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F - I suspect that if it did work it may not be the direct physical upgrades we got. I figure she got a mental boost, and maybe something to do with snake venom, snake skin, or how a snake would move, so flexibility, etc? Can we try pinching her or something?
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Apr 20, 2021 03:14
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C. Snakes are what, flexible? Quick? Test her reflexes.
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Apr 20, 2021 03:19
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Dr Subterfuge posted:C. Snakes are what, flexible? Quick? Test her reflexes.
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Apr 20, 2021 03:31
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E, the shrooms might have been real skookum too. We'll get you more cool stuff is what.
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Apr 20, 2021 03:37
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Dr Subterfuge posted:C. Snakes are what, flexible? Quick? Test her reflexes. I like this idea. +1. But how? Snap out a hand to pop her upside the head?
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Apr 20, 2021 04:36
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Have her do snake things and see if anything feels different for her What are snake things? I dunno, like slither around for a bit, be sneaky, lay in the sun for a while and then dart forward real fast.
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Apr 20, 2021 04:40
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Dr Subterfuge posted:C. Snakes are what, flexible? Quick? Test her reflexes.
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Apr 20, 2021 16:03
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Ok since it's skin maybe she'll automatically be less visible in the grasses that we found it in!
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Apr 20, 2021 16:13
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Starting Somewhere You tried really hard to separate out the juice from the mushrooms when you made your batch of ink, but Raisa wanted to keep as much of the snake skin as possible because she was worried that without it the ink wouldn’t be strong enough. Maybe she ended up more like a snake because of it. Is that a thing that can happen? She’s not poisoning the ground around her or anything like that, but there is one weird thing about snakes you know is true based on how they’re built alone. You stand up, turn to the other girl and say. “Raisa, I want you get up, pull your arm back and then punch me in the stomach as fast as you can.” She looks up at you utterly confused. “What?” “Just trust me on this, alright.” Raisa gets up and assumes what you consider to be an extremely clumsy fighting stance. You kind of forget that not everyone knows how to fight as well as you do, but in this case it doesn’t really matter. You’re not testing Raisa’s physical strength, which is on your part, you’re trying to make sure that it connects with as little force as possible. “Now go!” ________________________________ You feel the blow before you see it, and once again thank the spirits for your enhanced strength because you ended up getting the full force, though it remains at the strength of a 11 cycle old girl. Unfortunately it seems that you did manage to hurt Raisa in the process, because she’s nursing her hand. “Owww… What was the point of that?!” You wait for Raisa to shake out the soreness before explaining. “Okay so, one of Mom’s many hunting lessons about why real snakes are dangerous. Even though they move slower than people, they can bite you faster than your eye can see.” You gesture with one of your hands in imitation of a snake striking outwards to illustrate your point. “That’s what you got. Burst of speed. You didn’t get all the fancy stuff, because all the energy went into making sure you don’t shatter your bones the instant you use it.” Raisa’s face immediately brightens upon hearing your explanation. “That’s pretty cool, I guess. Not like I was going to be all that useful in a fight any way, so it’s nice to be able to get out of the way quicker.” “I mean you could still be useful in a fight if you wanted! Really useful! You’d just have to learn how to position yourself so you end the burst of speed away from the animal. I really ought to teach you the basics if we’re going to be wandering out all the time.” “Vozha, I don’t think I’ll be that...” “Nope, Raisa, don’t want to hear it. I didn’t make you learn tattooing, which is fine cause that’s an art thing. But this is for your own good.” ________________________________ You’ve never taught anyone anything beyond a couple simple instructions before, so you’re not sure if it’s a bad sign that several hours later Raisa’s barely less hopeless at fighting than when you started. The fact that she’s been trained to run away or hide when facing danger is making things harder than if you were starting from scratch, and even though Raisa can’t keep the burst of speed up forever, it’s getting in the way of her learning the fundamentals. Eventually, after knocking Raisa into the dust again, you raise your hand to signal a break, before helping to pick the other girl up from the ground. “Are you sure you’re holding back?” “I mean it’s hard to hold back entirely, but I’m trying to keep myself to your level of strength? That’s just the experience coming though, and it’ll come with time.” “That’s a problem for future-me, and present-me would really like to stop thinking about this and have some food. I’m guessing that the Bad Fruit’s all that we’ve got left?” “Unless someone came back to camp early and is willing to share, yeah.” Raisa groans, and you can’t help but agree with her. You’re less hungry than you expected to be given how much you were running around, but you’re still pretty hungry and not in the mood for bitter tasting food. Although… “I mean we might as well look around, right? Still gives us a break from training.” “Sure, why not?” ________________________________ The two of you head to the hearths near the center of the camp, which is as much of a hub of social activity as exists for the Spotted Baobab Tribe. There’s always at least a few people here, the elderly and recent mothers for instance. But it’s also where those individuals who have otherwise been successful try to build favor with their peers, not that you’re particularly knowledgeable on the details of that sort of thing. Fortunately enough Raisa is, and she’s able to land the two of you a spot near a fire where several hunters have managed to bring a gazelle in from the savanna. Just small enough of a catch that it’s best eaten quickly, but just large enough that there’s enough to share with a few people. And you actually know the lead hunter in this case. Osip is about a cycle or two older than you, and up until your first adventure with Raisa, was probably the closest thing you had to a friend. He’s about as smart and brave as you are, which made you both among the premier hunters of your peer group, and you used to have something of a friendly running competition on who caught more animals. But that’s ended for both of you at this point: you, of course, decided to branch out into other things and he started moving from being a singularly skilled hunter to leading groups. After you all eat a bit, Osip takes the lead in trying to start a conversation. “It’s been ages since I’ve seen either of you. I know your parents alternate between giving you free reign and keeping you super busy, Raisa, but surely Vozha’s aunt can’t be that harsh of a taskmistress.” Well... “No, she definitely is. Promised that the instant I stopped going back, she’d stop teaching. And Aunt Eva never says anything she doesn’t mean.” Raisa tries to intercede with a little more tact. “You can’t argue with the results though, Vozha’s gotten really good at tattooing. I even got her to give me one last night.” “Ah, and does this one also let you shoot fire out of your stomach?” “Well, not exactly...” “But it comes close.” ________________________________ With your latest interruption, the three hunters turn to you and you can tell that they’re paying a bit more attention to you when you speak again. “I said a couple nights ago that I figured out how to make us all stronger, and I meant it. It turns out that the process doesn’t quite work the same way for everyone, but it hasn’t hurt anyone yet.” There is silence for a few seconds before Osip calls the other two for a huddle. The three argue among themselves for a bit, and it grows pretty loud, but they eventually seem to come to a decision. The older boy turns to you and says: “If it really can work for everyone, we want in as quickly as possible. And I can bring another two people to minimize the risk. But we’ll only help if you can guarantee we’re all getting tattoos. You ready to become legends, girls?” Yeah, Osip’s probably right with what he’s implying there, even if he doesn’t know the exact details. All of your finds have been individual strokes of luck at the bare threshold of what qualifies for your process. And it’s not like you’re dealing with people who know how to look for things other than animals. If you do this, you’re going to have to kill a Revered Ancestor. A real one. ________________________________ Do you accept the help of Osip and his group? In either case we’re probably going to be doing a couple months of time skip after the hunt/one scene. a) Yes, it’s as good a chance as we’ll ever get to make this spread. (Somebody's probably going to die, but the odds of it being you or Raisa are very minimal. Get the ball rolling on tribe-wide acceptance of cultivation, but it also means you’re opening the field for others who haven’t put in the hard work to benefit and possibly surpass you.) b) No, the loss of control isn’t worth it. (Focus expanding your and Raisa’s own powers and maybe bringing in a few more of your immediate social circle. Creates the impression that you're trying for some kind of power play if the disparity grows too great.) Jossar fucked around with this message at 00:53 on Apr 21, 2021 |
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Apr 21, 2021 00:51
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A Let's go kill a revered ancestor!
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Apr 21, 2021 01:01
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B How many tattoo artists are there and how many people can make the potion Ruvim makes? We can set up the family close friends first. Osip seems genuine not sure about the rest so we'll take it slow Toughy fucked around with this message at 01:56 on Apr 21, 2021 |
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Apr 21, 2021 01:35
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B Power play!
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Apr 21, 2021 01:47
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B I want to help the others... By guiding them. Don't want them to take our glory. If a drat little kid could find this out and no one else ever had, they don't deserve the power.
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Apr 21, 2021 01:52
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B yeah I wanna kill a revered ancestor, but I dont wanna get a bunch of people killed trying to do that. We are enough of an outsider without getting folks killed. We will focus on improving Raisa and maybe Ruvim (alongside ourselves) so we can undertake a dangerous mission like that with less chance of losses.
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Apr 21, 2021 03:27
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B. let's explore and develop before we commit to casualties
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Apr 21, 2021 04:31
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KittyEmpress posted:B yeah I wanna kill a revered ancestor, but I dont wanna get a bunch of people killed trying to do that. We are enough of an outsider without getting folks killed. We will focus on improving Raisa and maybe Ruvim (alongside ourselves) so we can undertake a dangerous mission like that with less chance of losses. 
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Apr 21, 2021 10:19
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A People die in hunts, this is a hunter-gatherer society. They know the risks, they can see the rewards. I don't want our secrets to be kept to us alone - hard to have competitors that way.
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Apr 21, 2021 13:36
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A
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Apr 21, 2021 20:18
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Slow and Steady Osip’s offer is tempting. Sorely tempting. It’s the first time someone with a measurable level of authority’s been willing to believe in your vision for how the world could be. All it would take is one successful expedition and there would be enough people on the way to spiritual self improvement that its effectiveness could no longer be doubted. But you have to turn the offer down. You truly, deeply, know that you aren’t strong enough to win against a Revered Ancestor just yet without paying a high price. Raisa certainly isn’t hunt-ready. The majority of the work is going to be done by the other hunters, and there’s no way that wouldn’t result in somebody getting injured or dying. And in truth, you’re still just a little bit selfish about the whole thing. Is it right that you put all this time and effort into figuring out the method and you’re just going to bring everyone else up to your level without strengthening yourself first? “Sorry Osip, it’s just too much. Maybe ask me again when I know we can win.” The older boy’s face darkens, with a corresponding look of relief emerging on the face of one of the other hunters. “Well Vozha, if you’re certain. But given what happened earlier this week, you can’t go running around as much any more. People are going to expect you to pull your own weight. Might be the last chance for the big score.” You huff in response. “I’m sure!” Raisa and the other hunters seem to sense the impending spark of conflict and drag you both away from the hearth before you make some kind of ridiculous competition out of the whole thing. Like seeing who'll be the first to kill a Revered Ancestor by themselves or something. Well, Raisa can’t really drag you away, but her tugging on your arm is inconvenient enough that you agree to be lead away. _______________________________ The next morning you find Mihail at the entrance to your hut with a bowl of ochre. He explains that since you’re at least as strong as most of the other hunters at this point and have long since proven yourself to be a competent hunter, the tribe can’t really consider you a child any more. So it’s his job as the village big man to initiate you into adulthood… well, it would probably be Ilena’s job, but the two of you are on bad terms. Given that you’ve had a lot of attention placed on yourself recently, he’s willing to shorten the adulthood ceremony to its essential basics rather than dragging you out in front of the tribe again, but the ultimate decision on how it’s to be done is up to you. You’re still not in the mood to deal with people, so you agree to the shortened ceremony. Mikhail spreads a line of red ochre from one side of your face, across the bridge of your nose, to the other side of your face and says a ritual prayer to the Rodjanebo of the tribe to look after you, as you will now look after the tribe. A little over a season ago you would be absolutely thrilled by this turn of events, but honestly, now you’d rather have the lack of responsibility that comes with still being a kid. Raisa ends up in a similar situation to you, although mostly because her parents are in one of their cycles of intensely focused production where they can’t afford to let her leave the house in order to perform the ceremony. Raisa once explained that it has something to do with her parents having days when they’re very productive and go out and hunt and gather or work to preserve food practically all day and night, and then there’s days where they just sort of hang around and do nothing in particular. They both synced up very well to the schedule and it works for them, but it’s been extremely annoying for her to work around. For her, becoming an adult is honestly pretty liberating, as long as she isn’t being rude and actively disrupting their routine. _______________________________ You manage to keep to your three person party, the only difference being that unlike before, you have to spend the majority of your time ensuring you actually get a meal. Still, it’s not so strict that you can’t afford a little bit of time off. You start making decent headway in teaching Raisa how to fight, and Ruvim’s trying to plan ahead on some kinds of medicine he could make if given access to similar resources to before. Eventually, with the three of you working together, you figure out a good enough food collection rotation that allows you to have a regular adventure day. The first few adventure days are exciting, but more along the lines of seeing interesting things: like a lake that you think is actually a really big footprint which just fills up during the wet season. On the fourth or fifth trip, you manage to find a big clump of rainbow banded rocks which fit your purposes. This time it’s Ruvim’s opportunity, although his tattoo design is a bit… metaphorically creative. Some wobbly design that represents what Ruvim says is a plant, which continues to grow no matter the weather. It’s good enough for the process, so you let it pass and carve his design along the left side of his face down to his stomach. Absolutely nothing happens. After the experience with Raisa, you try and test to make sure that there isn’t some edge case of usefulness that your group isn’t thinking of. You even go back and try to experiment with giving Ruvim another dose of a different material or altering the tattoo pattern, but still nothing. You just don’t understand what’s wrong, though Ruvim provides a dismal suggestion: “You originally came to me for help because I was the spiritually strongest person in the tribe, right? Maybe whatever helped that stick in the first place is blocking me from ever getting any stronger.” _______________________________ Ruvim does agree to keep going with your group. At this point, you’ve proven to be a pretty good team in terms of food gathering and maybe there will be something else you can figure out in the future. After a few more trips, you and Raisa manage to gather enough of the weaker energy sources to try experimenting with making yourselves stronger. Fortunately, now that you’ve altered your bodies in the first place it proves to be much easier to get the energy from a natural source. Also, you’re kind of disturbed that the rocks can be ground, suspended in water, and then you and Raisa can drink the resulting mixture with no ill effects. In any event, after consuming enough of the stuff the two of you definitely feel a significant quantitative increase in your respective abilities, though it’s still roughly the same kind of power as before. _______________________________ The good news is you and Raisa got stronger. The bad news is Ruvim’s fundamentally incapable of cultivating. Can you fix this problem? a) Bigger starting potential just means we need a much bigger power source to kickstart the process, right? (????) b) Okay maybe if we weaken Ruvim, we can bring him down to the point where the normal method works? (????) c) Well, maybe Ruvim’s incapable of making himself stronger, but he was always leaning more to the crafting side of medicine anyway. Maybe he can eventually compensate for the lack of personal strength if he gets good enough? (????) d) Something else? Not a strict plurality vote but, is there anyone else of your friends/family you consider to be sufficiently close enough to be worth investing in? The previous vote made me a little more cautious about just blanket improving everyone. (Sasha, Mom, Dad, Grandmother are your immediate family, and Raisa has her Mom and Dad too. Osip’s probably the only person you’ve talked with semi-recently outside your family circles, although calling him a “friend” is a bit much.) Jossar fucked around with this message at 23:34 on Apr 21, 2021 |
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Apr 21, 2021 23:32
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A He's a lot older and was stronger than the two of us, and he's already had some Glow exposure. Maybe the effects weren't dramatic because he changed less. The image he chose is also kind of... crappy. Let's try to get him a powerful material and he can make that into a potent potion to jumpstart him.
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Apr 21, 2021 23:55
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A
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Apr 21, 2021 23:59
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A, Sasha, Parents and Raisa's parents
Toughy fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Apr 22, 2021 |
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Apr 22, 2021 00:02
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A he has so much potential that we need to give him a big push to let it out!
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Apr 22, 2021 00:05
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Toughy posted:A, Sasha, Parents and Raisa's parents I like this plan Shinarato fucked around with this message at 05:57 on Apr 22, 2021 |
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Apr 22, 2021 00:44
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A. I don't want to raise anyone else up immediately. I'd like to spend some time in the village getting to know people though. Other hunters, craftsmen, all the like. Thus far our only experiences with our family has mostly been them treating us as crazy and grandma stopping us from running off alone. The closest I am to wanting to empower someone is Aunt Eva, who taught us how to tattoo and is why we managed to come this far, in a way.
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Apr 22, 2021 03:28
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D Maybe the reason Ruvim can't cultivate like we do is because he already started on his own method instead? He just didn't realize it?
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Apr 22, 2021 03:52
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KittyEmpress posted:The closest I am to wanting to empower someone is Aunt Eva, who taught us how to tattoo and is why we managed to come this far, in a way.
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Apr 22, 2021 04:18
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I posted some info in the Discord and it's probably important enough to be worth reposting here, slightly modified.quote:Sprout/Stage 1 is, relatively speaking, a limited enhancement over regular humanity. At its' early step, you're marginally better than you would be as a regular human. The further you advance, the more you reflect being able to replicate feats that require a large scale group of humans to do. Seedling/Stage 2 is marked by the qualitative transition where you are capable of feats that are no longer replicable by humanity, but are still mostly bound by what we would consider to be physical laws. This is, of course, different for someone like Raisa whose inherent specialization lets her do something which is definitionally not something humans can do, but pays for it in relative weakness, though the effects will appear to converge with your own the stronger she gets. EDIT: Also the stars in the night sky, I guess?   Major Constellations Left to Right, sort of. Dry Season: The Northern Bow The Spider The Baobab The Heron The Little Giraffe The Big Giraffe The Lion The Crocodile The River The Hunter The Elephant The Spear The Mountain The Southern Bow Wet Season: The Northern Bow The Snake The Lightning Bolt The Fire The Net The Basket The Mouse The Rodjanebo The Child The Mother The Southern Bow Jossar fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Apr 22, 2021 |
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Apr 22, 2021 13:46
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Tag yourself. I'm the Heron. code:
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Apr 22, 2021 20:02
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So ya'll are saying you want some kind of Celestial alignment and a tattoo that looks like this? I can start working on the theoretical bullshit to make that happen, if that's still a thing. For the moment I'm taking it easy and seeing what feedback we get from the story before trying to come up with Cultivation Step 2.
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Apr 22, 2021 20:53
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Cannon_Fodder posted:Tag yourself. I usually try to be as comprehensive as possible in terms of explanation. However, I will not be doing that here because it is more true to the spirit of trying to figure out what the ancients saw when they made the constellations and infinitely funnier that way. ___________________________ Me and a couple IRL friends are trying to experiment with a Zoom book club tonight, so I might have to postpone the update to tomorrow. People seem pretty set on option A for Ruvim though, so if I can find the time i'll at least explore that bit. But the general tone seems to be that there aren't particularly strong feelings on who to help, outside of the core group of three. Is there interest in having me try and write about other people that you know from their perspective to get to know them a little better? Do people want to stick to your group of three as part of an "I think larger than myself, but I only shelter a few people under my branches" philosophy? Or is this reflective of an attitude of "Vozha trusts/is obligated by ties of blood enough to expect them not to screw it up" sort of thing and so the exact details are unimportant?
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Apr 22, 2021 23:08
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Is 'keep everyone baseline human mooks, elevate myself and a few trusted people to an inhumanly powerful level and rule over humanity and the world as a terrifying godlike being' an option?
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Apr 22, 2021 23:15
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Outrail posted:Is 'keep everyone baseline human mooks, elevate myself and a few trusted people to an inhumanly powerful level and rule over humanity and the world as a terrifying godlike being' an option? That's the second option, albeit taken to its most extreme, yeah.
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Apr 22, 2021 23:17
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Enhance our family and everyone else... Eventually. For now push things further with our little trio. Try to reach another stage of cultivation that's even cooler, explore, maybe make a Glow Stone of our own. We shared what we thought the method was, they could do it on their own initiative if they want.
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Apr 22, 2021 23:19
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Gotta start small then grow bigger
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Apr 22, 2021 23:22
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I'd like a few more mundane things to do with people around the camp? Our mother is a hunter, and was the mentor for us. I think? Maybe she wants to take us on a hunt with her to judge us. This could lead into us ruining our weapon or getting nice materials and getting time with a crafter family member, etc. I'd like to get to know our family before we commit to anything, but I dont wanna see their PoV that much.
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Apr 22, 2021 23:28
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In that same vain I'd like to go on a regular hunt with Osip and crew to judge their worthiness
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Apr 22, 2021 23:32
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Jossar posted:That's the second option, albeit taken to its most extreme, yeah. Second option Immortal godking of humanity sounds like a nice goal.
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Apr 23, 2021 00:14
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KittyEmpress posted:I'd like a few more mundane things to do with people around the camp? Our mother is a hunter, and was the mentor for us. I think? Maybe she wants to take us on a hunt with her to judge us. This could lead into us ruining our weapon or getting nice materials and getting time with a crafter family member, etc. yeah, agreed, we haven't really fleshed out the rest of our tribe, so it's kinda hard to vote on who to help sight unseen. We should definitely zoom in for a bit to introduce some more characters.
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Apr 23, 2021 00:40
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For me, to continue to put it in plant terms, I want to plant a few more seedlings to start spreading seeds of power to the rest of the village. Translation: get our and Raisa's family going and they can work on getting the rest of the village to be more awesome if they want while we go on cool adventures.
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Apr 23, 2021 01:19
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