[LP CYOA] Epic

[GreyViper]

B2

 

[treave]

“I already found out about that some time ago. I haven't been idle, you know – I've been looking for her all this time. Naim, if we work together, we can help rescue her.” My voice is calm and steady in my request for his aid, but a sudden, wild panic floats into Naim's eyes.

“I should've known,” he gasps. “He was right.”

“Who was right?”

Naim does not respond. Suddenly aware of danger, I activate my ability. Only then do I notice the bulge under his coat. I try to take a step away but it is too late. Caught flat-footed, I am unable to dodge a bullet. A shot rings out. I feel a sharp pain in my chest as the bullet penetrates my lung; he had fired from under his blazer. My tendrils swarm to life, but not before another shot grazes my heart. This isn't good. My fingers start trembling uncontrollably as life bleeds from me. I weaken rapidly; my concentration slips as I stumble backwards, Naim pulling the trigger again, and again, and again, an anguished expression on his face. The front of my suit is already soaked with dark red, my blood spattered all over the wooden tiles of the washroom's floor. That's... going to be a bitch to clean. Ah. Maybe... I should have enhanced my tendrils for protection. I cough up flecks of spittle and blood. My consciousness is starting to fade.

“He said you would stop at nothing to get her back, that you were already plotting to do so. I didn't want to believe him, but you confirmed it yourself. You would just put her in danger again with your recklessness. I can't have that. I'm sorry.” he whispers, as he aims the barrel at my head. I'm losing too much blood to do anything but slump against the wall, leaving behind a red smear as I sink to the floor. There's not even enough strength in my throat to muster any words. I can hear shouts and screams coming from the restaurant outside. Was it because of the gunfire? Or did something else just happen? Yua is screaming for me. I think... she's calling me Master again.

Heh. I knew she was just faking it.

There is a painful flash of light as the last bullet enters through my left eye, and then all is dark.

***BAD END***

“How is the subject?”

“The augmentations have taken well, Minister Azo, but there seems to be something off about its neural activity.”

“Pay no attention to that. This is our sector's last trump card.”

“Are you sure it will succeed?”

“We have to. The Federation cannot afford to fail here.”

“But, Minister Azo, we're talking about trying to assassinate him. Even though this unit has been rebuilt with the best technology humanity has to offer, that monster is not human.”

“It doesn't matter. If we fail, we are all goners anyway, and the Earth together with us. Shulgi must die.”

***

Deep in the recesses of what used to be my brain, a long dormant spark flickers to life - a tiny ember of light in an endless void - and the wheels of the multiverse slowly grind to a halt. The borders of reality break down...

So You Messed Up and You're Now a Cyborg Ninja. Now What?

A. Continue

B. Reload (State your preferred choice from the previous update, excluding A2)

***

Well, as it turns out, A2 was the bad end. This means that none of the other choices are, but they will have different ramifications on your relationship with Naim... should you not want to rape his mind, of course.

 

[Esquilax]

Goddamnit, now I'm eating crow.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Theseus shows his dickish face once more.

 

[Rex Feral]

Fuck that shit. Flopping to C. For fuck's sake, this guy might not be what he seems.

This guy isn't to be trusted. No need to kill him, however.

Now that's just plain retarded. If we're not trusting him, let's brain-rape him. At least we'll gain considerable knowledge this way, meaning the whole idea of getting involved in the movie won't be just a one big waste of time.

Give me one good reason for not brain-raping him.

I'm not about to brain rape someone just because I'm suspicious of him or his motives.

I'll do that only when I'm sure that my suspicions are correct. I would feel terrible if he proved to be a good guy after all.

 

[treave]

Well, the issue is that Naim isn't actually that smart nor is he a plotter. He's just a soldier. More skilled than most, but too upright and obedient. You guys got the part about him being stuck as a pawn correct. He wasn't angsting over betraying Julia or Relius, he was afraid that you might actually say what you did in A2. That's why he wants to "clear things up" and "put an end" to things. It's causing him considerable effort of mental independence just to try and find out what you actually want, instead of just going with the flow. I mean, he does care that much, at least. Not enough to refrain from capping your ass if he thought you were a danger to Kyrie's safety, of course, but still...

As to why he let you go back in the desert, well, as long as you are away from Kyrie he would willingly spare your life. He has nothing against you, personally - at least, not a grudge that he'd kill you over - but he's convinced that if you continue to pursue her you will end up getting her killed, and he doesn't want that to happen. Even though he might realize that romantically he may not have a chance, she's still a good friend he grew up with.

 

[Smashing Axe]

B (Reload) with as preference C. Flop to anything to avoid A

Order of preference to avoid A: C, B1, A1, B2

You guys should know by now that the Dio way is the Right way. The Universe has made us its bitch. Let's turn the tables!

 

[Esquilax]

Fuck it, let's run with this.

A, failing that, (Reload) B1

 

[Rex Feral]

B1. Doing our duty to Azo. We don't need Naim. Putting our trust in the fucker proved wrong.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Nice job, shitheads.

Reload.

C for fuck's sake.

edit: Sorry Zwist, but I have no desire to lose to Theseus AGAIN. My vote is C, but I'll flop to ANY reload option (especially A1) to stave off A from winning.

 

[Esquilax]

Why are you still going with C now that you know that this option is the bad one? Going full asshole on this one just isn't worth it.

Well, the issue is that Naim isn't actually that smart nor is he a plotter. He's just a soldier. More skilled than most, but too upright and obedient. You guys got the part about him being stuck as a pawn correct. He wasn't angsting over betraying Julia or Relius, he was afraid that you might actually say what you did in A2. That's why he wants to "clear things up" and "put an end" to things. It's causing him considerable effort of mental independence just to try and find out what you actually want, instead of just going with the flow. I mean, he does care that much, at least. Not enough to refrain from capping your ass if he thought you were a danger to Kyrie's safety, of course, but still...

As to why he let you go back in the desert, well, as long as you are away from Kyrie he would willingly spare your life. He has nothing against you, personally - at least, not a grudge that he'd kill you over - but he's convinced that if you continue to pursue her you will end up getting her killed, and he doesn't want that to happen. Even though he might realize that romantically he may not have a chance, she's still a good friend he grew up with.

I don't get this part. He's a very obedient soldier who has no problems letting us go and risking us pursuing her, then he doesn't get why we're here? I mean, why would we care about our intentions in the first place?

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Holy crap, dude. Seriously? He knows where Kyrie is, he doesn't want to tell us, HE IS FUCKING THESEUS WHO ALWAYS KILLS US FFS LET'S OFF HIM NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE AGAIN.
( btw fucking called it, bitches!)

 

[treave]

To be more exact about why the diplomacy attempt had a critical failure: As far as he knows, you're on the run, then you signed up with the Federation, or more specifically, Azo, which is suspicious in and of itself. At the moment, you have no way of convincing him that you will be able to keep her safe, even if you do manage to get to her without getting the both of you killed.

Then you mention that you have made your own investigations and you want to find her again, knowing that she's still alive. That you've begun a plot to retrieve her only damns you in his eyes. All he's seeing is a repeat of the recklessness that he knows you for, and you'll have to excuse him for not having total faith in you.

I don't get this part. He's a very obedient soldier who has no problems letting us go and risking us pursuing her, then he doesn't get why we're here? I mean, why would we care about our intentions in the first place?

He's not obedient to the point of being a total drone, obviously. But he figured you might stay away after that - he doesn't want to kill you if he can help it. He was more stable at the time, too. Once he recognized you his first hopes are that you really are only here as a bodyguard, going on with your life without bothering with Kyrie again. Now, do consider also that it appears someone has been telling him things and preying on his fears since the last time you two crossed paths.

edit: Also, I never confirmed Naim knows where Kyrie is.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Theseus gonna Theseus, bros.

edit: And you never denied it, treave. We'll see once we suck Theseus' brains out with a fucking straw. (there's a red dwarf reference in there somewhere...)

 

[Rex Feral]

The codex oscillates between Fatal Naivete and Psychopathic Paranoia. Why is doing our duty to Azo a bad thing ? Why do we care only about our own selfish interests ?

 

[treave]

Hey, at least I've an excuse for schizophrenic character inconsistency.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Because Azo is currently still working for/with Shulgi, but plans to betray Shulgi at some point due to Shulgi Shulgi-ing shit up per this latest update/bad end. Much better to be a free agent (like we planned at the start of the chapter, remember? 'schizophrenic' indeed.) working for our own interests rather than those of someone who obviously made a severe miscalculation in his choice of allies.

 

[Rex Feral]

We don't know what Shulgi is up to or if Azo is right or not about betraying him. How about we don't make any more presumptions until we have more information.

He did make a severe miscalculation in his choice of allies only when he chose to help us. Because although he took us in when we were fugitives, we don't give a shit about his interests, and only do what we want. No gratitude whatsoever.

And how is it wrong to be loyal to a man that helped us ? Because we don't always get what we want ?

I say we start showing some gratitude for the guy and start taking our assignements more seriously. If he proves to be a mass manipulator/murderer with evil intentions then by earning his trust we are going to be in the best position to take him down.

 

[treave]

The plan was to use Azo's networks to obtain information, but that can't be done if you haven't earned the required amount of trust and/or respect, obviously. The handling of the first case was... mediocre, or you'd already have been able to obtain the first hints about Kyrie's whereabouts without talking to Naim. Oh well. Azo's networks aren't the only way you can accomplish your goals.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Yes, yes, presumptions and all that. Look, I'm not against Shulgi, I'm against putting our faith in Azo's dumb ass.

Gratitude? Azo did a favor for Shulgi. Shulgi practically forced us into this and Azo is using us.

Oh well. Azo's networks aren't the only way you can accomplish your goals.

Exactly. It all starts with removing this turd from the mix and stealing all his knowledge of the situation. We can also use our contacts in the cult. Though hell, as someone who has been in closest proximity to the cyberhacker, we could opt for a transfer to that case in full, couldn't we?

 

[treave]

Transferring is a bit of a moot point, as you'll see in the next update should the reload option win. Huh, you really hate Naim, don't you?

Also, I don't believe I implied that you would be able to steal everything he has ever known. Only what little he knows of where Kyrie is. The methods are a bit too brute-force for anything more complicated than that.

 

[Rex Feral]

Shulgi proposed we do this, he by no means forced us. We could have become a space pirate if I recall correctly.

And we still don't know enough to start thinking on our own. Making speculations about what is what is going to get us killed, as it nearly did already. How about we play the good pawn/soldier until we know more about what is happening and only then take matters in our own hands. Doing our duty, earning trust, getting information without sacrificing our morality (and without killing/brain-raping some guys just because they seem odd).

Don't get me wrong I'd love to see a good brain rape if it was Gallardo or Relius. Or any other bad guy. But this guy, although not our friend, is still not our enemy.

 

[Storyfag]

B (Reload) with C

 

[ScubaV]

I'll vote to reload, but I'm not exactly inclined to go full sociopathic grimdark. I'll save those votes for root's CYOA. We already know the other options are safe, but have different consequences. Let's look:

B1 - The opposite of A2. We know nothing and are not interested. Naim probably lets us go and we likely don't hear from him for a long time (I can certainly foresee a future CF duel as we storm Shulgi's domain, however). We also don't get any information, legit or misleading.

B2 - We're surprised, but want to help. We know Naim doesn't want us anywhere near Kyrie (I suspect she may be in Higashi lands considering how paranoid Naim is about us being here), so this will probably be the worst choice without actually being a bad end. Naim may feed us false information or have us tracked by Shulgi/Empress loyalists.

A1 - Here's an interesting choice. We say we know she's alive, but don't care to do anything further. This might assuage Naim's concerns the best. It could backfire if he thinks we're lying, but if he believes us then he might actually let slip something useful. Perhaps he would want to assure us that she's safe so we stay away or, if she isn't safe, then he might even ask for some peripheral aid thinking we'll walk away when it's all said and done.

 

[ScubaV]

Also, Esquilax was wrong about A2, but I think he's definitely right about Qin being extremely suspicious. I think she deliberately set up this confrontation in the bathroom. The question is who is she hoping gets the upper hand? Us brain-raping Naim might play right into her hands.