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

[Deme]

Chapter 32: Week 25: Mood: Pressured
or
Catch a Falling Star and Try and Learn What to Do With It, Lodie!

Spoiler

Alrighty!

That's a thing.


Alright, so when cows are born with two heads, we'll know: bad stuff is happening.
Gee, did Elodie learn nothing at her boarding scool? I mean, I'm assuming this stuff actually happens as a meaningful sign in fantasy-verse. But nope, no rumors, no stories...Nothing.
That school was terrible.


That is so boring I can't even snark this. At least even the early-level lore was kinda neat.


Now, had we made this check, we'd get a shiny new option for...Something later. I'll just ask you to remember this for later.

What, did they not teach you to make a wish at your school, either? Lazy, lazy teachers...
Ok, Elodie, I'll wish for you: I wish that we only die entertainingly horrible deaths.
...See, Elodie? Now I bet you wish you had made your own wish.


As you can see, we can't even attend service this week. We're way too level.


Look how even we are... Where we go next will be decided here and next week...And I'm done suggesting. It's all you and re-dos 'till the end of the game.
Yeah, I know, it's a sort of boring week. They're all a bit dull until the next event.
I think there may be more exciting events had we done other things, but I forget/don't know for sure. I'm sure there'll be a big spoilerbox convo to correct me.

Also, Dungeon still gives no effect.

[Mewtarthio]

"Statues spontaneously shattering is a bad omen"? Great, and I suppose the next thing we'll learn will be "Your heart being violently torn from your chest is widely believed to foretell death."

And now Elodie's cheerfully commenting on how "pretty" the falling stars are. I do believe I was in favor of training Divination much earlier, back when we were still Afraid. Well, when the moon turns to blood and disgorges the Locusts of Abaddon to inflict unspeakable torments on humanity, and Elodie's failed Divination check means she assumes it's a sign of excellent stock market prices, don't come complaining to me!

[Sanguine]

How much more Lore do we need?

Anyway I say we Visit the Dungeons, because our mood is pretty good right now, giving us the bonus we need and allowing us to shift to either Willful or Depressed from one activity. After that Morning Classes in Meditation and Evening Classes in Lore.

[Deme]

We'll be done after this week, if we wear our new outfit. Mood bonuses + high investment bonuses (as I call them) = Shooting up pretty quickly.

[smuchmuch]

Well, when the moon turns to blood and disgorges the Locusts of Abaddon to inflict unspeakable torments on humanity, and Elodie's failed Divination check means she assumes it's a sign of excellent stock market prices, don't come complaining to me

Heh, even if she made the divination check, it'd probaly play out like this

The omens you see are sign of the end of the world

>world history check: failed

I have never heard of this 'world' place before. It can't be that important

[Deme]

Chapter 33, Week 26, Mood: Willful
or
A Brief History of Magic

Spoiler

People being tortured? So last Week!


Wait, is that...Some sort of skill-blending there? Really, Meditating makes us logically better diviners? Really?
Why are you having common sense behind your mechanics and what have you done with the real Long Live the Queen?


Oh, silly new clothes! There you are!


Wow, that's a lot of history. But the bit we care about is the one about 60, about the old capital...We'll get back to that...Later.

Anyway, it looks like not all the actions of historical Lumen were bad, and lumens can work together.


Oh, yeah, you guys wanted us to be depressed... Yeah, that's a few weeks off at best.
Well, that's gonna be a bit harder for the moment.
"It's nice to stop and breathe sometimes."

This feels like such a placeholder event.
Anyway, Attending Service lets us -1 Cheerful, but we're done with Lore for my reccomendation's sake, so unless you really like it there, we're done with it...
We could get to cheerful in this weekend, if there's anything in there we might want, now's as good a time as any...
or...Figure out what to do while stuck in Pressured as we try to manuever that. Pressured's hard to get rid of without going into cheerful at the moment.

[Mewtarthio]

Please get us out of Pressured! I'm afraid that Constipated Spymaster Elodie is about to drive me insane!

Anyway, it looks like sneaking out will switch us over to Willful without making it too difficult to go Depressed later. Plus, all this Lore is making me even more power-hungry. Really, Elodie, how many islands have you annihilated? You could stand to work on your Wield Magic skill...

If everyone else wants to stay Pressured, though, then I'll vote for Divination instead.

[Deme]

Huh, so it will...I didn't even consider that. So, within the week itself, there's Pressure, Willful, and Cheerful as options.

[Tavar]

Let's become willful, to boost magic up some more.

[Forum Explorer]

Lets take Willful then Wield Magic and Swords as training.

[Eldonauran]

Originally Posted by Forum Explorer

Lets take Willful then Wield Magic and Swords as training.

Yes, this. It is time to harness our magic.

... Swords too.

[Sanguine]

Yeah, let's go Willful. As for Classes Wield Magic and Internal Affairs.

[Deme]

Chapter 34, Week 27, Mood: Willful
or
A Wild Non-Choice Appears!

Spoiler

Well, we're unhappy doing what Dad wants, so why bother?
Except that there's no winning when our dad comes up, it seems.


Here's our new Priestess Robes!


Also, our skills.


We can make illusions now! But with our decoration so low, they're not very pretty... Heh, I kid.


Doing swordplay.


Oh, boy! More letters!


It's almost like you're ruler of a nation or something...
(She says she's bored and lonely and she's looking forward to seeing me at Gwenelle's birthday party.)[/i]


...Who? Oh, well. We'll probably find out.
(This other letter must be my invitation to her birthday celebration next week. Gwenelle and I were friends at school, and this will be a vig event, but it's also a long way to travel.
A lot of things can happen on the road.)
...Elodie, these past few weeks have been incredibly boring. Whatever can happen, it's better than this.

We've got a choice! Do we go, or do we stay home, wallflowering it up?
I'm guessing I know what we'll do...But who's to be sure?

[Rainbownaga]

Obviously stay home...


Nah, just kidding. Party time!

[Lycan 01]

Let's go release our inner Pinkie Pie. Party!

[smuchmuch]

I wanna see if one of our previous choices will have the consequences I think it'll have, thus Partay !

[Starbuck_II]

Party like it is 1599!

[Forum Explorer]

We must keep up our alter-ego of a party maniac!

[Tavar]

Party Time!

[Deme]

So, herpaderp, I realized now that the scene ends after that, and the party is *next week*.
Accepting it gives us +1 cheerful, leaving us with...
+0 Afraid/Angry
+2 Cheerful
+2 Willful
+1 Pressured

So activity and lesson-planning time, people!

[Tavar]

Visit the Tomb, Internal Affairs, Foreign Intelligence.

[Sanguine]

Cheerful gives us a penalty to Intrigue so let's get rid of that by Attending Service; which will get us back to Willful. I agree with Tavar on Classes.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Originally Posted by Tavar

Visit the Tomb, Internal Affairs, Foreign Intelligence.

Second this.

[Dublock]

Originally Posted by Tavar

Visit the Tomb, Internal Affairs, Foreign Intelligence.

I third this.

[smuchmuch]

Visit tomb, reflexes, weild magic

[Tavar]

Originally Posted by Sanguine

Cheerful gives us a penalty to Intrigue so let's get rid of that by Attending Service; which will get us back to Willful. I agree with Tavar on Classes.

Visiting the Tomb will do the same, as it lowers the Cheer factor by one.

[Sanguine]

Originally Posted by Tavar

Visiting the Tomb will do the same, as it lowers the Cheer factor by one.

I realize that, however for the moment I would prefer to stay neutral on the Angry/Afraid column and Visiting the Tomb gives us a point in Afraid. Thus my vote.

[Deme]

Chapter 35, Week 28, Mood: Willful
or
There's One in Every Family, Sire. Two in Mine...

Spoiler

Alright, so we're going to the party!

You need to mean "Lackeys" or "Subjects" or maybe even "Minions," Elodie.

...This is the moment I realized that we had the week to do, and froze time to tell you guys to vote.

Getting out Batman on.


Ok, let me see if I can get all of this straight...
A while back the Duchess of Elath and some distant relative of our current fiance were married ('cause he's Duke of Sedna, if I recall), but then when they died, their heir also died mysteriously, and a distant family member (IE, our fiance or maybe his dad, depending on the timeline) took over.

The second husband of the lady we could have sent the kid to live with was pretty terrible, and depending on the totally messed-up timeline may have assaulted the Duchess of Elath...But is it the same one in the story we just learned? The timeline there's a little screwed up.
Anyway, after that, Arisse, the lady we could have sent the kid to live with, presumably had him killed in the woods or something, because that sounds like the meaning behind suddenly appearing dead in a forest. Or something like that. This pissed of Kevan, that guy who looks like a huge, pissy jerk (not to be confused with the guy who looks massively smug.) And now Kevan (Kevin? Whatever.) lives with Briony's mother, because they're siblings.
Got all that?
Man, these multi-part history lessons are getting long...


Well, this certainly connects to the last Internal Affairs lessons...Or does it? The timeline on some of this Elath-Sedna stuff is a little obtuse. Is the duchess Elath they mean the one who married Sedna's ruler? Why would they assasinate his bride's family? Or was this a different duchess of Elath, thus forcing her away from succeeding that other business?
I don't recall if that last one is ever relevant to anything ever. Sorry.

It's party time!

Now, you may have noticed a thing. Specifically, you may have noticed that despite mentioning that stuff can happen on the road...
Nothing happened on the road. The road doesn't even come up.

Allow me to explain.
Had we not made a certain choice earlier, we would be assaulted by bandits on the road. Now, our hiring more guards could help us out here...
But I'm not sure; I've never tested. However, had they not helped us, we'd have had to rely on our archery and battlefield medicine skills...
And at this stage, this would have happened.

Buuut....We hired Lucille. So our travel is completely unassaulted.
Funny how that works.

Anyway, back to how things are really happening:

Presumably because she's unhappy about our not giving her the kid. Despite the fact that she's pretty clearly evil.

There are refreshments and dancers and musicians and polite conversations... and one or two not-so-polite.
And somehow, we're not rampaging through them like a very clumsy bull in a shop of the world's most precariously-perched china, despite out nonexistant social skills.
Yes.


AGH! She is creepy-looking.

It's the birthday girl! She's less creepy-looking, but part of that's the lack of bad makeup.

Lieke: "Just because you're of age doesn't mean you know everything, young lady. You need my advice."
Gwenelle: "This is my home. It has never been yours."

Oooh, family fighting. Good thing our family doesn't fight except for the aunt that could have tried to kill us in a different timeline.
But everyone's got a relative like that, right?

Before you can back away, their gazes fall on you. They wait expectantly for you as near-queen to settle the dispute.


What should we do?

[Forum Explorer]

Side with the mother. Nobody should be able to kick their mom out when they are only 15 years old.

[Sanguine]

Duchess outranks Countess, side with Gwenelle. Besides as far as I can tell she is in the right. Gwenelle is a legal adult and thus Lieke has no business interfering in the affairs of the Duchy of Sudbury. At least I think that's what they are arguing about.