OOC chat

So some kind of exposition that the high society from across the world attends? Or did you have something else in mind?

Also, both our PCs have adversaries (in your case a named one, in my case a situational one that may vary from episode to episode). Is there perhaps some sort of connection that can be made through those? Example ideas (mutually exclusive):

- Claude's adversary at the time was none other than Adachi Yuki (optional reason: both competing for someone's affection). At some point, Claude and Homura joined forces.
- Yuki tried to manipulate Claude and Homura into butting heads, but things somehow worked out.
- Claude and Claude's adversary competed for Yuki's affections. Homura got tangled up in that mess somehow, and either defused or detonated the situation, resulting in much fallout but eventually establishing some odd positive relationship between Claude and Homura. (I did not think this through - it looks like a recepe for a rather chaotic story, and I'm just throwing it at the wall in case you have an idea how to resolve it in an interesting way.)

Thoughts?

Ah okay, I'd been wondering why that entire bit was absent from the recruitment thread. Alright, then how about this instead for how they met: Homura was having a photo shoot in the forests of Tokyo. She happened to wander off during a break and ended up meeting Chizuru, whose in the middle of one of her 'Boiling Point' retreats.

A potential idea to add onto that, maybe they stopped a sudden wildfire by working together? Homura stops the flames from spreading with her pyrokinesis, giving Chizuru long enough to set up a barrier that traps the flames and smoke. The wildfire burns itself out without a constant flow of oxygen to fuel it.

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An exposition with a bunch of high society figures sounds fine, Vicky. In fact, it could be a gala celebrating the successful launch of the petalframe prototypes, in which case most of the attendees would be benefactors that had a hand in the project one way or another.

Your ideas are all good, but I find myself leaning towards the second one. Or perhaps a combination of the first and second. Yuki felt that Claude was a threat, so she tried to set Claude and Homura against one another. Then they'd wise up and turns the tables on Yuki.

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On another note, I'm changing Homura's backstory a bit to strengthen her motivation. I originally had her move from Osaka to Tokyo, but after looking over the world history, I thought I should have her be born in Tokyo instead, but the devastation of the Imperial Capital of Tokyo during the Second Great Demon War forced her and her family to move away to Osaka. Her best friend still dies, but that takes place in Tokyo instead. The powerful shamon that was mainly responsible was wounded and scarred by Empress Kiyomoto's last stand, but it went into hiding to slowly regain its strength. Upon returning to Tokyo years later, Homura's motivation for piloting is not just to defend Tokyo and Japan as a whole out of obligation, but also to prevent a tragedy like the Second Great Demon War from ever happening again.

On that note, will we get some more details on shamons later? All we know is that they're evil monsters that have plagued the world for one and a half millennia, and they seem to originate from another world. What do they typically look like? What common abilities do they have?

Oh, those ideas sound exciting! Just pointing out that petalframes are secret weapons (the PCs would only know about them when being invited into the force, unless they have some previous relation to them).

As for the shamos, I can share some images I plan to use in a minute. What the public knows about them is basically that what you said. As the story progresses, I plan to expand on that (as the PCs learn it themselves).

Also, it would be interesting if you guys throw any extra info on your characters that you come up with, like background bits, on the character sheets, for our ease of access.

Based on what Moyreau wrote, seems the gala would be celebrating something else. But otherwise with similar details and participants. At this point I'm setting on assignment of semi-ceremonial positions in the guard for the élites of society (palaces, envoys, embassies &c.) being a part of Claude's background.
I think it might be nice to flesh out this Yuki of yours a bit more, both because of being a recurring character, and because those details would make it clearer what sort of 'toolkit' she used against the PCs. Is her competence area social-only, or does she also have a combat-oriented, mystical, and/or sneaky side?

If sneaky, then perhaps there was a stolen-and-planeted item involved, leading to some false accusations of theft and investigation. If a combatant, then perhaps the situation could eventually escalate to a duel. For the social focus, which seems to be the default, if taking a bit from the first idea-variant from the initial list, I suppose it could be something about both Yuki and Claud 'chasing' the same hottie at the time, and Yuki somehow (face to face or through indirect trickery) convincing Claude that it is Homura and not Yuki who is the other contender, with misunderstandings and shenanigans ensuing for a while.

What do you think of those possible directions of the incident? Which ones would we make canon and flesh out more?

Hmmm. I'm trying to think how that would start and unfold. I'm seeing Claude's default personality as chill and playful until provoked, and switching to SpiritedCompetitor mentality when pulled into a harmless challenge - graceful loser, courteous winner. (Serious enmity is an entirely different matter.)
Would it be plausible that maybe Claude was at some point assigned to Chimera for the sake of providing fencing lessons, in the hopes of helping achieve that living weapon status?

I apologise for veering off-course and suggesting an entirely different flavour of a connection above. I'm just not sure what areas of rivalry are likely between the two:
- Claude knows nothing about crafting.
- Chimera is small, cute, hammy, and is ignorant in matters of romance; Claude is tall, libertine, nonchalant, and sees romance as extraneous in a relationship. So on the social side, it seems that they can't compete because they appeal to two entirely non-overlapping 'target audiences'.
- If I'm reading Chimera's sheet correctly, there's too much disparity in martial arts (outisde of a Frame) for Claude to consider starting a competition unless provoked. OTOH, Claude would admire Chimera's attitude towards self-perfection (if witnessed). Actually, on a related front, Claude would probably not really buy into the 'cuteness' factor given Chimera's attitude, so the odds of triggering that consternation are also lowered.

Regarding Dominique, that might be an interesting connection. The 'butler stereotype' is close enough (valet, not butler, though - primary specialisation being a personal aide, not a manager of a big mansion). Is there any more you'd want to add to it, or questions you have for me?

And what thoughts and adjustments to the connection would you have in relation to the above added information and thoughts of mine?

Also, you mentioned childish personality. Approximately how old is Chimera at the start of the campaign, and at the pre-campaign encounter?

I know we are not mandated to have a connection, but I'm offering this possibility anyway just in case it'll be met with interest:

If Chizuru engages in martial pursuits, perhaps Chizuru and Claude may have met after the latter's arrival in Japan, but before the campaign start, e.g. upon visiting a kendou dojo where Chizuru is a member. You know, just looking for local training grounds, since obviously Claude wouldn't be able to attend the salle d'armes attened back home anymore.

Or, less likely, maybe Claude was on the lookout for places to continue occult studies in Japan, and that somehow led to intersecting paths with Chizuru.

As a suggestion, the gala could be celebrating the end of the war in 1918. Though the characters would be quite young at that point.

It could also be the anniversary of the last Holy Pact, 15 or 20 years of it.

What exact year does the campaign start? I'm aiming for age 19-20, possibly 18-21 if needed, at campaign start. How old everyone is at that point does affect what kinds of prior events are or aren't plausible.

The game starts at the spring of 1923.

1923 vs. 1918 makes that 5ish years ago. 5 years younger. So 15ish for Claude. It's not impossible, but implies that 1918s France has similar expectation as l'Ancien régime era regarding when nobles begin taking on semi-combat duties (and again produces some fun but ominious parallels).

Would you rather prefer the expectations regarding age nobles are expected to get 'appropriate' jobs to be retained from the olden times into the 1920s, or to have them changed? (I think I can roll with either, but it does influence character backgrounds.)

Sorry, it wasn't very clear what you were asking, but yeah, French (and pretty much the rest of the world) is pretty much ancien régime.

On another note, I think there's only @Tickettbror left to stabilish Abenanka's connection, so I'll go ahead and start thinking of an initial scene, the details in the connections and everything else can be fleshed out as we go.

In that case, age 15 (maybe 14) seems like about right for getting some of the first service assignments. Like being attached to some higher dignitary attending the event as a royal guard. So Homura and Claude could meet at the gala for the end of the war in 1918, depending on Homura's age at the start of the campaign. Unfortunately, at that age they'd both still be a bit short.

Spirited competitor and harmless challenge sounds about right for what I'm going for. As for the subject of the competition, I figure that since Claude has quite a few traits related to showing off, Chimera would naturally take it as a challenge to show off harder, no matter what the actual task is. If you don't see it working out like that, let me know and I'll think of something different (like Chimera bugging Claude to teach her stuff like the blink step and fencing).

As for Dominique, my question would be what you see them doing during the game.

In terms of age, I figure Chimera to be around 15/16 years old. Any past incidents probably happened within the last couple of years at most.

Hmm, let's see, just kind of stuff Claude might have been involved in as a showoff that could get princess Chimera pulled in . . .
- Performing trick shots from a sidearm at some event. Probably hard to compete there against 5M-10M rating (either Swashbuckler/Showing Off or Swashbuckler/Finesse).
- Verbal performances, such as public speaking, poetry-reading, perhaps those semi-improvised poetic showdowns. Charismatic 5M, probably a tough pick.
- Playing chess, Whist, and the like. At a rating of 10 (Astute Mind), Chimera may be on even ground with the right approach, and that may actually fire up Claude's enthusiasm for the competition.
- Song (Maupin's Lineage 10) and Dance (Maupin's 10 or Nobility 10). Uh, might be competitive, or be something Chimera is better at, depending on what you consider to fall under Princess?
- Equestrian stuff at some event out in the field (Noble 10). Racing, foxhunts, trick riding. As above.

Any of those seem like it makes sense both to happen at an event the two were at during those years, and for Chimera to get hooked by enough to get involved?
I don't object to the above options working out if you think they make sense, but I do think it would be good if the teaching option also happened (whether with or without major results though - whichever you prefer). If that's OK by you. If yes, can we combine the competitive aspect and the educational one, or do you think that's too contradictory a relationship? If your response is no, that's fine too.
Doing chores (cooking, cleaning, washing, serving breakfast, heating water, maintaining fireplaces), running errands, delivering messages, greeting guests, handling minor arrangements (such as booking a table).

All that seems good! We can further develop any pending relation as the game goes on. I would just ask everyone to add all this info into their character sheets for ease of reference (and because I couldn't follow with the discussion for some of them~).

Oh, my bad, I read that Breakout satirically, interpreting this side of your PC in the style of Tagashi Yuuta and Takanashi Rikka. But turns out Chimera is more like Keiichi the wizard of words. In which case, seems Chlaude ran into a worthy opponent, or perhaps even is bested more often than not.
I'm not sure what's going to happen with theatre yet. I guess Claude should be able to do OK there, but not be remarkable in the technical skill department, and be typecast into self-similar roles. Hard to comment on the gadgets and the unassigned slots, will have to see those in action.
Cool. I think being assigned as a guard of honour at one occasion, as a fencing personal tutor at another, and going head to head at several events involving public speaking, would be a cool background for the two (not necessarily in the listed order). Or at least two out of those three things (the guard subplot can be droped with no loss, whichever you prefer). For ease of RP, the connection may be not particularly deep/strong at the moment the campaign starts, but I think it's nice to have those things already there rather than making them from scratch during the campaign given what we discussed so far.

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Random thought: between the name Chimera and the Cursed Hands of the Mad Visionary, I'm now imagining that Chimera's Petalframe looks something like this:

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My sheet should now be visible to everyone, has motivation added and will have the connections added once they are fleshed out more / finalised in the thread.

We'll go with it being in celebration of the Second Great Demon War's end then, as Moyreau suggested. This would make Homura around 13 at the time, so she'd probably be attending with her parents rather than on her own. I hadn't thought about what her parents do anyway, so I'll make Homura's mother an esteemed seamstress and her father a journalist.
I'd say she's got both sneakiness and social finesse in her 'toolkit'. Juxtaposing Homura's earnestness, Yuki constantly masks her true nature and uses manipulation to get what she wants. I'm also thinking of establishing her as the potential heir to the Adachi Corporation, which would mainly be a defense contractor. Her family adheres strictly to a meritocratic mindset regarding inheritance, so she's competing with her siblings to earn the right to be the heir. She'd be 16 at the time of the gala, and 21 in present day.

Hm... To expand on the sneaky steal-and-plant approach, she could've stolen something important off of Claude, like a signet ring bearing the d'Armagnac crest. She planted it on Homura, then directed Claude towards her. While the two of them got into a heated dispute, Yuki would pursue the hottie she and Claude were after. How's that?

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Looks like I can put the connection down on my sheet then, but I'm curious about why Abenanka has mixed feelings about 'Chizuru'. Is it something you'd rather explore or reveal in play?