*flops onto thread* Buh? Oh, update.

Morbid joke of the day: What does the Fae do when you let her in? Slaughter your mom of course.

:V

... What? I originally joked about us needing to burn down the entire village on the discord. Which, tbf, if enough of them were infected... Need an ominous zoom up of Seele's face with shrunken irises but otherwise shadowed over upper face as she pulls out her scythe and turns to the kids. Something something Suffer not a Honkai to live.

But I'm sure it'll be fine, what the worst that could happen? :V
 
Honkai Corruption is treatable - Valkyries wouldn't be alive if it weren't. Stigmata help, since they boost resistance - and I'll point out that stigmata can be artificially induced; Seele's kind of a weirdo for having one naturally, natural stigmata are super-rare - and there are drug regimens and such to purge mild corruption.

Even the acute sort, however, can be treated. Not - not easily, but it can be done.

...admittedly, given the end of the world, I very much doubt Seele has access to a convenient supply of "distilled magic Schariac blood"

But, like

The blue bubbly stuff is anti-Honkai serum, distilled from the blood of a Schariac valkyrie, which
  1. Caused a Herrscherin running on three fully-functional Cores and a fuckton of grudges to vent enough Honkai corruption to stop being an omnicidial pawn of the void; and
  2. Tesla tested on herself by exposing herself to a lethal dose of Honkai radiation and waiting for visible signs of zombification to set in before trying the counteragent.
Given that Tesla and Kiana are still around, well. Obviously it works.

Now obviously this doesn't actually help us exactly but it does mean that there is something that could be done. Treatment is conceivably possible. I'm not sure how to leverage that into actually doing something but I dunno give me some time here sheesh.

...although in all seriousness, like, this land has been poisoned. These people should leave, if that is in any way feasible possible. Trying to stay anywhere near an Impact site is way too dangerous, even if it's technically possible and occasionally survivable.
 
I'm not sure what this means?
I took it as, "Now that Seele has a decent idea of what's going on here, try to explain the situation to the kids... only that's probably not going to go all that well on a number of levels."

As for the vote... I have two different tracks of thought here, both probably ultimately futile. We came here to help so even though this place looks doomed I don't think we can just flat-out ignore what's happening. My initial thought was to have the sisters engage and destroy the horde themselves without telling anyone and continue with the plan... but seeing as how we elected to have Seele talk with the villager leaders while we're here I think it might be worth write-ins where we explain to the village leaders that we can deal with the Horde and leverage that for information. I can see that going sideways though - they're unlikely to believe we can do this, and even upon our success they might just think we're no longer just monsters but tainted monsters from our contact with the horde. It would impart the advantage of Seele asking if it's at all possible for them to relocate but... I've got a dim feeling on the likelihood of that.

Really, I've just got a bad feeling about the future prospects of this place of generally and have been beaten down to Vel's position of, "You can't possibly be serious about investigating the possible source of this eruption after that pep talk" and making the hard decision that while we'll make an effort to help people here, we can't save bubble universes forever and we just have to settle for hopefully giving these people here a few days/weeks of peace before it dissolves into the sea. (...This bubble universe is another one where we suspect it can't last for very long on its own... right?) That said, my view here - and having Seele adopt it - definitely feels like a "This decision will have consequences" kind of choice for Seele's worldview going forward so if anyone would rather her choose to struggle against this inevitability and go all out I 100% understand that.

[ ] Plan: Unseen Aid
-[ ] [Horde] Fight ruination head-on. It will not pass.
-[ ] [Villagers] Keep them in the dark.
-[ ] [Mother] Continue with the plan.
-[ ] [Outside] Don't.

[ ] Plan: The Grim Truth
-[ ] [Horde] Explain to the village leaders that you can, and intend to, defeat the Horde. Tell them that if they feel obligated to pay you back for your help all you ask is they answer your questions about the weird tree. If for some reason they refuse to answer your questions, still defeat the Horde.
-[ ] [Villagers] Also explain to the village leaders your guess as to the situation, if not in the actual technical terms. Explain that the only viable solution you see is a forced evacuation, but it's their call and you can't say for sure the outcome.
-[ ] [Mother] Continue with the plan.
-[ ] [Outside] Don't.


These are, roughly, the two plans floating in my head right now. I'm personally leaning Unseen Aid, but because I'm a sap, "The Grim Truth" ended up becoming a lot more... "Do Not Go Gently" than I initially expected... I should probably change the name but I'm bad at plan names so it's just going to stay. Key point here is my assumption that this bubble universe is doomed regardless - even if Seele goes outside to try and resolve a possible source of the eruption. If that's not true I should be corrected sharply because Grim Truth in particular is based heavily on that premise. Also, yes, it basically has Seele offering to try and evacuate a whole village to the Hyperion. This may be a very bad idea and I imagine we'll get quite the talking to if we try it. ...Like I said I'm a sap and that plan kept getting more idealistic as I composed it. I considered having Grim Truth also conditionally explain things to the children if we got a favorable reply from the village leaders, in a "Uh... we're gonna take you guys to our village to try and treat this, it's safer there and we have better medicine and doctors there. But it felt too conditional on how things went before that I just went with a maxim of Keep It Simple, Stupid.
 
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I prefer seele tell them about honkai and give choice either evacuate or stay. Either way we must kill honkai on principle.
 
If that's not true I should be corrected sharply because Grim Truth in particular is based heavily on that premise.
It's not true. The episode in which we enter it goes into a little more detail, but it's stable so long as Seele and the Hyperion are shielding it from the worst of the Sea.

That was originally an accident, but it currently isn't.

Also, to point out the obvious, time flows a lot faster in here than out there.
 
Oh. Well then, trying to find and put a stop to the source outside is back on the menu for me. ...If anything this makes my decision harder because I thought it was a choice between a number of pretty bleak options and now there's some hope again.

I think I'm now leaning towards Unseen Aid but modified so Seele does head outside to try and resolve the problem at its source but seeing as I was off base in my initial planning stages I'd definitely appreciate input so that hopefully doesn't happen again.
 
Oh. Well then, trying to find and put a stop to the source outside is back on the menu for me. ...If anything this makes my decision harder because I thought it was a choice between a number of pretty bleak options and now there's some hope again.

I think I'm now leaning towards Unseen Aid but modified so Seele does head outside to try and resolve the problem at its source but seeing as I was off base in my initial planning stages I'd definitely appreciate input so that hopefully doesn't happen again.
There's a number of points you should know, then. I'm not including anything that hasn't been described in the text before, but...

- Time runs faster here. I tried to make that obvious, so maybe everyone knows and just thinks it too obvious to mention, but it runs a lot faster here. There's no actual risk of not making it back in time for whatever is going to happen. By the same token, Einstein has been living in this world for... some time. I was tongue in cheek when I suggested she's the siblings' mother; she's not, but she's been here long enough that it wasn't impossible.

- Seele is wrapped around the universe. To a first approximation, to look at what's going on outside it she doesn't need to go anywhere at all, she just needs to open her eyes -- and if it were going to be dangerous, she's already in danger. But that doesn't mean she can do so while still running two bodies that are happily chatting with the twins, and there's always the possibility that she'd need to move a little, to investigate.

- Seele is not as good at reading the twins as she thinks she is. She's pretty damn good, but that's an arms race, and they've spent most of their lives getting better at fooling her. Most of the time they don't want to, though.

- The twins aren't as good at reading Seele as they think they are, ditto.

- The twins aren't as good at fooling Seele as they think they are.

- Seele is definitely not as good at fooling the twins as she thinks she is. There's a whole lot of overconfidence in that group.

- Seele does have a vial of magic Schariac serum. I didn't mention it, because she won't use it for this even if you vote for her to do so. It's meant for emergency situations, or Einstein.

- Liliya's nanite profile was designed specifically to cope with ongoing low-level damage from Honkai energy infection. However, it's meant for Liliya; the generic profile isn't as good. Also the nanites aren't going to last. It works for Liliya only because she gets constant top-ups.

- Rozaliya has a similar set of nanites, designed more for prevention than treatment.

As always, I'm happy to answer questions if you have them.
 
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Oh, and while you're thinking this over:

- Emperor-level Honkai beasts are the type of enemy against which, if the twins make any mistake, they're dead. Seele is harder to kill, but she could be badly hurt as well.

I'm not saying that's likely, or that the concern even registers to Rozaliya, but this isn't like those trolls. There's genuine danger here.
 
[X] Plan: Improved Unseen Aid
-[X] [Horde] Fight ruination head-on. It will not pass.
-[X] [Villagers] Keep them in the dark.
-[X] [Mother] Continue with the plan.
-[X] [Outside] Go look.


I have a really bad feeling about all of this and I hate my own vote someone please save us with a better plan. :sad:
 
*raises finger* *remembers multiple times where Flame Emperors instantly evaporated a max level and kitted out Reason* *lowers finger* Fair enough, yeah.
I don't remember them being particularly hard? I haven't played in a while though, so idk. fun fact, Swallowtail Phantasm was my most upgraded battlesuit, along with Blood Rose and Void Drifter.
 
I don't remember them being particularly hard? I haven't played in a while though, so idk. fun fact, Swallowtail Phantasm was my most upgraded battlesuit, along with Blood Rose and Void Drifter.
Players can reliably beat what they play against, unless you make a mistake. Even if you do make a mistake, you have enough HP to continue on through. If your valks leave the stage half-dead, no big deal.

That's not really the case outside of games. Imagine the game with no HP pickups, and if any damage to the character degraded further combat performance. Rozaliya is tough; a single hit from, say, an Assaka, won't do her in. Which is not the same thing as saying she'd be right as rain afterwards. Her regeneration is relatively slow compared to Theresa.

Liliya and Roza are very good at covering each other, but we're talking about an entire Honkai Eruption here. Realistically speaking, the "Fight the horde" vote actually means "Protect this one particular village"; that much is at least achievable.

I'm not going to kill any of them off unless you run into bullets that are far more blatantly marked than this, but as for possibilities short of that... I'll describe the situation to the AI, and it will decide. It's good at RNG, when you use it right. There's a very good chance they'll escape unscathed.

I have a really bad feeling about all of this and I hate my own vote someone please save us with a better plan. :sad:
Well, remember you can use write-ins. They don't necessarily have to be positive, 'do this'; you can vote against Seele doing something, or ending in a particular situation, and she'll try extra hard to avoid it. Though a solid plan for how would be beneficial, yes.
 
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I don't remember them being particularly hard? I haven't played in a while though, so idk. fun fact, Swallowtail Phantasm was my most upgraded battlesuit, along with Blood Rose and Void Drifter.
Oh no, that was my point actually. They aren't particularly hard, but. But if you take even one of their attacks on the chin you'll either fall over dead or be in critical.

More likely the former than the latter tbh.

Anyway, I'd vote, but I'm aware of SPOILERS! so I won't. Or shouldn't.
 
I'm writing a side-story ATM, so no particular time limit, but if you're all happy with the votes then I might as well close this...

Y'all don't seem to all be happy with the votes. So, here's a tip: It's better to do something rather than nothing. This is a widely applicable principle...
 
Rozaliya is tough; a single hit from, say, an Assaka, won't do her in. Which is not the same thing as saying she'd be right as rain afterwards. Her regeneration is relatively slow compared to Theresa.
In fairness, basically everyone regenerates slowly compared to Theresa. Hooray for deeply unethical Honkai hybridization experiments, I guess. Side note, fuck Otto.

Right.

If we leave, everyone in this village dies. Just - just throwing that out there, it's not like anyone's suggested leaving.

2-3 hours ... even, like, assuming that they knew us and trusted us and were amenable, that's not really a lot of time to organize an evacuation. Not to mention leaving the walled village to try and ... I guess flee back to the Hyperion? ... leaves everyone open to attack by garish white-and-pink ruin monsters.

There's ... okay, so coordinating with the villagers is ... I don't think they can really do anything to Honkai beasts? ...I'm not entirely sure that, like, the ordinary processes of physics re: violent collisions with sharp thingies even work on Honkai beasts. Both valkyries and Anti-Entropy's mecha make extensive use of loophole abuse by way of Honkai energy infusion - some sort of nemean-lion-esque skin-them-with-their-own-claws effect, built off of the unwholsome energies of ruin. This is, I'm sure, totally unrelated to why valkyries die quite young and AE mecha don't last very long before needing to be scrapped.

As to informing them, like, just ... not just jumping into the horde without telling the villagers what's happening? - may make them a bit more cooperative later, regarding questions about Einsteins or radio towers.

Also I think they sort of need to know how fucked they are. This village is not safe. If there is one Honkai attack incoming there will continue to be more until the Honkai are satisfied that there's no longer a tech base above, like, knapped flint. Maybe dismantling the radio tower might make them calm down, since it's probably what's drawn their ire, but maybe not.

... I guess there is the "steal out into the night, unseen and unheard, and kill all the Honkai beasts before the villagers even see them" idea but that is a) extremely optimistic and b) not really a clearly better alternative? Like ... I don't really get what the point would be?

Going outside to have a look ... well, quite apart from being a kinda fraught idea, what would be Seele's goal? Go out, find the source of the eruption, and ... kill it? Drive it off?

Cuz I mean we can make a write-in like
[ ] [Outside] Have a look, and murderize anything that seems to be inciting the Honkai eruption

but that seems kind of... reckless.

I guess she could just look - since if it is something dangerous, she's already in danger

In regards to Annie and Pip's mom...
Okay, it could be tuberculosis. That is possible.
It could also be Honkai corruption.
Presumably we should prepare a contingency for if it is Honkai corruption, something like
[ ] [Mother] Continue with the plan
- [ ] IF $honkai_corruption == true THEN whatever



...okay
if Pip/Annie-Mom has Honkai poisoning, a question:
  • If Seele were to dose someone with Lili's nanites and then remove them from the area where Honkai poisoning is happening would that, like, solve the problem? Because yeah the nanites aren't going to last forever but if they can roll back the worst of the damage and then Seele gets these people away from a frickin' Impact site...



....ugh, I feel like looking outside is reckless but also probably the best idea.
I don't know
...blaaargh if there's no clock atm I'll be back later tonight hopefully with an actual idea
 
... I guess there is the "steal out into the night, unseen and unheard, and kill all the Honkai beasts before the villagers even see them" idea but that is a) extremely optimistic and b) not really a clearly better alternative? Like ... I don't really get what the point would be?
Well, if you're referring to my ideas it does bear repeating they were built on a misunderstanding on my part. That said, my current thinking on that course of action, since it's where my vote is currently, is something to the effect of "The villagers can't do anything here, they are completely out of their depth. In fact, they're actually liabilities because we would presumably want to protect them if they actually saw combat which would add complications to any fight if they were actually present. We're not telling them what's up because we don't want to incite a panic, we don't want to go through more monster/demon/fae accusations, and honestly given the reactions from the kids it's extremely questionable whether they even listen to or believe us so I'm not sure the cost/benefit is really in favor of telling them. ...Also I'm kind of fond of the whole aesthetic of Seele and the others acting as secret protectors for a village that may not view them favorably without expectation of reward or praise :V "

There's also a kind of "Well, either we can save them from this crisis by stopping the source in which case is there really any benefit to telling them how perilous their situation was when they're pretty much helpless against it? Or we can't in which case do we really want to give them the knowledge that they're helpless against their imminent destruction before we're forced to pull out?" bit to this.

When I offered the alternative track of telling them I specifically limited it to the leaders specifically to try and mitigate the chance of inciting a panic. If they decided they wanted to tell everyone else, okay, we could then work with that.

Like I said, in a way this was an easier decision for me when I thought this bubble universe was doomed regardless of our actions because it was easier for me to settle on a direction that was very bittersweet and emphasized that even if we couldn't do anything long-term there was still meaning and value in providing assistance in the short-term and purchasing them even a few more days or week because that time could still be meaningful and precious to the people here. Once I learned, "Oh, actually it might be possible this place can be somewhat stabilized" it got far more difficult and complex because now I had to try and consider "Okay, what lengths is Seele willing to go here? Are there limits, there should be right? ...But what does defining those limits say about Seele's character moving forward and are we okay with that?"

I'm not strongly opposed to informing the village if you think it's best but I would be reluctant to not make a strong effort to try and help here unless the situation is just hopeless. I understand it's dangerous and trying to draw the line of "how dangerous is too dangerous" is the crux of my frustration and indecision. Currently my vote to have Seele take a look is more of an "access the situation" vote to see how we may want to proceed.
 
  • If Seele were to dose someone with Lili's nanites and then remove them from the area where Honkai poisoning is happening would that, like, solve the problem? Because yeah the nanites aren't going to last forever but if they can roll back the worst of the damage and then Seele gets these people away from a frickin' Impact site...
Depends on how far the infection has progressed. It would, well, be more likely to help than not? And it'd roll back some of the damage, the most recent damage that hasn't quite had consequences yet, but there's a reason Liliya takes a dose of these once per week.

(Except, right now, she kinda... doesn't? More on that in-story if you vote that way, but there's no reason to worry that you'd be harming Liliya.)

((Pip and Annie have a little sister. She's back home. Annie is supposed to be watching her.))

....ugh, I feel like looking outside is reckless but also probably the best idea.
There's no harm possible in just looking, except to Roza and Lili's mental state.

...Also I'm kind of fond of the whole aesthetic of Seele and the others acting as secret protectors for a village that may not view them favorably without expectation of reward or praise :V "
This is a perfectly good reason to vote for it. In fact, it's the sort of reasoning I want. :)

There's also a kind of "Well, either we can save them from this crisis by stopping the source in which case is there really any benefit to telling them how perilous their situation was when they're pretty much helpless against it? Or we can't in which case do we really want to give them the knowledge that they're helpless against their imminent destruction before we're forced to pull out?" bit to this.
But are they? Are they really? :V

Maybe they are.

There's a lot you don't know about this situation, and I'm not saying that in an attempt to be mysteriously hinting; there's just, literally, a lot you don't know. It's been half an update, and Seeley has made no real attempt at gathering information. No, Roza, your nose doesn't count.
 
...Also I'm kind of fond of the whole aesthetic of Seele and the others acting as secret protectors for a village that may not view them favorably without expectation of reward or praise :V "
...
mm!
Okay, I'm convinced. Thank you for explaining

[X] Plan: Improved Unseen Aid
 
So... feeling reasonably happy?

I wish there were more voters, but oh well. At least I can feel sure people are reading. Anyway, that's the cost of choosing an unpopular franchise, so—

I'll set the vote cycle to end tomorrow, unless there's some further development. Hmm. Anyway, there's something I should confirm...

Currently, the winning vote says "Go look".

How would you like to explain that to Liliya and Roza?
 
How would you like to explain that to Liliya and Roza?
...It's not good that I kind of trust the AI to be better at this than me. Um... well, you said that if things were dangerous then we're already in danger so ideally somehow explain that "Look, there's clearly something going on here and I need to take a look at it so we know what we've got here and it can't blindside us later. Just, uh... I can't do that and be here at the same time. But it's not like the act of looking puts me in any more danger I just can't multitask being here and looking at the same time - if I could I would!"

...Something like that? Maybe?
 
...It's not good that I kind of trust the AI to be better at this than me. Um... well, you said that if things were dangerous then we're already in danger so ideally somehow explain that "Look, there's clearly something going on here and I need to take a look at it so we know what we've got here and it can't blindside us later. Just, uh... I can't do that and be here at the same time. But it's not like the act of looking puts me in any more danger I just can't multitask being here and looking at the same time - if I could I would!"

...Something like that? Maybe?
It's a start!

It's not going to make them happy. They'll be worried, frustrated as hell, and even more likely to do something inadvisable if they later run into an opportunity to help, or become better able to keep up with Seele—somehow. But it's a lot better than trying to hide it from them.

Originally I was going to put this scene in the previous chapter, before Snowfire talked me out of it. The answer the AI came up with was to have Veliona control both bodies for a little while, which... it... hmm. I can't say it was out of character, but for a variety of reasons it wouldn't have worked. Without a comment like yours, that's still what I'd have gone with.
 
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Vote closed
Scheduled vote count started by Baughn on Jan 16, 2021 at 8:56 PM, finished with 24 posts and 4 votes.

  • [X] Plan: Improved Unseen Aid
    -[X] [Horde] Fight ruination head-on. It will not pass.
    -[X] [Villagers] Keep them in the dark.
    -[X] [Mother] Continue with the plan.
    -[X] [Outside] Go look.
    [X] Plan: The Grim Truth
    [X] Plan: Improved Unseen Aid
    -[X] [Horde] Fight ruination head-on. It will not pass.
    -[X] [Villagers] Keep them in the dark.
    -[X] [Mother] Continue with the plan.
    -[X] [Outside] Go look.
 
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