Remove ads

The Practice War [Complete]

Reader mode
Let me go ahead and put it down as a vote:

[x] Diplomacy: Amanda does not want to twist her Focus towards use as a weapon, but neither can she allow news of Humanity's fearsome power to return to the Shiplords. She already knows that the Shiplords have on occasion been open to diplomatic overtures. It may be time to strike a bargain.
 
Diplomacy, might be a good idea?

I'm just not sure on humanity's reaction to that.
The Shiplords have been seen as an enemy for so long after all, consequences are a given.
 
Coda said:
[x] Diplomacy: Amanda does not want to twist her Focus towards use as a weapon, but neither can she allow news of Humanity's fearsome power to return to the Shiplords. She already knows that the Shiplords have on occasion been open to diplomatic overtures. It may be time to strike a bargain.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Like this better than "Why" or "Leave", but I'm not quite sure it goes far enough.

The ultimate problem with Why, for me, is that I mostly don't care why. I mean, sure, at some point we'll have to learn whatever it is that drove the Shiplords to establish their galactic order, and continues to drive them to this day, if only because we'll more than likely have to stop whatever monsters they are fighting as well, but, from a moral standpoint, the Shiplords' means can't possibly be justified by their ends in all but the most pathological cases, so frankly I'm not interested in listening to them congratulate themselves again about how we'll all love them and appreciate all they did for us in the end.

Leave is similarly problematic. All Leave does is truncate the encounter, with no possibility of gaining anything from the exchange, other than the fact that the Shiplords have Void weapons that we'll have to look out for in the future. Practice, in general, seems fond of rising in power towards a dramatic crescendo, possibly because humans like that sort of narrative flow as well, and this is the time to gain something important with all the power we've been accumulating for the last decade and a half.

So, I'll start with @Coda's vote:

[x] Diplomacy: Amanda does not want to twist her Focus towards use as a weapon, but neither can she allow news of Humanity's fearsome power to return to the Shiplords. She already knows that the Shiplords have on occasion been open to diplomatic overtures. It may be time to strike a bargain.

since I do approve of it, and propose as well:

[x] Chastisement: The Shiplords seem to genuinely believe that their cause is just, and their methods are sound. Last time we attempted to understand their beliefs, and were given haughty platitudes in return. It is time to disabuse them of their convictions, to show them exactly how far they've strayed from anything that we would call "friend."
 
Last edited:
[ ] Revive Kills Zombies.
[ ] Forget.
[ ] Surrender.
[ ] Come at me, bro.
[ ] Tell them we're back. Tell them we're coming. Tell them we're bringing hell with us.
[ ] Run.
[ ] Forgiveness.
 
@Snowfire are we speaking or Speaking? Because I'm kind of wondering if we could, instead of addressing the Shiplords, Mend the horrible wrongness of their people-slurry ships.

But anyway, I think the reason for the "captive audience" ties into the whole "how dare you use that and not die" thing and the way that somebody just TRIED to die using it but was saved by a different person
 
Originally I wanted to go with something more abstract and esoteric, but now I think a good Why will generate the best immediate returns. Given this is Amanda, destroying or subverting the Regulars is out of the question. The next best thing is actionable knowledge.

If we do go with Why, it should be Spoken in the sense of 'some actionable intel, please'. Hopefully, we don't get that self-righteous oath thrown back at us. The intent should be to demystify the Shiplords, not add more pages to their mythology.

[X] Why: carrying the subtext, "precisely what collective beliefs or experiences motivates your civilization to expend tremendous amounts of resources to maintain this status quo?"
 
Last edited:
I already voted, but can't help thinking that any vote for "Leave" would be better said as "Begone". Seems more fitting.

Of course, Amanda is in her 70s or so? Pretty sure that entitles her to a "Get off mah lawn!"
:D
 
Himmelhand said:
Just so we're clear, Spoken Peace wiped out what, 40%? of a full Regular Fleet in an instant. That's incredible.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
jrddunbr said:
Imagine how frightening Amanda must be to the Shiplords if so - she said a word or two and destroyed part of a fleet of craft.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Just to be clear, it wasn't Amanda or Mir Speaking that wiped out so much of the Regular Fleet. Amanda never successfully Spoke due to interference, and Mir's Word was entirely focused on protecting the rest of humanity from the energy burst Kalilah tried to turn herself into.

It was that energy burst that wiped most of 35-40% of the Shiplord fleet. A Word just protected everyone else from it. Oh, and also the star system. Can't forget that.

DarknessSmiles said:
can we speak (Stay!) to prevent the drones from leaving?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I will be honest, here. The likelihood of you preventing information from getting back to the Shiplords at this point is effectively nil.

jrddunbr said:
The perspective of the Shiplords would have been an interesting write in actually for the last one... missed chance I guess :D
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

There are reasons I denied this as a write-in ;)

mastigos said:
@Snowfire are we speaking or Speaking? Because I'm kind of wondering if we could, instead of addressing the Shiplords, Mend the horrible wrongness of their people-slurry ships.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Kinda-sorta both? Whatever you do say won't have any sort of conceptual mind-control potential, but it will be heard by the entire star system. Something to consider, in that vein, is how humanity as it exists in PW behaves, and how certain options might resonate with them.

Lightwhispers said:
I already voted, but can't help thinking that any vote for "Leave" would be better said as "Begone". Seems more fitting.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Begone was originally an option I had as well as Leave. I took it out, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be used if people want to. It just comes across differently.
 
Snowfire said:
Just to be clear, it wasn't Amanda or Mir Speaking that wiped out so much of the Regular Fleet. Amanda never successfully Spoke due to interference, and Mir's Word was entirely focused on protecting the rest of humanity from the energy burst Kalilah tried to turn herself into.

It was that energy burst that wiped most of 35-40% of the Shiplord fleet. A Word just protected everyone else from it. Oh, and also the star system. Can't forget that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Aww, and here I thought Kalilah was channeling Tacitus when she induced a soul supernova. "I make a desert, and call it peace".
 
mastigos said:
@Snowfire are we speaking or Speaking? Because I'm kind of wondering if we could, instead of addressing the Shiplords, Mend the horrible wrongness of their people-slurry ships.

But anyway, I think the reason for the "captive audience" ties into the whole "how dare you use that and not die" thing and the way that somebody just TRIED to die using it but was saved by a different person
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It was theoretically feasible during BoS2, here we have massively increased understanding of humanity's web, speaking, speaking-promoting artifacts, the enemy is on the back-foot, the whole thing is surged by the voluntary sacrifice of a protector's soul channeled through a mender's during a natural 100 roll...

When else are you going to try Revive Kills Zombies? Think of all the naked, very confused aliens composing thousands of grateful extinct species with their own grasp of Secrets which the invading fleet will promptly turn into.


...I'll admit I'm partial to, "Forget", but that's mostly because I'm a vicious bitch and love the idea of reading the Shiplord debriefing:

"Report."​
​
"Errr, what?"​
​
"Did I stutter? Explain the missing emergency superweapon division as well as two-thirds of your fleet as a result of your bog-standard mission."​
​
"Errr... what mission?"​


If anybody wants information, I'd recommend, "UNDERSTAND". We know that words used before are more powerful, and it's far more inclusive.
 
Last edited:
[X]Hello there!

Actually, I think this is better:
[X]We are the Humans. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.
 
Last edited:
We can't destroy the fleet with this Word, and since we will be using the power of humanity to say it, I fully expect our choice to affect it. And us.

As such, what to we want here? To survive, and to understand. We can not help with humanities survival right now, this Word will not wipe their fleets or control their minds.

Thus.

[X] Why

We need to know what SLs deal is if we want to prosper.
 
Last edited:
[X] Chastisement

<Mikki> Baughn has generously donated his vote, and I want some answers too, but aaagh!

Well, you asked us to consider how the civilians would think...
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top