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Esquestria: The House of the Sun - A pony cultist experience

Reader mode
OurLadyOfWires said:
So Beyond Reproach is not investigating your brother. He is investigating you. He is looking at your ledgers, and your paperwork.
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Got worried for a moment there - and I'm still slightly worried, but it is not a combat encounter, so back to sleep.

Investigating myself: I sleep
Disturbing my children: real shit

OurLadyOfWires said:
Dear moon, so many kisses. You felt so humiliated.
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There's a trend towards focusing solely on the bad, so I'll show some focus on the good too. Lol. Wait, cough, ahem. Skill issue.

[X] This feels like a dream. Treat it like one. Explore this strange place.
[X] What is this "cellphone" all the kids are talking about? Why do you have one? And what is this "Internet" thing?
[X] You are here for a reason. Get. It. Done. (Further your search for Axe's… contact)
 
[X] You are here for a reason. Get. It. (Further your search for Axe's… contact)
[X] "Miss Sparkle? See me after class." (Approach Twilight Sparkle)
[X] They are young and impressionable. Thankfully, you are a responsible adult. (Hang out with Rarity and Fluttershy, your real-life confidantes)
[X] This feels like a dream. Treat it like one. Explore this strange place.

I'll start with this for now.

Unless we are given indication otherwise, we have to act as though we must hit the DoA button every time. If we come out of this turn without having a Snek friend, so much of our planning for future turns goes out the window.
Sparkle horse? I've explained my thoughts already. It's the Twilight Button + I think it is the most likely to orient us to the situation of EQG in this story, and that may help us direct our other goals.
Rarity and Fluttershy have surprised us before with unexpected benefits and building up a "base" here, no matter how temporary, may provide more than we think. This one is my hail mary here.
And this last one is just fitting for that Secret Histories buff, and I think we have the leeway for now to let that old yearning take us somewhere unexpected.

Speaking of which, our buffs right now. I don't know if there are going to be rolls, but it is best to assume there will be rolls. So anything that involves exploration or Social are flashing neon right now. Let's play in our strengths.
 
[X] "Miss Sparkle? See me after class." (Approach Twilight Sparkle)
[X] This feels like a dream. Treat it like one. Explore this strange place.
[X] They are young and impressionable. Thankfully, you are a responsible adult. (Hang out with Rarity and Fluttershy, your real-life confidantes)
[X] You are here for a reason. Get. It. (Further your search for Axe's… contact)
 
[X] They are young and impressionable. Thankfully, you are a responsible adult. (Hang out with Rarity and Fluttershy, your real-life confidantes)
[X] "Miss Sparkle? See me after class." (Approach Twilight Sparkle)
[X] You are here for a reason. Get. It. Done. (Further your search for Axe's… contact)

It feels... like we ought to start working on a power-base/allies if we want to be successful in tracking down anyone
 
Against Sunset Whatshername
I wrote a whole omake about this pony. But I don't think I want to see her in the quest.

Bird likes to say that we the voters represent Velvet's subconscious. That creates a dissonance when canon pieces come into play. When there are characters who we as voters are committed to and have long-standing relationships with and want to see, relationships Velvet does not have. Conversely, I think there are things that Velvet values — the Glory — that we voters don't care quite as much about. We like seeing characters we like and are invested in interact, we've voted for that constantly, climbing the Mansus we had to be nudged and then shoved towards.

Twilight is the most obvious example here. I can accept it though, given the way it was built up in story. Sure, Velvet values Twilight more than she values 500 bits, guilt and regret are that strong. I may wish it was otherwise, wish I wasn't pretty certain that if we were offered a Twilight option tomorrow we'd take it in a heartbeat… but I can see it. It fits.

Sunset Shimmer would not fit. I buy that a lot of people quite like her and find her interesting and a fun character and want to see her. What I don't buy is why Velvet would. In this strange world, why she would focus on a pony she does not know and has never met. I can buy there's a resonance, but it just feels like it would be so much so something imposed by us readers on Velvet, not something organic.

I know, trust the QM. And I do trust Bird's capacity to make it natural, and make it flow, and make it work. But I don't think it would eliminate the dissonance between how we readers would react to a Sunset hook (absorption?) and how Velvet would (perhaps mild interest?). And I would find that frustrating.
 
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Personally, assuming Velvet's (likey) extreme change in character doesn't jar Sunset into doing something rash, I think the most we'll see of her is either second-hand accounts from other characters or as brief encounters that don't directly lead to much (though I suspect the one student who didn't get into Velvet's "hot teacher act" has a 50% chance of being Sunset).
 
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Replacement goldfish is replacement goldfish. But there was a treatise I read once, about Hamlet reacting to his father's murder, that there really was no action that could be done to undo that act.

"...he naturally felt that something must be done. But what? What could be done that would make any difference-any difference at all to the things that really mattered? Would a dagger through Claudius' ribs restore Hamlet's shattered universe? Would it restore his earlier idealized image of his mother or remove the 'blister' that had been set on his innocent love? This is a tragedy of moral frustration. What are you going to do about past crimes which have shattered your preconceptions about the nature of life? There is nothing you can ever do about the past, except forget it. And yet, of course, Hamlet could not forget. Revenge is no real help-what sort of action, then, is of help? None that is directed toward undoing the past: only purposive action directed toward the future can ever help.
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A Critical History of English Literature Volume 1 by Professor David Daiches, page 272 (the introduction and preface takes up 10 pages on its own)

The thread may want action that can undo the past, but no action can ever undo the past. If the voters want to talk or find Sunset Shimmer to progress towards helping Twilight Sparkle, then sure. But if it's just to ease our own guilt, then it's not really a good use of an action, especially since holding the Foggy Mirror open appears to tax Axe somewhat (or maybe it doesn't, and my comprehension of the Snake-crement was flawed). What I want to caution is: sometimes moral outrage demands action - but at least let's try to have that action be something that could plausibly help us in the future.
 
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Shaper47 said:
Desire for Wolf Sacrament growing.

In fact we should get Selene to level 5 Winter and Edge as well with a Wolf Sacrament.
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Maybe if we had all but Edge and Winter lined up.
I'd consider voting for it if it's the way to all-5, or if we need a power-boost now or lose the game.
And I don't think the former is in the cards, not when we could instead achieve mastery over the lores where we don't have trouble getting the Sacrament.
 
[X] You are here for a reason. Get. It. Done. (Further your search for Axe's… contact)
As I said, a no-brainer.
[X] This feels like a dream. Treat it like one. Explore this strange place.
My gut says this is related to the 120 SH threshold.
 
[X] You are here for a reason. Get. It. Done. (Further your search for Axe's… contact)
[X] What is this "cellphone" all the kids are talking about? Why do you have one? And what is this "Internet" thing?
[X] They are young and impressionable. Thankfully, you are a responsible adult. (Hang out with Rarity and Fluttershy, your real-life confidantes)
 
[X] "Miss Sparkle? See me after class." (Approach Twilight Sparkle)
[X] You are here for a reason. Get. It. Done. (Further your search for Axe's… contact)
[X] This place has a library. Go take a look.
 
[X] They are young and impressionable. Thankfully, you are a responsible adult. (Hang out with Rarity and Fluttershy, your real-life confidantes)
[X] "Miss Sparkle? See me after class." (Approach Twilight Sparkle)
[X] You are here for a reason. Get. It. Done. (Further your search for Axe's… contact)

I debated a lot whether to include researching cellphones on the list, but I think I would rather talk to Twilight, if the vote came down to be between those two. May edit my vote later.
 
[X] You are here for a reason. Get. It. Done. (Further your search for Axe's… contact)
[X] "To be honest? I think your job is better than mine." (Approach Cheerilee. She is here… somewhere)
[X] "Miss Sparkle? See me after class." (Approach Twilight Sparkle)
[X] Alright, WHERE is Stormchaser? (Look for your dear beloved)

Several of these will not win. And maybe if I threw my all into it, they might be closer to not loosing, but I'm not too fussed.

... and, a last moment add in. As, I realized a funkyness.

[X] This feels like a dream. Treat it like one. Explore this strange place.
 
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-[X] Alright, WHERE is Stormchaser? (Look for your dear beloved)

-[X] "Miss Sparkle? See me after class." (Approach Twilight Sparkle)

-[X] This feels like a dream. Treat it like one. Explore this strange place.

-[X] What is this "cellphone" all the kids are talking about? Why do you have one? And what is this "Internet" thing?

-[X] You are here for a reason. Get. It. Done. (Further your search for Axe's… contact)
 
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OurLadyOfWires said:
Opening a passage always involves a violation. Whether one violates the face of a mountain with a pickaxe, or the laws of the world with a ritual, the opening of a way always requires the removal of what once stood in its place.
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Well I called it.

I always heavily suspected that Velvet had a lot more control and dominance over the Principle of Agony especially in the Wake then people thought.

But now my hypothesis has supporting text.

Still, actual confident control would require taking one more step forward.
 
[X] You are here for a reason. Get. It. Done. (Further your search for Axe's… contact)
[X] What is this "cellphone" all the kids are talking about? Why do you have one? And what is this "Internet" thing?
[X] They are young and impressionable. Thankfully, you are a responsible adult. (Hang out with Rarity and Fluttershy, your real-life confidantes)
[X] This feels like a dream. Treat it like one. Explore this strange place.
 
Shaper47 said:
The Wolf is not a trap vote.

Surely nothing could possibly go wrong from introducing another of our daughter to them.
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It's not a trap vote because we've been told repeatedly exactly what wolf does.

It's a crime against nature that makes everything else worse in exchange for a personal benefit to Velvet, while also be something she'll regret having done.

It's a deal with the devil, where the devil will give us exactly what we asked for, and we'll still be unhappy after it.

Shaper47 said:
Well I called it.

I always heavily suspected that Velvet had a lot more control and dominance over the Principle of Agony especially in the Wake then people thought.

But now my hypothesis has supporting text.

Still, actual confident control would require taking one more step forward.
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...what?

I literally see no way this blurb is supporting you.

This is just repeating the point expressed in the update, that Knock can be expressed as a "lack" or "removal" or something. You make a statue by removing stone, you make a tunnel by digging out stone, you open a door by using the minimum amount of removal and force in the lock.

That has nothing to do with Agony. Or, at least, it has nothing more to do with Agony that with literally any of the 7 conventional principles.
 
Pittauro said:
...what?

I literally see no way this blurb is supporting you.

This is just repeating the point expressed in the update, that Knock can be expressed as a "lack" or "removal" or something. You make a statue by removing stone, you make a tunnel by digging out stone, you open a door by using the minimum amount of removal and force in the lock.

That has nothing to do with Agony. Or, at least, it has nothing more to do with Agony that with literally any of the 7 conventional principles.
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Plus, agony is already an explicitly defined cornerstone of one of the Lores, and it sure isn't Knock. It's one of the three pillars of Edge.
 
Greymere said:
Plus, agony is already an explicitly defined cornerstone of one of the Lores, and it sure isn't Knock. It's one of the three pillars of Edge.
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that too. It's the interpretation of Edge the Wolf gives. Not the only one, of course, as Edge can be the guard that protects as well as the assassin that kills, and basically every lore has multiple facets... but Wolf is Edge and Winter, it has nothing to do with Knock.

Agony in itself COULD be related to Knock, I suppose, maybe through the concept of poison... but that sounds more like something the Seven Coils might have been, from what little I know of it. Not the Wolf.
 
Pittauro said:
That has nothing to do with Agony. Or, at least, it has nothing more to do with Agony that with literally any of the 7 conventional principles.
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The Wolf-Divided is the Door and Velvet's Soul is the key.

Agony is subverted by Agony as said by the prophecy. Agony devours Agony. Velvet devours and replaces the Wolf-Divided "removal of what once stood in its place".

The Laws/Principles are upheld and defined by the divine. In the Wake at least Velvet is defining an unknown but probably extreamly large amount of the Principle/Law of Agony. Logically the more Velvet defines Agony the more control and influence over it she has. With the influence/control of the Wolf-Divided removed.
 
Shaper47 said:
In the Wake at least Velvet is defining an unknown but probably extreamly large amount of the Principle/Law of Agony. Logically the more Velvet defines Agony the more control and influence over it she has. With the influence/control of the Wolf-Divided removed.
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I think you're reaching, but I also think you could be right on that part? IIRC @OurLadyOfWires did mention that we can only figure out what can be done about Velvet's sons once we reach four stains.

I just don't think it's worth it to commit a Regrettable Action to find out.
 
I completely understand some people's aversion to the Wolf and it's wounds but I can't help but find it extremely charming, I want the Glory for Velvet just as much as y'all. But, really- seeing Velvet reach the top, covered in gashes and dripping hurts, her sons and daughters at her hindhoofs

Well, it'd be totally neat. x3.

And y'know, we could make our own MoW ending.

Don't hate me please :V
 
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I'm wanting to write another Ashweaver…

Should I do another Mansus, presume he spent time in the Wake recovering before delving again? Or should I show the Wake and some of his daily life?

Any preferences?
 
Cochimetl said:
I think you're reaching, but I also think you could be right on that part? IIRC @OurLadyOfWires did mention that we can only figure out what can be done about Velvet's sons once we reach four stains.

I just don't think it's worth it to commit a Regrettable Action to find out.
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We should take over Wolf cult grief assistance group instead.
Who knows how far they will go without our guidance. Especially if Twilight ends up joining. With Cadence confidence shaken by Velvet's injury, cult members likely are only ones keeping eye on Twilight right now.
Hopefully our deal with Soft Sweep gives us necessary info/motivation to act on it.
 
I believe that if we talk to Rarity and Fluttershy, we will get an extra action per turn. At worst, we will get a bonus to our actions, so the earlier we talk to them, the better.
 
[X]You are here for a reason. Get. It. Done. (Further your search for Axe's… contact)
[X] "Miss Sparkle? See me after class." (Approach Twilight Sparkle)
[X] This feels like a dream. Treat it like one. Explore this strange place.
[X] This place has a library. Go take a look.

Here's my actual vote though
 
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