A Salon is a very good MW engine. And you can grind the requirements to build your scheme easily using the Affair of the Box item rewards and the Shuttered Palace connection boosters.
Other than RP reasons, the Orphanage only really has one strong thing going for it, the Fatelocked companion you can buy there.
Nobody has mentioned the adrift on a sea of misery quality yet…do we know anything about that? I would one day like to advance it past surrounded by wretchedness.
I can verify. I started with a Salon, switched to an Orphanarium, decided I was tired of nuking my Urchins connection and my purse, and switched back. The lovable little scamp is still with me today, except when she’s committing improbably precocious crimes.
Quick question: How much work do you need to do on your Orphanage before you can get the Laconic Prodigy? And how hard/expensive is it to switch? I’m contemplating doing that aforementioned orphanage-to-salon switch, if it’s not TOO much work. That Laconic Prodigy certainly sounds like something I’d like to add to my collection, but an easy source of Making Waves is ultimately more worthwhile…