[quote=Asterion Hex]I’ve only been an Exceptional Friend for a couple of months, so I’m unsure if this is a common thing.
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It’s not a thing at all! So please don’t worry.
FailBetter are always scrupulously fair in such matters. In fact, I took that option as well, and the only unusual thing about it was that those first steps generally find a way to include the same information, often in identical phrases. This didn’t do so. But the story still opens up in the Season of Hobbies storylet.
This one was a nice change in pace. Probably not a crowd-pleaser, but I liked it: slow, sad and obscure like an old blues song and like those, it’ll probably stick in my mind for a while. Obviously, I chose to soothe the poor Coalescence, not chase it away. I couldn’t really see what the Bundled Man’s problem was - if he doesn’t like visiting the Coalescence, why doesn’t he just stay away?
I know we get to visit the Waswood in one story in Sunless Sea, but it’s been ages since I played that… if anyone happens to have those text snippets at hand, I’d love to see them again - in spoiler tags or via PM - because I don’t really remember anything about it and the SSea wiki doesn’t have them either.
I chose to soothe the Coalescence, because I had come to it in the context of a group of people who were trying to help each other with their pain. If I could not offer compassion now, then when? Perhaps little by little, as its own pain fades it might one day move on. Nothing seems to have changed. But perhaps one day it will.
That was the choice I made, too, and I got the impression that the people were somehow the better for it. But as many said, you do not get to know what would have happened otherwise.
I chose to kill it, as the Bandaged Man said, I too think they relied too much on it to carry their pains. By simply giving your pain to someone/something (Coalescence) else it doesn’t go away and you’ll never get over it.
They will now no longer be able to do that and will have to learn to become strong enough to carry their own sadness, divided amongst one another perhaps.
A Shared burden is less heavy, but a burden you’re trying to offload is just as dangerous as one you’re trying to hide/ignore.
This story is currently achieving a rare feat: I am stuck in the choice to soothe or frighten it. Simply stuck. It has been hours since the choice was presented. I discussed it with a friend, took a walk to think about it, and then came to this forum to read other perspectives, and I still don’t know what to do with this thing. I can relate to its existence and to the members of the Gathering a little too well.
Who would have thought choosing whether to pet or spook the flesh monster would be so difficult.
I want to add, I really appreciate how tonally different from each other the Exceptional Stories have been; this was a cool melancholy and mysterious story.
I don’t comment often but seeing how this one didn’t seem to draw a lot of discussion I wanted to chip in even though I’ll echo what most people here seem to have said already.
Like some people have said my one disappointment was that the story felt short, maybe we could have spent more time facing the challenges of our own baggage, or maybe explore the stories of the three people more, but on the other hand I understand that in this one the point was largely that for once we are not the universal solution to everybody’s problems.
Despite that I really liked the story, I think it has a particularly strong synergy with The Ceremony, both focusing on very intimate interactions with groups dealing with deep personal issues and requiring choices based more on personal feelings rather than trying to "game the system" for maximum gain. I liked how the thee characters represented the different facets of, or paths to, the need for support and how the story commented on leaning on others without ultimately pronouncing judgement one way or another. Personally the Bundled Man resonated with me.
As for the final choice like I said I resonated with the Bundled Man, I heard his argument, I understood it, I even to some extent agreed with it. But at the end of the day I couldn’t chase the coalescence away. It may be an amalgamation of discarded burdens and pains but in this weird world of man of clay, space bats and dream serpents who am I to claim it is less of a being, and in terms of being bad for the people who rely on it… in my story it kind of worked for the Performer (though I guess not so much for the Veteran).
Overall I found it a very touching, well written and intimate story, worth the price of Exceptional Friendship despite the relative briefness. edited by ValentinV on 1/28/2019
A bit late to the party, but … I just played through it and I’ve never been so confused before. I simply didn’t get almost anything what happened.
So there was a self-help group-therapy gathering who went to Parabola to replay their hardest moments to recover from their traumas, am I right? But what did the Coalescence have to do with it and how does it relate to the group? What difference did it make if I woke the people up or let them dream on? Why was the Tomb-Colonist so bothered? What did the epilogue mean? Was the replaying of the memories what kept Coalescence calm and fed? Was waking people up the thing that caused its wounds?
Oh, also someone mentioned killing it, but the options open to me were to soothe or frighten it; was "killing" a slip of tongue or was this really an option?
So. Confused.
EDITS: spelling and grammar edited by Desirée on 3/14/2019 edited by Desirée on 3/14/2019