Heavenfall

A proto-Shoruro actor in the making, Ayumu is actually part of a vast conspiracy to slowly replace members of the imperial family with Scorpion agents, the final stretch being disposing of Shiba in favor of his twin. So far, Han-Han and two of Shiba's kids have seen substituted without anyone seeing anything.

Just joking, he is exactly what he seemed. But in case you have questions, here I stand.

Jiyo Ayumu wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 15, 2020 1:14 pm

Just joking, he is exactly what he seemed. But in case you have questions, here I stand.

A masochist?

Kind of sorry we never got to have any threads where I wasn't putting you back together again.

Jiyo yojimbo gotta yojimbo. Ayumu also didn't have the damage output of fighters with heavy weapons, but he had a lot of Void to soften blows, so it made more sense for him to get the aggro upon himself and tactically guard (though I never guarded as a Free Action at the end; I had plan to do that in Full Defense until the end of the blind fight but giant rat outed me first).

Ayumu also does not have Great Destiny or Dark Fate, I just got very lucky, especially on D15.

Jin wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 15, 2020 1:18 pm

Kind of sorry we never got to have any threads where I wasn't putting you back together again.

Same. Jin is one of the (actually not so few) people I never had personal interactions with, only "mechanical" ones.

Did he like Sora's decidedly hands-off approach to leading the Imperial contingent?

He did. I even think Ayumu might have conflicted hard with Sora if he had been playing boss. Enforced hierarchies for the purpose of hierarchy is not his things, and neither is following orders when there is no need for orders.

Well, that's why they get along, then Sora was uncomfortable with the idea of having a servant when Kinyoubi turned up, partly because of his Hikaru upbringing, and partly for more philosophical reasons. Her marriage proposal had the added benefit of letting him go, "okay, well, then you're not mys ervaqnt anymore 'cause I don't work that way."

Ayumu always managed to say something that would just tick the box for annoying Nanzi, in the end he has respect for Ayumu.

It just, man every time they had an interaction it was never good.

Yeah. That was not on purpose, but I guess Ayumu and Nanzi were just on opposite ends in every aspect. Nanzi wants a strong celestial order, Ayumu is an egalitarian. Nanzi pushes people into acting a certain way (like with Saruko), Ayumu encourages them to find and follow their own way (like with Ryoko). Nanzi likes to discourse on virtues, Ayumu trusts deeds not empty words. Even physically, Nanzi is beautiful while Ayumu is badly shaped.

In short, Nanzi's ideal Rokugan is probably Ayumu worst nightmare and the other way around.

Ironically, Ayumu ended up parrying and taking a few blows aimed at Nanzi in the last fight, because he is a soft-hearted idiot, and also because he acknowledges that Nanzi will not falter from doing what he thinks must be done, even if they disagree on what that is about all the time.

Ayumu seemed like a neat guy. Thanks for the shrine activity!

How did Ayumu end up with his worldview, and his desire for an egalitarian society?

Don't have a question but just wanted to say it was always fun talking and getting sign practice in with Ayumu - I think he is one of a couple people that Miyako really opened up to regarding concerns for herself and her tribe in the future and I think he helped find a bit of a scholarliness that she didn't have before too.

Seppun Chisei wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 15, 2020 9:22 pm

How did Ayumu end up with his worldview, and his desire for an egalitarian society?

Ayumu survived a terrible disease after several months of torment, and is quite aware he is still alive due to having been lucky to be born in a tribe/family wealthy enough to take care of a bedridden person for that long. That event encouraged him to help build a world where everyone would have that chance, not just a privileged few.

Though the disease part of his background was there right from the start (hence his physical appearance, an inescapable memento of that time), I had envisioned him as a more of an excuse for a carpe diem, mystical, pseudo-monk attitude at the start. He ended up being more political and focused on societal questions through interacting with people as the game went on, which is a very cool development. I'm actually a bit surprised by how much influence he had. Without being a key player in the expedition, he did bring some of the changes he talked about.

Miyako wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 15, 2020 9:54 pm

Don't have a question but just wanted to say it was always fun talking and getting sign practice in with Ayumu - I think he is one of a couple people that Miyako really opened up to regarding concerns for herself and her tribe in the future and I think he helped find a bit of a scholarliness that she didn't have before too.

Thanks. Interacting with Miyako was great. I think I tried to talk with most of the unaligned players, but Ayumu didn't click nearly as much with most of them, for a mix of IC and OOC reasons.

You know I'm gonna keep calling you Slim, right?

Yes. And Ayumu is never gonna request you call him anything different.

However, if you were to call him Jiyo-sama-morpun-yango, he might sigh and say just Ayumu is fine.

Haha, the "Chatty Imperial" said the rather chatty proto-ninja turned proto-monk. I rather liked Ayumu, and I appreciate that you got to book end the bathing sequences. It was amusing.

Is there anything you didn't get to do this playthrough that you wanted to? Thinking of keeping him around or another?

I don't have much regrets actually. Maybe more interactions with some characters I've barely encountered, but no big plot that didn't reach its conclusion. Maybe an extra bit of romance would have been nice, but since I was set on Ayumu being a "slow burn" character, that wasn't likely to happen. Likewise, interacting with Shinsei might have been interesting, but the guy was just so busy I decided not to push that anchor.

To be honest, I didn't have a well-formed idea in mind for Ayumu, as his character sheet shows, with a bunch of random skills at 1 or 2, of which only Craft: Tailoring, and some Lore: Theology, turned relevant. So, no target, no regret. Especially as he turned to be a quite likable and useful support for more fancy plots and characters.

Not decided yet about reusing him or not. My incentive at the moment is that Ayumu has been tainted through the course of the game, and the evolution of that would be interesting to explore, especially as his calm personality and already weird appearance would make the infection quite hard to identify, including for himself.

Jiyo Ayumu wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 16, 2020 6:02 am

Not decided yet about reusing him or not. My incentive at the moment is that Ayumu has been tainted through the course of the game, and the evolution of that would be interesting to explore, especially as his calm personality and already weird appearance would make the infection quite hard to identify, including for himself.

I admit that, while I became very very VERY unwilling to let Phi be vulnerable to the corruptions I left her so vulnerable to at game start becaus of lil Shinsei, there is something to being one of those who walked away with the taint. We have 10+ years probably, which allows for the possibility of considerable development of the affliction in a person over time. If they are still able to be active in the third game, the disturbing qualities could actually be a very interesting element, and I don't know who all plans to do anything with that.

I appreciate the two chances Ayumu and Umeno had together. So different, battle and bed time talks! If Ayumu wants to become a good wife, Umeno'd be all right with letting him in.

Thank you for being fellow arts & crafts person. The shrine project was particularly fun.

Seeing as there were so many daimyo and Kami-spouses present for the mission, did Ayumu find his opinions on these people in power change over the course of the game, considering his egalitarian mindset?

Thanks.

Except for Nanzi, all important people were quite humble, still doing menial tasks and getting their hands dirty (Saruko crafting, Kinsen cooking and making tea, Jin cleaning blood and wounds...). Even the Kami were approachable in their own ways, especially Shinjo (and Shiba as was established in Dawn 1 and discussed in this one). I think it helped cement the egalitarian thing OOC, as it seemed natural as opposed to canon Rokugan where you would get a duel to the face if you simply suggested a daimyo's help for something "behind their condition".