Yes, though I guess we can only start them in Book 2 and in a certain order.
@Jjcb Ā”FelĆz Navidad! In honor of the holidays, I present the greatest gift I can: questions!
Who likes Christmas in the gang? Does anyone celebrate a different winter holiday?
Does the League do anything communally for the holiday season? Some kind of office party or something?
What would each League member like for Christmas?
Did the other League members find bits of our clothes around the common area after Lat does her thing? Do they have opinions? Does Seeker still sleep on that couch?
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Most of the team does! Aki finds it an adorably quaint festivity, though sheās only really celebrated it a handful of times. She finds the whole thing very charming.
The only one thatās not really into it is Forlorn- he didnāt grow up with it and doesnāt really buy into the āholiday cheerā, but Christmasā Eve is a day of huge feasts, so even he goes along with a fair bit of itā¦ Just donāt ask him to put on the reindeer horns, heāll grumble a bit before doing so.
Aki and Forlorn do, though I guess itās not technically a winter holiday.
Seeker actually prefers Jan 6th/Epiphany/Three Kingsā Day to Christmas, but he and Victoria used to celebrate both, theyāre amongst his most cherished memories.
Hmmmm, that oneās a bit complicated.
Off the top of my head:
Forlorn would like a dinner with his parents.
Aki wants a lot of toys and plushies and etc, but also, she wants to show her grandfather all the fun stuff sheās learned about Christmas- sheās sure heād adore eggnog.
Nova doesnāt want much- he can make basically everything, but I think heād enjoy a meal with his chosen family quite a bit.
As for Ignis, this might soundā¦ a little weird, but she wants to cook. She wants a big kitchen, everyone to get together, and to cook a huge Christmasā Eve dinner for everyone she cares about. she is not dodging the āteam momā allegations, no
Kratis would really like the chance to give up the swords- itās what he has been asking for for some years now. Barring that, heād like letters, I think, from everyone heās met. Despite what it looks like, Kratis is keenly aware of how cripplingly lonely he is.
Mars would like one of those big train station model sets that they can spend a week straight building just the way they want.
We shall have to wait until Part 2 to find out, Iām afraid!
Sure. He just took a cut of your salary to have it professionally cleaned.
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@Jjcb I just read the new update and Iām just wondering but is Lat some sorta exhibitionist, because this is now the second time sheās tried to get it on with the MC in a place that they both easily could and very likely would get walked in on, and Iām becoming convinced itās 100% intentional and she likes the risk.
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Iām quite disappointed. The main character is a side character to some kinda weird op seeker dude who will steal yo girl. It wouldāve been 1000% better as a novel without the MC or Making the seeker the MC that you can shape. āMCā is very weak. Itās feel like playing āteam member aā thatās a disposable npc. A decent concept though.
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@Jjcb just wondering how close are we to meeting the true big bads of the story like the broken king
since the game will be in trilogies or something from what i have read, i assume he will make an appearance at the climax of first book or something perhaps
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Why do you assume the Broken King is a big bad of the story, or a bad at all? Dude has spent this entire time minding his own business.
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I meant big bad in general
I just mentioned him as a example, from what i have read he has a good potential for being a villain though thatās just speculation
I really suck at being clear so apologies XD
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Yknow I donāt think itās as risky as it might seem at first. Lat is a telepath so like, she can scan for minds in the area before suggesting anything. We know she likes to use her powers forā¦ non-combat purposes, wouldnāt surprise me if she did a little sweep of the mansion before going down on the MC.
Or maybe youāre right and we need to have a talk with her about kink and respecting your partnerās boundaries, but I prefer the former.
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Nah, though I think thatād be funny. Lat can scan for people, so all her ānon-conventionalā fun times happen when she is sure no one is around.
She alsoā¦ doesnāt think ahead very much, tbh. See her reaction when she thinks that Nova knows- she completely forgot that there may be cameras in the Mansion and is lowkey panicking about it.
None of this is true. Read the game.
Pretty close. The Broken King will make his first appearance in Chapter 9, and the Blitz Queen will appear in Chapter 10.
You will also learn stuff about Other You, Aki and Forlorn, etc in Chapter 9 and 10.
TBF, āwalking, self-reloading and autonomous extinction-class eventā is probably a bad guy to most states in the settingā¦
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Thatās only a fair assessment if said states are intending to seriously piss him off, like, I dunno, sending a black ops team into a neutral nation to desecrate his wifeās resting place? But what sort of negative-IQ moron would that, am I right?
Between āillegal military operationsā, āfunding the Sentinel Programā, and āgoading a terrorist attack in a friendly nationās soilā, the US is currently much more of a Big Bad than the Broken King, a dude who has done exactly fuck-all in nearly millenium and a half.
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Iām not so sure thatās the case. Something important to remember is that the (commonly) accepted definition of a state is āa polity that maintains a monopoly on the legitimate use of forceā. A state needs the ability to enforce its will upon the individuals who belong to it, in order to prove itself the final arbitrer. It needs the ability to protect its people, to establish some semblance of order and a ābasisā for interaction between the people that live within its territory- and the ability to punish those who choose to act outside of the boundaries that the people and the state have agreed upon (the debate of āsurrendering liberties for securityā, I guess).
If a state is incapable of providing these things to a people, it starts to fragment, as local power-holders take up the powers that ātraditionallyā belong to the state. This tends to be one of the first steps in becoming a āfailed stateā, and an incapability in maintaining order and being the sole users of force within regions is how countries and empires normally start collapsing. The Spanish Empire went to shit because it lost the power to dictate the happenings in its colonies, the Beiyang Republic (and the Qing Dynasty before it) fragmented into the warlord regions because of the incapacity of its central apparatus to bring its generals under their control, the Ottoman Empireās long, long collapse likewise came from these factors. Hell, for a fictional example, this is why the League of Antar in @Cataphrakās own setting is such a disaster: the āstateā holds no power, and thus the most powerful warlords within its territory essentially all run their own mini-realms, numbering in the dozens, if not hundreds.
You understand all of this, I know, but the reason I bring it up is to explain the calculus going on within most geopolitically-inclined people in the setting: The existence of the Broken King takes away that necessary monopoly. They have no way to contest him in any form, and to theoretically attempt it is to invite mass-slaughter. While they can (probably) realize that the King has not acted to hurt them, the possibility remains that he might, and that worries them terribly.
International relations have advanced to such a point that most modern states believe ā rightly, I think ā that as long as they keep the people satisfied and content with their way of governing, the state will continue to survive. So long as the economy is doing good, crime is at āmanageableā levels, and so on and so on, a state can breathe easy. But with the Kingās existence, that is no longer the case. The great superpowers of the world are coming to the realization that they exist on the sufferance of an unaccountable being which they have no way to stop, only appease.
This kind of situation is, of course, supremely scary. The āworld orderā that we (speaking relatively here) have grown used to is crumbling down right before the eyes of those who are supposedly its pillars. And while the loss of perceived strength and importance ā there is a reason so many empires and great powers have gone down dark paths due to a supposed āterminal declineā ā tends to have horrible consequences, there is a worry which, I think, is fresher in the eyes of the third world, namely:
When your entire world exists only on the allowance of others, and your leaders are perceived to be reckless and uncaring of that incredibly terrifying fact, rebellion and deposement become significantly more attractive options.
The Kingās existence is leading the nations of the world to collapse.
Just as planned.
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While that is true, itās not contingent on the King (though he DOES bring it to a whole new level). Thereās a power disparity between nations that makes it ALREADY the case, and thatās before we go into the other powereds: thereās no credible defence that any nation could muster against the League, for example*. Seekerās untouchable by anything the world powers can muster, and heās not even the worst offender: NOVA could send the entire world back to the stone age if he were ever so inclined, and thereās absolutely jackshit anyone could do about it.
*which is why the whole ābring the League under US government controlā bill was such a nothingburger; it wasnāt merely unenforceable, it would also effectively disarm the US in the powered front, except for (lol) Darkstar and Mars, because literally none of the League would stick around long enough to even let the ink dry
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Ignore the fact reading is necessary for books and the like, logic is not the forte of the people who keep beating the same dead horse over and over (poor horse btw).
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Hey now, those two are trying their best. We canāt all be the MC with magic space aliens giving us a good power set at random.
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Yeah, that was my point. Their best is trash. Mars is outdone by a drone with an excellent sensor array and Darkstarās power is literally āIām a good shotā. Meanwhile, everyone else that arenāt Lat or Nova can break the sound barrier about 50 times before they even leave the room, Nova can MAKE things that break the sound barrier about 50 times before they even leave the room, and Lat can go digging in peopleās brains and make energy her bitch with her mind.
The League is a team of Kryptonians that spend their days sunbathing, and those two are Green Arrow, without the āIām a billionaireā superpower.
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This is true, I think, but there are two significant differences, and that is the ābalance of powerā which currently exists between, say, the USA, Russia and China, and the sheer cost of modern, industrial warfare.
For example, while a place like, sayā¦ the Seychelles doesnāt exactly have options, the āimportantā countries do. The USA, despite its superior military and financial strength, canāt invade France, or the UK. China canāt invade Japan or Australia, and Russia is currently showing us how much of a disaster its attempt to invade Ukraine was- nevermind a more powerful country such as Poland (wow, how the times change). With how greatly human technology has advanced, war has now become (generally) a bad idea. Itās too costly and the gains from it do not make up for that. Thatās not even getting into the matter of how nuclear weapons help to further equalize the field.
That is why I bring up the third world above: those countries are more aware of that disparity and have significantly less options, but the āleaders of the worldā arenāt cognizant.
Of course. Just because the Broken King is the main star of the collapse doesnāt mean he is its only herald. After all, the Coltello Mechs have been in development since long before the Broken Cult became a thing.
Even if the King didnāt exist, this situation was imminent. But that doesnāt mean the King hasnāt greatly expedited its climax.
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Yknow @Jjcb will this come up in game, what with Mars joining the League? Mars does seem very underpowered compared to the rest of the team, and only really excels in a support role.
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Not immediately (Mars is stronger than Dark Star, so complaining about them doesnāt make sense here), but suffice to say, just because Mars is the weakest at the moment doesnāt mean theyāll be the weakest forever.
Expect their powers to be among the more āout thereā of the League too, tbh. After all, sharing is caring.
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I think their point was that evidently the mere capability of a much stronger nation to nuke your denizens, which renders government of such smaller countries completely toothless in comparison, doesnāt make all these small nations collapse and dissolve in a hysterical fit. And by extension this renders the notion that mere presence of another entire able to do the same is going to suddenly cause every government and citizen on the planet lose their goddamn mindsā¦ very ācartoon-likeā. Which, i guess, itās fair enough for a story about superheroes flying around at Mach 50, but, you know.
True, but none of such consequences (if they even extend beyond āthe UN will issue Strongly Worded Lettersā) eliminate actual possibility of becoming target of the attack. And those consequences are also of very little consolation for people who would get wiped off the map, so i donāt think they factor much in their policy planning.
The thing is that, at the end of the day, āthe US could annihilate us 50 times over and they wouldnāt even suffer much of backlash from the rest of the world in returnā doesnāt actually make people in these affected countries stop paying taxes and bow down to their local governments, and it also doesnāt prevent these governments from exerting their military power over their denizens, and puffing their chests out in public and projecting what little power they have over their smaller neighbors. So āthe Broken King could annihilate us 50 times over and he wouldnāt even suffer backlash from the rest of the world in returnā ā¦ i think in ārealityā it would have similar non-effect, for all these countries, with business proceeding as usual and no real incentive for their governments to try to rock the boat, or a reason to collapse, or both.
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