Bleach: Turn Back the Pendulum [OOC]

[Lord Raziere]

I thought Razade said he wasn't going to teach us Kido? I was planning on Saki Shihoin investigating some legendary artifact or something to get access to it then somehow reverse engineer it or something before Tasnim.

[Frozen_Feet]

Kido is pretty expansive as a concept. There isn't a problem with it having multiple inventors. I'd go so far as to say that it'd be reasonable for most individual spells to have been invented by different people.

[Razade]

I thought Razade said he wasn't going to teach us Kido?

I didn't say that.

I'm not sure what deal you're talking about other than the Nobles promise Yan Wao Shen payment in helping seal the Soul King away. He's not made a deal to anyone to teach magic.

.....oh hm. nevermind then. thought you said something about teaching Kido to someone? oh well.

Yan Wao Shen is, nominally so far, teaching magic to Kuang. It's not a wider ranging deal and I never brought it up.

And I didn't shoot out Yan teaching Kido. Though I think its role is probably going to be less pro and more ant when we're discussing the agonist spectrum earlier than I predicted. So who knows. I'm not one to plan far.

That's the whole exchange.

I know..but why would the Necromancer create kido and teach it to proto-shinigami? Doesn't make a ton of sense, that's why I was working off that assumption.

I don't think we need Yan Wao Shen to teach it now that you're here. As to the question...its their ally. Even if they don't think it is. Its building the Seki Seki Walls of what will be Soul Society. It'll be helping form the Royal Guard and sealing the Soul King. No reason it couldn't have helped teach Kido since until you came it was the only character that seemed interested in magic. I think Yan's doing enough for the story though, I'm fine not doing anything related to kido.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Alright, so no major problems with Tasnim then?

[Razade]

I don't have any. Looking forward to the two mystics meeting up.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Great, now I just need to figure out how to start her off! XD

[Razade]

The Necromancer and the Demon could meet up. Sorta left it open where Yan went.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Sounds good to me! Want me to set up a scene for the Necromancer to step into or vice versa?

[Razade]

Sounds good to me! Want me to set up a scene for the Necromancer to step into or vice versa?

If you're cool with setting one up I'll be happy to respond later. Lot on my plate today. If you haven't by the time I get home (which will be....very late) I'll happily do one. So...which ever of us gets to it first. If you have some time to post in the OOC and not in the IC, could you tell me where she would be in general? Like where her home is/what she'd be doing?

[Razade]

Hopefully that's all alright there Callos. I'll edit if needed. Sorry it's late, got home quite late and quite...not capable of posting.

[Callos_DeTerran]

This is a question that I've been wondering, not just Tasnim actually...What exactly has the Soul King done to deserve killing or imprisonment at this particular juncture?

[Lord Raziere]

From the perspective of people who can't see the future, from what I can tell? Absolutely Nothing. He has retreated to his palace and has not done a single thing, and has not come out at all.

Of course from what I can tell his inaction is itself what is causing the current chaos of nobles fighting nobles, bandits roaming about, the afterlife in chaos and bleeding between worlds and so on. So while he hasn't actually done anything, a moral soul can question why the hell he isn't doing anything to fix all this and just letting innocents get pillaged by bandits and warlords while the Great Houses play politics and various afterlives drift and bleed into one another without needing any precognition. One could even argue that is being a weak ruler who can't or won't solve anything and that he has lost the Mandate of Heaven so to speak, if your not a precognitive.

So no, there is no specific thing he has done, but neither is there anything desirable about the situation his inaction has created.

(From Saki's perspective, she can tell that the situation is not ideal if she wants a stable House and her family protected to enjoy her lifestyle, but neither is she really invested in speaking out about it- to her, its just politics as usual and she is a noble and therefore a politician, while the Soul King to her is just this strange figure who for some reason ennobled a drunk commoner and his family twenty years ago because he claimed to have killed a bunch of Hollows single-handedly. so she doesn't know what to think of it aside from going "thanks for the status and riches, I'm going to do whatever I want with it and kill Hollows, bye.")

[Razade]

This is a question that I've been wondering, not just Tasnim actually...What exactly has the Soul King done to deserve killing or imprisonment at this particular juncture?

A point of order. It's not what its done, it's what its going to do.

Yan Wao Shen, to Ana Shiba, brought the point that the Soul King is simply a fact of the Universe. A force of destruction balanced by a force of creation known simply as The Hero and that over the indeterminate eons the two have slowly begun to shift places and that as they get near their powers wane and will wax when they reset. Is that the truth? Maybe a shade of it. Really depends on what other people inject into the narrative at this point. But that's the story the Necromancer is going with and until other people add other wrinkles for me to makes more wrinkles out of until we can get to the truth...that's the prevailing hypothesis. Make of that story what you will in regards to the Necromancer itself. I have my own ideas.

Spoiler: One Idea

Show

It's a fragment of the Hero, a previous gambit from the Hero to purge its evil so that when Yan Wao Shen died and the Soul King became the Hero, there'd be two Heroes. One insanely power and one diminished but still powerful and the Corpse Dragon would be significantly less powerful and could finally be defeated. Yan Wao Shen knows this and wants to live so it wants to stall the cycle as long as possible. It is indeed the Corpse Dragon, but such a neutered form that...it doesn't really matter to our power levels. It just so happens that giving the Corpse Dragon what it wants also....gives the Proto-Shinigami what they want. Not to die.

I should also point out that Yan Wao Shen doesn't have precognition. It has soothsaying. Rolling bones, goat entrails, other various dark magics and omens. Which really is just a narrative thing and not a power. It already explained that he can see possible futures through his magics, not that it knows what's going to actually happen. It has to actively work to move the present to a future it wants. Which is the narrative part. When something doesn't go as it said...that's Fate taking a turn away from it's desired end. When it holds true...that's just confirmation.

[Frozen_Feet]

This is a question that I've been wondering, not just Tasnim actually...What exactly has the Soul King done to deserve killing or imprisonment at this particular juncture?

As noted by Raziere - nothing! The King has withdrawn from His people and left those nominated as Balancers (archaic Shinigami, basically) to enforce his Will.

The problem with this arrangement is that Kuchiki are the only Royalist family who really buy into this deal, and they don't know what the King's Will is.

Meanwhile, as noted, Yan Wao Shen and Ana Shiba are working on prophecy and visions. Their concerns are about a hypothetical future.

Lord Ichiro Takehiko Kuchiki is the chief opposition, ideologically, to Yan Wao Shen, and to lesser degree, Ana Shiba, because he is skeptical of divination and prophecy. Lord Kuchiki agrees the Soul King is dangerous - but this is because he views the prevailing situation through the King's right to punish all people who fail to uphold His Will. If you'd ask Kuchiki, Yan Wao Shen is bringing forth the future he fears by acting against the King.

It remains to be seen if a synthesis between these views is possible.

[Toxic Mind]

From the Shiba perspective, two intertwined problems that both point to the same solution.

On one hand you have Ana Shiba, whose precognitive abilities give her short, terrifying glimpses of a future she wishes to avoid, though she does not know how for sure. She knows that the soul king will be in some way responsible, and when the chance to seal him away comes, she sees this as the way to avert this fate. Kuchiki's logic is perfectly sound to her, she might be causing it, but inaction without cause is worse to her than an action that might lead to the same conclusion. Flawed, perhaps, but who isn't?

For Kane Shiba, he has his wife's visions, which he has grown to trust, but more than that, he's a man of the people, and the people suffer because of (what he sees as) the Soul King's failures to be an effective ruler who serves his people. A king who retreats and does nothing when he has the power to solve problems is a King who does not deserve his position. Still, that doesn't mean he deserves death. But removal from that power so that another, hopefully better (in this case group rather than individual) can take its place - that lines up perfectly.

[Razade]

Of course, regardless of what he's done or what he's going to do. The fiction calls for him to be bound. That's one of our bullet points in keeping this moving forward.

[Frozen_Feet]

You are correct.

[Razade]

Well that was a prolonged absence of the forums.

I am still here. Just checking in.

[Lord Raziere]

Yo, still here as well.

and I've got more character ideas that only work for modern Bleach. feh. I'll go respond with Lady Saki now.

[Toxic Mind]

still around!

[King539]

Stil here!

[Frozen_Feet]

Regarding Shiba & Shihouin ambushing Kuchiki & Qiu Tao:

How you've thought to time it? I think it would fit well if the ambush takes place at the same time as Tsuniy Tao finds them, just as they're about to leave Earth. That'd be a natural meeting point for most of the current characters.

There's a few ways it could go from there:

1) the ambush goes awry because of the Hollows and the ambushers and the ambushed have to fight off the Hollows together.
2) the ambush works, but then the ambushers are set upon by the Hollows, allowing Kuchiki, Qiu & Ezekiel to escape.
3) Kuchiki, Qiu and Ezekiel reveal horrible superpowers, turning the ambush into a mook horror show for the ambushers, but then the onslaught of Hollows allow the ambushers to escape.

Thoughts?

[Toxic Mind]

Regarding Shiba & Shihouin ambushing Kuchiki & Qiu Tao:

How you've thought to time it? I think it would fit well if the ambush takes place at the same time as Tsuniy Tao finds them, just as they're about to leave Earth. That'd be a natural meeting point for most of the current characters.

There's a few ways it could go from there:

1) the ambush goes awry because of the Hollows and the ambushers and the ambushed have to fight off the Hollows together.
2) the ambush works, but then the ambushers are set upon by the Hollows, allowing Kuchiki, Qiu & Ezekiel to escape.
3) Kuchiki, Qiu and Ezekiel reveal horrible superpowers, turning the ambush into a mook horror show for the ambushers, but then the onslaught of Hollows allow the ambushers to escape.

Thoughts?

I'm a fan of option 1 truly, because I was going to have Ana go with the hunters. She's one of two people who have actually seen the blades, and more than capable as an assassin on her own.

I think our legendary archer corps should get a chance to show their chops and such, but they are still mooks.

[King539]

3 seems funnier, but 1 would make more sense. I'm fine with either.

[igordragonian]

I think 1, give a chance for everypony to shine.
I'll just have to think about few interesting "commanders" of Tsunyi, unless you want it to be all on one kind of boss battle. (and a quarter million of "rookie" hollows)

[Toxic Mind]

I think 1, give a chance for everypony to shine.
I'll just have to think about few interesting "commanders" of Tsunyi, unless you want it to be all on one kind of boss battle. (and a quarter million of "rookie" hollows)

I think thats up to you

[igordragonian]

Dont trust me too much.
What would you preffer to see?

[Toxic Mind]

Dont trust me too much.
What would you preffer to see?

Honestly, I like the idea of an absolute tide of hollows that culminates with our big boss rising out of them (or even carving her way through them to get to her target).

[Frozen_Feet]

Tsuniy eating her followers and turning into a Gillian midway through when the horde of Hollows no longer seems to be effective would sound like a plan to me.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Well that was a helluva forum outage, responding now!