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The Practice War [Complete]

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Amanda really does need a break. She is already showing signs of burnout. Two years would give her time to recover, while also allowing her successor to get their feet under them without being in her shadow.
World's Lover vs Ever Present seems to me to be a choice between love and duty, respectively.

[1] Freedom Rain - 2 years
[2] Freedom Rain - 1 year
[3] Ever Present
[4] The World's Lover
[5] Tongues of Gold
[6] Freedom Rain
 
Admitedly, I only know 2 people who had a burnout (well, 1, the other just came close). And for both it was a few weeks off and then, most importantly, change.

As for PTSD... You mean this thing basically everyone in this setting had and the psychiatrists are damn good at treating? Plus of course that there are magical healers in this setting and the main character is known to be able to turn healing inwards?

No, if we can bring back people from brain cookery we can deal with PTSD.

Also fyi (not the best article I have seen about itt, but good enough) :Opinion | A Drug to Cure Fear
 
ArdanKhael said:
Admitedly, I only know 2 people who had a burnout (well, 1, the other just came close). And for both it was a few weeks off and then, most importantly, change.

As for PTSD... You mean this thing basically everyone in this setting had and the psychiatrists are damn good at treating? Plus of course that there are magical healers in this setting and the main character is known to be able to turn healing inwards?

No, if we can bring back people from brain cookery we can deal with PTSD.

Also fyi (not the best article I have seen about itt, but good enough) :Opinion | A Drug to Cure Fear
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Just one thing.
If someone recovered in two weeks, than he was probably not truly burnt out yet.

This said, mental issues are highly individual and personal, so such a miraculous recovery is not impossible.
I have seen other cases, with far, far longer times involved.

And did you miss turn 11, where, bare our actions and good rolls, PTSD and stress could have caused huge problems for us?
Please reread A Thousand Hearts interlude then.

Wonder drugs are like magic bullets - they usually just do not exist.
 
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Coda said:
Geez. I'm startled by how vehement the hate for Tongues of Gold is. It feels like people are associating her role with modern political lobbyists when in fact she would be an official member of the congressional council. She wouldn't be applying extragovernmental pressure to make things happen; she would be in a position in the government where her opinions are being explicitly asked for due to her experience and knowledge.
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Personally, I'm not interested in any more legislating at all. I want Amanda to go out and do things, not choose the things that get done. Accordingly, Tongues of Gold is my last choice, precisely because it does the opposite.

The thought of lobbyists didn't even cross my mind; I was thinking more like Congresswoman.
 
So, leaving aside the relative non-issue of PTSD where Amanda is concerned, let me make a point here.

Go look up pictures of former US Presidents. Look for photos of them at their inauguration, and then just before they stepped down. Look at those photos for a while, and try to take into account that all of that stress you can see on their faces comes from leading the most powerful nation on our Earth...which is small fry compared to what Amanda's been having to deal with for most of the last twelve years. Imagine being given the power, for good or ill, to shape humanity's future in preparing for the most important fight of our short existence. A battle where the only choices may well be victory or death, against a foe that you know far too little about. Imagine being someone for whom life is as close to sacred as it can become in their mindset thrust into that position - that they sought it rather irrelevant here.

Now hold onto that power for twelve years, and lead humanity through that very same battle, only to discover a nightmare as you emerge from the other end all the while knowing that this won't be the last battle your people will have to face. Potentials are not gods. They are flesh and blood, as much as we are today, and whilst they are granted immense power it can't fix everything.

The level of stress and related burnout we're talking about here is beyond the ability of any human born to effectively relate to, because no one has ever been in that position.

Could a good argument be made for only taking one year off,? Definitely. But the logic of wanting to take time to recover isn't faulty, given that Potentials have been shown to suffer what you might as well call MP drain. Now, will other positions still give her a break? Certainly, although Tongues of Gold is a bit more complicated. I also very much doubt that people will choose to have Amanda just sit around and meditate for the entire year. There's better things to be doing with some of that time.

I can understand your argument, and it's not a bad one. Hell, it's not even incorrect. This universe does have people capable of working what might as well be considered psychological wizardry, soothing and washing away mental and emotional trauma in ways that we can't even imagine, and Amanda is one of those people. If she can turn that inwards effectively is another matter - although she might not have to. The actions available to you depending on where you choose to go from here will have various focuses. If you choose to have her move forward into a new position, it's entirely possible that one of the actions available over the next two turns will be Sidra locking Amanda in a room with a therapist (or whatever) for x hours a week and refusing to forward any calls.

What I'm trying to get at here, is that all of these options are equally valid. Just wanting to make sure that stays clear. I can be cruel with failures (see Nightfalls), but I think I've also been historically kind with rewards for success, and I'm pretty sure I've never put a choice in front of you where one of the options available would out and out screw you over. I don't ever want to do that, actually, it just seems dickish.
 
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Look, I get it, Amanda needs rest. I just think 2 years is too much by at least half.

But no matter my opinion, the bandwagon has rolled on, so I gotta deal with it and try to make the best of it.
 
[1] Freedom Rain (2 years)
[3] Ever Present
[2] The World's Lover
[4] Tongues of Gold

We need to get that vault taken care of.
 
ArdanKhael said:
Look, I get it, Amanda needs rest. I just think 2 years is too much by at least half.

But no matter my opinion, the bandwagon has rolled on, so I gotta deal with it and try to make the best of it.
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...and this is what ticks me off about your position.

In this quest especially, where most people do argue for their point of view, just talking about bandwagon is, at the very least, duplicitous.

Not only you did think about the choices, other people did as well.
They just do not agree with you.

I very much dislike you addresiing their, and mine, points of view as "the bandwagon".
 
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ArdanKhael said:
Look, I get it, Amanda needs rest. I just think 2 years is too much by at least half.

But no matter my opinion, the bandwagon has rolled on, so I gotta deal with it and try to make the best of it.
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For me, while part of this decision was about doing the equivalent of going back to the ranch in Crawford, the other part was about doing the things that are important to Amanda, and I don't just mean therapy stuff.

The things Amanda chose to do of her own volition, she did to help people. She spent the last twelve years trying to make sure things didn't go to shit, and while discharged the duties of her office with grace and dignity, those two things are very different. This is more than just a vacation, this is about doing the things she wants to do, rather than the things she has to do.

As for Amanda sitting around taking it easy, I don't think she's going to, at least not for long. I don't think she has it in her. Most presidents don't. For me, this is about the Circles. This is about honing her practice. This is about the vault. This is about all of the shit she wanted to do but couldn't. This is about freedom, plain and simple.
 
ArdanKhael said:
But rather than banging on about the many reasons not to go the freedom rain route, can someone explain what makes this option simply better than the others? And I mean better in a way that can't just be put down as an action on the other options (like: [x] spend a few days this year reuniting with people).
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  1. Don't overshadow the new president, giving him/her time to get established.
  2. Get some direly needed rest to recover.
  3. Care about some personal projects that always got 'delayed until later'.
  4. Re-establish contact with the circles, get some grounding. Down to earth, caring about individuals not the whole race (for a time).
 
[4] Tongues of Gold
[3] Ever Present
[2] The World's Lover
[1] Freedom Rain (2 years)

The World's Lover and Ever Present are interchangable in my mind. I just want Amanda to take a break, and finally, FINALLY, see her siblings (in an actual scene not offscreen). Seriously, I've been wanting to see them since they were first mentioned.
 
Having a Retired President hovering over the new one would probably greatly cut their ability to normalize the system to be independent of a lauded God-Emperor
 
Vote Tally : Original - Sci-Fi - The Practice War | Page 266 | Sufficient Velocity [Posts: 6648-6717]
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[1] Freedom Rain (2 years)
[2] The World's Lover
[3] Ever Present
[4] Tongues of Gold
[5] Freedom Rain - 1 year
[6] Freedom Rain


Total No. of Voters: 25

Voting seems to have slackened off, so I'll leave this until late afternoon/early evening then close the vote out unless there've been any changes.
 
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