[LP CYOA] 傳

[Ifeex]

x>D.

 

[Kz3r0]

C, pray to Ahura Mazda>B.

 

[Baltika9]

Yeah, there's a problem with praying to Ahura Mazda. He's technically not born yet, so we would literally be summoning a fetus to help us out.
We could pray to Angra Mainyu, the Zoroastrian God of Evil.

 

[Kipeci]

How about we strike it even and just say that we call on the appropriate figure of power in that tradition that corresponds to the Fire Cult's heretical theology? We never really had Jing learn much about that onscreen, so I'm not really sure who it is, but let's pray to that one!

Maybe it's Zurvan or something, for all we know.

 

[Baltika9]

Most definitely not; since they're all about Good and the Light.
For all we know, Jing is the Ahura Mazda in their theology, and we're already in a bind.
It would be cool to summon some other diety, but I don't think it will work.
Unless we embrace Islam and pray to Allah.

 

[Nevill]

Take your Deus Ex Machina ending and double triple it up?

I approve.

 

[Kipeci]

I'm absolutely positive that the vaguely defined Zoro heresy we follow will back us up here! Treave was saying that we don't have a spark of the former godly powers that Jing's previous reincarnations had, but we conveniently always carry the tremendously powerful one of some other figure's in Jing's blinded eye. That's gotta make the summoning easier, right?

 

[Absinthe]

D

It's pathetic for us to be crawling to Nuwa's side after she creates this whole disaster. Lets go back to A.

So...any chance to cause the fall of Heaven? I was hoping for a viable option to defy them and get away with it.

That would've been in the old A, like I said from the start. Anyway, vote D now so we can continue where we left off.

B for now. As much as I'd hate to give up the harem, becoming a deity with snake lady sex sounds better. After all, how long are the girls going to keep their looks anyway?

Forever, if we pursue immortality? By the way, would you like to vote for "C: Attempt to lawyer Nuwa on breaking rules about direct intervention" now?

 

[Baltika9]

Yeah, I like the one where we get some divine snake tail more.

 

[Baltika9]

Have you read Lambchop's idea? It's actually pretty good (the only thing I object to on it is the 10-year period, I don't think that will fly with Nuwa).

 

[Absinthe]

I'm opposed to any stupid ideas that try to hoodwink Nuwa or suck up to her.

 

[treave]

I'll close the votes in 12 hours.

 

[Esquilax]

First off, I think we should reject any notion of D outright and I think that it's a flip-flop disaster waiting to happen. We've stepped deep in some quicksand, and trying to forcefully pull ourselves out is just going to drag us even deeper.

I'll repost the Chi You story to see what you bros have to make of this stuff:

Through the sandy fields you trudge, carrying her in your arms, through lands once verdant green. The hut is just ahead; your place of memories, the only enduring rock you possess in the eternal river of time. You whisper through parched lips, “We are almost there.” She does not respond.

The hut is just how you left it, in disarray. It does not matter, though. You will not be here for much longer. Pulling the sheets back, you lay her on the bed, gently touching her forehead. The rumbling thunder in a clear sky devoid of a single cloud tells you that they will soon be here. “I’m heading out,” you say. At the sound of your voice, she stirs… for just a moment you see the corners of her soft lips lift in a brief smile, and her delicate chin dips slightly in a nod. Your heart leaps, but soon she is still as the grave again. You can do nothing but chuckle to yourself, a pathetic, broken noise that rings hollow to your own ears.

You wrap your crimson red cloak tightly around yourself, taking a deep breath. Then, you step out of the hut.

Looking up into the blue sky, you see rows upon rows of shining helms and shields in gold and silver, stretched as far into the heavens as your eyes can perceive. Every single one of the million spears in the Celestial Army is pointed towards you at this moment. Your pursuers have finally caught up to you.

“Tyrant Chi You!” they shout as one, chanting as they bang their spears against their shields. “Submit! Submit!”

You laugh defiantly, throwing your cloak back. The clear sky darkens as clouds begin to form above you. The wind whips up, becoming stronger with every moment. “Submit? To a mere million Celestial Soldiers? Who do you think I am?”

A tall man on a sleek dragon-horse rides forward from their lines of heavenly cavalry, the hooves of the steed galloping through thin air as if it is as solid as the ground. “Lord General Chi You!” he called out. “Please! Stop this pointless bloodshed! Lady Nuwa will still forgive you if you return to her now!” Your response comes in the form of a dismissive snort. “Xing Mafu, youare the Celestial Stablemaster now? What a lofty promotion, old friend of mine. Still, oath of brotherhood or not, if you get in my way I will cut you down.”

“Chi You!” shouts Xing, the man whom you once vowed to fight alongside through thick and thin, a tinge of anger and desperation creeping into his voice. “Do not do this! It is not worth it, not over her! Your brother Huangdi will be here in a moment… submit before he arrives! Return to Lady Nuwa and she will be merciful! After all this, she still cares for you!”

The rage inside you boils forth. The forming storm whips the clouds into a swirling, chaotic spiral above your head, lightning crackling around its dark edges. The Stablemaster’s steed rears in alarm as he pulls back from your fury. “Do not presume to tell me what she is worth!” You scream, causing twin bolts of lightning to crash to the ground in front of you. The smoke blows away, leaving behind two craters of sand fused into black glass. Your trusty spear and sword are pierced in the middle of the craters, awaiting your command. You walk forward, picking up the spear with your left hand and raising the sword with your right.

It would be the last battle for them and for you.

“Come. If you want to get to her, you must pass the reach of my blades,” you say, pointing your weapons at the heavens.

The celestial drummers begin their steadfast beat; their million strong army starts its march. You stand alone. Your eighty one clans are scattered. Your men, slaughtered. It is just you and the storm against Heaven, as it once was, as it should be. The wind howls.

***

At the end of it all, you float in the empty sky, pierced through in a dozen places by swords and spears and arrows. Your armour has fallen to pieces from the fierce battle. The wounds no longer heal. Your spear is broken, your sword shattered. The storm has subsided; you will call upon the turbulent chaos no more. Around you lie the bodies of a million soldiers. Your oath brother. Your blood brother. All of them you struck down with your own hand. Mafu died with a curse on his lips and sorrow in his eyes. You turn to face the earth, your hand reaching out for the hut. You still have to return to her.

One of the bodies stirs.

Huangdi.

You face him, watching as he pulls himself upright in the air. His celestial sword of rulership, Xuanyuan, soars into his hand, his golden armour reforming in front of your eyes as he regains his breath. This is the favour of Heaven, you suppose. You cannot complain; you cast it away with your own hands after all. Whatever issues there were between you and Huangdi, it no longer mattered now. It ceased to matter a long time ago.

“Brother,” he says, his voice hoarse. You did punch him in the throat quite a few times after all. You grin at your younger brother. “Up for another round?”

“Just… stop with this foolishness. You cannot save her.”

“Again with that?” You have heard enough. You fall to the ground, plummeting through the air. Huangdi does not move to stop you. You almost sink to your knees as you land, the pain of your wounds blooming all over you body. As you stagger towards the hut, you hear a voice in your mind. A beautiful female voice… that of a goddess.

Chi You.

Nuwa.

I will never forgive you for this betrayal.

I have had my chance, is that what you mean?

You have had a hundred chances!

Sorry, I wasn’t keeping count.

You defied the order of nature. You went against the will of Heaven.

Haha, isn’t that why you like me in the first place?

I- You...!

I don’t expect your forgiveness. For what it is worth, you have my apologies.

That will not save you from your doom. You will lead a cursed existence, Chi You.

Do what you will. My mind is set.

Your immortality has been stripped. The wheels of reincarnation will take you. You and her both. You will never meet again.

I will find her.

I will tear the both of you apart.

Even so, I will find her.

Farewell, Chi You. May we never meet again.

Goodbye, Lady Nuwa.

You open the door of the hut, leaving your bloody handprints smeared over the wood. Taking a painful breath, you stumble inside, dragging your feet across the floor. You look down at her, placing a hand on her forehead and pressing your lips against hers softly.

She is gone.

Laughing to yourself, you sink into the chair by the bed, warm tears spilling down your cheeks. What did you expect?

Miracles are the work of Heaven, after all.

“Well,” you mutter, your eyelids growing tired, falling shut as your blood begins to pool on the floor underneath the chair. Your mind becomes cloudy. “I will just have to find you again…”

You close your eyes, and begin to dream a dream of future lives...

And an interesting snippet from this update:

“The truth is, fate has been stretched quite far enough. If the Tang continue to distort their rightful destiny, a cataclysm of unimaginable proportions will strike both Heaven and Earth alike. You must understand, the gods have their hands tied in this matter.”

“You mean that Heaven is helpless? I am terribly sorry to bother you then,” you say flatly, your eyebrows arched.

“No!” Perhaps you are imagining it, but a dark, terrible void passes behind Nuwa’s eyes for an instant. The goddess shakes her pretty head. “I mean, no, not at all,” she says, her eyes now shining with even more compassion for your predicament. “Heaven has its ways. The rise of a new dynasty, with the favour of Heaven… that is a way of averting a catastrophe. In fact, I do believe that you are the best candidate for the job.”

treave, I'm a little confused: why is Heaven convinced that the new dynasty will bring ruin to both Heaven and Earth? Is this something beyond our understanding? As vindictive as Nuwa seems to be, I don't think that she's lying about the fact that she seems to need Jing's help badly, so hopefully we can find some way to use that to our advantage, despite the fact that we're a mortal that she can squash like a bug.

 

[treave]

It's the other way around. She's claiming that if we don't get a new dynasty, things will be fucked.

 

[Esquilax]

Oh, by "new dynasty" I should have meant, "the dynasty that Li Ming ushed in".

It's the other way around. She's claiming that if we don't get a new dynasty, things will be fucked.

Yeah, but why? Given that Jing was first specifically picked out to serve as the Crown Prince's Adjutant when he was a child, and the Li Ming's superstitions, he clearly wished to postpone Heaven fucking things over for him for as long as possible. But why is Heaven so convinced that if there isn't a new dynasty, things will be fucked?

 

[Absinthe]

Because Nuwa is a manipulative bitch?

Hence why I am voting D? A-C are all going to lead to worse results, tbh.

I'm picking the Abort option while it's still there.

 

[Kipeci]

treave, does the Fire Cult revere some entity that Jing could possibly think to come in handy here were he to believe?

 

[treave]

Oh, by "new dynasty" I should have meant, "the dynasty that Li Ming ushed in".



Yeah, but why? Given that Jing was first specifically picked out to serve as the Crown Prince's Adjutant when he was a child, and the Li Ming's superstitions, he clearly wished to postpone Heaven fucking things over for him for as long as possible. But why is Heaven so convinced that if there isn't a new dynasty, things will be fucked?

Li Ming didn't usher in any new dynasty. No idea where that idea came from. What he 'wishes' might only have been him playing into Heaven's hands over and over anyway. If you try to ask Nuwa about anything, all you're going to get is "The designs of Heaven are not for mortal ears" with a hint of impatience.

If you wanted concrete answers to the affairs of the gods, should've spent less time training, more time on seemingly meaningless sidequests, and found the divine astrologer.

treave, does the Fire Cult revere some entity that Jing could possibly think to come in handy here were he to believe?

I did say there was zero chance of dying if you pray.

 

[Tigranes]

I agree D will get us fully screwed by Nuwa, but I just can't understand why everyone is so eager to basically get 'game over, snake lady fucks you for the ages and you lose everything you built up'. Nobody cares about Qilin? The baby? Cao'er? Guo Fu? Zhang Jue? Fire Temple?

I'm willing to back a C option which at least has Jing hang around for the next couple of decades to enjoy life, but for a guy who never really had much to do with or knew much about HEAVAN and the fate of the entire realm, for a guy who is defined by his friends and the jianghu and adventures, it just seems wrong to do some kind of Ean-like Sacrifice.

 

[Esquilax]

I'm opposed to any stupid ideas that try to hoodwink Nuwa or suck up to her.

I'm not. A mortal tricking a god seems like an amazing final note to the LEGEND of Xu Jing. Only trouble is, I have no idea where the fuck to begin. We've never even met the Divine Astrologer so I don't know what the fuck to do.

Oh, and aborting will probably give us some sort of an eternal divine punishment of some sort. Doing that is even dumber than praying in the first place.

I agree D will get us fully screwed by Nuwa, but I just can't understand why everyone is so eager to basically get 'game over, snake lady fucks you for the ages and you lose everything you built up'. Nobody cares about Qilin? The baby? Cao'er? Guo Fu? Zhang Jue? Fire Temple?

Lulz won over, sadly. There's a time and a place for that, but it wasn't the last choice.

 

[Absinthe]

Well Esquilax, you didn't even vote last time. I was tempted to alert you to point that out, but I already agreed not to alert you for votes. As for hoodwinking Nuwa, I'm afraid she'll see right through it. Nuwa would put Chi Qilin to shame in terms of deviousness.

Tigranes, Nuwa isn't going to let us really keep those things in any option. I'd rather have Jing stay true to his principles rather than betray his principles in the end. You said it yourself anyway: We don't want a Deus Ex Machina ending right here. Jing should accomplish his results by his own sweat and blood. Anything else would be a cop-out.

 

[Baltika9]

I agree D will get us fully screwed by Nuwa, but I just can't understand why everyone is so eager to basically get 'game over, snake lady fucks you for the ages and you lose everything you built up'. Nobody cares about Qilin? The baby? Cao'er? Guo Fu? Zhang Jue? Fire Temple?

Uh, what exactly do you want us to do for them? With exception of the kids (who will become the ruling dynasty if Lambchop's C wins) and the Cult, what exactly are you electing to do for them further? The orthodox bros are well established, they don't need us at all, our faction and family will be living the life in the palace.
And our 'sacrifice,' to live forever with a hot snake goddess and do good in the universe, that's so horrible, isn't it?

treave, will we be get only consort?

 

[treave]

For now?

 

[Baltika9]

Forever. Xu Jing doesn't do sloppy seconds.

 

[treave]

Depends on how faithful you are.