The Viscountess for Mayor! A feline candidate!

Definitely not voting for this candidate. I like Cats too but I think felines have reached the tipping point lately.

J-

I’d be voting for this candidate even if I didn’t love cats so much. On discord, Emily Short mentioned that the choice of candidate determines which piece of content we’re going to see first. And I definitely want more Parabola content the most of any of those.

First, inferring we’ll get it all eventually? They must have based their candidates around preplanned content, meaning now we know some of what’s in store for the remainder of the year.
edited by Jason5237 on 7/6/2020

If I had had a bit more involvement with the Viric side of dreams, then perhaps…

But my dream experience, (as well as base camp and lab) is based in Parabola. Hunting down my Marvellous deck was likewise in other dream realms; and I also have developed fairly passable relations (as far as one can with bodysnatching serpents) with the Fingerkings.

I would be curious to know the Vicountess’ relations with the Elder Continent. I had a successful rule there, and cordial relations with the Tigers. I wouldn’t want to jeopardise that.

But as a through and through scientist, academic, and knowledge seeker - it’s still Gebrandt for me.

I deeply wish to vote for all three candidates this year, but I can hardly betray my kin, so soon after they helped my own flesh and blood. They saw fit to deem me a Lyon, I’ll do my utmost to see her declared Mayor.

Good job guys, this is going to be an interesting election. Absolutely killing it with the 10th anniversary content. Honestly, despite my love of cats I would have probably gone with FF Gebrandt and science! if not for the Light Fingers content. It just wouldn’t feel right campaigning for another after all the cats have done for me. This was a hard decision, three really strong candidates this year.

I find it odd that the fingerkings are kind of chill with us in some respects NOW & suddenly, it’s all “OH NO WE GOTTA DEFEND DREAMS! Look, you’re all having nightmares only I can stop!” Well, I’m not. I have a bird with a bunch of snakes in it that’s actually rather polite. A creepy goldfish, but harmless otherwise.
I mean, I let a bunch of weirdo’s try & eat them & they were like, “Pft, no big, just let us possess another thing.” The cats make it like they are one threat away from eating me, all the time. ALL THE TIME. So, I dunno.

I have some doubts about this candidate due to her relationship with the shopkeeper. When I met her in the Viric jungle, she seemed to have some kind of ongoing association with the fingerkings, whom the Viscountess claims to fight against. Seems fishy.

You can ask the cat about this in Viric Jungle. Since I don’t have a contact with shopkeeper, i don’t know the asnwer.

Heh, London went to war with Hell in '68. That went well.
Now we are to defend (just defend?) against Fingerkings. What can possibly go wrong! I am totally with Viscountess here. Campaign for cats!
edited by SirKwint on 7/13/2020

So far I’ve got impression that the situation is backwards: she wants to enlist humans to assist in battles on behalf of her and catkind while pretending it’s for humans’ own good - actually she doesn’t give a shit, and desire to war with Parabolan serpents is hardwired in her and cats by Stone, she doesn’t really need a solid reason.

I’m sorry, but I simply cannot stand the vile lies spread in this public forum about what is objectively the best candidate. To prove it, I would like all of you to answer this simple question: do you need to sleep? If so, the viscountess is the right candidate for you! Indeed, Parabola, the land of dream we access during our sleep, is filled with dangerous creature, which include the repugnant Fingerkings, snake-like creature that only desire to possess your mind and take over your body. The viscountess will remedy this, by creating a safer environment in this strange land. She strive for the creation of a symbiotic relationship between cats and humans, so that we can both be rid of our common enemy, or at the very least be safer from them. Parabola is a wonderful place. We need to protect it. Vote Viscountess!
edited by Quidam on 7/14/2020

[quote=Quidam]I’m sorry, but I simply cannot stand the vile lies spread in this public forum about what is objectively the best candidate. To prove it, I would like all of you to answer this simple question: do you need to sleep? If so, the viscountess is the right candidate for you! Indeed, Parabola, the land of dream we access during our sleep, is filled with dangerous creature, which include the repugnant Fingerkings, snake-like creature that only desire to possess your mind and take over your body. The viscountess will remedy this, by creating a safer environment in this strange land. She strive for the creation of a symbiotic relationship between cats and humans, so that we can both be rid of our common enemy, or at the very least be safer from them. Parabola is a wonderful place. We need to protect it. Vote Viscountess!
edited by Quidam on 7/14/2020[/quote]

Agreed that Parabola is (actually, Is-Not, if you pardon my pun) a fascinating if dangerous place/reality, and I am personally quite fond of cats, Duchess, tigers and dream tigers.

That said, I feel I can’t let the blatant calumny regarding the dream-snakes go unchallenged.

It has repeatedly been said and proven that the greatest and sole wish of the Fingerkings is to be, simply to exist. While their methods for achieving this goal leave a lot to be desired and in many cases are downright vile, is it so surprising in light of their lot? Imagine, just for a second, that your very existence, very self would lack all substance and reality. Would you not grasp at any chance to escape this horrendous state of nonexistence? Is life itself anything more than neverending struggle for its own continuation? Would you not say that any living thing has a fundamental right to participate in this struggle and do its utmost to continue living, continue existing?
This may lead to unfortunate conflicts with other existing beings, true. But the same is true for any predator, any being that ends existence of its prey in order to maintain its own (regardless whether it hunts for itself or by visiting a charcuterie, I might add). Now do tell me: are cats also not predators? Is it then not at least a bit hypocritical to reject the right of an entire species for very existence because said existence might endanger or consume other beings such as goldfishes, lizards or birds… while at the same time feasting on mackerels, lizards and birds?

Of course, I am not proposing that Londoners are to submit to the Fingerkings. As an experienced Glassman, a Silverer and a person well-versed in the ways of the Glass and Parabola, I strongly dissuade anyone from approaching or even listening to the dream-snakes lightly and unprepared. But I do believe not only that discussion and diplomacy with them is possible, I consider it preferable to the all-out war proposed by this esteemed candidate. We should strive to find harmless alternatives for the Fingerkings to be allowed existence, and we should open discussion to make them understand what it means to coexist peacefully and respectfully with others.

Awareness and prudence is supremely warranted. Unconditional violence, less so in my opinion.
edited by Aardvark on 7/14/2020

Something I’d like to point out is that despite the distance between tigers and their smaller kin, the Banded Prince would probably be in favor of feline representation in London’s politics. This is extremely long term, but in the event the Associating with Radical Academics/The Seekers of the Garden storyline ever gets continued, supporting this candidate MIGHT lead to a good impression and preferable treatment from him-and thus aid for the quest, given the story currently ends at his court.

I’m learning toward the Viscountess. I’ve been an RL insomniac for months now, and even though we’re getting involved in a battle for dreams in Asia that may be no better than Vizzini’s famous land war, I don’t like Gebrandt demeaning her just because she’s a different species. I might vote for the Rubbery Man, if he can disentangle himself from Fires. He loves art, and I firmly believe that everybody’s got the right to their dreams.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orrm8pkqcbs
edited by Yuuki on 7/14/2020

I’m already ruled by two cats in real life. I don’t need to be ruled by one in Fallen London too.

My dear colleague, I would suggest that you to refrain from making lecture on ethics, for the content of your message seem to indicate that you would benefit from reading and thinking more on the subject. Indeed, to observe the world and to then assume that this natural state must be good without justification is a common mistake made by new students.

The Fingerkings are a threat. Their goal are irrelevant since their mean are monstrous. What the Viscountess is proposing is an act of prevention, to diminish the number of poor dreamers who would suffer this fate. Any other plan would lead to more victims. Also, London has been isolated in its corner of the Neath for too many years. It is time we acknowledge the importance of these different locations, and made policies in consequence. Finally, helping citizen who suffer from sleep deprivation is a noble goal who have ignored for too long. (Also, as someone who has suffered form insomnia in meat space, it’s no joke.) The Viscountess truly offer us an opportunity we can’t ignore. Vote Viscountess!

P.S. Also, more Parabola content would be cool. That’s one of my main reason for supporting her.

Not to sound too much like a certain contrarian, but the issue of debating morality is that it is so multifaceted and oftentimes influenced by the person making the point rather than a static ideal. You might say that the Fingerkings are however-so-slightly justified in their actions because their state of &quotnon-existence&quot is &quothorrendous&quot and therefore they may do what it takes to escape it, but can we rationally state that to be true in any way? We only know Parabola as people who are grounded in the Is, while all the Fingerkings have ever known is the Is-Not. What we might see as horrendous is normal to them, and it might not even be horrendous in the first place. How can you say, with any sense of certainty, that it is not merely curiosity that drives them to possess and scheme and deal? That it is not selfishness, a desire to have what others have simply because they have it?

The argument that life is a never-ending struggle is valid, in so far as we understand the material world. Parabola is not the material world, and to assume that life within the Is-Not is entirely the same is quite the assumption. We have been presented with very little evidence to assume that life is a struggle for the Fingerkings. In fact we do not even know if the Fingerkings require sustenance at all, making their predatory nature on par with the frivolous bird/bat murder undertaken by cats (though I don’t think we know for certain if cats kill on the same scale as in real life).

It is not as if we are rejecting the right of the Fingerkings to exist by supporting the cats in their endeavours. We are merely seeking to protect those who do not have the experience and wherewithal to understand the threat of those Fingerkings that would exploit the naïve and vulnerable for their own ends. Besides, the cats are also a part of Parabola, more-so than we are, and they claim that they have lost much to the Fingerkings. We don’t know if this is entirely true, but one could see it as an opportunity to aid a displaced people against an overwhelming power. A check-and-balance situation, perhaps?

I must admit that even though I say ‘we’ I’m still entirely undecided. In all honesty, I’ll probably decide based on the item they give. I voted for Virginia for the ability to wear the severed hands of aristocratic devils, and I voted for the Princess so I could own a bottle of bees. Best of luck to your candidate of choice, though.
edited by Mulligan on 7/15/2020

I’m leaning towards either F.F. Gebrandt or the Viscountess, but I can’t make up my mind.

My character has expressed an interest in fighting battles and I pride how high I can raise his Dangerous qualities. This leads me to believe that it would be more in keeping with his character if he sided with the Viscountess.

On the other hand, my character is an avid hunter and is even a Monster-Hunter by profession. I’ve been away from Fallen London for years, and have only just come back. But it seems that Gebrandt is promising the ability to resurrect pre-historic creatures that I could possible ride or hunt. But I may be misreading her introduction as far as that goes.

Would the Viscountess be a better choice if I am not sure Gebrandt can deliver on her promise of riding a prehistoric dinosaur into a warzone or somesuch?
edited by Owen Wulf on 7/16/2020

The Viscountess is appealing to me because so far as I can see, she is utterly sincere: She wants to enlist London to attack the Fingerkings. That doesn’t mean that she cares that much about Londoners, or even London, however. And one may wish to consider that before voting.

I think she will have my vote. Science is a wrothy cause; but not being a puppet to a Fingerking kind of takes priority.
On the other hand, she is not human… and I prefer to vote for humans instead of other creatures.
But still. Parabola is a battlefielf, whether we like it or not. The more people are aware of that, the better.