- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
To be fair, it's an action that will come at a price. Amanda would surely pay any personal price to save Kalilah, but the price may not just be personal.
The Practice War [Complete]
- Thread starter Snowfire
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi
[x] Save: Dive into the heart of a building storm, through Shiplord weapons and a fire born of a soul of Destruction, to save the one who summons it. Amanda will survive this, and for an action so deeply within her Focus, she has a good chance of saving her friend. But there will be consequences.
- Location
- PA
[x] Save: Dive into the heart of a building storm, through Shiplord weapons and a fire born of a soul of Destruction, to save the one who summons it. Amanda will survive this, and for an action so deeply within her Focus, she has a good chance of saving her friend. But there will be consequences.
...Can't go dark and let her die.
...Can't go dark and let her die.
For me this question is very simple. The Shiplords are under the impression that someday we will embrace their philosophy of non-being, that willing self-sacrifice is a thing to be honored rather than a tragedy and a crime to be prevented:
But for me, there are few things that cause as much internal revulsion and horror as people who think that death is a gift.
[x] Save: Dive into the heart of a building storm, through Shiplord weapons and a fire born of a soul of Destruction, to save the one who summons it. Amanda will survive this, and for an action so deeply within her Focus, she has a good chance of saving her friend. But there will be consequences.
I know that this has essentially been Kalilah's overriding goal since the First Battle of Sol and the Week of Sorrows; nonetheless, I simply can't countenance letting her do it. "'The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.'" Kalilah has spent the past seventy years living an adolescent's dream of going out in a blaze of glory; now it will be our responsibility to teach her to grow up and find life's other virtues.
This will be good for us in the long run. If we reject, here and now, the notion that sacrifice is a noble and worthy goal, it will give us a good standing on the moral high ground when we inevitably have to confront the Shiplords over the same philosophical difference. In fact, in that future battleground, something I doubt we'll see fully realized until near the end of Secret Wars or beyond, I hope to enlist a rehabilitated Kalilah on the front lines, blazing a trail with the same focused determination she has shown in both the Second and Third Battles of Sol, but I suspect that's going to be a long, hard road to find from where we are now and where we will find ourselves in the near future.
Last edited:
[x] Save: Dive into the heart of a building storm, through Shiplord weapons and a fire born of a soul of Destruction, to save the one who summons it. Amanda will survive this, and for an action so deeply within her Focus, she has a good chance of saving her friend. But there will be consequences.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
I feel like this is doing a disservice to her character. Calling it an adolescent dream and that she needs to grow up. Kalilah is a grown woman who lost everything and everyone she loved in the Week of Sorrows. She's not acting on a dream of glory, she's acting on seventy years of pain. You've seen how hard it is for her to let anyone close to her because of it. How much harder would it be for her not to do the only thing she sees to save those who have come somewhat close rather than experience even a fraction of that pain again.
I'm not saying that means you have to let her, but I feel she deserves respect for being an adult with emotions that she reacts to based on her past experience.
And you're also being incredibly unreasonable towards Kalilah where that reasoning is concerned. Twenty years ago, you might have been right. But now? No. She's not doing this for her. She's trying to protect, in the only way she can. And she doesn't have the power to do that by herself. Hence, this.
Last edited:
- Location
- Staring into the void
I'm not going to vote. But what ever we vote for, I feel that we need to be as unified as we can. If we let Amanda commit to saving Kalilah, she will need all the support she can get. Likewise if we restrain her.
Shwaggy
Weapon of Math Instruction
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- he/him/his
Okay, I think I misunderstood earlier. I saw consequences, and I was thinking "save Kalilah and risk another's life, or many others'". If it's a personal cost to Amanda and Kalilah...Yeah, Amanda wouldn't hesitate to pay hers, and at least Kalilah'd be alive to help through whatever she faced. The only real concern atm is if Amanda's price makes her unable to rejoin this fight.
Besides, I have enough looming possible tragedy irl, that I can't really affect. I need to at least try for helping things come out right here.
[x] Save: Dive into the heart of a building storm, through Shiplord weapons and a fire born of a soul of Destruction, to save the one who summons it. Amanda will survive this, and for an action so deeply within her Focus, she has a good chance of saving her friend. But there will be consequences.
Besides, I have enough looming possible tragedy irl, that I can't really affect. I need to at least try for helping things come out right here.
[x] Save: Dive into the heart of a building storm, through Shiplord weapons and a fire born of a soul of Destruction, to save the one who summons it. Amanda will survive this, and for an action so deeply within her Focus, she has a good chance of saving her friend. But there will be consequences.
- Location
- Somewhere out there
The sacrifice of the Dragons was premeditated and deliberate too.
I kinda feel the opposite. This is a conflict, and we represent thought processes. Is it fair to these people to let the gut punch disable our rational faculties?
- Location
- Kansas City area
[X] Sacrifice: Kalilah wants this, and thought it may break Amanda's heart, she can give her this. Stay, and protect the rest of the Unisonbound from the coming storm. Kalilah will die. Due to character influence (OOC: Stop hitting me, damnit!) this vote will require a two-thirds majority to take effect.
The sacrifice of the Dragons was made in the face of impending death.
It doesn't make it any less, mind, but the tenor of the decision is very different.
VOTE
[x] Save: Dive into the heart of a building storm, through Shiplord weapons and a fire born of a soul of Destruction, to save the one who summons it. Amanda will survive this, and for an action so deeply within her Focus, she has a good chance of saving her friend. But there will be consequences.
[x] Save: Dive into the heart of a building storm, through Shiplord weapons and a fire born of a soul of Destruction, to save the one who summons it. Amanda will survive this, and for an action so deeply within her Focus, she has a good chance of saving her friend. But there will be consequences.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[x] Save: Dive into the heart of a building storm, through Shiplord weapons and a fire born of a soul of Destruction, to save the one who summons it. Amanda will survive this, and for an action so deeply within her Focus, she has a good chance of saving her friend. But there will be consequences.
[X] Save: Dive into the heart of a building storm, through Shiplord weapons and a fire born of a soul of Destruction, to save the one who summons it. Amanda will survive this, and for an action so deeply within her Focus, she has a good chance of saving her friend. But there will be consequences.
[X] Save: Dive into the heart of a building storm, through Shiplord weapons and a fire born of a soul of Destruction, to save the one who summons it. Amanda will survive this, and for an action so deeply within her Focus, she has a good chance of saving her friend. But there will be consequences.
Vortex279
Changer of Fate, Seeker of Donuts
- Location
- Del Rio, Texas
[x] Save: Dive into the heart of a building storm, through Shiplord weapons and a fire born of a soul of Destruction, to save the one who summons it. Amanda will survive this, and for an action so deeply within her Focus, she has a good chance of saving her friend. But there will be consequences.
- Location
- Somewhere out there
This isn't impending death?
[x] Sacrifice
As much as I hate to... consequences aren't what we need right now. We're in a life-or-death battle not only for ourselves but the whole of humanity.
The sacrifice of the Dragons was made facing inevitable death. They were dying already, they just made their deaths have additional meaning. Kalilah made her choice to use an attack that should kill her... but she should have expected Amanda to try to save her, if possible.
Consequences can be worked through later... maybe not fixed, but... if Kalilah loses her Practice, might that mean she can now Focus on things other than Destruction?
[X] Save: Dive into the heart of a building storm, through Shiplord weapons and a fire born of a soul of Destruction, to save the one who summons it. Amanda will survive this, and for an action so deeply within her Focus, she has a good chance of saving her friend. But there will be consequences.
[X] Save: Dive into the heart of a building storm, through Shiplord weapons and a fire born of a soul of Destruction, to save the one who summons it. Amanda will survive this, and for an action so deeply within her Focus, she has a good chance of saving her friend. But there will be consequences.
We are losing on every front and trying to play it safe previously just meant things getting worse, so I feel it is better to gamble on one die being in our favour than gambling on all dice being in our favour, especially since they haven't been even with rerolls which we are apparently now out of as it wasn't used in last post.
We are losing on every front and trying to play it safe previously just meant things getting worse, so I feel it is better to gamble on one die being in our favour than gambling on all dice being in our favour, especially since they haven't been even with rerolls which we are apparently now out of as it wasn't used in last post.
No as we are still fighting. The dragons -and the humans along them- just saw everything they had be swept aside, the battle was over they had utterly lost and given the enemy had just came in from nowhere and started killed everyone one could reasonably expect extinction or worse(and oh boy it was worse). So they went down swinging in the hopes that would save someone.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Practice rolls generally don't allow for rerolls.
[X] Save: Dive into the heart of a building storm, through Shiplord weapons and a fire born of a soul of Destruction, to save the one who summons it. Amanda will survive this, and for an action so deeply within her Focus, she has a good chance of saving her friend. But there will be consequences.
Anything else... is just too much not in character
Anything else... is just too much not in character
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
That doesn't necessarily change the way Amanda, given her nature, would appropriately think about it.
"Screw sacrifce, I don't decide to let people die right in front of me" is an honorable stance. It may come with a price, it may not be the right choice, but it's got its virtues.
Well spoken. I understand the QMs perspective on her decision; she's nearing a full century and very much her own woman. However, I can't shake the certainty that she is having a grave lapse of judgement, which is OK. To err is human.
There is a right time and place to be a big damn hero. Now is not the time. None of the fleets have even reached half-strength, and we're still fighting in the outer solar system. This isn't a replay of the Week of Sorrows. Our greatest protectors aren't dead, humanity's forces aren't spent. The difference is night and day. So there's no need for any suicidal last stands or sacrifices that will hurt morale for everyone else.
And look at this from a pragmatic standpoint: Kalilah is a strategic weapon, or will be in a few more turns. The most powerful Potential of Destruction we know of so far. I wouldn't trade her for half the 233.
So Amanda should try her best to save Kalilah. For herself, because she is a Mender, for Kalilah because she is about to commit a regrettable, but most importantly, irrevocable mistake, for the sake of morale, and ultimately, for Mankind, because Kalilah is too valuable to lose. And maybe, if she lives, it will be egg on the Shiplords' collective face.
Last edited:
- Location
- Minnesota
[x] Save: Dive into the heart of a building storm, through Shiplord weapons and a fire born of a soul of Destruction, to save the one who summons it. Amanda will survive this, and for an action so deeply within her Focus, she has a good chance of saving her friend. But there will be consequences.