[LP CYOA] 傳

[Esquilax]

I don't like A. In the long-run, it's a bad idea because it gets us noticed. The other issue is that it would only partially cross off Zhang's challenge; the Taishan formation is meant to be executed with seven people, and this one is incomplete. Our character is intelligent, but not brilliant, so fighting the four-man formation would probably give Jing enough information to extrapolate how to beat out the full seven-man crew. But even if we beat them here and take credit for the deed as Zhang's apprentice, we still have three more of them to deal with. Then you have to consider that we're going to have a lot more eyes on us during the elimination tourney after we beat these guys. Just seems like a lot of effort and risk for comparatively little gain.

We have to decide what it is we want to get out of this tournament here - do we want to win and reveal ourselves at the end? This is the time where we're going to begin really making the choice of how far we'd like to progress in the elimination tournament. If the elimination tournament truly is our goal, then there's no doubt in my mind that B is the way to go. Yes, the Taishan have successfully managed to anger Murong Yandi in order to bait him into a one-on-four match, but I believe that even if he loses, the combined power of Jing and Guo Fu would be enough to take the rest of them on.

I think that we need to take this short-term risk so that we can parlay it into a long-term advantage. Murong Yandi is one of the favourites here to win, so if we can match up with him in the same bracket, we can use that victory to push ourselves further without having to expose more of our own techniques and skills. The flow of information would favour us in a match against him, giving us the edge. Now, we would have to worry about how exactly we'd arrange a fight with him in the first place, but I'm sure that our friend Chi Qilin might be able to manipulate the brackets in such a way that we're matched up against him.

As for the other options, C is safe, but it's too wishy-washy: it doesn't give us much on the Taishan formation, and it doesn't give us much on Murong Yandi. Seems like an unhappy compromise to me. D allows us to assemble the broteam and defeat them while remaining out of the spotlight ourselves, so I guess there's some long-term advantage there, but I'd much rather have an edge on a guy who will likely be a favourite to win in the tournament.

Obviously the downsides of B are that we won't be working as a team and that Murong Yandi will likely lose. But even then, I still think that with our own skills and the big guy at our side, we can come out with the victory. D is safer as far as victory here is concerned, but I see so much more long-term potential with B.

B

 

[Tigranes]

B. It's pretty early to blow our cover, especially since Murong Yandi seems mighty strange and we should find out more about what makes him tick. It's not like we have the opportunity to defeat all 7 anyway - it's not cost efficient to abandon our low profile only to complete half of an eighth of our mission.

 

[Baltika9]

As for the other options, C is safe, but it's too wishy-washy: it doesn't give us much on the Taishan formation, and it doesn't give us much on Murong Yandi.

I disagree on this, both Jing and Yandi (who isn't as douchey as I suspected) seem like very instinctual fighters, they will get a much better "feel" of one another's techniques if they work together rather than just observing one another (double-edged sword because we'll have to face him later if we're aiming to win) and it will give us a better feel of the formation and how to dismantle it than we would get from just observing it, so it's far from an "unhappy comromise." There are more things to consider.

You'll need to fight two other teams, but they're definitely weaker than this opponent. All team members can participate even if rung out.

If we abandon Yandi to take care of himself right now, then he may just return the favor when we fight the other two teams. He's not a team player as it is, what's stopping him from going "fuck you, assholes!" in the latter matches? Sure they'll not be as coordinated as these guys, but it's obvious that us and Yandi are the most capable guys in a straight-up fight; Guo is talented but unskilled, while Quiling is awesome at lethal combat and fighting dirty. Pulling B now may just put us in a position where he returns the favor and we'll have to go all out or fail the match.

What matters for the challenge really isn't so much as merely defeating everyone, but making them (and the court of public opinion) acknowledge you're their better. The latter is the more important part. Fighting is of course the simplest way, but not always the only way.

Anyway, with regards to Taishan (and the other sects) you would have to defeat them at their best for them to acknowledge defeat. That would mean taking on the full seven-man formation by yourself since that's what they are known for. Of course, it's a start if you dismantle their four-man formation solo in full view of everyone else. Even if they don't admit defeat yet, you'll begin to sway public opinion towards you being better.

And this points out that A isn't as useless as everyone thinks, if Zhang wants the world to acknowledge us as the best, well, this is a direct step towards that.

 

[Tigranes]

Yandi asked us to let him take them all alone, so no.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

I don't like A. In the long-run, it's a bad idea because it gets us noticed. The other issue is that it would only partially cross off Zhang's challenge; the Taishan formation is meant to be executed with seven people, and this one is incomplete. Our character is intelligent, but not brilliant, so fighting the four-man formation would probably give Jing enough information to extrapolate how to beat out the full seven-man crew. But even if we beat them here and take credit for the deed as Zhang's apprentice, we still have three more of them to deal with. Then you have to consider that we're going to have a lot more eyes on us during the elimination tourney after we beat these guys. Just seems like a lot of effort and risk for comparatively little gain.

B - What Esquilax said.

 

[Baltika9]

My bad, can't believe I missed that.
Still, I'm going for the dramatic reveal plus calling all the sects out for a fight. Might as well start setting up the suspense now and my point still stands that we'll learn more about his style and the formation by experiencing them. And we're not using any of our techniques so all he'll learn is that we're fast and strong.

 

[Nevill]

I don't know if 'Fuck it, YOLO!' is even appropriate when you actually are going to stay still and do nothing, but there you go. B.

 

[Nevill]

Yes we are.

What of it?

 

[TOME]

We have the fight perfectly under control even without Murong. Guo Fu managed take two of them for a while and Jing can easily do the same. And Qilin can do what she does best, surprise them from behind.

Of Emei, they think the nun Yiling will prove to be an obstacle – she had a close run for champion the last year.

Yiling almost won last year. We fought against her and her five more skilled buddies and now some of you are worried we can't beat four inferior opponents with backup?

 

[Baltika9]

Flopping to C, I want a back-to-back fight scene. Xing always learned better from fighting up close and personal and I believe that fighting with Yandi will let us get a better feel for how he fights, and how the Power Rangers' formation works. Better, at least, than from us observing them. In fact, we can "ask" Quiling for her observations once we're back at the hotel, she's definitely a high PER type.

In exchange, Yandi will get a feel for how we fight, but Jing isn't using his techniques at all so all he'll get is "wow, he's fast and strong!"
You don't say.

 

[Esquilax]

Murong Yandi should be less butthurt here. It is a team challenge afterall. Plus I want Guo to get to participate.

No, he won't be pissed at us, he actually asked us to jump in:

Murong Yandi seems to be in a bad mood as he comes to your side. “Could you let me take them all down, Man Tiger Pig? The two of them were saying some rather rude things to me just now.”

But I'm not concerned with that. Fuck his feelings, we've got a tournament to win. The Taishan had no problems trying to piss him off just now in order to secure the win, and neither should we. Psychological warfare has been used by lots of great fighters in the real world, so I'm not surprised it's being used right now against the Sword Saint's disciple.

No you fools we're going to see this guy get roflpwned if he fights them!

Well... yeah. The crux of the plan with B is to take a calculated risk in the short-term so that we can find some flaws in Murong Yandi's technique. Yeah, it's a moot point if we lose in the team competition here, because we won't be able to advance anyways, but if we want to win, we must learn how to beat the people that we're most likely to encounter in either the semi-finals or the finals of the tournament. Let's take a look at the prime contenders in the one-on-one competitions:

Taishan’s Seven Heroic Youths, said to be the best young fighters of the school. You do not remember their names, as they tend to be referred to as a group. Even the monks do not recall their names.

The Twin Flowers of Huashan; Nie Mudan and Nie Shuixian, who are adopted daughters of the sect leader Nie Wuxing.

Murong Yandi, the disciple of the man said to be the best swordsman in the world, Shangguan Chuji.

Su Liaojing of Kunlun, a youth that is said to have the potential to become the next head of the sect.

The Three Brothers of Wudang, Wu Jin, Wu Yin and Wu Tong, are seen as a major force in the competition.

Of Emei, they think the nun Yiling will prove to be an obstacle – she had a close run for champion the last year. When the conversation turns to Shaolin, Xuzhan says embarrassedly that he is considered one of the front-runners for his temple, along with his brothers-in-monkhood, Xuzheng and Xuzhu.
...
For the past seven years, the tournament has been dominated by Bai Jiutian of Huashan – a peerless, elegant pugilist whose skill has brought him victory match after match. This year he is ineligible to participate due to his age, though he is still widely considered the best pugilist of your generation.

The Taishan youths work better as a group than they do individually, they don't seem like they'll be a threat in the elimination tournament. The best guy the Huashan have is not competing here anymore, so I doubt the Twin Flowers are anywhere near his level. We already got a technique that counters the Wudang, so no problem there either. However, the names I've bolded seem to be the most accomplished ones here. That means that if we make it to the semi-finals, the final four will probably be: Man Tiger Pig, Yiling, Su Liaojing, and Murong Yandi.

Yiling almost won last year. We fought against her and her five more skilled buddies and now some of you are worried we can't beat four inferior opponents with backup?

Let's not underestimate either Yiling or the Taishan. I believe that we can win, but Yiling came close to defeating the best pugilist of our generation during the last competition, so she's no joke. Keep in mind that our lethal techniques and our neigong will have to be held back so that we can win the tournament fairly. Knowing the style of our opponent's fighting techniques is how we can circumvent a lot of the problems of our lethal techniques in a tournament setting. If we have them figured out, we can steal beat them handily while holding back.

Flopping to C, I want a back-to-back fight scene. Xing always learned better from fighting up close and personal and I believe that fighting with Yandi will let us get a better feel for how he fights, and how the Power Rangers' formation works. Better, at least, than from us observing them. In fact, we can "ask" Quiling for her observations once we're back at the hotel, she's definitely a high PER type.

She might be, but she's not even paying attention to the fights, or to Murong Yandi's style. Her high PER is no help to us if she isn't using it to watch for flaws. She doesn't have much of a stake in winning and she doesn't really care very much about the match, so relying on her might not be the best idea. Her purpose in all of this is to test out some of her poisons, so I doubt that she's really going to be noticing much of what Murong Yandi is doing.

 

[LWC1996]

D>B

 

[Kipeci]

Wrong nun. We fought Yifeng or something, they're different... Also, the Sword Saint's disciple wants to fight by himself, so I'm not sure why it's being said that B will hurt his feelings. If anything, he'd be annoyed that we have so little faith in his abilities even after with our own eyes seeing him hold off a four person attack without a scratch that we call in everyone.

 

[Baltika9]

She might be, but she's not even paying attention to the fights, or to Murong Yandi's style. Her high PER is no help to us if she isn't using it to watch for flaws. She doesn't have much of a stake in winning and she doesn't really care very much about the match, so relying on her might not be the best idea. Her purpose in all of this is to test out some of her poisons, so I doubt that she's really going to be noticing much of what Murong Yandi is doing.

Oh please, she's in the ring with us, of course she's watching. Just ask her to pay some attention to how we fight specifically and that's that. We get the benefit of her observatoonal skills and our instincts.
treave, two questions: can we reqiest such a thing from her in C and how are we fighting in that choice, back-to-back covering each other, or divide and every man for himself?

 

[Esquilax]

We fought Yiling?

No, we aren't considered the best pugilist of our generation because nobody knows who we are to begin with. We've been under the tutelage of a crazy guy in the woods for the past year and a half, and under the tutelage of another crazy guy in the woods the year before that. The best pugilist of our generation is this guy:

For the past seven years, the tournament has been dominated by Bai Jiutian of Huashan – a peerless, elegant pugilist whose skill has brought him victory match after match. This year he is ineligible to participate due to his age, though he is still widely considered the best pugilist of your generation.

Yiling nearly beat the best fighter of our generation, which ought to tell you how good she is, even if she lost. As for how to beat her, we need to come in contact with Cao'er. Cao'er is already aware that we don't have any meridian lines, so if she's in the crowd, she probably recognizes us even with the mask on. She's has probably seen Yiling spar a few times during her time so far with the Emei, and I'd love to get a few pointers on what we can do to counter her from our little PER 10 powerhouse.

treave, I doubt Abbot Fangzhang would donate a manual that contains some of the more prized knowledge of his sect, but in the honourable spirit of the competition, he'd have to at least provide a pretty good basic rundown of Shaolin techniques, correct? We probably aren't going to get anything amazing, but having a few orthodox techniques will round us out more nicely.

 

[Kipeci]

I think The Brazilian Slaughter was less saying that we are the stronkest and more wondering why people are saying that we beat Yiling when we went up against Yifeng or whatever her name was. They're different.

 

[treave]

treave, two questions: can we reqiest such a thing from her in C and how are we fighting in that choice, back-to-back covering each other, or divide and every man for himself?

What's in it for Qilin if she decides to keep an eye out for you? She might very well observe, but does she benefit from telling you? You don't have anything left to pay her with.

And you offer to team up in C. Will you be able to work out a strategy? Who knows.

As for the technique manual, it'll be one of the Shaolin exclusive basic techniques, a grappling technique.

 

[Esquilax]

What's in it for Qilin if she decides to keep an eye out for you? She might very well observe, but does she benefit from telling you? You don't have anything left to pay her with.

Speaking of money: we are going to be a serious underdog in these fights against big names, so could we potentially lay a bet on ourselves and parlay it into a lot of cash if we win? I see a lot of potential in that.

 

[treave]

Once you get into the elimination stage and the brackets have been drawn, yes.

 

[kazgar]

Im happy with B

If he's in trouble we jump in, I don't think that's in any doubt, i'm sure the others would as well, none of us actually want to lose this round.

 

[Nevill]

What's in it for Qilin if she decides to keep an eye out for you? She might very well observe, but does she benefit from telling you? You don't have anything left to pay her with.

She has a vested interest in getting as close to the finals as possible:

Her eyes are gleaming with sly interest. “He’s looking for anyone he can get. Something about his master advising him to learn cooperation, I think. It works out for me if I can piggy-back on the stronger fighters of the competition, so I'm not complaining.”

It would be unfortunate if we lost the next match because we didn't have a good grasp of the situation, now, wouldn't it?

 

[treave]

Not really, no. Taishan is the only threat in the group. Besides, observing Murong for you has nothing to do with the team matches.

 

[Baltika9]

She have a vested interest in getting as close to the finals as possible:

Yeah, but she's not the type to do anything for free. As much as I like the idea of pulling an "I'll "make it up to you" <wink>, considering the nature of her missions, fuck that.

 

[treave]

Ifeex - C>D
ERYFKRAD - C>D
ScubaV - B
Jester - C
The Brazilian Slaughter - C>D
Kashmir Slippers - C
Baltika9 - B
Zero Credibility - D>C
Absinthe - B
Smashing Axe - C>A
Kipeci - B
Grimgravy - D>C
XenomorphII - B
Esquilax - B
Tigranes - B
Lambchop19 - B
Nevill - B
LWC1996 - D>B
kazgar - B
Cassidy - C

***

Current tally:

A - 0
B - 10
C - 7
D - 3

If flopped:

A - 0
B - 11
C - 9
D - 0

Not much confusing DISCUSS! going on, so no summary needed yet I hope.

 

[Baltika9]

C is just too damn bromantic. I'm just not sure if Yandi is a BROdere who never knew of true BROhood, or an unbro uncapable of BRO.

But we also came here to win and that means he will soon be our opponent. Which means we'd better know more of him than he does of us.

Fuck it, we came here to win. Flopping to B. If you can't trust a demonic horse-rabbit, who can you trust?