[LP CYOA] 傳

[Elfberserker]

Was there anything to beat out in the first place? I mean, we approached him of our own volition.

We were born without a self-preservation instinct.

Thankfully, we have the Demon now to keep us safe for all those who need us.

Well there is always Cao'er.
I think there is something resembling fear when we know that Cao'er is angry.

 

[ScubaV]

Anyway, after thinking for a while about it, I'm cutting the update in half, keeping the latter part, and letting you guys decide how it all goes down.

Hmm. Is treave giving the Codex a chance to redeem a failed choice or a chance to fuck up a good one?

 

[ChumBucket]

Anyway, after thinking for a while about it, I'm cutting the update in half, keeping the latter part, and letting you guys decide how it all goes down.

Hmm. Is treave giving the Codex a chance to redeem a failed choice or a chance to fuck up a good one?

Pfft, the grave(s) have already been dug, treave just wants to see how deep we dig this hole.

 

[TOME]

CA>AA

 

[treave]

treave, if you don't mind me asking,

Were there any choices on how to deal with the Twins that would have allowed it - well, except for returning them?

I am asking because I find Wuxing's reaction a bit weird.

It looks like he almost expected us to take responsibility for them and was enraged when we said we wouldn't. Would he actually be 'alright' with that outcome? It is a disgrace to have one's daughters to be taken by a scoundrel and a lecher, but the wording implied to me that he could have 'allowed' us to get away with it on certain conditions.

Or was it our refusal to face him in an honest duel that was the final straw? Or did it not matter at all, as far as our relationship and this trip is concerned?

They were ready to trade one of his daughters for your support. It would have been worse to give two away for no guaranteed, but an acceptable trade-off for possibly having leverage over you in the future - would Xu Jing be heartless enough to abandon his wives, etc. If the Twins go independent they won't even have that. That may be what Madam Nie prepared for.

And as a father, he isn't really all too convinced that nothing happened between you and the Twins.

Shouldn't have picked them, or chosen to go on that little night visit in the first place, if you wanted to maintain the status quo.

 

[ChumBucket]

Shouldn't have picked them, or chosen to go on that little night visit in the first place, if you wanted to maintain the status quo.

But maintaining the status quo is boring and not becoming of MTP. He is a force of nature.

Whelp, might as well throw my vote in the hat... CA>DA

 

[Nevill]

If the Twins go independent they won't even have that.

How does the pugilistic community in general view such acts? Do they condemn them as rebelliousness and disrespect against one's parents? Do they view it as an act of disobedience to one's master and sect leader? Or do they largely not care and view it as an internal matter that does not concern them?

There were people willing to support miss Song in similar circumstances (at least until we murdered several people in cold blood), but then again, Mao's actions may have played a part in that, and his public position wasn't nearly as strong as Wuxing's.

When Wuxing mentioned they are a disgrace to his family and sect and tells them they are better off dead, was he overdramatizing, or did their act really reflect that poorly on all of them? I didn't expect him to go as far as to actually disown them. To exile - yes, to strip them of the martial arts - maybe, if that is the law, but to cut all ties completely and irreversibly with a single stroke? That's harsh.

Is this considered normal in the setting?

 

[treave]

Yes. Filial piety is a pretty big deal for them, and the twins just failed at it horribly by publicly declaring their desire for independence against their father's wishes.

 

[asxetos]

DA.

 

[Nevill]

So, even if this is a 'legitimate' way to leave one's parents, it is still heavily frowned upon? Did Miss Song have an easier time because her parents were already dead by the time she ran away, and her uncle didn't have the same clout her real father would have?

One more question, then. The Saint have said that the code dictates there needs to be a fight, and there is a tradition in place to regulate this sort of thing. Does this tradition exist to determine if one is worthy to keep the arts of the school even if they didn't part cordially with them? Is the sentiment behind such a rule that if you can beat the greatest master of your school then you are a disciple in name only, and you no longer have to be bound by their restrictions? Why does the rule exist at all?

More precisely, what are we trying to prove by winning this duel Bai Jiutian suggested, especially when it didn't even have to have the Twins among the participants? Or is this the case where a tradition lives on even as its original meaning is forgotten?

All I see is 'here's our guys, here's their guys, whoever beats the other up gets to make the rules'.

 

[treave]

Just because something is legitimate doesn't mean it has no drawbacks or punishments involved. When they are disinherited, Nie Wuxing has the right to take back everything they owe him. How much is just a matter of how lenient he wants to be.

Mao Sanjiao isn't related to Song Lingshu by adoption or blood, so he has very little say in the matter except as an elder/chief of the sect, where he can just as easily call for her martial arts to be stripped. But since she's the daughter of the last head, was head for a period of time, not entirely unpopular herself and if he tried to do it himself he would be facing a difficult fight, the situation is different for him.

The tradition is there to make it hard for people to leave, and also because pugilists live for the little excuses to test their martial arts all the time. I remember talking about this before?

At any rate, by winning the duel you're effectively taking away the Twins from Nie Wuxing and having them under your protection. This also means your entourage is recognized as a faction of its own, and if the group had a name it could even be considered a small sect. For example, if the Twins fled to Emei for shelter from their father, the nuns would have to participate in a duel with Huashan to settle the matter too.

 

[Nevill]

I remember talking about this before?

Yes, when we chose between the orthodox and unorthodox paths. I am asking because I was rereading that part and didn't find anything about a duel there. I thought the disciples were completely at a mercy of the sect leadership. Turns out there are rules regulating them moving between the factions.

Thanks, it's a bit clearer now.

This also means your entourage is recognized as a faction of its own, and if the group had a name it could even be considered a small sect.

How many girls do we have to take in for that to be an option?

I imagine our sect would be much more popular among the young ladies than Emei.

 

[treave]

You're completely at the mercy of the sect leadership unless you choose not to be and deal with those consequences instead, so I didn't think I needed to mention it at the time. I think something related was also brought up during the Shaolin arc.

Also, you technically already have your own faction: the Fire Cult, just that they don't know about it yet.

 

[Jester]

Hmm the rule of duel are if i understand corectly that duelists must follow orders, cant attack strategists and try to kill. Tactician on other hand cant fight directly.
I expect Saint will uphold all ruled because of honor and stuff.

Sword saint is imo person who will stop duel on breake of rules not bending them.

So from one perspective D is bad end because we will directly involve ourselves in fight while C is ok as long as our duelists wont attack Nie. From other perspective D is fine because we dont only Jing in danger, while C is dead end because we endanger Nie.

Question is what is Saint breaking point? Attempting kill? Puting person in danger? Breaking no direct intervention rule?

Will vote CA for now. I doubt that saint will stop us if we wont attack Nie, still its only my interpretation.

Also, you technically already have your own faction: the Fire Cult, just that they don't know about it yet.

Technically Jing is in a way his own sect... or part of emperor sect.

 

[Elfberserker]

This makes me wonder how well codex could have played a orthodox character?

I guess we would have minimal trouble with beggars, since they seem to be more free than everyone else.
With Shaolin I guess we would have been most cautious, since they seems pretty bro and codex would been deathly afraid of losing their martial art ability.
We would had okay time with Wudang when Big Wang was there, but after that???
I guess Hueshan could have gone either way. We defninately would have gotten in trouble, but to get chance to inflirate into Nies inner family circle and this conspiracy should theoritically stopped us doing any major wtf moments in orthodox world view.

 

[Akkudakku]

Xu Jing school of the way of the Troll.

The regimen is hard and trying as you must best Master Jing in the ways of subterfuge, dickery AND fucking.

 

[Nevill]

This makes me wonder how well codex could have played a orthodox character?

My guess is 'pretty poorly'.

Codexian penchant for lulz and trolling with a healthy disregard for rules and regulations aside, it is still an unfamiliar setting. A lot of laws and concepts that govern the characters' everyday lives look outdated, alien or 'stupid' from our point of view. It is thus easier to relate to a character that doubts the validity of such laws than the one that abides by them unquestionably.

That is even without considering that it is always more interesting to play as someone exceptional.

 

[Kipeci]

I think Jing would have been a pretty exceptional character even as an orthodontist, just in a different sort of way. Wudang would have had him under the personal tutelage of the head of the pugilist world, and that would have been even more impressive since he would have been able to come up with his crazy bullshit powers earlier due to Jing popping up quite a while sooner. Huashan would have not really been able to do much with his neigong, but there he would have been extensively drilled and overdrilled in the best regarded sword school while himself being the character with the best possible background for sword and saber learning.

I doubt he would have integrated all that well with very orthodox peers though, treave implied that he'd be fairly socially isolated in most of those cases.

 

[Nevill]

Breaking rules is the easiest way to feel 'special', though. We would always be compelled to eavesdrop, sneak out, laugh at our stuck-up peers and do fun things.

I don't think we would have been able to put up with the orthodoxy as something more than a front. I guess we might have ended up like Frathouse.

Or, God forbid, Bai Jiutian.

 

[Kipeci]

I don't think we were that into trolling everyone 24/7 before we made the split for the unorthodox path, and that one was an incredibly close vote. Once we went orthodox there was of course the impulse to go all the way and commit to maximum unorthodoxy, and so then we began taking more of the trolling options as they showed up. I think Jing would have turned out to be much less light-hearted than he is now.

 

[Elfberserker]

We get fairly well with most orthodox characters.
Sure we would eventually would ended up head butting against some people in each sect, but I have feeling that we would also get fairly well with some people like current Qi Liuwe student or those young shaolin monks.

Of course lot of it depends how we would had dealt with our problems with outside world....Of course our luck 1 would defninately put in most troublesome situations.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Cx.

 

[Nevill]

I don't think we were that into trolling everyone 24/7 before we made the split for the unorthodox path, and that one was an incredibly close vote.

There were only, like, 4 updates up until that point. It's hard to tell.

Still, we have already established ourselves as a wayward soul and a rulebreaker. We have accepted Yunzi's challenge against the Duke's wishes. We have jumped on her horse - because the rules didn't say we couldn't! The next update was about a choice of power-ups, and in the very next one we have betrayed our duties of a bodyguard to save the girl.

So, three updates, three rules bent or broken. How's that for orthodoxy?

That's just how the 'Dex naturally swings.

The vote was close, in large part, because of this sentiment:

So, yeah. We have one the one side the best stats possible to pursue the prestigious and generally orthodox discipline of stabbing with swords and punching dudes, and on the other there is learning to poison people instead of honorably facing them in exchange for jerking off sketchy hobos.

The Codex will get the character it deserves, I suppose.

Once we got a whiff of what being unorthodox was really about (and met our Master), you didn't see anyone complaining. It fit our character and our style like a glove.

 

[Baltika9]

Once we got a whiff of what being unorthodox was really about (and met our Master), you didn't see anyone complaining. It fit our character and our style like a glove.

True, even though every update makes this LP feel more and more like a nonstop Steel Panther album.
Would have had the same problem had we went with orthodoxy, though.

 

[Tigranes]

Back when the choice was presented, I imagined we'd spend a lot of updates away from the world of jianghu, and I wanted us to explore the sects more and possibly get into some Diolike intrigue.