hell yeah hell yeah hell yeah
Okay, still haven't got an answer for "why does it mechanically matter which exact cards are in our Pneuma, rather than just their suits" (though it
could plausibly be purely about the narrative implications of drawing on a given card for a given purpose, at this point), but at least we've certainly got that large-scale outlet for our accumulated Pneuma cards I was wondering about.
As to implications for the broader structure of the game...the fact that Triumphant Initiations get more expensive the more of them we have, and that they do special things when we have a certain number, suggests that accumulating them is probably deeply tied to (if not constituting entirely in itself) the Supernal Finale wincon. We've also got a hard example of a Tormented Finale, which would currently seem pretty difficult to get forced into (we'd have to be on our final Ace as well as largely out of other gas in the tank) though not all may be so forgiving. For that matter, some may seem preferable to risking a Wearied Finale, if we're sufficiently tapped on Willpower at the time! Suppose we'll see.
In terms of practical takeaways, then. For Power, one card in Pneuma is equal to one Supernal, and since Power seems likely to be the crux on which Triumphant Initiations (and thereby, presumptively, our preferred wincon) will hinge, we should be very wary of spending at worse than that rate (e.g. losing two cards to pass up the 8). At the same time, since we've seen precious few other ways to use our Pneuma, spending cards from it here is probably preferable to spending more fungible (and, per the 8, otherwise higher-valued) Supernals (with the caveat that spending Aces is probably best avoided, and spending Trumps means losing flexibility in a different sense).
Also, by symmetry, I suspect the other 8s will likewise fling us into trials if we accept them, which means we should ideally make sure we're decently stocked on all suits before going in. Our Cups runneth over, but for any other suit, achieving a victory will basically clean us out. I am therefore
strongly averse to spending our Trumps until we absolutely have to, because their flexibility makes it much easier to meet the minimum threshold for multiple suits at the same time. And we won't want to risk going in with more than one suit below said threshold until at minimum we have a better handle on the patterns of the trials (one suit lacking is
provisionally acceptable because I'm willing to gamble that future trials will follow this one in having multiple options for how to achieve victory).
As such, I think the choice is obvious here:
[X] Believe, truly believe, in the inescapable reality of your consciousness and your perceptions. How could a might-have-been really matter?
-[X] 1 Supernal Experience, Three, Six and Knight of Pentacles
...a vote also made 4 minutes after the update went up by the first poster. It's possible I got a bit unnecessarily into the weeds there.
I do also have a narrative argument for this, but I'm saving that for later in the post to not cross the streams too much.
Setting aside whether swapping places works retroactively in time, this is a terrible attitude to have IMO so..
Alternatively speaking, too much Swords and not enough Cups?
I mean, okay, look, if you accept the framing that Rowan
is Ash, then the idea isn't "you, other person, should give up your life in the world for my personal benefit," it's "my life is the one we should be living, not yours." It's "we should have made the choices I represent, not the choices you actually made, and now we can
fix that." It's ultimately not so much a
confrontation as a
temptation.
And look at the options for resolving it. It's about either establishing the worth of the life Ash has led, or simply rejecting Rowan's power over them outright. And even failing that, while the experience will change them, they'll get away. There are only two worlds in which Ash actually ends up on the other side of that mirror: the one where they (we) accept it voluntarily, by choosing the Tormented Finale...or the world in which they're so worn down (only one Ace left in the deck, so inches from a Wearied Finale already) that they can't even think of any other way to be. Which really comes out to much the same thing.
So, accepting that this isn't so much an entity threatening us as an idea tempting us ("what if I really could go back, make all the choices I already think I should have, live a different life"), what does that make our answers to it?
Swords says, "no, I don't regret the life I led, it's made me who I am and that gives me strength."
Pentacles says, "no, it doesn't matter if I would want to, I can't go back, I have to live the life I have."
Both respectable enough sentiments, in general, but...to me, for Ash, the former feels more like sour grapes. I don't think the life they've led
did make them stronger. I think it just hurt them, and burned them up, and hollowed out everything else about their life, and that's
just bad. Things can just be bad. Insofar as there's a silver lining at all, it's the cold hard cash, which is nice for quality of life but doesn't really get you much in terms of inner strength. But the thing is, however much it
really would have been better for them to lead Rowan's life...they didn't. And I think Pentacles is about accepting that, and moving on.
Anyway this has been Wiadi's Unhinged Late Night Ramble Hour, I'm gonna go fall over now.
