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The Practice War [Complete]

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Okay, so my impression of the problem with Vega is twofold. On one hand Amanda has sort of been taking advantage of Vega, or at least treating her less like a trusted partner and colleague and more like a subordinate or apprentice. There is some validity to that: after all, Vega is something like half Amanda's age and Vega's rise to prominance was pretty much directly a result of Amanda's patronage, but Vega did serve as Amanda's combination physical therapist and counselor after the assassination attempt, not to mention Amanda's second when fighting aganst the Shiplords, and she probably deserves to have had fewer major decisions made for her over the last couple years, especially regarding the Restoration.

At the same time, Vega is obviously feeling the stress of the last decade, as much or more than Mandy herself. Being put in charge of an entire Ministry in her twenties, especially one that we turned out to rely on as much as Practice, probably stressed her more than she let on, and unlike Mandy she didn't take two years mostly off, but instead leapt straight into her Harmonial Circle project.

All this makes me lean for The Slow Way. Vega needs time and attention, and Amanda kind of owes her both. A Twist in Harmony is a possible choice, but it really only addresses half the problem and does nothing for Vega's burnout symptoms. The Web Beneath will solve the overt issues but leaves the underlying problems in place, even exxacerbates them because we'd be using Practice to force a connection without Vega's prior consent, which is kind of the problem in the first place.

[X] The Slow Way
 
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[x] The Slow Way

// For me, the other two feel like taking the easy way, kind of using Practice to solve all your problems. But Practice is not the end all / be all, it's a tool. A deeply personal one, one that may be better than the spoken word at times, but still, just a tool. And in this situation, where Practice (Mars) played a role in causing the problem - I feel like using the old, traditional approach of being there and spending time (and leaking some honest feelings through the Harmonial link) would be the better approach.
 
[X] A Twist in Harmony: There is pain here, great pain, and you were always taught to take responsibility for what you did to others, accidentally or otherwise. Apologise for this now, and work with Vega to restore the harmony you once shared over the rest of the year.
 
Coda said:
I mean, can we put 2 together with 1 or 3? There's power in apology, and it absolutely deserves to be given, regardless of whether we use Practice or time to bring about healing.

psych


Mytikas
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To clarify, you're going to apologise to her either way. The difference is if you use that apology as the basis for the recovery of your friendship. This matters.

<3 for proofreading.
 
[X] The Slow Way: You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Right now, Vega is hurting, but you can't just…fix that. She needs time and a safe space to express herself. You can give her that. (Will lock an action to Harmonic Voice next turn)
 
[X] The Slow Way: You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Right now, Vega is hurting, but you can't just…fix that. She needs time and a safe space to express herself. You can give her that. (Will lock an action to Harmonic Voice next turn)
 
Snowfire said:
"You told me something almost ten years ago, when I was trying to find my balance after an event shook me to the core." You could still see that moment, less than an hour before humanity engaged the Tribute Fleet. Before Purify. "That all of the Unisonbound could feel my confusion, and there was more there that you never touched on. That you wanted to help, but I had to let you in." You reached out, offering your hand. "So I'm asking you what I can do to help you, but to answer that, you're going to have to let me in."

She brushed a hand across her face, leaving it to hold her chin. "I don't know if you can," she began, but the feelings seeping down the link between you put a lie to that, a link that felt dead for over six months.

"What makes you feel that?" You asked.

"I don't know," the pain in those words was almost physical. There was an answer, there were several in fact. But this needed the right one. Vega wasn't just a member of your Heartcircle, she was your friend.

What do you do?

[] The Slow Way: You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Right now, Vega is hurting, but you can't just…fix that. She needs time and a safe space to express herself. You can give her that. (Will lock an action to Harmonic Voice next turn)
[] A Twist in Harmony: There is pain here, great pain, and you were always taught to take responsibility for what you did to others, accidentally or otherwise. Apologise for this now, and work with Vega to restore the harmony you once shared over the rest of the year.
[] The Web Beneath: Vega is opening herself to you again, and you can give her so much more support through the Harmonic link than by voice or time. Offer that to her, that she might express herself. And let you do the same.
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Snowfire said:
It was expressed to me by my beta (thanks Tayta) that the voting options here are a bit difficult to parse if you've not had relevant background experience, so I'm going to lay them out quickly here. The first option is simple, you take the trust you've been given and give it time to grow and come across. This is a more traditional means of fixing the problem, but it will take time, which is why you will be losing a Personal Action next turn if you choose it. Twist in Harmony revolves around another aspect of this sort of process, whereby acknowledging guilt and apologising for it can restore even a broken bridge - which this isn't, it's just damaged. The third option relies on the Harmonic link between you and Vega, one that she's opening to you almost without being aware of it. It's possible to express a great deal more through that then with words, but processing the results will take time.

To be clear, none of these options are wrong; you rolled a Greater Success and that's going to hold. It's why Vega came to you, instead of the other way around. What matters right now is what you feel is most right for this situation. It won't do anything to your success, but it will affect the way your relationship with Vega evolves in the future. Anyway, hope you liked it. There may be a small follow-up to this depending on the vote you pick, but equally I might just leap straight to the next turn post and make reference to your choice there. That feels more organic to me right now, but we'll see if it stays that way. Hope you enjoyed both the heart-to-heart, and my first real work on writing Unisonbound combat since the Second Battle of Sol. They've come a long way since then.
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To be honest, I feel that The Web Beneath is... a contentuous choice in some ways. It was Vega extending the Harmonic link to Amanda that has enabled this damage in relationship to occur. And yet, it is thoroughly symbolic that even now Vega reaches for us in her time of need, even as this very same act caused her pain in the past. As such, I feel that The Web Beneath will in some ways make Vega all the more reliant on us - and on her Practice - to express herself and communicate.

The Slow Way, is the first and well-trodden path for Amanda. It is how she reached out to Mary after The Week of Sorrows, never leaving her without a hand held open in an offer of help. This is truly a choice most likely to work best, though.

In fact, I thank @TheEyes for their own analysis. They made the choice easier for me.

[X] The Slow Way
 
Honestly not convinced by the arguments for Slow at the moment, but I don't feel strongly about any of the existing options.
Will have to think on this.
 
[X] The Slow Way: You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Right now, Vega is hurting, but you can't just…fix that. She needs time and a safe space to express herself. You can give her that. (Will lock an action to Harmonic Voice next turn)
 
[X] The Slow Way: You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Right now, Vega is hurting, but you can't just…fix that. She needs time and a safe space to express herself. You can give her that. (Will lock an action to Harmonic Voice next turn)

Definitely a fan of this option. Using Practice to speed up the process isn't necessarily wrong, but I can't help but feel it would cheapen it. That's obviously personal bias since Snow said all options would work in differing ways. I just really like the idea of actually spending time and slowly building things up.
 
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Vote Tally : The Practice War - Original - Sci-Fi | Page 478 | Sufficient Velocity [Posts: 11948-11968]
##### NetTally 1.9.10
[14] The Slow Way
Tayta Malikai
Axel Fones
cheesyme
DarknessSmiles
EWilanO
Faraway-R
GamingGeek
me.me.here
MTB
Raising Kittens
tenchifew
TheEyes
veekie
恐Drake
[2] The Web Beneath
ShadowAngelBeta
Killer_Whale
[1] A Twist in Harmony: There is pain here, great pain, and you were always taught to take responsibility for what you did to others, accidentally or otherwise. Apologise for this now, and work with Vega to restore the harmony you once shared over the rest of the year.
Amador
Total No. of Voters: 17

Well then. I'll leave this up overnight, but unless someone can come up with a truly convincing argument, I don't see this changing.
 
Coming back to this:
Snowfire said:
"I was left in the middle of a spotlight that was suddenly much, much larger than I'd expected. And I didn't know what to do with that, Amanda. The Harmonic Circle needed time to recover from the stress I'd chosen to put them through, and that left me…having to deal with that spotlight. I've never been good at that, but it was something I'd chosen to do. You were only just out of the Presidency, and I'd asked for your help, I couldn't just fling you back into the middle of things.
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Snowfire said:
"I wanted to, you know," her eyes dropped, shamefaced, "I wanted to just push it all onto you but I couldn't do that. And I'd promised to help with the Unisonbound problems that you'd talked with me about before I'd come to terms with everything. I couldn't just go back on that promise, it wouldn't be right. So I got through the year, somehow, and hoped we'd have time to talk at Wintersnight, but I was there with Mir and you focused on Adri and Kalilah. I got why, I still do, but it still hurt. And then-"
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Attention and abandonment.
Vega wanted help and attention and we weren't there at the time.

The Web Beneath feels too proactive to me; she is opening up, but she doesn't actually know she is.
Amanda probably would respect the implicit privacy of most people, especially after a breach of this sort.
She'd disregard it if it was time-critical, or if life or critical injury was at stake, but this isn't.

Snowfire said:
It was expressed to me by my beta (thanks Tayta) that the voting options here are a bit difficult to parse if you've not had relevant background experience, so I'm going to lay them out quickly here. The first option is simple, you take the trust you've been given and give it time to grow and come across. This is a more traditional means of fixing the problem, but it will take time, which is why you will be losing a Personal Action next turn if you choose it. Twist in Harmony revolves around another aspect of this sort of process, whereby acknowledging guilt and apologising for it can restore even a broken bridge - which this isn't, it's just damaged. The third option relies on the Harmonic link between you and Vega, one that she's opening to you almost without being aware of it. It's possible to express a great deal more through that then with words, but processing the results will take time.
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In comparison, Slow Way feels too reactive.
It does involve a significant investment of time and effort on our part, but it seems to put the onus firmly on Vega to seek for help and rapprochment, instead of our offering it and actively reaching out as she seems to want.

Amanda has not been characterized as the sort of person who would stick to traditional ways, simply for the sake of tradition.
And I worry that Slow Way does not involve enough of the reaching out that Vega seems to expect.

In all, this reminds me of the Thousand Hearts Interlude from just after Second Sol, when Amanda got excoriated by Jessica Reid:
Thousand Hearts Interlude said:
"Excuse me?" You said, so quietly that you almost didn't hear yourself, and Amanda's gaze abruptly dropped from your own as emotion boiled up inside you. It wasn't fair, it really wasn't her fault, but in that moment you couldn't find it in yourself to care. She raised a placating hand, opening her mouth to try to speak, and a decade of resentment cut her off.

"Eleven years." You said, your voice shaking from the effort it was taking to keep it level. "Eleven. Years. Every one of them, the allocation requests we really needed to head off something like what happened last year were refused. Year upon year of trying to build up a core of specialists, hoping that maybe the scarring that we were all so scared of could somehow be avoided, with little more than the resources of the Circles to draw on, and you know how spread thin those are."

You felt wetness on your cheeks, and a small voice of reasoned calm deep inside you tried to make itself heard. It found little success. "You put decades of your life into building on the foundations we were given, and then you left us to try and keep it whole whilst you unleashed an earthquake! All your words were nowhere near enough, not with the resources we have." The worlds spilled from your lips in a tide of bitter sorrow, sharpened by months of desperation and frantic hope.

"Where were you, Amanda?" You'd wanted to hurl those words at her, but the rage that would have given you strength turned in your mouth as you spoke, and what emerged instead was barely more than a whisper. "Where were you?" Your shoulders slumped, you brought up a hand to rub away the tears, fists balled like a child.

You heard the harsh intake of breath as Amanda tried to recover from your words. "I deserved that." She said at last, and as you lowered your hands you saw that you weren't alone in having tears on your cheeks. "I didn't have a choice, Jessica. Not if there was going to be a humanity left to be scarred as I've let it be scarred." You took a breath, the anger sparking again inside you, but her next words snuffed it out. "But that's no excuse."

She stepped around the table, grasped your hands with her own, and you stared at the tear-streaked face of the most powerful woman in human history. "I am so very, very sorry, more than you could ever imagine. But I didn't come here to give you platitudes, or beg forgiveness." She straightened, the pain in her eyes fading into the calm blue of a cloudless sky, but you could tell it was still there; she didn't think she deserved forgiveness, not for this.
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I'll vote the way it went then; proactive without being intrusive.

VOTE
[X] A Twist in Harmony: There is pain here, great pain, and you were always taught to take responsibility for what you did to others, accidentally or otherwise. Apologise for this now, and work with Vega to restore the harmony you once shared over the rest of the year.

Goldilocks basically.
One's too hot, one's too cold. In my opinion of course.
 
Uju convinced me.
Changing vote.


[X] A Twist in Harmony: There is pain here, great pain, and you were always taught to take responsibility for what you did to others, accidentally or otherwise. Apologise for this now, and work with Vega to restore the harmony you once shared over the rest of the year.
 
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