081814-MerrowAcenia

 GT: Merrow! Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

 AA: HEY PUMPKIN. WHAT'S UP?

 GT: Can you grow plants? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

 AA: I don't know. Maybe.

 AA: What sort of plants?

 GT: Any? I mean, I like carnivorous plants! But any plants are good. I was thinking about putting it in the Primer! Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

 AA: Oh! I see. Well in that case I can certainly learn.

 AA: Do you think we have time for them to grow though?

 GT: I don't know. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

 AA: I'm more than willing to learn to grow a garden for you. I'll tell you what. I'll start one now--I've got time anyway.

 AA: Whether or not you end up putting it on the primer, I can be working on it.

 AA: Any advice?

 GT: We do have a lot of time right now. Lily and I ended up talking about it! Apparently on Arena they evaluate your abilities with stats. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

 GT: And we remembered that we have character sheets! Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

 AA: Yeah, I've got mine. I base my FLARP stats on it.

 GT: Oh! Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: I guess... it was common in a lot of the primers I saw to ask their intended to raise a stat. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Or to seek someone with those stats already! Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Lily thinks Strife or Rapport makes sense. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: I see. That makes sense. My Rapport is +2 already, but I've got a zero in Strife.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: I was thinking of getting better at it anyway though.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Especially if a Prince is supposed to be some sort of "destruction" class, it makes sense.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: I will add it then! Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: What is your goal? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: What do you mean? Aside from keeping my team alive?

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: I mean for upping your Strife Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Oh. I don't know. It might take a while before I climb another rung on my Echeladder.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Ah... Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: We should definitely make the best of it though! Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Libby seemed to think we don't have much time. I just hope long term goals aren't setting us up for trouble.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Ah! Right. I'm sorry! Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: It's okay. I want to do this stuff for you. I just don't want you to end up enslaved or taken or whatever they think is going to happen to you if your primer isn't filled soon.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Can you write a tentative primer or anything? Then maybe ask Libby or Scarlet, or both, whether they think I will have time to fill it before finalizing it?

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Okay! Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: It's too bad I don't know how to use these Title powers. Libby said she would be able to see in other people's minds, maybe I would be able to get things done more quickly somehow if I knew what I was doing.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: If a Prince destroys... maybe you need to... hrm... I'm sorry I don't know... Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Yeah, me neither. I'm sure we'll figure it out eventually.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Erisio has one that's neat! He doesn't have to learn anything ever, probably! Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Or another way to think of it might be that he can learn anything anyone else has learned....at the cost of their learning, of course.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Assuming Thief really does imply he steals thoughts.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: It might be like Prince and be non-literal.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: I would think so, otherwise it sounds much the same as Lily's. And what is the point of have two brain-stalkers? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: I don't know. I feel like there's so much we don't yet know, and I worry sometimes it's going to cost us dearly.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: I know... Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Any other ideas for your primer that I should begin working on?

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: I don't know. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Is there something you personally want to work on? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: I'd like to be better at planning and leading. I would like it if Libby never again has an excuse to criticize my leadership skills.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Good! Okay. How do we do that? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Is that what Rapport is for? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Rapport is good for winning people's loyalty. It's not necessarily good at deserving their loyalty.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: How do I add that in? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: I guess to answer that question, we would have to figure out why the armory operation failed so badly.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: So a post-mortem would be a good start.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Yes. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Maybe we should do another memo. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Maybe.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: But we need the adults for that, right? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Where are they? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: I don't know. But we might not need the adults anyway. Or maybe even the others. I've been thinking about it a lot, and I think I know what my biggest mistakes were.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Oh? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: I mean... Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: All of the cameras were still up... Mostly. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: For starters--we didn't have a very solid plan in place. We only had the outlines of a plan. There was too much improvisation on the parts of the participants.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Yes, that was part two. I didn't account for all the variables, and I didn't warn the team to leave no trace of their presence.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: We knew there were cameras everywhere. We knew they had to be taken out in a way that wouldn't be traceable. And we knew that there could be no reason to believe the armory was hit.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: I am also sorry to bring it up... Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: but ... Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: No, please do.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: perhaps being so honest with Colonel Heston was probably not for the best... Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Hmm. I'm still not certain. Obviously it worked out poorly for us, but I'm not convinced the other options would have been better.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: She clearly knew more than she was pretending to, and being caught in a lie would have certainly cost us more than confessing.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Do you disagree?

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Even so. They definitely will not trust us in the future. Those that survived... Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: You were right about Balish. I'm willing to hear you out if you have a different interpretation.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Libby said for sure! There was no way that what she gave would have removed his memories. Do you even know of a drug that can do that? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Or anything? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Anything at all? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: No.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: I'm sorry I didn't consider it more fully.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: It's okay... Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: So add to the list of my mistakes "Trusting Balish's act," and "Not taking your suspicions seriously enough."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Maybe you are too trusting Merrow. You have been raised to trust the people around you, right? Those who help the Condesce? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: If anything I have been raised to trust NO ONE. Especially those helping the Condesce.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Perhaps I should have taken that more to heart...

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: You're a good person, Merrow. I love that about you! But I think this game needs us to be... less soft. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Probably... Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: ...I think, maybe, it was this change of heart from the Condesce. I thought of all of her followers as intensely loyal to her, and when she and I brought an end to our hostilities, I didn't even consider the possibility of her followers turning on me.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Even she has said that I'm too soft though. You're right about that. But I'm not sure how to get harder without walking down the path of tyranny.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: You're a destructive class? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Maybe... Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: maybe you have to before you can truly understand it? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Maybe so.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: I wish I knew more. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: I wish I knew more as well.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Wouldn't it be nice if Lily shared all her stupid secrets. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> -- gracefulThaumaturge [GT] changed their mood to DISCONTENT  --

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: I don't know. She clearly knows things she's not telling us, but somehow I get the impression she knows less than she thinks she does.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Speaking of people who know more than the rest of us, I still haven't heard from Darmok since he entered, either. I'm getting worried.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Oh! I forgot to think about it... Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: That's scary! Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: I hope he's okay! Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Me too.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: I should talk to Miloko, see if she's heard from him.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Yes! Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Ahh... Okay Merrow! I'm going to try to figure more things out! Don't you lose that Amulet! Remember to keep it on you! Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: <3 Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Acenia, before you go...?

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Yes? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: ...I know we agreed that it was foolish of me to trust my mother's subordinates. I think that's an undeniable statement.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: ...do you think I am being foolish by trusting that mother knew nothing of any of this that has happened?

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Merrow. Do you remember when she said... she knew Commander Balish's plan all along? And actually needed it to go off? Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: I think she knows... much more than that. Personally. But I was raised to think everyone is out to get me! Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: So Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: There's that too. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: I just....I really want to be able to trust my mother. And I want her to be proud of me.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: I don't want this to end in another Tyrian-on-Tyrian fight to the death.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: I... I know... It's probably not the same, but I really wanted Nullar to accept me. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Maybe it *is* the same.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: I can't really relate to the deathmatch. Your caste has some big pressures. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Well yes, aside from that part.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Even when I saw her as my enemy, half the reason I wanted to defeat her was so she would know she had raised an heir who was worthy.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: I just hope she hasn't been using me. Because....I will have fallen for it so COMPLETELY.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: All right. I'm sorry for bumming you out at the end of our conversation.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: I'm going to go work on starting a little windowsill garden or something. Let me know if you come up with any other tasks you think I should start on.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: It's okay Merrow! Everyone has their own goals. I understand. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: Or... their own troubles. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Yes. Thank you for being so understanding.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: We're all flowers struggling in a crowded garden, seeing light and resources. But we're always under the threatening shadow of the larger plants. Until more time passes we will never be able to be properly nourished until we are out from their shadow or they have wilted away. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: I think we'll do much better since this game has started. Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Hmm. You're right.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Whether my mother is on my side or not, it is time for me to become captain of my own destiny.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: I will be here to support you, Merrow! Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> GT: <3 Ѽ ⋆:・ﾟ✧

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> AA: Thank you, Acenia. I will be here for you as well.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"><span style="color:rgb(129,10,70);">AA: <3