.

“Eh?”
The shinigami looks up from her cowering position.

“How many times is it that we’ve done this, now? When I decided to move you from your ferryman status to that of an active reaper, I thought it would compel you to rise to the occasion, to step up for once. I really had a lot of hope for you, Komachi, I really did.”

“You what?”

“But every time, every time, you always let me down. So answer the question, Komachi.”

“What question?”

‘How many times is have we done this before? How many times have I had to tell you about your duty? I’m asking you because you know what? I’ve lost count. It is my job to see and count ALL the sins of others but when it comes to how many times we’ve had this little talk, I have actually lost count. I’m beginning to wonder if you’ve been listening to me at all. Or have you just been ignoring me? Ignoring me all this time?”

“But-”

“No buts. What do you think would have happened if you tried to pull this in some other District, under another Yama? You would have been fired years ago. And all you’ve done with my leniency is throw it back in my face, over and over again. ”

“No, that’s not true!”
From the look on the shinigami’s face, this might be hurting her worse than the actual beating did.

“I don’t care that you lost. Did you think you were the first? I barely even care that you decided to ignore my orders on how important the results of this were and decided to get drunk with a stranger instead. That’s my problem, Komachi. I can’t just bring myself to care about what you do anymore. I’ve given you decades worth of extra chances and rationalisations before, but it’s all ending here.”

“Wait you don’t mean that yo-”

“Yes. I do. Get out of my sight. You’re fired.”

The scythe clatters to the ground as Komachi disappears. Shikieki sighs heavily and goes to pick up the scythe only to find it firmly in your hands. She starts, as if she’d momentarily forgotten you were there.
“Hey there, I’m still new. What the hell was that?”

She looks at you silently, fortunately not in that horrible fashion she had done before. A small mirror appears in her hands and she glances down at it.

….And then at you. And then at the mirror. And then at you. And then at the mirror again.
“Who are you?”

[ ] Introduce yourself.

[ ] “I am the man with no name.” Take a long and slow drink, just daring her to respond.

[ ] Refuse to tell her anything. Threaten her until you’ve found out just what she did with Komachi.

[ ] Pick up Daiyousei and run away with the scythe.

[ ] Pick up Daiyousei, throw her at Shikieiki and run away with the scythe.

[ ] I don’t like your eyes. I think I should take them~

[ ] FAE TRICKS

[ ] Disregard choices. Acquire Write-Ins.

[x] Introduce yourself. Threaten her until you’ve found out just what she did with Komachi.

Gattai da! Comply with requests and show loyalty to new friends.

[ ] “I am the man with no name.” Take a long and slow drink, just daring her to respond.
And if prodded further
[ ] Pick up Daiyousei and run away with the scythe.

[x] Introduce yourself (use the socially-acceptable introduction). Find out who she is and just what she did with Komachi.

[x] Introduce yourself. Find out who she is and just what she did with Komachi.

Well damn. I kinda feel bad for Komachi. Can't help but wonder what happens to those that get fired.

Shiki just sent Komachi to the cornfield?

I did not expect this at all

I feel kind of guilty.

[x]“I am the man with no name.” Take a long and slow drink, just daring her to respond.

[x] “I am the man with no name.” Take a long and slow drink, just daring her to respond.

[x]“I am the man with no name.” Take a long and slow drink, just daring her to respond.

[x] "That's a very good question."

[X] Refuse to tell her anything. Threaten her until you’ve found out just what she did with Komachi.

Holy crap, we just got Komachi fired and you guys are picking the troll option.

[X] Refuse to tell her anything. Threaten her until you’ve found out just what she did with Komachi.

Shiki appears to have just killed our drinking buddy while she was lettings us know about where the heck we are now. Not cool.

Sounds like a relationship of years, maybe decades, just ended, so she may be feeling pretty bad about the whole thing. Maybe a drink is in order.
Plus, as far as we know she just got fired, not killed, right? No need for alarm yet.

[x] Introduce yourself.
[x] "You just made my drinking partner leave, so take responsibility." hand her her drink.

[x] Introduce yourself. Find out who she is and just what she did with Komachi.

[x] Introduce yourself. Find out who she is and just what she did with Komachi.

Since our options for getting to know what's what around here are rather limited at the moment, with the others being passed out or suddenly missing, let's not antagonize the one person left who could help us understand what the hell is going on.


I sure hope we can find Komachi again too, and maybe help her get her job back, because this is just too sad. (Also, being buddies with/being owed favors from a Reaper might come in handy.)

[x]“I am the man with no name.” Take a long and slow drink, just daring her to respond.

>>151715
This is assuming Komachi wasn't sent to hell/reincarnated as a bug over her bad karma, but yeah. Firing someone so hard they disappear does not seem to be conducive to their health.

[x]“I am the man with no name.” Take a long and slow drink, just daring her to respond.

Huh, we're going to end up guilt-tripping Shikieiki into reinstating Komachi on a probational basis, aren't we? Or at least try? We can use manipulation rather than charisma and we get a shot at picking up a presumably grateful ally if we succeed.

>>151721
There's some magic we can use for that, yeah - Golden Years Tarnished Black can be ridiculously useful for removing the bad stuff that would be remembered (by using Glories That Never Were to only focus on the good stuff).

Also, our Excellency should be working now, since we're trying to weaken legal authority, which the Ebon Dragon absolutely loves, so we'll also have supernaturally convincing arguments, with our Manipulation-based attacks.

[x] Introduce yourself. Find out who she is and just what she did with Komachi.
-[X] Talk to this girl about the good times and things your friend had done for this Daimyo in work - Glories That Never Were should help with this, we need to convince her to bring Komachi back.
[X] Remember to Stunt while doing all of this - we need the motes!
[X] See if we can't get Effortless Ebon Dragon Dominance going, to save us some power.

Let's whitewash any bad stuff that Komachi has ever done, and make this girl remember only the good stuff.
We're going to get her back!

>>151723

Glories That never Were would be great for mindraping convincing her to bring Komachi back. It seems like the kind of charm the MC would have too.

Glories That Never Were and all related Charms can be found in a single web supplement too, for those who don't know of them.
http://wiki.white-wolf.com/exalted/index.php?title=Ink_Monkeys,_vol._12:_The_Fiendishness_of_Fiends

[x] Introduce yourself. Threaten her until you’ve found out just what she did with Komachi.
>>151725
Does stunting even work in Gensokyo? I thought, in story at least, it relied on the Pattern Spiders going "Oooo, that was/is/will be cool!" and thus rewarding whoever was doing it.

>>151729
Well, there is some magic that interacts with stunting, so I'm assuming it must still work, somehow, even if the pattern spiders aren't involved.
Also, I think that stunting still works in the underworld, which I don't think the spiders have control over.


Still, either way, I think Glories That Never Were is our best bet for guilt tripping this girl so that Komachi can come back.

>>151731
Glories That Never Were plus the Ebon Dragon Excellencies plus a sob story about how we found Komachi pinned and unconscious under a tree for the manipulation/emotional blackmail. Fun.

>>151732
>>151732
Yep, this is our best bet - it opens up Manipulation, and we've already got the ED Excellency, and with Glories That Never Were things should get even better.

This is what we need to vote on, I feel, to get what we want (Komachi, our friend, back).
It's got the best chance of success.

>>151733
Nah, there's no need to rush it - we can get a grasp on who Shikieiki is, find out what happened, and then we ease into our pitch. Consider it reconaissance.

The thing about Glories That Never Were is that it has, as a prerequisite, Memory Poison Mastery.

On the other hand, Want Becomes Need doesn't....

>>151739
Glories That Never Were has Unreasoning Prejudice Infliction as a prerequisite, not Memory Poison Mastery.

>>151742
Unreasoning Prejudice Infliction has Memory Poison Mastery as a prerequisite. They're too lazy to list the full chain.

>>151765
Exalted wiki claims that Unreasoning Prejudice Infliction has Memory Poison Mastery as a prerequisite.

Both the Ink Monkeys post still up on Facebook and the PDF compilation made by Plague of Hats has Golden Years Tarnished Black as its prerequisite.

I'm inclined to believe that the wiki is wrong in this case.

>>151768
a) archive.org agrees.
b) It makes more sense, thematically.
c) I can't find any statements by the Monkeys indicating that this is a legitimate erratum.

I therefore concede to your superior Google-Fu!

But, of course, one could always use them both.

>>151775
Chances are someone misremembered something and included it on the wiki without double-checking - I can't count the times I've made similar mistakes or confused fanon for canon.

Regardless, I'm not so hot on the idea of using Want Becomes Need because I can't see instilling a fetishistic appeal in the Yama for the false contents of a corrupted memory relating to Komachi turning out well at all. Come to think, even Glories That Never Were can blow up if the target breaks the effect and instantly reverses the good intimacy to a bad intimacy.

If anything, it seems to me that the safest choice is to use Ebon Dragon Excellencies and good old-fashioned manipulation to social-fu her into giving Komachi another chance. This way we don't run the risk of being caught when attempting to mess around with the Yama's mind or the risk of meeting a very, very unhappy Yama down the road if she ends up breaking the effect.

As interesting as this discussion is, it would help me a great deal if those discussing it put it in vote format so it could be more easily counted.

Not that this needs to happen in any great speed though as I'm not updating today, it being both New Years and a Sunday. The only reason I'm making this post is that the MC probably shouldn't go nameless for too much longer.
Most kinds of names are open, since Creation is huge, lots of different cultures etc etc.
So what would you call him, anon?

>>151778
Viewtiful Joe Zach Bush. It's not like I'm looking at the authors of Exalted and picking a name or anything! I swear!

>>151778
Nash. He seems like a Nash. Nice n-sound, and it has ash in it.

>>151778
Let's go with something suitably Exalted for the name.
[X]Name: Thrice-Blackened Lotus.
[x] Introduce yourself. Find out who she is and just what she did with Komachi.
-[X] Talk to this girl about the good times and things your friend had done for this Daimyo in work - Glories That Never Were should help with this, we need to convince her to bring Komachi back.
[X] Remember to Stunt while doing all of this - we need the motes!
[X] See if we can't get Effortless Ebon Dragon Dominance going, to save us some power.

For the name

Níðhöggr, because malice striker is an awesome name

>>151778
Bejo

Sounds exotic, right?

[x] Name: Dagger with Blade of White and Black
[x] Introduce yourself. Find out who she is and just what she did with Komachi.
-[x] If Shikieiki is a judge of the dead, she should have access to info on who you are, similar to a keeper of the Loom of Fate. Find out about that.
-[x] Don't mess with the Yama's mind or memories.

We can try to get Komachi re-hired next update. For now, let's go slow and collect info.

On the subject of the name, I agree with the guy who wanted something 'suitably Exalted'. I think this name captures how we used to be evil and then went into hermitage, while still being a name that could possibly have been one of the Green Sun Princes.

I don't really care about the specifics of the name, I just like the name structure of "* with * of white and black" for this.

The picture is sorta what I'm visualizing with the name.

Gonna go with,
For our name you surely see,
[X]Thrice-Blackened Lotus

>>151784
However, most Touhou characters have a name, and then a title - wouldn't Thrice-Blackened Lotus fit better as a title, far as Touhou characters can understand it?
The name really does give a nice feel to it, though.

>>151782
See, I like this one, as well - keeps it simple.
Maybe we could combine these two?

Nash, The Thrice-Blackened Lotus?
Something like that?

Even if we don't go with that specific example...
I do think we should see about getting some "[Name], The [Title]" thing going.


>>151790
Well, ok, let's find out about it - getting info is important, I'll agree on that.
But in the next update, we need to work on bringing her back.

Infernal Exalts' names don't seem to be like Abyssal Exalts'. They do, however, all seem to have (very loosely) Touhou-esque subtitles.

[x] Cafan, the Damask-Petaled Lotus
- [x] Born Mnemon Cafan, but fuck Mnemon. Fuck her with a vitriol daiklaive and two geese.

[x] Introduce yourself.
- [x] Flare your anima as part of your introduction (to cover up its flare later if you use a Charm).
- [x] Find out who she is and just what she did with Komachi. Talk to her about the good times and things your friend has done.
- - [x] Glories That Never Were (and possibly Want Becomes Need) should help with this: we need to convince her to bring Komachi back.
[x] Remember to Stunt while doing all of this - we need the motes!
[x] Do not under any circumstances invoke any variation on the Ebon Dragon Excellency.

That last is important. I quote from the charm text:
> The Charm also can't assist actions that knowingly help anyone else more than they help the Infernal, even when he still stands to profit a great deal.

>>151801
Infernal names are probably whatever the Infernal had prior to exaltation or decides to pick up post-exaltation. Chances are an experienced Infernal'll pick up extra names and titles as they do their thing anyways, even if those names and titles are all variations on 'Butcher' or 'That jerk who killed my neighbor, my neighbor's dog, and my other neighbor'.

>>151790 here, changing my name vote.

[x] Nash, the Damask-Petaled Lotus
A flower with petals of steel? Sounds good to me.

[Name] Cafan, the Damask-Petaled Lotus

[x]“I am the man with no name.” Take a long and slow drink, just daring her to respond.

>>151817
It's not, no more so than misremembering things means that the person has died. Granted, in this case it's as though the user is punching the other person in the head until that person starts misremembering things, but that's not the same as killing the person unless one subscribes to the extreme position that a person dies whenever he or she changes in the least manner.

Of course, mind-wiping someone and then creating their memories from the ground-up is murder, but the proposal isn't even close to being that intrusive or extensive.

Messing with the Yama's mind is dangerous though because we're in a situation where the use of our charms is hampered and we understand little about the locals' capabilities. It's safer and simpler to use emotion-based manipulation based in the truth rather than charms in this instance.

>>151822
Very good point, and well argued.

[x] Nashar, the Damask-Petaled Lotus
[x] Introduce yourself. Find out who she is and just what she did with Komachi.
-[x] Don't fuck with the Yama's mind or memories.

Messing around with memories is perhaps just as bad as killing somebody.
Messing around with memories is certainly not a morally acceptable act, as well as being dangerous if the target ever finds out what you've done.

>>151822
>emotion-based manipulation
Hmm. Do we know Adorjan's social tree, I wonder?

>>151800
Here, I'm going to vote for

[x] Nashar, the Damask-Petaled Lotus

As our name.
I've already voted on the other stuff, but I haven't gone with a name yet, so this is my choice for one.

>>151823
Which is where the Ebon Dragon Excellency comes in - but, we should probably see what we can find out by talking to her first, as >>151734 suggested, before we start throwing magic around.

College party hangovers are either the best or worst of all. Every time, it's a different end of the spectrum.

Anyway, time to start writing.

Oh wait, autosaging. What do you know.

New thread here: >>151835