[LP CYOA] 傳

[Kipeci]

C2

fight for <3

 

[Grimgravy]

A : nothing else makes a lick of sense. We have no real allies here. Even in our right arm was 100%, I wouldn't like our chances. As it is, fighting is mighty foolish. Can't wait to see how the upcoming fight will go.

 

[Akkudakku]

Why the fuck you talk of BJ as a 'he' she is a motherfucking woman. Realy get your shit straight :D

Also this whole situation is totaly fucked up.

 

[Nevill]

If wr go up against her, by fighting or fleeing, we'll make an enemy of get that knows all our dirty secrets. Have fun with that.

What makes you think that going against Madam Nie makes an enemy out of Bai Jiutian?

I guess I'll elaborate.

Do you think Bai Jiutian is on Madam Nie's side (and I do not mean just this encounter), or do you think she is undecided yet (or, should we say, she is a side on her own)?

If it's the former, then no matter what we do, we have already revealed our hand to the enemy. It makes no difference what we choose here.

If it is the latter, then do you think Bai Jiutian is here because of a personal reason, or because Madam Nie asked him to be her enforced/hitman/bodyguard? If she has a personal stake in the outcome of tonight's meeting, then I suppose you are right in that we should not antagonize her. However, we don't have a reason to make such a claim. If she is here only because Madam Nie told her so (and because she can't go against her yet and reveal that she is playing a separate game) and the outcome does not concern her, then why do you think our actions will suddenly make her give away the information she so thoroughly hid from her shimu thus far?

She might even be interested in Madam Nie failing here. That depends on whether you believe in her sincerity when she told us this:

“I suppose that as my partner, you have done well in stealing the credit for everyone to share. That at least should disrupt part of my shifu’s plan. I should reward you for this, shouldn’t I?”

Some plots by her peers may run contrary to her goals. The weaker they are, the easier it is for her to be a player on her own instead of a tool.

 

[Absinthe]

Voting B>A>C1.

 

[TOME]

A

I didn't have time to read any of the arguments so this might change in about 8 hours.

B.

“You won’t distract us from what really matters, Mother,” says Mudan. “We already know that you have been guiding Father down a heretical path. We know about the convicts in the prison, and how you have been chasing after the legendary manuals at all costs.”

“That is a funny story. You remember that constable in Youxia? The fella who went nuts at the trial?”

Fu Xia. Yes, you remember him.

Pang continues calmly, “We were attacked by hundreds of crazy fighters like him. It was a mercenary army hired by the Zhang clan, apparently in a bid to show that they are loyal to the Emperor and are willing to wipe out his enemies for him.” Upon further questioning, Pang appears to be reticent to reveal anything more that he knows; you suspect that he knows the origin of those fighters, but he is not telling you anything more for now. Perhaps you will have the opportunity to find out more once you reach Xiangyang.

****

Shuixian looks slightly pale after hearing Madam Nie’s words, but rallies together quickly, her brow set in determination. “You are one to talk, but are you really the Liao Xiuyue that Father loved?”

“I don’t think so.” She unsheathes her sword, eliciting a look of surprise from Nie Mudan. “There are many things you have to answer for, Mother. Tonight we will get the whole truth from you whether you like it or not. What you have been doing… and who you really are.”

Wudu cult's acupuncture technique anyone?

 

[Nevill]

Wudu cult's acupuncture technique anyone?

You'd have to explain Madam Nie's obsession with Tianxie's daughter if you imply she isn't the same woman as her mother.

I think it was just a turn of phrase... maybe.

In any case, I do not consider the choice of our companions a failure. Sure, we didn't get useful information out of Madam Nie (which, frankly, was a given), but it succeeded in another way:

BV - the twins are loyal to their father, not to her. It's pretty clear they are too orthodox-indoctrinated - not to mention dense - to be manipulated by her. It also seems like a good opportunity to drive a wedge between her and Nie.

Without us, it is doubtful the Twins would have gathered their courage to confront their 'Mother'. I think we ought to capitalize on their familial issues to further separate them. I'd loathe to give that woman anyone if I can help it - be it Xuezi, Bai Jiutian, or the Twins.

 

[Elfberserker]

C2...I think.

 

[Nevill]

B - Run from... Bai Jiutian? Riiiight... We either get a sword stabto to the back or things get a lot tenser between us as Nie gets pissed with the whole thing and starts screaming that his daughter was seduced and taken by a leech and a pervert like Man Tiger Pig. Best case, we all go our ships and contact between the two camps ebbs. Worst case, we fight get killed running from ultra-stealthy Bai Jiutian.

Nah, Bai herself have admitted that we are too powerful to be stopped from fleeing if we wanted to:

Bai Jiutian looks at you quietly for a while. “He is too powerful for us to defeat without a prolonged fight, or giving him the chance to get away. Perhaps we can pretend none of this ever happened, and go back to the status quo,” she suggests. “That would be wiser, if Xu Jing agrees.”

And I actually agree with her, for once. We can get away with it. The problem is what happens later.

Nie Wuxing can get pissed all he wants, we've seen already that the Twins can attest to what really happened. Our meeting with Madam Nie will probably come up, though, and it won't make things any easier for Wuxing. It is true that the tensions between the two camps will rise, but how exactly it will go is not yet clear to me. As Nie cares about his face more than anything, he might choose to keep it under a rug.

I believe you are downplaying the 'best case' scenario. We've finally got the Twins willing to (reluctantly) cooperate with us, and they have some dirt on Madam Nie. They might be willing to talk to us if they think she will run Huashan into the ground and that we can stop her. It may not be as good as hearing this from the woman herself, but this boat have sailed.

C2 - Another hard fight with Bai while the Madam runs away or convinces them to fight Jing.

Sorry, I can't see how Madam Nie can convince them of anything without the help of their father. When the upstanding and filial girls are ready to beat the answers out of their 'Mother', you know their patience and trust have been tested one times too many.

I can see them turning against us if we threaten Madam Nie, however.

 

[treave]

Bai was raised to lead Huashan after Nie.

Not exactly. He was regarded as the front runner for successor prior to this because Nie had no male heir and Bai's skills were simply a cut above the rest, and his age made him a fitting groom-to-be for one of the twins. He wasn't chosen and raised from a young age to be the next leader by Nie Wuxing, it is more of him working hard to get there through the years by honing his martial arts and building up his public reputation.

Well, 'he'.

 

[Nevill]

and his age made him a fitting groom-to-be for one of the twins

Does this affect the probability of succession, though? As I understood, the succession is not hereditary in Huashan like it is in Qingcheng.

I figured Wuxing was eager to marry one of the Twins to Bai because it would make his leadership ever more legitimate, as Bai is shaping to be the next head of Huashan and the younger pugilists view 'him' as their unofficial leader already. It would solidify his power base and even if the leadership was to change hands, Wuxing would still get to stay close to where the power is through his familial ties. So the marriage would be more beneficial to Wuxing than it would be to Jiutian, even if 'he' could have actually afforded to marry anyone.

How do they choose the sect heads in the orthodox world, anyway? We know the beggars have their elections, and that Qingcheng have a designated line of succession, but what about the rest of the sects? Are they picked up on the basis of their martial abilities? Were there precedents of changing the leadership forcibly, before the previous head dies or retires?

 

[treave]

In general whoever the master picks is the next leader. This is usually, but not always, the eldest disciple, though in smaller schools it is commonly hereditary too. Bloody power struggles and violent coup attempts are not unheard of, if they are unable to resolve a succession dispute peacefully, though such actions are universally frowned upon by other sects (until they do it themselves). Shaolin is different in that the Nine Elders convene to pick the Abbot, while Emei tends to follow a strict linear succession according to seniority and position.

 

[Nevill]

The eldest disciple, huh? I would assume that Bai isn't one? She is relatively young.

Actually, we've seen that the Emei and the Shaolin have people in their sixties to eighties in their ranks, but we've never heard of the elderly in Huashan, Taishan and Kunlun. Is it that it just didn't come up, or do these schools have people that are generally younger as the older folks leave the school to mind their own business or found their own schools, like the Saint and Rong Muben?

I mean, it makes sense for Shaolin to devote their whole life to the sect and martial arts (they basically renounce the material world in order to do so), and the Emei have trouble recruiting new members, so they probably cling to their existing ones tightly, but the other sects are under no such pressure.

 

[treave]

Bai isn't the eldest disciple, but might as well be because she's the most popular and the strongest.

As for the generation gap, Zhang Jue happened to the Huashan Summit, becoming a major cause of reduced life expectancy for an entire generation of orthodox pugilists. There are those that he killed during the summit, and those that he killed when they tried to take vengeance after the summit. If they aren't dead, they're retired now, and so not likely to be brought up unless I think it might be interesting.

 

[TOME]

Wudu cult's acupuncture technique anyone?

You'd have to explain Madam Nie's obsession with Tianxie's daughter if you imply she isn't the same woman as her mother.

Well Madam Nie is after power and the Wudu cult heiress is pretty powerful person to have in your camp. But this is just a crazy theory.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

B - Lambchop cannot resist "saving" the twins. If we die, we die. Though we do have 14 agility this time, so maybe we can get away...

edit: not sure I like the idea of going up against the poison lady without Cao'er or Qilin to back us up. A might be fine, but we'd lose major twin points - unacceptable.

 

[Elfberserker]

Current tally:

Azira A
Baltika9 A>C1>C2
Grimgravy A
Sunnmoring A>Cx

Nevill B
Eryfkrad B>C1
Akkudakku B
Fangshi B
asxetos B
Absinthe B>A>C1
Tome B
Lambchop19 B
Tigranes B

Kz3r0 C2
Jester C2
Kashim slippers C2
Kipeci C2
Elfberserker C2
GreyViper C2

total tally:

Option A: 4

Option B: 9

Option C2: 6

Edit: GreyViper vote added, Sunnmoring vote added

Edit: Akkudakku flop added

Edit: Tigranes vote added

 

[GreyViper]

C2

 

[Sunnmøring]

A>Cx

Where would we run with them? And I don't like the idea of leaving the Harem without any sort of supervision from us while Madam Nie can freely do whatever shady things she can while we're out. If we think the generally orthodox twins here would be in trouble back at the camp with us there, what about Yunzi while we're not?

 

[Nevill]

Where would we run with them?

'Running away' is relative. It might end with a pair of rebellious youths not coming back home. Essentially they would be 'on the run' from their parents while being on the very next boat.

If we think the generally orthodox twins here would be in trouble back at the camp with us there, what about Yunzi while we're not?

They would be 'in trouble' not in a sense that Madam Nie would cook and eat them the moment we turn away, but in the same sense kids get in trouble when their parents are angry at them. They face a very real possibility of a public 'flogging' by their father for shaming him. That's the kind of trouble they are getting into by coming with us.

What we are trying to avoid here is the kind of re-education after which they shut their mouths and never raise a voice against their stepmpther again. Now tell me how much that applies to Yunzi and the rest of our crew.

The dangers Madam Nie presents to our team are rarely physical in nature. She tries to manipulate our girls into working against us by using a few well-placed words to rekindle the doubts they might have had. This was a case with Qilin, this was a case with Xuezi. Yunzi and the rest of our team have little to fear from her as long as they do not have a weak point to exploit.

 

[Tigranes]

I assume if we let them go in for re-education, we will see them next baying for our blood in a fundamentalist brainwashed craze.

 

[Nevill]

I assume if we let them go in for re-education, we will see them next baying for our blood in a fundamentalist brainwashed craze.

While I don't think it would be that drastic, I know that we may kiss goodbye to any possibility of further contact with them. Their parents would see to it.

You are right that they do not need much convincing to take a stance against us, though. This is a unique opportunity that can help us establish a sort of a common ground between us, and I want to make the most of it. I am just not sure what is better - to have them fight their stepmother right here (and risk ourselves), or to go for a longer gambit. I don't know how long their resolve to discover truth would last when their father comes after them and demands that they return home.

 

[Akkudakku]

B> C1

Y u vote C2? Not the point of this excursion.

 

[Nevill]

What is the point, then?

 

[Akkudakku]

To get info from Nie.