[LP CYOA] Epic

[Kipeci]

Thing is, we've already gone full balls-to-the wall.

Yes, and it failed. Let's get over it and move on. We're still alive, we still have most of our limbs, we haven't burned all of our bridges (only most of them). Let's not throw anything more into the sunk-cost pit out of blind reaction.

Now is not the time to stop and go sit in the corner, but to take our destiny in our own hands.

What is your view of 'our destiny', anyway? If it gets back to being supreme ruler of the world, I don't want any part of it. I was fine with potentially gaining power as Kyrie's wife under the assumption that she would do the politics while we could do literally anything else, we always get bogged down in micromanagement and it just isn't as good as it was before. Now that she's gone, I just don't see any reason to go for the gold. Our time in the spotlight is behind us, the world hates us for the moment, and a terrorist campaign isn't going to make anything any better. Let's be dignified as we pass from the world stage and maybe, maybe, we can make a reasoned comeback later. I would vastly prefer us to be some sort of Cincinnatus figure compelled to take power by others rather than a conniving bastard blowing up things to launch themselves into power, if we do have to gravitate towards that role.

Senya, Kyrie, Erika, Rei...all of them were being played from the very beginning by forces we (Senya) can't comprehend yet. And it is clear Shulgi is one of them, so going back into our gilded cage to be surveyed and toyed with at his leisure doesn't seem all that good.

So clearly, the best way to react to these incomprehensible forces that have ground us into the dust is to intentionally continue to piss them off and start a petty campaign of terror because we're angry and feel like we can't do anything. For the record, I don't care about being 'surveyed and toyed with', that would be a welcome change of pace from this leaping to confrontation after confrontation. I would definitely have preferred being locked up in some lab to what just happened. But I'd be inclined to think that Shulgi wouldn't be popping in to screw with us, considering how this most recent meeting went.

Yes, B will be violent, it will be ugly, but that's what the world needs right now. Too many assholes decided they can wantonly shit on this planet and toy with lives at their whim.
It's time to clean up the motherfucking house.

Clearly, we must help the world by bombing it! Because that's what it needs more of. We need to be a part of the solution, not the problem... maybe with A we can figure out a solution, maybe not, but B helps no-one except our blind rage to just strike out at someone.

We need time to think this over, guys. I know you're pissed at this result, so am I, but we're not going to get anywhere constructive with B.

 

[Baltika9]

Thing is, we've already gone full balls-to-the wall.

Yes, and it failed. Let's get over it and move on. We're still alive, we still have most of our limbs, we haven't burned all of our bridges (only most of them). Let's not throw anything more into the sunk-cost pit out of blind reaction.

The thing about our contacts: I doubt Azo will give us too much leeway to go about as we please and do what we want.

So clearly, the best way to react to these incomprehensible forces that have ground us into the dust is to intentionally continue to piss them off and start a petty campaign of terror because we're angry and feel like we can't do anything. For the record, I don't care about being 'surveyed and toyed with', that would be a welcome change of pace from this leaping to confrontation after confrontation. I would definitely have preferred being locked up in some lab to what just happened. But I'd be inclined to think that Shulgi wouldn't be popping in to screw with us, considering how this most recent meeting went.

You want to simmer down? Good, that's what I want to do as well. However, getting out of one web of intrigue and jumping into another doesn't seem all too smart to me. Right now, we're off the grid as we'll ever be, let's capitalize on that.

Clearly, we must help the world by bombing it! Because that's what it needs more of. We need to be a part of the solution, not the problem... maybe with A we can figure out a solution, maybe not, but B helps no-one except our blind rage to just strike out at someone.

We need time to think this over, guys. I know you're pissed at this result, so am I, but we're not going to get anywhere constructive with B.

I... never actually said that (The Punisher screenshot was there for flavor); this situation allows us to disappear and go do our own thing, on our own terms, without jumping to anyone's tune for now, and we have a shitload of stuff on our backburner: investigating the Cult, finding our sister, unraveling the intrigue. Yeah, Senya's pissed right now, the boy will calm down and start to think rationally. We already established his character (suicidally saving the world precludes us from being a bad guy for now, y'know?), he won't go to war on innocent people (not like we'll let him), but what we can do is steer his energy and anger in a more-or-less productive direction and start raking through the seedy underbelly of the world, on our terms and forge our own destiny. Overlord, guardianship, just some random bloke? Who knows, we'll decide that when we'll get there.

Right now, Senya is off the grid as he'll ever be and we can take advantage of that. Besides, Senya's a sharp fella if nothing else

“I think you have something else in mind. This is not why you are here.”

Suddenly, Shulgi sneers, his rough, easy-going mannerisms fading away from his face, replaced by a cold mask that looks entirely out of place on that rugged mug.

“Perhaps I do, young Senya. Who knows what I am thinking? My advice and offer still stands – go home. I will arrange for everything from now on.”

“You know,” he continues, when I fail to respond. “It is only now that I truly understand why Saeko threw you away and tried to have you killed. You really are useless. A reject. A freak with more brains than it has muscle to back it up. You somehow managed to fail to grasp every single chance I offered you. I am, however, more kind than your mother. I will give you the chance to have a good life, even though you are a miserable failure.”

“Are you taunting me?” I ask quietly.

“Oh? You think I came here to laugh at you?”

“It seems like it. If you want to provoke me into doing something, this is the entirely wrong way about it.”

A smile spreads across his face, creasing the scars.

“You may think what you wish. I have no answers for you. I merely came here with my offer. If you want to accept it, there will be a plane waiting for you tomorrow at Akka’s airport.”

and I think he's right here. Shulgi is, plausibly, testing for what we're made of.

only...i think we can? smashing axe pretty much outlined a very reasonable and shulgi-like understanding of shit's going down a few posts ago, and it seems fairly standard fare: shulgi wants this war for revolutionary leaps on technology or whatever to protect us from the star gods possible future threats and other cunts are cashing in on it.

Perhaps, we'll see.

 

[Kipeci]

Baltika, what makes you think 'There will be no more holding back... To create, you must first destroy. I'll carve out my own path in this world' means 'simmering down' and being off the grid?

 

[Baltika9]

Baltika, what makes you think 'There will be no more holding back... To create, you must first destroy. I'll carve out my own path in this world' means 'simmering down' and being off the grid?

The fact that we aren't on the grid right now and the fact that Senya has had his moral compass corrected by us. He'll cool down eventually. And that "carve out my own path" thing goes both ways, it can be done for good, or not-so-good.
Besides, it's not like he's going to spring into action and go pull off a "9/11" a month after preventing one, at the cost of limb and wound; we'll get to plan, we'll get to decide and steer his energy. And whomever he hurts and fucks over, well, the planet will be better off for it, no?

 

[m4davis]

B

 

[Tigranes]

Shulgi is very clearly taunting us, it's not like him to insult us in such a straightforward manner as if he was the Empress. I don't think B will make him bay for our blood, though he might begin to think of us as a necessary loss.

My main concern is what we will actually do. I'd vote A if there's any chance Kyrie is not yet dead, but since for now we must assume she is, there's really not a lot we can capitalise on in the Shinar Empire / military side of things. If we ever got back into contact with Grimrock or even Naim, maybe. The thing is, we've seen already in the escape sequence that people who remember us on the Anhur are willing to help us out, but we're as likely to leverage / contact them through A as much as B.

B for now, I'm not even sure what A will mean at the moment besides house arrest.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Was it an open casket funeral?

 

[Kipeci]

See, when option B is saying things like 'If the Empress is keen to paint me as a terrorist, she'll get her wish' and your fellow voters for B are making remarks like 'i also hope this a nice opportunity for senya's descent into evil and resentful cruelty', it just doesn't look like B is going to lead Senya to being a particularly good guy. I still don't care for the option even if we manage to warp it into some kind of moral crusader who only blows up administrative offices for good somehow.

If you want Senya to calm down and start to work from the ground up in a more subtle, productive way, I just don't see why you'd choose the option of becoming the terrorist we've been slandered as and blowing up things instead of the option that's explicitly finding a nice quiet and safe place from which we could easily make future plans.

 

[treave]

Was it an open casket funeral?

It is. In fact, if you have the guts you could try to sneak into Ankida to visit your princess one last time (option B, obviously... or rather, an option B where you pretend to take option A then hijack the plane). The body will be lying in state for three days starting today, you could possibly make it on the last day before the funeral parade begins.

edit: Let's make that option C.

edit2: I know B sounded a bit extremely villainous, but bear in mind that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, so to speak.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Voting C. If in our enhanced state of perception we thought the princess would survive the wound, we can assume it was an outside force that killed her, if she is in fact dead. So let's go with C.

Also, seems like Shulgi's regressed a bit since we last saw him.

 

[Baltika9]

If you want Senya to calm down and start to work from the ground up in a more subtle, productive way, I just don't see why you'd choose the option of becoming the terrorist we've been slandered as and blowing up things instead of the option that's explicitly finding a nice quiet and safe place from which we could easily make future plans.

"When the Law breaks the law, there is no law." The "good guys" aren't on our side, playing fair will just put us in a position where they can reach us, one way or another. When the Law is the enemy, you can't play fair and expect to win.

Although that C option is looking mighty tempting.

Edit:

Also, seems like Shulgi's regressed a bit since we last saw him.

A lack of people to keep you on your toes will do that. He's grown comfortable. I say we shake him up a bit, eh?

 

[Kipeci]

"When the Law breaks the law, there is no law." The "good guys" aren't on our side, playing fair will just put us in a position where they can reach us, one way or another. When the Law is the enemy, you can't play fair and expect to win.

Great. What is your plan to dismantle the state? Since B hinges on you actually being able to topple the government, do you have a plan to actually make that happen, considering how we are one person with verging on zero contacts now that our friends are likely to have been liquidated or pushed away by our rebellion when we start blowing things up? Or are you just hoping that treave will do all the hard work of having Senya come up with the perfect plan to be a terrorist without actually causing any terror to anyone who isn't in the highest levels of government?

While I don't really like C, it's at least somewhat lulzier than plowing headlong into grimdark. I'll flop to C if no one else votes for A.

 

[Baltika9]

Who said I wanted to topple the governments? You're overreacting, bro (bombing administrative buildings, what are you, an amateur?)
Senya's beef isn't with them, not really, it's with the people behind the scenes that are orchestrating all of this. Our first lead? Rei and the cult: let's settle on finding out our origins and getting our lil' sis back on our side and then we'll take it form there. For instance, the White Fangs are with Shulgi, so they can be a possible lead on this crap. The Empress and Emperor, too, we still have security teams that respect us and can help us in the same way

There’s a technician inside, a fearful look on his face. I’m about to threaten him to unlock the frame’s controls for me, but he just salutes and taps a few buttons to do what I was about to ask for. Seeing my puzzlement, he tells me, “I served on the Kalai, Ensign.” before he leaps into the elevator.

We're not as toothless as you think.

Although it's now a moot point, since I'm flopping to C, how can I forego Senya's tragic love?
Will flop back to B if A will be winning, though.

 

[Tigranes]

The fact that treave's offering it as an option C means there is information to be found there, even if it is the obvious kind (i.e. Empress did it).

Flop to C then let's see how the voting goes.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Flopped to C.

 

[Kipeci]

Who said I wanted to topple the governments? You're overreacting, bro (bombing administrative buildings, what are you, an amateur?)

I was going to give an incredibly caustic reply before I looked back and realized that I'd been arguing against some sort of straw man, since I can't find anything about you actually calling for anything to be destroyed aside from the post about cleaning up the house.
I'm still confused as to what you're actually suggesting we should do, though, so please bear with me for a moment as I get a little at this time of night.

For the moment, you just want to hook up with the people we knew beforehand and see if we can build ties with them, like with our sister and the crew of the Kaguya-hime, and not so much on the path-carving, terrorism, etc. From there, we can build plans to eventually exact vengeance on the empress.

Treave, is there any chance I could get more of a clarification on what you mean with the approach of option B? I envisioned it as essentially going straight to causing terror in presumably similar ways to what you've floated past before (probably more along the lines of the Yua path through high school on a grander scale rather than just bombing random places) whereas A was more of a chance to take a breather for now to plan for later goals and potentially pursue a similar sort of course to that which Baltika is suggesting.

 

[treave]

It's like you guys don't even consider the possibility of getting caught.

edit: You'd lay low for a while, pinpointing all the new hotspots in the world. Then you get to pick from one of those amateur organizations, or perhaps a fragment of the cult, which is in trouble itself, to hijack to your own ends. The approach will be entirely up to you - when Senya says that the Empress will get her wish, it means that he will use his newfound notoriety against her, since this will give him no small amount of street cred in the seedy underbelly of the world.

A will have less freedom involved, but there will be opportunities you can take, primarily striking against whatever is left of the cult on the ground, and the possibility of undertaking wetworks for Azo.

 

[Esquilax]

Baltika9 has not made a lick of sense over the past page, so he's done a stellar job in convincing me to vote A. Why the fuck is it so necessary to pick the most insane option available every single time?

 

[Baltika9]

It's like you guys don't even consider the possibility of getting caught.

That is no obstacle for TRUE LOVE (Senya's necrophiliac boner)!!!

A will have less freedom involved, but there will be opportunities you can take, primarily striking against whatever is left of the cult on the ground, and the possibility of undertaking wetworks for Azo.

And that is exactly why I'm voting against it.

 

[treave]

Well, that doesn't mean you won't have the opportunity to break free, or turn the tables on your observers. In fact, you might have a more epic time of it when you finally plot your way out of under their surveillance.

 

[Esquilax]

A will have less freedom involved, but there will be opportunities you can take, primarily striking against whatever is left of the cult on the ground, and the possibility of undertaking wetworks for Azo.

And that is exactly why I'm voting against it.

Where is this bullshit pride coming from? This is such utter fucking nonsense - what about the long-term? Taking Kyrie hostage wasn't exactly the smartest idea, but hey, fuck it, let's dig ourselves deeper! There are times when the bold move is the right way to go, and there are times when you need to pull back, weigh your options and consolidate. This is time to do the latter, yet you're still persisting in going for a clearly terrible course of action because "FREEDUM!!!"

Our back is up against the wall, and at this point, our best option is to swallow our pride and take a long-view of things instead of going for the most risky, idiotic thing we possibly can.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

It's like you guys don't even consider the possibility of getting caught.

Fuck that. We don't need to consider. We. Have. Balls. We have more balls than we do sense and that's why we'll win.

Seriously though, how can we pass up the chance at more info? The Masters ARE coming. We need to be proactive rather than wasting time working as someone else' tool in Higashi or even pointlessly dicking around as a terrorist on our own. Information is what we need. We need to see clearly so we can strike our enemies weak points. That's Senya's strength after all.

 

[Baltika9]

Well, that doesn't mean you won't have the opportunity to break free, or turn the tables on your observers. In fact, you might have a more epic time of it when you finally plot your way out of under their surveillance.

While we could be using the time to pursue much more important things in the meanwhile. I mean, why would we want to dance to Azo's tune? Are there any cool toys involved that we can't procure by ourselves with some cash?

Why the fuck is it so necessary to pick the most insane option available every single time?

Where is this bullshit pride coming from? This is such utter fucking nonsense - what about the long-term? Taking Kyrie hostage wasn't exactly the smartest idea, but hey, fuck it, let's dig ourselves deeper! There are times when the bold move is the right way to go, and there are times when you need to pull back, weigh your options and consolidate. This is time to do the latter, yet you're still persisting in going for a clearly terrible course of action because "FREEDUM!!!"

Our back is up against the wall, and at this point, our best option is to swallow our pride and take a long-view of things instead of going for the most risky, idiotic thing we possibly can.

It's not about the "most insane option," it's just that when I'm faced with a choice to do our thing our way, or to do it someone else's way, I'll pick the former. I's not about pride or any of that hooplah, E, it's about not having our time wasted. Didn't we have enough of being played by people who have anything but our interests at heart?

I mean, hey, look at Senya: we took him from being a goddamned wallflower to a hard-ass with balls of steel, IQ of a genius, a heart of gold and an all-around scrapper. He's got what it takes to make it by himself, we have options and we're not as fucked as you think. The AI is rebuildable, we have people sympathetic to us, we just got an upgrade to our powers and the fact that our records were wiped just gives us career prospects.

 

[treave]

I've had to modify his character to rationalize the wacky choices somewhat, I admit. Particularly the insane risk-taking fetish. Going to explain that away as Kyrie's volatile influence. Two crazies driving each other to ever greater heights.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Eh, we may have stretched his character a bit, true. Thing is, we were bound to do that the moment we skipped the cult. That would have been the thoughtful, deceptive choice (with a hint of pragmatism, if you ignore the fact that we knew the cult was obviously anti-empire ever since Keiko saved our life...). Once we started on our quest for glory and then our quest for MEGAGLORY we sort of cast off any notions of not being a(n) hero/semi-idealist.