The Holy Schlock War Thread

[Dreamerless]

This sounds fine as a write-up for that MU. I'd make Takeru vs Fei if I have time. Excited for your write up on the whole war.

[Random]

If Offense Against Wind B+ totally nullifies Valorous Incarnation A++, rather than just defending against most of it like Magic Resistance or Protection from Wind, then honestly I think the battle is decided right there and then.

That said, some clarification on Tsukuba-dou: it's not a Bounded Field. It's related to Reality Marbles in that it turns you inside out, and it's fair to say that it is a Marble ability, but it doesn't do so by establishing a

barrier

World

. It's the direct ancestor of the Magecraft used with Divine Bodies by traditional Japanese families in the modern day - for example, the Yakou and their Black Chests - from an era in which humans themselves were higher beings than they are now. Ancient humans could use it, Servants can use it, but modern humans can't recreate it unassisted - it taps into the inherent Mystery of the caster's own being.

The simplest go-to in a fight is to enhance the abilities he already has with the attribute of "spirit fire" passed onto him by his mentor, but this isn't actually the proper use. I'll preface this by saying I'm good to ignore it since I both didn't list it outright and would say that even he wouldn't be too happy about pulling it out.

last call spoilers (I guess relatively minor but read at your own risk and don't ruin it for everyone else)

Tsukuba-dou externalises what is internal. Basically, it draws out more of your inner attributes than would normally appear and bares you, alone, before the World. In that sense, it's Ren's total opposite. Put like that, it's obvious that someone else's fire is the tip of the iceberg: it's just the manifestation of what he gained from her - it picked up the attribute of spirit fire on its own because of who he gained it from and how deeply he internalised what he learned at that time. Fire is the output when Takeru makes Tsukuba-dou into its own input, and this is how he usually uses it, because this is what he trusts.

When he makes himself the input - more precisely, in the event that he would rather make himself its input rather than die, which is not often - it's very different. The output isn't fire or water or earth or air, and it's not some esoteric variation like divine wind or spirit fire - in a twist that was so obvious that even the spectators can't believe they ever thought it could be anything else, it's ｢Yamata-no-Orochi｣. The actual phenomena generated have the characteristics of omnivorous venom, and it's self-reinforcing the more he uses it in this way - the more he devours, the stronger his constitution as a living Curse of Orochi becomes, because the more mass/energy/spirit/karma is accumulated and digested into that attribute.

wait then what's orochi

Short answer: Ukemochi's Authority, which spilled out of her after being killed by Tsukuyomi and fell to Earth, but became self-sustaining after consuming countless minor gods.

Somewhat less short answer: after the initial big snake got killed, Orochi isn't really an entity so much as a concept that takes forms via assimilation. If you make a replica of Kusanagi, that replica is also, to a certain extent, the real deal - as what is effectively a ritual offering in the same vein as fruits, wines, or cereals as ritual offerings, the "altar is cleansed" in that the sword is digested into a fragment of Orochi, however small. This is why Muramasa is able to recreate it, this is why Shuten-douji's Noble Phantasm is the poison that killed her, this is why Mochizuki Chiyome managed to inherit Orochi's curse, this is why Wakanuke exists, this is why Orochimaru exists, this is how Kusanagi can simultaneously have been lost at Dan-no-Ura and still be in the hands of the royal family to this day, this is why Tsukuyomi and Susanoo both have contradictory stories of having killed Orochi.

Hypothetically, if this power were to go berserk, he would definitely return to his origins and become Orochi, but his education under Mihitaki that made this Tsukuba-dou in the first place gives him the clearmindedness that he will absolutely never allow that to actually happen, unless the fate of the world or something genuinely demanded that he did.

Anyhow, this was basically just an excuse to talk at length about something I made, so I'm fine with accepting that evaluation.

[DracoScribe]

So irl has me a little busy, but like Draco, I hope to have my summary ready for the weekend. Does the Vote starting Saturday sound alright?

I'm fine with voting on Saturday. Though uh... -looks at the date and then my plans- ...yeah don't think I'm gonna give my thoughts in time... So yeah.