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Those Blessed with Talent

Reader mode
[X] Ask him about your future duties.
[X] Ask what your contract says.
-[X] Admit you can't read.
[X] Apologize, but you're not that familiar with this clan or it's members. May you know who you are addressing?
 
Hmm, we have enough to buy Analyze 1. Should we get it? I mean it seems like a skill that everyone who is anyone has. And it'd at least help with spotting things.

Also I'm kinda curious Darkened was the old man with the candy and his mistress as shady as we guessed?
 
[X] Admit that you think Han Wei was right. You are going to be a menace to your enemies when you get a chance to be in the future... But to someone who has taken you in and kept you from an ignoble fate at either Han Wei's hands or machinations, you would be as a loyal friend, family, or ally. This is a promise you intend to keep for the future, to yourself and to the Elder.
-[X] Ask about your new Master, it sounds like you're going to have your hands full protecting him from.... well... Himself. You want to know where you could start, after all not only had he been and probably would continue to be your key to freedom, but in all honesty, you owed him more than just your life. You would not be one to forget such favor.
--[X] Bow like you've never bowed before in your life and THANK HIM FOR NOT MURDERING THE HELL OUT OF YOU WHERE YOU STAND.


Screw negotiating the contract ect... it's time to show this man our character.
 
redaeth said:
I don't want to negotiate. I want to know what we just signed up for.
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At this point it is NOT important, and asking about it just make it seem more like we're looking for ways to slip our bonds... which as a 7 star charisma monster... Yeah... no.
 
Xicree said:
like we're looking for ways to slip our bonds...
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I have no idea where you are getting that. We are asking what we are expected to do, and asking what is in our contract. It is admitting we have a huge weakness.

Also your write-in looks to me of someone who is a braggart and a brown-noser, not showing admirable characteristics.
 
redaeth said:
I have no idea where you are getting that. We are asking what we are expected to do, and asking what is in our contract. It is admitting we have a huge weakness.

Also your write-in looks to me of someone who is a braggart and a brown-noser, not showing admirable characteristics.
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And your write in seems to me some looking to play clever and crafty looking for Loopholes to charm our way out of. Instead of being upfront with our intentions and BOLD, which is more likely to be effective here than anything else.
 
You are reading way too much into my vote, no where is it even implied that I'm attempting to negotiate or find loopholes. We're a scared kid who is wondering what we are going to do, and if we are about to die.
 
My only issue is: why are we asking who we're addressing? It said in the text that we knew who he was...
 
[X] Ask him about your future duties.
[X] Ask what your contract says.
-[X] Admit you can't read.
[X] Apologize, but you're not that familiar with this clan or it's members. May you know who you are addressing?
 
Pandemonious Ivy said:
[X] Ask him about your future duties.
[X] Ask what your contract says.
-[X] Admit you can't read.
[X] Apologize, but you're not that familiar with this clan or it's members. May you know who you are addressing?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...


Im disappointed in you panda. Very disappointed. But then you always voted against using the Nightmare... :p
 
Xicree said:
Im disappointed in you panda. Very disappointed. But then you always voted against using the Nightmare... :p
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And I was right to do so. You know it and I know it. Don't be a potato. Hey, I'm on your side now, which is all that matters! First we get a dragon, then we get a Nightmare. Preferably after we can control them.
 
redaeth said:
Also I'm kinda curious Darkened was the old man with the candy and his mistress as shady as we guessed?
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No. She would have had issues, but nothing about them was necessarily shady and not really in the ways anyone imagined. Her motivations can be pinned down pretty easily if you think about what she offered versus what others did.

redaeth said:
All we know is that he is the head of the house and he holds our fate in the palm of his hand. We have no idea what his name is.
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Using a name can be disrespectful if someone's of significantly higher status than you and hasn't given permission, etc. Simply calling him 'elder' would be sufficient.

In general, you can think of a clan's structure as something like:

The clan head (Current generation leader, active, promoting the clan's interests and managing its estates) is nominally at the top. The clan elders (Prior generations' leaders, those of incredible achievement, etc) play a largely advisory role to the clan head in theory. In practice the balance of power between the elders and the head varies dramatically between clans. Some elders are basically retired or heavily rewarded people who are given status without responsibility or authority to live a life of ease. Some are bitter tyrants who hold all the real reins of power and refuse to surrender authority to the head until their deaths.

Below the clan head, there are the heads of many branch families, prefectural governers from the clan, etc. As each clan has different areas of focus, each has different weight to different jobs, but the hierarchy tends to be a bit muddled with the central line of descent being something akin to royalty within the clan's sphere of influence. The Mu clan is famously militaristic and short on land, with its current head also being one of the army's commanding officers, so you'd imagine that those in the army might enjoy higher status.
 
Darkened said:
No. She would have had issues, but nothing about them was necessarily shady and not really in the ways anyone imagined. Her motivations can be pinned down pretty easily if you think about what she offered versus what others did.
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I half expected that. Ah quests and paranoia, it happens every time.
 
[X] Admit that you think Han Wei was right. You are going to be a menace to your enemies when you get a chance to be in the future... But to someone who has taken you in and kept you from an ignoble fate at either Han Wei's hands or machinations, you would be as a loyal friend, family, or ally. This is a promise you intend to keep for the future, to yourself and to the Elder.
-[X] Ask about your new Master, it sounds like you're going to have your hands full protecting him from.... well... Himself. You want to know where you could start, after all not only had he been and probably would continue to be your key to freedom, but in all honesty, you owed him more than just your life. You would not be one to forget such favor.
--[X] Bow like you've never bowed before in your life and THANK HIM FOR NOT MURDERING THE HELL OUT OF YOU WHERE YOU STAND.
 
[X] Ask him about your future duties.
[X] Ask what your contract says.
-[X] Admit you can't read.
[X] Apologize, but you're not that familiar with this clan or it's members. May you know who you are addressing?

Our Charisma isn't *that* high. I don't think we could manage to get that speech out at all with the way we're cowering right now.
 
No votes in a while, so locking it then:

[X] Ask him about your future duties.
[X] Ask what your contract says.
-[X] Admit you can't read.
[X] Apologize, but you're not that familiar with this clan or it's members. May you know who you are addressing?

Wins
 
New Life, New Friend
  • Threadmarks
    • It's difficult to converse when you aren't sure where to look. The elder told you not to bow, but you can't just look someone as eminent as him in the eye. You settle for keeping your gaze just a little bit downward and hoping he doesn't yell at you again.

    "Yes, I have some questions... sir" you've never talked to a noble before the past few days, but there have been times when a guard actually deigned to talk with you for something. Mistakes earned a beating, so you guess you're pretty good at the whole respect thing!

    "Well?" the elder snaps, "Out with it, some of us are old and in need of sleep."

    "Ah, umm, right sir!" you can't wait until you level up enough for your charisma to come in, "What will I be doing for the Mu clan sir?"

    It's the idiot who speaks up, "Well, for now we'll be getting you trained, helping you learn a few skills and leveling you up enough to qualify as my minio... OWWW" the elder raps the idiot's hands with his pipe. You wouldn't have expected him to move so fast given his age. Maybe he has a martial class?

    "Anyway," Mu cradles one hand in the other, "For now we'll be training you and seeing what you can do. Umm, you're supposed to be my personal servant according to the contract, so that means you have to be my friend and accompany me whenever I want it! Also, we'll probably have tons of other random jobs for you, but those are boring so I'm not going to bother remembering anything like that and neither should you!"

    You glance to Mu Gan, looking for any sane confirmation of the idiot's words. Gan's head moves up and down ever so slightly. So that's more or less right. Well, could be worse. On to the hard question.

    "And I also need to... could you please tell me what the contract actually says? I, it's not that I can't read but there's a lot of really difficult characters there so it just threw me a bit. I can totally read... some... a little... maybe?" The old man stares at you, while the idiot guffaws and Mu Gan maintains his stoic expression.

    Smooth Little Bee, you don't think any of them have noticed how incredibly terrified you are. Well, at least you've gone from too scared to shake to scared enough to tremble and stutter at this point... Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

    The idiot moves to answer, but the old man cuts him off, "You've signed, so it's not my responsibility to tell you. If knowing matters that much to you, then read it for yourself," the finality in his voice kills your protests before you can argue.

    Mu Gan picks up where the elder leaves off, "I believe what the honorable elder means is that it would be untoward for a servant of the Mu clan to be unable to read. You will be educated in such and may peruse the contract to your own satisfaction at that time."

    The bitter old honorable elder's pipe darts out to jab Mu Gan in the ear, eliciting a quiet groan of complaint from his younger relative.

    "I meant what I said, if I'd meant all that fancy talk, I'd have said so. Any other questions girl?"

    Okay, you can do this. You can definitely do this, "I'm really really really really sorry sir, but I don't actually know anything about the Mu clan. Umm, so...Ga's Who are you?"

    For a moment there's silence, then the idiot loses it, falling off his cushion and pounding the floor, laughing like a hyena. You try to shrivel up and die in your fancy black clothes.

    Mu Gan just shakes his head mournfully as the elder stares at you for several blood-curdling moments. Then his lips twitch upward and he lets out a single barking chuckle.

    "Don't know me eh? It's been a good few decades since anyone's said that to me. I am Mu Feng, one of the three grand elders of the Mu Clan and the clan's head within the capital. That idiot," he points at Gan, "Is my grandson Mu Gan; the other idiot—you sold yourself to him so ask him yourself." Then the old man rises, and leaves the room through a side door without bothering to dismiss you. Mu Gan stares at the maddened 'young lord' for a few moments.

    "I don't think he's going to stop soon sir?" this serves to send the idiot doubling over himself, panting for breath between giggles.

    Gan shakes his head, "I will show you to where you will be sleeping. Usually a mere servant would not accord such attention; however, your unique situation merits correspondingly unusual treatment. You are not quite a member of the family, but it would be untoward to treat you as a mere servant. Show respect, do what is asked of you and we should be able to adapt satisfactory."

    He leads you to a huge room—well not huge compared to the audience chamber or the mansion's bath or any even Shouting at Storm's room at that inn, but Mu Gan says this one's yours and you can't even imagine wanting a room this fancy for yourself! It has a small desk and a whole mattress laid out on real new rice mats. You can't even see a single bug or speck of dirt anywhere.

    You lie down, marveling at how soft and wonderful the pillow feels and fade to sleep. So what if you humiliated yourself in front of the clan. They know what you are and you won't ever do that again once you level up enough!

    Winter Breeze wakes you in the morning and explains that she's been instructed to teach you etiquette—as if you need to learn all that fancy stuff with your natural charisma—and reading, writing and math. Before that, she orders you to dress and assist her with preparing the morning meal for the mansion.

    You do your best to go along—but really why do they need to wash all the pots, they just get dirty again—and Winter Veil proves surprisingly willing to answer your questions or help you, right up until you say something perfectly normal that sets her off or earns you a chop to the neck.

    After breakfast you're brought to an unused room in the mansion to study until lunch. You're excited to learn to read like a real person instead of a street rat, but Winter Veil insists on manners manners manners first. So you spend the rest of the morning learning 80 million ways to address people of pretty much the same status. You explain to her that they're all lords anyway so you can just treat them the same, but this just earns you another thwack until you pretend to care about how differently you need to bow to a senior member of your own clan vs a slightly higher ranking guest from another clan.

    Then there's lunch. Delicious, delicious lunch. Sometimes you'll be sent on errands in the afternoon, but usually you just end up following the young idi—master around wherever he goes. As often as not this means standing at attention in the gardens while he dodges whatever he's supposed to be doing and takes a nap.

    Then it's dinner, more helping the servants clean, then sleep in your wonderful bug-free bed. Your days fall into a pleasant monotone as your lessons progress from etiquette to etiquette and some writing!

    And then you find the cat while you're coming back from delivering a message on behalf of the Mu clan to some fat merchant in the middle city. The merchant isn't important, but he is. You see the kitten growling hungrily as he tears up some trash in a dead-end side street in the market district. Amethyst eyes embedded in midnight fur stare at you for a second. He growls in warning, then darts deeper into the alley to hide.

    Well, you won't let it go at that! If it was a person that'd be fine. There's enough hungry brats out there that there's no point in bothering with them. But a kitten's just different, and a guard or merchant might hurt him if they see a stray. So you stomp through the trash and try to spot him again.

    The cat gives his best defiant roar at you entering his territory all big and human and scary, but you don't pay any attention.

    Instead you plop right down in the middle of the alley so he can't run past you, pull out a bit of spiced meat you swiped going through the market and take a small bite. You chew it slowly and loudly, moaning over how good it tastes even as the piece in your hand drifts ever so quietly toward the ground.

    The kitten thinks he's hiding, but you can see those hungry timid and proud eyes staring at the food in your hand, looking way too much like another cat you knew before. But he's too shy of people to jump for it. Good, people are scary.

    You listen to his stomach growling and move to take another bite, then quietly pull off a small piece and throw it a bit in front of you, where you can't reach easily. The cat waits till you pull back then lunges, sending trash flying all over your nice clothing and giving you your first good look at him.

    He's big for a kitten, black fur dotted with purple spots like nothing you've seen before. He's tired and ragged and dirty, but he still moves in such a beautiful way, a hunter even if he's a hungry one. You've never believed in love at first sight until now. Greedily the little monster devours the meat, then growls at you again and edges away. You throw another chunk that he snags out of the air. This time he looks to you expectantly, hunger winning out over caution. It's never smart to let anything win over caution, but you've been there before so you can't blame him.

    You lob a bigger piece of meat his way, then carefully move closer, humming softly as you place the last piece you have on your hand. Black claws and gemstone fangs descend to tear it from you in a single moment, scratching you lightly as they do. Then the cat leaps over your legs and out into the street.

    Pouting, you put up with Winter Breeze's shouting (well, quiet and ultra-polite stating really) on decorum and timeliness when you return and make sure you visit the same spot in the market again the next day.

    You don't see a kitten this time until you do hear him when you throw a few mouthfuls of meat into the alley to check. He pokes his head out and growls at you for more. Selfish of him, but you can't imagine holding anything against this beauty.

    On the third day he actually approaches, rubbing his bony body up against you and meowing adorably. You have the strangest feeling you understand how the crazy merchants up in this part of town feel every time you try to beg them for food. You reach down to pet your kitten ever so slightly too quickly and send him running, so you leave that day's food in the alley and go home.

    He's there, gluttonous as ever on the fourth day and you're more than happy to oblige. This time you move slower, letting him see your hand first before you start scratching him lightly. The kitten pulls away a bit, before accepting a bribe of food and allowing you to scratch him behind the ears. When you finally leave, he almost follows you out before a passing horse and cart sends him dashing back into his alley.

    You can't visit the next day, Winter Breeze is too upset with how you've been abusing your clothes and 'shirking duties' to give you a chance to slip out. But the idiot helps you slip out right after lunch on the sixth day without even asking any questions.

    You rush back to the alley, eager to find your friend. He doesn't come to great you this time. You place a few pieces of meat down on the ground and... nothing. Did he leave you? Did someone catch him and take him away or hurt him?

    You stoop to investigate the pile of trash the kitten's called home. A coppery red paw-print sends shivers down your spine. It's sickeningly wet and sticky to the touch. No. This isn't, it can't, not again. It's.. You tear through the trash until you find him.

    Your kitten mews pitifully and tries to swat you weakly with one paw as you approach. You see the red quietly spreading out of him. It's... It's not too big a cut and none of his insides are coming out, so he'll be fine? It's just a lot of blood. That can't hurt right. You reach down to feel out the wound, cradling your kitten's head in your arms.

    You had a cat before. He helped startle a guard and let you run and then you didn't have a cat anymore. And now you have another one and some bastard beat him or kicked him or hurt him and now he's lying on the ground dying again and you can fix this.

    They said you were A ranked, practically a god. Of course you can fix this. There's a way. There has to be a way. You won't let there not be a way.

    [ ] Try Blood Bond. That's meant to be used on injured monsters so it has to help, right?
    [ ] Write-in
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Maybe if you had a better idea what's wrong, you can fix it? (Buy Analyse 1)
    -[X] Try Blood Bond. That's meant to be used on injured monsters so it has to help, right?
    --[X] There's probably a doctor or something in the clan building, if you can stop him from bleeding too much, they'll be know what to do.

    Going to go out on a limb here and say that the people who currently dictate the course of our life won't be too happy about us using our limited, permanent Blood Bonds without permission, for no good reason. Especially when we have no indication that it'll actually help. They'll probably be willing to fix him up to recoup their losses, but we're definitely going to get chewed out.

    We have enough xp for Analyse 1, can we just buy something whenever? Because we'll probably get off easier if we can prove he's special, even if we bungled the execution and needlessly used our ability. Maybe they should've trained us better, so we'd know it wouldn't help?
     
    [X] Maybe if you had a better idea what's wrong, you can fix it? (Buy Analyse 1)
    -[X] Try Blood Bond. That's meant to be used on injured monsters so it has to help, right?
    --[X] There's probably a doctor or something in the clan building, if you can stop him from bleeding too much, they'll be know what to do.
     
    [X] Maybe if you had a better idea what's wrong, you can fix it? (Buy Analyze 1)
    -[X] Try Blood Bond. That's meant to be used on injured monsters so it has to help, right?
    --[X] There's probably a doctor or something in the clan building, if you can stop him from bleeding too much, they'll be know what to do.

    Sure, we'll probably need the skill anyway.
     
    [X] Maybe if you had a better idea what's wrong, you can fix it? (Buy Analyse 1)
    -[X] Try Blood Bond. That's meant to be used on injured monsters so it has to help, right?
    --[X] There's probably a doctor or something in the clan building, if you can stop him from bleeding too much, they'll be know what to do.
     
    Huh. Maybe they don't know we're capable of using it? Variant Bloodline is increasing our Blood Bond skill for all purposes, so we might only get our first bond at level ten or something.
     
    [X] Maybe if you had a better idea what's wrong, you can fix it? (Buy Analyse 1)
    -[X] Try Blood Bond. That's meant to be used on injured monsters so it has to help, right?
    --[X] There's probably a doctor or something in the clan building, if you can stop him from bleeding too much, they'll be know what to do.
     
    [X] Maybe if you had a better idea what's wrong, you can fix it? (Buy Analyse 1)
    -[X] Try Blood Bond. That's meant to be used on injured monsters so it has to help, right?
    --[X] There's probably a doctor or something in the clan building, if you can stop him from bleeding too much, they'll be know what to do.
     
    rcnr said:
    We have enough xp for Analyse 1, can we just buy something whenever? Because we'll probably get off easier if we can prove he's special, even if we bungled the execution and needlessly used our ability. Maybe they should've trained us better, so we'd know it wouldn't help?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    If you have the XP you can buy any skill if more people vote for it than don't vote for it. Naturally, having the skill and being able to use it effectively are different things.

    You could by a 'grow wings' skill mid-fall, but actually figuring out how to fly would generally be another thing.
     
    [X] Maybe if you had a better idea what's wrong, you can fix it? (Buy Analyse 1)
    -[X] Try Blood Bond. That's meant to be used on injured monsters so it has to help, right?
    --[X] There's probably a doctor or something in the clan building, if you can stop him from bleeding too much, they'll be know what to do.

    I think we should try to get Presence Concealment 1 as soon as we can as well- we had to sneak out to get this pet, and people will keep a closer eye on us after this, so it will help if we need to sneak out more for other things. Open Lock 1&2 would likely help that as well, but can probably wait since it doesn't seem likely we will be locked in over it.
     
    [X] Maybe if you had a better idea what's wrong, you can fix it? (Buy Analyse 1)
    -[X] Try Blood Bond. That's meant to be used on injured monsters so it has to help, right?
    --[X] There's probably a doctor or something in the clan building, if you can stop him from bleeding too much, they'll be know what to do.

    Sounds reasonable. Impulsive as hell, but we are a little girl.
     
    [X] Try to find something to wrap the kitten's wound and find it some water to drink.
    -[X] But if it does, it would make you sad but only spur you to learn how to prevent it in the future.

    I'm... not really interested in this.
     
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