[LP CYOA] 傳

[Nevill]

It would had been delicious rage fest, if during conference we had chosen not to sleep and be too tired to act during the shitstorm.
Oh the butthurt would have spread in speed of light.

Whatever we choose, the butthurt is inevitable. Even things of no consequence, like missing on getting +1 sword vote, result in a tremendous amount of it.

Still, I don't believe this was in the cards. I mean, Jing exhausted by a single sleepless night? What would become of us when we finally marry all of our wives?

As I see it, that was the option that provided no benefits, yet avoided the downsides that would come with the other options.

I think that the only point where we made a 'bad' decision was to not investigate the veiled lady when we could, for the rest I think that the only doubt about our fight with her was not choosing the swords.

'Investigating' is not a good term for 'sword robbery'. Seeing how she is an actual immortal (as in, invincible to our attacks) and we didn't have anything to kill her with (the sword have only worked for the Emperor so far)... I can't see it going that well.

For the rest Treave clearly doesn't like to disclose what different choices would have done so speculating about it is useless.

Nah. I imagine it has more to do with us immediately pointing fingers at each other and calling names.

 

[Absinthe]

Kz3r0, I'm not sure investigating the Veiled Lady would have been the right decision. It seems that Gao Ying would not yet have been in position to destroy the celestial domain. This is another area where communicating with Shun would've had its benefits. And Shun had plenty of opportunities to tell us, he just chose not to.

 

[Kz3r0]

Kz3r0, I'm not sure investigating the Veiled Lady when we could would have been the right decision. It seems that Gao Ying would not yet have been in position to destroy the celestial domain. This is another area where communicating with Shun would've had its benefits. And Shun had plenty of opportunities to tell us, he just chose not to.

Probably you are right, in the end I think that the only doubt is about using swords or not, and Treave won't tell us.

 

[Baltika9]

That being said, I totally agree with Nevill that the reasoning behind trusting in Shun's ingenuity rather than unsealing Xuezi's powers was good, and I don't think that voting for it was done with any kind of foolish or misguided reasoning. We've made dumb choices before, but I don't think that was one of them. I didn't vote during that particular choice, but I probably would have gone with trusting in Shun given the information at hand.

Actually, I don't regret the Xuezi choice at all. Even if I knew that she would have made it an instawin, I still would have chosen to do it ourselves, because tgrowing his little sister under the bus like that doesn't seem to be a very 'Jing' thing to do.
And I still think that we could have walked out of there without losing any lives or limbs, but then we wouldn't have had the opportunity to take Shangguan's arm.

That also lead to people crying 'retard' when it turned out he banked both of our lives on a lucky guess.

That was me (only me, I think), and what I meant by that was something else, actually. We originally thought Shun to be this Shulgi-esque chessmaster 100% of the time, infallible in his plans and logic. Turns out, he's actually a YOLOTIGER just like Jing, living his life with a "the devil may care, BECAUSE I DON'T! LOL" attitude. Which I actually respect, but which also puts him with Jing in the "Retard Brigade:" two very intelligent, capable guys who nevertheless act like college students on crack. I use the word retard in the most affectionate way, and I wouldn't have it any other way for Jing and Shun, but it is what it is. Then again, one must take risks to succeed sometime, and this was such a time. Regardless of our conditions, Jing and Shun came out way ahead of the Immortals and the rest of the jianghu because of the risks they took. I'd call this a win, albeit a costly one.

That being said, I think this was an educational experience for him:

Conference Aftermath

“This will be… troublesome to clean up.” Gao Ying makes a quiet appearance, dragging a still unconscious Xiaofang behind him. Turning to you, he casts a penetrating glance over your injuries and Shun’s. “Your Majesty. Are you satisfied yet?” His tone is low, and though from anyone else you would have thought that he was unwisely mocking the Emperor, you get the feeling that Gao Ying is serious.

Shun laughs. “Yes, I am afraid so. We have done what we came here to do, my best friend has gotten crippled on my behalf, and it is time to make sure we do not waste this opportunity.”

“Very well,” murmurs the eunuch. “Still, I must say this, Your Majesty, even if you take my head for it. You are not behaving wisely. You already knew that this was a trap before any of us did. Before Xiahou Yu even reported his findings… before he even came here to scout out the locations for the fire powder. Am I correct? What thoughts lie in your mind, Your Majesty?”

For a moment, it seems as if the grin on Shun’s face is frozen while a dark shadow passes under it, like fish swimming beneath the ice. It melts into an easy-going smile in the next instant, and he says, “You think too much, Gao Ying. But I’ll try and take your advice. I have had enough adventure for a while… perhaps it would be better if I returned to the capital and rested for a year or two. Anyway, it worked out well, did it not?” He pauses for a while, and then adds, apologetically, “Except for your arm, Jing. I’m really sorry about that. I’ll see what I can do to make up for it once we leave the island.”

I think he realizes that he fucked up big time here, and will take this lesson to heart, becoming a better man for it. He is still our BRO, and I will be down with helping him in anything else he needs help with. Shit happens, life moves on. I just hope that this doesn't inspire a "FUCK SHUN, HE COST US AN ARM LAST TIME! " sentiment.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

For the rest Treave clearly doesn't like to disclose what different choices would have done so speculating about it is useless.

Nah. I imagine it has more to do with us immediately pointing fingers at each other and calling names.

Pshh. Like we need his input to do that.

 

[treave]

/snip

Uh, I could address this point by point, but I think I'll keep things simple.

First off, I only expressed surprise that people seemed to think that the choice was between having Xuezi do something, and Jing do nothing except put his trust in Shun. You can argue that the chances of Jing screwing up Shun's plan are lesser, but that's about as far as it goes. And your understanding of his plan is incorrect, but that's fine because I didn't explain it on purpose.

Secondly... when exactly did I imply you guys were stupid for not unsealing Xuezi? Just because a choice doesn't give you the most efficient and best outcome immediately after the fact, but instead results in some sort of drawback, doesn't mean it is stupid. You don't need to be stupid to make mistakes. In the heat of the moment, with insufficient information, it is entirely reasonable to end up making the wrong decision, unless you are saying that Xu Jing should be able to unerringly pick the most efficient choice, regardless of his temperament or his luck. Not unsealing Xuezi has consequences that go beyond just what happens on Taoying. Please don't judge whether a choice is good or bad solely by how much it raises or drops your stats.

It has been rather hard for me to try and set up long-term consequences when every 'plot-hole' or instance of 'retardation' is picked out with a request for explanation (and if I don't answer, that in itself becomes a revealing answer of a sort!), and it is expected that every choice must demonstrate its results quickly, or they are useless choices. It is a good thing that the collective butthurt is entertaining enough (sporting lads, the bunch of you), or else it'd soon turn into a dreary slog where I wonder if holding out to write the pay-off at the end is worth it.

 

[Tigranes]

"Not unsealing Xuezi has consequences that go beyond just what happens on Taoying."

This. Losing an arm sucks arse, but I don't regret the Xuezi choice because I feel like this would have been one with serious and volatile long term consequences.

I don't want to single Nevill out because it looks like he wanted to be as not-butthurt as this as possible, but generally, I feel we have far too much nitpicking going on. It's treave's story, it's a CYOA not a rigid rules-bound game with mechanical causes and effects, and he has been generous about YOLO so far.

We can ask about stuff out of curiosity or to learn more about the gameworld, but I wish we'd just go with what he gives us and discuss the options instead of the interminable "hey we got a new skill can we give it to everybody can we combine it with this thing can we use it to blow up Nie Wuxing's balls remotely hey hey hey etc etc etc".

 

[Tigranes]

Anyway, OK, to do my part for the actual DISCUSS!,

I'm OK with the current ABAA bandwagon we have going on, but I'm almost tempted to an AAAA or an AABA.

(1) We have talked about the sensible point that Amesha Spenta and Nie's crowd don't mix well. However, the question is whether if we are 'following them quietly from a short distance behind' they will realise it or not. In terms of stealth and reconnaissance, their lot is probably better at it than we are, right, given that we have nobody in our crowd that is capable of such things? I'm just thinking about the fact that if they are good at spying and we are not, being together would actualy give us more chance to learn things out of the corner of the eye. But maybe I'm overplaying this and they'd never realise we are following them?

(2) The other point is one which Esquilax has mentioned - is there really no drawback to bringing the Amesha along? Ever since we became Big Dick everything's been perfectly fine, but if anything should happen, or especially if they start gallivanting with us and people find out Ahura is dead & half the Amesha are away, it could call for a surprise attack on the Fire Cult, or just bring a lot more ire down on our party's heads.

I guess the thing to note is that even though we already have a lot of firepower on our team (including Armaiti), we haven't really needed to use it often, and it's nearly always been Jing fighting on his own or avoiding outright fighting. Who are we expecting to go and hit with all them Amesha anyway?

 

[Nevill]

You can argue that the chances of Jing screwing up Shun's plan are lesser, but that's about as far as it goes. And your understanding of his plan is incorrect, but that's fine because I didn't explain it on purpose.

That is as far as I meant it to take - what's with us not having the slightest of ideas about the plan.

It is interesting, though, that I misjudged Shun's strategy, as I based it on his back-to-back reaction of 'just as planned'/'not as planned' to what was happening. Now I am intrigued as to what the real plan was.

Secondly... when exactly did I imply you guys were stupid for not unsealing Xuezi?

Well, it is true that we did our share of unnecessarily risky choices in order to get the largest possible pay-off out of them, never backing out when we had a chance. That's what passes for MAXIMUM FUCK around here. The impression I've got is that this choice was bundled together with them, and I felt the need to point out that this wasn't the case. If I was mistaken, I'm sorry about that. This was never meant to be a critique, or, God forbid, a complaint.

And yes, it is noticeable that the consequences of the choices go further than their respective updates, or even further than the arcs they were introduced in. I respect that greatly.

 

[treave]

That's what passes for MAXIMUM FUCK around here.

There seems to have been a misunderstanding.

I was referring to this old post of mine:

In wuxia losing body parts only makes you more MAXIMUM FUCK.

My original draft for Yang Xue, coincidentally, had him just a head and torso, and he moved around by rolling on a huge rock he was chained to.

In no way was that meant to be a warning against YOLO ways. I mean, what would be the point of giving one now?

 

[Nevill]

(1) We have talked about the sensible point that Amesha Spenta and Nie's crowd don't mix well. However, the question is whether if we are 'following them quietly from a short distance behind' they will realise it or not. In terms of stealth and reconnaissance, their lot is probably better at it than we are, right, given that we have nobody in our crowd that is capable of such things? I'm just thinking about the fact that if they are good at spying and we are not, being together would actualy give us more chance to learn things out of the corner of the eye. But maybe I'm overplaying this and they'd never realise we are following them?

I don't think we will be spying on them. It just means we let the Nie group go ahead. The choice does not talk about us eavesdropping on them in hopes of getting more information - it states that we will keep Guo Fu and Wudang as our eyes and ears. Which are not nearly as good as ours, I suppose, but that's a trade-off for being able to mind our own business in peace.

The Amesha Spenta won't join us before Xiangyang, and it is yet unknown what happens there, so maybe concerns about them mixing well with Wuxing are premature? I have no strong opinion on the matter here.

I guess the thing to note is that even though we already have a lot of firepower on our team (including Armaiti), we haven't really needed to use it often, and it's nearly always been Jing fighting on his own or avoiding outright fighting. Who are we expecting to go and hit with all them Amesha anyway?

There is a chance that we will have to split our attention between the Black Dragon Society and the remnants of the Former Chief You's army. That is the actual argument, by the way - we are getting the second healer in case something like the Taoying Island happens again.

 

[Tigranes]

I'm not saying we'll spy on them, though follow at a short distance obviously means we want to keep tabs on them - which makes me worried that they'll catch on to us being nearby and spy on us. Maybe too much paranoia, but if we're heading the same way we're likely to meet with them one way or another. But good point about Amesha not joining us during the trip.

 

[Absinthe]

We already have a second healer. Qilin has 8 herbalism. There's also Yifang with the Yuhe Finger technique. And then there's Jing himself at 6 herbalism. Hm treave, is it possible for our herbalism skill to improve another rank or so by now? We've been at 6 herbalism for a while.

 

[Baltika9]

Except Qilin is all about poisons, Jing is a regular medicine man (that's all we've ever seen his skills amount to) and Yifang doesn't seem to have formal medical training. Ameretat is a dedicated medic with p. cool Middle Eastern sexual healing techniques (and tentacles, they may not be cephalopod, but still).
I would like to give Manah a test run, and leaving our other Ameshas without a medic may not be the best idea, but so long as I get Rob Halford and don't get Mom, I'm happy.
It is time for us to learn the power of METAAAAAAL!

 

[Akkudakku]

I dont like going B on the 2nd choice. We worked hard for better rep and now we will go back on our own word. Remember orthodontists think they have the real deal.

Also 3 A is inconsequential untill we get to our destination. Now if we pick deadpan and sexy healer they are new so shouldnt be known to the orthodontists as ameshas. This way we can haz all amesha quota we can have and still be stealth about it untill the grand reveal.

 

[Elfberserker]

I think I might found one reason why not to pick up the arm

Neigong

Does anyone know what happens to neigon when you attach foreign limps to it?
Especially when it has pressure points and we don't?

Taking arm might fuck up our neigong and by extension our WSQ.

 

[Akkudakku]

I think I might found one reason why not to pick up the arm

Neigong

Does anyone know what happens to neigon when you attach foreign limps to it?
Especially when it has pressure points and we don't?

Taking arm might up our neigong and by extension our WSQ.

well destroying the pressure points IS a thing. we will see. the biggest consequence is that the kensai (sword saint) will be retired

 

[Nevill]

I dont like going B on the 2nd choice. We worked hard for better rep and now we will go back on our own word. Remember orthodontists think they have the real deal.

No more so than Yandi, who will go with his master. We knew not everyone will be able to go, and so did they. Nie would probably let out a big sigh of relief when we don't show up rather than gets annoyed at us. What rep are we talking about?

What does it change if they think they have the real sword? Why should this concern us?

I am still undecided about this, but I don't see why we should care for the things you've listed. We know the sword itself is of not important, so we should consider other factors.

 

[Elfberserker]

No more so than Yandi, who will go with his master. We knew not everyone will be able to go, and so did they. Nie would probably let out a big sigh of relief when we don't show up rather than gets annoyed at us. What rep are we talking about?

What does it change if they think they have the real sword? Why should this concern us?

I am still undecided about this, but I don't see why we should care for the things you've listed. We know the sword itself is of not important, so we should consider other factors.

We could probably get more clues what they intend to do during presentation or beyond that.
We might even get lucky and hear snippets how Zhang clan is doing from their end.

We also get more information about taishan and kunlun disciplines as well as that Zhang girl.
The downside is that they also get more information about us and Madam Nie might hatch another plan for convincing Qilin or manipulating us.

Staying behind them is safe move, but we do not gain anything.

 

[Kayerts]

I think I might found one reason why not to pick up the arm

Neigong

Does anyone know what happens to neigon when you attach foreign limps to it?
Especially when it has pressure points and we don't?

My understanding is that pressure points are significant junctures along one's meridians, meridians being the paths that qi travels throughout the body. Since our meridians have been broken down, I'd guess that a foreign limb wouldn't have anything to interface with.

 

[Elfberserker]

Theorically our order Qi should have no problem to travel meridians, but the chaos qi might destroy those meridians and pressaure points.
Then again even chaos qi is debatable since it was Zhang Jue who destroyed them and not the qi themself.

I think Treave told sometime ago that chopping our balls will have effect on our neigong and I was wondering would arm swapping might have some effect to our neigong.

 

[Baltika9]

treave, what does Cao'er think about this as an expert?

 

[Absinthe]

If we're asking qi theory we should also be asking Xuezi. She can probably help us out with the transition anyhow.

At any rate, I'm pretty sure our chaos qi is just going to give us a painful experience with the arm while it becomes chaotic and loses pressure points.

 

[Nevill]

Would be pretty cool if the arm retained some individuality, sometimes acting on its own. That's where the martial ability boost comes from, right?

It would also make for a good excuse when molesting maidens in the taverns.

"I assure you, it is a fine arm. Rarely used in anger or housework"

Although it comes with a terrible, terrible price of -10 handicap to hidden cooking skill.

 

[Akkudakku]

No more so than Yandi, who will go with his master. We knew not everyone will be able to go, and so did they. Nie would probably let out a big sigh of relief when we don't show up rather than gets annoyed at us. What rep are we talking about?

What does it change if they think they have the real sword? Why should this concern us?

I am still undecided about this, but I don't see why we should care for the things you've listed. We know the sword itself is of not important, so we should consider other factors.

the problem is WE proposed to go together. and then for no reason whatsoever you go NOPE! by rep i mean our newly found orthodox friends.