Pensive pouncing (Aya Q&A)

[Ikoma Aya]

Had fun times with Aya even if my posting was even slower than usual during this game. Wish I had had more chances to meet with and interact more in depth with more chars, but I had fun with what we got. And tbh... VERY surprised she won - especially since I didn't really expect to make it into the duels I do think she's gonna leave Tsuma a bit different from how she came to it... maybe especially in being a tad more confident - and a bit more open to some people, possibly.

Anyway - shoot!

[Yukikaze no Kasumi]

Biggest curveball the game threw you?

Biggest curveball Aya threw you?

Biggest missed opportunity for you in this game?

Favorite scene in this game?

[Suzume Rin]

Hail to the champion

Thanks for being an excellent duel partner OOC and IC. Rin feels she only made it into the finals because Aya pushed her to improve.

Does Ikoma-sama still aim to be an honourable temple guard and follow in her family's footsteps?

[Isawa Natsuko]

Rather than resurrect a days-old thread: what was Aya's trauma? XD I gathered from thought bubbles elsewhere that there's a dead sister in there.

Aya was really sweet to watch as the sort of innocent/honorable archetype, and seems a pretty appropriate Topaz Champion.

Winter Court Kyuden Ikoma?

[Kakita Ahiru]

Really enjoyed Aya as the representation of stoic and honorable Lion samurai. Very nice.

[Ikoma Aya]

Hail to the champion

Thanks for being an excellent duel partner OOC and IC. Rin feels she only made it into the finals because Aya pushed her to improve.

Does Ikoma-sama still aim to be an honourable temple guard and follow in her family's footsteps?

Thank you as well! RPing with Rin, sparring and duelling IC and OOC was a high point of the game for me! Looking forward to more duel testing later! I think we're coming on to something - and I'll probably do some testing in a TbT game in the near future too

As for temple guard -yes, in fact! The naming ceremony post I've finally written today gives a hint as to that. I see her wanting to follow in her family's footsteps exactly, but at the same time trying to serve as an example... somehow. How exactly is not clear yet - but maybe one of the future instalments will clear that up

Really enjoyed Aya as the representation of stoic and honorable Lion samurai. Very nice.

Rather than resurrect a days-old thread: what was Aya's trauma? XD I gathered from thought bubbles elsewhere that there's a dead sister in there.

Aya was really sweet to watch as the sort of innocent/honorable archetype, and seems a pretty appropriate Topaz Champion.

Winter Court Kyuden Ikoma?

Heey Duck-chan, Hey Natsu!

Thanks! I was a huge Lion fan years and years ago, but it's been a long time since I've last played a Lion. I'm happy with how Aya turned out, despite my rather limited posting in this game. Glad others liked her as well

On a days-old thread and Aya's sister - I've dropped the ball on so many threads this game, real sorry about that! But yeah, dead older sister it is. I've given hints here and there, but specifically a very promising older sister which she saw as a role model, and, well, probably as perfect, or at least much better than any real person can ever be. She's died approximately one year before the start of the game, her health having quickly deteriorated because of a disease that's supposed to be somewhat mysterious. That's supposed to be a bit of a plot hook (not sure it's anything Ender would ever bite, but it's there ), as it could be something spiritual of some sort. Fact is, her sister's death hit her and the whole family hard - my short writeups for Aya's dad and mom also indicate how Yume-chan's death affected them. For Aya... the result is that she wants to be 'what her sister couldn't become due to her illness' as a way to honour her. Which is to say.... impossibly honourable, impossibly kind, impossibly skilled. So no matter how much she tries, and how much she accomplishes, she feels she must do even better. I've decided early on she wouldn't expect impossibly high standards of others, though, as being the best samurai-ko possible to honour her sister is something that affects her alone. So I've ended up with her being absurdly hard on herself, but kind and encouraging to others (as her sister was to her, in fact!).

That's the gist of it I think! Although as always, some details were (and will probably keep being) determined on the fly

Biggest curveball the game threw you?

Biggest curveball Aya threw you?

Biggest missed opportunity for you in this game?

Favorite scene in this game?

Hey grumpy Kasumi-chan!

I may not have good answers to some of these, but let's try.

a) I'd say the biggest curveball, like in other games, but much more so in Kiku, was RL getting in the way. Especially work this time around - got tonnes more translation requests than I had the last few months, and with that plus getting back to some things at Uni, things got really hard to manage at some points. That of course fed into anxiety and panic attacks... but I think I've managed to make at least some of who Aya was get through and have fun with the few threads I could manage. So still a good time all in all! The game itself I'll say I've greatly enjoyed, including rules-wise. Folks probably know I liked 5e more than many others, even though I hate much of the organisation in the books and have qualms with some aspects of the rules. But I'm optimistic that it can become a better and better experience as we experiment with things in future games! One thing I've said elsewhere already that I do think is, much like in Shika, Composure ends up being more important than the other derived stats in PbP. That might be something to try to address in future games by making Endurance/ Fatigue, Focus and Vigilance play a bigger role in some events. But again, all in all I greatly enjoyed the game!

b) For Aya, funnily enough, the biggest curveball was having her actually succeed as much as she did! I fully expected her to not even make it to the duels, maybe even not get a single point. The whole 'being hard on herself' angle got slightly harder to focus on and play properly with her winning two of the events, and ending up as the Topaz Champion! That's made me have to wonder how she'd feel about that and rethink how to play her keeping true to her pains, while at the same time not sounding absurd. I hope I've managed to pull that off decently!

c) Hard to say.... so I'll go with the general answer I say to this sort of question in other games. I hope I had been able to meet other chars and get more interactions. Maybe also getting into the investigation train, that might have been interesting. But with my RL issues during this game, I guess I did what I could!

d) This is always a hard one, isn't it?! Among scenes with Aya... well, I hadn't that many outside events to begin with I guess. But I greatly enjoyed the (veeeery slow moving, sorry Sai!) thread with Kakita Yuji on D2 in which he showed Aya around a bit and we ended up exchanging poems by the river. The riverside setting was reminiscent of what Aya and her sister would be used to as kids, so it was a nice touch. I also had a GREAT time in the scenes with Rin, and that includes quite a few. Duel training at the Forest on D5, the lunch before the Iai finals, which were a tad rushed and I dropped the ball on as well, but I found very sweet and neat... and the final itself! And finally, the storytelling thread on the Crane Party - that was real fun, and I really liked the stories there. Not sure others enjoyed the stories as much as I did, but I really had a good time there (also with Kaoru being completely sour about the whole thing, that added a funny element to all that!)

Speaking of which - there's a hint on Aya's naming post about the story Might or might not have been obvious before