God Save the Queen, Indeed: Let's Play Long Live the Queen!

[Sanguine]

Well we're no good at talking to people, so I say we go with the direct approach and trip her.

Edit: I find it incredibly amusing that me and tyckspoon voted for the exact same choice simultaneously and for the exact same reason.

[Pie Guy]

Trip her. Seems appropriate somehow.

[Maxios]

Trip her. Filler!

[Mewtarthio]

Transform the lower half of her body into stone, then bind Joslyn in an enchanted slumber to prevent this from happening again.

Oh, wait, that's not an option, is it? Bah. What's the point of having magic if you can't turn people to stone or put them into enchanted slumbers?

Oh, well. I vote for flattery. Given our terrible social skills, we will either fail to flatter her (in which case we will succeed at our true goal of not flattering her), or we will fail to fail to flatter her (in which case we've managed to make Elodie's position better despite her best intentions to the contrary).

Also, is it just me, or are Elodie's "intrigue" lessons just her reading the tabloids?

[Starbuck_II]

Originally Posted by tyckspoon

Trip Her. It's the only option we might actually succeed at.

Yes, we must trip her. She must be put below us.

[Deme]

Originally Posted by Mewtarthio

Also, is it just me, or are Elodie's "intrigue" lessons just her reading the tabloids?

...They do seem that way, yes. But you have to remember: we don't have a printing press in this universe, so information that would go in cheap magazines is here at a premium. The next courses, I'm sure, will be what were the worst outfits everyone wore to the gala.

[Forum Explorer]

I think we should Stare Silently I mean Scorn her like an angry upset puppy.

Then lets get our evil witch aunt to steal her beauty

[TengYt]

Since our skills are likely gonna result in failure either way, I vote for Insult with Flattery, since it'd be funny to hear what graceless Elodie has to say.

[Kizor]

Flattery.

She really should think about becoming a Lumen. It's what lets us get away with a skirt barely as long as our hand while remaining unfloozied.

[Mirrinus]

Flattery

Because it's the funniest one to watch Elodie screw up.

[smuchmuch]

(I know Elodie is 14 and still grieving but I like how the game doesn't offer a 'Suck it up like an adult and be happy for your dad/it's his buisness' option. .)

Sulk Scorn silently
It'll be probaly the less embarassing to screw up

we don't have a printing press in this universe

(the lack of which is totaly our fault)

One thing i'm wondering is 'how womme dungeons make us more willfull now ? Didn't they made depressed/scarred fist time we visited ? (I think ?)

[TheEmerged]

+1 Vote for trip

[Deme]

Originally Posted by smuchmuch

(I know Elodie is 14 and still grieving but I like how the game doesn't offer a 'Suck it up like an adult and be happy for your dad/it's his buisness' option. .)

Sulk Scorn silently
It'll be probaly the less embarassing to screw up


(the lack of which is totaly our fault)

One thing i'm wondering is 'how womme dungeons make us more willfull now ? Didn't they made depressed/scarred fist time we visited ? (I think ?)

Well, you included your answer right there: Because she's a 14-year old girl whose mom died a few months ago. I actually like this scene for exactly that reason. There's no classes in emotional maturity, though I guess composure comes closest.

Oh, that's because dungeons are one of the ones that changes depending on where your mood is. When you've got a point in yielding, it makes you yielding and afraid (I think). When you've got a point in willfull, it makes you willfull and angry.

[Eldariel]

Originally Posted by Deme

Oh, that's because dungeons are one of the ones that changes depending on where your mood is. When you've got a point in yielding, it makes you yielding and afraid (I think). When you've got a point in willfull, it makes you willfull and angry.

A wild interpretation: When she's willful, she becomes more willful to find a better solution to the bad people than dungeons (as the text you get when you go to dungeons says, she doesn't exactly find it the most humane punishment) and when she's afraid, the way things are right now just makes her more afraid which in turn makes her more willing to give in!

[Deme]

That's more-or-less how it works from a narrative perspective, yeah.

Part 2
Or
Heck, I'm just super-meta-chapter-title-persona! All the other LPs get by just fiiine without me...

Spoiler

Right. Today the button I'm pushing is the one where we trip a lady.


Problem is, we're not good at it.

"Elodie, are you all right?"
No....We're not ready for you to be dating again!
"..."



You're not our *real* mom! I don't have to listen to you! I will become a bat!

"I should go now. I hope to see more of you later."

Once she's gone, you raise an eyebrow at your father.

Don't go blaming us for your bad floozy decisions, Dad!
"What do you mean?"
I assume he means our sudden engagement. Or maybe he just feels the need for something new in his life with the late queen dead and his little girl getting betrothed and being queen and being a witch-conqueress of the world...


Which we can't do because Nova has wierd laws that pop up at seemingly random intervals. I assume title-mongering was an issue in Novan History.
"My brother, your uncle Armand, is looking for a wife as well. One of us, at least, must produce children."

This is the perfectly reasonable and sensible thing for a man in Joslyn's position to do, and his reasoning is practical.

However, he's telling this to a 14-year old girl in mourning.


"But we all have to do things that we don't want to do."
At least, though, he understands what she's trying to do and say here, and can respond by trying to cast his actions in a light that feels less theatening to 'Lodie.


Not that that makes her feel better.

Time for SUUUBBJECT CHANGE!
"You should be careful how you deal with people like Sirin. You need the goodwill of your nobles as well as your commoners."
We're doing a pretty lousy job of pleasing both, though at least we helped with the Ixion thing.

"There haven't been any problems so far."
"As Queen, you must be aware of everything around you."


We passed a thing! And apparently have agents. They're the people who scour the gossip mags for us, I'd guess.

"Yes, but you must give them direction. What is your greatest concern?"



Hmm....Any of these things could threaten, disrupt, and/or kill us, so 'what's the most lethal' won't really help our decision-making too much...It's really your call, guys.

[Forum Explorer]

Nobles specifically their fiances. What? We've got that degree in accounting for a reason

[Sanguine]

Originally Posted by Forum Explorer

Nobles specifically their fiances. What? We've got that degree in accounting for a reason

What does Accounting have to do with their betrothed?

Anyway, I agree let's focus on Noble plots.

[Mobius Twist]

Yes, you're worried about nobles and potential assassins. But those are personal concerns.

Batman looks out for the common folk and must be well-apprised of their suffering and whereabouts. An empire is brought down from within, after all.

[TengYt]

I vote Assassins! Seems a bit "catch all" in my opinion.

[Pie Guy]

Assassins. Maybe we can hire them to take care of Smugfinger.

[smuchmuch]

I think we've done the most to avoid a peasant rebellion so far (dealt with the whole Ixion thing without having anyone killed, were nice and mercyfull in our jsuticing) , besides it'll be easy to quell anyway if we keep training our magic. i'm more worried about either nobles (with our dear aunti unter our oof...) or genraly assassins

[SlyGuyMcFly]

I'm not too concerned about the peasants, and while the nobles trying to spark a civil war is a thing that could happen, I'm more worried about assassins.

[TheEmerged]

/makes a note of our Intrigue score, since I haven't succeeded at that check yet.

Let's see, we know we've got one noble upset at us and probably another one as well.

But I'm going to have to make the vote for Foreign Threats.

[Lycan 01]

Assassins. Stopping noble plots is tempting, but what if their plots are already in motion, and their assassins are preparing to make their move?

[Starbuck_II]

Dude, Nobles like the Floozy we tried to trip.
That or Commoners.

[Maxios]

Assassins.

[Mewtarthio]

Why is "assassins" a separate option? Surely one of the above groups would be responsible for the assassination attempts, yes? Or do assassins just spawn from the aether in this world?

Anyway, I vote nobles. They have the resources to hire assassins and the knowledge of our court to put them to use. Plus we've just elevated Miss Sense Magic Failed Not-An-Evil-Witch to the position of court mage, so we've got at least one noble we should be keeping our eye on. Plus there's that smug guy who hates us. And whoever set that snake on us had access to the castle.

[Sanguine]

Originally Posted by Mewtarthio

Plus there's that smug guy who hates us.

I don't think the smug guy hates us, we did after all get his territory back for him. Or was it his sisters territory? Anyway, the point is that we helped him out. He is however still incredibly smug.

[Mirrinus]

"Nobles" refers to public or explicit threats against the crown by the nobility, such as attempting a coup d'état or instigating a civil war.

"Assassins" refers to secret attempts on your life, such as poison in your food or a dagger in your chest while you sleep.

Hope that clears things up.

[Deme]

Part 3
or
Fine! I know where I'm not Wanted!

Spoiler

So we're apparently mostly worried about Assassins. Now, normally, I'd have thought ahead to ask you guys to decide our week...
But not today.


Yeah, Elodie! Take on War and Strife and all that jazz!


Dad explains the whole premise of this game. Thanks, Dad. It's not like we haven't been playing this for a while now.
As an aside, it's worth noting for all you choice-makers out there that you can get 'bad endings' where Elodie survives. These happen if rulership of Novan is taken from Elodie, since the goal of the game is to get to her coronation.

"Beyond that, you can train more soldiers into personal bodyguards to watch over you. Or you can institute harsh penalties for treason and make people too frightened to cross you."
Oh, hey! Let me explain a thing:
Did you know that we have hidden stats? Because we do. So if you have, say, more soldiers...You actually have more soldiers to make a difference in war. If you have Elodie routinely be a cruel person, she'll come up with evil solutions to her problems you can choose. If you spend a lot of money, you could run into money troubles. If the commoners dislike you, they can revolt. And so on.


I bring this up because of our options here. I don't think 'more training' does anything but affects our mood -- it may, though. It also is an option that avoids adjusting our hidden stats, is my impression.

When we have a solid vote on that, I'll list our mood and we can work out what to do with the week.