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This Most Familiar Chain: Tale of Spirit and Magician

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[X] Assert your autonomy. You were intended to be the empress' familiar. You were not intended to be her slave. You will not be dragged around by magicians who all want you to cater to their whims. You, Starfall, have chosen Ariela, and if the empress tries to execute her, you will never accept the Empress as a master, and worse, vow cosmic vengeance on her. No, instead, Pariya should be helping you.

Well this quest is the best.
 
[X] Assert your autonomy. You were intended to be the empress' familiar. You were not intended to be her slave. You will not be dragged around by magicians who all want you to cater to their whims. You, Starfall, have chosen Ariela, and if the empress tries to execute her, you will never accept the Empress as a master, and worse, vow cosmic vengeance on her. No, instead, Pariya should be helping you.

I'd have been happy with a classic master-servant relationship, had our magician been worthy of respect. As Ariela is thus far anything but, I'll go for being equals. Here, with a direct outside threat, that means forceful independent action.
 
Kai Merah said:
Hmm, well... Independence was one of the options Starfall felt she needed (if not what ended up being the most important). And also, I do want Starfall to learn to be a proper celestial object able to shoot her own cosmic beams without her parasol's help. Take control of your heritage Starfall!

[X] Assert your autonomy.
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Convincing.

[X] Assert your autonomy.
 
[X] Assert your autonomy. You were intended to be the empress' familiar. You were not intended to be her slave. You will not be dragged around by magicians who all want you to cater to their whims. You, Starfall, have chosen Ariela, and if the empress tries to execute her, you will never accept the Empress as a master, and worse, vow cosmic vengeance on her. No, instead, Pariya should be helping you.
 
[X] Assert your autonomy. You were intended to be the empress' familiar. You were not intended to be her slave. You will not be dragged around by magicians who all want you to cater to their whims. You, Starfall, have chosen Ariela, and if the empress tries to execute her, you will never accept the Empress as a master, and worse, vow cosmic vengeance on her. No, instead, Pariya should be helping you.
 
Minor edit: The head of the council of magicians and "most senior magician" in the empire (although this position grates on many lower magicians as a matter of principle) is the Grand Hatter, not the Grand Master.

Blame my Team Fortress 2 upbringing for my hat obsession, I suppose.
 
[x] Let Ariela take the lead. Ariela and her master have a strong relationship. Ariela might be able to convince Pariya on the basis of her own self-interest that if Ariela is imprisoned for treason, Pariya will be under suspicion as well. Besides, you're sure that the master has enough feelings for her apprentice that she wouldn't condemn her to death. Perhaps it would even be possible for Pariya to join you if Ariela convinced her enough...?

I think it fits better narratively.
 
[X] Assert your autonomy. You were intended to be the empress' familiar. You were not intended to be her slave. You will not be dragged around by magicians who all want you to cater to their whims. You, Starfall, have chosen Ariela, and if the empress tries to execute her, you will never accept the Empress as a master, and worse, vow cosmic vengeance on her. No, instead, Pariya should be helping you.
 
I'm going to assert my own autonomy by taking a position counter to the majority.

> : <

[x] Let Ariela take the lead.
 
[X] Let Ariela take the lead. Ariela and her master have a strong relationship. Ariela might be able to convince Pariya on the basis of her own self-interest that if Ariela is imprisoned for treason, Pariya will be under suspicion as well. Besides, you're sure that the master has enough feelings for her apprentice that she wouldn't condemn her to death. Perhaps it would even be possible for Pariya to join you if Ariela convinced her enough...?
 
[X] Assert your autonomy. You were intended to be the empress' familiar. You were not intended to be her slave. You will not be dragged around by magicians who all want you to cater to their whims. You, Starfall, have chosen Ariela, and if the empress tries to execute her, you will never accept the Empress as a master, and worse, vow cosmic vengeance on her. No, instead, Pariya should be helping you.
 
Cetashwayo said:
You eye the mechanism again. Ariela's hand is below yours on the parasol handle and the mechanism is below her hand. You think if you can just...loosen your grip, you could slide below her hand and press the mechanism (that's too dangerous). But you don't have a choice! Your dream about flying must have been absorbed into the parasol somehow. Maybe it absorbs dreams and uses them to power itself...? But regardless, you need to act now. Oh, but you have so little energy...you haven't napped in forever...
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This seems relevant to remember. If the strength and stability of dreams loaded into it is how the parasol does its thing, then more dream training and experimentation could be super-important.

Cetashwayo said:
There's an immediate downward force and you lose hold of the parasol, hand slipping and body swinging through the air as the parasol stabilizes. You can feel Ariela's hand losing grip so you grasp onto her jacket, holding on for dear life against the swinging force. Finally, however, the parasol settles, and you are able to reach out a hand past Ariela's face, grabbing onto the handle.

Then you pivot outwards, looking around and gasping. You are high in the air- extremely high. There are some low-lying clouds below you. Ariela is shivering in the cold, although you see a light shimmer of some kind of bubble around the Parasol- it must have protected you against the worst of the pressure (wow very nice parasol when it hurtles you into your death at least you'll do it with some measure of comfort).

But the view is arresting enough to silence even Parentheses' complaints. It is midday, and the Sun looms above you. You smile and wave at him. A warm ray of sunshine hits you in the face and you groan, but you notice that Ariela has stopped all that human shivering.
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I am delighted that you decided to work in an extended Mary Poppins reference as one of Starfall's spirit superpowers!
 
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MooseHowl said:
I am delighted that you decided to work in an extended Mary Poppins reference as one of Starfall's spirit superpowers!
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Yes, that was a lot of fun to write :)

MooseHowl said:
This seems relevant to remember. If the strength and stability of dreams loaded into it is how the parasol does its thing, then more dream training and experimentation could be super-important.
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Yes, although if Starfall had chosen to pursue the dreamtime when you had that "learn more about this power" choice, it would have taken longer for her to do this. As it is, Starfall can, if she focuses, fly up in a straight line with her parasol at will. Of course, she doesn't know how to steer the parasol or how not to land in the same place yet, but it can be a useful way to escape from a given situation. Or just sightsee.
 
[X] Assert your autonomy. You were intended to be the empress' familiar. You were not intended to be her slave. You will not be dragged around by magicians who all want you to cater to their whims. You, Starfall, have chosen Ariela, and if the empress tries to execute her, you will never accept the Empress as a master, and worse, vow cosmic vengeance on her. No, instead, Pariya should be helping you.

So in Starfall-parlance, just how long is "never", exactly? :V
 
[X] Assert your autonomy.

It's an important part of any negotiation that everyone has a firm understanding of who they are dealing with. Everyone except for Starfall seems to laboring under quite a few misconceptions, so asserting her autonomy seems like the most responsible way for her to ensure that Pariya and Ariela and everyone else within earshot fully comprehend what sort of spirit she really is.
 
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