Projectile
Thinking of Rabbits
- Location
- USA
Arete can be exchanged for spells and artifacts.
Fanwork#2724 Words of Reaction
Not that I even disagree with the public; Hunger is amazing, and the upper class doesn't need my pity, so why should I complain? Perhaps it's unrealistic to hold other people to Hunger's standards, but isn't that an argument for making him king?
Aside from that, it's cool to see the +50% Rank bonus we got from being awesome reflected in the narrative. I'm sure that has something to do with the fervor.
But while Hunger and I agree that the former government has it rough, I think he's not giving himself and his friends enough credit either. It's not like they got strong for the Sovereignty or anything, idiot- but sticking your head into a robot and pulling Artful Thorn out as a desperate last-minute powerup to save as many lives as possible is a pretty fantastic moral victory.
The "insert head" was the opposite of an intellectual victory, though. If it's stupid and it works, it's still stupid and you were lucky. Except it was a nat 1, so not even that.
A peculiar use of noblesse oblige- sometimes the nobles must, out of the goodness of their own heart, take up the burden of royalty! That'd be the most rancid bullshit in the history of bulls, except it does in fact apply to Hunger's tsunpower in this situation.
Plus, Letrizia's sidestepping the fact that Hunger wasn't any kind of Sovereignty noble in the first place. Nobility may be remarkably polity-independent in the Human Sphere, but even then "former city lord (ceremonial) in another universe" is a heck of a stretch. Though, as a duchess's bodyguard- dammit, no wonder Aobaru was calling himself a squire. I don't normally consider Letrizia's title, but it's the first (or second, with the robot) thing anyone in the Sovereignty would notice about her. Yeah, if Hunger isn't a knight she could make him one whenever they felt like, probably.
The actual answer to her question was more likely centuries ago, I'm sure. At least for any major state- which this isn't, so fair enough. To say nothing of that dashingly handsome Ring-lord that overthrew that government just a few days- wait, no, wasn't that literally yesterday? Hunger moves fast, it's ridiculous.
Everyone is bullying Hunger, Aobaru is the only one who doesn't know how much of a pushover he is outside of srsbsns. And Gisena is "sweeping" by with a duster, didn't catch that on first read.
Hunger's all about that democracy, then they democratically decide that he's the king. Wait, that's illegal. "You're all individuals!" "Yes, we're all individuals!" "I'm not!"
Gisena continues to be good for Hunger's mental health. It's good for him to know that he doesn't have to do any of this, even if that knowledge doesn't actually change his behavior. Plus, it makes him look more heroic than it would otherwise, which is a benefit for the readers! I think Gisena might be getting a bit concerned about Hunger's work ethic, but that's alright. He needs the concern, especially with the implication that killing the Rotbeast wasn't enough "actual good" use of his power.
And still, like before, she's mostly joking but that means she's partially serious. Letrizia's scary, and if she wasn't playing with cool magic and in reliable company and relatively directionless I'm sure she'd be much more so. I want to see her rampage some time; I'm sure there's some significance to her compatibility with the Devouring Armament in that regard.
But even with her lack of knowledge, a "great deal of corruption" is damning. King Hunger's gonna have to do some cleaning, it'll be a whirlwind of justice!
Juicy hints at Human Sphere politics too. That the Republic is fighting with "border Houses" and not the Empire fits with Letrizia's own scheming in this chapter- the Empire seems terribly disunited. All the better for us to conquer it, I say. And the Republic gets trashed as usual, but of course we haven't seen a single unbiased source yet. Surely the "Republic" can't be worse than the "Empire," my preconceptions say, no one could possibly lie in a name. Still, the level of disdain for the Republic seems almost farcical.
"Haha Hunger go brrrr"
Letrizia had all the pieces to figure out the timeline, meaning that she brought this on herself. Alternatively, she thought Hunger would take this slowly, with lots of breaks- but that's even more naive, she's been with him too long to think that! Go Beyond, plus ultra! :s
The people, most with relatively low political expertise, want this done now- nevermind that it isn't possible. It isn't the ideal that is wrong, it's reality! King Hunger is good at many things, especially giving people skewed expectations.
Hunger's basic plan is nothing new. Ennoble people, ennoble better people for better results. There's nothing about the specifics of making a constitution in this section, just that there is one. I wonder how much I should read in to that.
The completed Decimation Lens is- a lens. After all the autopsies she's been doing on guns and phones, its not what I'd expect. Where are the moving parts? Artifice is, of course, magic, but Plerion's Star Forges were- Ah. Of course Gisena made it blatantly magical in aesthetic, after being denied for so long. Who's the real Sorceress now, huh?
So the vote to go after the tower was Gisena's decision IC. Well, it's certainly possible that Hunger would've just rejected the advice in favor of fishing memes had the other vote won, but it's fun to see how the thread's decisions translate in the story. Apo-chan procing and killing a lot of people isn't the same as Hunger letting people die, since I care more about his behavior than the faceless masses per se.
And there's that "woven" word again. Or not again, for the first time. I'm from the future, you see, it gets confusing. But it implies that there's a way to "unweave" it that would waste less effort than bashing it. Pity that we're Cut Through man, heh.
I'm super keen to know what we can pilfer from the tower for our mantle, if anything. I might feel foolish if the connection is just "yeah, it's all under the same sky lol," but on the other hand that's the point of Triumphal Gleam. Sky powers are OP, really.
Seriously, though, it's good work. The Ring isn't as user-friendly as google. And rather than her Ring interfacing with the Curse directly, it seems like it'd be easier to interface with what's already hooked up to it; she presumably had to connect Azure to Crimson for them to know what qualities would satisfy Decimation. Or emphasize the connection, I guess, since it's already there, especially after the Call and the Response. I'm sure such a genius is already plotting to use that to further seduce Hunger; don't fall for her tricks!
And going back to the "monitor" joke, it's actually incredibly appropriate that her first project is largely just putting the pieces we already have available together with a small addition. It's not as ambitious as her later projects will be, but it's eminently practical. Not like her at all, some might say, but such restraint just means she deserves more praise.
I think it came up that the Lens didn't have upkeep when I was talking about possibly trading it away, but on reread it appears like it does. Sort of. But also that trading it away would have to be a scam, 'cause it'd be a waste of Azure's processing power. "Ontological budget," that is. Bit of a wooly phrase, especially here. I think it's a "how much stuff can I look at" budget rather than a "how much can I be," one, in the way that Praxis is. We didn't want to work it maximally hard.
The domains listed for Gisena were Artifice, Mind, and Time. Truth wasn't on the list. And we'd been assuming she still had access to Truth powers (or at least, that the Ring itself would), but it's good to see that bear out. It's the Ring's domain, Gisena says, so perhaps she doesn't have access to any Truth powers except indirectly? I'm especially curious because Hunger only has War, Passion, and Blood/Life in comparison to the wider spread of Azure's dominions. Is Azure an older, more experienced Ring? We did have the opportunity to pick up the dominion of Rule (from the other Ring, admittedly), so there's precedent for Rings growing just as their meaty counterparts more skillfully wield them.
Technobabble (well, it's actually comprehensible, so technotalk?) aside, I like how Hunger spoke directly to the Ring here. His human body and his Ring are occupied by the same personality, but it isn't the same for Gisena and Azure, and that deserves acknowledgement. Not that Azure would get lonely, but it's the principle of the matter.
Is there ever real "peacetime" in the Voyaging Realm? The military shouldn't have to worry about their job security overmuch, but they might not know that. Hunger's prediction is plausible, but they could also rise above their issues without your help. Is an absentee king really more likely to be an improvement? Well, yes, because it's exactly what they were looking for- sometimes things are incredibly convenient like that, even without the winds of Fate behind him.
And Hunger agrees with me that dropping Aeira's mysterious family in charge would be hasty! He only thinks that because we voted to make him think that, but shh, let me pretend.
Because I went to math class, and I know that 1+1=2. If Hunger is the King, and Gisena is the Queen... somebody help me out here, I think there might be an implication. Nope, thought's gone now. It'd be nice to have a Gisena in charge of our new Kingdom, but we only have one of those and there are better uses for her talents. Plus she'd start cursing people apparently, as stereotypes demand, and we want less of those rather than more.
I suppose a Cursebearer should be in favor of people getting what they deserve, at least where effort is concerned. But depending on how you interpret that, I'm a little leery of the idea. Luckily, this interpretation seems to be "everyone deserves vacation," which is 100% okay.
But reality and the relentless drive for power disagree. Hunger can only take a vacation when we get Pillars and not a second before! And even then, it'll have to be a Hungercation to satisfy our insatiable need for picks, so Gisena will have to suffer for a while longer. Praise the Accursed that Hunger's hardcore and has +Will and the Blade and doesn't have to spend Will to get up every day like Seram, our playstyle would crash and burn and we'd get eaten by the Curse. Very gruesomely.
Immediately after disavowing all responsibility, she totally accepts all the responsibility without the title, smh, how can you call yourself a genius? The keyword must be "can," she knows there's no escape from the Tyrant! Genius restored, you can see it by how she only implies that her boss is a wanker.
And Hunger is demanding as usual, demanding three artifacts worthy of his panoply as a dowry? Way to play hard to get.
You know the more I think about it... do you guys think Hunger and Gisena might be flirting? It's a bit out there, I know. Nevermind, it must just be that my shipping goggles were on.
Fanwork#2724 Words of Reaction
Nothing obscure about such a title for an update about how to rule. It is a bit of a shame that there were two updates between "Sovereign Jewel" and "On the Crown," though. Clearly a metaphor for how messages can get garbled over time. /s
As I've written before, I'm struggling to decide if this is an unfortunate degree of fickleness or not. Yes, Hunger is very cool. But the government didn't stand by and let their people get slaughtered, it was their army (+the party) who held the line and died for it, it was the government that presumably had some hand in their survival to this point, and it's a bit of a contradiction (well, not exactly, but the messages get mixed) to blame the Sovereignty leadership for not doing enough on one hand and having conscription on the other.
Not that I even disagree with the public; Hunger is amazing, and the upper class doesn't need my pity, so why should I complain? Perhaps it's unrealistic to hold other people to Hunger's standards, but isn't that an argument for making him king?
Aside from that, it's cool to see the +50% Rank bonus we got from being awesome reflected in the narrative. I'm sure that has something to do with the fervor.
The people would be less pleased if they had any reason to believe Hunger was the slightest bit responsible for the attack, but not even Hunger can be sure of that. Even when Apo-chan is as blatant as this, she doesn't exactly leave proof mortals can follow.
But while Hunger and I agree that the former government has it rough, I think he's not giving himself and his friends enough credit either. It's not like they got strong for the Sovereignty or anything, idiot- but sticking your head into a robot and pulling Artful Thorn out as a desperate last-minute powerup to save as many lives as possible is a pretty fantastic moral victory.
The "insert head" was the opposite of an intellectual victory, though. If it's stupid and it works, it's still stupid and you were lucky. Except it was a nat 1, so not even that.
Hunger's so tired that he's hallucinating that his eye is back. Or he could be rubbing his eye socket, I guess there's no need to be that pedantic. :>
A peculiar use of noblesse oblige- sometimes the nobles must, out of the goodness of their own heart, take up the burden of royalty! That'd be the most rancid bullshit in the history of bulls, except it does in fact apply to Hunger's tsunpower in this situation.
Plus, Letrizia's sidestepping the fact that Hunger wasn't any kind of Sovereignty noble in the first place. Nobility may be remarkably polity-independent in the Human Sphere, but even then "former city lord (ceremonial) in another universe" is a heck of a stretch. Though, as a duchess's bodyguard- dammit, no wonder Aobaru was calling himself a squire. I don't normally consider Letrizia's title, but it's the first (or second, with the robot) thing anyone in the Sovereignty would notice about her. Yeah, if Hunger isn't a knight she could make him one whenever they felt like, probably.
The actual answer to her question was more likely centuries ago, I'm sure. At least for any major state- which this isn't, so fair enough. To say nothing of that dashingly handsome Ring-lord that overthrew that government just a few days- wait, no, wasn't that literally yesterday? Hunger moves fast, it's ridiculous.
Aobaru got the most points for his job interview with is brashness, because Aeira was visibly nervous despite all her preparation, but with this display she's ahead in terms of displayed boldness. "Hey, I'm right here, why don't I change how this whole country is run?" Maybe my Queen Aeira jokes aren't quite so ridiculous, after all. I regret not making her a business major, we could probably dump this whole thing on her if she wasn't wasting her talent being a teenage assassin (lol).
Everyone is bullying Hunger, Aobaru is the only one who doesn't know how much of a pushover he is outside of srsbsns. And Gisena is "sweeping" by with a duster, didn't catch that on first read.
Hunger's all about that democracy, then they democratically decide that he's the king. Wait, that's illegal. "You're all individuals!" "Yes, we're all individuals!" "I'm not!"
Ah, now it comes out. The best king is one who isn't breathing down your neck- but they seem to want an "absolute" monarch when he isn't "absentee" to a degree, which is still odd for me. It'll definitely be useful as a deterrent to be able to wave the Hunger stick around. Do you really want to pick a fight with this guy? He stabbed a mountain range and it died.
Gisena continues to be good for Hunger's mental health. It's good for him to know that he doesn't have to do any of this, even if that knowledge doesn't actually change his behavior. Plus, it makes him look more heroic than it would otherwise, which is a benefit for the readers! I think Gisena might be getting a bit concerned about Hunger's work ethic, but that's alright. He needs the concern, especially with the implication that killing the Rotbeast wasn't enough "actual good" use of his power.
Letrizia, you're going to give me whiplash. Weren't you deliberately shoving away thoughts of home a short while ago? I suppose this kind of strategizing isn't emotionally the same at all. But even so, I haven't seen her in duchess mode. She's always so enthusiastic about whatever she's doing at the exact moment that all her other priorities seem to fade away. Is that what it means to be Sharpbright? Brightly focusing on a sharp area?
And still, like before, she's mostly joking but that means she's partially serious. Letrizia's scary, and if she wasn't playing with cool magic and in reliable company and relatively directionless I'm sure she'd be much more so. I want to see her rampage some time; I'm sure there's some significance to her compatibility with the Devouring Armament in that regard.
Aeira impresses me again- she didn't really answer the question, but that's because she couldn't. "Give objectivity pls." "Nah, I don't actually have any, ask again later." Rather than trusting her to be objective, it's more like trusting her to know when she isn't, and I appreciate that so much. Might have been a test on Hunger's part, come to think of it, because "not a fan" doesn't lead to "objectivity" as smoothly as he's implying.
But even with her lack of knowledge, a "great deal of corruption" is damning. King Hunger's gonna have to do some cleaning, it'll be a whirlwind of justice!
Juicy hints at Human Sphere politics too. That the Republic is fighting with "border Houses" and not the Empire fits with Letrizia's own scheming in this chapter- the Empire seems terribly disunited. All the better for us to conquer it, I say. And the Republic gets trashed as usual, but of course we haven't seen a single unbiased source yet. Surely the "Republic" can't be worse than the "Empire," my preconceptions say, no one could possibly lie in a name. Still, the level of disdain for the Republic seems almost farcical.
"Noooo you can't just reform an entire government in a week"
"Haha Hunger go brrrr"
Letrizia had all the pieces to figure out the timeline, meaning that she brought this on herself. Alternatively, she thought Hunger would take this slowly, with lots of breaks- but that's even more naive, she's been with him too long to think that! Go Beyond, plus ultra! :s
The people, most with relatively low political expertise, want this done now- nevermind that it isn't possible. It isn't the ideal that is wrong, it's reality! King Hunger is good at many things, especially giving people skewed expectations.
Hunger's basic plan is nothing new. Ennoble people, ennoble better people for better results. There's nothing about the specifics of making a constitution in this section, just that there is one. I wonder how much I should read in to that.
Having chosen to stay behind to constitutionalize and also travel to the more distant mitigation target, Gisena deserves every ounce of praise Hunger can give her. Congratulations, you just prevented megedeaths! I would like to repeat everything Hunger said, but without the sarcasm.
The completed Decimation Lens is- a lens. After all the autopsies she's been doing on guns and phones, its not what I'd expect. Where are the moving parts? Artifice is, of course, magic, but Plerion's Star Forges were- Ah. Of course Gisena made it blatantly magical in aesthetic, after being denied for so long. Who's the real Sorceress now, huh?
So the vote to go after the tower was Gisena's decision IC. Well, it's certainly possible that Hunger would've just rejected the advice in favor of fishing memes had the other vote won, but it's fun to see how the thread's decisions translate in the story. Apo-chan procing and killing a lot of people isn't the same as Hunger letting people die, since I care more about his behavior than the faceless masses per se.
And there's that "woven" word again. Or not again, for the first time. I'm from the future, you see, it gets confusing. But it implies that there's a way to "unweave" it that would waste less effort than bashing it. Pity that we're Cut Through man, heh.
I'm super keen to know what we can pilfer from the tower for our mantle, if anything. I might feel foolish if the connection is just "yeah, it's all under the same sky lol," but on the other hand that's the point of Triumphal Gleam. Sky powers are OP, really.
And now we see where the "moving parts" of this solid gem are hidden. It's just a monitor, and she googled 'where huntress moon target.' Some genius. :s
Seriously, though, it's good work. The Ring isn't as user-friendly as google. And rather than her Ring interfacing with the Curse directly, it seems like it'd be easier to interface with what's already hooked up to it; she presumably had to connect Azure to Crimson for them to know what qualities would satisfy Decimation. Or emphasize the connection, I guess, since it's already there, especially after the Call and the Response. I'm sure such a genius is already plotting to use that to further seduce Hunger; don't fall for her tricks!
And going back to the "monitor" joke, it's actually incredibly appropriate that her first project is largely just putting the pieces we already have available together with a small addition. It's not as ambitious as her later projects will be, but it's eminently practical. Not like her at all, some might say, but such restraint just means she deserves more praise.
I think it came up that the Lens didn't have upkeep when I was talking about possibly trading it away, but on reread it appears like it does. Sort of. But also that trading it away would have to be a scam, 'cause it'd be a waste of Azure's processing power. "Ontological budget," that is. Bit of a wooly phrase, especially here. I think it's a "how much stuff can I look at" budget rather than a "how much can I be," one, in the way that Praxis is. We didn't want to work it maximally hard.
The domains listed for Gisena were Artifice, Mind, and Time. Truth wasn't on the list. And we'd been assuming she still had access to Truth powers (or at least, that the Ring itself would), but it's good to see that bear out. It's the Ring's domain, Gisena says, so perhaps she doesn't have access to any Truth powers except indirectly? I'm especially curious because Hunger only has War, Passion, and Blood/Life in comparison to the wider spread of Azure's dominions. Is Azure an older, more experienced Ring? We did have the opportunity to pick up the dominion of Rule (from the other Ring, admittedly), so there's precedent for Rings growing just as their meaty counterparts more skillfully wield them.
Technobabble (well, it's actually comprehensible, so technotalk?) aside, I like how Hunger spoke directly to the Ring here. His human body and his Ring are occupied by the same personality, but it isn't the same for Gisena and Azure, and that deserves acknowledgement. Not that Azure would get lonely, but it's the principle of the matter.
Hunger is pure of heart, unlike us tainted voters who were more captivated by .5 Rank than morality. That aside, even with the disappointing roll for the constitution, getting some practice with setting up a government in a soft-conquered area should be beneficial for the longer mission! If our boss gets on us for slacking with the Geas task, that'll be the excuse we give him. Assuming he wouldn't be totally alright with "meh, I'll deal with it in a few centuries while I grind."
Is there ever real "peacetime" in the Voyaging Realm? The military shouldn't have to worry about their job security overmuch, but they might not know that. Hunger's prediction is plausible, but they could also rise above their issues without your help. Is an absentee king really more likely to be an improvement? Well, yes, because it's exactly what they were looking for- sometimes things are incredibly convenient like that, even without the winds of Fate behind him.
Gisena notices how suspiciously convenient everything is, too. It's always nice when the smartest kid in class has the same answer you do. But we have friends in high places, meme power, Rank, and a cool sword! Not everything is an Apocryphal proc.
And Hunger agrees with me that dropping Aeira's mysterious family in charge would be hasty! He only thinks that because we voted to make him think that, but shh, let me pretend.
It is becoming increasingly apparent that Hunger giving Gisena the Ring was in fact an engagement proposal and was accepted as such, they're sickeningly sweet together. It'll be a biiiiit awkward when we revive Catherine and the person in training, but we can't let awkwardness get in the way of doing it eventually- plus that's future Hunger's problem.
Because I went to math class, and I know that 1+1=2. If Hunger is the King, and Gisena is the Queen... somebody help me out here, I think there might be an implication. Nope, thought's gone now. It'd be nice to have a Gisena in charge of our new Kingdom, but we only have one of those and there are better uses for her talents. Plus she'd start cursing people apparently, as stereotypes demand, and we want less of those rather than more.
I suppose a Cursebearer should be in favor of people getting what they deserve, at least where effort is concerned. But depending on how you interpret that, I'm a little leery of the idea. Luckily, this interpretation seems to be "everyone deserves vacation," which is 100% okay.
But reality and the relentless drive for power disagree. Hunger can only take a vacation when we get Pillars and not a second before! And even then, it'll have to be a Hungercation to satisfy our insatiable need for picks, so Gisena will have to suffer for a while longer. Praise the Accursed that Hunger's hardcore and has +Will and the Blade and doesn't have to spend Will to get up every day like Seram, our playstyle would crash and burn and we'd get eaten by the Curse. Very gruesomely.
Wait, it's all banter? Always has been.
Immediately after disavowing all responsibility, she totally accepts all the responsibility without the title, smh, how can you call yourself a genius? The keyword must be "can," she knows there's no escape from the Tyrant! Genius restored, you can see it by how she only implies that her boss is a wanker.
And Hunger is demanding as usual, demanding three artifacts worthy of his panoply as a dowry? Way to play hard to get.
You know the more I think about it... do you guys think Hunger and Gisena might be flirting? It's a bit out there, I know. Nevermind, it must just be that my shipping goggles were on.
