>>1025361
Hang on, are we even that close with Ignolia? I thought she was bonded to our dad, not us.

>>1025759
Correct. Ignolia has bonded with our dad, not us. I don’t think we have that much of a bond with her in the first place.

>>1025737
I mean, yeah? That was a problem with the high intensity version already.
A long handle with lots of radiating segments would work fairly well without requiring mana for active cooling... we could also try something hilarious:

SHAPE to anchor two parts to eachother, with an air separation. Then to fire it, we'd use what is effectively a button-pushing device. Like, a lever that pushes a rod forward to press a button that activates the laser for a burst.

>>1025390
Wouldn't this just be a hot air balloon? Couldn't we do that with just fabric and fire already(like og hot air balloons)?

I mean, making a hot air balloon would be cool, but we don't need to reinvent the wheel.

>>1025783
I'd add inventing Hot Air Balloon to the list of things to work on soon, I can see that being useful, even for wingkin that can already fly. It'd make it easier to carry stuff, and as far as I know most winged folks cant do intricate hand stuff while flying.

I think we talked about upgrading the Sun Scepter before, but we might need to upgrade either our Scripting/Runecrafting or our materials first.

I am like 90% sure you can't use hot air to sharply change vertical trajectory.

>suggestions for a Hot Air Balloon
The humans will definitely sabotage us if we made that. They’ll see a big, slow moving, easy to hit target, and attack the Hot Air Balloon. And it wouldn’t be too hard for them to do, since they can fly with rune powered magic boots.

Even if the Hot Air Balloon has guards with it, protecting it would be difficult if enough enemies show up to attack.

>>1025831
Depends on how sharp. Quick google says balloons can rise and fall as fast as 36kph/22mph, however going faster than about 10kph/6.7mph can risk ear barotrauma.

>>1025841
That's speed, not acceleration.

Hmm we should start making dinner training for when we ever return to the kingdom for the eating competitions as a sort dramatic showing where we claim firstplace would make good diplomatic points.
Interesting fact Real Life birds dont really taste hot spiceiness or EXTREMELY dulled sense as birds dont chew they are the what the peppers evolved towards to use as seed spreaders

>>1025856
Yes, yes it is. I can't find any info on the acceleration (outside of physics word problems), but I would guess that they can hit those speeds pretty quickly, relatively speaking.

>>1025990
Yeah, while using a LOT more hot air, and a very large heat source that's separated from the balloon material. I don't think it would work on a small scale for extra air maneuverability. We'd be better off generating thrust directly, rather than trying to grab hot air with a parachute, which... won't capture it for long enough to produce much lift.

Oh, really, the problem isn't acceleration, it's "jerk", which is how fast you can generate acceleration.

EJECT rune can form a solid... what kind of solid is it? Can we make metal with it? How expensive are various materials? Could we make something cheap like stone or wood and use it as ammo, perhaps? A crossbow that uses mana for ammo would be pretty neat.

I wonder if we could make a repeating crossbow that has decent force behind the projectiles? Most repeating crossbows were pretty weak and were used with poison-tipped darts.

>>1025994
Is it a actual solid or just kinetic energy in a shaped form

We should make sure that any mana pistols we make don't explode in the hands of whoever is using them.

But if making a mana pistol is too difficult for us right now, we can just make a crossbow for now. It'll at least be something until the mana pistol can be made.

Edmango 2022/03/13(Sun)21:09 No. 1026154 ID: afe7de
File 164723095356.png - (6.68KB , 500x500 , SR2_056.png )

> FINANCES - MINIMUM
You gather everyone together and talk about financing and Laputa Runetech. Everyone assembles into the newly finished workshop and you pull out a chalkboard before outlining your plan. As of right now, you’re in the startup phase of the operation. You recently expanded so as to not waste money on renting the warehouse, and can take on bigger projects.

You: But we’ve been without proper funding
You: Ignis and I have been handling a lion’s share of this and until we can establish
You: … A steady stream of income, it might continue to be the case.
Ignis: So after some deliberation we’ve come to a conclusion
You: Essentially I’ll be fronting the SHINIES in the beginning due to my teaching job
You: 4K shinies a year for each member of Laputa
You: It’s better than minimum wage, but it’s all I can really afford at the moment
Drift: I’m happy to be paid at all
William: Hopefully when I can get the rubber nonsense figured out we’ll have dual incomes
You: That’s one route, but you’ve been struggling, so we can’t put all the eggs in that basket
You: I recently purchased rights to produce and sell Clark’s RUNE ETCHING blueprint
You: That’s one avenue to start making minor funds, and it’s also useful for our ends

You give a small demonstration of the device and several of them nod.

William: One step closer to a computer I suppose.
You: Sigh… one day.

Eventually the meeting closes and you all resolve the basic logistics of the company finances. A few of the members ask why, since you’re paying everyone, you’re paying your own salary. After a bit of contemplation you reply.

You: I want us all to be on an even playing field
You: I don’t want this to be about GREED
You: I want it known that if you put in the work you’ll be paid and treated correctly by everyone
You: Even me, with my multiple jobs and projects
You: And eventually we’ll get paid in even larger sums, which will then go to the company funds
You: Which will then get redistributed to new projects and other kin.
Ignis: Ooooh
You: Plus, we may reach a stage where you want to work on your own projects independently
You: If everyone’s paid the same, they can hire others to work with them later on their projects
You: I’m already looking into one or two potential recruits, so you might do well to do the same
Ignis: Plus I figure there’s way to distribute payments based off of contributions
William: We should develop bonuses or incentives for that kind of thing
You: We just have to be careful we don’t fall into… certain old pitfalls

> You are now paying the members of Laputa Runetech!
- Morale has increased!
- This will cost you [16,000 SHINIES] a year
- Everyone is being paid [4,000 SHINIES] a year
- You currently have enough funds to maintain this for 2 years
- Barring accidents and not including the cash influx from your other work.
- Your portion will be banked and can be withdrawn at any time
- If nothing changes, a [FINANCING] event will occur mid [YEAR 20] to reassess the situation

Edmango 2022/03/13(Sun)21:09 No. 1026155 ID: afe7de
File 164723097059.png - (14.71KB , 500x500 , SR2_057.png )

> [YEAR 17] TP6 EVENT - PAWN'S REQUEST, REVISITED
The brisk wind brushes against your feathers as you fly across the Tengu skies, eventually reaching Pawn’s apartment. The space seems a bit more organized then when you visited him last year. There’s a small prototype on his desk of what looks like a water wheel and you see a crude box next to it connected with cables. He greets you and gestures for you to have a seat, serving you some tea.

Pawn: It’s been slow going, but I’ve got some rudimentary stuff going
You: I can see that, do you have a prototype for energy storage there?
Pawn: It’s… certainly a prototype.
Pawn: Had to get another job to supplement my work, so it takes time
Pawn: You been up to anything interesting?
Pawn: I heard rumors of you recruiting a Human boy.
You: I’m training him to TA, he has potential
You: Also I’ve been reading that book
Pawn: The OMNIMBUS?!?
Pawn: Oooooh what do you think? Have you gotten to the end?
You: Not yet, about ⅓ of the way through
You: It reads like a rather good smut novel
Pawn: Right!!? It’s so interesting, and the characters and blah blah blah blah

The two of you chat about the book in brief snippets, he’s trying hard not to spoil the later chapters, but you can tell his enthusiastic to have someone to share this with.

Pawn: Well, glad to see you, I have to get back to it though.
Pawn: If I had half an ingot of Arcanum I could MAYBE do something
Pawn: Maybe you can reconsider my offer from earlier?
Pawn: MICROSCRIPTING for a little less Arcanum and your SHAPE rune?
You: Actually I wanted to talk about that
You: I think we could come to an agreement.

After hashing out the details you come to a new arrangement, teaching him the SHAPE rune, half an ingot of ARCANUM, and some various parts costing around 500 SHINES. You also feel like your bond with PAWN has deepened ever so much more, and that he might be amicable to joining Laputa Runetech, should you offer him a good deal.

You’ve gained a new SPLIT OPPORTUNITY - MICROSCRIPTING
A. Hire PAWN
- Pawn wants to be hired at a base salary of [5,000 SHINIES a year]
- This is more than the others of Laputa Runetech are being paid
- He wants a guarantee that he won’t be unjustly let go within 2 years
- His current passion project is in relation to ENERGY STORAGE and GENERATION
- You will gain the MICROSCRIPTING MANUAL
- Development and research will increase in speed
B. Buy his MICROSCRIPTING KNOWLEDGE
- Pay him half an ingot of Arcanum (you have enough in stock)
- Pay him 500 SHINIES worth of MONSTER PARTS
- Give him the SHAPE rune manual
- You will gain the MICROSCRIPTING MANUAL
- Pawn may develop his own RUNESCRIPTING STARTUP
You can chose to negotiate any of those terms by suggesting alternatives and any justifications you feel are valid.

After finishing your visit, you encounter someone outside, heading to Pawn’s place. They look surprised to see you and give you a wide grin as they walk past. You recognize them as a previous student of yours. She was a rather spiteful one, and was seen spending time with Clausey. You shudder when you think about that student.

You look her over, her plumage is a bright orange and black and her species reminds you of the Pitohui, a bird known to consume insects to secrete poisons on their feathers to deter predators. You’ve heard that it’s rare for Wing-Kin to actually adopt that trait, but it’s not impossible. You remember her name to be Caissa, but pay no mind to her as you saunter onward.

Edmango 2022/03/13(Sun)21:09 No. 1026156 ID: afe7de
File 164723099248.png - (14.36KB , 500x500 , SR2_058.png )

> [YEAR 17] TP6 EVENT - M&B APPRENTICE TOURNAMENT
You head to the tournament this year, ready and stronger than ever. Your unexpected growth at Dopus really helped give you that edge you were missing. You experimented with styles and with techniques related to SUNDERING, or destroying weapons, so your blunt weapons become more about disabling your opponents and this lets you absolutely curb stomp your opponents.

It’s a little disappointing actually, just how easy it was. They were expecting your usual fighting style, reminiscent of the Mind and Body Claw style you’ve been working on, but the minor mix ups break the concentration and flow of your opponents. All but one, that sloth from before actually provides you with a minor challenge, but you still beat him.

And with that, the tournament comes to a close, you’re the victor in your weight bracket and the crowd cheers for you. Lou Xin approaches you from the sidelines and congratulates you.

Lou Xin: Woah, well done there!
Lou Xin: Looks like you’re reaching the limits of what we can teach you with the Claw
Lou Xin: Well, without much more intense training
Lou Xin: Though most hobbyist’s don't really care to go much farther
You: That felt weird though, almost too easy compared to the other times…
Lou Xin: Well that’s because you got outside experience from the looks of it
Lou Xin: Sometimes seeing the world is a good way to get inspiration and learn
Lou Xin: This year’s fees are on me since I lost a bet and you did so well.
Lou Xin: Oh, and here’s your medal!

The medal is a small thing made of stone and inlaid with what appears to be some sort of brown metal. You [UNDERSTAND] it to be iron that has been painted to look like bronze. You feel it prick at your [PRIDE] but the feeling is subdued by the bitterness you felt from the lack of challenge. You think back to 5 years ago, to that bald human. She was 3 years older than you then and you haven’t seen her since.

[TENACITY] Who was that anyway, it’s almost like she came specifically for you and then left
[INTUITION] Maybe it was exactly that.
[LOGIC] There must have been a reason behind it

You: Hey you remember that girl, Wanda?
Lou Xin: Hmm? Yeah, what about her?
You: Do you think I could take her?
Lou Xin: Hmmm, you? Now?
Lou Xin: Maybe… But good luck finding her, she went missing a few years ago
You: Really?
Lou Xin: Yeah, without a trace
Lou Xin: Anyway, when you finally reach a good growth point we can talk about…
Lou Xin: Well we should have talked about it a while ago, but you could become a Senior Disciple
Lou Xin: The only thing that would change is
Lou Xin: That you’d also help other kin like yourself learn the art
Lou Xin: Oh and your fees would be waived
Lou Xin: There’s other stuff involved too
Lou Xin: But I can’t really tell you about it, Lara says it’s a LEAP OF FAITH
You: That’s a weird saying considering we can all fly
Lou Xin: Yeah, I don’t get it either…
You: I’ll think on it.

You’ve gained a new OPPORTUNITY - BECOME A SENIOR DISCIPLE
- Your Background task will continue to be filled
- You will no longer owe dues to the M&B dojo
- You will gain the chance to gain something
- [GUILE] There’s most certainly going to be some hidden cost
- [INTUITION] There’s no such thing as a “free lunch”
- [LOGIC] Isn’t the cost… teaching?

You also get the feeling that you’ll finally achieve your long-term goal of reaching BASIC MASTERY of the CLAW soon! Your body quakes in anticipation.

Edmango 2022/03/13(Sun)21:10 No. 1026157 ID: afe7de
File 164723101516.png - (17.08KB , 500x500 , SR2_059.png )

> [YEAR 17] TP6 - TEACH THE ROYAL SCIENTISTS III
You visit the Royals, intending to check up on Rutherford and Satina. Rutherford seems to be making good progress and has taken the last year to go through and learn all of the Runes you gave him. He’s still a bit sloppy on practically applying them, but you can see that his room is just filled with papers and documents and research. It seems he’s taking a more scientific approach and is plotting out potentialities from each of them. You get the feeling he’ll just be lost in the weeds unless he’s given a DIRECTION. That he’s enthusiastic, but when given so much knowledge becomes a bit SCATTERBRAINED.

[CREATIVITY] He has boundless creativity but lacks direction

Satina on the other hand has made 0 progress since you’ve been gone, her knowledge hasn’t deteriorated, and she tries your patience a bit less than she did before, but it’s still a slog. Luckily you don’t have to split focus and you can spend all your time on her, thus making substantially more progress than before. You get the feeling that on your next visit she’ll have finally cracked the HARDEN rune and can actively communicate properly with RUTHERFORD on projects.

Satina: Ah right, yer visiting my daughter soon right?
You: Yeah, after I finish a few things
Satina: Good, good!
Satina: Don’t settle for the minimum, make sure to push her buttons
Satina: Yer a good egg

[UNDERSTANDING] I still can’t quite wrap my head around her…
[CHARM] Is this reverse psychology?
[PATIENCE] I feel stronger after this!

And then there’s Lilith. You tried teaching her again, just out of the vain hope that something would change. Nothing has changed, in fact she seems more hostile than before. You cut your session with her after 10 minutes. Time to change tactics, if she won’t listen to you, then it’s time to pull out plan B. You ACCIDENTALLY leave some annotated notes on the runes she so frustratingly chose. The notes are extremely pedantic and talk down to the reader. Is it petty? Absolutely. Will she likely read them? Absolutely. Maybe she’ll swallow her pride, but this is already the best you can do. You can bring an owl to water, but you can’t force it to drink.

Your PATIENCE skill has increased to rank 3!
- Due to the increase, you did not take any stress damage from your recent encounters!

You’ve gained [12,000 SHINIES] from teaching the ROYALS
- Satina has nearly learned her rune
- The QUEEN will likely speak to you after she’s been fully taught

Edmango 2022/03/13(Sun)21:10 No. 1026158 ID: afe7de
File 164723104228.png - (17.06KB , 500x500 , SR2_060.png )

> [YEAR 17] TP7 - INVENTION PART I
You get the team together and begin on Noodle’s Commission. Everyone’s onboard because the ideas are just overall helpful. William pops in every now and again to assist, but has been spending more time away at his house experimenting. He’s said he’s finally got some good samples and that MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, he’ll have a working rubber solution next year. You pat him on the head and he scoffs as he heads off. You think this is a matter of [PRIDE] with him, he wants to figure this out on his own. You did know Willamina I to be rather [STUBBORN] in her past life, but that’s fine, so were you.

You spend a larger chunk of time than expected working on a Parachute prototype with Chipper’s help supplying the goods. Your first few experiments were… awful, just plain awful. Just because you [UNDERSTAND] the constituent components and the abstract concept of a parachute doesn't mean you get the mechanics behind it. [SABA’S KN] kicks in with some of the mechanisms and you eventually have a rudimentary Parachute, it’s non-magical, but is rather bulky.

Ignis then comes around with a modified WINGSUIT, it’s lighter, but takes up the whole body. He says the design was inspired by GLIDE.

Ignis: Basically it’s a wingsuit, but I’ve applied some HEAT and EJECT runes
Ignis: Thus producing hot air and decelerating the fall!
Ignis: The only real problem is… well…
Ignis: The suit disintegrates after a very short amount of time
Drift: So we need a power source
Drift: Preferably a cheap, non Arcanum version
You: Hmm, maybe we should work on that next
Ignis: And the runes are too large, too much surface area taken up
Ignis: If we had MICROSCRIPTING we might be able to make something modified
Ignis: A glove that acts like a wing?
You: Hmm.

Your group continues this discussion before Drift gets an idea

Drift: What if we made a Hot-Air Balloon?
Drift: It’d give us an easier way to transport kin and goods from the tunnel
You: I feel stupid
Ignis: I’ve never seen one
You: We’re all bird brains UGH!
You: It was so SIMPLE!

You then spend a significant amount of time creating a few hot air balloon prototypes. It’s a simple principle to understand and after a while you get some curious onlookers examining your first test run. A few guards even approach to question if you’re invading, but are quickly assuaged by Ignis and William. The balloon is a success, the material costs are low, the only issue is that it requires a significant number of HEATING RUNE-PLATES, or ⅕ of an ingot of Arcanum if you want to use it for a significant amount of time. Either way, you see this as a rousing success.

> You’ve developed 3 [PRODUCTS]
[Clothing Damage Wingsuit]
- Tears apart after a single use, but can slow falls from most heights
[Traditional Parachute]
- Requires no Runescripting to create
- Is a bit bulky
- Cheap
[Hot Air Balloon V.1]
- Requires too many heating plates or ⅕ of an ingot of Arcanum
- Can transport a significant amount of weight
- Is vulnerable to attacks to the balloon

And now for the last project. You’ve been sitting on this blueprint for a while and you’ve been craving it, desiring it, wanting it. Now, no one would call you a gun nut in your past life. To your face anyway. But you were. Unfortunately, Science doesn't translate exactly to Runescripting so your measurements and calculations were off for the most part.

Edmango 2022/03/13(Sun)21:11 No. 1026159 ID: afe7de
File 164723106160.png - (17.18KB , 500x500 , SR2_061.png )

> [YEAR 17] TP7 - INVENTION PART II
Back when you made this blueprint you were under certain assumptions about how RUNESCRIPTING works, these have since changed, but as you worked on other projects your mind kept wandering to it, to this pistol design. How to improve it, how to change it, how to make it your own. The main problem you’re facing right now, though, is SIZE, and POWER. Your first prototype, one made of stone, using runes at the size of a pistol, is a complete dud. You can’t make the projectile go fast enough to do anything significant.

So you upscale, and you upscale, and you eventually get this idea for a FLAME-GUN, or the closest equivalent. It’s… big. And heavy, and even by exhausting ½ an ingot of ARCANUM you can only get one and a half shots out of it, but, it’s a gun, one ready to fall apart at a moment’s notice, but your excitement just got the better of you as you put it together. You think, no, you KNOW that you could make one now, a proper mana pistol, if you knew Microscripting. The power source though, now that’s a problem.

You go through all the designs and ideas and plans you’ve come across and you see 3 main routes to take to resolve that.

A. Make a Battery and Generator
- You’d use arcanum and other resources to make a sort of universal battery
- You’d need to construct some way to charge them, as absorbing Ambient mana takes too long
- You think Pawn would be able to greatly help in this endeavor
- Would save the most funds on the long term
- Might take multiple [TP] to get a fully usable pistol or rifle
B. The Crank-Gun
- Forgo a battery system, use the crank system that Shimon developed for the light
- This would allow you to charge a shot and have it fire at potentially ridiculous strengths
- The wind up time may be a problem
- Would be the most cost effective in the short term
- Would let you get a fully usable rifle in [1 TP]
C. Use pure arcanum
- You’re not sure how many shots you could get out of a microscripted pistol as of now
- But [15,000] shinies a clip sounds reasonable right?
[LOGIC] You really like guns don’t you
[SABA’S KN] SHUT. UP.
[LUST] GUN LUST GUN LUST GUN LUST

And even after all that has been figured out you have one final hurdle to cover. Do you make the gun sized for your WINGS? Do you make it shoulder mounted, and thus harder to aim? Do you make it sized for your claws? Or do you make it a size that can be used by both claws and wings, if so, what’s a good middle ground? Unfortunately you’ve run out of time this [TP] and these questions remain unanswered. But it’s a good step forward and you feel those glimmers of happiness welling inside of you from effort well spent.

Ignis has requested to take on the role of merchant relations, he’ll lease with potential buyers and help you get consistent income sources based off of your creations.
- Buying and selling produced goods will become automated
- You’ll receive a notification when he has found a buyer
- These notifications will let you know the [TP] investment and reward for completion
- You can reject his request to take on this role if you prefer (not recommended)
Ignis: I’ll see about finding local groups and Royals interested in this!
Ignis: I can certainly see this being useful to groups wanting to invite and transport
Ignis: At the Tunnel!

You’ve gained the following Designs:
- [CD WINGSUIT V1]
- [HOT AIR BALLOON V1]
- [PARACHUTE V1]
- [WASTEFUL FLAME-GUN]

You’ve spent ⅔ of an ingot of ARCANUM on experiments and [2,500 SHINIES] on supplies

LAPUTA RUNETECH STORAGE
- 2 INGOTS OF ARCANUM
- 1 AIR CHOKER
- 10 SMALL MONSTER CORES
- [7,500 SHINIES] WORTH OF MISC SUPPLIES

You also offer Drift some of your Rabbit cores, but he says that he’s not hungry yet. You tilt your head at that and say that he’ll take one for now, and let you know when he can absorb it.

Edmango 2022/03/13(Sun)21:12 No. 1026161 ID: afe7de
File 164723112220.png - (16.88KB , 500x500 , SR2_062.png )

> [YEAR 17] TP7 EVENT - DINNER WITH HOOK
Dinner with Hook was something you’ve been looking forward to for quite a bit. It’s been a long time since you’ve had a proper chat, so you head to the appointed dinner and wait. And wait. And then 20 minutes have gone by and she’s not there. You’re confused, so you fly over to the tower, only to find that she’s been in her room the whole time, waiting for you. You’re flabbergasted. You have a pretty damn good memory and don’t remember that being the meeting place.

Hook: Ah! You’re here! What took you?
You: You were the one who told me to meet you somewhere else.
Hook: No, you’re very wrong, I explicitly said my room.
[GUILE] No, her expression says otherwise, she knew that this would happen
[LOGIC] The only question is why
Hook: But hey, it’s okay, we all make mistakes sometimes!
You: Uh huh, so, are we still getting dinner or…?
Hook: Oh, I could have them bring something up if you’d like
You: Nevermind, let’s just cut to the chase
You: You wanted to talk to me.

You can see her eyes twitch at your blunt behavior, you also notice bags under her eyes, like she’s been lacking sleep. You don’t let that bother you as you continue to wait, staring at her. She turns towards you and arches her fingers together contemplatively before giving you a smug look.

Hook: So, I take it you know that the elections are coming up?
Hook: How’s about you back me up?

A. No.
- Decline and walk out
B. Hell No.
- Rudely decline and walk out
C. What?
- Press her for more details
D. Other
- What’s your strategy here, feel free to ask any questions
- Also, feel free to add any requests or demands you want

Will respond to the rest later, but rn just focusing on Hook.

C/D

First of all: No, you said DINNER bitch. As in, I'm hungry, and I want to eat. Don't try and gaslight me and then ask me a favor, this conversation does not proceed until I have stuffed my face with so much delicious food that I cannot physically walk away from you.

Second: Why? Not to be rude, but why should I back you up? I don't have any motivation to go against you, that's true, but you haven't given me a reason to back you up over anybody else. If you just want me to go off of my impression of you... Well you're kind of a bitch, and you also just lied to my face about our meeting place. And like, I've known you for a while, but that doesn't translate into liking you. So I don't really feel like doing you any favors just because you asked.

If you want me to do anything for you, then I'd like you to convince me. Show me why I should back you up over anyone else with the relevant experiences needed.

Pawn's contract: Those are all very important things. 4500, aka. 4k salary plus a 500 'consulting fee', and when the team gets a raise everyone will be elevated to the same new salary.
Chi fu: Frankly, there's been so many coincidences in the martial arts tournaments that I'm beginning to wonder if Lou Xin has trained you wrong, as a joke. You should find a new dojo if you begin devoting TP to this style... or develop your own style!
Hot air balloon: Can you use the extra heat runes as ballast? They'll get used up as you go but a lighter carriage won't need as much hot air to lift either.
Crank dynamo. Hell yes. Let's get some god damn Gatling guns built!
A. She expects questions. You expect dinner.

>>1026155
How about a combination of A and B? He has to be paid the same as everyone else- 4k. However, you'll give him first priority access to the SHAPE manual (hey, does everyone in Laputa Runetech have access to the manuals? They should), the 2 year good faith contract, and half an ingot for his own personal use. Not sure what else we could do to sweeten the pot, tbh.
Also tell him once your business gets off the ground, the pay will go up.

...I'm worried about him associating with Caissa, since it seems clear Clausey was an agent to attack your morale. Might want to ask Pawn what Caissa is like, and investigate him (or her?) a bit before the hire, to make sure he hasn't been compromised. Everyone we don't have a long-standing Bond with needs to be screened, because we ARE going to wind up doing secret projects eventually, and we ARE going to have problems with spies.
It seems unlikely that Caissa is in league with the humans though since her being seen with Clausey is all we've got, and it's not like Clausey would tell just anyone about his secret allegiance.

>>1026156
>BECOME A SENIOR DISCIPLE
Eh, sure. If it doesn't work out we can just leave.

>>1026159
>original weak mana pistol blueprint is useless due to things working differently than expected
Well, okay.
The crank gun seems like a good design for a siege weapon if we sized it up. We could retrofit it with a different method for generating power, but a chargeup system seems good even on a small scale, for an opening shot. You can pre-charge it, right? I wonder if someone could carry multiples of these, like on a bandolier...
Anyway, actually producing one of these is gonna throw red flags (plus we kindof need Microscripting to make anything good). I think we should just fit some ceramic armor for her, along with the parachute.

>>1026161
>hook pullin' some bullshit
Tell her you have a literally perfect memory.
Also, B.
She brought you here under false pretenses, and tried to gaslight you. She's unfit to be queen. (also you were told to push her buttons)

my decisions

For gun:

A. I think it is really really important to make a Battery and Generator. Not only will this help with gun work, but it will help out with other runescripting projects as well! Our patience will reward us if we take this route, and we'll be able to make a high quality mana pistol after making the battery and generator even if it'll take us several TPs. Patience is key here!.

Plus if we design a high powered gun like a Gatling gun too early, Canus and the Black Lotus might raise some eyebrows at us and make things very difficult for us. Don't forget, we've had spies looking into what we've been doing in the past. We don't want them highering the prices if we get too technologically advanced, especially with weapons that they could feel threatened by. Really, let's play the long game here.

------------------------

For Pawn: A or B is fine.

A to help us immensely as things go on,

but also B because it's good to have competition with a rival to get us motivated to improve our work!

Can't decide here just yet. will probably change my mind later.

-------------------------

Mind and body, ehhhhh... I think I just want to master our claws one more level, and be done, or switch to improving our dodging skills if that is possible after we level up to 7 with claws.

----------------------

For Noodle: Continue the wing suit improvements after we learn microscripting in memory of Glide who probably left Tengu to go on adventures... you hope!


--------------------------------


Hook?

well, fake B, but actually C. fake B to show her you're not bullshitting here, and see if she'll try to convince you to stay, and then C because you do have some level of respect of her and want to at least let her explain herself. She has potentially, but the next ruler gotta respect her workers after all.

>>1026161
Hell no, and fuck off. Then find her opposition and support them.

It's pretty much what Satina said: We'd be OK with working with her, but absolutely not for free. Time to negotiate, and make her EARN your help.

>>1026154
>finances
Did we ever decide on if we were going to start selling Chi-llers? We could sell those in order to help give us a boost in money.

>>1026155
>Pawn
Hiring Pawn would be an issue, since we’d have to spread our finances even thinner to fit what he wants as a salary. But with his interests in Energy Storage and Generation, hiring him will help us with building a Mana Pistol!

>You can chose to negotiate any of those terms by suggesting alternatives and any justifications you feel are valid.
I’m not smart enough to figure this out, so I’ll let everyone else think of something.

>former student
>spiteful
>You remember her name to be Caissa
She’s probably going to start spreading rumors that we had to go to Pawn for help because we’re not as good as we claim to be.

>>1026156
>Senior Disciple
>you’d help other kin learn the art
We may be good with teaching, but I don’t think we’d be able to teach this at the same level we can teach Runescripting.

>>1026157
>Satina
So basically, she’s telling us to not just blindly do whatever Hook wants. If Hook wants our support, we’ve gotta make her earn it!

>>1026158
>>1026159
>invention issues
Seems like having Microscripting would help improve all of these.

>Ignis has requested to take on the role of merchant relations
Yes, agree to let him do that.

>>1026161
>So, I take it you know that the elections are coming up?
>How’s about you back me up?
Tell her that normally, all she’d have to do is ask and you’d help. But with something as important as the elections coming up, she’ll need to give you a good argument to convince you to give her your support.

And let her know that lying to you about where you were meeting her isn’t helping her. A future Queen shouldn’t try to deceive someone that she wants to support her.

>>1026174
All of this.

(edited)

Adding to my post >>1026185

I forgot to say, yes, let Ignis take care of MERCHANT RELATIONS

And I wanted to add, since Drift is back from his Monster Core stuff and evolving, why don't we ask if he wants to handle ACCOUNTING, considering we're teaching, William is usually looks for new materials for us to work with (rubber and plastic search and research) and Ignis is taking care of negotiations. He can look into our income vs our yearly costs for stuff, warn us if we're going over budget with certain ventures, give us shinies related goals such as amount of shinies we should try to make each year, advice on ways to reduce costs and gain better profits, and other stuff like that.

Of course, if he doesn't want to do that, that is fine, we'll do it ourselves.

... and no, it isn't because he is a SECRETARY WINGKIN.

--------------------------------
When we see Pawn again, BRING IGNIS WITH YOU TO HELP YOU WHEN YOU WORK OUT WHATEVER DEAL WE CHOOSE WITH PAWN, Ignis is a trained professional at this, and wants to do stuff like this. He should be able to help us out with whatever deal we choose.

and I decided to go with B as far as Pawn is concerned, it'd be good to have worthy competition to encourage Laputa to do better instead of being a monopoly.


-----------------------

doing some budgeting,

we currently have 44,898 SHINIES

our current income is

6400 per time point teaching at the university (19200 for the 3 tps)
12,000 for teaching the royal scientists

we currently have to yearly pay

16,000 SHINIES for Laputa
300 for Nico precision
800 for the rent with Ignis
160 for comfortable lifestyle

unless my calculations are wrong and i missed something, We will have to pay 17260 yearly (we'll make a profit of 13,940 if we only do one class with the royals plus our teaching at the university)

22,260 if we hire Pawn, unless we can negotiate with him (profit of 8,940)

We most likely will get another 12000 once we finish teaching Satina, and then after that, we'll have to decide whether or not to pursue Lilith, as she might be the source for some stress if we teach her might be good to meditate between sessions or take breaks if thats the case. But hopefully our plan to accidentally drop our plans to her will help out.

But after that or otherwise, we should really consider getting another contracted job for Laputa, especially if we want to make the budget with Pawn work...

>>1026161
-Pawn: I dont know if im alone on this here, but ive been actually been hoping Pawn would start his own company. Competition is healthy, and he seems to have been doing great with his own research, as well as the fact that he genuinely cares about improving the Plate with his crafting, which I thin Chi also agrees with. I feel like were going to have rival business eventually, and i'd rather it be someone like Pawn than anyone else.
That being said, I do think working with him would be beneficial to us both, and would be a good chance to raise a bond, so, as >>1026176 said, a combination of A+B seems good, hire him on a limited contract, and have Ignis help you iron out the contract. I STILL want to see what he can do with microscripting and the goggles btw.

-Senior Disciple: I wouldn't consider it until we've got our full time teaching job ironed out and our TA(s) settled, as well as getting our mastery.
Would really like to get into the more advanced Martial Arts stuff though, I feel like its going to be useful, and its a good outlet besides. So maybe consider getting the more intense training when we next have free time.

-GUNS: A seems like a no Brainer. Battery and charging will solve so many present and fuure issues that we could probably start improving almost ALL our current blueprints, as well as get to the type of guns we actually want.
Also, My money is on an over-the-wing, short barrel shotgun type.

Hook: A+C
No, why would we support her if THIS display is the best she can do to get us on her side? I find it hard to believe this is the best sell she can manage, so im wondering whats up.

>>1026174
This.

>>1026175
>I'm beginning to wonder if Lou Xin has trained you wrong, as a joke.
I'm pretty sure she's teaching us correctly.

>>1026186
That's a bit of an overreaction.

>>1026343
>go with B as far as Pawn is concerned, it'd be good to have worthy competition to encourage Laputa to do better instead of being a monopoly.
I agree with this.

>>1026174
Supporting this.


--

>>1026155
A. but keep negotiating. Having a higher salary is a hard pass due to the equality issues.

>>1026156
Become Senior Diciple

>>1026161
You came here expecting food, so you're going to want something to eat while speaking with Hook. And there better be a really good dessert too!

>>1026174
supporting

Okay, now to finally respond to the non-Hook stuff.

>Pawn

A. We should bring Pawn into Laputa. Yeah, it's good to have competition and get nore independent runescripters, but Pawn's all on his lonesome and may not have the social graces to market himself to potential team members (reminder that he recommended us a smut book without giving any indication that that is what it was, and then went straight into gushing about it as soon as we brought it up).

We aren't officially paying him more than anyone else, that isn't acceptable. However, the sign-up bonus an earlier suggestor mentioned is a good idea. Let's have that come from our personal coffers, and officially label it as payment for a read of the Micsroscripting Manual.

>Senior Disciple

Not interested. Chi isn't someone who is going to be picking fights on the regular. She's a researcher, not a warrior or hunter. We're literally designing guns now, we're clearly swerving away from this path. Finish mastering the claw, and then drop M&B permanently to free up a background slot.

For Noodle's commission. I think a crank gun would be something nice we can get to her quickly, while we start work on a battery and generator for future designs (with Pawn's help, seeing as his research would be relevant). The wingsuit can be improved with microscripting, so learn that first and THEN see how it could be better. Maybe we really cold make it into a glove, that'd be a lot more lightweight...

>Ignis

Hell yeah he can try to make some sales

Hook's mom said there would be dinner, and she also doesn't want Hook to be queen. What if she mislead us to make Hook look bad?

>>1026409
Now that I think about it, you've got a point. Right here: >>1020659 , Satina told us about Hook wanting to meet for dinner. Since she was delivering a message to us from Hook, that means that she had an opportunity to alter the message.

So yeah, Satina could've lied about where Hook said to meet her!

And if that's what happened, then we should make sure we don't blame Hook for lying about our meeting location, since it was most likely a misunderstanding that was caused by her mother!

>>1026409

Oooohhhhh very solid point. Let's let Intuition and other relevant stats debate whether we think Satina may be to blame before deciding how poorly to respond to Hook. If the chance for sabotage is decent enough, then lets change our approach a bit. After all, if we got bad info from Satina, then Hook may have been fed bad info from her too. Maybe she thinks that we're on board with this already, and this is basically a formality?

Still, there's this to consider:

>[GUILE] No, her expression says otherwise, she knew that this would happen
>[LOGIC] The only question is why

I think we may need more information before we take a hard stance on how to handle this discussion. For now, bring up the fact that you aren't sure Satina has been relaying Hook's messages correctly, and ask if she's been told anything by her that may make her think you were ready to join her. Once you rule that out, then you can be a bit ruder.

And if you CAN'T rule it out, give Hook a bit of a break, while still making it clear you're going to need to be persuaded.

...

You still want food though, this remains unchanged.

Further Thoughts on Noodle: still against making crank gun early as there are spies from Canus watching us, and i still want wingsuit, BUT to add to the wingsuit, we should also give noodle the parachute in case wingsuit breaks while flying and needs a soft landing

Also, can we get an estimate on when Noodle is going to go on a hunting trip again plz? That way we can plan our inventions and schedule accordingly

Further thoughts on Hook: Yeah, i agree that there is a possibility Satina gave us false info. Check with stats on that.
And also, use you're awesome visual memory to see if Satina was lying about the message with Guile, Might be good training for that stat to do that too.

Hook probably knew this would happen, but for a different reason: she probably knew Satina would falsify the message.

>>1026409
>>1026417
... Crap, you're right. Come to think of it, maybe accusing her mother of sabotage right to HOOK's face (before saying ANYTHING ELSE) will force her hand a bit.

"I'm going to be blunt; if you're not trying to lie to my face right now, then the only other possibility is that your mother is trying to sabotage you. She told me you had invited me to dinner. I even remember the specific hall I was supposed to meet you at, in her words. For all I know, she probably told you I was already on-board, and that this was a formality; that's the only reason I can see for you to simply make the offer with zero explanation or appeal to your merits as queen and expect me to make a decision right here and now."

Yeah, we'd better straighten out this misunderstanding before we snap at Hook for something she didn't know about.

I know Satina said that she didn't want Hook to be the queen, but would she really resort to sabotaging Hook?

>>1026408
This all seems reasonable to me.

>>1026408
I'm too dumb to think of anything so I'm just going to support this.

>>1026408
>>1026419
Supporting

Take a deep breath and slowly let it out so you can calm down before you snap at Hook!

It's a good thing we already gave Anger a doghouse to get it under control. There's no telling how bad this situation would've been if we didn't do that!

Edmango 2022/03/20(Sun)21:26 No. 1026822 ID: afe7de
File 164783676723.png - (10.53KB , 500x500 , SR2_063.png )

> DINNER WITH HOOK I
You take a deep breath. You pace it out. You feel your heartbeat, you feel your [THOUGHTS] and then you exhale. If there was ever a moment for [ANGER] this would certainly be one of them. You’ve got plenty of reasons to be mad right now. An innumerable one in fact, at this kind of treatment. And you feel yourself about to tell her off, like it’s on the tip of your tongue, but stop to consider the alternate possibilities.

[ANGER] AW COME ON, I’M IN A FUCKING DOGHOUSE LET ME OUUUUTTTT
[LOGIC] Only at the appropriate moment
[LOGIC] We must consider the alternative, what if, she isn’t pulling a fast one
[IGNIS’ CHARISMA] There are many ways to phrase what she said, but let’s consider them again
[GUILE] Her expression looks like she knew that something like this would happen, what though?
[GUILE] Have we considered that Satina is in fact, sabotaging her daughter

You think back into that moment, those moments, when you were teaching Satina, the setup for this meeting. You never saw Hook in person any of those times, and were only ever told secondhand when and where to meet her. The majority of the information comes from Satina herself, but what would she gain from this, from a duplicitous and easily verifiable attempt at sabotage? Your stomach growls, frustrations or not, you expect food, and by the feathers on your wings you will have food.

You: I think we need to have a chat, a proper chat
Hook: That… isn’t that why you’re here??
You: No, I mean

Your stomach audibly growls as the two of you look deadpan at each other.

Hook: I’ll get us some food.

It only takes a few minutes before some warm food is put in front of the two of you, you immediately dive in and… it’s not the best, certainly worse than the place you were going to eat at. Actually, no, it’s downright terrible and you can’t tell if it’s your mood, or if the food actually sucks, but if Hook’s been eating this then you can see why she’s got bags under her eyes.

You: Do you eat this regularly?
Hook: Yeah? Why?
You: Isn’t this uh… Pretty low quality
Hook: Eh, does it matter?
Hook: Grubs are grubs right?

You don’t really feel like arguing the basics of nutrition with her at the moment, though you pin that in the back of your mind for a future thing to look into.

You: I’m just going to be blunt
You: It’s my specialty and I don’t want to waste time in the song and dance of it all
You: It’s why I’m not trying to become the QUEEN
Hook: You’re not even a little interested?
Hook: Even after all this time?
You: Not at all, too much work, overhead, and above all else, TIME to commit.
You: Now this, either you’re trying to gaslight me
You: Or, if you’re not lying to my face right now
You: That means your mother is trying to sabotage you or me
Hook: Why would she do that? She’s a bitch but she’s my mom.

You give Hook the largest eye-roll you could quite possibly muster. Adding that attitude to the list of reasons.

You: How’s about I start with a question.
You: What were you told or what did you tell her to tell me?

She begins to tell you that she requested you to meet in her room, that she’s been busy with a few projects and hasn’t had the time to leave. But she'd also been hearing some rumors about your GLUTTONOUS behavior, lateness streak, and lack of overall productivity.

[GUILE] As far as I’m aware, Hook’s telling the truth, or believes she is
[UNDERSTANDING] I think she believes that’s what she was told

You take a few more deep breaths, you’re glad you’ve felt a bit more [PATIENT] lately or you would have snapped. So, ridiculous fabrications are being spread around about you, you sigh, deeply, as you exhale. Well, at least it will get kin to UNDERESTIMATE you, which you could use to your advantage later. You explain to her your side of the story, being sure to emphasize that you have literally the best memory anyone has ever seen, and when asked to prove it, quote her word for word for each encounter you’ve ever had with her. She seems a bit unnerved by that but believes you in the end.

Hook: I didn’t know you had that good of a memory…
You: I don’t get to be where I am now by being forgetful.
Hook: Fair… enough… So my mom is just… What, sabotaging me?
You: Look, I don’t know, and I’m a bit irritated, can we just start over and get the basics down
Hook: Uh yeah, sure.

Edmango 2022/03/20(Sun)21:26 No. 1026823 ID: afe7de
File 164783678077.png - (16.87KB , 500x500 , SR2_064.png )

> DINNER WITH HOOK II
Hook: So the ELECTIONS, they’re a big thing, only Kin ages 26 and under can participate
Hook: They’re essentially the way we elect new leaders
Hook: But it is a Monarchy, and the queen ultimately decides
Hook: Each election has been different but they actively look for…
Hook: Well, new ideas, each generation brings something new to the table
Hook: A few generations ago brought the education reforms
Hook: And we’ve been on a slow growth upwards since then
Hook: But none of the recent Queens have been well… radical in change.
Hook: And the idea is to pick a new queen from the nascent hatchlings
Hook: Ones not yet tainted by old ideals and coming to their own as a kin
Hook: It’s not a perfect system, but we’re doing well.

You’ve known a decent amount of the royalty selection before this from your studies, but it’s interesting to hear someone actively living as a royal give their take on the matter. You see she pauses, so you nod for her to continue.

Hook: Anyway, any female wing kin can attempt to become queen but…
Hook: Really there’s only 5 true candidates this go around,
Hook: And this is where the ELECTIONS take place
Hook: Rather than democratically electing someone, the Queens to be are put through a trial
Hook: Election is the wrong word, but it’s a… psychological thing
Hook: A manipulation of language meant to make it easier for the public
Hook: Though I mean it is the Queen electing the person so it might still be accurate…
Hook: Semantics aside it’s a TRIAL through and through testing the following qualities:
Hook: [LEADERSHIP], [INTUITION], and [CHARISMA]
Hook: There are other bits, but those are the main points
Hook: Can you lead the people
Hook: Can you make the right choices in the heat of the moment
Hook: And can you sway others to your side
Hook: The last thing we want is a coup and you need someone to keep the kingdom together
Hook: Especially now, on the eve of a potential conflict we so hope won’t happen.
You: But you still haven’t explained my part, what do you mean by back you up
You: I’ve heard rumors, but nothing concrete

Hook then describes to you what sounds a lot like scenario roleplay, somewhat similar to that game you played in your TACTICS class, only dialed up to 11. Each group will be given a different, yet random distribution of resources, citizens, and soldiers and will be forced to compete in a miniature kingdom-building and defense game. She needs to select a SCIENTIST, a WARRIOR, and a WILD CARD. She’ll be acting as the LEADER.

The WARRIOR will be in charge of TACTICS and unit distribution
The WILD CARD will be in charge of misc tasks, and can take the form of anything ranging from a DIPLOMAT, a MERCHANT, or even an ASSASSIN.
The SCIENTIST will be in charge of charting growth and developing tools to help the kingdom based on the resources available. The objective is simple, economically, tactically, or scientifically dominate your opponents.

[UNDERSTANDING] This is a game of fucking PARTISANS OF STELLARIZATION
[SABA’S KN] This is a motherfucking game of PARTISANS OF STELLARIZATION
[LOGIC] Huh, that’s… weird.

She mentions that there are other examinations as well as mock interviews, speeches, stress tests, and other things the actual queen will have to deal with, but that’s the most you’ll have to do. It also helps if she’s swayed the popular opinion of the kin in the kingdom, and she’s been working on that. You ask her what she means by that.

Edmango 2022/03/20(Sun)21:26 No. 1026824 ID: afe7de
File 164783680981.png - (19.07KB , 500x500 , SR2_065.png )

> DINNER WITH HOOK III
Hook: I haven’t been leaving my room because I’ve been working with the spymaster
Hook: Keep it secret but I’ve been identifying the underground groups that “control” certain sectors
You: You mean like the mob
Hook: I don’t know that term
You: Organizations that rule by force from the back lines
You: Not in the public eye
Hook: Something like that
Hook: I’m planning a clean sweep and my debut afterwards.
Hook: As for the others, well I expect their debuts soon, it’s only 2 years away, so now’s the time.

You ask Hook for details on the other candidates and she mentions the ones she knows of at the moment.

> IGNOLIA
- She’s using teaching as a springboard, letting it be known she cares about education and teaching others. You know that she does care about teaching, but it also explains why she’s gotten into it so early as well. It’s a prestigious school and kin are bound to talk about her.
- Hook expects her to be the first one to drop out
> TINUPTUA
- One of the Randolphus triplets, they’re a triple threat and fully back her attempt.
- Hook says that they’re extremely skilled in the TACTICS department and trickle down with skills in other fields too, but has been too focused to dive any deeper.
> CAISSA
- A runescripter like yourself
- Plans on starting a munitions business using her extensive merchant connections, she’ll likely sway public favor by making the HUNTER’S jobs easier.
> HERSELF
- Wants to clean up crime in the city, of which there is a small budding seed
- It’s also hook
> ???
- The secret candidate
- No one knows who this one is yet, but it’s likely someone you’ve met before
- Apparently they’re a recently graduated member of the HUNTERS with a fierce gaze
- But they apparently also have extremely strong MERCANTILE SKILLS

Hook says that there are others but that they’re not worth considering. You don’t quite buy that, but will take her word on this for now.

Edmango 2022/03/20(Sun)21:27 No. 1026825 ID: afe7de
File 164783683091.png - (10.89KB , 500x500 , SR2_066.png )

> DINNER WITH HOOK IV
Now that you have more information, you feel like you’re not quite sure about this all. It might be worth speaking with all of the candidates to find out more, or you could wait and see how each member’s debut goes. The thoughts are churning in your head. Especially about the last one. You have a sneaking suspicion that you actually know the secret candidate quite well, but it couldn’t be her right? She’s not even a Wing-Kin, and did she suddenly learn merchant skills?

You: Are you sure that only Wing-Kin can apply to be Queen
Hook: It’s possible the Queen changes that qualifier
Hook: But without a doubt it will be limited to TENGU natives
Hook: No one from outside the plate.
You: So, what’s in it for me?
You: You want me to help you, I think you’ll have to convince me.
You: My time is pretty valuable, and this sounds like it will take at least [1 TP] or more
Hook: Well yeah, it’ll take around [2 TP]
Hook: I mean, what do you want? You have money, and are working on your company right?
Hook: You don’t seem to lack for much of anything except TIME
Hook: And I can’t just magitech up time for you
Hook: Hows about a promise I’ll make you a royal scientist
Hook: And get you a consistent supply of Arcanum barring war or anything

You take a moment to consider this, to consider the future. Is Hook really the kind of Kin you want leading the plate, one you want to back. Your [PRIDE] tells you that the kin you back will have significantly increased odds of championing the throne, but is that true, or is that just your ego talking?

Then there’s also the matter of Satina, why sabotage her daughter? What could she gain? What could she lose? There’s too many questions.

A. Accept her offer
- Take the deal
- You will be busy for your first 2 free [TP] in [YEAR 20]
- You will back Hook’s attempt at the throne
B. Investigate all the candidates in general
- Actively investigate the candidates with William and Ignis’s help
- You will get a brief profile of their plans and tactics
- You will delay accepting Hook’s offer
- You will meet with 2 of the other candidates briefly
C. Declare you won’t participate in the election
- You will not be involved in the queen selection process
- This storyline will quietly enter the background
- Should you, after hearing updates in the background, decide to rejoin, you may
- Skip to the new year
D. Other
- Say or do something else
- Feel free to skip to the new year

D: Lets fix up the deal a little There's something important that Clark, and even our father have told us, REST IS IMPORTANT, and Hook isn't getting it right now. So I'd say we'll accept the offer... but ONLY after she fulfills the condition she uses a couple TIMEPOINTS to TAKE A BREAK, maybe hang out with us before the election starts during those times. will be good to get to know each other and get our bonds up too before the event which I feel might help out. Let her know that while the amount of work she puts into becoming Queen is admireable, SELF CARE IS IMPORTANT! Even the other canidates have been looking pretty healthy and getting sleep, and you fear her not taking care of herself will bring her campaign down. People would want a strong leader, not someone who looks like they're about to collapse at any moment from stress and not sleeping.

Also, I have an interesting idea, if we decide to take the offer, the steady arcanum supply for us will be really good, but what if we decide NOT to become royal scientists and just focus on being regular scientists for Laputa, just to not bring as much attention to ourselves in the future. That way, we won't be as restraint, and have more freedom with our inventions. Doesn't mean we won't still work with the royals. We'll just be happy with accepting the steady supply of arcanum for Laputa without becoming a royal scientist... maybe double the supply at the cost of not becoming royal scientists as part of the altered deal

I mean, I guess we can ask what benefits a royal scientist has first, might actually be important to do that actually before we jump to conclusions, but right now as it stands, I think it'd be cooler if Chi worked as a regular scientist and focus on Laputa

And before Hook fulfills her obligations to take breaks and hang out with us, we can do B and investigate the competition.

B. Maybe there's a better candidate for the throne. Maybe some of them you wouldn't want on the throne. Maybe some of them are plants by the human kingdom... and you definitely don't want one of those on the throne.
Well! If Hook wants to taste some real food she knows where she can hit you up.

Right off the bat: A. We should take the offer. She went out of her way to ask when nobody else in this contest has, she seems like one of the better candidates to take the job, and I feel a little bad that she's been getting sabotaged and fed shitty food. Ignolia is our friend to, and I love her, but if I'm being brutally honest I don't really see her making for that great of a queen. Caissa is in league with Clausey, the worst person. And Tinuptia... Well she's probably fine actually, but she hasn't asked us to join her. Plus, her focus on tactics may not serve the throne well. Could lead to the plate getting into a war if her tunnel vision is really bad.

Even after accepting however, we should figure out what we're getting into and try to meet a couple of the other candidates.

We should talk to Ignolia of course, because it's kind of a dick move to go against a friend without at least offering some heads up and assuring her that we still really like them and that there are no hard feelings.

If the secret candidate is on the table, we should look into them, but most importantly of all I want to look into Caissa. What the fuck is her deal?

Finally, D. WHY THE FUCK IS YOUR MOM SABOTAGING YOU!?

Based on what Hook tells us, and what we eventually wring out of Satina later, we may or may not be tattling on her to the Queen later. She had better have a damn compelling reason, because if she doesn't then she can go fuck herself, we're not finishing her lesson.

Unless the Queen asks us to, because we like the Queen, the Queen is cool. In that case we'll get her back some other way. Ask her to test out our cool wingsuit design at a party or something.

(Also, maybe recommend a few restaurants to Hook so that she finally understands what good food tastes like? You could like, bring her something to taste if she can't leave home rn.

>>1026825
Tell her you think she has a good cause but you want to do some research on the other candidates before deciding. Like, what are IGNOLIA and TINUPTUA planning to do once they're Queen?
B, and see if you can figure out what Satina is doing too. Maybe find out what other candidates there are, and confirm if Noodle is really trying to become Queen. I bet she hasn't told you because a, it's a secret, and b, she doesn't want to make it sound like she wants you to do even more for her than you have already.

>>1026825
So, it seems like we are the best candidate by a long shot to rule; however that really isn't something we want to do. Could it be possible that we could be forced into it somehow?

Also, isn't Ignolia kind of old if she is in your parents' generation?

Does Noodle know if she is a candidate or not?

OH. Even if we *do* wind up deciding to support Hook right away, we should keep that fact a secret from Satina. We've caught on to her games, but we don't want her to know that, so it'd be best if she thinks we turned Hook down, and maybe Hook could act pissed about it to boot, since we were told to push her buttons.

>>1026824
>CAISSA
So that's why shes interested in Pawn.

>>1026825
B Lets meet with Caissa and the Mystery candidate.

>Satina
The two main explanations are (A) she genuinely doesn't want Hook to be queen or (B) she wants to make it harder so Hook will have to work for it.
Let's just assume the latter: If Hook succeeds, Satina's motivations will be their own reward/punishment.
Let Hook hear your reasoning.

the reason Satina doesn't want hook to be queen is because Satina is a royal concubine and doesn't want to be a concubine to her own daughter... this is a joke by the by

> WHAT DO
First, D: Grill Hook on what she plans to do AFTER she becomes Queen. What's her policy beyond "clean up crime?" Does she plan to expand that to counterintelligence and even proactive espionage? If so, you can voice your opinion that this does seem like a strong policy, given we're in the grips of a cold war right now, but she'll need to have some front-facing plan as well that the people of TENGU are actually allowed to see. Also, you're concerned about whether she can perform if the war were to turn hot. (Also, did she uncover dirt on anyone we're close to? We don't want anything nasty coming their way to be a surprise.)

This is followed by B:
"Given that you were likely told I was already on board, it should likely come as a disappointment that I'm going to investigate some of the other candidates; specifically, TINUPTUA and the MYSTERY CANDIDATE - I have a sneaking suspicion to her identity. I'm with you in writing off IGNOLIA, for what it's worth; it sounds like her heart's in the right place, but unless she plans to somehow fix what isn't broken in the first place, she seems to be a status quo candidate, and that's not what we need right now. Meanwhile, I simply don't trust CAISSA; she was a former student of mine who was close to CLAUSEY, the worst of the suspected 'plant' students hired by a foreign group, which I'm sure you heard about if you'd even been casually following my business. I don't know if CAISSA knew about that, but she was a spiteful one herself. Even if her 'friend' doesn't resurface, I wouldn't trust her not to get entrenched in FOREIGN INTERESTS over her own people's, at least a little bit. Plus, she's already looking into PAWN, I think, so I probably won't get 'in' with her even if I wanted."

> SATINA
"Your mother made it clear to me that she doesn't have familial bias in this matter. Given this context, I think what she truly meant by that is crystal clear; she's supporting someone else. She's possibly going to be that candidate's WILD CARD, in fact, assuming the non-LEADER roles don't have the same age restrictions."

"By the way, tell your mother she owes me that FANCY DINNER she promised, or I'm not finishing her lessons."

Perhaps we should take up the throne we got a halfwit, warmonger,peacetime leader and wildcard that can be a forgain wingkin or perhaps our snake friend

>>1026825
>Then there’s also the matter of Satina, why sabotage her daughter? What could she gain? What could she lose? There’s too many questions.
Now that I think about it, despite Satina saying that she won’t support Hook trying to become Queen (which makes sense, since a Royal Scientist helping her daughter become Queen looks extremely biased), she might be trying to help in her own subtle way. For example: The misinformation between Chi and Hook. That could’ve been prevented if Hook didn’t stay in her room all the time and came to speak with Chi herself. This could be a lesson to Hook that she should be more aware of what’s going on around herself instead of focusing completely on her goal.

And the reason Satina didn’t just tell Hook herself was probably because she thinks Hook would more likely listen to Chi instead of her.

As for what we should do about Satina, I think we shouldn’t do anything about it.

It would be unprofessional of us to stop Satina’s lessons because of this and it would hurt the kingdom by not helping one of our Royal Scientists learn Runescripting. And let’s not forget that the Queen herself has told us: “Sometimes we must work with individuals we dislike.” So even if we dislike Satina for what she’s done, we have to continue working with her.

Also if the Queen found out we stopped teaching Satina because of this, then she would be disappointed in our pettiness and she might take away that ROYAL FAVOR we haven’t used yet!

>What do?
D.

Tell Hook that she looks terrible. The bags under her eyes shows that she isn’t getting enough sleep and if the meal we just had with her is something she’s been eating for a while, then that also means that she isn’t eating properly. If she continues like this, she’ll end up getting sick and that’ll force her to drop out as a candidate for the throne!

You highly recommend that she takes some time to relax so that she can get some sleep and get some real food to eat. You’re confident that she’ll feel better and she’ll be able to work more efficiently when she does that.

>>1026961
All this.

>>1026961
If you end up being right about Satina, then she's got some terrible parenting methods.

Other than that, I agree with everything you said.

IDEA: Lets have a dream tea break with some of our friends, and VENT OUR ANGER, blow off some steam about what happened with them in a healthy way, gotta let that dog out every now and then, but in a safe environment. Our friends will listen and understand. I think the Runescripters will be willing to listen about what Satina did, and get their opinion on Hook since it's partly business related as we're teaching Satina. No sense in suppressing anger all the time, it is an important emotion as our others. Just let them know ahead of time that you're going to be ranting so that they can be prepared if they want to listen.

And we can ask Drift about him being an accountant during the dream tea break.

>>1026961
Yeah, agreed, lets just keep things mutural with teaching Satina, the whole situation is Hook and her mother to deal with, not us, even if we got caught in the middle of it. Do it for the royals if not for Satina. If Satina asks how things went the next time we see her, we'll just say things went as expected, and nothing more, let her interpret it as it is.

Edmango 2022/03/23(Wed)20:52 No. 1027123 ID: afe7de
File 164809394352.png - (16.32KB , 500x500 , SR2_067.png )

> DINNER WITH HOOK V
You think on her statements for a bit, there’s a pregnant pause as she looks towards you expectantly.

You: This will probably come as a disappointment
Hook: I knew it.
You: But I’ll have to investigate the other candidates before committing.
Hook: BLLLLUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHH
Hook: C’mon just take a leap of faith would ya’

After taking much longer than necessary to let her know that you’ll still consider her proposal you find out a few things from her. First, the position of Royal scientist is rather lax, with you needing to develop something new to assist the kingdom once every 4 years at the minimum, where the more productive and helpful you are, the more resources you will be allotted. You will also occasionally be given a MAJOR PROJECT which you will need to devote at least [2TP] a year to. These are rare, but typically quite important. Upon completion it will count towards your contributions.

You also let Hook know the virtues of PROPER NUTRITION and ask her to either come with you to get some food or visit PON. She tries to brush you off but you take a firm stance, stating that she’s cooped up in her home too much and needs to see the kin she wants to lead, which segues nicely into your next question, what are her future plans.

You rightfully guessed her future plans were to conduct counterintelligence and proactive espionage, but her forward face to the public was rather fuzzy and indistinct. You recommend she comes up with a solid plan on that front after taking some rest. She’s tired and even you know the proper importance of RESTING. You can practically smell the STRESS coming off of her. She sighs and brushes you off for now, you can only do so much. Lastly, you share some theories you have.

A. Satina is actively supporting another candidate
- Perhaps she’s not a fan of nepotism
- She might think Hook’s approach and apparent shut-in lifestyle isn’t good for the kingdom
- She’s likely someone else's WILD CARD or SCIENTIST
- You’re not sure what she has to gain from this
B. Satina wanted to use this as a growth opportunity for Hook
- Hook’s staying in her room a lot and relying on others for info
- This miscommunication could have easily been fixed if she took a second to investigate
- Perhaps she (rightly) assumed that Hook wouldn't listen to her and would only listen to a friend
- This has the bonus effect of slapping Hook’s ego down a peg no matter the result
C. Somewhere between A and B
- She’s supporting someone she thinks is more qualified
- And wants to use this moment to show Hook her focus should lie elsewhere
- It’s still an absolutely clucked up move

You plan to treat Satina the same, albeit keeping yourself at a distance, just in case. This situation has certainly unnerved you, but the Queen did tell you that “Sometimes we must work with individuals we dislike.” Hook sits on the thoughts for a bit as you head out, urging her to take some rest and maybe spend some time with you and the others at the Laputa house. She looks tempted, sorely tempted, but you get the feeling she’ll only do it if you too take a break.

You’ve gained a new OPPORTUNITY
- Take a break with Hook
- If you chose to take a break next year, Hook will join you on the break
- You get the feeling she’ll be quite clingy and annoying though…

> CANDIDATE INVESTIGATIONS
You get WILLIAM and IGNIS to investigate the other candidates. After a few days they return with some information.

> IGNOLIA
- She’s planning on enlisting your father’s help, as she’s convinced him of her value
- She’s been more proactive helping other students and there are rumors going around about her
- You can see that she’s putting in an effort to try to be more outgoing, but is still shy
- Ignolia knows she’s adorkable and is trying to use that to her advantage
- Her policies are related to better access to better education to the whole plate
- She also wants to try to make better ties with Canus
- She’s Anti-Human due to their treatment of Canus
> TINUPTUA
- She’s been greasing the wheels at the merchants district
- You’ve heard she was in contact with Pon a few times
- You think she’s planning some food based advertising to get the common folk on her side
- Her siblings will be supporting her but it’s unknown who will fill the wildcard slot
- She’s pro free trade
- She’s neutral on Humans
- She’s Pro Dopus ties
> CAISSA
- Caissa has played a lot of cards to her vest so most of this is inflection
- She’s aggressively attempting to make ties to the Hunter’s guild with mixed success
- She’s supposedly developing weapons but has shown no evidence of success
- She’s boastful
- There are concerns she might be exaggerating in an attempt to attract bad press to the plate
- She’s Pro Human, Canus, and Anti Dopus
- Clausey and someone named Plum will be backing her
- There are rumors that Plum doesn't fully support this plan but supports Caissa as a person
- It might be worth talking to Plum to find out more
> HOOK
- She’s been a shut in for a while
- Has been training with the Spymasters and diplomats
- Ignis knows personally that she’s extremely stealthy
- William thinks she’s actually not a shut in and has been spying on others
- You assume that might be why she’s so tired and lacking rest
- Her outward facing plan is currently unknown, but the rest of what she said was accurate
- She’s Anti-Human
- She’s Pro Canus/Dopus
> NOODLE?!?!?!?!?
- Noodle actually isn’t sponsoring herself, it’s the Hunters and various merchants
- Apparently she’s been promoting Pon’s cooking and other cooking
- There are rumors that Noodle is a skilled merchant and warrior
- Apparently Noodle made connections when she was injured in Dopus
- And they’re bringing business to Tengu
- Noodle is blissfully unaware of this.
- She’s slightly anti-Human and neutral towards Canus, but fully Pro Dopus
> OTHER CANDIDATES
- Apparently there’s one other candidate that lives on the outskirts of the plate
- They’ve created a small settlement on the edge of the plate as a stop-gap town
- They planned for it to be a trading hub for visitors to the plate
- This town is being funded by a duchess from Canus
- The Queen has tacitly approved of the idea
- They’re Pro free trade and Pro Human
- Ignis mentions that the woman likely doesn't know she’s being propped up to be queen
- Ignis mentions that she was the kin who got his writ of land from the secret santa
- This news concerns you, Ignis, and William

Edmango 2022/03/23(Wed)20:52 No. 1027124 ID: afe7de
File 164809396357.png - (11.24KB , 500x500 , SR2_068.png )

> NIGHT-TIME NOODLE
You IMMEDIATELY go to talk to Noodle and ask her about the news.

You: Are you going to try to become the QUEEN?
Noodle: Huh? It’s 4AM Chi… Let me sleeeeeep
Pon: Hmmm, we were sleeeepiiiinnngggg
You: Oh, uh, right, but is it true!?!?!?
Noodle: Uhhh maybe, I haven’t thought it through
Noodle: They said something about me having the heart of the kin
Noodle: And that we needed someone who struggled to get where they were
Noodle: But I just want to be helpful y’know
Noodle: Helpful to you, helpful to others
Noodle: I dunno if me being Queen is the right choice
Noodle: I just know about fighting and other random junk
Noodle: Plus it takes forever for me to learn stuff
Noodle: I’m sleepy, can we talk more later
Pon: Yeah, ya peck neck its 4AM.

You leave the two to their little cuddle nest and sneak off. Maybe you should have timed that a little better, oh well, now you know!

> PASSING BY THE AGGRESSIVE ONE
With the last bit of your spare time you try to speak with Caissa, catching her wandering around one day. Her plumage is a nice black on the upper half and a bright orange on the lower half. She’s got a manic grin on her face.

Caissa: Can I help you teacher.
You: I heard you were going to run for Queen
Caissa: I AM going to be queen, don’t worry
Caissa: No thanks to you
You: Excuse me
Caissa: You heard me, I won’t have any of your help
Caissa: I’ll show you who the real RUNESCRIPTERS are around here
Caissa: HAH HAH HAH CAW CAW CAW

She then takes to the skies and flies away. What the cluck? Does she have beef with you? When did you do anything to gain her ire? You let out a sigh, it looks like the next few years will be a bit complicated.

Edmango 2022/03/23(Wed)20:52 No. 1027125 ID: afe7de
File 164809397682.png - (9.11KB , 500x500 , SR2_069.png )

> [YEAR 17] TP 8 EVENT - TEA WITH LAPUTA RUNETECH
You invite everyone in the company for some DREAM TEA. Ignis has been messing around with it with Pon and they’ve come up with a nice platter of flavors. You ask everyone if they’d be okay with you ranting and they’re very excited to hear you rant, since you typically bottle it all up inside.

2 HOURS LATER
You gained [1 FUN POINT]!

You honestly feel so refreshed after that. Unfortunately, everyone other than Ignis looks absolutely drained. That guy could really listen to you talk about anything for hours on end. You give him a nice pat on the head and call him a good boy.

[LUST] EYYYYYYYY
[IGNIS’S CHARISMA] I approve
[LOGIC] UUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHH

You then bring up the idea of Drift becoming the team’s Accountant, helping manage the funds for the company, allotments and influx of materials needed, etc. He brightens up at that and is incredibly excited to be given more responsibility. You also Assign Ignis to the role of Merchant relations, he coos with excitement.

Morale at Laputa Runetech has improved!
- Drift feels needed
- Ignis feels loved
- William looks excited
- Upkeep has been automated
- You will see a slight discount in costs associated with experimentation

> [YEAR 17] TP 8 EVENT - CLARK’S PROGRESS
After class you hold Clark and speak to him. He’s looking slightly more rested, to which you sigh a breath of relief. It turns out he’s been focusing on his studies now that he has the influx of cash needed and has reached the requirements you’ve set for him to be the TA for the class. This lets you sag in your seat with relief, finally, freedom from that damned TA job. He accepts the position with a happy face and lets you know to ask him if you need him to work on anything else.

Clark is now your new TA
- You’ve freed up a new Background slot

CONGRATS! You’ve completed the GOAL - FILL THAT TA SLOT!
- You’ve gained 2 GOAL POINTS

You’re finally free to assign something to that background task. You could always assign it to DATING to get into a formal relationship with up to 3 kin at once. Ignis would certainly be pleased.

Edmango 2022/03/23(Wed)20:53 No. 1027126 ID: afe7de
File 164809399039.png - (228.62KB , 500x500 , SR2_070.png )

> [YEAR 17] TP 8 EVENT - COLOR THEORY UPDATE
Drift has made headway on COLOR THEORY, he still has no way to distill mana of different colors, but he has noted that there is a significant link between the stars in the sky and their colors. He thinks that ASTROLOGY and RUNESCRIPTING might be intimately tied together, but that it required further testing. He also has a theory that this may have something to do with PRISMATIC RUNES.

The COLOR THEORY task has been updated to COLOR ASTROLOGY
- The ETA on a new update is [TP4 of Y19]
- Investigating the stars independently may lead to a breakthrough in this field
- It’s unknown how it relates to Runescripting, but the idea intrigues your group nonetheless

> OPPORTUNITY - PAWN’S CONTRACT
You’re conflicted heavily on the matter. First of all you’re not financially stable enough to support him joining long term unless things change. Second of all, there’s no way in the worldplate you’re paying him 5k, it’s just not happening. You wanted everyone to be paid EQUALLY, not to elevate someone to a higher status and thus bring all the problems associated with that. You bring Ignis with you for a second round of negotiations, and they go by quite smoothly. Pawn even appreciates the amount of consideration you’re putting into this.

As you’re negotiating a thought comes to your mind, about how it might be better for more COMPETITION to exist in the runescripting market. Sure, you could monopolize most of it, hire all the good kin, but wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of what you were doing, letting kin of all walks that can learn it learn it to improve themselves. Your way might not be the right way after all.

[PRIDE] Lies, our way is always the right way
[LOGIC] Yeah there’s no way we’re wrong if we know so much!
[UNDERSTANDING] Logic, get back over here
[LOGIC] …
[PERSEVERANCE] You’re doing fine, Chi.

After some back and forth you’ve got new options for pawn.

An OPPORTUNITY has been updated - MICROSCRIPTING
A. Hire PAWN
- Pay him a base salary of [4,000 SHINIES a year] (the same as everyone else)
- Give him a [500 SHINY] consultation fee for his additions
- Guarantee him 3 years of safe work
- You will gain the MICROSCRIPTING MANUAL
- Development and research will increase in speed
B. Help fund his STARTUP
- Pay him half an ingot of Arcanum (you have enough in stock)
- Pay him 1000 SHINIES worth of Monster parts
- Loan him Ignis or Drift for a little bit
- Give him the SHAPE rune manual
- You will gain the MICROSCRIPTING MANUAL
- Pawn will establish his own startup
- Ignis or Drift are free to take the knowledge they gain and share with them back to LAPUTA
- Opens the road for JOINT VENTURES with Pawn in the future
- Increases the likelihood of others working with him instead of you in the future

If you chose this, you may set a [TP] to learning Microscripting Immediately
In the event of a tie vote, Chi will pick the option she prefers

Edmango 2022/03/23(Wed)20:53 No. 1027127 ID: afe7de
File 164809402850.png - (6.63KB , 500x500 , SR2_071.png )

> [YEAR 18] BEGINNING OF YEAR - UPKEEP
UPCOMING EVENTS
- ELECTIONS [TP 2 of Y20]
- MANA VEINS RESEARCH [NEXT UPDATE]
- RUBBER?!?!?!?!?!? [SOON]
- THE SECOND BUYERS [??? of Y18]

Your CURRENT GOALS are as follows
- REACH BASIC MASTERY OF A MARTIAL ART OR WEAPON (R7), 6/7 (ETA 1Y)
- DISCOVER A NEW RUNE OR RUNESCRIPTING TYPE
- FINISH YOUR MIND CAMPUS
(NEW) - [EMPTY]
Your current GP total is 10/15
Your next reward is a FREE STAT POINT

Your CURRENT BACKGROUND TASKS are as follows (3/3)
- MIND AND BODY DOJO TRAINING (-20S/yr) (Events at TP 6)
- PRECISION WITH NICO (-300S/yr) (Events at TP 3)
(NEW)- [EMPTY]

Your current RESEARCH TASKS are as follows (2/2)
- COLOR ASTROLOGY [UPDATES - TP4 of Y19]
- MANA VEINS [ETA TP1 of Y18] (NEXT UPDATE!!!)

Your current OPPORTUNITIES are as follows
> MISC
- Become a M&B Dojo Senior Disciple [Expires Y19 TP1]
- Rest with Hook
> PAWN (You may immediately spend a TP to learn Microscripting if you chose this)
- Hire Pawn
- Help fund Pawn’s startup
> GUN DEVELOPMENT (You may decide this the next time you spend time inventing)
- Battery and Generator Development (>>1026159)
- Crank Gun development
- Pure Arcanum pistol
> JOIN A TEAM
- Join Hook’s team for the elections
- You’ll need to approach others and be offered a position before more options are added

Your current OBLIGATIONS are as follows
- M&B DOJO MEMBERSHIP - 20S/y [VOIDED FOR THE YEAR]
- RENT AT IGNIS’S - 800S/y [TIME SLOT 1]
- COMFORTABLE LIFESTYLE - 160S/y [TIME SLOT 1]

You spent [2,500 SHINIES] worth of resources from the LAPUTA INVENTORY
You gained [6,400 SHINIES] from TEACHING at the ACADEMY [TP8]
You gained [12,000 SHINIES] from TEACHING the ROYALS
You gained [2,000 SHINIES] from your yearly SUPPLY STIPEND at the ACADEMY
You spent [800 SHINIES] on rent
You spent [300 SHINIES] on excess lifestyle expenses this year
You spent [16,000 SHINIES] on Laputa Runetech Financing
You have [36,198 SHINIES] remaining

Your STRESS is at 0 and you have [3 FUN POINTS] that will block newly gained stress!!
- You’ve held onto these FUN POINTS for so long you will lose one and gain a GOOD VIBE
- Your [FUN POINTS] are now at 2

> GOOD VIBE - ENERGIZED
- Everyone’s feeling energetic
- Your Linked companions will need less sleep for a bit and will have slightly more energy

You can take out a LOAN from the ROYALTY for [30,000 SHINIES]
- You need to pay it back within 4 years with a yearly interest of +2000 SHINIES a year
You have one ROYAL BOON
- This can be redeemed from the royalty for one thing within reason

LAPUTA RUNETECH
- 2 2/3 INGOTS OF ARCANUM
- 1 AIR CHOKER
- 9 SMALL MONSTER CORES
- [7,500 SHINIES] worth of misc supplies and resources
- [4,000 SHINIES] banked from your own funds
PROTOTYPES
- [CD WINGSUIT V1]
- [HOT AIR BALLOON V1]
- [PARACHUTE V1]
- [WASTEFUL FLAME-GUN]
EMPLOYEE ASSIGNMENT
Chi - Management
Ignis - Merchant Relations (NEW)
- Will now start trying to find potential buyers for creations
Drift - Accounting (NEW)
- Will reduce the overall costs of research
William - Resource Acquisition (NEW)
- He’s trying to find rubber and he’s so close!

You have 1 INGOT OF ARCANUM, and RUNESCRIPTING SUPPLIES stored in your POCKET DIMENSION

CONGRATS! You’ve turned 18! You can now be as nsfw as you want!
- Please note that the quest’s focus isn’t on nsfw content
- But now there will be mentions of it and you can sleep with kin

It is [YEAR 18] at the beginning of TP 1.
- This year your TP distribution will be 2/1/2
You have [2 TIME POINTS] to spend.

You may assign a new BACKGROUND TASK
You may assign a new GOAL

What do you do?

Action list: https://pastebin.com/Fd7Yzmmv
Stat list: https://questden.org/wiki/Shards_Stats

AUTHORS NOTE: So we’re reaching the point where y’all will likely want to do stuff like one-offs with characters all event style, so I’m removing the restriction of one dinner per year and it’s now going to be one character event per clump of TP. You all can suggest stuff you want to happen, be it dinners or character interactions, and rather than these being selected by popular vote, I’ll be picking the ones I think would be the most interesting or plot relevant. But if an idea does win the popular vote I’ll likely include it as well.

(edited)
PAWN: B. If we have competition, it’ll push us to do better with our runescripting, AND we’ll see faster and greater development in technology in Tengu as well if we have two competing companies!

GOAL: Break Runescripting's softcap by either discovering 2 Compound Runes or learning a gold or prismatic rune

BACKGROUND TASKS: DATING
We’ll do Ignis, William, and Nubs and see where that gets us.

TP:
1. Lets use that TP to learn MICROSCRIPTING with PAWN, and help fund his STARTUP
2. improve the WINGSUIT for NOODLE in memory of Glide since we haven’t seen him in awhile. We should also consider making a parachute on the side too in case her wingsuit breaks while she’s flying

With everyone having good vibes right now, it'll be a good idea to start improving our invention! Against gun making for now, too soon for that, and might cause Canus to raise some eyebrows if we start making higher tech weaponry too early.

Oh yeah, and lets do dinner with Ignolia, I want to learn about her stance at being queen. Maybe we can suggest introducing her to Drift too, seeing as she is teaching monster theory and all.

>- Ignis mentions that she was the kin who got his writ of land from the secret santa
Well we need to meet her, then.

So far I like these candidates, listed in order of preference:
HOOK
- a competent spy as a Queen would be huge, tbh, and she's likely to ally with both Canus and Dopus. She's got bonus points for seeking us out first as well, but what is going on with her mom? I guess she lost a couple points for not being totally upfront with us but that's good infosec anyway.
TINUPTUA
- because it's like having three queens, and her neutral attitude towards Humans might avoid war? Maybe? Well, it'd prolong peace a bit, at least. War is probably inevitable. Of course, she has good TACTICS so once war breaks out she'll be good at it.
IGNOLIA
- because she's being clever about it and having better ties with Canus will severely reduce our exposure to Human interference. Plus, a focus on education, which is always a good long term investment. How good would she be once war breaks out though?

I don't like Caissa for obvious reasons(everything she's doing looks like trouble), and I think Noodle is being set up to be a figurehead, which is not great, even if she'll be a decent enough war queen.

>free background slot
DATING. Ignis, William, Nubs. YEAR 18 HERE WE GOOOOOO

>Goal
Get laid! Well maybe that's too easy, I'm sure Ignis or Nubs would take care of that in a second. Become Royal Scientist is good too.

>Pawn Choice
B. Joint ventures are exciting! Also tell him it's important that he keeps good infosec. If he makes anything he'd rather not get into the hands of the Human government then he needs to restrict access, and he should generally vet his hires. Come to think of it, with two companies like this we'd avoid the "all your eggs in one basket" problem, which is a side benefit.
Immediately apply 1TP into Microscripting because let's be honest it's like the most important skill we can get at the moment.

Join Hook. We did our due diligence and nothing jumped out at us as clearly better.
>TP usage
1 TP Microscripting
1 TP Manufacture the wingsuit and some of that ceramic body armor for Noodle. Maybe we can make a hot air balloon to sell? Some parachutes for any non-wingkin that want to ride it? Get some income for the business by leveraging our working designs.

Also, I realize the we still need to find Nubs a job. I have an idea though, lets introduce Nubs to Chip, maybe he and her can make a startup business with his crafting, and her blacksmithing. Either that, or ask Chip for some advice to find some work for Nubs and her blacksmithing. In return... ummm... we'll commission him to design a figurine of a Laputa logo and display it somewhere!

Well let's get the obvious out of the way:

TP1: Microscripting
TP2: Use Microscripting to improve the glide suit (save one or two of the clothing damage designs for rainy day entertainment. Nubs or Noodle might get a kick out of it). Take advantage of the good vibes and get this ready for practical use on the field!

Moving on from there:

>NEW GOAL
Honestly, yeah I'm board with just having it be "Get Laid". I like Polt's idea too, but it's not bad to take an easy one every once in a while. Chi should get laid, this is a plan of action that LUST supports fully, and which LOGIC should appreciate the emotional benefits of.

(Shut up LOGIC we're doing it.)

>Free Background Slot
Yeah this is going to be dating. Ignis, William, Nubs. We'll have another opening once M&B clears up, so that'll be where we do something less predictable.

>Pawn
B, fund the start-up. You're right, it'll be better to have more groups working on more things than it would be to hoard all the talent in Laputa. Besides, if Pawn can manage his own group, then that opens up spots for runescripters we haven't even considered for Laputa! Though I'd prefer if we take Clark ourselves when the time comes, I want to see what having a human will do to Laputa's reputation (and if it's negative, let's not sabotage Pawn's startup by making him deal with that).

Loan him Ignis. Look, we JUST got Drift back from his extended leave, let him work on some stuff at home for a while. We'll still see Ignis, he just won't be working with us for a short bit. We'll make it up to him by doing his meditation thing next chance we get.

>Who To Support?
I firmly support backing Hook, BUT! Before we do, I would like to talk to both Noodle and Ignolia. They're our friends, and if they have any stake in this then they deserve to know where we stand. Just tell them that we're heavily considering joining Hook, share some of your reasons why, and give them a chance to invite us to their side. Make sure there are no hard feelings no matter what you choose, and if there are?

...Well that's petty af and they probably shouldn't be Queen then.

>>1027127
Honestly want to perhaps become queen or win the dopus eating competition return as a champion scoring major dopus points and for a sense of completion as its sort of the one thing we did not manage also how develop our one sexual feature.
Perhaps backing the winning candidate?

> NEW BACKGROUND TASK
Dating with IGNIS, NUBS, and... I'm not sure if the spark of romance is really there with William anymore? Like, we've been over how we're more like platonic life-partners at this point. I'm struggling to think of anyone else besides maybe Noodle, though, and she's got a political career to think of (plus dating the same person as PON could be awkward as cluck).

> NEW GOAL
Let's see about returning to DOPUS to complete our GURUSHIP with RAIN.

> TP 1: PAWN
Yeah, supporting B; not only is a competitive market a happy market, but A can't really be supported long-term, and we also have uh... personal experience regarding what can go wrong with putting all of a new industry/authority's eggs into one basket, even if the scope is a bit smaller this time.

> TP 2: ACTIVE RESEARCH - ASTROLOGY
Drift's theories excite you. Maybe runes were originally derived from making CONSTELLATIONS from same-colored stars! (It's as good a theory as any for how the peck runescripting's first practitioners figured it out and might be a hint for how GOLD and PRISMATIC work differently.) Peck, even if you don't solve the key to GOLD and PRISMATIC RUNES right there, you'll have more than enough insight to tackle the SURFACE RUINS later this year! (And if you have time in there to invent something, use MICROSCRIPTING to improve the WINGSUIT design.)

> DINNER - A MEETING WITH SPIES
Let's arrange a private dinner with IGNIS, plus possibly HOOK and SATINA if you can fit them in - for business rather than pleasure this time. You have... concerns about one of the queen candidates; while you haven't decided who you are supporting, one thing you're truly sure of is that CAISSA literally cannot be allowed to win. She was boasting to you earlier about not needing your help, but in a way that seemed oddly confident; given CLAUSEY's timely reappearance after clucking off back to CANUS for so long and his history of suspected sabotage, plus CAISSA's strongly pro-human stance, you suspect she might be cooperating with FOREIGN INTERESTS. "It would be no exaggeration to say that I firmly believe her victory to be the WORST-CASE SCENARIO for our country, irregardless of who might be considered the 'best-case.'" Obviously, these are just suspicions, which is why you're taking them to people who are capable of investigating her activities and associates more thoroughly, as well as maybe pass on your concerns to the queen.

>>1027124
>What the cluck? Does she have beef with you? When did you do anything to gain her ire?
You said she was a former student of yours. Odds are, she failed your class and blames you instead of wanting to admit she was a bad student. Which is why she hates you so much.

>>1027125
>Logic hates Lust
Come on Logic, don’t be like that! Lust isn’t just for sexual stuff! It can be a passionate desire for something! For example: A lust for knowledge!

Surely both Logic and Lust can work together for something like that, right?

>>1027127
>Chi is 18 now
>people are suggesting that Chi should get laid
Really? Come on, she just barely turned 18! She doesn’t need to immediately get laid! That can wait for a bit!

Besides, we need to at least learn how birth control works in this world first. That way Chi doesn’t accidentally end up getting pregnant before she’s ready to have kids.

>What do?
First of all, let’s take a break with Hook. That way we can make her relax and treat her to some real food. The sooner we do this, the better. That way she can work more efficiently and she won’t look like she’s about to collapse! After taking that break, we can tell her that we’ll support her.

However, her Anti-Human policy is a problem for us, since one of our best students is Clark, who is a human. Would it be possible to get her to change to “Slightly Anti-Human”, so that Clark doesn’t get affected? It’d really suck if Hook becomes Queen and she kicks out all the humans, including Clark.

>>1027180
>Caissa cannot win!
>possible foreign interests!
If the Spymasters that Hook has been training with are able to dig up any proof of this, then that could possibly disqualify Cassia as a candidate for the throne. Hook would be happy with that, since it’d mean less competition for her.

Fund Pawn’s startup, loaning him Drift. Two organizations can research more tech at a time and builds a wider foundation for the scripting industry.
Approach Noodle and encourage her to accept the nomination. You’d love to help any way you can. Personally, I see Hook as a better spymaster than a sovereign.
New goal: return to Rain.
New background task: Dating! Hang out with your friends more!

>>1027260
>Really? Come on, she just barely turned 18! She doesn’t need to immediately get laid! That can wait for a bit!
>Take a break with Hook
I agree with these things.

>>1027271
>Noodle should be Queen
I don't know about that. She seems like she'd rather be out doing things instead of being tied to the throne. She also seems like she'd struggle with politics, since she said that she only knows about fighting, some other random junk, and it takes forever for her to learn stuff.

But if she wants to try to be the Queen and she isn't being pressured into it by everyone around her, then she's welcome to officially announce herself as a candidate.

OH! just thought of an idea for when we design the wing suit

since you're good at remembering, look through your memories and visualize the boots Marth wore https://questden.org/kusaba/questarch/res/1002288.html#1003793. visualize what designs are on there as a reference if you recognize and know any of them to maybe help with the wignsuit design. Might not work since we might not know all the runescripting symbols on the boots yet and unable to draw them, but a frame of reference to perhaps get us inspired at least and think of alternatives nonetheless.

Let's find somewhere to relax with Hook.

Edmango 2022/03/31(Thu)21:36 No. 1027822 ID: afe7de
File 164878776363.png - (307.93KB , 500x500 , SR2_072.png )

> [YEAR 18] TP 1 EVENT - MANA VEINS RESEARCH UPDATE
Drift has been incredibly enthusiastic over this particular topic, especially after you very hesitantly lent him the GOGGLES OF MANA-SIGHT. He mentioned that his body's original 2 veins, with a core centered around his head and one in his chest have shifted, so he wants to study them. It appears that they’ve developed significantly. His veins connections are more robust and form something akin to a nervous system throughout his body. No longer limited to the two nodes, there are instead four, two in his skull, one WHITE and one YELLOW, one GREEN node near his heart, and one BLUE one near his stomach. The WHITE and GREEN nodes are significantly larger and you can see the veins leading out towards or even through his horns. The veins are thick and pulse like a heartbeat with a thicker, more potent energy. His full-body change must have had a significant influence on the veins which sends your mind reeling at the possibilities.

The changes don’t stop there. There’s a very minor, yet very noticeable, increase on the efficacy of devices created with a rune that corresponds with a vein that someone has. You never noticed before because there was never an instance where someone had extra nodes in their body of the same colors. It appears this is why it was slightly easier for kin to learn manuals that matched their veins. You check the others for progress, their mana veins haven't changed at all.

> IGNIS
- Blue Veins
> DRIFT
- Yellow/White/Green/Blue
> WILLIAM
- Red
> CHI
- Black

Drift still mentions that consuming cores is incredibly risky for anyone other than him, but offers another solution to experiment with, though everyone seems uncomfortable when he brings it up. He suggests attempting to inscribe runes onto FEATHERS or SKIN in an attempt to create RUNE TATTOOS. This brings up a potent question, who would you test this on? Livestock? Kin? Flesh bought from the store? Likely it’d need to be with a living subject, but you’re unsure of what results it would have, or if the rune would vanish after use. You shudder to think of someone disintegrating after being inscribed with a rune, like what happens with other materials. But if you’re able to tap into an individual's veins, it’s possible to strengthen them like a muscle. The idea excites you, as much as it slightly worries you. There’s no way humans haven’t discovered this… is there?

NEW RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES HAVE BEEN UNLOCKED
> LIVE SPECIMEN RUNE TATTOOS - [Requires live specimen] [Updates after 1 TP]
+ Learn more about Runescripting applications on the body
+ Has 25% chance of failure
> DEAD SPECIMEN RUNE TATTOOS - [Updates after 1 TP]
+ Learn more about Runescripting applications on the body
+ May provide you with misinformation on how it functions on living bodies
> FEATHER RUNE TATTOOS - [Requires willing participant] [Updates after 1 TP]
+ Learn more about Runescripting applications on feathers.

> [YEAR 18] TP 1-2 TEACHING
Teaching goes by smoothly this year, and with Clark acting as your TA you have a lot more free time to listen to the rumors going about the campus. Every-kin’s been talking about Ignolia lately. She’s been teaching a few more classes and actively getting students involved and excited about education, filling out the teaching classes. You think she’s hoping to get more teachers of a higher quality and it fits the information you were given. You share lunch with her occasionally and she invites you to DINNER later on in the year. You decide to take her up on the offer and invite NOODLE, whom she is excited to meet.

[IGNIS’S CHARISMA] I think she’s a little embarrassed about talking to your dad
[GUILE] It also looks like she wants to talk to you about being queen
[LOGIC] I think she’s just nervous
[LUST] Maybe she wants a three-
[LOGIC] NO, BAD!

> OPPORTUNITY GRASPED - PAWN’S STARTUP
This decision is a simple one to you, this works to further your goals, and you help build goodwill, and avoid putting all of the eggs in one basket. A saying that you rarely hear in Tengu, but should definitely be said more considering how you’re mostly wing-kin. You give Pawn the Half-ingot, Monster parts, Shape rune manual, but then are torn between who to send over to help.

Instead of sending one, you send both, they’ll alternate and get to feel him out. Drift’s got different perspectives and ideas than Ignis does after all. You think this will be a good time investment for both of them as well, maybe they can learn to script from different perspectives, and maybe it’ll make Pawn more willing to work with you in the future.

You’ve gained the MICROSCRIPTING manual, you’re excited to dive into its secrets
- So excited that it’s the next thing you do!

Pawn has established a Runescripting startup called:
- [Runes & Ruminations: Arcane and Esoteric Consulting]

[CHARISMA] It’s a clucking mouthful
[LOGIC] So does he do consulting?
[PRIDE] I like his gumption!

Edmango 2022/03/31(Thu)21:36 No. 1027823 ID: afe7de
File 164878777325.png - (214.56KB , 500x500 , SR2_073.png )

> [YEAR 18] TP 3 - MICROSCRIPTING
You gather the crew, even a busy William, to work through the manual as a group, passing it between one another and pondering its infinite mysteries. Well it’s not an infinite mystery, you wrap this up rather quickly and create the updated runescripting pens using the design you made a few years back. It’s sleeker, simpler, and more portable than the older design and you beam with pride as your group now has a new tool under its belt.

You’ve unlocked MICROSCRIPTING!
- Your designs will have fewer limitations!
- Instead the limits will be mostly on energy minimum/maximum/uses
- As well as your current rune limit per object
- Unfortunately Microscripting does not enhance the speed or volume of the absorb rune
- You will still need to work on energy sources/containers

You notice as well that there’s a singular page with not much to go on of some notes about a NODE rune or subscript, you remember reading about that in the JOURNEYMAN'S REFERENCE VOLUME XII. It looks like Pawn was attempting to brute force the rune and left some of his notes in here for you. He hasn't made much progress, but Imagines that it lies somewhere between regular runescripting and microscripting.

Your bond with PAWN has increased to RANK 2
- Pawn will occasionally pop by to say hello or share a project idea

> [YEAR 18] TP 3 EVENT - PRECISION WITH NICO
The last few weeks of training with Nico have been uneventful and less than fruitful. You’re starting to see the limit of what he can teach you, and can tell that he’s rather uncomfortable as of late. You try to press for some information and on a particular day of the month he speaks up.

Nico: I might be going away for a little while
You: How come?
You: You alright?
Nico: It’s uhhhh complicated
Nico: I just got the news that some relatives passed away
Nico: Under uhhh
Nico: Questionable circumstances
You: Oh no!

You’re unnerved to hear that, but also get the distinct impression that he’s nervous and being a bit cagier than normal. Like a facade you never noticed was cracking. He hands you a small object wrapped in a rather nice sheet of paper.

Nico: Keep it, consider it a graduation gift or something
You: But I’m still not anywhere near your level?
Nico: Well, you being you, I’m sure it’ll be useful.
Nico: ... hedging too many bets…
Nico: Just… do your best in the future alright, I’ve heard the rumblings
Nico: Hopefully the worst doesn't come to turn.

He excuses himself to the restroom, so you take a moment to look over the present he gave you. Inside is a single dart, but it shines bright and appears to be made of… Arcanum? No? This is something else. You look at this with your goggles and it is DENSE with mana, so much more than a single ingot it’s blinding. The color itself is an iridescent black and bronze. It refracts as you look and move it. The paper itself also has a slight glow, so you look closer, noticing a small black mark on it, it looks like a rook, the chess piece. Your eyes squint as you debate its meaning before the paper itself disintegrates, just like the letter you got before, leaving you with the dart in your wing.

[UNDERSTANDING] This has to be COPCANUM, I think that book talked about it
[UNDERSTANDING] Wait and is this related to that letter you got?
[INTUITION] He’s not coming back is he
[LOGIC] Likely so

You get up, rushing to the restroom only to notice that he’s nowhere in sight. You take to the skies immediately afterwards, in some semblance of an attempt to find him, but the results are fruitless. He’s left you with many questions, concerns, and a gift. You wonder why he would give you this. You’ll have to research it to know more.

NEW RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES HAVE BEEN UNLOCKED
> COPCANUM DART
+ Requires [1TP] of study
+ Seems to be more than just a chunk of COPCANUM
+ Results of study are currently unknown

The BACKGROUND TASK - PRECISION WITH NICO - has concluded!
- Nico has left for somewhere in Canus
- Your bond with Nico has been frozen
- You now have another free [BACKGROUND TASK] slot!
- Feel free to set it at any time!
- Not setting it to anything will automatically have it default to the rest action

Edmango 2022/03/31(Thu)21:36 No. 1027824 ID: afe7de
File 164878779483.png - (361.86KB , 500x500 , SR2_074.png )

> [YEAR 18] TP 4 - BREAK-TIME WITH HOOK
This was a mistake. It’s been a week and she hasn’t left your side. It turns out Hook has been desperate for socialization and physical affection and has been looking for an excuse, any excuse to take a break. Seriously, the hug quota that was reserved for Ignis mostly has been all but absorbed by her, not that you’re complaining, her neck fluff, whilst a bit untamed, is quite soft.

[LUST] I-
[CHARISMA] YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH! THIS ONE IS WHOLESOME, SO IT'S MINE!
[ANGER] Woooo! You tell her!

It seems Hook just hadn’t invested in making bonds or connections with anyone other than her direct instructors, the spymasters, and those she directly worked with. But it’s so strange, how could she, with access to resources and knowledge like she is, have ended up this way, so sheltered?

At first you thought it was just an aftereffect of being raised by Satina, but other than her impeccable observational skills, her charisma is absolutely atrocious. The woman lacks grace, charm, fails to regularly take care of herself and is rude at every turn. Yet she clings to you and when admonished appears genuinely hurt. You can tell during the time she spends with you that she genuinely respects you as a person and as the days go by she starts to also care about your opinion.

If you had to pick at her faults, a truly easy task, you’d say that she’s intense, having a passion and heat to certain topics that you hadn’t expected. She also is quick to Anger and acts defensive at times. And when she’s upset, truly upset, she becomes mopey and defeated rather easily. You read her as a woman of extremes, who feels quite intensely and so shuts herself off from bonds so that she can focus her emotions, to tune them specifically and use them as fuel towards her goals. You’d say she’s full of herself, but that’d be wrong, she’s fully aware of her limits and is harsher on herself than others.

But, that’s not to say that the time is all bad, she has genuinely good insights when she sees your work and their potential applications. She isn’t shy when it comes to discussing things, and although she lacks decorum and is blunt like yourself, she refuses to back down from a challenge. She’s a fount of knowledge on oft overlooked elements as you take her out to eat a numerous amount of times, and she’s also decisive, staying her course to completion if she can.

You: So, why do you want to be queen anyway?
You: I feel like you’d be a great spymaster, maybe even Tactician, but why this?
Hook: Well…
Hook: Don’t laugh…
You: Uhhh no promises
Hook: UGH, whatever.
Hook: It’s spite. Pure spite.
You: I’m sorry what?
Hook: I was always told “You can’t do this, you can’t do that” growing up
Hook: And so I learned those things, I worked on those things, just to prove those fuckers wrong
You: Uh huh, and someone said you couldn’t become queen?
Hook: My mom, my dad, the king, the kids in my classes, merchants, yadda yadda
You: Your DAD said that? The King?
Hook: Well… not exactly
Hook: Look my family doesn't want me to do it because they think I’m too hot headed
Hook: I stay and work at home all the time
Hook: Yadda yadda
Hook: But that’s exactly WHY I should do it, push past those morons who don’t believe in me!
Hook: So I took an interest in the crime that was cropping up
Hook: All related to human influence and elements by the way
Hook: And want to pull a clean sweep and show that I CAN get things done
Hook: And before you ask I DO CARE about the city beyond that
Hook: Just… do you know how hard it is to find anyone else with VISION around here!?!
Hook: I’m not “unfit to be Queen”
Hook: I put in the work goddess dammit!
Hook: I even know just the tiniest bit of RUNESCRIPTING just to prove that SA-TIN-A SUCKED!

She slams the table in a huff, her voice heated and chest heaving. Spite seems to be a big motivator for her.

You’ve learned a bit more about Hook’s motivations
- Hook wants to be queen to prove others were wrong about her
- Hooks policies will be laden with espionage and anti-espionage operations
- She won’t purge humans from the plate, but will be strict with any non-natives
- She’s severely lacking in DIPLOMACY and CHARISMA
- She’s incredibly strong in INTUITION and PERCEPTION and GUILE
- She has a skillset that you would consider GENERALIST

You get the feeling that other queen candidates will be revealing their motives and qualifications soon. You can expedite this process by spending time with them or getting someone to spy on them.

Your bond with HOOK has increased twice to RANK 3
- Hook might occasionally suggest activities or provide intel to you
- Hook considers you a good friend (likely her only one)

After what seems like an eternity, Hook finally goes back home, you got to show her new things, and introduce her to new kin, but you’re not sure she made progress on forming bonds with anyone else, it looks like she really needs the other party to invest in her the most for her to care in return. Part of you kind of misses her constant presence, and the rest, the other 85% is so glad to have her out of your feathers, you like your featherin’ alone time!

Edmango 2022/03/31(Thu)21:36 No. 1027825 ID: afe7de
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> NEW BACKGROUND TASK - TRIPLE DATE
You’ve done it! You’ve blocked out the perfect amount of time in your schedule to allot to the big one, RELATIONSHIPS. [LOGIC] is a bit sad that you’re losing a task to this, but you don’t see it as a loss, instead you see it as a gain, to get closer to those near you. You care for them, and they’ll care for you back. But the question of who to actually date remains…

Just kidding, you know exactly who you are going to date. When you approach Ignis and ask him if he wants to start dating more regularly as “a thing” he faints. Immediately. So when he wakes up you ask him again, and you have to grip ahold of him to make sure he doesn't pass out. It’s kind of adorable.

Nubs practically bounces with giddy energy, exclaiming how she’s always wanted to kiss you but has been worried about being “too forward” or “a bother” or “too sexually charged.” She plants a huge wet smooch on your cheek and you refuse to admit that you blushed or were a bit heated after that. It just didn’t happen, no matter what your [STATS] say. You watch Nubs’s tail wiggle with sheer excitement as she leaves that day.

The tricky one happens to be William, the third you planned on pursuing, he’s absolutely hooked on his current goal, producing rubber and says that he doesn't really have the time for formal dates. You roll your eyes at him, knowing he does in fact have *some* time but don’t push him. He’s approaching this with a single-mindedness and perseverance you haven't seen from him. It’s not a self destructive obsessiveness, he’s just fully exploring the project, though he’s a bit behind, claiming to have something at the beginning of the year, but now pushing it back to [NEXT TP]. But there’s something else, something underlying in the frustration. You know he cares, and so do you, but it feels… weird, like something isn’t right. Eventually, after a bit too much pestering, you find out what.

William: I uh, I have no libido okay
William: Like it does not function that way anymore
William: I still care but is that even something you’d be okay with, just… not?
William: Also I’m calling bullshit we got the option for good bodies
William: What is this pile of bird droppings?!?!?

You wonder if William just isn’t interested in sex. Not that that’s a big driving force for you or anything, but he seems… flustered about it. It could be entirely mental if his body is functioning normally.

[LUST] Maybe he’s scared that when he has sex he’ll have kids
[LOGIC] That… could explain why he’s trying to find rubber… for condoms
[GUILE] What if he’s lying about having no libido, what if it’s the opposite?
[STRATEGY] Maybe it's that he has such a high libido but a fear of having kids?
[STRATEGY] Causing a sort of conflict in his mind turning off the valve so to speak
[SABA’S KN] Maybe, we were both raised in shitty circumstances surrounding childbirth anyway

You’re now DATING!
- Dating events will happen at random or by audience request
- You are dating Ignis
- You are dating Nubs
- You have one free dating slot

William has rejected your offer to date at this time, you can try asking him to date again later, or date someone else.

> DINNER - NOODLES WITH A SIDE OF IGNOLIA
Dating situated, you decide to have a nice dinner with Ignolia and Noodle. Ignolia is excited to meet Noodle and Noodle is just happy you want to invite her to a fancy dinner. The three of you meet and have a simple, yet flavorful meal in a quiet corner. After talking with the ladies about life, wings, monsters, boys and girls, the topic shifts towards your true purpose, the elections.

You: So Ignolia, I didn’t know you were planning on running until a friend told me
Ignolia: Well you’re sssometimes in your head
Ignolia: I’ve hinted it a few timesss
Noodle: Yeah she does get up in her mind sometimes
You: I got a lot to think about okay!
You: So many runes in the scripter!
Ignolia: Woah you made a machine to do it!
You: uh… it’s a figure of speech, but that might not be a bad idea.
Noodle: Please, no rune talk, my head will burst
You: Fine, fine, fine!
Ignolia: But uh, I just want everyone to have equal opportunitiessss!
Ignolia: I mean, not everyone’sssss lucky enough to get in the academy
Ignolia: And they only have ssssso many teacherssss
Ignolia: If we can improve the quality of the ssssmall ssssatellite sssschoolsss
Ignolia: Or increassse the breadth of their teachings it’d help the kin who fall through the crackss
Noodle: I know I got lucky with Chi over here, I wouldn’t be in such a good spot if she didn't help
You: I’m sure you would’ve done great Noodle!
Noodle: No, I wouldn’t have.
Noodle: You spent months tutoring me and I BARELY got in.
Ignolia: More kin like Chi ssshould exissst in the world!

[PRIDE] YESSSSS MOOOOOOREEEE
[GUILE] They’re buttering you up!
[LOGIC] I don't think Noodle is…

You: But if that was your goal, why become queen?
You: Why not go the extra mile and run a school for teachers or something?
Ignolia: Too ineffective, becoming Queen greasesss wingsss easssier
Ignolia: Also that kind of thing requiresss SHINIES which, while we’re paid well
Ignolia: Isn’t enough.
Ignolia: And I feel bad for Canus, I want them to learn too
Ignolia: A lot of them don’t know how to read
Ignolia: And they promote bad practices over there and encourage martial ones
Ignolia: The Humansss ruined my homeland, and we’re not ssstrong enough to fight back
Ignolia: So education isss how I want to fix it!
Noodle: This is all dumb why cant we just all work together, why one specific queen?
Ignolia: Yeah it is kind of dumb, but it’s just the sssystem
Ignolia: Not like we’re Insects from Hiven
Ignolia: Operating under the collective of a unified force that’s unselfish
Ignolia: It’s all “For the Colony” “For the queen” etc.
You: I’m pretty sure their society is run by the ROOKS though
Ignolia: Well it’s just an analogy, imagine I talked about regular bugs and about a collective
Noodle: Y’know I met some bugs on my journeys
Noodle: Insect-Kin I mean.
Noodle: Most of them were dumb as bricks and didn’t have like… hands
Noodle: Almost like their brains were exchanged for tools
Noodle: Except for the Knights, those guys had one hand at least.
You: Yeah, their societal structures are interesting too, but we’re off topic.
Ignolia: Oh, right!
Ignolia: Yeah, sssingle monarchy kind of sucksss but it’s how things are run
Ignolia: And we’re doing well off compared to Canusss, so I can’t really complain

Eventually the dinner dies down, Noodle shares that she’d rather someone like Ignolia be Queen, she just doesn't have the acumen to consider all of the different aspects and feels like she’d just pick things at random or listen to Chi.

You’ve learned a bit more about Ignolia’s motivations
- Ignolia wants to be queen to repair the broken ties between Canus
- Ignolia’s policies will lean towards education and diplomacy
- Ignolia will likely enact policies to restrict the rights of humans
- She’s severely lacking in TACTICS and GUILE and is a bit SOFT SPOKEN
- But she has a lot of physical CHARISMA, KNOWLEDGE, and EMPATHY
- Her skill set focuses on intellect

Noodle is unsure if she’s even interested in running and would require your support
- Noodle has no plans should she become queen
- Noodle would likely act randomly or seek advice from those close to her
- She’s lacking in KNOWLEDGE and DIPLOMACY
- She’s strong in TRADE, TACTICS, and EMPATHY
- You think that it’s possible to stoke her passion for queendom
- Thus removing how random her policies would be
- But you’re currently unsure how to do that

Edmango 2022/03/31(Thu)21:37 No. 1027826 ID: afe7de
File 164878782710.png - (127.50KB , 500x500 , SR2_076.png )

> [YEAR 18] BEGINNING OF [TP 5] - UPKEEP
UPCOMING EVENTS
- ELECTIONS [TP 2 of Y20]
- RUBBER?!?!?!?!?!? [NEXT UPDATE]
- THE SECOND BUYERS [NEXT UPDATE]
(NEW) - PUBLICITY [TP 7]
- You’ve heard rumblings that Caissa is going to do something

Your CURRENT GOALS are as follows
- REACH BASIC MASTERY OF A MARTIAL ART OR WEAPON (R7), 6/7 (SOON)
- DISCOVER A NEW RUNE OR RUNESCRIPTING TYPE
= Microscripting was a technique/syntax and did not count towards this objective
- FINISH YOUR MIND CAMPUS
(NEW) - [EMPTY]
Your current GP total is 10/15
Your next reward is a FREE STAT POINT

Your CURRENT BACKGROUND TASKS are as follows (3/3)
- MIND AND BODY DOJO TRAINING (-20S/yr) (Events at TP 6)
(NEW) - DATING - Ignis/Nubs/[Empty]
(NEW)- [EMPTY]

Your current RESEARCH TASKS are as follows (2/2)
- COLOR ASTROLOGY [UPDATES - TP4 of Y19]
(NEW) - [EMPTY]

REMINDER: RESEARCH SLOTS run in the background similar to a background task and take [8 TP] (1 year) per TP it costs to actually do the research.

Your current OPPORTUNITIES are as follows
> MISC
- Become a M&B Dojo Senior Disciple [Expires Y19 TP1]
(NEW! - I forgot to add this last update)- Get Nubs a job! [Expires mid Y19]
> GUN DEVELOPMENT (You may decide this the next time you spend time inventing)
- Battery and Generator Development (>>1026159)
- Crank Gun development
- Pure Arcanum pistol
> JOIN A TEAM
- Join Hook’s team for the elections
(NEW)- Join Ignolia’s team for the elections
= She’d be more than happy to have your support
(NEW)- Convince/Inspire Noodle to become queen
- You’ll need to approach others and be offered a position before more options are added

Your current OBLIGATIONS are as follows
- M&B DOJO MEMBERSHIP - 20S/y [VOIDED FOR THE YEAR]
- RENT AT IGNIS’S - 800S/y [TIME SLOT 1]
- COMFORTABLE LIFESTYLE - 160S/y [TIME SLOT 1]
- LAPUTA FUNDING - 16,000S/y [TIME SLOT 1]

You gained [12,800 SHINIES] from TEACHING at the academy [TP 1+2]
You spent [100 SHINIES] on resources for MICROSCRIPTING and snacks
You spent [300 SHINIES] on PRECISION WITH NICO
You spent half an ingot of ARCANUM on Pawn
You spent ⅙ of an ingot of ARCANUM on your new MICROSCRIPTING tools
You spent [1000 SHINIES] worth of Monster parts on Pawn
You spent [100 SHINIES] on your break with Hook
You have [48,498 SHINIES] remaining

Your STRESS is at 0 and you have [2 FUN POINTS] that will block newly gained stress!!
- Your [GOOD VIBE] is over

You can take out a LOAN from the ROYALTY for [30,000 SHINIES]
- You need to pay it back within 4 years with a yearly interest of +2000 SHINIES a year
You have one ROYAL BOON
- This can be redeemed from the royalty for one thing within reason

LAPUTA RUNETECH
- 2 INGOTS OF ARCANUM
- 1 AIR CHOKER
- 9 SMALL MONSTER CORES
- [6,500 SHINIES] worth of misc supplies and resources
- [4,000 SHINIES] banked from your own funds
PROTOTYPES
- [CD WINGSUIT V1]
- [HOT AIR BALLOON V1]
- [PARACHUTE V1]
- [WASTEFUL FLAME-GUN]
EMPLOYEE ASSIGNMENT
Chi - Management
Ignis - Merchant Relations +Buyers
Drift - Accounting +Reduced research costs
William - Resource Acquisition +Rubber… eventually…

You have 1 INGOT OF ARCANUM, and RUNESCRIPTING SUPPLIES stored in your POCKET DIMENSION

It is [YEAR 18 - TP 5]
You have [1 TIME POINT] to spend.

You may assign a new BACKGROUND TASK
You may assign a new RESEARCH TASK
You may assign a new GOAL

What do you do?

Action list: https://pastebin.com/Fd7Yzmmv
(NEW) Research list: https://pastebin.com/bG3aVMLY
NOTE: Adding a research pastebin for ease of reference
Stat list: https://questden.org/wiki/Shards_Stats

How did he disappear so fast? Did he jump off the worldplate? Did an eagle swoop him up? You read the book about secret societies, did the rook symbol appear in there? Is the rook symbol actually a rune maybe? ...No, it's probably the hivers.
Hook, becoming the leader of a country out of spite... there are seriously worse reasons to do so! You don't doubt her competence at it either, but you had better be real sure to delegate, delegate, [i]delegate[i] diplomatic tasks, and learn to act real well. Perhaps to someone like Ignis.
Still, I support Noodle. Think on how to stoke her passion. Not queendom, not hunting, but... Protection? Encouraging teamwork? Maybe taking down the system from inside the system - improving education and making more leaders, teachers, scientists and soldiers.
New goal: Make Noodle a true Queen contender.
New background task: Daydreaming... Can you set exploring the mist in your mind palace to a background task? If not, how about you set a background task to NETWORKING: Spend more time with your students outside of class, perhaps by running an extracurricular activity, to identify prospective future recruits for your company, and perhaps steer them away from human interest groups. Also, reach out and identify the others in your field. Do they hold some sort of international runescripters convention?
New research task: Copcanum!
Finally, work on inventing batteries. Do the theory now so you know what material you have to gather in the future.

>humans must have discovered rune tattoos
Probably! And they're in places that they can easily hide by covering it with clothing. Or maybe they've developed invisible ink. Uncolored mana ink... That might actually be a thing!

>another disintegrating paper
Dammit. We totally missed whatever was on the first one, and this one isn't much better. I'm guessing Marth is sending us secret correspondence and we're just not good enough at Runescripting or Perception to read it! Whatever war he's waging, off on his own, I wish we could help.
...wait, could we revisit our memories via Eidetic Memory and try again to read the first letter? Or this one?

>Noodle thinks there should be multiple Queens
Idea: Tell her she can have something like that- a small group of elite advisors that are like, Vice-Queens.

>TP
Read the PERCEPTION book and revisit the disintegrating letter memories. This just jumped to the top of my priority list.

>Background Task
Read the BOOK OF ORDERS.
>dating slot
Leave it open for now. Once William finds rubber we can test to see if he'll be interested in sex once babies are off the table. If he really is asexual then... meh, still leave it empty. That means more time for the two we do have. Or just some extra free time!

>Research Task
COPCANUM DART. We're being led somewhere, let's find out where that is exactly.

>Goal
Become Royal Scientist. Or, find out who's sending you disintegrating letters.

GOAL: Break Runescripting's SOFTCAP by discovering two compound runes, or learning a gold/prismatic rune

Background task: Considering what is going on currently, I think it is time to read the THE BOOK OF ORDERS, to be prepared, especially during the election.

Research task: MANA BATTERY DEVELOPMENT!

TP: lets get that WINGSUIT upgraded for Noodle, with possible parachute as well on the side.

Lets have DINNER with CHIP, ask about job opportunities for Nubs, he might have insight on jobs as a craftsman himself.

Okay, I'm bringing up something from a while ago, like last thread but...
Can we do the extra hard training for Tenacity now? I feel it will get us over that threshold for Claw mastery and should bring us to Tenacity 3, I think we should do this while we have excess fun points as the only reason we didn't do that was because it would cause stress.
Also I think we're rank 2 in Tenacity, not rank 1
For the research task I recommend doing battery development, as that unlocks a lot of avenues and it's best we do it first, hell I think we should also dedicate an entire TP to this research as well so it can go extra fast.

>Who to support
I don't know if we should choose someone yet but if we do I strongly suggest against Ignolia. Her intentions are noble and at any other time I'd say she's a good option but tensions seem to be rising with the human kingdom and reducing the rights of humans could spark unnecessary conflict, especially considering she has no guile to deal with it. With humans we need a subtle approach, not to give their politicians reasons to attack us.
Also physical charisma is a hell of a lot different than social charisma, and won't get Ignolia far once she's on the throne.
At least Hook has a good idea for that, be equally strict towards non-natives so you don't needlessly provoke one group, and her guile would most certainly help in dealing with the humans, her generalist skillset is also beneficial for a ruler. However a lot of this is overshadowed by her poor diplomacy so if we do support her we better hire the greatest diplomats available to pick up her slack.
Noodle... Is either a wild card or a bad idea, she wouldn't make a good ruler, nor would she make a bad one, and depending on what stokes her, it could go anyway. However if we have her rely upon advisors that would end horribly, essentially making an easily manipulable puppet queen, a very bad idea, I understand why her supporters want her on the throne, but she's not prepared for the diplomacy of being a ruler at all. Neither is Ignolia for that matter.

Also, Meditate, please. I know there's a lot going on and building the mind palace doesn't seem practical, but we're in turbulent times, there will always be something going on. We should build up our mind castle in order to get the SWEET BONUSES that should last us our whole life. (And maybe even beyond...)

Also, yeah.>>1027827
Research wingsuit.

>>1027841
Actually, meditating as a background task sounds good, I support this, in lieu of using the TP for Meditation or the background task for relaxing.
I imagine that meditating and building the dorms for out stats would be relaxing anyways.

Oh, meditating as a background task sounds wonderful. It is a long term project after all.

Tp: make wingsuit 2.0

Background task: read book of orders

Research: COPCANUM DART or mana battery

I approve of putting more birds in wingsuits

So many big updates tonight... Okay, let's break this down:

> Queen

It is still my belief that we should back Hook personally, as we really need someone in charge with a focus on espionage. Human agents have caused us such grief in the past, from our broken leg, to Clausey, to Mud Runt, etc. Hook's platform is particularly important to us, and we should support her. Also, and I really think this is worth bringing up multiple times: Hook remains the only candidate who has directly reached out to us and asked us to join her team. Like, even after this whole conversation neither Ignolia or Noodle straight up asked us to join them, whereas Hook did.

And I really want to focus on Noodle for a second. I love Noodle, and we've done a lot for her. It's amazing to see how far she's come since we last saw her. But if Noodle wants to become Queen, like REALLY make an attempt at it, then that is a decision I would like her to reach and realize all by herself. We can't just hold her hand through every part of her life, and if she cannot take the throne using her own skills, then she would be little more than a puppet ruler. Noodle hangs on our every word, so we'd better respect that responsibility. Don't push her towards running for Queen, and let her reach her own decision about it.

WITH THAT SAID! This doesn't have to be an all or nothing thing. Here's my pitch: Let's negotiate a deal of some sort between Hook, Ignolia, and Noodle that no matter who wins, the other two will still be given a spot in the winner's court. Hook can still focus on espionage and especially countering espionage, Ignolia can focus on education improvements, and Noodle can be a voice for the people who pushed for her to join the race, as well as offering opinions on trade and tactics. It DOES still matter who takes the throne, as they're the figure of our country, but this way we still get the benefits of what each is strong in represented. This is something we could discuss outside of the actual choice on who to back.

TL;DR: Back Hook, don't say a damn word to Noodle about running, try to broker deals between the candidates.

> TP

Finish up the glide suit for Noodle using your new powers of MICROSCRIPTING. Make sure to save one or two of the defective versions for special events

> GOAL

I agree with Polt: Break Runescripting's SOFTCAP by discovering two compound runes, or learning a gold/prismatic rune

> RESEARCH TASK

I would have preferred the weight rune, but I'll agree with the majority this time. Let's study the Copcanum Dart

> BG TASK

Mind campus. We set that goal of completing it so long ago, and need to make some damn progress on it already. Not sure if this counts for LINKED MEDITATION that's supposed to happen next time we meditate or not, but we also really do need to give Ignis a chance to work in our mind. Otherwise, let's work on those HALLS OF KNOWLEDGE before starting anymore books.

> NEW GOAL
Ensure Caissa's defeat in the coming elections. Betting on a winner is a little too ambitious, but placing a bet on who loses is a bit more manageable. I still stand by the notion that Caissa is the absolute worst candidate for this country, given a likely conflict of interest.

> RESEARCH TASK
Look into the Copcanium Dart. Nico wouldn't have given us such an expensive parting gift if it wasn't important! (Wait, wasn't the Rook symbol associated with the Hiver plate's Black Lotus group? Or am I conflating two separate groups? Dang it, we need to...)

> BACKGROUND TASK: BOOK OF ORDERS
Various underbelly groups have weeded their way into both our professional and personal lives. Navigating them is more important than ever, now.

> TP 5
We need to start talks between Hook, Ignolia, and possibly Tinuptia and Noodle. These are all very talented people, and it would be a shame for any of them to be excluded from the court after another's victory... Plus, going into "the game" with a secret 3/4-way alliance hellbent on wiping Caissa off the face of the board before finally facing each other would be... Though you'd need to put your suspicions of Caissa cooperating with humans on the table if you even want to begin convincing them of that.

>>1027826
>You’ve heard rumblings that Caissa is going to do something.
I've got a bad feeling about this.

Earlier, when she said, "I’ll show you who the real RUNESCRIPTERS are around here!" That makes me think that she's going to attempt to show off something and claim that she made it herself, in order to claim that she's better than us.

Or because she used to be one of Chi's students (who I believe ended up failing the class), she'll try to make something and that'll end up endangering everyone!

>what do?
Let's study the Copcanium Dart. Nico must've given it to us for a reason.

>>1027825
Tell William you don't mind. You still love him (though the jury may still be out on what kind of love that is).

>>1027825
>Ignolia
She can't be queen.
She sounds like a nice person, and has good intentions, but she also sounds dangerously imperialist. Specifically, in the "good"-natured, "uplift the natives" way the Spanish were. Especially how she says they are being taught the wrong things and are too martial. That is their culture. She seems rather close-minded and arrogant in this regard and I would imagine that this could very well fall down the slippery slope to crusades if she becomes queen.

>>1027893
Seconded; you're unsure of the best plan, but you know who the worst-case scenario would be. Keep them from ruining your kingdom and let the rest play itself out.

>>1027948
honestly she would be great for peace times but well this is not it, also perhaps its good she wants to make the canus learned no idea about there culture but perhaps she is right but it will not work as the canus will hate it and it would create exploitable weaknesses for the humans too use against us

wonder what holidays we have in this world, hopefully some with good traditional food