>>501985
Eating souls for Titan's Will can solve all of our problems. It doesn't even need to be especially harmful for who we eat; within a few days we'll be able to restore everyone we had eaten in as good a condition as they were before the consumption, ready to continue existing for ages to come. Perhaps even a better existence, with our help! Perhaps there's a comprise to be found, there, between eating the souls of people we don't like and waiting for a reasonable amount to generate. We can simply find some ghosts who are willing to be eaten to help us grow faster, and then soon after we can bring them back and spend a few Titan's Will to give them a boon of some sort as payment. A boon made using even a few measures of Titan's Will is exceptionally valuable, and is therefore something people would line up to be eaten in order to obtain. We gain, they gain, and there are no moral quandaries because no one was forced into it.

>>501988
A tent like that would be for shelter and privacy, and sleep as an extension of those two. There's no need for shelter here, and we don't need any privacy at the moment, either, nor do we need to sleep, so there's no need to enter.

>>501986
Possibly the openness and the water are tied into Wordblood's broader responsibilities for our world? He's not just Words- he's also the Aide. He's got the responsibility for the breath of life, the blood of our world, helping others, and keeping the lines of communication open.

In that light, spreading water and air, and an open place to make sense.

>>501988
If it's not time to go into the tent, it's not time to go into the tent. You'll know when it's right to see what's inside.

Tents are made for shelter, to protect you from the elements, to keep out the elements. It might have something to do with your past so you don't want to know what you were like bake then or afraid to see what you have become but ultimately it's your choice. Do you want to go in or not.

Inner world is best world. I'm really excited to see where it goes. Even moreso than the outer world, strangely enough.



>Tent
It's for sex/self-pleasure. You're not going in because your arousal isn't high yet. You should fix that and see if it feels more inviting~

...

Hey, somebody has to say it. With that out of the way...

Theory: It may be a place where you can cut yourself off from your many magical influences and just be human for a while. It seems off to you because your identity is so greatly defined by your connection to both the Lunar Soul and your titanhood.

Another possibility is that the tent puts your body on instinctual auto-pilot - like how a person will do things without thinking about them, going in there would put your mind in a fugue and you'd just go through motions.

Or more likely it's going to be a titanic function we either don't know of yet and don't need right now, or wouldn't affect the Queen soul. In the former's case, there's nothing we can use it for right now. In the latter's case it feels confusing specifically because it doesn't do anything to the queen.

>>501992
... Would you believe I typed the sex thing BEFORE hitting refresh and seeing this? ^^'

>>501990
Possible but if that's the case, why would the Queen need to go somewhere specific to sleep when it's the outside body that needs sleep?

Upgrade and invite Peregrin in, if he can survive now.

I imagine that the tent has a functional purpose, like the pool. Maybe entering the tent takes us back into our body proper.

>>502000
Of course! What is the one stat that has been holding us back the whole time? Commit all Titan's Will to raising our Arousal attribute.

PS: don't actually do that.

Makes me think of something which has yet to develop. Something that is growing, that has yet to be complete. Like a half-formed thought in the back of your head, a collection of information without meaning and feelings without purpose, waiting to be a sudden realization another day. That's my impression, anyway. In any case, if you feel that way it's for a reason and you should let it be for now. But as an experiment, imagine for a moment that we brought Peregrin in here, and he suddenly decided to enter the tent, how would you feel about that? Angry? Uncomfortable? Embarrased? Because we will bring him in here later, and this may come up.

>A certain urban quality seems to be apparent, but I don't recall ever having had much in particular to do with cities.
He Who Bleeds The Unknown Word didn't, but as the deva of language and knowledge in a titan that is also human, the association between the two is indirectly linked to the development of cities. After all, hunter-gatherers weren't exactly known for their expansive libraries.

Kairosas star reading devices is very interesting, but not as much as the constellations themselves. Ask her what exactly each of them mean.

There is one other unexplored area, check out those woods behind the tent for anything of interest. Also... look around and see if anything unusual is around, not connected to the areas of our devas. Some half formed structures, the beggining of new paths, formations around under and above the more obvious things, etc.

>>501992
It might have the aspect of privacy, but I doubt that's the whole of it.

>"See, we have our own Mask, and there's the Scepter, the Waiting Man, the Tome, the Crescent, the Devourer?"
Hmm. The Tome, the Crescent, and the Devourer seem like symbols of Wordblood, Luna/the Hero Soul, and Kairosa. The Mask represents raccoons. So what are the Scepter and the Waiting Man, then?

Anyway, I'm curious about the tent, but we have all the time in the world. (Literally, as long as we can keep Kairosa safe.) There's no need to rush it if Saulanna doesn't feel it's the right time.

Make purchases, then go talk to Peregrin.

I can't believe that no one is getting it.

The tent, and the small grove of trees around it, is Saulanna's section of her inner world, and as such is representative of her soul and personality. Now, we've already noted that Saulanna has no Heart's Desire, no Purpose, and no Element. Saulanna's personality is still forming, still being moulded into the titan, benevolent or malevolent, that she will one day be. That's why we shouldn't go in the tent.

If we were to go in there now, we'd probably just find a small picture of Peregrin and nothing else. It's not the right time to go in the tent because we were literally born yesterday.

The scepter is a symbol of leadership and the waiting man is the servent. Obvious ties with our new acquisitions.

Tents are for sleeping! Maybe.

Anyway, let's get back to real-world time.

ah, nostalgia. probably something from your past. if you don't feel like you're ready to deal with that stuff, don't.

I can't wait for Wordblood's fountain to become a grand landmark and for Kairosa's constellations to cover all our skies. I say devour all the souls you like. with time on our side, it is merely like you are borrowing them from existence for a tiny little moment.

random thought that has nothing to do with the tent or inner world but when we ate those two souls earlier and activated our Soul Force thing were we light up like a bonfire, does it actually burn people who get to close to it? I ask this because When we ate those guys Peregrin was holding us so I'm just wondering if we are going to come back to the outer world to find we just set him on fire and are now trapped however deep inside of the catacombs he brought us to or not.

>>502012
>>502007
These do make the most sense.
I think its time to return to the outside world.

>>502089 [re: "soul fire" being harmful]
No, for Moon Heroes. It's just silvery moonlight that at worst leaves the surroundings seeming like they've been left outside for several humid nights. Death and Hell Heroes' auras, though...

So, we've got problems. And the problems can be solved by getting more powerful. And the biggest obstacle in our way to getting more power is our own reluctance to eat souls. Sure, I can accept that - Saulanna is human after all. Humans don't act optimally most of the time! They have all these emotions banging around in their head, it's a wonder they ever get things done at all.

Ah, Suggestion! If we can make stuff like that Emotion Bottle thing, is it possible to just develop an ability that removes our reluctance to eat souls (and any future doubts we would have about having developed Reluctance Removing Prana, for good measure)? It would be Will well spent, I think, since we'd start getting more Will even faster than Kairosa's generation stuff. And with all the new souls going through the ol' grinder, we might hear more from Greenie even sooner. I like that chap.

>>502103
That is ridiculous. No.

>>502103
>Spend TW to modify main char to ignore suggestions I disagree with
In world, there is no reason she couldn't do that.
But meta, there is no way a sane DM would allow such.
Furthermore everyone who votes against eating souls would vote against removing the reluctance to eat souls, combined with people who are ok with eating souls but against such soul surgury for one reason or another

>>502103
Did you really ask if we could upgrade Saulanna so that people couldn't argue against your position? Seriously?

>>502103
*facepalm*

Kairosa: What can you tell us about what the stars mean/represent (so far)?

Maybe the tent is where her heart's desire is kept.

Hmm, I find it curious that our Mask is looking different from canon Mask (which is a constellation of sneakery and Sidereals broke it a bit). Did it get fixed or is it also different in universe?

The rest are original... Are they original in-universe as well or do they normally belong to the new maidens?

We need to thank Peregrin, get to the library, and then moon heroes dragon's shadow.

>>502277
Going directly back into it is pretty much exactly what we were told not to do. We have to find a better strategy before directly engaging them again. We were given multiple suggestions of how to do that. Akatrina and Askalafsdlaslff both have centuries of experience at this, we have less than a day. We need to be TACTICAL about it.

Man, our devas get much cooler sections than a tent. Best to leave it alone for now, let it have its mysterious content for the time being.

We should get ready to return to conventional reality. We could use P's input before we make the final decision. Plus, he might have more general advice for our upcoming 3-way social combat.

The idea that we can unmake and remake people to suit our whims, with no thought of their feelings, is a wonderful way to step onto the greased slide of hubris that ends up with yet another overthrow of the Sun Heroes, with our overthrowers feeling entirely justified.

As a punishment and preventative for terrible criminals it can be appropriate; it's like a more final execution. But we should /always/ be aware of the full implications of what we're doing when we do it.

>>501985
>Heart's Desire
Well, that's an interesting question. Saulanna seems to like gathering power, and exerting dominance over others, but I don't those are the core of her motivation. LIkewise, morality and kindness are important to her, but they aren't what make Saulanna, Saulanna. So what have we been doing?

Well, the first thing we did when we met Gevin was to decide to aid him in his personal quest. Mainly because we felt sympathy for him, but there was also a desire to have a goal. We were without guidance, so we shared his life's goal as a way of having one ourself.

We've come across many sources of information, and we've always been keen on exploring them. Partially because knowledge is power; we were born lost and confused, so we seek to learn all we can about the world so we know what we can do and what we shouldn't do. Partially because learning is fun and exciting; the world is full of many fascinating things, and we don't want to miss out. Partially so that we can judge things properly; the world is very complex, and if we make a decision without knowing some crucial details, we could make a horrible mistake. We seek to understand the world, so we know our place in it, and how we can and should react to it.

We've been subjected to mental influence more than once, and we've fought against it with all we had. Whether it was external, like Peregrin's mind-controlling voice, or internal, like her budding addiction to human souls, losing control of her own thoughts is more frightening to Saulanna than anything else. She wants to make sure that it's her own will that defines who she is and what she does, not a force that she can't control.

At its core, Saulanna's Heart's Desire is "Facilitate her own self-determination." To gain power, so that she can mold herself into what she chooses to be. To be the Queen of her own mind, so that she can make that choice for herself. To defend herself from those who might seek to control or destroy her. To study the world, so she knows where she stands in it, what she could do, what she should do.

Now, this is all from the perspective of a newborn, and as such it's not likely to last forever. As we grow in power and knowledge, there's a good chance that we'll find a different, greater purpose, probably one that involves helping the world and its peole. But that's a long ways off. Before we can decide how to fix the world, we need to understand it first. We need the power to make our choice a reality. And we need to be in a position to choose.

The tent is likely for all manner of domestic things such as shelter and having a family. In the case of a deva's tent, the unreadiness to enter Saulanna feels could be have many reasons. Maybe she just isn't ready to rest and relax right now, it's not an appropriate moment for that what with the titan Saulanna barely having a foothold on survival. Maybe the family that is implied by the tent should be created in the old fashioned sense, as is appropriate for a symbol of humanity, and she'd need a husband or at least a lover for that. Maybe it's just because the time isn't right to bust out noble devas yet.

Maybe those last two would go together down the line. I kinda like the idea of her kids being her nobles. It would make perfect sense considering the theme of humanity. Deva-Saulanna's only themes right now are being human, wanting power, wanting safety, and wanting those last two things for those who are closest to her. Which would translate perfectly into a royal sort of motherhood.

But it's definitely not something that should be worried about just yet. As the sense from the tent she gets says.

>>502374
She likes gathering power, but exerting dominance isn't a very common theme here, at least in comparison. Covering her ass is a better way to say what she's doing. Keeping herself and her own safe would be an overarching theme for both of those, so maybe that should be her desire. She's definitely shown to be protective of her devas.

>>502317
And owning a kitchen knife is a wonderful way to step on the slippery slope of being a serial knife murderer.

>>502374
> Facilitate her own self-determination.

I like that. It seems appropriate; not a desire to do some specific thing, or follow some specific path... rather, it's a desire to have the freedom to choose, instead of being forced into some kind of mold. Having that freedom, ultimately, means gaining power, since there are any number of things that stand in the way of our ability to do as we wish. In comparison with what a Heart's Desire would normally be, it's a little vague, since it sets no bounds on what we might ultimately want to do... but it feels appropriate, for a would-be Titan; a Heart's Desire equally as appropriate at the moment of our birth, at the moment when we rise to challenge the powers of a world that constrains us, at the moment when we victoriously ascend to rule over the remnants of the last fallen age, at the moment when we preside over a glorious new age of our own design, and at the moment when all things come to an end and it is down to just ourselves and the encroaching chaos of a world come apart. A truly Titanic desire, suitable for all times and conditions; ultimately, we want to be able to choose, to do what we wish, to be free of the constraints of people and laws and conditions not of our own making. It transcends smoothly from the foundling's desire, to be free of those who would seek to dominate us; to the titanic desire of a creator of worlds, discontent with the limitations of her own powers and the wreckage of the framework of ages past, thinking ahead to the possibilities of creating an entirely new reality from the Formless Chaos itself.

It's perfect.

This doesn't sound like much of a Heart's Desire to me, not so much because I disagree that it's something we want and have been actively pursuing, but rather because it's something that pretty much everyone wants. No sane DM would give you combat bonusses for saying "it has always been my Heart's Desire to not die", because that's kind of assumed and already built into the combat rules.

I like the rest of >>502374's analysis, though, which is nicely put.

It's also worth noting this:
>Well, the first thing we did when we met Gevin was to decide to aid him in his personal quest. Mainly because we felt sympathy for him, but there was also a desire to have a goal. We were without guidance, so we shared his life's goal as a way of having one ourself.
I think it's a good sign that, even when we were lost, confused, and scared, our first instinct was to help others.

>>502415
Not entirely true in Exalted (or in reality) that everyone wants self-determination. In canon there are "akuma" who've given that up for power. Saulanna briefly considered adopting Peregrin as one but rejected it as being arguably a Fate Worse Than Death -- which is another reason to pick self-determination as a defining motive for now. Still, eventually you have to pick a goal beyond "setting my own goals" unless you're flopping around randomly.

>>502374
Heh, we're starting to define the First Saulanna Excellency charm! One thing I notice is that there's no consideration in that for her Lunar nature. No raccoon theme or anything. I suspect that'll change once she gets out of here and learns more about the state of the world. She's just really pre-occupied with the thought of being talked into something.

<b>Time to get going</b>, right?

>>502415

Speaking of, we never managed to find her actually, and we do still have her Schnozzlepoints. Naturally, we can't exactly blow off Askalaff and Dullahan, but we can't forget that we do eventually need to find her, since Gavin is still wandering around the castle.

>>502415
>>502421

Facilitating self-determination isn't quite that hollow, though. Mortal beings are inherently subject to all manner of constraints, and even immortals and gods are heavily bound. Even the Titans find their actions restricted by the state of the world, by those that oppose them, and by Samsara. Ultimately, then, the Desire for self-determination includes essential facets of 'gaining power' (to better preserve freedom) and 'opposition' (to resist external influences of every kind). This makes it harder for Mal/Affections and such to be imposed upon us, but makes the ones we do form more primal and important, since they are the truest extensions of the choices we make. Essentially, we would have no single cause that we hold as primal in importance other than simply being ourselves, free to choose... as such, we are indeed free to choose, but those things that we do wind up choosing, even trivially, will be a lot more central to our identity, and difficult to shake loose at a later time. Accordingly, our Desire wouldn't simply be a hollow formless thing, fluttering on the breeze; it'd be a thing that slowly develops over time, maturing as we do, shifting to reflect the choices we make, the precedents we set. At all times, we seek foremost to protect our own ability to choose, to extend our will to give our choices more weight... but at the same time, all our choices, as reflections of that will, follow us as manifestations of our will to choose, continuing to define us for far longer than such trivial choices might for a being grounded in another sort of concern.

>>502374
you voiced my opinion as well in regards to the heart's desire

Saulanna Rockblossom 2013/03/27(Wed)14:22 No. 502558 ID: 7475da
File 136441936923.png - (193.22KB , 600x500 , readytogo.png )

>What do the constellations mean?

"Ha ha ha! What fun would it be to just tell you, mistress? It's a fun little mystery for you to unravel yourself! Tell you what, though. Every one of them is drawn from an important event in your Titanic existence! Try looking back on everything you've done that you remember, and maybe you'll find where they come from; and then maybe you can figure out what sort of symbolism they're supposed to have!"

>spend Titan's Will on...

Her mind simply can't move on from this, it seems. Saulanna decides she needs to finally get on with spending it as she had determined she was going to spend it, instead of letting herself waver and doubt all the time. If she doesn't stick to what she's already decided, she'll never get anything done!

"Alright, here we go!"

>Titan's Will 10 -> 7
>Kairosa's Will Generation is upgraded to level 3!
>Will Generation has been time-enhanced and devoted to improving Saulanna's Soul Force. Estimated upgrade time: sunset three days hence.

>Titan's Will 7 -> 4
>Wordblood gains World Reading! World Reading upgraded to level 2!
>By spending a dot of Power, Wordblood can activate this ability, allowing him to detect a target's Health Points, Will Points and other active statistics.

>Titan's Will 4 -> 1
>Kairosa gains Forked Path Oracle!
>Wordblood gains Seeing the Tongue Slip!
>Wordblood gains his Titan Blessing!

Saulanna keeps one measure of Titan's Will for now, intending to use it to upgrade her Beauty when appropriate.

Saulanna Rockblossom 2013/03/27(Wed)14:23 No. 502559 ID: 7475da
File 136441943117.png - (187.91KB , 600x600 , readytogo2.png )

>time to get going

Yes.

"Take care, my lady."

"Remember, you can come back in any time you like!"

Saulanna Rockblossom 2013/03/27(Wed)14:24 No. 502560 ID: 7475da
File 136441948918.png - (153.65KB , 600x500 , readytogo3.png )

And the world returns.

Peregrin looks concerned, and seems surprised by something, but he isn't saying anything. Oh, hold on. He did say something, didn't he? Only just now, from his perspective. He asked if Saulanna was feeling well.

Well, in fact, as she senses herself fitting back into her body again, she feels pretty fantastic! She'll...

...

Were we this tall before?

Somehow I remember us being almost the same height.

Saulanna Rockblossom 2013/03/27(Wed)14:33 No. 502568 ID: 7475da
File 136441999736.png - (108.01KB , 600x500 , readytogo5.png )

>>502567

Saulanna Rockblossom 2013/03/27(Wed)14:34 No. 502570 ID: 7475da
File 136442007316.png - (109.39KB , 600x500 , readytogo6.png )

"Oh."

"Um."

Saulanna Rockblossom 2013/03/27(Wed)14:35 No. 502571 ID: 7475da
File 136442011528.png - (75.70KB , 600x500 , readytogo7.png )

"Ok, so, er. No problem. You can fix this!"

Saulanna Rockblossom 2013/03/27(Wed)14:35 No. 502572 ID: 7475da
File 136442015848.png - (34.84KB , 800x700 , titleend.png )

"... I think."

(And a concealment bump...)

(or two...)

(or three...)

(... or four. For the right measure.

And we're done!)

How far away from being able to reform souls that we devoured again?

I was rereading the quest and now I really want to give the poor captain his soldier back.

screw the captain and his soldier. in fact, let's eat him too.

>>502586
We ate the soldier before we got Kairosa. She explicitly said she could only undo things we'd done after she came into the picture. The mobster and soldier are gone for good.

Ask Wordblood and Kairosa about shapeshifting/spending TW to remove these changes, particularly the size. We're trying to NOT let anyone know something is up. I'd say suddenly growing three feet is going to be an issue.