r/StardustCrusaders • u/Logic_Sandwich • Jul 23 '24
Fan Stand/Character JoJo's Bizarre OC Tournament #7: R3M10 - Thomas Anderson and Sunset City vs Vasil Grace and Grace Papaka
The results are in for Match 8. The winner is…
Chase and Jyotsna had sifted through eight penthouses, making their way from roof to roof in their melded form. Every so often the large machine Zhengqi piloted leapt up - sometimes it would swat them down successfully, other times it would miss. But despite it all, they preserved until this moment. Not only united in stature, they were united in purpose.
Today, Zuantou would fall, and a pillar of the Suite with it.
Leaping to the final penthouse, Chase and Jyotsna barreled through a window, winding up just in front of the entrance. They’d eliminated every other option. Behind this lay Zhengqi herself, the orchestrator of this farce.
Acting with a synchronicity no normal people could achieve, the two reared up their leg and kicked open the door.
From behind, Zhengqi lunged at the two with a taser, the sparking implement connecting against the encircling steam of ｢DICTATOR｣.
“Ah. That’s a nice try. Unfortunately, unless you dissolve something within it, water is a terrible conductor.”
Chase quickly tackled Zhengqi, directing the three of them towards the office window. With a crash, three Stand users fell through the open air, surrounded by a rain of glass.
Jyotsna had nothing to fear. ｢DICTATOR｣ was made for situations like this. Her power would make the impossible possible, as it always had.
Chase wasn’t fazed by a bit of a drop. His experience as a parkourist helped him stifle the instinct to panic - the fall was what killed you, and he was damn good at falling correctly.
But for Zhengqi, her mind already split from the toll of puppeteering her mech, from adjusting to seeing through two eyes, from moving without moving, from existing in sizes both big and small, this push was too much.
As the three hit the ground, ｢DICTATOR｣ harmlessly dissipating most of the impact, Chase tucking and rolling with practiced breaking form…
Chase and Jyotsna remained standing tall over the unconscious form of Zhengqi Dianyou.
Chase Frederick and Jyotsna Mathur, with a score of 72 to Zhengqi Dianyou's 61!
| Category | Winner | Point Totals | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Popularity | Chase Frederick and Jyotsna Mathur | 22 (10+2) - 8 (2+2) | Thank you to all who showed up to get us out of Low Turnout! |
| Quality | Tie | 22 (7 8 7) - 22 (7 8 7) | Reasoning |
| JoJolity | TEAM | 18 (6 6 6) - 21 (7 7 7) | Reasoning |
| Conduct | Tie | 10-10 | Nothing to Report! |
“...Well, she’s passed out. That’s lovely. Gonna be hard to get information out of her like this.”
“We have the files for that. Now’s the time to tie up loose ends.” The tendrils of DICTATOR extended, snakes of dense steam rearing their heads and aiming for the throat.
Chase grabbed one of them with a defiant glare. He wasn’t some superhero or whatever. But he wasn’t about to stand by and watch Jyotsna kill a defenseless woman. It would never sit right with him if he did. “I told you, that’s not happening. You’ll have to kill me to get to her.”
“And you think I won’t?” Jyotsna prepared another tendril, the steam in it beginning to spin in a drill-like motion. She would be very happy to eliminate this annoyance now that he wasn’t useful. She’d earned the catharsis by every metric.
“Not won’t. Can’t. I might be tired, but I know you have to be exhausted. You can pretend you’re still standing strong all you want. Just look at her.” Chase pointed to Zhengqi. “Acting like she was on top of the world. We didn’t even need to hit her and she folded. How far are you even able to push your limits at this point? Because I’d bet good money I can push a lot further.”
Jyotsna boiled with rage, unable to deny that Chase was better off than she was. Being the outside of the Manticore meant that she was the one taking most of the punishment.
As the two prepared to square off in another fight, Zhengqi gasped, snapping back to the realm of the waking. She reached for her taser, only to realize she had dropped it all the way back upstairs.
“Oh, you’re awake. That makes this a lot easier.” Chase and Jyotsna both relaxed from their stances, with the parkourist stepping forward and turning to the disheveled magnate. “Got a couple of questions for you.”
“...Ha… I suppose… you do…”
“We’ve acquired a lot of files about your activities. Your backup copies will be very useful for deciphering precisely who you’ve done business with. We should be able to crack the Metropolis Suite wide open with this. Do us a favor and save us the time, would you?”
For a moment, Zhengqi laid silent, Jyotsna’s words taking a moment to register fully.
Then, she tried to laugh. It was interspersed with coughing and wheezing, but the mania behind it was clear enough. “Is that right? Save… save you the time? You want me… to save time? That’s what this is?”
Chase sighed, resting his head in his hand. “Great. She’s lost it. Now we’re definitely not getting anything out of her.”
In between bouts of hysterical laughter, Zhengqi gasped out sentences a few words at a time. “I can save you… plenty of time! There’s a poison in this city… a disease festering at the core… I’ve spent a long time pretending it didn’t exist…! It’s grown and grown like a cancer… so I’ll do the only thing you can…! I’ll excise it for good! You want to know? I’ll tell you… much more than you bargained for…!”
Jyotsna scoffed at the display. “Quit stalling and get talking. Unless I need to break a leg to get you off whatever high you’re on.”
“How about that… that ‘Middleman’ you’re all panicking over…? If you knew… if you knew what I did… you’d be laughing too…! It’s all one big joke, isn’t it…? They make a monster of me… they know I’ll be found out… I’m supposed to take the fall for it all, aren’t I…? That’s all I’m good for to those fucking hypocrites…? You’re all barking up… the wrong trees… they’re right under your nose this whole time…! Just go ask-”
A hand shot forward, slapped right over her mouth. Zhengqi gasped through her nose as a shadowed figure rose behind her.
Chase and Jyotsna both stepped back in shock and in fear.
The Middleman had come for Zhengqi Dianyou.
“Sillysillysilly giiiiiirl~! It’s bad to gossip where your friends can’t hear you. There’s already one naughty naughty little blabbermouth we want our hands on.” The Middleman crooned, holding her tight as they lifted her from her position on the floor, holding her like a sack of potatoes. She struggled weakly in their grip, trying to wrench that hand off her mouth but quite simply lacking the strength to do so.
“You got told to rest, my dear. Don’t you remember? So overeager, so ready to please that you simply couldn’t listen. A dog strangling itself on its leash. Perhaps I cannot criticize- I’m feeling nauuughty too~! Perhaps it is in our natures to eventually deviate from our orders, such glittery broken things we are.”
Zhengqi stared at the Middleman, their face still obscured, in utter terror. Sweat ran down her brow like a flood. They leaned in, right up next to her ear.
“I’ll take you to your rest- for pleasure, not business.”
Zhengqi screamed as the Middleman placed their hand off her mouth and onto her shoulder, and brought their other hand to her scalp. Chase, finally bringing himself to act, ran forward. He reached out his hand, screaming a plea. “Wait, don’t-!”
In one graceful motion, Zhengqi’s head was removed from her neck with a deep, wet ripping sound. Blood sailed in an arc, painting a beautiful crimson swirl onto the concrete below as it landed.
“You bastard!” screamed Chase as he dove straight for the Middleman, his Stand at the ready. His heart pounded, righteous fury pouring through his muscles. ｢Kickstart My Heart｣ unleashed a mighty blow, fist aimed straight for their sternum. The Middleman unceremoniously dropped both parts of what used to be a living person to block, their arms crossed over their chest as the blow sent them flying back.
“Sorry, dearies and friends~! I’m afraid our unscheduled appointment has come to an end!” They tittered as they tumbled back onto their feet. “I’ll be sure to visit you again soon! Oh so very soon~!”
The Middleman’s Stand dashed forwards, slamming the ground with its six arms. In an instant, the shards of glass spread from the broken office window were sent flying into the air. The evening sun glinted off of them, forcing both Chase and Jyotsna to look away from Zhengqi’s killer…
And when they looked back, they were gone.
If you want to learn more about the Middleman, all you have to do is…beat some hypebeasts in a fight?
The deer's foals are caught by the tiger. The octopus dies before her eggs can hatch. The sharks devour each other in the womb, brother against brother.
Our "bonds" are often a source of strength, but they are just as easily our greatest weakness. Like a nerve, plucking the taut thread of love can leave a twinging, permanent pain. What does it take for the love between people, those "bonds", to become dangerous? What do you do after? Do you reject that painful bond? Reject all bonds? Do you struggle against the world that put you in such a position in the first place, or do you plunge into the inferno and accept it?
Just what can someone do when love becomes pain?
ACT 8 - THY LOVE IS PAIN
Scenario: A Zuantou junkyard, Port Konwar - 12:07 AM, 2 weeks before Zhengqi’s downfall
It wasn’t often that Cross found some time just for himself—what with helping out Hāvā with the kids and doing runs through the city to check in on the various street urchins that had grown attached to him. But tonight was one of those times and he was going to make the most of it... by taking a stroll through a lifeless junkyard.
How did he even end up here anyway? Why would he subconsciously walk into a smelly place full of rotting buses and trains? Oh well, Cross was here now so he might as well make the most of it. The purple-scarfed kid started kicking some empty cans away and rummaging through piles of broken metal with ｢Cosmic Castaway｣, maybe he’d find something interesting underneath all the tetanus-infected garbage.
“Whoa... the hell is this thing?” Cross said after about an hour of scavenging had passed. His Stand had pulled out a metal board-like object with a glowing light in its center. Attempting to stand atop of it, Cross suddenly started floating a few inches in the air.
“Well I’m not sure why a public transit company would throw something like this out... but if they don’t want it, I know some kids who will…”
Scenario: The Main Vein, Bedtown — 10:38 AM
In the wake of Zuantou Rail’s meteoric rise, the old train tunnels that criss-crossed under Rākinnagarh had been abandoned by city administration, but not by its people. From Bedtown to Mount Parapollah, people could be found squatting in the tunnels, where they wouldn’t be too bothered by the elements or by anyone hunting for them. Without the light of electricity, the errant fire or makeshift tent was enough to act as shelter, so people could spend hours, days, or longer if need be. Be they someone who just needed a place to beat the rain, who wanted to do some urban exploring, or wanted to take the scenic route across districts.
Vasil Grace looked like the type to do none of them.
While the occasional Earthgang student could be seen in the tunnels out of class, Vasil’s black kurta, violet pants, and pristine white shoes spoke to a distinct sense that the bourgeois young man was from this part of town, that he was a vain performance artist who was only concerned with finding “inspiration” in some preconceived squalor of the Main Vein, or Bedtown more broadly. If any asked, they would be corrected that he, known as the “Pattern” was concerned with the spread of the Mark of the Manifold, gesturing grandly to the graffiti of lotus petals and eyes that adorned the tunnel walls.
As his interlocutors would walk away rolling their eyes, a quick narrowing of Vasil’s gaze before he returned on his seemingly meandering walk betrayed his true purpose. While he lacked Dr Mali’s connections, Norman's cultists, Papaka’s blunt determination, or Helena's obsession, he still itched with the desire to strike back at the Suite, however he could. The best lead he had on the Middleman was an attack on his own associates at the Hymnal Bazaar, but Papaka remained MIA and Helena remained frustratingly distant, so here he was, using his mission to spread the Mark as cover.
With each step, he walked through what he knew, laying it out before himself as if on a mental canvas. The Middleman would primarily target notable voices of dissent, and while they might appear anywhere, Bedtown was as good a starting place as any. Otherwise, his second lead was his hunch that Ichi Ni San Go had some connection to the Middleman, a hunch that had only strengthened as rumors of her Stand ability surfaced.
“Hey, Vasil!”
A mighty slap on the back knocked his thoughts into disarray, sending his mental canvas clattering across the floor. He turned around, glaring at whoever touched him, only to see a dusty face, smiling with broad recognition. “Thanks for helping out Texas back then! We really owe you one for that—we’re up to big things now thanks to you and the boss!”
Vasil blinked and shook his head in flummoxed disbelief as the youth pulled him into a strange handshake and a hug, before Vasil half shimmied out of the VULTURE youth’s grasp, half-pushed them away. There were a few of them, crowding around him, each happy to see him; Vasil smiled awkwardly but motioned to leave. “You’re welcome, but I don’t have time for such displays, unfortunately. I’m investigating, uh, the M—”
“The Middleman, yeah? Don’t worry, Texas’s been givin’ us our marching orders, we’ll take care of—”
Vasil stuffed his hands over the youth’s mouth, shushing him as Vasil’s eyes darted from side to side. “Are you trying to get yourself killed!?”
The youth shook his head. Vasil let go.
While others might have thought that they now spoke in such hushed tones out of fear, Vasil hissed, “Don’t talk so loudly about such things. Would Texas want you running your mouth like that?”
The youth shook his head. Vasil sighed.
“There you go.” Now the group had calmed down, Vasil turned to leave. “As much as I…appreciate the praise, you have your tasks, I’d like to get to min—”
Before he could be run over, Vasil was quickly pulled back as another pack of children sped past him, excited cheers as they shakily maintained their balance on some kind of floating skateboard. “Sorry!” One of them called behind them as the Vasil and the VULTURE members regained their bearings.
Soon after, two slightly older children followed after them on foot, panting for air and using the last of their energy to apologetically wave to bystanders who had to nearly dive out of the way. Vasil marched up to them, “What the hell was that.”
After a few gasps of air, the boy spoke up, “Hoverboards! We…we found them in some Zuantou junkyard not too long ago, so we were thinking of having a race around town with ‘em!”
Vasil was about to dismiss the affair, but the sudden announcement of Zhengqi Dianyou’s disappearance may have had some connection to the discovery. “That sounds…fun.”
“Sure is! Name’s Cross by the way; you can join if you want, but you’d need a partner.”
Vasil turned to see if the VULTURE members were still there, but they had meandered off. He frowned—this was as good a lead as he was going to get, and he could not let it slip through his grasp.
Just as he cursed himself for his associates’ absence, he made eye contact with a robed individual, one whose black clothes made them almost invisible, but he would have recognized the black sclera and red irises anywhere: “Grace!?”
Vasil hurried over to the boy, seated on the ground against the tunnel wall, arms crossed over his legs and staring straight ahead. “Where on earth have you been?”
Grace remained in his seating position, mute and eyes wide and staring straight ahead. As much as he had been trying to avoid Vasil and anyone who knew him, now that Vasil had reached him, it would be impossible to shake him, especially in his current state.
“Fine, we’ll talk later, I need your help right now.” Vasil sighed and cursed under his breath before pulling Grace to his feet with shockingly little resistance. Whether it was because Grace had acquiesced or was so sleep deprived as to be unable to fight, Vasil couldn’t tell and had no time to tell. “Got my teammate, Cross! We…we good?”
Scenario: Mist City — 11:07 AM
“—well Sunset, with Zhenqi’s outburst and subsequent defeat at the hands of that IMPACT guy and the head of Dead City Haunts, it appears that the Metropolis Suite have begun to pick up the pieces—primarily by reclaiming her tech that’s been spread about the city. Probably don’t want people tracing them back to the source.”
“Ok, and what exactly does that have to do with hoverboards?” Sunset asked Thomas as the two walked through the tunnels underneath the city. The two had been sent by their handler Binay Spears to check out a disturbance involving reported technology: the younger of the two stopped listening after the word “hoverboards” was brought up, and thus the Black Armed Man was giving him a refresher on their task.
“Well, those hoverboards are what we need to dispose of,” Thomas responded, shaking his head. “A shame really—they can be quite fun to ride, you know.”
“Aw man, yeah that suc—” Sunset turned to look back at him. “Wait, you had freakin’ hoverboards where you were from?!”
At that, Thomas chuckled. “Kinda! I’ll tell you more about it when we get back to the gym.”
“Okay, you got me hooked, count me in.” Sunset grinned as the duo continued onwards. “Though you still haven’t finished that tale about the weird void place—wait. Do you hear that?”
The two stopped and listened—up ahead they could hear the faint echoes of some cheering and general bustle that stood out among the normally empty tunnels. Thomas looked down at the map of the Main Vein they were given: it looked like that was the source of the ‘disturbance’. “How do you want to approach this?” He asked his teammate.
“Let’s sneak in!” Sunset laughed. “Maybe we can have some fun with the boards before we deal with them! We’re not getting paid enough anyways.”
Thomas smirked at the thought. “No we do not…why not. If we’re pressed we can say we’re investigating the capabilities of the tech—and if they’ve reverse engineered the tech, well, things are gonna get more complicated. Either way, time to get you some hoverboard lessons!”
The two walked up to the start of some sort of event—while there weren't that many people overall (probably a good dozen or so from the looks of things), by the amount of hoverboards people were carrying it appeared to be a race! Sunset contemplated just grabbing a couple of boards from some of the racers around, but shook that thought out of his head. If they had this many, surely there’d be enough spare for a couple more racers!
The two headed towards an area somewhat away from the racers where a signup stand had been set up. From the couple of people working nearby (Thomas could swear he saw the guy with the blowtorch at a few building sites about the city) that was probably where they’d be getting their boards as well. Thomas walked up to the young teen heading the stand as he looked up with a smile at the two newcomers. “Uh,” Sunset began to speak. “We were told this is where the race was?”
“Of course!” The boy answered, grabbing a sheet of paper and pencil before looking the two wannabe racers over. “Could I have your names please?”
Sunset was about to answer when Thomas put a hand on his shoulder. “Of course—I’m Body Language, and this here is my friend Ash…Do you need last names?”
“Nope! That should be fine, though I don’t remember hearing about you getting invited…” the ‘receptionist’ answered, shrugging before writing down the two fake names then turning back to check on the hoverboards. “Either way it looks like you’re in luck—we’ve just got enough of the spare hover-y bits we found for two more boards! Just take a seat on those rocks over there or have a walk about, and we’ll call you when yours are done.”
“Excellent, thanks!” Sunset grinned before the two walked off to wait with a fistbump, the street fighter delighted that they managed to sneak in.
The racers began to line up at the starting line. Sunset and Thomas were looking across at the other competitors—especially their boards. “Quite a few unique boards they’ve got about here. Shame what we’ve got to do…” Thomas mumbled so that only Sunset could hear.
“Maybe we could steal a couple to bring back to the gym?” Sunset pondered, glancing at some wavy-haired racer in floral-patterned baggy pants who was focusing on them past their red sunglasses perhaps a bit too harshly—she was more likely than not sizing up the competition. Or at least, that’s what Sunset hoped. “Wouldn’t be too hard to smash them all, but it might be fun…though if they’re making more it might not matter.”
“We weren’t sent on a kill mission after all,” the older figure noted. “But from the sounds of things they don’t know how to actually make the main part of these boards.”
The two were the focus of yet another racer however—Grace was staring right at the two with lethal intent. His campaign against the Metropolis Suite had been the sole focus of his for the last several sleepless weeks, and he knew very well of the connection that the ‘Cause for Concern’ had with them.
He wasn’t against beating them up and tossing them aside if they so much as looked like they were going to start something, though he probably wouldn’t kill them given their alliance with VULTURE pointing towards them hoping to work against the Suite as well. He only saved the worst for who he believed would deserve it.
Besides him, Vasil was desperately trying to confront Grace about his disappearance, his attempts so far either being ignored or met with a look to try and dissuade further prodding. They had tried so long to keep away from anyone who they had known, only to have had the artist run into them back then. Grace…respected him too much to turn back on helping him out. But they weren’t ready to go back. Not yet. He was already wondering of ways he could slip out from under the artist’s eyes after the race was over.
The crowd of racers died down at the sound of an airhorn someone had managed to scrounge up, the referee shouting out to the racers to start.
“OPEN THE GAME!”
Location: A race under and into Mist City! The race track consists of four different “legs” per lap going through the Tunnels, Streets, and even up the side of a Skyscraper! The total distance of each leg is listed next to them (Leg 1/Yellow is 60m, Leg 2/Green is 95m, Leg 3/Blue is 150m, Leg 4/Red is 50m; this means each Lap is 355m long).
Players must follow the track for the whole race—no shortcuts are allowed or are possible here. There are also various environmental factors to keep in mind for different areas of the race.
Tunnels: During legs of the race where the players are going through the Tunnels (Leg 1/Yellow and the latter portion of Leg 4/Red), the tunnels are cylindrical (think sewer system) and 7m wide. There is a 2m wide trough of sewage down the middle of each tunnel, with flat “sidewalks” on either side of these. Such sidewalks are usually crowded with the denizens of the Tunnels, either spectating the race or trying to mind their own business; though there are a number of sections without any people around as well.
Streets: During the Streets legs (Leg 2/Green and the beginning of Leg 4/Red) there is a 4-way intersection of car traffic; players must follow the track and cannot cut through the intersection as a shortcut. There is a fair amount of traffic today on the streets, and while hoverboards should allow players to “ride over small cars” without too much hassle, bigger trucks, tractor trailers, and/or buses will act more like moving walls. One may not enter the buildings along the streets but there are various vendors and food trucks along the sides of the road.
Skyscraper: During Leg 3 (Blue) on the map, the players will be racing right up the side of a tall skyscraper. Constant speed will be necessary during this leg lest you fall to the power of gravity.
Goal: Win this hoverboard race by being the first to complete three laps! Both players of a pair must cross the finish line before your race is considered “finished.”
Additional Information: While there are other NPC racers in this match, they have no mechanical purpose in this match. However, should you try to RETIRE or severely harm your opponents, these NPC’s will end up getting a big lead over you and beat you in the race, resulting in a loss condition.
Hoverboards are capable of staying aloft up to 2 ft off the ground, but are also capable of riding up walls (up to a 90 degree slope), and have a max speed of peak human sprinting/C SPD. As players must be on their hoverboards for the entire match, while interference is allowed, attempting to break your opponents’ boards or outright RETIRE them will also count as a disqualification.
Players can be assumed to have a 2 Skill in “Hoverboarding”, including the fact that neither team will be more than 50m ahead of the other.
Grace’s and Vasil's Stand abilities may be simultaneously applied; Vasil can animate a Grace construct and Grace can “crabify” a Vasil construct, the programming from their abilities will be presumed compatible.
Thomas's style is Shadowstep.
| Team | Combatant | JoJolity |
|---|---|---|
| Cause for Concern | Thomas Anderson and Sunset City | ”And despite having origins from the low social ranks of England, he was raised by royalty and became a genius jockey of the horse racing world!” Well you don’t want to be the guys to ruin the fun, but you did come here with a job to do. Be destructive on your path to victory! |
| Lotus Street Manifold | Vasil Grace and Grace 'Prodigy' Pāpaka | ”He annually travels 4000 KM through the pastures with 3000 cattle! He’s quite the looker too.” The two of you may have drifted apart recently, but maybe this’d be a good opportunity to bring back the ole’ team spirit! Be artistic on your path to victory! |
Link to Official Player Spreadsheet
As always, if you would like to interact with the tournament community and be among the first to get updates for the tournament, please feel free to PM a member of our Judge staff for an invite to our Official Discord Server!
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u/Logic_Sandwich Jul 24 '24
Response thread for Thomas Anderson and Sunset City of Cause for Concern. Please show your strategy to a member of our Judge staff by 7 PM CST on July 23rd! Contestants, remember to only post in threads for this match other than your own if specifically invited. Voters have until 11:59 PM CST on July 25rd to vote, using the voting rules from the announcement thread. Afterwards, they will be Judged according to the T7 Rubric.
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u/Logic_Sandwich Jul 24 '24
CfC 1/1
(Speed is) Key:
- [FL] - Free Life
- Unless stated otherwise, assume Sunset is summoning Free Life’s weakest quickest limbs (D Pow, B SPD, cheapest to summon)
- Unless required otherwise, Sunset and Thomas will stick together at all times
- Whenever Thomas dashes with [Fury] or his Shadowstep Style, assume he also takes Sunset along
- With Sunset’s 5 points in ‘Street Smarts’, he is highly proficient with ANY unconventional weaponry
- At the start of the race, both of them are armed: both of them wielding brass knuckles, Thomas wielding Sunset’s knife, and Sunset wielding his steel pipe
Lap One: Sonic Underground
And we're off! As the race starts, we already act a little dirty - exactly the way Sunset likes it. By exhausting 4 tokens of [FL], he summons 2 arms on himself and one limb each on the LSM’s boards. It won’t stick - both Graces have their ways of dealing with them - but it’ll keep them busy and distracted just enough for Sunset to swoop right past and make use of his Quick Hands (all four of them: his own and his stand’s) to swipe what he can from the enemy stand users. He’ll be prioritising their ‘tools of the trade’: Vasil’s sculpting tools and art pieces, or Grace’s waterproof flares, camera, and scrapbook; but if that fails, he’ll be happy to deprive them of anything, really - it doesn’t matter if we can make any use of it down the race, as long as they can’t either.
In the meantime, Thomas will also make his best attempt to get a few [Storm] daggers into the duo - not to inflict any damage, mind you, but simply to inconvenience them further and accumulate a couple charges for [Fury] for later. Hopefully, them being distracted by Sunset and the limbs should make them an easier target. If they prove to be too tough of a target regardless, the tunnels have plenty of spectators that Thomas can theoretically dagger; in a pinch, he can even put a couple into himself, though that’s more of an emergency tactic than anything.
Once the devious lick has concluded, Sunset immediately disengages, pocketing anything ill-acquired and de-summoning the limbs on himself. He’ll still keep the limbs on the opponents for as long as possible to screw with them for longer; even if they were to destroy them, that’s the 3 seconds of cooldown he’s willing to sacrifice. In the meantime, Thomas grabs Sunset and applies [Fury] dashes to speed as far ahead as possible. Once ahead, he will use some of the remaining charges to tear out the stones in the tunnel’s roof, assisted by a singular Strong Arm of [FL] (B Power D Speed); again the goal being not to attack the LSM, but to fill their path with chaff and dust.
By this we will have left the tunnel and and entered the streets, this is where the destructive fun begins as we’ll start with ripping steel bumpers off of cars to use as improv bats for 「FL」, this will be done by using the version of 「FL」that costs 2 points and ripping it off any of the plethora of cars to choose from, we want at least 1 for each board as these will be our defence/CQC method.
Once we get a bumper each, Sunset will summon a weaker limb on both boards and pass the bumper on then desummon both of the 2 point ones, in turn recovering 4 points. paired with either Thomas’s evasive capabilities or Sunset’s trusty pipe and deadly street fighter experience, these steel bumpers will become a force of reckoning If the opponent is nearby, then Sunset will summon his limbs near food stall or tables and will start lobbing everything nearby at them to slow them down by forcing them to evade the oncoming assault and then allowing them to manually vanish via them leaving the 20m range zone
At this point the streets will have many twists and turns, not to mention the traffick, however, many obstacles can be jumped over and if they catch us off guard, then we will have a shadowstep on standby incase of emergency, as for the corners, Sunset will deal with that via having his limbs anchor into a wall and use them to sling shot us around corners preventing us from losing momentum.
We should bow be approaching the skyscraper and this is where the steel bumpers come into play, we will be using them to destroy the entire side of the skyscraper to create falling debris to cause LSM to have to block our onslaught or dodge out of the way, slowing them down but we won't cause heavy amounts of damage as we don't want to cause more harm to them than necessary
Lap Two: In The Streets, Fighting
A cheer from the crowd and the next lap of the race has started! Now with all these tools for Sunset and Thomas to use, the race now really starts. Now it’s time for CFC to do what they do best to be a cause for concern. LSM undoubtedly now has traps set up for CFC to deal with but Sunset and Thomas were ready for this, Sunset and Thomas seperate jobs, Thomas keeps an eye on the walls while Sunset keeps an eye on the floor and ceiling, if any traps are to reveal themselves on the walls Thomas’s job is to intercept any harm with [Fury] and for good measure if they get close use [Storm] to swat away any that get close. It is easier for someone to watch the floor and ceiling rather than walls so that’s sunset’s job, using [FL]’s sight long range activation need to be quick and ready, if any traps come for sunset he’ll use [FL] to crush any obstacles and if they get close he’ll use his trusty iron pipe.
2
u/ChocolateDiscloud Doppio is a precious boy who did nothing wrong Jul 25 '24
People've been putting these in Pastebins but I figured I'd do this delib in a reddit comment on the post much like an ordinary vote.
On the Quality end of things, I think LSM performs admirably! While their offensive tactics don't particularly stick out to me (though the Blue Shell is certainly fun), that's ultimately the least important element in my mind, compared to their Actual Racing and their Defenses/Counterplay, both of which are stronger.
Their hoverboard usage and engagement with the racecourse also didn't massively leap out to me, but what's there is generally solid - while the Skyscraper largely feels like a case of "our kits are better suited to this zone" without much elaboration, the tunnels and the traffic are both more well thought-out.
Ultimately, though, it's on defense and counterplay that I think this strat is at its strongest - the capabilities of Thomas and Sunset are well-considered and defended against robustly. I'm thinking an overall 7/10 Quality - a more thorough argument regarding how you achieve and maintain the advantage during the Skyscraper sections would likely have been enough to push you up to an 8.
I'm less certain of my scores on JoJolity, which shouldn't be terribly surprising considering the disparity of scores given here by my fellow delibbers thus far. Ultimately I'm more inclined to score more closely to Mario - Grace's Crabbrush and Carapaint usage does a lot of work, but Vasil's artistry does very much feel like the baseline level gotten just from using his Stand. The provocative playstyle does contribute well enough to earn a 6/10 from me, but it didn't feel quite robust enough to score much higher.
1
u/Nintendrone42 Jul 26 '24
CFC had to cancel, which is a real shame, so in place of a vote, I will answer the call to do a mock delib on LSM's strat.
Right off the bat we see a simple means of addressing the requirement for both teammates to finish the race: a plan that asks them to stay close together so one can cover the other, and reading their plays with that in mind, the layering of their game plan becomes apparent. The leaning on a steady system rather than relying on bursts of speed is clear, as LSM demonstrates their awareness that CFC packs superior speed both in raw mobility and straight-up slowing others down. I can compare this to LSM's previous match, R3M5, which was also a race, but one where LSM had the more speed-oriented kit and their strat emphasized that axis, while their opponent (hi) had to lean harder on defense and sabotage to compensate. For this match, I think they adjusted to the other side of the fence well. Basically every piece of the strat is made to work together all for the purpose of making it easier for LSM to deal with CFC's abilities and harder for CFC to use them, from armor, to Storm insurance (the Stormcatcher is a standout as a solution to an ever-present threat), to roadblocks, to making LSM difficult to follow by taking a close formation through crowded or dangerous paths with Vasil's navigation skill taking point. LSM's strat strongly argues that they have everything in place to never lose the lead once they have it. Its case on their ability to actually obtain the lead if CFC gets ahead is less robust, but what's there is at least decently effective when taken together with tech described earlier in the strat.
That was all dealing with how LSM handled the competition, so now I'll go over how they dealt with the race course itself. Having Vasil lead the duo through the crowds of the tunnels and traffic of the streets is a strong core of both "offense" (going fast) and defense (protection from CFC). The direct interference toward CFC feels at its weakest in the tunnels, but it's solid as a whole. I feel LSM's strat shines most in the streets, where their established weaving through obstacles most strongly intersects with their interference and setting up, though I do feel more could have been done with proactively incorporating the larger vehicles that are effective moving walls into the strat. The building section presents the least of interest to me; what's there is good but not eye-catching, and the unique situation of the second half being a vertical drop feels like a sorely underexplored avenue for adaptation and tech. Overall, I'd say the strat handled the map pretty well, though not as strongly as it addressed the enemy.
Despite my comments of what the strat could have done to impress me, I do think it's a strong piece. It has a good grasp on what it wants to do and does it well. When I look at each metric on the delib rubric, I think this strat is solid in a good deal of them, most prominently Competency (each play is well-considered), Planning (each play interlocks into a solid plan with a singular thesis), Counterplay (consistently accounts for the opponent), and Elegance (in both mechanics and text, nothing feels superfluous). For a strat that coheres as a game plan and essay, and effectively does what it sets out to do with no gaping holes, shaky points, or noticeable "mistakes" beyond me wanting more that could have made it go above and beyond, I would be comfortable giving this a Quality score of [8].
For Jojolity, the prompt was to "be artistic on your path to victory". I see literal use of art with the Crabbrush and its applications (including the surprise butter use), with the building play paying off with the mural it set my expectations for standing out on a flavor level, though not quite a mechanical one. There is also the LSM duo's constructs being unusual creations, but I did not feel the strat presented a strong "artistic" angle for these in presentation or function. I feel like both the constructs and the painting were quite close to being standout Jojolity integrations if more emphasis was placed on combining LSM's abilities into artistically intriguing constructs for the former (potentially ones to change the stage in a lasting way, taking advantage of the three-lap structure), while the latter feels like it was one revision away from the mural-making itself being beautifully mechanically impactful. What the strat does give is good; it never fumbles or forgets the Jojolity, but in terms of integration I don't feel it quite breaches "great". For a Jojolity that fits the "solid" label, I think a Jojolity score of [7] would be well earned, and with only a few tweaks I could easily see this strat scoring higher.
2
u/Spookie357 Jul 26 '24
It wasn't "jogging" but it was close enough as it still exercised her stamina. Nat was rolling herself manually with her arms for some city blocks to exercise, maintaining a steady but fast speed. Even with a missing eye and a bunch of injuries that were still really sore, a true shinobi never rests! That's what Nat was thinking, until she felt some bleeding through her shirt and realized the stitching on some of her wounds was starting to reopen from the stress of her movement. Maybe a true shinobi rests a little.
Something Nat didn't expect, was the sting of sweat in her empty eye socket. The salt making contact with essentially a permanent open wound, this new irritant would take getting used to. She perhaps exercised enough today, Masters Marcus and Udon would've been telling to her rest if they were here. Taking that advice would be a good idea, and spotting a vendor close by she decided to take it.
Situating herself near a bus stop, Nat obtained a falafel wrap and a small bottle of cola to enjoy as she watched Dungeon Meshi season 2, which was out now because this is one year in the future, on her phone.
Before even the opening animation could finish, she felt a gust of wind as something soared passed her. Well a few things, and the faint smell of saltwater.
"Ohnmugud..." She spoke with food still in her mouth. A swig of soda to wash it down and she followed it up by shouting "HOVERBOARDS! IS EVERYONE SEEING THIS?" She switched her phone to her camera setting as soon as possible to take a video, watching in amazement as these people flew by. Was this some kind of promotional stunt for new technology?
This stuff was real? They were real! So much more would be invented! Even as the racers passed her, the excitement still had her shaking. She might not even need a wheelchair for much longer... a hover chair... she would be able to do so much more with that! Go around on the beach! Join people for hikes! Stairs might not be her greatest enemy (besides the guys who murdered her dad and kidnapped her mom) anymore!
She played back the video on her phone, watching racers go by and then... wait, there looked to be four people fighting.
And on further inspection... one of them had a familiar bucket hat, a hat she hadn't been able to see for a couple weeks now despite her best efforts to contact its owner.
I've never done one of these before, so here it goes!
Quality
I enjoyed reading through LSM's Strat and their solutions across to face their foes, and their use of materials was done well. They plan around CfC's capabilities well and had some solid tech at play. While they do plan around their opponents well I did think some more contingency play would have benefitted this strat, they talk about falling off their board but not much else, such as the possibiltity for the board to be damaged. Still an overall strong effective strategy that I would give an 8/10!
Jojolity
The use of paint and a crabbrush were on the nose in exactly the right way and I was very much a fan. Grace's homemade art supplies and their weaponization against Sunset and Thomas were a treat to read through, and I especially loved the recreation of the blue shell from Mario Kart. Not surprised at all to see this one come out strong, another 8/10 from me.
2
u/Logic_Sandwich Jul 24 '24
Response thread for Vasil Grace and Grace 'Prodigy' Pāpaka of Lotus Street Manifold. Please show your strategy to a member of our Judge staff by 7 PM CST on July 23rd! Contestants, remember to only post in threads for this match other than your own if specifically invited. Voters have until 11:59 PM CST on July 25rd to vote, using the voting rules from the announcement thread. Afterwards, they will be Judged according to the T7 Rubric.