[LP CYOA] 傳

[Baltika9]

The only option that I dislike is C, for two very simple reasons:
If he is really Shun's agent and will take us to him, then that is pointless bexause Shun sent us to infiltrate the pugilistic world. If he needed us on the Gestapo, he'd assign us to the Gestapo. Besides which, I doubt our skills with ripping people's hearts out will be of much help to him in a court setting.

If this guy is bullshitting and works for an enemy of Shun's, then C is pointless and extremely dangerous. Jing is an intelligent guy (props for taking the Reikan, it seems like the increased PER is giving Jing more chanxes to use his brians), but nowhere near good enough to spy on the Secret Police and get away with it. Especially if they're staffed with guys like this.

Besides which, I think that either way this guy already has a good idea of just who we are, it's just a matter of confirming now.

 

[Kipeci]

I've thought about it a bit more and I'll be voting for B. I don't think revealing that would screw our crown prince over even if this guy isn't legitimate.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I'm a call B, for now. Let him know where we stand.

 

[Anabanana]

Would it damage Shun for his enemies to know that he has agents out in the wild? Could our activities in jianghu be used against him? A bit apprehensive, but I think I'll hop on the Bandwagon too.

 

[Tigranes]

I have a queer feeling that should we go with A, we'll receive a knife in the back just as we tumble out in the smoke. At least the commotion hints that we might make it out of BDS OK, but if the agent is unhappy with us we might well find BDS actively hunting us down for the time to come. Gao Yang definitely seems ready to kill.

Impossible to tell what cause Gao Yang actually serves, he's got some kind of Righteous going on with his words but that's hardly cause for trust. But it might have to be B.

I actually think C could work - in the sense that sure, it doesn't seem great to go back to the court instaed of staying outside, but it seems to be more of a narrative arc choice should we decide we'd like to see some court stuff for a while. Seems like court business has now gotten so complicated there's a lot of stuff to be done, too. But I myself would rather stick around and work out the Changfeng business and ZJ's challenge.

 

[Nevill]

Finally! The time to introduce a new female character to drool over was long overdue.

And what a character she is! I didn't know whether to go all d'awww, or to be wary, because no one can be that clueless and wide-eyed and stay in this line of work for more than a day. And where could we have seen her? How come Jing has an idea where he had met her while I have none? Wait a minute, is she our impostor friend from that tournament night? How could even such a frail body contain a killing intent that strong? But the smoke bomb seem to imply that she may indeed be the one. Maybe we've finally met the rogue and the master of theatrics?

Either way, she is my instant new favorite!

Heh, I figure that Yu have guided the girl to us to provide us an escape route while he breaks Changfeng out. As expected of our scholar friend.

D'aww, Yunzi is getting jealous. That's adorable.

And it isn't just Yunzi that feels jealous, I do, too. How could you, Shun, how could you?! Forsaking our Tigerbro in favor of some Snaketranny, exchanging the power of raw awesomeness for some slimy intrigue and poisonous cunning. I want to scream 'Betrayal!' at the top of my lungs.

But maybe he didn't, and the man only stumbles in the dark, trying to guess our allegiance? Our name did sound familiar to him, after all, and he would compromise himself by claiming that by saying 'my prince' he meant anyone other than the crown one. His little snippet about the changing times and renewing the country, coupled with him seemingly employing the services of a bunch of slavers to do his bidding, does not make me see him in a better light.

Fuck it, A. We need some real antagonists instead of that wussy narcissist Bai Jiutian. Some smug overly-talkative slavery-abiding eunuch is never going to be our friend. For that matter, it is better not to reveal our connection, since we expect the prince to come visit us on the island some day. If Gao Ying indeed serves the crown prince, our bro will call his dog off us. If not, well... wouldn't it be a shame to reveal our deepest secret to someone who has zero bro potential and is working for our enemies?

All in all, that was one awesome update.

Edit:

but if the agent is unhappy with us we might well find BDS actively hunting us down for the time to come.

Jing is already thinking about bringing BDS down hard, by revealing their activities. There will be no hugs between us either way.

 

[Ifeex]

Leaning towards B.

 

[Baltika9]

I dunno about that, Nevill, pissing off the Gestapo seems like a retadred idea in the extreme. One would have a better chance of surviving all five Greats coming at him.

 

[Nevill]

If Gestapo works for Shun, he will take care of it. If it doesn't, I am not revealing our prince's trump card - it would be better if they didn't know we are reporting to him directly.

Actually, we can not be sure where the roots of the conspiracy lie, can we?

We have survived Zhang, we can survive this. We do not have any family to hold hostage against us.

Although... we will be travelling with Cao'er in two month's time. Damn it.

Eh, by the looks of it, B will win anyway.

 

[Azira]

I'll cast a vote for the unpopular option here. C

C>B

Yes, you've read it right. It's a conditional vote....

 

[Stygian Lurker]

B

 

[a bear named spigot]

how about keeping our mouth shut as we bail out?

 

[Nevill]

Jing can't keep his mouth shut if his life depended on it. He made a snide remark to Zhang minutes after being coerced into an apprenticeship. He is hopeless. If he is caught and thrown in a pit with hungry lions, he'd still find time to give his captors a middle finger inbetween dodging the beasts.

That's why we love him so much.

 

[Grimgravy]

A

 

[Baltika9]

If Gestapo works for Shun, he will take care of it. If it doesn't, I am not revealing our prince's trump card - it would be better if they didn't know we are reporting to him directly.

Actually, we can not be sure where the roots of the conspiracy lie, can we?

We have survived Zhang, we can survive this. We do not have any family to hold hostage against us.

Although... we will be travelling with Cao'er in two month's time. Damn it.

Eh, by the looks of it, B will win anyway.

The question isn't what this guy will do when he gets into contact with Shun, the question is "what will he do right now?" As things stand, he is a liaison for the BDS, most likely here for Changfeng, so if their stronghold is being sabotaged/attacked, he will automatically side with them. Unless, of course, another agent of Shun is already working on it, in which case he will probably let us be. I think Tigranes' sense is right, in that we may very well catch a dagger in the back (figuratively or literally speaking) if we just bail on him and let him assume Jing is screwing up Shun's plans. He reeks of fanaticism.

Jing can't keep his mouth shut if his life depended on it. He made a snide remark to Zhang minutes after being coerced into an apprenticeship. He is hopeless. If he is caught and thrown in a pit with hungry lions, he'd still find time to give his captors a middle finger inbetween dodging the beasts.

I'm pretty sure that's exactly what happened when Master Zhang tossed us to the tigers. Goddammit, why didn't we pick drunk-fighter Jing?

That's why we love him so much.

Definitely. Jing's two greatest assets are his neiggong and his swag. The dude just bullshitted some of the most dangerous men in the nation while in their territory on pure balls alone. Massive Respect.

 

[asxetos]

We are the prince's hidden ace. I dont think we should risk revealing ourselves just when we start learning what is going on in the palace between the different factions.
My best guess here is that this eunuch is having a hunch about who we really are, and is bluffing to confirm it.
Voting A.

 

[GreyViper]

He knows about slavery and probably also about the shoddy deal the Black Dragons have going on. So revealing our benefactor will make it easy for him to isolate from prince and who can say if they find him enough threat to kill him. Besides being a unknown factor/troll is better and keep them guessing and i have a feeling we want to kick his ass.

Voting A

 

[Esquilax]

For all intents and purposes, that's A, a bear named spigot. We're either a friend or a foe here, according to Gao Ying.

If he is really Shun's agent and will take us to him, then that is pointless bexause Shun sent us to infiltrate the pugilistic world. If he needed us on the Gestapo, he'd assign us to the Gestapo. Besides which, I doubt our skills with ripping people's hearts out will be of much help to him in a court setting.

If this guy is bullshitting and works for an enemy of Shun's, then C is pointless and extremely dangerous. Jing is an intelligent guy (props for taking the Reikan, it seems like the increased PER is giving Jing more chanxes to use his brians), but nowhere near good enough to spy on the Secret Police and get away with it. Especially if they're staffed with guys like this.

Besides which, I think that either way this guy already has a good idea of just who we are, it's just a matter of confirming now.

Well, Shun couldn't really assign us to the Gestapo after we'd been exiled. But still, I agree that C doesn't make much sense from our point-of-view; Shun needed an agent in the pugilistic world, he's got plenty of agents in the palace already. We're in a unique position here where we are able to dig into info among the worst of the worst in the pugilistic world, which is one of the reasons why we went unorthodox to begin with. Really, between our unique position deep in the pugilistic world and having our balls intact, I'd say that Gao Ying is jealous of us.

Nevertheless, I believe that C might be the right call here. Gao Ying knows that we aren't exactly as we seem, but he can't seem to pin down our actual allegiance. I think that even if he's lying and part of a different faction, we might be able to turn things to our advantage by infiltrating that group instead. Our reputation has proven that we're a wild, unpredictable type - we might plausibly spin the situation such that we want to be a mercenary for hire and we don't give a fuck who he serves, so long as we are rewarded.

This is just a jumble of thoughts right now - still not sure what to vote for. Imperial politics seems to be a game of Russian Roulette, you have no idea whether every person you meet could be ready to take you out.

 

[RealDDc]

"...but you have the feeling that he is staring right at you, seeing you clearly."
This alone let's me think A could be a really bad choice, Jing still in a quite bad condition and highly likely it won't be a simple escape as it may appear currently.

I don't see the point in B, beholding the same risk than A but playing in the hands of our enemies. I have no doubt that Gao does NOT work on Shun's order. Pretty much he collaborates with the Hei brothers.
This just can't be coincidence.
“How long is it until he arrives?” - “Tomorrow night.” [...] "your colleague is already here. It was a surprise to me too, but he arrived early.” [...] "convincingly enough that Hei Zuolong was almost taken in..."
Really? No.
Now if Jing was in a perfect condition, A should do good, but his reflexes won't even allow to dodge well right now.
"...In your current condition there is no way you could evade it even if you see it coming..." And here the room is full of smoke, yet Gao appears not to be affected much by that.

That leaves me with C
All options are open with C, we do not reveal anything at this point. I doubt this will grant us the chance to meet with Shun, we'll most likely accept a pact with a possible traitor but to our luck Jing isn't a pure righteous orthodox guy.

 

[Baltika9]

We are the prince's hidden ace. I dont think we should risk revealing ourselves just when we start learning what is going on in the palace between the different factions.
My best guess here is that this eunuch is having a hunch about who we really are, and is bluffing to confirm it.

Possibly, but if we run away with A, he will automatically assume we're an enemy and either attack us right on the spot through the smoke (which will probably connect, we're in a shitty physical condition right now and he can most likely see us, by Jing's own appraisal) or start actively working against us in the stronghold, and I do not want to fight against this guy right now. My main concern, now that we've sprang Changfeng from prison, is to get all of our guys out of here alive and in one piece (which includes Yunzi, Jing, Changfeng and her handmaiden and Yu, if he returned). I definitely do not want to go with this guy and abandon our Changfeng lead and skip even more time from Zhang's challenge (getting our spine pulled out from our ass doesn't sound pleasant).

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

I find it interesting that he knows Yunzi by sight...

Nevertheless, I believe that C might be the right call here. Gao Ying knows that we aren't exactly as we seem, but he can't seem to pin down our actual allegiance. I think that even if he's lying and part of a different faction, we might be able to turn things to our advantage by infiltrating that group instead. Our reputation has proven that we're a wild, unpredictable type - we might plausibly spin the situation such that we want to be a mercenary for hire and we don't give a fuck who he serves, so long as we are rewarded.

I agree.

This guy has accurately assessed that we are not as we seem. That's his whole reason for speaking with us. The choice he's offering is designed to find out who we are and whether or not we can be used. If we can't be used, he will probably try to eliminate us at some point in the future.

The question is, is he lying or telling the truth when he says he works for Shun...

A: If he's lying we gain nothing and are an annoyance to him. While he may be our enemy, I really don't think he'll prioritize eliminating us.
A: If he's telling the truth, again we gain nothing. We may warrant being investigated and captured/killed, but I hardly think we'd make a priority.
B: If he's lying, we lose big. We'll have tipped our hand and Shun's as well.
B: If he's telling the truth, we still probably won't gain an ally. If he's being truthful with us, then he has a black and white view of things. Either we are an enemy or a friend. Going half-way probably won't win too many points.
C: If he's lying, there's a chance we can infiltrate Shun's enemies.
C: If he's telling the truth, we'll have an ally, we won't have to reveal we work for Shun, and we may even be able to meet Shun again.

C seems the most likely to further our mission without risking our identity. B puts too much on the line for too little reward and A is just running away.

C>A

 

[asxetos]

I agree that changfeng will be having some answers.
These are some tough choices...
I am all for A or B. C will take the LP in a totally new direction (maybe better, probably worse) where we are cut off from the rest of the gang for quite some time.
B might work because he cant really trust that we tell the truth and it will give us some precious seconds to escape.
I will probably flop tomorrow.

 

[Baltika9]

C: If he's lying, there's a chance we can infiltrate Shun's enemies.
C: If he's telling the truth, we'll have an ally, we won't have to reveal we work for Shun, and we may even be able to meet Shun again.

There is a flipside to this: if he is lying in C, then we will be trying to spy on a secretive faction of the Secret Police. A thing that will take us a lot of time and effort, and something that has a very high chance of killing us, even higher than Master Zhang if we neglect his assignment.
If he is telling the truth, however, we will probably get dragged around by him through the Gestapo's corridors and "induced" into the Secret Police, which will take time, or until we drop Shun's name, at which point it will already be too late to meet up with our friends. I'm pretty sure that if we go with him instead of our companions, they will take that as a betrayal because they do not know the full story. Good luck reuniting with Changfeng and Yu then, not to mention screwing with the Fire Cult and the Pugilists.

Well, Shun couldn't really assign us to the Gestapo after we'd been exiled.

I'm sure the Secret Police has a way of making unwanted people disappear and forging false identities.

Bottom line is guys, we are needed in the pugilistic world and we have been doing decently so far, if skimming our duties a little bit, and doing a complete one-eighty to enlist with the secret police or go back to the courts is dumb. We would be spreading our attention way too thin, between Shun's original task, Zhang's challenge and now this new thing, that we probably won't be able to succeed with all of them. And if we accept his offer, then there will be no going back. This man is a professional killer and hunter, and extremely intelligent and perceptive to boot. If we willignly go with him, there will be no escape for a while, especially not in our condition.

 

[Kipeci]

B > A. Bros, you do recall that we're not allowed to return to the palace on pain of death, right?

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Baltika makes some good points. I'd really like Jing to remain a free agent. I'll consider flopping to A, but not B. Agian, high risk, low reward.