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Diogines
Dec 22, 2007

Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

Chatter and some player theorycraftying happens on IRC. Everything which happens in the game and any game info you get, is only on the forums.

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PandaPropaganda
Apr 22, 2008

andrew smash posted:

This is one of the more frustrating aspects of the way the game has unfolded, at least to me. I have no time or inclination to sit on IRC and discuss the game in real time, but I figured a forum adventure game would be fine if I just checked in on it with my phone a couple of times a day. Instead it sort of looks like to get the full picture of the game I need to be involved in the IRC channel, so I guess I'm just going to follow the thread but not vote anymore.

The IRC channel is in no way necessary to follow and understand the game. All you have to do is make sure you read everything Diogines posts in the thread. Stuff just ended up being said in IRC yesterday in a very explicit way because people were getting frustrated. There was nothing said in IRC, however, that could not have been picked up by what Diog has said in the thread.

Soylent Pudding
Jun 22, 2007

We've got people!


Ixtlilton posted:

This is an excellent plan, voting B(C)N. And we absolutely were kidnapped.

Is there really so much white guilt / Stockholm syndrome in this thread that people genuinely see our family being rescued from a life of slavery and abuse as a kidnapping?

Algid
Oct 10, 2007


andrew smash posted:

This is one of the more frustrating aspects of the way the game has unfolded, at least to me. I have no time or inclination to sit on IRC and discuss the game in real time, but I figured a forum adventure game would be fine if I just checked in on it with my phone a couple of times a day. Instead it sort of looks like to get the full picture of the game I need to be involved in the IRC channel, so I guess I'm just going to follow the thread but not vote anymore.
It's been repeatedly pointed out Asherah doesn't answer prayers. This is information that can be very easily found without going on IRC. You didn't need to be on IRC (I haven't for this game) to figure out that all Asherah wants is to eat everyone, it just requires basic reading comprehension.

Besides, Diog said that a bunch of the stuff posted was a response to team Asherah people arguing with him on IRC.

I mean I didn't vote for us to be a mortal or a theist of any type, but I'm not complaining about it all the time and pretending that the GM is hiding information from me.

Theglavwen
Jun 10, 2006

Frankly, I don't know anyone who likes Chinese bronzes, but I have one of the finest collections in the country.

Diogines posted:

When IRC got to the point where people said they were voting anything pro Asherah because Tudiya & Co. represent the story of western imperialism in actual history and they were angry they got taken away from home by the white man as a slave(Tudiya & Co. are not caucasian), and because they did not like that, they would always be pro Asherah, I had to sort of put my face in my hands for a moment.

When it got to the point that some people on IRC made clear they would rather end the game than acknowledge their view of Asherah was factually incorrect that I spoke up. The only "wrong" choice would be to intentionally disregard the information you have for the reason that you might not want it to be true, even that is not "wrong", perhaps simply harmful because decisions based on that view probably won't end well. There were multiple chances to runoff and go home, they were not picked. Voting options to acknowledge Shushem as your dad and that you hate these guys are also a frequent inclusion.

:stare: IRC is insane.

Diogines posted:

I am sorry, I skipped over Theglavwe's questions.

Yes, your village has stories of the Great Fish saving people from Asherah, mostly by hiding them or helping them run, though the Great Lobster Father, Smis, has actually fought to protect people from Asherah if they were deserving. Asherah ate his claws instead. They grew back.

Ah, alright, that's just what I wanted to know. In that case, screw it then, I'm shifting my vote back to AN. Not that I think it'll make a difference, but I think it's slightly more likely, in the circumstances, to be the knee-jerk reaction of panicking Og/Enkindel.

...probably better that the K contingent is winning though.

As for the other stuff everybody's going on about ... egh. I'm not entirely sure why this 'Asherah is a dick' stuff comes up, I mean, have we ever had any indication that he does this intentionally, or from a desire to be an rear end in a top hat? It's like calling a storm or a tidal wave or something a dick. Even our limited interaction with him seems to suggest nothing but an all consuming, all overriding, insatiable hunger. His 'dickishness' or not, I don't think, doesn't really feature into our perception of him; Asherah is worshipped out of fear, not love or hope for help or blessings, but because if you don't do the things that please him and sate his hunger, he's going to eat you. Pretty straight forward. I mean, I'm not going to pretend I've gone and analysed the posting patterns of each pro-Asherah voter, but I don't think this strawman of people 'stupidly' voting for Asherah because they think he's going to swoop in and save up with capes and lightning powers applies to anyone, or at least, not many. Who's ever thought Asherah would 'help'? Most of the votes I recall off the top of my head are trying to appease his hunger, under the impression that his anger is imperiling us and can be redirected by proper supplication, which seems pretty in keeping with how we were raised, and the general Asherah culture at large.

I mean, yeah, voting for B now seems ... less than a good idea, because Asherah's made it pretty clear right now that our attempts have been unsuccessful and he wants to eat us. Maybe it could be spun as a sort of 'we're going to become one with his hunger' or something, except that here, this time, Diogenes has straight out come up and said 'no, Asherah's going to eat you, B's a joke/suicide vote, don't do it.'

On the Diogenes front though ... and this bit I really don't want to go on too much about, because it's talking about another poster and he's right there! (Hey Dio :toot:), but there seems to be a sentiment going about that Diogenes has made it 'very clear' over the course of things, not talking about this particular instance, that Asherah worship is 'wrong' and that it's 'obviously going to end badly'. That's just not the case, at least not in the thread, maybe on IRC, I don't know, 'cause chatrooms suck. Dio certainly posts things to the sentiment of 'remember that Asherah votes represent a dangerous or significant sentiment', but I, for one, have always made a point of taking those posts in the context of everything Dio has said otherwise, that he has no horse in this, that the game can go almost any way, and that he won't suggest ways people should or should not vote. To assume that the 'Asherah votes are risky' comments are intended to say 'Asherah will get you killed you're dumb for voting that way' would be to say that Dio is just a liar when he says he doesn't want to tell people how they should vote, so I've always made a point of expressly deciding that Dio is just encouraging people to consider everything about their votes.

It's pretty obvious here, yeah, that a vote for B is a vote to be eaten, or at least, a vote for a 99% chance to be eaten, but to equate 'risky voting' with 'definite death' in the majority of other cases just seems silly. There are lots of ways that 'risky voting' can end up paying out big rewards, or go down a different but perfectly valid path, and to try and suggest everyone who votes for the riskier options is just stupid, deluded or not paying attention is just, well, dirty. It's pretty easy to imagine how events involving dangerous and unpredictable entities could still turn out pretty kickin' rad, so there might be plenty of reason to choose them, provided they aren't obviously do-or-die votes ... like this one.

Anyway, there's my piece on it. Personally I'm very interested to see how this vote goes, I thinkg this could be a significant turning point in Og's perception of the world and its deities. It's sad, too, frankly, because as I see it, this could represent a severing moment for Og. He'd be terrified now, if he tried to appeal to Asherah and its been made abundantly clear that Asherah hates him and wants to eat him. It would symbolize rejection by his previous life, and worse, it would probably make him terrified of returning to the ocean. For the rest of his life he'd be forbidden from returning, on pain of death, to the ocean he loved so much, left only to look at it from afar and remember.

Sogol
Apr 11, 2013

Galileo's Finger

andrew smash posted:

This is one of the more frustrating aspects of the way the game has unfolded, at least to me. I have no time or inclination to sit on IRC and discuss the game in real time, but I figured a forum adventure game would be fine if I just checked in on it with my phone a couple of times a day. Instead it sort of looks like to get the full picture of the game I need to be involved in the IRC channel, so I guess I'm just going to follow the thread but not vote anymore.

I am not currently tracking the IRC due to time constraints. What I noticed before is that posts and votes do effect the IRC conversation. I am going with that for the time being.

Algid
Oct 10, 2007


Theglavwen posted:

As for the other stuff everybody's going on about ... egh. I'm not entirely sure why this 'Asherah is a dick' stuff comes up, I mean, have we ever had any indication that he does this intentionally, or from a desire to be an rear end in a top hat? It's like calling a storm or a tidal wave or something a dick. Even our limited interaction with him seems to suggest nothing but an all consuming, all overriding, insatiable hunger. His 'dickishness' or not, I don't think, doesn't really feature into our perception of him; Asherah is worshipped out of fear, not love or hope for help or blessings, but because if you don't do the things that please him and sate his hunger, he's going to eat you. Pretty straight forward. I mean, I'm not going to pretend I've gone and analysed the posting patterns of each pro-Asherah voter, but I don't think this strawman of people 'stupidly' voting for Asherah because they think he's going to swoop in and save up with capes and lightning powers applies to anyone, or at least, not many. Who's ever thought Asherah would 'help'? Most of the votes I recall off the top of my head are trying to appease his hunger, under the impression that his anger is imperiling us and can be redirected by proper supplication, which seems pretty in keeping with how we were raised, and the general Asherah culture at large.
It doesn't really matter because of the two Asherah related choices repeatedly presented, one involves prayer which straight up doesn't work cause Asherah's high priest himself said so, and the other involves a blood sacrifice (of our own blood even) to an endlessly hungering entity. It should be pretty clear without referencing any information outside the thread why either idea might not work out to be all rainbows and sunshine. I mean if you grew up spending the majority of time in the ocean and you happen to be afraid of sharks, do you spread your own blood in the water when there's a storm to try to attract sharks for some reason?



Theglavwen posted:

Anyway, there's my piece on it. Personally I'm very interested to see how this vote goes, I thinkg this could be a significant turning point in Og's perception of the world and its deities. It's sad, too, frankly, because as I see it, this could represent a severing moment for Og. He'd be terrified now, if he tried to appeal to Asherah and its been made abundantly clear that Asherah hates him and wants to eat him. It would symbolize rejection by his previous life, and worse, it would probably make him terrified of returning to the ocean. For the rest of his life he'd be forbidden from returning, on pain of death, to the ocean he loved so much, left only to look at it from afar and remember.
We may not be a child of Labaras, but we are still a human being, still a creature crafted from the flesh of god, even if the angels failed to cull the Earth of every monster, that doesn't mean we'll fail. There's nothing preventing us from going back to the ocean to eat Asherah eventually.

Dog Kisser
Mar 30, 2005

But People have fears that beasts do not. Questions, too.

Algid posted:

............There's nothing preventing us from going back to the ocean to eat Asherah eventually.

Welp, I know what my plan for us is the rest of the game. Get buff, get strong, get old, find Asherah and devour him.

Ixtlilton
Mar 10, 2012

How to Draw
by Rube Goldberg

Soylent Pudding posted:

Is there really so much white guilt / Stockholm syndrome in this thread that people genuinely see our family being rescued from a life of slavery and abuse as a kidnapping?

No, we were kidnapped, they grabbed us and killed our father, just because we didn't run away after that doesn't make it less of a kidnapping.

Also, I'm curious why people think not grabbing onto a tree branch will be certain death. It seems obvious to me that some divine entity has put us up to these flying antics and given the hunger and I highly doubt that was just to eat us right away.

Dog Kisser
Mar 30, 2005

But People have fears that beasts do not. Questions, too.

Ixtlilton posted:

No, we were kidnapped, they grabbed us and killed our father, just because we didn't run away after that doesn't make it less of a kidnapping.

Also, I'm curious why people think not grabbing onto a tree branch will be certain death. It seems obvious to me that some divine entity has put us up to these flying antics and given the hunger and I highly doubt that was just to eat us right away.

Listen, I think Asherah is awesome and I'm all in favour of going full on cannibal monster here, but we seem to be flying into the ocean. That's where he lives and he's saying he's hungry also all he does is eat everything he encounters and everyone who worships him. We'll probably get eaten.

Theglavwen
Jun 10, 2006

Frankly, I don't know anyone who likes Chinese bronzes, but I have one of the finest collections in the country.

Algid posted:

It doesn't really matter because of the two Asherah related choices repeatedly presented, one involves prayer which straight up doesn't work cause Asherah's high priest himself said so, and the other involves a blood sacrifice (of our own blood even) to an endlessly hungering entity. It should be pretty clear without referencing any information outside the thread why either idea might not work out to be all rainbows and sunshine. I mean if you grew up spending the majority of time in the ocean and you happen to be afraid of sharks, do you spread your own blood in the water when there's a storm to try to attract sharks for some reason?

Well, how are you looking at 'prayer'? Praying to Asherah as in 'dear Asherah please bless my efforts and smite my enemies', yeah, that's not going to work, but prayer is also supplication and pleading. Asking Asherah for help doesn't work, giving Asherah what he wants in the hope that he'll leave you alone, that's pretty much Asherah worship in a nutshell, and prayer goes just as well in that direction: 'loving Asherah ahh please don't eat me I'll do whatever you want here's my blood and faith.' I suppose we, voters, don't know exactly what tended to be offered to Asherah in his rituals, or what it is Asherah 'wants', but obedience, respect and fear all seem to be a big part of it, so offering that via our 'prayers' to Asherah doesn't seem like a far-fetched option, in less pressing times.

As for the blood sacrifice, as has been mentioned before, there's no indication that there's inherent danger there: Shushem cut his palms and offered blood as part of his prayers to Asherah, and Asherah didn't whip him up into the air and devour him whole. We're offering blood sacrifice because it's what we've seen involved in Asherahn rituals, successfully, in this thread; the evidence provided previously is that its the regular course of things, and, dubiously, works. So 'pretty clear'? I have to disagree.

Ixtlilton
Mar 10, 2012

How to Draw
by Rube Goldberg

dog kisser posted:

Listen, I think Asherah is awesome and I'm all in favour of going full on cannibal monster here, but we seem to be flying into the ocean. That's where he lives and he's saying he's hungry also all he does is eat everything he encounters and everyone who worships him. We'll probably get eaten.

Eventually, sure, but the important aspect of this as far as I'm concerned is the fact that we have the hunger right now. That seems to me to be an indication of something beyond "nomnomnom" from Asherah. Well, it is "nomnomnom", but not directed at us. Asherah may eat everything, but if he ate everything right away he'd soon run out of food, Asherah's a smart fishy and gets this.

Soylent Pudding
Jun 22, 2007

We've got people!


Ixtlilton posted:

No, we were kidnapped, they grabbed us and killed our father, just because we didn't run away after that doesn't make it less of a kidnapping.

Kidnapping implies our father was our proper father and we weren't already held in captivity. We were rescued. Seriously, our mom was a slave and our "dad" regularly beat us. Why do people want to believe so hard this was a kidnapping?

Sogol
Apr 11, 2013

Galileo's Finger
I fully support flying until we are no longer flying.

Flying!

Theglavwen
Jun 10, 2006

Frankly, I don't know anyone who likes Chinese bronzes, but I have one of the finest collections in the country.

Ixtlilton posted:

Eventually, sure, but the important aspect of this as far as I'm concerned is the fact that we have the hunger right now. That seems to me to be an indication of something beyond "nomnomnom" from Asherah. Well, it is "nomnomnom", but not directed at us. Asherah may eat everything, but if he ate everything right away he'd soon run out of food, Asherah's a smart fishy and gets this.

Hm, props for the effort, but I think you're really stretching here. Do we have the hunger? We felt it for a second, but I don't see that as being a 'possessed by the power of hunger' sort of deal, and ... well I'm not sure Asherah is a 'smart fishy'. Maybe, but eating everything indiscriminately certainly seems to be his schtick. Plus there's the whole 'flying at high speeds towards the ocean'; if he wanted us to accomplish something here, well, he probably wouldn't be yanking us away.

Disargeria
May 6, 2010

All Good Things are Wild and Free!

Ixtlilton posted:

No, we were kidnapped, they grabbed us and killed our father, just because we didn't run away after that doesn't make it less of a kidnapping.


I'm pretty sure straight up decided to go with the strangers:

OPTION H: Grab your father's giant shark tooth and THEN go with Jalitha and the outsiders as they flee!

Theglavwen
Jun 10, 2006

Frankly, I don't know anyone who likes Chinese bronzes, but I have one of the finest collections in the country.

Soylent Pudding posted:

Kidnapping implies our father was our proper father and we weren't already held in captivity. We were rescued. Seriously, our mom was a slave and our "dad" regularly beat us. Why do people want to believe so hard this was a kidnapping?

Jesus, there's a really weird theme in this discussion where people seem dead-set on it being either kidnapping or rescue. What's up with that? You can 'rescue' someone 'via' kidnapping, you can objectively rescue someone from a bad situation, but still be taking them forcefully from their home, or family, or life. You can 'kidnap' people from bad homes. Children can be 'kidnapped' from their families or societies, even if they think they're willing. Children can also be 'kidnapped' from societies that don't want them. Children can be kidnapped from their 'proper' parents (what does that mean?), their adoptive parents, their biological parents, or even no parents, they can be kidnapped from societies, institutions, etc.

Og was probably rescued from an abusive society, yeah. But he was also taken without consent, either his own, or his 'people's' (for lack of a better word), from the society and culture to which, for good or ill, he belonged, which is pretty much definitionally kidnapping. Maybe it was for a good cause, maybe that still doesn't excuse it, you can feel either way, but drat, people are really set on arguing about just about everything here.

Disargeria posted:

I'm pretty sure straight up decided to go with the strangers:

OPTION H: Grab your father's giant shark tooth and THEN go with Jalitha and the outsiders as they flee!

I'm not sure I buy that that can be construed as a well informed decision to go with them; we hadn't intended to go with them when we stepped up and they grabbed us. We ran with them after they beheaded our father, everyone was screaming and running around, lightning had just been shot at a bunch of people, the ground was shaking and disaster looming. We had to run somewhere, and away from the danger happened to be the same path the outsiders and Jalitha were taking. Running away from a giant mess in fear and panic shouldn't be taken as aligning ourselves with a particular group of people.

And even then, as before, people, children at any rate, can still be technically kidnapped even if they think they want it. Parents 'willingly' kidnap children from other parents all the time.

Algid
Oct 10, 2007


Theglavwen posted:

As for the blood sacrifice, as has been mentioned before, there's no indication that there's inherent danger there: Shushem cut his palms and offered blood as part of his prayers to Asherah, and Asherah didn't whip him up into the air and devour him whole. We're offering blood sacrifice because it's what we've seen involved in Asherahn rituals, successfully, in this thread; the evidence provided previously is that its the regular course of things, and, dubiously, works. So 'pretty clear'? I have to disagree.
Before the update I didn't say it was inherently dangerous, I said it set a bad precedent because you're offering your own blood for power when the terms of a deal like this isn't very clear at all. I was even against praying to El for similar reasons, though that has much less obvious downsides. Besides, we decided to grow up being rebellious and running away from our lessons, why do you think our first instinct is start begging Asherah for mercy and emulating the guy we ran away from when things get tough?

If you're trying to argue that we believed it was effective, it should be very obvious to OG/Enkidal that it's probably less effective than a sword. We've seen the tooth being super sharp and we've seen it used to summon lightening. Except that the lightening didn't even kill 2 normal men and did nothing to the apparently superhuman king.

Diogines
Dec 22, 2007

Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

Theglavwen posted:

Hm, props for the effort, but I think you're really stretching here. Do we have the hunger? We felt it for a second, but I don't see that as being a 'possessed by the power of hunger' sort of deal, and ... well I'm not sure Asherah is a 'smart fishy'. Maybe, but eating everything indiscriminately certainly seems to be his schtick. Plus there's the whole 'flying at high speeds towards the ocean'; if he wanted us to accomplish something here, well, he probably wouldn't be yanking us away.

If you were not able to manifest the willpower to grab the branch or pray, at this very moment, you would probably be trying to eat that tree, dirt, your own hand or whoever happened to be closest.

All of your senses, all of them, even those which have nothing to do with satiation are SCREAMING HUNGER.

Come to think of it, eating your hand as you soar through the air probably should have been a poll option but I wrote them fairly late.

You see, smell, taste, touch, feel and even temperature sense, hunger. It is seventy degrees hunger at hunger o'clock and you feel one atmosphere of hunger worth of air ontop of you right now. Those internal senses we have which are not one of the big five and we don't think about much, like balance, orientation and time, scream, hunger. Every scrap of food you have ever eaten would not make a dent in the starvation you feel at this moment. It is nearly all consuming.

Diogines fucked around with this message at 21:36 on Jun 14, 2013

Disargeria
May 6, 2010

All Good Things are Wild and Free!

Theglavwen posted:

I'm not sure I buy that that can be construed as a well informed decision to go with them; we hadn't intended to go with them when we stepped up and they grabbed us. We ran with them after they beheaded our father, everyone was screaming and running around, lightning had just been shot at a bunch of people, the ground was shaking and disaster looming. We had to run somewhere, and away from the danger happened to be the same path the outsiders and Jalitha were taking. Running away from a giant mess in fear and panic shouldn't be taken as aligning ourselves with a particular group of people.

And even then, as before, people, children at any rate, can still be technically kidnapped even if they think they want it. Parents 'willingly' kidnap children from other parents all the time.

I am not sure how you determined all of that from the words "Go with Jalitha and the outsiders". I think it's pretty obvious what it meant and what a majority of people voted for. You're allowed your own interpretation of events, but I'd say the reason there's so much dissonance here is because your line of thinking is clashing with the majority of voters.

Theglavwen
Jun 10, 2006

Frankly, I don't know anyone who likes Chinese bronzes, but I have one of the finest collections in the country.

Algid posted:

Before the update I didn't say it was inherently dangerous, I said it set a bad precedent because you're offering your own blood for power when the terms of a deal like this isn't very clear at all. I was even against praying to El for similar reasons, though that has much less obvious downsides. Besides, we decided to grow up being rebellious and running away from our lessons, why do you think our first instinct is start begging Asherah for mercy and emulating the guy we ran away from when things get tough?

Fair call, dangerous precent certainly in diving head-first into blood sacrifice and contracts we're not fully versed in. Again though, I think the reason turning to it would be our first instinct is because, even though we often ran from our lessons (until we decided to double down on them, the more recent vote in that regard), they were still heavily, even fanatically, drilled into us. You don't learn to instantly recite parables from memory in exacting detail without having a good chunk of your mind and focus on them.

quote:

If you're trying to argue that we believed it was effective, it should be very obvious to OG/Enkidal that it's probably less effective than a sword. We've seen the tooth being super sharp and we've seen it used to summon lightening. Except that the lightening didn't even kill 2 normal men and did nothing to the apparently superhuman king.

Hah :) I'm not going to revisit the whole 'the lightning was ineffective thing' again, as I've said before, I think it's pretty obvious it was potent, it floored two people instantly, and was causing Tudiya to cry out and burning through his armor; Tudiya happened to live because he was exceptional, and El's favourite, etc., but if it hadn't been for Tudiya, Shushem would have had that situation in the bag. Nevertheless, there are two questions of effectiveness here; we're not looking for effectiveness in combat, necessarily (and even then, yeah, lightning seems more promising than a spear against these monsters), we're looking for effectiveness in appeasing Asherah, and effectiiveness in ritualistic functions.


Disargeria posted:

I am not sure how you determined all of that from the words "Go with Jalitha and the outsiders". I think it's pretty obvious what it meant and what a majority of people voted for. You're allowed your own interpretation of events, but I'd say the reason there's so much dissonance here is because your line of thinking is clashing with the majority of voters.

You might think it's pretty obvious, I disagree. Trying to argue that the phrase 'go with Jalitha etc.,' meant 'go with them culturally and socially, align yourself with them as your new family' instead of just 'go with them in the same direction, away from earthquakes and hungry fish gods' seems like a pretty big stretch to me, 'with' is not that definite a word. The majority of people voted for it, yeah, hell, I think I voted for it, but to say that the majority of people were voting for it because it was a chance to begin a new life with King Handsome and mummy, rather than because it was the sensible thing to do at the time, is putting a lot of words into a lot of mouths.

And again, the whole 'can still be kidnapping regardless of whether the child was all for it' bit.


Diogines posted:

If you were not able to manifest the willpower to grab the branch or pray, at this very moment, you would probably be trying to eat that tree, dirt, your own hand or whoever happened to be closest.

All of your senses, all of them, even those which have nothing to do with satiation are SCREAMING HUNGER.

Come to think of it, eating your hand as you soar through the air probably should have been a poll option but I wrote them fairly late.

You see, smell, taste, touch, feel and even temperature sense, hunger. It is seventy degrees hunger at hunger o'clock and you feel one atmosphere of hunger worth of air ontop of you right now. Those internal senses we have which are not one of the big five and we don't think about much, like balance, orientation and time, scream, hunger. Every scrap of food you have ever eaten would not make a dent in the starvation you feel at this moment. It is nearly all consuming.

That's awesome. Almost enough to make me come up with some new vote taking that into account, but I've changed my poo poo around enough already this time. Pretty cool insight into Asherah's mindset too, actually.

Walkin Goon
Apr 4, 2011

Theglavwen posted:

:stare: IRC is insane.

Nah, they're chatting in-character in regards to Og's own battered person syndrome. :eng101:

And as someone who's been away from this thread for a week or so, I'm rather amused with the direction the votes were taking.

Diogines posted:

I am sorry, I skipped over Theglavwe's questions.

Yes, your village has stories of the Great Fish saving people from Asherah, mostly by hiding them or helping them run, though the Great Lobster Father, Smis, has actually fought to protect people from Asherah if they were deserving. Asherah ate his claws instead. They grew back.

Haven't decided on what to do for current events, but the recent series of postings have convinced me to stop worshiping this Asherah fish-guy. Acknowledge him as a force of nature, sure, but I'd say any prayers we're sending to the ocean go to sea-folk like Smis and the Ninveh, AKA the ones who appear to actually give a poo poo about humanity beyond lunch time.

Especially the Smis guy. Dude once gave up his delicious claws just to protect people, hell yes I'd put faith in him over Mr. Ravenous Hunger. :allears:

Walkin Goon fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Jun 14, 2013

Disargeria
May 6, 2010

All Good Things are Wild and Free!

Theglavwen posted:

You might think it's pretty obvious, I disagree. Trying to argue that the phrase 'go with Jalitha etc.,' meant 'go with them culturally and socially, align yourself with them as your new family' instead of just 'go with them in the same direction, away from earthquakes and hungry fish gods' seems like a pretty big stretch to me, 'with' is not that definite a word.

I wasn't even suggesting that was the meaning.

We voted to go with them. As in they're going, and we're going with them together, by choice. I was mainly rebutting the idea that we were kidnapped. The purpose of going with them is up to the voters, and I can't claim to know what the majority was thinking there. However, it was very much a conscious decision amongst the majority to willingly go with this group of people.

It is that line of thinking (We were kidnapped from our home! Of course we'll rebel against these evil kidnappers!) that is causing a lot of strife amongst the voters and I think is entirely up to the misinterpretation of events by a group of people.

I just want everyone to have fun playing this awesome CYOA so I want to get all of this confusion out of the way.

A Terrible Person
Jan 8, 2012

The Dance of Friendship

Fun Shoe
Changing my vote to A and K. As for what to pray, I think something like "I just wanted to protect my family, please help us" is enough. Perhaps end it with a plea to stop being hungry or something, too; the idea of a kid being wracked with the all-consuming hunger of a Primal God/Demon of some sort is kind of disturbing.

Sucrose
Dec 9, 2009
A + K

Theglavwen
Jun 10, 2006

Frankly, I don't know anyone who likes Chinese bronzes, but I have one of the finest collections in the country.

Disargeria posted:

I wasn't even suggesting that was the meaning.

We voted to go with them. As in they're going, and we're going with them together, by choice. I was mainly rebutting the idea that we were kidnapped. The purpose of going with them is up to the voters, and I can't claim to know what the majority was thinking there. However, it was very much a conscious decision amongst the majority to willingly go with this group of people.

It is that line of thinking (We were kidnapped from our home! Of course we'll rebel against these evil kidnappers!) that is causing a lot of strife amongst the voters and I think is entirely up to the misinterpretation of events by a group of people.

I just want everyone to have fun playing this awesome CYOA so I want to get all of this confusion out of the way.

Ah, gotcha. I can certainly sympathize with the sentiment, but I still disagree that it's a 'misinterpretation' of events. I'm not sure the 'kidnapping' crowd feels like we've been forced into accompanying these people (although maybe they do, I don't know), the question, I think, is more one of whether or not what they pulled was an unsavoury move, or one that we might justifiably feel off about. Certainly we are currently accompanying them of our own volition, but that doesn't really say much. We originally stepped up to mediate between them and our father, they grabbed us and yanked us away. There was a lot of chaos that occured immediately after, suddenly people were dead, the ground was shaking, people were fleeing all over, what do we do? People voted to run with the strangers, away from the danger and into the forest. It doesn't really say anything about our feelings towards them, or how we ought to feel towards them.

In some sense there was a rescue, in other senses there was a kidnapping, how we feel about that event is really up to each voters impression of the character, no? As is, I think, whether or not we were running with the strangers in a gleeful escape from our oppressors, or just as a way to get the hell out of danger.

Edit: Maybe I'm being unclear, I'll try again. If the issue of whether or not we're willingly accompanying these people is meant to rebut the idea that we were kidnapped, I don't think it works. Whether or not we're currently going with them of our own volition says nothing about the events that brought us here, or why we're going with them. A child can willingly go along with its kidnappers; it may think the kidnapper has his best interests in mind, it may simply think that it would be more dangerous to do otherwise, or have no other real choice at the moment. The mere fact that we weren't tied up and forced to come with them when we fled the village doesn't have a lot of impact on how we ought to feel about the whole thing in general.

Theglavwen fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Jun 14, 2013

Diogines
Dec 22, 2007

Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

You hear only HUNGER.
You smell only HUNGER.
You taste only HUNGER.
You feel only HUNGER.
You see only HUNGER.
Your sense of balance, spatial orientation all scream HUNGER.

If every meal you have ever had in your entire life was laid out before you, it would not put a dent in the feeling of starvation you feel at this moment. The tree, the glimpses of the battle you see, the monsters, the people, your own arm all suddenly look edible and even if they do not, you would try to eat them anyway.








As you soar through the air you pass through the high branches of a tree, the branches scraping your body painfully, you muster what scraps of willpower you can and desperately grab a branch. The tooth falls from your grasp and down into the darkness below.

You scream. "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLL!!!! HEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!!"

You are still being pulled southwest with great force. The tree branch you are holding begins to bend, then it creaks.

"EEEEEEEEELLLLL!!!!" you cry out.

Perhaps a minute has now passed since Tudiya first stood, upon seeing the monsters, you have no idea what the state of the battle is, all you hear is hunger and it is nearly all you can see.

BEND bend bend bend bend bend bend bend bend bend beeeeeeeeeend creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaak.

SNAP.

You soar through the air, rising through the leaves and branches of the forest.

As you pass through the top of the leaves, something grabs your foot.







The "old man" in his 60s. Ishamal. You are soaring through the sky as perhaps only the birds do. You are moving through the air swiftly, the sun has set and it is the first moments of night, Ishamal is being dragged along for the ride by virtue of the fact he is holding onto your leg, though you can't feel him, it is as if a cushion of air is between you and his grip.

"You ARE TOO YOUNG TO DIE BUT NOT TOO FOOLISH!" Ishamal yells through the wooshing of air and hunger. You can FEEL his words and understand him perfectly.

He draws back one of his hands and strikes you with great force. You shake and there is a clap like the sound of thunder and a bright light, you shake as if being hit by a great force, yet his blow seems to have struck some unseen force and does no injury, nor, does it seem to have slowed you down.

SLAM!

WHOMP!

FUMP!

Three more blows, three more claps like thunder. He grabs you again with both hands and seems to be trying to... climb onto you somehow.

QUESTION 1:

You....

OPTION A: Sweet merciful god, you don't resist and let him do whatever the hell he wants!
OPTION B: Sweet merciful god, hes going to kill me! Shake him off! Shake him off!
OPTION C: HUNGEEEEEEEEEEERY!!!!!!! Try to eat your own hand or Ishamal or something OR ANYTHING WHY AM I RESISTING I AM SO HUNGRRRRRYYYYY!!!


QUESTION 2:

You also... (Pick one)

OPTION D: Say something to Ishamal! Specify what.
OPTION E: Yell to El for help!
OPTION F: Yell to Asherah for help!
OPTION G: Yell to Enkidu for help!
OPTION H: Yell to Labaras for help!
OPTION I: Yell to some of the Sky Giants for help!(Which?)
OPTION J: Yell to some of the Great Fish for help!(Which?)
OPTION K: Yell to someone or something else! Specify who and what.

Diogines fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Jun 15, 2013

SerSpook
Feb 13, 2012






edit: Vote changed below.

SerSpook fucked around with this message at 23:39 on Jun 14, 2013

LLSix
Jan 20, 2010

The real power behind countless overlords




I would yell to El for help, but Ishamal isn't doing that, so it probably won't help. We've also already called on El & Asherah without any positive changes so calling on any god is unlikely to help much. Maybe our new namesake will help us out. Arguably Ishamal showing up is a result of asking El for help; but I'm not sure falling from even higher up counts as a positive change.

Edit: vote changed from F to G due to vote lettering change \/\/ was always a vote for Enkidu

LLSix fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Jun 14, 2013

PandaPropaganda
Apr 22, 2008
Voting for A and also to D. tell Ishamal we're sorry, we just wanted to help.

Diogines
Dec 22, 2007

Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

Lettering screwed up, fixed.

SerSpook
Feb 13, 2012




PandaPropaganda posted:

Voting for A and also to tell Ishamal we're sorry, we just wanted to help since there's two C options right now and I don't want my vote to get confused with a vote to eat Ishamal.

Eh, this I guess. El prayer has done it's part I'll agree.

Janac
May 12, 2010

PandaPropaganda posted:

Voting for A and also to D. tell Ishamal we're sorry, we just wanted to help.

Voting this too.

tarepanda
Mar 26, 2011

Living the Dream
A -- I'm consumed by hunger and fear and it's too much for me to even think about what to do about this guy climbing me.

K -- I just scream and cry, occasionally calling names of all of the people I know, and El.

D -- I scream and cry but I beg Ishamal not to hit me, please don't hit me.

PandaPropaganda posted:

Voting for A and also to D. tell Ishamal we're sorry, we just wanted to help.

It's been a minute since we wet ourselves out of fear, cut our hand, and started rocketing through the air, and now a guy is climbing us. This is all beyond our comprehension, are we really going to be that coherent at this moment? Don't get me wrong, I think it's a good idea, but I'm not sure if I would be able to say that in this situation, let alone a little kid.

tarepanda fucked around with this message at 01:03 on Jun 15, 2013

HBar
Sep 13, 2007



If El is listening, he already heard us. Now in our panic we scream out to Smattas and Marnal and then everyone else we can think of.

Ixtlilton
Mar 10, 2012

How to Draw
by Rube Goldberg

C I take that 60 year old second hand and eat that motherfucker.
J The lobster's cool, I'll pray to the lobster.

Edit: No for real, ask your grandpa, can I have your hand?

Ixtlilton fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Jun 15, 2013

LLSix
Jan 20, 2010

The real power behind countless overlords

Diogines,

Are any Sky Giants particularly associated with saving small children and fools? Or maybe flying? Asking a flying sky giant for help would probably be a great idea since we don't want to experience falling if Ishamal saves us.

Soylent Pudding
Jun 22, 2007

We've got people!


PandaPropaganda posted:

Voting for A and also to D. tell Ishamal we're sorry, we just wanted to help.
THIS

Raserys
Aug 22, 2011

IT'S YA BOY
Ishamal is either a really high jumper or a really fast climber.

as per PandaPropaganda.

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my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

PandaPropaganda posted:

Voting for A and also to D. tell Ishamal we're sorry, we just wanted to help.

THIS.

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