For some reason, it was really borking my attempts to post in a different thread.
So, related to the game pretty strongly: I think if Sora is ever pushed to her Despair Event Horizon, I know what her last trinket will be (and I already know the last essence she'd give). So... I have another scene planned out in my head if we ever make it that far. Bastian Forbid.
Am I a horrible person? :P
For those who may be interested, Andrew AKA ActualFactual is getting close to a play-test-ready form of a Magical Girls hack of Blades called Girl by Moonlight. He's been workshopping the hack over Twitch. <That's the most recent session, working out the moves associated with "The Fusion" a reference to the Crystal Gems.
The attribute categories are Moe, Tsundere, and Kuudere. I'm not sure there's much more I need to say.
It's still six months or so out, but I've been shopping for a system for the next season of this game, and the blades engine is one I enjoy. The mechanics for tiers and territory would fit well with where this story would progress once the Obusa plot winds down, and as systems go, it's nice and loose. (just not as loose as Magical Fury)
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I don't know anything about Blades. :) So... since I can't sleep, I'll go look into that.
Also, since I can't sleep, have this: Call it one of Sora's bad endings?
A melancholy, stripped down guitar melody begins to play, as the scene changes to her room back home. The door is closed. The windows covered and black. Just the closet door rests open. She looks to her bed. She could just sleep for a while. Her eyes shift askance to the corner as tears begin to brim. How had things gotten so out of hand.
How had she managed to protect absolutely no one?
What was it all for?
She closes her eyes to try to will away the tears, but they won't stop, she tries to slowly breathe, to let the calm, quiet that surrounds her shattered heart lull her, before she shakes her head. Her eyes are drawn to the one way out. The closet. She sniffles, then moans pathetically until a rattle escapes, chest trembling.
What awaited in the closet wasn't there for the reason most people kept things in their closet. This wasn't something she just didn't use. This was her admission of guilt. This was her greatest mistake. One she couldn't sell off, get rid of, or bring herself to use. So she hid it away, to never be seen again.
* * *
When she'd originally won the talent show with Emi and Kazue, their genuine love and friendship had drawn the eyes of a powerful patron. Their reward was a jumpstarted career. A genuine girl group, that really cared about each other. The world would eat it up. Aratani would make a fortune. Was it even Aratani's fault? Had she been the one to choose the girls, really?
Her parents had been overwhelmed and enthused. A music career, for their little starving artist, their daydreamer? Was she sure? She could be anything that she wanted, they knew. They promised. And they were right - she could be this, for them. She could make them happy by giving them all of the things they couldn't have. They were good parents, and they deserved everything she could give them.
* * *
The first teardrop hits the floor, as she again looks for any other way out... but the only way out is through or... she looks to the closet once more.
* * *
Her parents had spent the rent money to buy her a guitar. Nothing special, a little acoustic guitar, perfectly tuned - they'd made sure - for her to learn. If she was going to be a star, she'd need to really go all-out. Dancing wasn't enough to become a big name - if that was what she wanted. Singing was the main attraction but everyone wanted more. So she should learn and give it to them!
Aratani had actually laughed at the notion. Not only did they not have time for the girl to learn to play the guitar, it simply wasn't in for young women to play instruments. It was all about 'shaking your hips rhythmically', suggest, but don't give any more than that, ever. It was in the contract.
So, she left the guitar behind. The last gift her parents had given her. They'd gambled on her, and won, but the gamble had born no fruit of its own accord. If she'd played the guitar would the band have ever broken up? If she'd stood her ground could she have saved everything?
* * *
She looks back over her shoulder. The curtain had fallen away. The window was stained glass, now. Black in more places than it was starlight silver. Her colors were so muted. Perfect, silver-white feathers clung to her silhouetted form. White pearls ran from her eyes to her cheeks. Stars behind her, but the rest, all black. But she couldn't fix it, she couldn't make it right.
She stepped into the closet.
* * *
The guitar sat in the corner of her new apartment, right beside the window. Taunting her. Accusing her. She was alone. Where had she gone wrong? What had she done? Her family was happy. Her friends were happy. Aratani was happy. B*$!@. She tucked her knees to her chest as she looked outside, and watched the clouds go by. She hadn't drawn in days. She'd ordered out. The kitchen was a terrible mess. She was a terrible mess. Something had to be done, she couldn't live this way. She reached for her phone and flipped it open. Flipped it closed. And sat a moment longer, before tossing it towards the end of the bed and rolling over.
It wasn't until the next day that she'd texted Aratani, asking her if it would be good publicity to hold a lottery to get free room and board with a former member of BB-Pop. She'd ate it up. The first step of getting help was knowing you had a problem... and knowing you didn't have to do it alone.
Without her loved ones, she was a broken little soul. It took a week to get everything set up, and for the lottery winner to be drawn. It was quick, of course. It had to be - Sora wasn't as much of a star as the other two, so they had to cash in while they could. She'd done everything right, why was everyone else so happy? Why was she...
She put the guitar in the closet. The second step was to make changes. She put it all the way in the back of the closet, hid it away.
* * *
She bends down to pick up the guitar. She'd never even bought it a case. It was beaten up now. Out of tune just from sitting at rest for so long, unloved. Forgotten. A harsh laugh makes its way out of Sora's mouth, resulting in her blubbering for a moment, chest heaving from the uncontrolled processes. She pulls the guitar up into position. She'd seen Kazue do it. She'd seen Emi do it. She'd not even done anything more than learned a few chords. Her fingers picked away four strums. C-A-G-E. As far as she'd made it on the Caged system of learning. She sputters again, at the irony, as her tears drip down onto the instrument.
* * *
When May moved in, everything was better. Immediately. The shock of white was always there. Always visible. She always knew when she was alone. And she never wanted to be. Never again.
She did everything she could to impress the young woman at first. Ordered in - but didn't just leave it sitting out. Took her everywhere interesting in town, all the places Kazue had dragged her, originally, and a few that Emi had suggested. She rapidly moved through the whirlwind of things to do, and wound down.
Sora had to improvise. If she couldn't keep May's attention... she'd leave. Just like everyone else had. She had to be interesting. So, she needed to start drawing her into things that she didn't know either of them would enjoy. Mystery, horror, fun. She was older, so maybe the more adult things would keep her interest. But... there was always a place for childish whimsy. So, the two went to see a train.
* * *
The guitar has seen more attention than it's had in years, now. It groans in protest at the woman's strange choices in strumming, her fingers wrong, everything off key, but the tears have stopped. The guitar, her face, the floor, her clothes, still slick with salt-water. But she doesn't have tears anymore to cry. So she sings, quietly to herself, pitch perfect, two voices joining in harmony, then a third. Kazue, Emi, and then May.
I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping
Still my guitar gently weeps
I don't know why nobody told you how to unfold your love
I don't know how someone controlled you
They bought and sold you
I look at the world and I notice it's turning
While my guitar gently weeps
With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps
I don't know how you were diverted
You were perverted too
I don't know how you were inverted
No one alerted you
I look at you all I see the love there that's sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
Look at you all
Still my guitar gently weeps
* * *
"My watch is done."
The scene fades to black as the last vestiges of light in the room, the mural of Tenshi starts to darken. Sora's voice, drained, tired, broken recites the words of an ancient spell that had torn her life apart.
"A part apart; a fate undone;
By tears and rote, I seal this heart;
Bind this spirit; turn the lock,
and rise again to keep the watch."
Still my guitar gently weeps...
Blades?
I'll definitely check GbM out when it's available, in any case.
I don't know anything about Blades. :) So... since I can't sleep, I'll go look into that.
Also, since I can't sleep, have this: Call it one of Sora's bad endings?
** spoiler omitted **...
Chills.
That was an awesome read, and something we might have seen in one of simple4sight's bubbles. There is certainly a version of May out there avenging this version of Sora Homura-Akemi-style.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I'm glad it's well-received. It also tells a bit more about her, so there's that!
I really do enjoy fleshing out my characters by writing things like that. Not all of them flow out as well as Sora, though. :)
I do have to say I had some good inspiration, but... spoilers.
No, seriously. If you haven't watched all of the Magicians... like, wait for season 2. Just... trust me on this. Don't do it to yourself. But it's amazingly good. Just - not yet.
I am currently just wondering why 'The Power of Friendship' hasn't come up for how he can explain move 4 for that character...
This playtest Monday might be the first Twitch thing I show up to live.
Just a sudden thought - do you have any ideas on how the system transition would be handled, fictionally?
So, here are some of my thoughts for the gameset: It seems 'doomed' from the getgo. I worry that it's setting out to kill characters - though I don't know the mechanics for stress. I think he said that stress was something you chose to take.
To preface: I don't know much about Steven Universe.
That being said, for Fusion: I feel like he should focus a little more on making other characters better. That's what he's saying the goal is. That seems to be what he's trying to do. So like, Move 4 could be 'Believe in the power of friendship' which shields your relationships, or you can spend it to allow a friend to utilize their best skill to solve a problem, rather than your own? So, essentially you let someone else use the Rook thingy?
Another idea, and not knowing the system, I'm not sure if it's worthwhile, allowing you to take extra stress to gain an extra action during downtime might be a good one. (With the idea of you being two people, you can choose to be apart to get more done?) Edit: Seems they came up with this one later in the stream. :)
For a better feel for what this engine looks like running, this is a playlist for a traditional Blades in The Dark game Andrew plays in. It's a game of objective clocks and conflicting agendas. I do really think it fits our aesthetic very closely.
Transition will depend on how/when this season ends.
If I decide to change the system, the most important thing will be to make sure veteran characters are transferable. Fictionally, the Blades system uses concepts of area control this game uses. The final roster of the Dawn Watch will be set, and you'll be affecting the influences in different districts. Obusa has three points of power, we'd zoom out to a larger map, and look at factions in a tri-city area of Kanto. You'd learn about the meeting Aratani was flying back from, etc. etc.
That being said, for Fusion: I feel like he should focus a little more on making other characters better. That's what he's saying the goal is. That seems to be what he's trying to do.
I'm not sure where you got the idea that the goal is to make everyone else better? That's really not what I was getting from this, and I'm pretty sure there'd be more emphasis on that in the moves if that was the case.
From what little I saw of it while they were referencing it, that seems more like the Unlikely Hero's domain - who I'm reading as being a normie that got involved in all this one way or another. They don't have the crazy superpowers that the others do, relying on the power of friendship to get by. They actually do have a move that lets them spend their social links to let other people transcend/use their transcendence moves. Time signature I found is 46:59 - it shows up VERY briefly though. Think there's an easier one to spot elsewhere, but it shows the full (though incomplete) playbook at that time signature.To condense something that got pretty big, the Fusion revolves around the powerful connection between two specific people such that they can literally become one, rather than them being able to connect with many people. They have a unique and special bond with each other that they couldn't have with anyone else, providing them with great strength while they're combined, along with a unique insight into what it is to truly be in harmony with someone and to have bonds that could be called indestructible. Their combined form is essentially, if not literally the physical embodiment of the way they bond and connect with each other, hence the emphasis that "You ARE a relationship" in the final writing.
They aren't necessarily good at other people stuff like you suggest, but they are incredibly good at each other stuff, and have rather unique insights as a result of the way they relate to each other. They're at they're best when they are as one, which is why they can't transcend when not combined.
Not that I know specifically what transcending is, other than you being at your peak ability.
Move 4 isn't referred to as the power of friendship because it ISN'T the power of friendship. The power of friendship is something more far-reaching in terms of what it effects. It's more that they make incredibly strong bonds whenever they do make them, rather than that they have any special ability when it comes to bonding and making friends and whatnot. I don't know what giving up special armour would represent other than general strain or something, but that being able to roll your best attribute is a result of using things only available through that intimate link.
That's only as it applies to the Fusion, though, since Veteran seems to allow taking moves from other playbooks.
I think you're just thinking too broadly on the Fusion. It's not about making everyone else better, or about what happens when everyone comes together. It's about how they become better when they come together, and the ups and downs of being both two and one. Other relationships take a backseat.
I spent WAY too long writing this, but I think it's come out a lot better. Does it make sense?
Another idea, and not knowing the system, I'm not sure if it's worthwhile, allowing you to take extra stress to gain an extra action during downtime might be a good one. (With the idea of you being two people, you can choose to be apart to get more done?)
They did write up a move for that? "Two places at once". You just get the extra action rather than needing to take stress, though.
Yup, I caught the no-stress version later in the stream. :)
Iunno. I think overall, they seemed to be a little fixated on creating a specific fantasy, which may be what playbooks are for in the first place - but... I think it's going to be a little hard to create much else within the setup that's being given by this particular playbook. He did explain later as well that the abilities are broader than he's writing them - such as 'you're a giant, you do big things' could also mean 'you're a dragon' or what have you.
I get that a bit better now, overall, what the intent was. I think it was my own mistake that I wanted it to be broader, and that I was listening in on him saying things like 'I want this to be the leader character who makes people better by leading from the front', and not overall understanding the core importance of fusing with one specific person ala garnet, v. fusing with anyone ala the rest of the show.
I liked the wondertwin example someone else listed later, and also think 'Twins' from our game would fit rather well with it, but I feel he was too... I don't know - stuck within the source material? Does that make sense?
Are they meant to be direct copies of already existing ideas (ala the madoka crew for the other characters), or are they meant to be more like pathfinder's classes?
On a tangential bit, I think the 'Darkness' for Fusion could easily simply be 'unhealthy relationship', which allows the fiction to predetermine exactly what it means. Maybe you hate everyone right now and can't fuse. Maybe you don't care about anyone but your fusion. Maybe you don't realize it but you're overfocusing on that one relationship, not necessarily being 'bossy' as a result.
Thus far the system that he's building - just from one very sleepy person's interpretation of one video - seems very narrow. And it feels like many of our characters would need playbooks all their own.
Our Fusion would probably be Paresh and Chrysanth.
The playbooks I've seen are the Stranger, the Guardian, the Fusion, and the Unlikely Hero.
My concern is that the system we're using will run out of material soon.
It seems like there's not a lot of stuff within the game system which allows us to be a lot more broad here, and apply things via IMAAAAAGINAAAATION. I like the overall system and its simplicity.
What are you hoping for out of a systems change? :)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I don't have all the playbooks, and they're not all finished, so there's only so much judgement I can make. But in any case, I understand what you mean. It's way too easy to get wrapped up in trying to recreate something overly specific. I'd say it's fine to take your basic idea from a character, but you need to be able to churn about multiple permutations on that idea.
Say, the Fusion. Garnet's the listed inspiration, and you said about the Wonder Twins. I remember seeing DC's Firestorm as another possible example for the idea. Even with the similarities, they're all quite different indeed.
They seem to be going for a certain tone here, along with their genre and setting stuff. That in mind, the playbooks/classes need to support that - so, I'd figure as a result of that need, things should be between copies and Pathfinder classes, though I'm edging just a little toward copies. It's baking in tone and flavour for it so that it is definitely a certain thing, but also making sure there's plenty of finer details to hammer out that resulting in notably varying characters.
Honestly, the playbooks reminds me of Monsterhearts, if you're familiar with it. Seriously. Darkness in particular reminds me of Darkest Self.
Our Fusion would probably be Paresh and Chrysanth.
Unless I'm missing something, they can't separate, though I can't say whether they're truly combined or just cohabiting. I suppose the more united nature could come with time, but still, they'll need to achieve a certain one-ness.
Right now, they hit the mark in some ways, but not others.The playbooks I've seen are the Stranger, the Guardian, the Fusion, and the Unlikely Hero.
You can also spot the Enigma and the Outsider on that stream you linked. There's also the Time Traveler, who...well, that's only meant to be one person. Starlit Kingdom shows up as well, which seems to be a sort of group thing.
Again, Unlikely Hero in full is 46:59, VERY briefly.Enigma is 47:01.
Guardian at 47:03.
Outsider shows up at 1:40:26
Stranger appears at 1:40:39.
Time Traveller shows at 1:41:45.
Starlit Kingdom shows up a couple of times, but you can see all of it at 1:42:00.
While the 'playbook' method is a valid means of addressing archetypes and story development, I'm not sold on them, they seem a bit... 'clunky' compared to the rather open-flowing means we have so far.
I'm also turning into an old codger that's having a harder time picking up new systems, so that may also be factoring into that assessment.
HOWEVER
GM's house, Gm's rules.
I'm mostly looking to swipe some core mechanics to give this game the the structure and the legs it would need for a longer arc. The rules we started with weren't really written for more than a one-off, and I find myself overwriting them more than using them.
If, by some miracle, what we're doing fits a whole other system, then I don't have to keep making up rules. From Blades, I'm hoping I can at least get a feel for how factions can play out on a larger scale.
Girl by Moonlight is exciting because it takes an engine I've been eyeing, and a theme we've been playing, and attempts to marry them. Between that and my own thoughts, I may be able to find something.
Right now, a lot of this game hinges on figuring out how magic works, and cleaning up the messes past senshi have made. Once that's done, we'll need a shift in direction to continue on. Throwing in more and more ad hock complexity won't work forever.
Okay, it's so late it's getting early... Time for bed.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I'm watching the streams you linked now - I finally slept for longer than 4 hours! Wooo!
I definitely like the idea of more support for factions besides simply webs of relationships (though, I do definitely like the webs of relationships... I've been teasing and tugging at those as often as I can to keep things bouncy!).
I think I'm gonna call dibs on 'The Midnight Crew' as the Mall Group's name. :P
A prolific name like that comes with a theme song.
Yup. Totally not stolen from anywhere. :P
Oh man... I know where Tiresias has been all morning.
Just saw this...
Our Fusion would probably be Paresh and Chrysanth.Unless I'm missing something, they can't separate, though I can't say whether they're truly combined or just cohabiting. I suppose the more united nature could come with time, but still, they'll need to achieve a certain one-ness.
Right now, they hit the mark in some ways, but not others.
We've got months of play before this story reaches its epilogue. (another 15 hours in-game)
I feel like Outsider is a reference to Kyoko from Madoka Magica.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Months of play = 15 hours in game
Time is a funny thing, huh?
---------------
I saw someone say Vegeta would be an Outsider on the stream.
Just imagine, if you will, Magical Girl Vegeta.
I have. It amuses me.
You mean Caulifla?
Yeah, I think the design process has been 'create the madoka girls' then 'branch out'. I still say he's going too specific. Like, my 'main' character (the one that Hotaru of the Society comes from) would be a 'Fusion' in a technical sense. The irony of being a 'Starchild' where that more means twin-souled character made up of Aries and Pisces with her Grimdark mode being moving too far towards the Aries or Pisces side is palpable.
If you're curious (you're probably not), I played in a League of Legends RP group for a couple of years that started off with my character making Maokai. Technically. Technically canon. (There's a thread called Truely Twisted Treeline in which a red poster lead us down the path of discovering maokai, and the fiction stated that my character caused the chain reaction that awoke him! Huzzah!)
That all being said, I don't feel like 'Fusion' fits the character despite being a perfect description, as it's too stuck in the fiction of just remaking Garnet. Which isn't inherently bad.
Having continued watching blades in the dark, I see that the 'nifty things you pick up' isn't the end-all be-all for character creation - playbooks give you a baseline of what you're good at, but you can totally focus on other things within that setup. Seeing it in play is nice.
I still say it's too... iunno... lethal. Like the game is rigged for you to lose a bit.
*blink* silverROSE is a guy?
*considers* hmmmm...
Does Silver Rose have more to do with a Compass Rose than a flower rose, I wonder..?
There are things simple4sight knows that others don't and may never know. There are also things he does not know which are eminently obvious.
silverROSE has to do with guns and being 16.
Source material per Andrew themself. (playbooks are not meant to be mutually exclusive.)
Unlikely Hero: Usagi (SM), Steven (SU)
Time Traveler: Hamura-chan (MM), Chibi Usa (SM)
Stranger: Paridot (SU), Nauto-kun (P4)
Outsider: Mars (SM), Pearl/Amethyst (SU)
Guardian: "straightforward"
Enigma: Tuxedo Mask (SM)
Fusion: Garnet (SU)
DistractedElf made an Enigma named Corvus, who is raven-themed. I feel less unique.
Watching the first session, there are definitely some systems and concepts I'll be stealing. I'm not sure how much will be player-facing. Not much, though. I prefer focusing on roleplay.
On that note: I've still got mixed signals as to whether our mysterious stranger was our feathered friend or our thiefy friend. :P
The guy in the red hoodie and cane(crutch) who stopped the first youma with lightning was Paresh in yokai-cane form. He also had a usb/scroll case that was bound to a Tanuki as well as his bile trinket, which is MIA.
Ayatori was also there that night in various scenes, which is what may have caused confusion.
Watching Moonlight a bit: I think one idea I like that wasn't used but could be a good fit (if you ever talk to them, and also think it's good) is to have the mission function on a clock as expected, but have that clock 'tick down' to something bad, while investigation makes it happen sooner but it's less bad for doing so.
So, like, the idea is that the 'thing' is happening, and it's getting worse as you ignore it or fail to pin it down. Bonus points if your investigation comes to a head instead of it finishing the clock on its own. Like, let's say the clock starts at 12, if it fills in the last pie it gets a small buff (sorta like just having better tempo? I'm not entirely sold), if you fill in the last pie, you get a small buff, and the scene is influenced by how much of the pie each of you made.
The idea is that either way, this thing is going to happen, but how ready for it will you be when it does? And how ready for you will it be?
Iunno. Food for thought!
Other than the territory and faction systems in Blades, the investigation system, especially the way you're describing it, is mostly what I'm after. There's some evil out there, approaching like the toll of midnight, but you can catch it in broad daylight if you're clever. That's always been the expectation in this game, it just doesn't have the mechanics to back it up. This system does not really support that as-written. Seek the Truth can be used to advance a clock, but there's nothing to suggest that's what it's for.
I like the investigation/battle phases, and how they differ from Blades' downtime/mission phases. Especially in how mundane life (taking the place of downtime) is intended to be endured rather than enjoyed. I'm also looking at the Sprawl's Legwork and Action clocks for inspiration.
I do not like the primary stats, but I think they're going to get hit the hardest in the first edit of GbM, because it felt like they had trouble with them as well. They're no worse than the base moves in this game, though. Making you folks aware that there's a larger system at play (in some way) should help open up those possibilities. I just don't want it to become "which move do I use next" or worse, "what do my best stats do"?
The way rolls scale in Blades (with effect and situation modifiers) may be useful, and fits in with our Desperation rolls. I may start posting the rolls I've been doing behind the screen... I just don't want to clutter the stage with crunch if I don't have to. "Roll dice to be magical" has worked really well here.
One of the problems mechanics have is how they interface with fiction and agency. Without mechanics, agency is a question mark. Good writers (and that is what you are.) can make fiction thrive in that kind of setting. We've managed to use a low-mechanics system to reinforce a theme of uncertainty. However, I've done that by slowly introducing new mechanics. Fate is there to encourage you to be mindful of your character's stated core conceit. Drain is there to allow multiple rolls per day without leaving it limitless. Channeling bonuses were introduced to offset Drain. Trinket and Title bonuses to offer advancement and customization. As the system gets more complex, agency slowly slides from a disorienting fog of infinite possibilities to a hedge maze of optimization, and that kills the fiction.
Where I'm at, I can see this horizon ahead. We'll reach the end of the good first season of the anime, and we'll have to do what all anime does, and shift narrative gears for longevity. You can't be rookie Magical Girls who don't know how anything works forever. By (in-game) Monday morning, I want to be done adding core mechanics, and I want to have a better set of core rules written. Maybe rules is the wrong word. A better set of core expectations?
I think something I'd like to see in girl by moonlight is mechanics for a reluctant hero. Like, where the pc doesn't like being a magical girl, and the stress/vice mechanics of blade comes back. Like, your character has a good life, then destiny comes knocking.
My main trope for that is Buffy. Call it Chosen One to emphasize that destiny came calling. And the calling knows where you live.
I really prefer that style of magical girl.
At the moment, with the rules he has, I think Sora is more of a Stranger than anything. At least in the way characters interact with her. :p
Considering, from the other characters' perspectives, you just kinda drop out of the sky once in awhile and infodump before jaunting away, Sora is most thematically the Enigma. I know it's an easy position to take as the DM, but the details on the character sheets aren't set in stone.
If I were to even use these player sheets as a base, my recommendations would be:
Tenshi - Enigma
Juno - Outsider (rival: Junpei)
Naiad - Fusion (current and past lives)
Airi - Guardian
Ai - Unlikely Hero
I guess as the player it's hard to see her as an enigma, but as like 2/3 of the helping I do, no one ever sees... it's accurate. :)
But then I go full-on in-someone's-face Madoka for like... a single scene, then casually vanish once more, majestically I to the wilderness from wence I came.
Hmmm...if Sora's an Enigma, then what's her mask, I wonder?
Her mask is clearly quite visible at all times.
No one knows the Real Sora. Not even Sora understands herself. :)
The real tragedy of Sora's character, to me, is how little she understands about herself. I think Enigma is particularly fitting, because even though she transforms into her Idol self when she transforms, that was a mask all along - a mask she's forgotten how to take off.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Very nice! :P
You know, sometimes I forget we're on Juno's side. :3
It's been a long time since I've had a post mostly written ahead of schedule. I hope whatever Alex and/or Ao do in the next day or two doesn't call for a re-write...
I might post One or two bits, but probably not Juno's.
Has anyone here heard of Bundle of Holding? It's like Humble Bundle, but for tabletop stuff.
I found it a while ago, but I completely forgot about it til now. They've currently got about 4 different bundles running.
I've watched it off and on, but never seen anything noteworthy (to me). But I'm a bit of a prude with my money.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The Tomoyo situation has really been bugging me, because there's a lot going on there with the character. Like, the very first thing I thought of was the 'do robots dream of electric sheep' and my mind twisted that a bit.
It also highlighted several questions unanswered within this medium: If a starchild is someone with no essences, Sakura is a magical girl with only one essence pact that pulls out a shard of her soul, then the girl she creates with that ostensibly has a soul. 1/7 of one, at least. So, how is Tomoyo functionally different from a magical girl operating with only one unsealed pact?
I would posit that she isn't. And so would Tenshi. But Tenshi would totally have gone along with Tomoyo wanting to die to protect the one she loves - because it's something she can understand at a very basal level. Without intervention (or if she were faster), she'd quickly and happily have painted the portrait of Sakura over the portrait of Tomoyo (not intentionally, mind; I feel Tomoyo's portrait is a lot of darkness with a crying doll - but I also feel she has a portrait which says something all its own).
But now, having read Juno's things, I think I've came up with a much more ideal solution... assuming what I believe to be true is true. Assuming we can save Tomoyo, I have a really cool idea that ties the narrative together and forms a few more social bonds within the game. And helps to reforge a very interesting character. We'll see. :3
Meanwhile, I'm just wondering what sort of craziness could yet arise from Junpei not knowing Tomoyo is a trinket.
...nooot that he'd even care about it if he did know, in all odds. But it seems like a potential source of issues - or maybe just something that aggravates problems that would have come up anyway.