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Spice Fluff
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Saulanna steps up to begin talking to the Captain, and senses the SOCIAL COMBAT FIELD close in around them!
"Ah... hello."
"..."
>"Not a friendly fellow, hm? Well, he has reason. Take a look at his VIRTUE STAR: sadly, we can't identify the balance of his soul quite yet, but your BEAST SENSES allows you to sense his emotional condition; normally, you would need refined skills and careful observation to identify it. As you can see, his star is glowing a mild red, blended with a touch of yellow; that is, mild HOSTILITY, mixed with a touch of FEAR. Blue, by the way, would be the color of AFFECTION. Ideally, he would be green, though blue and yellow alone are both useful enough. Red is usually not much use at all! You see, the more strongly his star glows, the more EMOTIONAL he has become. When someone is Emotional, Arguments that play to those emotions receive a strong bonus, while Arguments that move against them are liable to be ignored completely. Playing to Emotions is a high-risk, high-reward strategy; a safer route, if you can wrangle it, is to CALM your opponent, allowing you to use more logical Arguments."
>"People with high PASSION are more susceptible to becoming Emotional, while those with higher DISCIPLINE tend to resist it. And while we're speaking of the Virtues, you may be wondering about SYMPATHY and DETERMINATION. Essentially, Sympathy measures how much one cares for others, whether benevolent or malevolent; the capacity for compassion and for hatred. A Sympathetic person is influenced the more by their MAL/AFFECTIONS. Determination, on the other hand, is the Virtue associated with one's own goals; the capacity to press on through hardships, and also the measure of one's ruthlessness. Determined folk gain strength and vulnerability from their HEART'S DESIRE. In time, I hope, we may be able to perceive the Virtues of others, in which case this knowledge will become valuable; even now, however, I would bid you attend the balance of your own Star, as it reveals how vulnerable you may be to these varied strategies yourself. Importantly, you also do not yet possess a Heart's Desire of your own! In some ways this is a protection, but in many others it is a weakness."
>"You've likely noticed, by now, that this trait called WILL seems to be unknown. This is because the discussion has not yet developed a TOPIC! When that happens, your WILL POINTS will be calculated, though your opponent's will remain unseen, as yet. When a social combatant's Will Points run out, they will have been convinced about the Topic in question, and their opponent will have won. Mark the Topic well! Convincing someone to pass the salt is child's play, and carries almost no WP at all, while convincing someone to betray a close friend will require long and delicate manipulation... or blunt magical persuasion. In a protracted discussion, several Topics are likely to be covered."
>"But this is probably a rather intimidating explanation, my lady. Let's take our first step, straightforward and simple. Refrain from using your magic for now, and fret not about what I've told you so far; just say something, and I'll tell you what you've done."
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