The Slave Who Makes Free: An Anakin Skywalker Quest

Sometimes the right thing to do is the wrong course of action.

Reaching out to Ferus is the right thing to do, and we really could use his help, but reaching out to him properly requires a level head and a measure of come, while we're about to hit a stress breakpoints and interacting with Ferus is the type of thing that stresses us out, even on a good day. We simply aren't in the right head space to give this the care and respect it deserves and if we try to force it anyways, we're just going to make things worse.

Being able to gauge your own limitation, in both an absolute sense and in the immediate "I simply don't have the spoons to deal with this right now" sense is an important skill and recognizing that you're not in the right place to take on an important task doesn't mean your minimizing how important it is. If anything, it's a recognition that it's so important it deserves more that what you can currently give.

There's also another factor here. As much as Anakin is the literal main character in this story, in universe he's not; the world doesn't revolve around him and other people have agency. Insisting on going to Ferus when we know we're not in a state to deal with him denies that. It centers Anakin as the most important person, the only one who can get things done, and the only one who really matters. None of that's true and while Anakin would definitely agree with that on an intellectual level, he needs to practice living it. Ferus, in particular, will pick up on that attitude—it's fairly central to his problem with us—so it would be doubly foolish to approach him with it. Even if it wasn't central to his beef with us, it would still be focusing on our own desires and ego over his, when we're supposed to be reaching out to him, and that's never a good look.

Ferus said he's afraid of what will happen we become a Knight or a Master and start thinking that we're the only ones who should get to say what the galaxy will be like. Let's start showing him that we were listening and that we're not that person. Leave Ferus to someone else.

@Kirook I expect the answer to be No, for quite a few reasons, but I want to ask anyways. Could we get a third option, or a variant of the second, along the lines of "We need Ferus, but I can't be the one who goes to him. I need a nap."

[x] You don't need him.

[X] Ask Ferus for help.

Phenomenal update Kirook, you really nailed the pervasive emotional tension running through the narrative and characters, I was on the edge of my seat.

[X] Ask Ferus for help.

"Ah, the eternal curse of the activist," says Senator Organa wryly. "To expect everyone in the galaxy to be as aware of politics as you."
That's a whole ass mood.
[X] Ask Ferus for help.
Here for a fun time not a long time.

[X] Ask Ferus for help.

[X] Ask Ferus for help.

The question is not yet "will Anakin break" - judging by the last tier, we get to choose whether Anakin breaks, and most likely that vote will choose not to in the hopes of burning stress later.

Of course, that opens the pathway straight to a tier 3 break.

Worth remembering that a Red option doesn't guarantee a stress increase, and conversely a Blue option doesn't guarantee a stress decrease.

MSH said:

The question is not yet "will Anakin break" - judging by the last tier, we get to choose whether Anakin breaks, and most likely that vote will choose not to in the hopes of burning stress later.

Of course, that opens the pathway straight to a tier 3 break.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

If you remember when it was, could you link me to the last break? I don't recall how that was handled.

Andrensath said:

Worth remembering that a Red option doesn't guarantee a stress increase, and conversely a Blue option doesn't guarantee a stress decrease.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

While that is true, it's a pretty reasonable assumption that dealing with Ferus will cause some stress. The problem is that we're at a point where any stress will cause a break, so even if we only get a small hit of stress, at the start, but the rest of the goes swimmingly and we end up with less stress than we started with, that first hit still puts us over and I'm worried that means we blow up and the "rest of the conversation" doesn't happen.

[X] Ask Ferus for help.

MSH said:

The question is not yet "will Anakin break" - judging by the last tier, we get to choose whether Anakin breaks, and most likely that vote will choose not to in the hopes of burning stress later.

Of course, that opens the pathway straight to a tier 3 break.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

If the choice is given to have a stress break next update, I intend to take it. It'll hurt, I'm sure there will be consequences we won't be happy about, but here and now is about as safe a place for Anakin to have a stress break as we're ever going to get.

Unfortunately for us, stress breaks are our main way of lowering Anakin's stress. And if we want to do our best to keep Anakin from having a Tier 3 stress break, that means sometimes we need to accept a tier 2 break happening instead.

[X] Ask Ferus for help.

Might as well break in the temple where we have people who can help. As opposed to potentially fighting the IGBC on Kalee and breaking then.

[X] Ask Ferus for help.

Costly. But worth it, I think.

Derpmind said:

Unfortunately for us, stress breaks are our main way of lowering Anakin's stress. And if we want to do our best to keep Anakin from having a Tier 3 stress break, that means sometimes we need to accept a tier 2 break happening instead.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Just accepting that the only way to deal with stress is through bottling it up entirely until it all comes out with explosive force seems... like a somewhat unhealthy mindset for Anakin to get into in the long term.

At least trying to pull back when we're pushing outselves too hard and to try and give ourselves moments of calm seems like an important thing to at least try.

[X] Ask Ferus for help.

Yeah, I'm sorry Anakin, but this is a Stressor I feel you might need to take for things to not get WORSE.

[X] You don't need him.

Step back and breathe. Anakin is not the e only person working on this problem, nor should be be. Trying to patch things up with this particular person just because the feels like he has to is going to only make the situation worse