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Oh cool, a Baycock. That's an obscure mythology creature. It's part of the Potawatomie Tribe's rich tapestry of monsters. Much like the Wendigo, it's a monster that comes from hunting parties getting lost and resorting to cannibalism. Due to starving, they're thin, and their skin is stretched taught on their bodies, all dry and leathery. Their arms are flaps like flying squirrels, allowing them to jump incredibly high, like some birds. They have extra long fingernails they use like swords, to pluck out and eat their victims' livers instead of drink their blood. They live in trees, and can run ultra fast, screaming a call that sounds like a rooster, hence their name. They're kinda awesome. For a while I was trying to write a horror novel with them as the main monster.
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Aug 10, 2015 23:38
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 01:46 |
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Truman is: トルーマン Shift the third character once to the left and you get something that can be translated as either Thorman or Tallman: トールマン So yeah. It was a very deliberate name choice, the symbolism made incredibly obvious once nukes are mentioned. You're meant to not like him before you've even met him. Tallgeese fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Aug 11, 2015 |
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Aug 10, 2015 23:52
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Is how Japan thinks of Truman similar to how America thinks of Hitler?
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Aug 11, 2015 01:26
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 Kichijoji Bit of a shorter one than the norm today, but for a special reason. We'll be checking out both Thorman and Gotou's digs; one of them is right here, due east of Shinjuku.  The other one is a little bit further south of there. There's just a dead-end if we go past here. We'll head to this on first. Shibuya This brings us straight to a basement area, which is a tad worrying at first but super-linear so we'll see where this leads.  I think you can guess from here who we're going to see first.  ...Oh, you have ID Card! Go on inside! Embassy Shortly after the soldier guy, who would have stopped us there if we came here before getting Yuka yes, we come to a proper building area. So we just went through an underground passage to get to the American Embassy.  Being a new area, we have a fair few new demons to contend with. Cu Sith is pretty handy to get and not really a threat to fight, so I focus on more negotiation first. Can't use more than three demons though so we can't field this cool flying Scottish dog.  Angels are kind of a rare encounter here. Kind of. They do turn up quite often, but you can easily never run into them too. Being Divines, they are Light-Law aligned which makes them the first Light tendency race we've encountered. But hey, we have one so we can just talk to auto-end fights with them right?  Wrong. Dark tendency demons cannot be negotiated with to get them to join you. Light tendency demons cannot be negotiated with. Period. Now, I have not run into one during a full moon recently so they may be less high-strung there (I don't remember to be honest). But that's super unlikely, so just keep in mind that Light tendency makes them self-super assholes who think they're better than us.  Anyway, uh, might want a map since this place is kind of big and I just grabbed some incense.  Here it is! The Luck Incense in question is the bottom box on the right; the top one is a Medicine and...  Top left is Magic Incense. That just leaves the last box to the south of that.  You might think that since this box looks different and new that its contents are special. Like, perhaps they change with the moon phase or something. You would be wrong; it's just 960 Magnetite no matter what.  Anyway, another new demon. Harpies are vaguely interesting in that they are weak to Guns and Force but resist just about everything else.  Oh and they drop a Bizen Dagger. It's stronger than the Scorpion whip that Yuka starts with and can only be used by her as well.  Unfortunately, at some point when I wasn't paying attention a Dryad dropped a ceremonial dagger that's even better. Both daggers hit only once, so they're technically worse since the Scorpion hits 3-5 times. Yes, three hits minimum. It's also Yuka only.  Oh and these guys turn up a lot too. I have no idea what they can do since they never get turns.   So, anyway, that second floor has some stuff for us to grab as well. The normal box just has 6720 Yen in it.  The other one has a new gem for us though. We'll keep this in our backpocket for way later, just like the other(s). It'll make sense later, I swear. Law Anyway, as you may have noticed and not given a poo poo about, the part of the Ambassador here will be played by actual American Ambassador Matthew Barzun. Who is the ambassador to the UK; the current ambassador to Japan is currently a lady called Caroline Kennedy. I'm sure you see why she's not usable here. Oh and yes, it doesn't make sense that the Ambassador speaks awful broken Japanese but just roll with it.  .jpg) I hear rumour about you! I give you a big welcome! We bring out American army to save everyone from demons. But... we are not strong yet. We just soldiers, we not trained to fight demons. You can fight demons please help us, defeat Gotou. If Lucifer summoned, terrible, terrible for Japan! There will be no way to stop that many demons that he will free. If you stop and think about it rationally, I am sure you will come to right decision and decide to help us. We'll be back to give Thorman our answer later. For the moment, we'll use Cu Sith's spell to leave immediately. Traesto's great since it returns us straight to the "world map" instantly.  So we'll head to the other area here now to meet Gotou in person (spoiler alert).  Same deal as before, need ID card etc etc. Shibuya Unlike the embassy, Gotou's place appears much bigger, much less interesting and much emptier.  And a cursory skim of the map would lead to that very easily. It definitely is bigger, but there's a little bit more to see here than the embassy.  The only new enemy here isn't really a demon. It's just a dude who's a member of Gaia. Note however that his race is not Meta, so he's fully recruitable.  Which means that we can stuff him inside our COMP. Because despite being literally a random guy, he IS a demon. Gaian is a demon race. Why yes there is a Law equivalent called Messian.  Even his stat screen just makes him a completely boring and poo poo demon. No skills at all, no special attacks, just... a dude.  Might as well have him out while we explore Gotou's creepy basement though. He can be our tour guide.  We'll ignore the chest down here since it's empty. Instead, those 3 rooms with women in them from right to left...  Yeah, they have people in them. You can see where this is going I am sure.  Needless to say, we're going to free every last one of them.   He tried to free us, but a large group of guards chased him off before he was able to get us out.Poor Yuji. He did actually get here before us, but since he went and became an NPC his competence level dropped drastically. We really are the only ones able to do anything around here.  And that's all there is in the basement. Our neighbour Yuka got moved somewhere else, so Yuji's search continues on. This sidequest with these random other Yuka's ends here, by the way. There's no reward or repercussions for freeing them or anything. It's just like maybe a couple alignment points that don't matter right now.  Oh well, how about that second floor then. It's short, actually less interesting but has actual loot.  Well, one piece of actual loot. The other one just has another 8000 Yen in it.  Third floor has some actual giant columns that are too high to be supports but have no entrances so they aren't rooms either. Chaos So Go-- where the gently caress are your pants why did you strip man you looked way cooler on the tv  I'm sure you've got a bone to pick with me about Yuka, but hear me out. Let me try to explain where I'm coming from. While I wanted my subordinates to keep the resistance out of my hair, I certainly didn't want her executed. That ws entirely their idea. Quite frankly, I haven't paid much attention to what they've been doing, as I've been busy with more important matters. There's... a plan that's being carried out. Behind the scenes, very secretive. Only a select few know about it. Maybe you've heard of it before, a lot of old religious texts mention it. The basic idea is that those that live in the Kingdom will be proised eternal peace and tranquility. A paradise on Earth if you will. Problem is, there's a catch. It's like an exclusive club, and only those that worship God get a chance at membership. Anyone else? Well, they get the lovely runner-up prize of getting to be slaughtered at the hands of the American army, courtesy of God's orders. The only thing that's keeping them from blowing us all away is a force field that the ancient gods have put up to protect us. Even they can't hold out forever... I won't force you to make up your minds now though. I'll wait here for you to make your final decision.  So, uh, I guess we have a decision to make now. Seems like we have to side with someone at this point. The real question is...  Who do we go with?    Gotou official artwork. Both with and without suit. Thorman has no art that I've seen, ever.
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Aug 13, 2015 04:00
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The art for him is great. It looks someone changed the face at the last second. Look at it. 
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Aug 13, 2015 04:22
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The fun thing about the human-demons is that fusing them gives a completely random result (within a level range, I'm sure, but it's been ages). I always loved playing around with them.
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Aug 13, 2015 04:23
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So, the American ambassador's argument: Holy poo poo, this guy started a coup d'etat and is planning to summon the devil. It would be really nice if you could kick his rear end, so we didn't have to nuke the place. I mean, holy gently caress. Demons. This is NOT what any of us signed on for. Gotou's argument: Well, yes, I kidnapped innocent people and planned to burn them alive, but, uh, the Americans are working for God, and he's planning to make paradise, but... uh... you have to worship him to get in. Yeah, that's it. And he's planning to use the American army to kill everyone who refuses to accept his offer. I heard it from very legitimate sources. They also told me to stop wearing pants. I mean, I know it's SMT, and that means that Gotou's completely batshit insane spiel is right, and BOTH SIDES and whatever, but out of context, geeze the Americans look like the more rational choice.
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Aug 13, 2015 04:33
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Gotou is a batshit insane man. Completely and totally.
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Aug 13, 2015 04:40
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Oh no, you don't get off that easily Gotou. A leader needs to prevent or make restitution for the misdeeds of his followers. For Kazuya to side with Chaos ceased to be an option a long time ago. Nice job breaking it, Yuriko. (Wait, is siding with no one actually possible at this point?)
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Aug 13, 2015 04:48
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chiasaur11 posted:I mean, I know it's SMT, and that means that Gotou's completely batshit insane spiel is right, and BOTH SIDES and whatever, but out of context, geeze the Americans look like the more rational choice. That's correct, but you're still not supposed to trust Thorman's argument because of: A) His name plus B) The nuke angle. They might as well have named him Ambassador Foreigner McDevil. There is a reason that Gotou is suddenly presented wearing a fundoshi and so on. He's supposed to look Japanese and therefore trustworthy, in contrast to Thorman. It's kind of designed to fit into series meta-knowledge and the biases of the SMT playerbase. Tallgeese fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Aug 13, 2015 |
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Aug 13, 2015 04:52
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MightyPretenders posted:Oh no, you don't get off that easily Gotou. A leader needs to prevent or make restitution for the misdeeds of his followers. For Kazuya to side with Chaos ceased to be an option a long time ago. Oh, absolutely. You're perfectly free to say 'screw it' in most Megaten games and kill everyone who rocks the boat even slightly. In fact, the Neutral path is the canon ending for this game, as seen in SMTII I think for this playthrough, however, I'm going to throw my lot behind Chaos, mainly because I've never actually seen it before, but also because Gouto is a paragon of manliness. Seriously, look at him, you could grate cheese on those abs!
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Aug 13, 2015 05:20
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Honestly Thorman's argument is a lot more scary by a mile, given they can't evacuate anybody still alive because they could be body-snatchers. So, you know, screw it nuke Tokyo and maybe that will stop the demons. If Gotou focused squarely on that then he'd be a lot more reasonable but he's far gone by this point, probably afraid of exactly what constitutes worshiping God. So yeah I'm not really behind Gotou but I am very against Thorman. So Chaos it is.
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Aug 13, 2015 05:23
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chiasaur11 posted:So, the American ambassador's argument: Holy poo poo, this guy started a coup d'etat and is planning to summon the devil. It would be really nice if you could kick his rear end, so we didn't have to nuke the place. I mean, holy gently caress. Demons. This is NOT what any of us signed on for. I took pretty much the opposite implications from both of them really. Thorman: Gotou is literally going to summon the devil! You have no chance to survive make your time! Gotou: So the Americans are trying to create an Eternal Kingdom of God. It sounds nice, but unfortunately for us, Japan has already been deemed unbelievers and we'd be nuked right now if not for the barriers I put in place. So if we take both at face value, Gotou's plan is a very marginally less stupid path because we MIGHT be okay in Demon Land. We will be very dead if we are nuked. Of course, the whole point of making this a choice is that we're probably meant to assume one or both of them are lying in some manner, since we have no reason to trust either and a few good reasons to distrust both. Thorman has the less provable story. I mean, we could presumably actually go SEE if there's any barriers protecting Tokyo or if Gotou has a plan marked Summon the Devil in his computers. Gotou meanwhile has been more or less an active antagonist so far in the game, although we have crossed with the American soldiers as well. So really the best answer is probably to try and thwart both of them, they sound like bad news, but it's probably pretty hard to deflect nuclear missiles coming from America with our laptop.
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Aug 13, 2015 05:29
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So the implication is that being in possession of the Demon Summoning Program makes you an unbeliever, right? That and the body-snatching stuff making demons impossible to fully eradicate from the population if they get out of Tokyo.
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Aug 13, 2015 05:36
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I want to say that we should go with Thorman, since he seems to have a good point; if there were demons pouring out of Japan, maybe it would be a good idea to nuke that area. I mean, they're friggin' demons! However, Gotou, as Kaboom pointed out, is manly as gently caress and could probably bodycheck Lucifer back to hell, using but one of his mighty abs. Plus, as someone else said, we might be okay in Demon Land; there's no reason it absolutely has to gently caress us over if we do end up there.
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Aug 13, 2015 05:40
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go with thorman because I picked the other choice when I played
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Aug 13, 2015 05:44
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:Oh, absolutely. You're perfectly free to say 'screw it' in most Megaten games and kill everyone who rocks the boat even slightly. In fact, the Neutral path is the canon ending for this game, as seen in SMTII Uh, did you miss "at this point"? Because neutral is the option that's winning in the polls now, even though I was pretty sure it's not an option right now and the plot can't continue until we ally with one of them.
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Aug 13, 2015 05:50
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MightyPretenders posted:Uh, did you miss "at this point"? Because neutral is the option that's winning in the polls now, even though I was pretty sure it's not an option right now and the plot can't continue until we ally with one of them.
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Aug 13, 2015 05:58
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CmdrKing posted:
Have you even seen a movie? Controlling nukes from a laptop is, like, hacking 102.
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Aug 13, 2015 05:59
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Moltrey posted:Yeah you can totally go Neutral at this point. I don't remember the specifics of how exactly, but you can take a natural side in this decision. You basically kill one guy and then tell the other you don't support him and he tries to kill you. I think you have to kill one of them before the other, though. Anyways I'm voting for that option, provided we can figure out which one you off first.
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Aug 13, 2015 06:54
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Moltrey posted:Yeah you can totally go Neutral at this point. I don't remember the specifics of how exactly, but you can take a natural side in this decision. I just checked GameFAQs, and yes, neutral is a thing, as easy as telling both Gotou and Thorman to stuff themselves. (But Thorman will only accept the decision as final after you've dealt with Gotou one way or another, so we can still make any choice.)
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Aug 13, 2015 06:57
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Between a guy who hires punks to kidnap civilians and summons demons and the guy who wants to nuke millions innocent people, decision is pretty natural None of them
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Aug 13, 2015 07:07
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Neutral is usually the most bloody option so I went with that.
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Aug 13, 2015 07:09
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Mr. Whale posted:Neutral is usually the most bloody option so I went with that. This...for every SMT game 
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Aug 13, 2015 07:47
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Go full-brutality, go Neutrality!
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Aug 13, 2015 08:00
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Neither of these guys seem trustworthy at all.
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Aug 13, 2015 09:12
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Show off all the fights! Especially since one of them is much more badass than the other. 
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Aug 13, 2015 10:21
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I am interested in how some people are saying that we might be okay in a demon-infested world. That's an unusual argument. Three problems with it. One, that's a very large assumption to make. Two, who is "we"? Three, do you have the right to make that call? That decision boils down to saying "gently caress the world and possibly everyone else in it because I don't want to die". That's pretty selfish by most metrics.
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Aug 13, 2015 14:58
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Tallgeese posted:I am interested in how some people are saying that we might be okay in a demon-infested world. That's an unusual argument. I'm interested in how you're okay with nuking millions because of your prejudices against another races
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Aug 13, 2015 15:11
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Tallgeese posted:Three, do you have the right to make that call? So, you're saying you have the right to make the call to nuke Japan? 
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Aug 13, 2015 15:17
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Leavemywife posted:So, you're saying you have the right to make the call to nuke Japan? Obviously he does because blah blah law-side superiority.
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Aug 13, 2015 16:39
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edit: Didn't realize you linked to a poll. 
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Aug 13, 2015 17:47
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dasmause posted:I'm interested in how you're okay with nuking millions because of your prejudices against another races I mean, if we're being real here all those people are dead either way. Either they get owned by demons because they don't have a magical demon summoning computer or they get owned by nukes. That's what makes these alignment arguments so heated, all of the options (outside of the jrpg as hell "lets just return things back to normal" ending a few games get) are insane and inhuman stuff that would be the bad ending in most other games.
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Aug 13, 2015 18:50
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gently caress em both, go neutral.
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Aug 13, 2015 19:23
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Yeah, I chose Neutral on the poll, and I'm blind to the game. Both of these guys are obvious bad guys. I don't see why we should help either of them.
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Aug 13, 2015 19:24
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dasmause posted:I'm interested in how you're okay with nuking millions because of your prejudices against another races Nuke millions or let billions get eaten by demons. It's not a pleasant choice either way. As for prejudice... you know what? Yes. I am prejudiced against hostile alien entities that eat people on the slightest, or even no, provocation. I am also someone opposed to demons from hell. I guess I'm just bigoted that way.
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Aug 13, 2015 19:28
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Solution: we tell both of them to blow each other and everything is right with the world!  but in all seriousness, KILL EM ALL!
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Aug 13, 2015 19:33
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Mr. Whale posted:Neutral is usually the most bloody option so I went with that. Yeah when it comes to megaten games Neutral is always the way to go.
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Aug 13, 2015 19:33
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Leavemywife posted:So, you're saying you have the right to make the call to nuke Japan? That's not too dissimilar to asking the following question: Does the government have the right to force you to vaccinate your child, when not doing so risks spreading the disease they might catch to others, since herd immunity exists? It's the same sort of question. Many, if not most would say that you don't have the right to endanger everyone else with your inability to contain your disease. So, if I were charged with ensuring that a series of endless shape-shifting magical beings with a view of humans as good eatin' did not spread beyond the islands of Japan to encompass the entire planet and consume the other 98.2% of humankind, would I press the big red button? Could I resist the maddening urge to No I couldn't, and boy would I sleep well that night with the satisfaction of a job well done. I would probably suffer from crippling alcoholism later in life, but eh. Details. dasmause posted:I'm interested in how you're okay with nuking millions because of your prejudices against another races Being Neutral/Chaotic is a choice and the wrong one at that.
Tallgeese fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Aug 13, 2015 |
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Aug 13, 2015 19:33
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 01:46 |
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chiasaur11 posted:Nuke millions or let billions get eaten by demons. It's not a pleasant choice either way. They're not inherently hostile Also hell doesn't exist, only Expanse which is just a parallel world where demons dwell And existance of demon summoning program proves that co-existance is possible with time Bigotry doesn't justify genocide Tallgeese posted:Being Neutral/Chaotic is a choice and the wrong one at that. Oh please. The only reason you like Law is because you want to be eternally happy with no effort on your part
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Aug 13, 2015 19:46
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