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Those Blessed with Talent

Reader mode
Well status: Poisoned.

Still, our perception is great for our age, and the chance Lord Mu can bluff us is pretty vanishing. The biggest benefit of servitude has always been safety, and being the street-savvy friend of a young noble will give us some genuine goodwill and concern for our wellbeing. We also don't need a designer pet, since we're specifically good at training up normal beasties, and redaeth's omake got us our starter.

I bet we'll even be considered a good influence, since on top of being powerful we'll be able to curb his dangerous naivete, or at least back him up when things get serious. He sounds like he'd get into a lot of trouble.

10 Gold is pretty clearly a fraction of what we're worth, and the fact that he's trying to overwhelm us with sweets and more gold than we've ever seen in our life so we don't notice the unclear duties leads me to believe Yuwen Xiao is ready with the suicide missions or brainwashing techs when it becomes politically expedient.

[X] The Mu Clan's idiot brat: 20 silver a year, an idiot will help you find pets, education. You'll have to be this weirdo's friend?
 
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[X] The Mu Clan's idiot brat: 20 silver a year, an idiot will help you find pets, education. You'll have to be this weirdo's friend?
 
[X] The Mu Clan's idiot brat: 20 silver a year, an idiot will help you find pets, education. You'll have to be this weirdo's friend?

He had me at "I'll help you catch a dragon".
 
[X] Reject everyone and try to make a run for it. You'll have to dodge Han Wei's thugs and Lady Yuwen Xiao might hold it against you.
 
[X] The Mu Clan's idiot brat: 20 silver a year, an idiot will help you find pets, education. You'll have to be this weirdo's friend?

Unless Mu turns out to be the heir to the clan or something, we really should have taken two days, but, even if Mu turns out to not actually be of much higher birth than Little Bee thinks he is, the fact that the Mu Clan is clinging to its status by virtue of its crazily powerful leader and isn't involved in any of the alliances means at least neither Han nor Yuwen will have an inside route to get back at us and the fact that we are the little lord's personal servant means we'd be somewhat insulated from the rest of the clan if it turns out they're a bag of dicks.

Considering that the Yuwen offer is kind of creepily suspicious, that the Han offer has obvious issues and that I very much doubt our ability to get away on our own or to recover from something like this, Mu would be the way to go, even if the kid hadn't won my heart over already.
The risk is of course that we are being completely fooled by Mu, but as rcnr noted that seems unlikely.
 
Quick question: Do we know if it's possible for our 'contract' to be bought out by someone else?

Because I'm getting the feeling that we've completely outsmarted ourselves by going to an independent location to 'sell' ourselves.
 
Pipeman said:
Unless Mu turns out to be the heir to the clan or something, we really should have taken two days, but, even if Mu turns out to not actually be of much higher birth than Little Bee thinks he is, the fact that the Mu Clan is clinging to its status by virtue of its crazily powerful leader and isn't involved in any of the alliances means at least neither Han nor Yuwen will have an inside route to get back at us and the fact that we are the little lord's personal servant means we'd be somewhat insulated from the rest of the clan if it turns out they're a bag of dicks.
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That's the Zen clan, actually.
 
Right, because Mu is the family name, so Mu Zen would be the head of the Mu clan.

The awkward look Yuwen's servant is giving Lord Mu leads me to believe they're allies. He went off on Han's servant at the markets, and he ignored him at the auction. It's not awkward to bid against an enemy or someone you have no relation to, and Han's bid is worse, so it's not pity or confusion.

Since holding a grudge over picking an ally who is bidding for a personal companion rather than a disposable soldier is practically an insult, I don't think any Yuwen-based consequences will reach us if we go with Lord Mu.
 
[X] The Mu Clan's idiot brat: 20 silver a year, an idiot will help you find pets, education. You'll have to be this weirdo's friend?
 
[X] The Mu Clan's idiot brat: 20 silver a year, an idiot will help you find pets, education. You'll have to be this weirdo's friend?
 
BFldyq said:
That's the Zen clan, actually.
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There is no Zen Clan.
There is a Mu Clan, which is lead by the famous Mu Zen, can therfore also accurately be described as "Zen's Clan" (which is what I assume that one post referring to a "Zen Clan" meant to say) and this boy who didn't even give us his name belongs to.

rcnr said:
The awkward look Yuwen's servant is giving Lord Mu leads me to believe they're allies. He went off on Han's servant at the markets, and he ignored him at the auction. It's not awkward to bid against an enemy or someone you have no relation to, and Han's bid is worse, so it's not pity or confusion.
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Isn't he staring at Shouting at Storms, which is awkward because the old man doesn't stop smiling?
The passage is a bit unclear.

If he's staring at Lord Mu though, it's probably not because they're allies (which the Mu Clan doesn't really have and Lord Mu seems to young for to have independantly of his Clan), but because Lord Mu's an unattended noble kid with no supervision and dirty robes that apparently decided to go visit the slave market on his own and offer 20 silvers for a A- ranked girl so he can have an awesome playmate.
 
BFldyq said:
That's the Zen clan, actually.
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It was and then it stealthily became the Mu clan when I realized that Zen isn't actually a real family name. (It doesn't seem to be a real given name either but that's less egregious.)


Pipeman said:
There is a Mu Clan, which is lead by the famous Mu Zen, can therfore also accurately be described as "Zen's Clan" (which is what I assume that one post referring to a "Zen Clan" meant to say) and this boy who didn't even give us his name belongs to.
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Clarified wording. The old man is looking at Mu and a bit weirded out seeing him there. You don't know why.


Pipeman said:
If he's staring at Lord Mu though, it's probably not because they're allies (which the Mu Clan doesn't really have and Lord Mu seems to young for to have personally), but because Lord Mu's an unattended noble kid with no supervision and dirty robes that apparently decided to go visit the slave market on his own and offer 20 silvers for a A- ranked girl so he can have an awesome playmate.
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The Mu clan lacks allies institutionally, individual branches might have some.


That said, it's borderline impossible that a noble child anywhere near Little Bee's age would be able to slip out on his own to anywhere like the slave markets, much less make a contract to purchase Little Bee.
 
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Darkened said:
That said, it's borderline impossible that a noble child anywhere near Little Bee's age would be able to slip out on his own to anywhere like the slave markets, much less make a contract to purchase Little Bee.
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Meaning either a) he's not actually a member of a clan, b) he's older then he looks(age-retarding skill?), c) he's there with permission of the clan, or d) he's just that good.

Or finally, e) any combination of the above.
 
If the Mu clan actually approves and put guards in the audience, that's a huge benefit. No having to beat feet getting chased by Han's muscle and then trying to convince a powerful adult that we haven't ensorcelled their beloved relative.

If we're getting duped by some kind of Master-of-Disguise class with bullshit high charisma, the deal's not that much worse. When not interpreted charitably, "become friends with Lord Mu" could mean brainwashing, but Yuwen's offer is just as bad. It makes his offer to go beast taming with us better, since he's an adult with a scout class instead of a kid, and we get education either way. We lose out on money, but our term is 3-5 years shorter.

To be honest, I kind of doubt it. I don't think the same person would consider dirtying up his clothes but slip in "little sis" when he's trying to act our age. It's not like he had to improvise on the spot, we weren't exactly a dynamic conversation partner.

Of course, this is all OOC knowledge, so basing a vote off of it would be wrong and immoral.
 
Xicree said:
Gloved hand means we can't see if he has a mark... Ie... he might also be Talented.
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...Everyone has them in this. This isn't DCQ.

Unless you mean his rank, in which case is high, then yes, it's possible. But all Nobles have the glove coverings. He could be D ranked, for all we know.
 
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Personally, I think we'd be better off with a friendly face, regardless of where we go. Between the options of "asshole slave driver, child manipulator", "creepy old man with vague intentions", and "potentially duplicitous, but fairly friendly kid", I'll take the bait and go with the last one.

Besides, guys, X RANKED TORMENT INFERNAL DRAGON! IT DOESN'T NEED TO EXIST, WE CAN JUST QUEST FOR ONE!
 
Pandemonious Ivy said:
Personally, I think we'd be better off with a friendly face, regardless of where we go. Between the options of "asshole slave driver, child manipulator", "creepy old man with vague intentions", and "potentially duplicitous, but fairly friendly kid", I'll take the bait and go with the last one.

Besides, guys, X RANKED TORMENT INFERNAL DRAGON! IT DOESN'T NEED TO EXIST, WE CAN JUST QUEST FOR ONE!
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Screw that Panda... I want back my Nightmare.
 
BFldyq said:
Meaning either a) he's not actually a member of a clan, b) he's older then he looks(age-retarding skill?), c) he's there with permission of the clan, or d) he's just that good.

Or finally, e) any combination of the above.
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Or it could be further indication of the Mu clan having a "Who gives a shit? We're lead by the Mu Zen" attitude regarding things like keeping a close eye on their children and forming alliances.
 
Being held afloat through the sheer power of your clan head probably does a lot to shape their opinions about nobility. I wouldn't be surprised if Lord Mu's adoption offer was serious, assuming we actually show our rank during our time as a servant.

Seriously doubting we can be strung along for five to seven years with ever-increasing charisma, so if we do get the option to join, we'll know what we're getting into.
 
redaeth said:
Well, there could be another reason why the old man is so nervous at such a lackluster bid from the Mu clan. This is Mu Zen himself, turns out he was a shouta all along.
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You'll notice that such a thing could easily be included in my possibilities above. :p
 
[X] The Mu Clan's idiot brat: 20 silver a year, an idiot will help you find pets, education. You'll have to be this weirdo's friend?

We'd have to be pretty dumb to take either of the alternatives.
 
[X] The Mu Clan's idiot brat: 20 silver a year, an idiot will help you find pets, education. You'll have to be this weirdo's friend?
 
drake_azathoth said:
We'd have to be pretty dumb to take either of the alternatives.
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We kind of were dumb enough to wait three days, so that's not saying much.

Honestly though, even if it turns out that Mu is the best of all possible outcomes, that would basically just be dumb luck saving us and it's rather clear that waiting three days was an obvious mistake we still threw ourselves into with all of our might.
 
Lord Han Wei's ire wouldn't have faded with the auction over. Those who were cowed by his threats\listening to his recommendations would still be susceptible to such after the auction.

Instead of viewing it as losing chances, view it as weeding out the chaff. /optimism

That isn't to say we couldn't have picked a good buyer at day 2, just that Han Wei would still be hanging over our heads.
 
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