[Indulgence could possibly be considered busy if he wasn't so damn self-important. But he rolls over to face her, absolutely not posing at all like a french girl.]
Piety-schmiety. I have all the time in the world for my devout following, so ask away while the asking is hot.
But no, one does not win a competition simply by playing the bystander. All the same, many of us are still learning the details of this particular contest. Rules and guidelines only take you so far.
For example: what are the types of tasks that we would usually carry out? I imagine it isn't always murder.
Figure out the alignments of others, sway people to my favor. Or, if you can't sell me specifically, convince people to defect away from popular teams. Right now, Love and Sincerity are practically uncontested, but there are still a handful of others who can't hold a candle to us, either. Even if members of those two teams are reasoned into joining a god with only two followers, that brings us into an easy lead.
[She doesn't seem otherwise put off by the mention of dictators. These things happen more often than you think.]
But -- I see, it is something like what I was thinking. Cutting down on numbers through brute force may be efficient, but I don't believe it's the best overall strategy for the long term. The most important thing is influence, after all, not just mathematics.
However, there's another omission I'm curious about. How is it that the followers of each god aren't aware of each other?
Supposed to give everyone incentive to talk around. If you already knew who your teammates were, you could just hole up and form a gang or whatever. So this way, you think carefully about who to trust...and it also makes it harder to pinpoint who's up to what.
Well, that's the problem with Love and the kind of people who flock to her. They lack vision. It's all acting on emotion, and there's no strategy there.
I will agree that there's a lack of vision, in the ones that we know of.
[Can't believe we're just straight up dragging Itachi with terrible sight puns. He's already dead but now he's dead and on fire, I guess.]
And if we are to learn from those mistakes, then there must be a foundation. So let me ask you this instead: how do you choose your followers, Indulgence?
[If she can't get a list, she's going to get some clues. It would be terribly inefficient to go around tripping up her fellow followers, after all.]
[He really just wanted the ones that would put on a show, didn't he.
Luna, though, Luna nods obligingly because she's a disaster but a different variety of disaster.]
I suppose it's reassuring that at least a handful of us are focused and aware of what's at stake. And as for the big picture -- I do wonder, what is it that you see at the end of this contest? How will you take the throne?
And a flourish is certainly necessary, for a leader.
[Why is she such an enabler.]
I am curious about the details of your vision for this contest. You wish to reign uncontested, but what will that reign look like? I believe a number of the contestants would like to know, and it may help us in persuading them.
[There's a certain distance in her words -- does she consider herself one of those contestants, really?]
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Piety-schmiety. I have all the time in the world for my devout following, so ask away while the asking is hot.
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Maybe it's at his words. Maybe it's at the posing. She hasn't decided yet, what exactly she thinks of her funny and fickle god.
That's a little of why she's here, after all.]
All right. What did you think of the trial itself? Are you satisfied with the conclusion?
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[He laughs, stretching his arms over his head.]
'Course, floating by isn't going to be good enough forever. Not in our best interests.
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[At least she's self-aware.]
But no, one does not win a competition simply by playing the bystander. All the same, many of us are still learning the details of this particular contest. Rules and guidelines only take you so far.
For example: what are the types of tasks that we would usually carry out? I imagine it isn't always murder.
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[Allegedly.]
Figure out the alignments of others, sway people to my favor. Or, if you can't sell me specifically, convince people to defect away from popular teams. Right now, Love and Sincerity are practically uncontested, but there are still a handful of others who can't hold a candle to us, either. Even if members of those two teams are reasoned into joining a god with only two followers, that brings us into an easy lead.
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[She doesn't seem otherwise put off by the mention of dictators. These things happen more often than you think.]
But -- I see, it is something like what I was thinking. Cutting down on numbers through brute force may be efficient, but I don't believe it's the best overall strategy for the long term. The most important thing is influence, after all, not just mathematics.
However, there's another omission I'm curious about. How is it that the followers of each god aren't aware of each other?
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[After all, part of the premise of their competition is defection and possibly even sabotage.
She nods, but then holds up one finger.]
But it has its downsides, too, does it not? After all, Itachi was a follower of Love, but it was a follower of Love who betrayed all his planning.
[She's still not sure if he was just a sloppy assassin or what. She has no idea that he can't read.]
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[As far as he cares, she had it coming.]
So we do better, and learn from their mistakes.
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[Can't believe we're just straight up dragging Itachi with terrible sight puns. He's already dead but now he's dead and on fire, I guess.]
And if we are to learn from those mistakes, then there must be a foundation. So let me ask you this instead: how do you choose your followers, Indulgence?
[If she can't get a list, she's going to get some clues. It would be terribly inefficient to go around tripping up her fellow followers, after all.]
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[Nobody boring.]
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Luna, though, Luna nods obligingly because she's a disaster but a different variety of disaster.]
I suppose it's reassuring that at least a handful of us are focused and aware of what's at stake. And as for the big picture -- I do wonder, what is it that you see at the end of this contest? How will you take the throne?
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With a flourish, you can count on that.
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[Why is she such an enabler.]
I am curious about the details of your vision for this contest. You wish to reign uncontested, but what will that reign look like? I believe a number of the contestants would like to know, and it may help us in persuading them.
[There's a certain distance in her words -- does she consider herself one of those contestants, really?]