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Evening Petal
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>>133278
Skipping what preamble I wanted to write, and going to play counterpoints, now.
>Revealing Siobhan's identity
>Quest relies on gaining some knowledge
I understand why you wanted to do this, but as the other anon says, you've taken away a choice from the questers; one of our possible actions was to independently attempt to research who or what we were -- and was something very, very strongly hinted by Millie, then cautioned against by Roz, essentially baiting the questers.
Thus, when suddenly we, as the questers (and not yet Siobhan / Penny), know this identity without any involvement beyond simply reading -- and hence why the anon refers to it as an exposition dump -- it sort of ... well, frankly, it completely removes any sense of triumph or reward we might have gotten, had we instead snuck onto a Holo terminal and pulled up information -- such as from that vial.
On the topic of the vial, that was our very first hint at who we were, and a major point for some time that was discussed at some length, before mysteriously disappearing shortly before the bathing interlude.
Now it's presence and function in the quest are inherently moot, at least topically, lest you're planning to have some residue or serial code that can be used at a salon to recreate it, though I cannot imagine what good that would do beyond place us in a very bad situation, given what Siobhan confesses to with that one job.
>Q&A vs Sex Scenes
Moving onto this one, rather than the brushing off of subliminal manipulation of responses.
It's rather hard, personally, to even read the updates when nigh everything after the first ... 8 updates is porn. Yes, Siobhan is answering our questions, and yes, some questers are horny, but ...
... the only way I can describe it is being disjointed. Siobhan is having an inner dialogue with voices in her head and dealing with a situation that is growing progressively outside of her comfort and control (and has in the past, according to a piece of exposition that feels contrary to former actions) -- all whilst engaging with Mike sexually. It reminds me heavily of the earlier situation with Omen, and what disparate opinions that raised.
The result is cognitive and emotional dissonance, and it starts eroding the suspension of disbelief, whilst making it simultaneously harder for the reader to filter out what's in the events of the scene, and what's Siobhan's response -- or her reactions to our suggestions.
>Things will be different, but in the future
Discounting that we have to eventually reach Chapter 0 to remain cohesive, before moving on to Chapter 2, this is not terribly reassuring. To explain, and sort of frame why I'm even doing this, it is largely because such has been your general statement throughout. The majority of your responses have been some effect of "Dead Dust isn't what you expected it to be," or "it will be different in future chapters" -- so I suppose I lied earlier, and I am going to address that it feels as though many of your responses have disregarded quester concerns, even if such was not your intention.
As for why I and others have voiced these concerns, I can only speak for myself, but I will say this: if expectations are being failed repeatedly, then perhaps Dead Dust is not presenting itself sincerely -- that is to say, the quest, from its beginning to where we are now, has not followed what some of us have taken as clues, hints, overtones, or other suggestions as to Penny's situation, Red Shelf, dust, and, again, the mysterious vial upon her person.
I'll go back and refer to one of the earliest comments in this thread:
>>123380
Many of us equally took Dead Dust to be a mystery as you've stated, and provided suggestions based on the details we were thus given -- including the actions and reactions of characters, such as the divide between those wishing to stay with the Vesper Society (who sought to establish ourselves and make contact with Q) and those pushing to escape (who felt Cider was too cultish).
And splits like that have occurred repeatedly since Dead Dust began.
>Is the mystery gone?
Here's where I'll agree with you, and say the other anon was too heavily focused on Penny's former identity (as Siobhan) -- however, I think that, from what I've already outlined, it's very understandable how they would have reached this conclusion. Nigh everything we've encountered insofar has been a question of who we were -- from the usage of taffa as literally opens the quest, to the Vespers and Cider, to our discussions with Roz over Millie's change in personality after learning about her former self. Even we the questers insisted that we wished to find out, regardless of the outcome and despite Roz's warnings against doing so.
Thus we were given, and listened to, Omen.
And when suddenly everything in Chapter -1 takes away one of the central pillars of our motivation -- the learning of Penny's former identity -- it can be very hard to mentally reorient ourselves and our expectations.
To put it into perspective, imagine playing a game where the central plot and most interactions were about finding The Artifact. If suddenly halfway through we're given the thing we've struggled for after days and days of playing this game ... it becomes hollow. There's no sense of achievement or progress, or even a victory over having accomplished what we set out to do, and it sours all that time spent working toward something. Similarly with games where a character you've heavily invested in is removed later on, quite abruptly; all that work vanishes, and the player is left with nothing and little recourse.
I understand that this is only as it appears on the surface, and there is a much deeper mystery with the so-called Blades and Omen's existence, but that it appears at all should be of concern.
>Numerous unresolved threads
This is where I'm going to segue back through several former points again, as you've rather hit the proverbial nail, here.
I think what the other anon is trying to say is that, as I'd laid out, a vast portion of our interactions later on focused on who Penny ultimately was before using the raw taffa. Not her situation, not what she was doing in O-Town (or how she got there), nor the zombies or even the situation on Red Shelf; all these had become a given, immutable.
Even when other topics were brought up or oddities became available, there was almost always an overriding concern -- be they the shadow monsters, the strange false sun, Preston's bizarre reaction to Moira's card, the tentacle twins and the drugs, the Vespers sigil, our mysterious coma thereafter, Cider's level-headed matronly nature, Roz's bubbling personality and bosom, Mint's doldrums, Millie's crypticism, Penny's unresolved sexuality, the sudden presence of Omen, the Gordian Knot, the need for escaping from the bathhouse, or the chanting before we got mind-stabbed.
Yes, there were countless bits of unresolved plot and so much that I'm leaving out in even that list, but each time was there always something else driving us, or characters who did not present the necessary hook to "catch" questers with.
And I'll go ahead and admit: I was wrong when I said Penny likely wasn't part of Delaney. We've learned now that she was intimately involved with Mike -- literally, and figuratively. More, Preston might have been her neighbor -- who probably freaked out because he thought Mike would know he'd been going down to O-Town for shady dealings.
But that's just it -- all of these appearances were played as either being perfectly normal, or we the questers had very little reason to actively question matters. We hadn't the basis to do so, beyond what pieces we had to work with.
Going back to the topic of the mystery: there's no sense of revelation or epiphany, here. Instead of being amazed that we now know who llama-guy was, or that this isn't our body, or why we presume ourself "human" -- yet cannot rationalize why others do, too -- there's only that sense of hollowness I'd spoken of.
It becomes just a detail. Something now divorced from the moment.
Hence why the anon called it an exposition dump.
>Reboots?
Contrary to everything I've said, I sincerely and earnestly hope that you don't. Dead Dust is salvageable, and you've shown yourself immensely talented both in art and storytelling in the prior chapters. Withholding my own criticisms of sex as a distraction or even discomfiting, we're still gaining information critical to the world, to Siobhan, and ultimately to Penny, once Chapter 2 starts.
But I think, personally, that equally critical will be ensuring that what knowledge we will then hold must not be able to be used with any immediacy. Let it build character drama, friction between ourselves and the Vespers, and a situation that places us in even more dire jeopardy; let Penny/Siobhan be faced with her actions and her past, as much as her revelation.
There is still discovery to be had in this quest.
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