[LP CYOA] 傳

[Tigranes]

Wont it help against N even if full effects arent felt till then? BJ wont say, give it back.

 

[treave]

It won't have enough noticeable effect to make a difference during the finals between taking and not taking it, but feel free to ingest it for other reasons I guess.

 

[Grimgravy]

I wouldn't mind skipping the dual with the guy in white. Of course, I'd like to kick his ass. Tough choice here. I'm torn. If we go with B, we ought to forfeit the match with Nameless. That doesn't sit well, but both fights may be pushing ourselves too far.
AA
Oh well, one fight at a time.

 

[ScubaV]

It won't have enough noticeable effect to make a difference during the finals between taking and not taking it, but feel free to ingest it for other reasons I guess.

Well in true Codexian fashion, we can always change our minds and fight him anyway in two days.

 

[Kipeci]

Wait, is Qilin recovered from her bout against Nameless?

 

[treave]

Yes, but why do you ask that?

 

[Esquilax]

Well in true Codexian fashion, we can always change our minds and fight him anyway in two days.

The last thing I want is to fuck up over some ridiculously inconsistent flip-flopping choice. Well, we're pretty sure that the medicine is legit, so let's assume that there's no trickery on that matter on BJ's part. So how do we go about beating him? I have some ideas:

Apparently there was no match at all. The both of them had gone up on stage, and Shapeless had surrendered immediately, to loud boos from the audience.

Tomorrow, we surrender to Nameless, forfeiting the tournament. Surrendering avoids the potential of of having our body banged up before the big fight against Bai Jiutian, which is what we're really after. Of course, in this scenario, we would ask for tips from Murong Yandi, who came here specifically to fight BJ in the first place. We had a glimpse of his style prior to the individual matches, perhaps with what we already know of his techniques and sword qi, Yandi can teach us a possible counter that he theorized to one of BJ's signature Huashan moves. Anyways, we need to get Yandi's help now, because there's no telling if that's going to be an option tomorrow - we need to take every opportunity that we can get.

Tomorrow, we can also seek out the aid of one of the Masters - I think that we should remember that these people wanted to see us win against BJ, and they could impart some knowledge to us before the fight:

“You’ve brought the most fun to the tournament in years. I am glad I decided to visit this time around. Usually we don’t bother. Too many years of that insufferably uptight Huashan prig winning. I swear, he and his master are cut from the same cloth.”
...
The Abbot laughs when he hears your question. “Never trust a guy so clean that his clothes shine. We don't get to live to our age without learning that. Unfortunately, we can’t interfere directly with other sects, or I’d give that Bai Jiutian a spanking to loosen his spine a bit.”

“Perhaps I can give it on your behalf,” you offer with a sly grin.

“Oh?” Fangzhang’s eyes gleam. “Now that would be interesting to watch.”

As for the demands we want to make of BJ should we win the fight, I have a good idea: he must share with us a Huashan-exclusive sword technique publicly. This puts him in deep shit with his sect and embarrasses them because now Zhang's apprentice knows one of their exclusive moves. I think that's fitting payback, don't you? We forfeit the prize from the tournament for the potential of getting a different prize from Bai Jiutian, against his will.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

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

Because we're hurt and Theseus--er, Naim--uh, I mean BJ is a dick.

edit:

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

Because we're hurt and Theseus--er, Naim--uh, I mean BJ is a dick.

Gahaha! Wait...did I just quote myself? Yes. Yes, I did.

 

[Baltika9]

It seems AA has all but taken this one. Good points with 1A, it keeps our options open and we'll be able to decide what to do when we defeat Nameless (really, getting intel on her and then forfeiting is dumb), we'll see what goes down later (I'm sure the whole Frathouse already placed bets on the fights, even Miecao ). Trolling him is cool, yeah, but beating him at his own game, handicapped, is the stuff worthy of Legend(s). It'll be fun to read, plan for and execute. Most of all, I'm pretty confident we can do it if we play our cards right. Fights like these is what Jing was born for.
And the definite skill up we'll gain from defeating Jiutian under those circumstances will be pretty nice too. Perhaps our Inner Chaos will get a level up, or some kind of form (damn I want "fists of thunder.")

 

[Kipeci]

Yes, but why do you ask that?

Well, it's been about a day since her match with Nameless. If she's recovered by now, then it's not likely that our combat against Nameless is going to ruin our shape in a potential fight against our prestigious rival and thus we shouldn't surrender at the start of the match and we must try to win our prize.

 

[Esquilax]

Well, it's been about a day since her match with Nameless. If she's recovered by now, then it's not likely that our combat against Nameless is going to ruin our shape in a potential fight against our prestigious rival and thus we shouldn't surrender at the start of the match and we must try to win our prize.

Qilin had never really had the intention of beating Nameless. She was just in the competition to test out her poisons. Once she accomplished her goals, she gave a half-hearted go at the match and lost without really exerting herself. This won't be the case with us, since we'll be going all out on an opponent that is about as skilled as Yifang and has a powerful neigong without yet being fully recovered.

Bros, it just occurred to me, if we are intending to just beat Nameless without going after BJ afterwards, we must not take the medicine. It isn't because it's poisoned or anything like that, but rather because if we take it, BJ can spin the situation and argue that we're ducking him. However, if we say that we're hurt, and return the rare and expensive medicine that he's given us, we have grounds to reschedule without losing face due to injury. We can't do that if we've already taken the medicine.

The medicine provides no benefit for tomorrow's match, so we don't need to take it. We gain info on Nameless through Qilin, then after winning, we can return the herbs to BJ, saying that we don't trust it and that we're injured anyways. It'll allow us to avoid the fight without losing as much face as we would if we had taken the medicine.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Hm, that's a fair point. Before I was operating under the assumption that the medicine would help us in our fight against Nameless, however if this is not the case, then I see no point in voting for the medicine. I'll flop, but will flop back if there's any evidence to suggest the medicine will help us with tomorrow's fight.

 

[Esquilax]

Hm, that's a fair point. Before I was operating under the assumption that the medicine would help us in our fight against Nameless, however if this is not the case, then I see no point in voting for the medicine. I'll flop, but will flop back if there's any evidence to suggest the medicine will help us with tomorrow's fight.

According to treave, it won't make an impact on tomorrow's fight:

It won't have enough noticeable effect to make a difference during the finals between taking and not taking it, but feel free to ingest it for other reasons I guess.

If we don't intend to fight BJ just now (and it's looking like most voters aren't) then we should simply return the medicine to him after tomorrow's finals. Ignore his silly challenge, we've got better shit to do. He told us that the medicine requires two days to heal us up, so giving the medicine back is proof that we won't be back at 100% when it's time to fight him. We can just say that we don't trust him to give us something that isn't spiked when he threw such ridiculous terms at us. It isn't perfect, but it's a fuck of a lot better than "I took the medicine but I dun wanna fight lol"

If you don't want to fight, you have to make the matchup seem a lot less compelling. There is nothing compelling about BJ defeating an injured Xu Jing and making him get on his knees to issue out a bullshit apology. It's a hollow victory, and that gives us an out.

 

[Kayerts]

Esquilax makes good points; flopping to AB.

 

[Nevill]

If we want to infuriate him further - why not go all the way?

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.

And if he is not a part of the conspiracy (though I still suspect he is - it is Yu Gan that was being used here unwittingly), then WiB might make an independent move after the tournament. A healed arm is better than a broken one.

Ah, fine, flopping to AB. I don't plan on fighting this guy soon anyway. Though how can a herb heal a broken arm completely in 36 hours, yet have no noticeable effect in 12, I will never know.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Hm, that's a fair point. Before I was operating under the assumption that the medicine would help us in our fight against Nameless, however if this is not the case, then I see no point in voting for the medicine. I'll flop, but will flop back if there's any evidence to suggest the medicine will help us with tomorrow's fight.

According to treave, it won't make an impact on tomorrow's fight:

It won't have enough noticeable effect to make a difference during the finals between taking and not taking it, but feel free to ingest it for other reasons I guess.

If we don't intend to fight BJ just now (and it's looking like most voters aren't) then we should simply return the medicine to him after tomorrow's finals. Ignore his silly challenge, we've got better shit to do. He told us that the medicine requires two days to heal us up, so giving the medicine back is proof that we won't be back at 100% when it's time to fight him. We can just say that we don't trust him to give us something that isn't spiked when he threw such ridiculous terms at us. It isn't perfect, but it's a fuck of a lot better than "I took the medicine but I dun wanna fight lol"

If you don't want to fight, you have to make the matchup seem a lot less compelling. There is nothing compelling about BJ defeating an injured Xu Jing and making him get on his knees to issue out a bullshit apology. It's a hollow victory, and that gives us an out.

It does of course have its disadvantages. For instance, the Whore Conspiracy attacking us after we've fought Nameless (More likely they'll try kidnapping one of our bros, hoping to enrage us). And if they don't act, then we may well have enough time to prepare for Bai anyway and we won't be able to fight him if we haven't taken the herbs. Still, I think it's the right thing to do if we aren't intending to fight Bai.

 

[Esquilax]

If we want to infuriate him further - why not go all the way?

What's more infuriating than insinuating that he would poison us to win the match? It's going to drive him fucking crazy.

The misgivings you have about the WiB could happen, but I think Guo Fu will be coming back for the finals:

The Grand Taoist had mysteriously vanished before Wu Jin could obtain permission from him, but in the end he had managed to get confirmation from a senior Wudang disciple on the committee. Guo Fu promised that he would drop by later, however.

Even though he's tied to his sect, the big man might still want to look after us. He probably doesn't care at all that we're Zhang Jue's apprentice, if he even knows who Zhang is. In any case, I think that the conspiracy is going to have to rely on more subtle means to draw us out than before. We still have our mask, and other than the suspicions that BJ (who I don't even think is part of the conspiracy) that we're Guan Shide, nobody who is connected can tie our masked identity to our face.

 

[treave]

Though how can a herb heal a broken arm completely in 36 hours, yet have no noticeable effect in 12, I will never know.

Because instead of your recovery rate being something nice like:

Or even something reasonable like:

It's more of something like:

 

[Ganymede]

Wait, why duck Bai Jiutan? If the medicine puts you back in ship shape and if Nameless does no lasting damage (big ifs for sure) then this is an opportunity to take him down in the most definitive manner possible. Not to mention all the hilarious demands Jing might make when/if he wins.

 

[Esquilax]

Wait, why duck Bai Jiutan? If the medicine puts you back in ship shape and if Nameless does no lasting damage (big ifs for sure) then this is an opportunity to take him down in the most definitive manner possible. Not to mention all the hilarious demands Jing might make when/if he wins.

Because it's reasonable to pick one goal and stick to it. Trying to do everything at once seems like it could backfire. If you want to fight Bai Jiutian, then there is a path there that can lead us to victory, and that's BA. Why would you fight Bai Jiutian with that level of humiliation at stake and spend the time we could be learning about him studying up on Nameless

We would need Yandi's tips to help us out there, because he came here for the express purpose of fighting BJ. The Sword Saint trained Yandi, so it's safe to say that the man knows a lot about how to defeat Huashan techniques. The Shaolin manual that we'd gain from defeating Nameless wouldn't be very helpful to us because it's not like we could become a monster in the technique a night before the match with BJ. I suppose the Abbot might be willing to give us a little cram session on it in private, especially since he wants to see us wipe the shit-eating grin from BJ's face, but that still doesn't show us how we'd actually go about countering BJ's actual techniques and abilities.

Another option would be to ask Yiling for tips, since she apparently almost beat him last year. Hopefully she hates that smarmy little shit more than she hates us and just wants to see the fucker go down.

Thing is, Jing absolutely has to win both fights. Whatever insidious plot is served by having Nameless take the tournament cannot be allowed to come to fruition. That is assuming of course that Nameless actually plans to win the tournament, and that she is affiliated with the WiB conspiracy. But more paranoid speculation is useless at this point. The -less trio are dodgy foreign devils and they have to be stopped. I like to think that if it came down to it, Jing would swallow his pride and suffer the depredations of Bai Jiutan, Zhang Jue and all the rest if it meant saving the day, but with the way the votes are going that clearly isn't the case and fair enough. Fuck begging forgiveness from that twerp.

All of the evidence that we have suggests that the -less trio and the conspiracy taking place here are completely unrelated:

“I said her style was Persian, but now I can be a bit more specific. Her martial arts hail from a particular group… a Zoroastrian fire cult. They have been making inroads into the Central Plains for a while, but the Eight Sects probably don’t know about them just yet. My uncle has had dealings with this particular cult in the past. That’s all I can tell you about. The rest are family secrets,”
...
“You are a brave fighter, little Tujue girl. I came searching for the boy prince but found something more fun,” says the person - no, woman - in black. She is advancing upon Yunzi now, talking in Han - she is definitely from the Central Plains and not a Tujue tribesperson.

The Persians are shady, but this conspiracy seems to be homegrown. Also, it is important to note that the group associated with the Woman-in-Black seems to be all-female, but we know that Shapeless is male. It doesn't seem to be the case that they would know a technique like the Yuhua Duqing Palm, either. All the evidence points to them being an entirely separate group that's unrelated to the conspiracy.

Trying to defeat Nameless (which isn't even part of the challenge), then come into a fight against Bai Jiutian without the proper preparation seems like a disaster waiting to happen. That's why I feel that the options that work best are either AB or BA. With AB, you fight, and hopefully beat, Nameless, then you refuse to fight BJ on the grounds that you never accept a "gift" from an opponent that wants to humiliate you - allowing us to get away from the challenge without losing too much respect. We then gather our strength so we can fight him later. With BA, you put all your focus on BJ and you really prepare to take him out.

That being said, I suppose it is possible to win against Nameless and BJ, it's just significantly harder. I just think that there's a lot at stake and I'd rather not do everything at once and fuck up horribly at the end.

 

[Zero Credibility]

So it looks like people are voting AA. Now AB I can see, win the tournament and delay the fight against BJ until we are ready. Medicine won't help us much anyway for tomorrow, and we can use our broken arm to delay BJ's challenge, which we will need to to prepare against him. BA I can see as well, we forget about the tournament and concentrate solely on BJ to have the best chances to take him out right now. But I don't see the point in voting for AA because it's a little of both - we don't concentrate on learning something about BJ but we do take the medicine so we will have more difficult time ducking out of his challenge. It looks like we want both, to win the tournament and to take him on the next day, and that I fear is not going to end well.

edit: Updated my vote.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

AB - cuz trieve made me flop w logic & graphs...

 

[Esquilax]

I've made a tally:

Zero Credibility - BA>AB
Nevill - AB
Ifeex - AA>BA
XenomorphII - AA
Kashmir Slippers - BA
Ganymede - AA
Esquilax - BA
Kayerts - AB
Baltika9 - AB
asxetos - AA
Smashing Axe - AB > AA
ScubaV - AB
Azira - BA
Jester - BA
Kipeci - AB
Omicron - BA
Tigranes - AB
The Brazilian Slaughter - AB
Stygian Lurker - AA
Lambchop19 - AB
ERFYKRAD - AB>CB
TOME - AB
Absinthe - AB

1. A = 17 B = 6
2. A = 9 B = 14

After having thought about it, we really should stop being paranoid about the Persians. They are probably up to no good, but they are a red herring and are irrelevant to either the Prince's mission or to Master Zhang's mission. As a result, they are just static and we can't get too caught up in what they're doing.

As a result, the smart play here is either to focus on beating Nameless while allowing ourselves a way to avoid fighting BJ without losing face, or to forfeit the finals so that we might gain respect and glory by defeating the greatest pugilist of our generation. From there, every single sect out there would have to obey us when we come knocking. BA seems to be extremely in-character for our high-risk, competitive Xu Jing who relishes the chance to test himself as well.

But AA is stupid and spreads us far too thin. It denies us a head start on learning about Bai Jiutian, while at the same time it denies us the opportunity to leave the tournament gracefully so that we can fight BJ later. Either you focus on defeating Nameless and acquiring the technique so that you can face BJ later, or you go for the glory and take him out right here, right now. But doing both at the same time will fuck us badly.

Edit: I've tagged some of you bros in case you wish to flop, provided you don't like AA in light of the fact that the medicine won't make us in better shape for tomorrow's fight.

 

[Azira]

I've flopped.. If that medicine is truly so effective that we'll be at 100% after the fight with Nameless, even if we don't win, then I want to beat that cocky swordsman into submission.

 

[Esquilax]

I've flopped.. If that medicine is truly so effective that we'll be at 100% after the fight with Nameless, even if we don't win, then I want to beat that cocky swordsman into submission.

Well, I think that depends entirely on how much we exert ourselves. If we just surrender in the finals to ensure that we're tip-top against BJ, then we'll be 100%. If we have another round that's reminiscent of Guo Fu vs Man Tiger Pig, then we're in deep shit. There's plenty of ways to fuck up BA as well: if we have another incredibly grueling fight and show up at say, 60% against BJ, then it might not matter how much knowledge we have on his style if we can't execute things properly. What I will say is that Cao'er's insane recall and Qilin's first-hand experience would make the Nameless fight a whole lot easier. And the Abbot seems quite eager to have us beat Bai Jiutian, so he might give us an awesome crash-course on the Shaolin manual, should we defeat Nameless.

I want to emphasize that none of these choices are mutually exclusive, so victory does seem possible with AA. I just think that with the stakes so high against Bai Jiutian, I don't want to take him lightly at all. You have to get whatever help you can if you want to beat him, and I can't justify ignoring a chance to get an edge on him if we're really set on beating him to establish our rep.

Really, if we make it our goal to beat Bai Jiutian and stake our claim as the finest pugilist of our generation, then that must be the focus of all that we do over the next few days. Plans can change over time, but this one should not.

Flopping to BA, because I want to beat this fuck's head in too. Take a dive tomorrow, rest up, beat his ass.