[LP CYOA] 傳

[Nevill]

I don't think so - C just means that we don't do A or B

Attention fail on my part - it turns out I didn't read C at all and assumed it was for skipping town.

 

[Tigranes]

If we're so hot then why do we run away? How wil people explain the fact that we implicitly AGREED to BJ's challenge publicly, and that we had won everyone over with our confident and relaxed swagger rrrrrrrrrather than humility and seriousness - then we decline a challenge?

No, it's not going to convnce most people that we're a big shot. At best they will remain puzzled and in doubt about our true ability.

 

[Nevill]

If we're so hot then why do we run away?

We came here for the tournament. Now that we have won, BJ can go suck himself. He challenged us, yes, but we didn't agree to anything, neither explicitly nor implicitly.

A title is a title. It can not be dismissed. If a talentless hack can obtain it, then what does it say about the rest of the youths? I repeat, we would still be the best of those who had not reached 20. The only question would remain: who is better, BJ or us? And yes, our refusal would suggest that he is better. But we can fix it when we fight him - on our terms.

In fact, why not reissue his challenge back at him at a date of our own choosing? If we are the champion, we would have an equal footing with him. Why he gets to dictate his terms to us?

All I know is that I am not fighting him the day after tomorrow.

 

[Tigranes]

That's what WE think. WE, the little people controlling Xu Jing. I agree that purely in terms of Jing's interests, it might be best to win, pick up the manual, an leav. That's part of why I'm voting AA -- it's a decent option for fighting BJ, but it's the best option also for winning the tournament.

My point was that nobody voting to not fight BJ should be under any delusion that we won't lose a lot of face and reputation, and that to fulfill Zhang's mission we will have to make up for that.

 

[Nevill]

My point was that nobody voting to not fight BJ should be under any delusion that we won't lose a lot of face and reputation, and that to fulfill Zhang's mission we will have to make up for that.

To fulfill the mission, we need to beet BJ at some point. That also solves the question of our face and reputation.

I don't see a problem. No one suggests we avoid BJ for the rest of our lives.

 

[Stygian Lurker]

AA

 

[Baltika9]

Bros, why aren't we considering 1C? With the real apprentice appearing on the stage and giving them such a comfortable opportunity to deface him, the WiBs are definitely shifting their plans. This gives us a window to exploit if we learn of it. Honestly, I think 1A is redundant, our bullshit qi is a natural countet to Faceless' soul magiks and she'll probably be hedging her bets on that, and when she realizes that we're not going down and switches to another style, Jing's speed and aggression will have her on the ropes.
It seems 1B and 1C are more beneficial to us, no?

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

That actually went perfectly. Glad we didn't pick another option.
AA - We know nothing about nameless and she was easily able to defeat Qilin. Plus the technique manual that we'd win might just give us the edge we need to face BJ.

...unless BJ is working with the Persians and they gave him a poison - which Qilin wouldn't know about as it would be a Persian poison - but I think that treave screwing with our paranoia is far more likely.

 

[Esquilax]

The Brazilian Slaughter, we should only fight one or the other. Not both.

I could see us beating Bai Jiutian provided that a few things happen: (1) the medicine he offered us is genuine, which our experts seem to think is the case, (2) we get some tips from Murong Yandi on our opponent's skill-set and possible weaknesses, and (3) tomorrow night, before the fight, we meet up with one of the Masters for some extra advice/training on beating Bai Jiutian. We could potentially do without the last one, but the first two seem to be pretty much mandatory. If you want to take out the Huashan swordsman, you must be willing to understand his skills and take a leap of faith.

Now, I believe that the medicine itself is genuine and that Bai Jiutian was not playing any tricks. As Smashing Axe said, he is a narcissist who believes that he is far superior to ourselves, so throwing us some medicine isn't a problem in his mind. He might be part of the same committee that is attempting to set us up, but not all committee members are part of the conspiracy - at best, it's only a few individuals like the Kunlun man in the previous update nudging things towards a particular direction a la Shulgi.

I just find it very unlikely that he has medicine that's been spiked when we have Qilin, who belongs to a sect comprised entirely of poisoners, telling us that it is clear. Qilin's natural street-smarts and distrustful nature mean that she errs on the side of paranoia caution, but the medicine does seem to be fine. If our specialists think it's legit, then it's legit. This is just Qilin's paranoia talking.

However, I disagree with people that say that becoming tournament champ will mitigate a lot of the flack that we'll receive from ducking Bai Jiutian. It's certainly a damn sight better than losing to Bai Jiutian and being humiliated, but our title will at best be regarded as a meaningless one. treave, if we decide to duck Bai Jiutian, would the various schools be within their rights to refuse our challenge until we've beaten Bai Jiutian? Or will they still have to respect our claim as champ?

 

[Esquilax]

We know nothing about nameless and she was easily able to defeat Qilin. Plus the technique manual that we'd win might just give us the edge we need to face BJ.

Depends, do you mean facing BJ the day after beating Nameless, or facing BJ several months down the road provided we've won the tournament and studied the techniques from our training manual? If it's the former, terrible idea. If it's the latter, it has potential with some drawbacks.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Well, I'm not sure, but remember that even learning the first level of a technique is possible to do overnight. We did it the night before we fought with Rong and it proved a decisive advantage - though in that case, it was because it applied to his arts directly.

 

[Esquilax]

Well, I'm not sure, but remember that even learning the first level of a technique is possible to do over night. With did it the night before we fought with Rong and it proved a decisive advantage - though in that case, it was because it applied to his arts directly.

I have a feeling that this guy might be just slightly above Rong's level. No, either you fight Nameless or you fight Bai Jiutian, but you can't have both.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Any little bit helps and, um, no - I thought we were going to fight Nameless either way. The question is: will we win? Consider that if we are injured even further while fighting her, we may not be able to face Bai at 100% - regardless of the herbs.

Still, you have a point. These LPs seldom let us have our cake and eat it too.

My vote stays for now, but I will consider flopping.

 

[Nevill]

However, I disagree with people that say that becoming tournament champ will mitigate a lot of the flack that we'll receive from ducking Bai Jiutian. It's certainly a damn sight better than losing to Bai Jiutian and being humiliated, but our title will at best be regarded as a meaningless one. treave, if we decide to duck Bai Jiutian, would the various schools be within their rights to refuse our challenge until we've beaten Bai Jiutian? Or will they still have to respect our claim as champ?

No way they are refusing. We still have beaten the participants of our age at the tournament, we are still their betters. If the Great Taoist Wang issued us a challenge and we bailed, it doesn't suddenly make us a fighter without a power that can be safely ignored. Refusing BJ is similar in that he is in a different league from us. Him being considered better than us, or beating us does not reflect badly on us - he mopped the floor with the rest of them, too. This is why he placed an extra condition on the match that would eliminate us from the pugilistic scene should we fail.

No reason for Bai to set us up, he would be the first suspect.

*Sigh*. Who would suspect him, and of what? We aren't falling unconscious in the middle of the combat. Who would even notice it if we aren't suddenly operating at our top speed, or something similarly obscure?

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Bai Jiutian's demands mean it's not just a slight loss of face, it is utter humiliation. No one will take you seriously after you are kneeling and bowing and prostrating yourself in apology. Every sect will have an excuse to reject your challenge, should they want to.

You might even want to skip town and take that minor reputation hit as a sneaky coward than lose and become known as Bai Jiutian's bitch.

After all, you didn't exactly promise to fight him...

This.

There is no need to play this sparkling white turd's game. Better to just stand him up and come face him later when we are ready. Heck, I really like the idea of leaving him for last and making him wait.

 

[Tigranes]

Thinking about it, I'd say that we go all out with AA, beat Nameless to a pulp, win the crowd with some more good old MTP theatrics, and then when the day comes, don't play BJ's game - turn the tables. The more we turn the BJ fight into a serious honourable affair, the more BJ knows how to play that game and make himself look good and corner us. The more we turn it into an absurd spectacle of theatrics and jokes, the more infuriated and powerless BJ will be - and we will still retain the crowd's goodwill. If we're going to ditch him we shouldn't just not show up. Maybe we could show up on the fence or the roof late with couple of women by our side (can't be hard to find willing ones), say we're too busy living up the good life to bother, and thanks for the expensive medicine. We could say that we are called by our master, or some other thing, and then issue a counter-challenge - if you really want to protect the other guy's honour come out 6 months later at this time of the day, or even, next year's tournament if that's still within Zhang's year, etc.

I don't know. I just feel like even if we do fight Bai, or even if we run, we should do so in our own terms, and we should make sure that everything about MTP's story remains carnivalesque, and not get sucked into his stuck up shit about honour.

Oh, and just for the count: AA.

 

[Nevill]

Maybe we could show up on the fence or the roof late with couple of women by our side (can't be hard to find willing ones), say we're too busy living up the good life to bother, and thanks for the expensive medicine. We could say that we are called by our master, or some other thing, and then issue a counter-challenge - if you really want to protect the other guy's honour come out 6 months later at this time of the day, or even, next year's tournament if that's still within Zhang's year, etc.

Yes! A thousand times yes! Who does he think he is to order us around and set out conditions? A former champion? Well, suck it up, boy, we are the current champion, and we are not obliged to comply with you whims. You'll be meeting us on a day we set up, and not a day before.

Oh, and bring the Huashan twins with you. They are so ending in our harem.

 

[Baltika9]

Fuck those stuck up wenches, we have princesses, persians and mafioso daughters on our list. They can have their knight in shining robes.
I suppose A is the safest option that guarantees us being at 100% to fight Jiutian if we wish. If we want to stick him up, then CA is definitely the way to go: we focus on the quite important WiBs and don't have to worry about saving up energy for Jiutian, meaning we can go all out on Nameless without prior knowledge. I'd rather we get something useful either way, the best rep or good leads on WiB.

 

[Kayerts]

"I will take on Zhang Jue’s disciple in your stead.”

The crowd roars in surprise at Bai Jiutian’s announcement, excited at the prospect of seeing him battle you.

“Not today, however,” he says loudly. “As we can all see, Man Tiger Pig is injured from his previous battles. We will have our fight here, at this very place, the day after the finals. As a member of the tournament committee, I have the authority to do so. Whether you win or lose tomorrow, Man Tiger Pig, you will need to be made to acknowledge your master’s misdeeds. We will not be fighting to kill. There is no need for more bloodshed… but I would have you kneel and apologize to everyone you tricked in this tournament, prostrate and apologize for the crimes of your master, and unmask yourself to demonstrate your respect for the pugilistic community, to swear you will not demonstrate such disregard for our feelings ever again. In return, you have my word that until the conclusion of our duel, no one else in the orthodox community will challenge you for their numerous grievances against your master and disrupt your tournament preparations. What say you?”

You whistle. “That is a very long list of demands.”

“You are free to make your own demands should you win,” shrugs Bai Jiutian elegantly.

“Unfortunately I cannot think of anything on such short notice. After all, I already had the fortune of witnessing the splendour of one of the Twin Flowers of Huashan yesterday. Anything I can ask now would pale in comparison to that,” you say.

Nothing Jing says here indicates he's accepted BJ's challenge. I say we prep for the fight, win the tournament, get the technique, unmask ourselves to steal BJ's thunder, and then get the hell out of Dodge. There will be uproar, but that leaves Jing in sufficiently ambiguous territory to tempt the sects' eminent disciples into future duels; after he's beat up one or two, he should be able to Pokemon his way to the finish line on reputation alone.

Regarding the medicine, I give BJ low odds of having a poison that Cao'er and Qilin wouldn't catch, and it doesn't make a huge amount of sense for him to do that. People are speculating about a drug that remains latent in his system for two days and only activates when combined with a blade with a concealed poison on it, which would have significant but imperceptible effects on Jing's performance. I posit that such a drug would not be feasible for a modern molecular biochemist to cook up.

AA
AB

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Maybe BJ has spiked it with the one drug no one will see coming- laxatives.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

The more we turn it into an absurd spectacle of theatrics and jokes, the more infuriated and powerless BJ will be - and we will still retain the crowd's goodwill.

Oh, I am so with you on this. Jing will become the greatest troll in the history of martial arts.

 

[Esquilax]

If the Great Taoist Wang issued us a challenge and we bailed, it doesn't suddenly make us a fighter without a power that can be safely ignored. Refusing BJ is similar in that he is in a different league from us. Him being considered better than us, or beating us does not reflect badly on us - he mopped the floor with the rest of them, too. This is why he placed an extra condition on the match that would eliminate us from the pugilistic scene should we fail.

Pretty much. The guy isn't even in our age group and not eligible for the competition we're supposed to be fighting in.

Nothing Jing says here indicates he's accepted BJ's challenge. I say we prep for the fight, win the tournament, get the technique, unmask ourselves to steal BJ's thunder, and then get the hell out of Dodge. There will be uproar, but that leaves Jing in sufficiently ambiguous territory to tempt the sects' eminent disciples into future duels; after he's beat up one or two, he should be able to Pokemon his way to the finish line on reputation alone.

Regarding the medicine, I give BJ low odds of having a poison that Cao'er and Qilin wouldn't catch, and it doesn't make a huge amount of sense for him to do that. People are speculating about a drug that remains latent in his system for two days and only activates when combined with a blade with a concealed poison on it, which would have significant but imperceptible effects on Jing's performance. I posit that such a drug would not be feasible for a modern molecular biochemist to cook up.

Absolutely. BJ's game here is psychological, I find it highly unlikely that he has the contacts or the skills to cook up a poison that even the niece of the Western Snake couldn't catch. The far more likely play here is that he's trying to court attention while destroying someone who could be a bigger threat down the road - that's why his terms are so fucking ridiculous. I think that a good point that Nevill seemed to be hinting at is that part of his motivation is to take out a future rival in a humiliating manner before they become more powerful. He gave us the medicine so that there could be no doubt to his superiority should he win.

We've mentioned before that BJ seems to be a narcissist, so as Tigranes said, the best way to deal with an attention whore is simply not to give them the attention they crave.

As for C, I have a feeling that it's a red herring and it won't work. Now that we've revealed ourselves, the WiBs have figured out that we just aren't going to be baited into fighting so easily, so they'll probably just hang back and hope that BJ beats us up and forces us to do stupid shit in the future. We're unlikely to draw them out at this point because they know we're unlikely to be provoked.

You guys have convinced me, and I've flopped my original vote to AA.

 

[ScubaV]

I suspect BJ is not part of the conspiracy, or if he is, then information doesn't flow as freely as we might think. He appeared to suspect us as Zhang Jue's disciple back when we were attempting to scout Nie Mudan's sister and he so rudely interrupted us. Yet it was Guo Fu that was attacked the following night not us. And in the most recent update Brother Gan's reactions make it seem like BJ's involvement was unexpected. I'm guessing he genuinely holds noble and honorable ideals, drenched in heavy narcissism. The conspirators probably know this and thus have not involved him in their plans. All this, plus the inputs of Qilin and Cao'er are a long-winded way of me saying I think the herbs are legit.

As far as the first choice, I say let's beat Nameless and finish the tournament then kindly tell BJ to fuck off and reschedule. If the -less group has a plot then defeating her might ruin their plans. If not, and they are competing legitimately then beating her might open up a new friendly contact (or harem candidate). BJ can wait until we're ready which will only serve to infuriate him further. Yes, we'll take a reputation hit (albeit minor as treave stated), but as the current champion we should still have enough clout to go around challenging sect fighters without going through trash mobs.

Pocket Rockets (AA)

 

[treave]

treave, if we decide to duck Bai Jiutian, would the various schools be within their rights to refuse our challenge until we've beaten Bai Jiutian? Or will they still have to respect our claim as champ?

You don't actually get any rights as champion, but certain sects may refuse to give you a fight until you've settled with Bai Jiutian. Not all though.

Also, why are you guys eating the herbs if you aren't going to fight him?

 

[Esquilax]

Also, why are you guys eating the herbs if you aren't going to fight him?

It allows us to heal faster than we otherwise would for Nameless. We won't be 100% by tomorrow with the herbs, but we'll probably be in better shape than we would be without them.

I'm of two minds about fighting Nameless - I nevertheless think that we have a winning strategy against Bai Jiutian, who is our real opponent here anyways. Put all the baseless speculation of Zoroastrian Fire Cult aside, we don't know what their intentions are, and we can't be bothered to keep track of two conspiracies at once. Nameless winning does not bother me if our true target is Bai Jiutian.