Persuade January

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ID: 245257

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From: Debating Matters of Business with the Board

She was once the Dean of Benthic. She has not forgotten how to argue like an academic.

Game Instructions: She is affected by Respectability. Other branches in this story may help to reassure her.

Unlocked with Board Member: January

Locked with January's Vote

Challenge information

Broad, Persuasive 100

• 69 - very chancy (41%)
• 85 - chancy (51%)
• 102 - modest (61%)
• 119 - very modest (71%)
• 135 - low-risk (81%)
• 152 - straightforward (91%)
• 167 - straightforward (100%)
  

Base difficulty is 100, and increases by 40 per point of Board against the University, and 20 per point of Board against the Status Quo, Board against Own Financial Interests, Board against Revolutionary Interests, Board against the Liberation of Night and Board for the Fingerkings. Each point of Respectability Factor decreases the difficulty by 40.

Success

She is convinced!

"Yes," says January. For a moment, you have the impression that might be the whole conversation, but then she decides to share her reasons, at length.

Description summary:
The text varies with the Question before the Board. The text above is the generic result; questions with more specific results are listed below.

[Find the rest of the story at https://www.fallenlondon.com]

Question	Success Description
22	"She'll always be useful," says January. "But she might be more useful in another capacity."
31	"I don't believe we need him for anything," January remarks.
35	"She has courage and purpose but she sees nothing accurately," says January. "If she won't join battle on our side, then there is no reason to keep her on."
37	"Intellectual hubris," says January. "I don't like her."
100	"Well," says January. "It has a roof." It doesn't inspire more praise than that, but she isn't opposed.
105	"At least it acknowledges the battle in which we are engaged," says January. From her tone of voice, she's enjoying herself.
115, 120, 130, 150	She does not like the plans, but she's willing to let it be built, if only to come to the end of the argument. "It's a bad idea, but it's not a very important bad idea. Hardly anyone is going to see it out there."
140	"Yes," she says. "Good." She spends some time looking the plans over. It's obvious you've surprised her a little by proposing something she doesn't hate.
160	January is softly enthusiastic. "Yes, I would imagine building it will be quite the adventure."
181, 184, 187	"I fear that this proposal has ulterior motives," says January; you can feel the eyebrow raising even behind the mask. "But so be it. The new city will thrive whatever the circumstances."
182	"Not my preferred site," says January. "But a fine one."
200	"It's a good idea to be armoured out there," January says. "As long as you trust the person driving the train. But, fortunately, the tracks will prevent anyone from taking them in an unintended direction."
210	"I don't oppose it in principle," says January. "As long as we can pay for the other things we require. And as long as we don't price the tickets so high that only lords and ladies can enjoy the comforts." [...]
300	"Agreed," says January, a little savagely. "We might as well label what we are. I'd also endorse putting a sign on a tiger cage so you know what to expect if you climb in."
310	"It would be better to give everyone a share and be done with it [...] Charity always involves someone bending down from a height to be 'kind' to someone else. Still, it's preferable to hoarding all the profits in one place, I'll give you that."
320	"Even institutions of learning can put their boot on a person," January remarks. "But knowledge is a less damaging mission than most."
520, 521, 523, 525 - 529	"Among the strange laws, stranger forms of injustice," says January cryptically. "By all means, let us go."
933	"I am unfond of this proposal," January states. "But if it is the only way to make progress, I suppose it is a price we can afford."
1000, 1010, 1030	"Yes," says January, leaning forward. "If it leads to calamity, it will be the right sort of calamity."
1100, 1110	"Yes," says January. "If we are to test ulterior capabilities for our stock, we ought to do it in place where the externalities are necessarily contained."
1200	"The city requires provisions," says January. "It will be more viable if it can trade easily with the rest of the Neath."

Board Member	Second paragraph of Success Description
The Dean of Xenotheology	Apparently feeling that the meeting would otherwise be too short, the Dean of Xenotheology offers several citations supporting January's point of view in this matter. The Secretary sighs [...] the minutes will doubtless be printed up with neat footnotes.

• Persuasive is increasing…
•  You've lost 1 x Uncommitted Board Members
•  January has agreed to vote on your side. (Sets January's Vote to 1)

Redirects to: Debating Matters of Business with the Board

Failure

Unconvinced

January shakes her head. "Not the sort of thing we should be going in for," she says.

Description summary:
The text varies with the Question before the Board. The text above is the generic result; questions with more specific results are listed below.

[Find the rest of the story at https://www.fallenlondon.com]

Question	Failure Description
10 - 21, 23, 26 - 29, 32, 33, 37	January looks at you pointedly and says that there are other people she would much sooner get rid of.
22	January notes that she considers this board member a valuable ally.
24	She says, with a faintly self-mocking expression, that as unlikely as it might seem, she believes September is much too valuable to the board to let go.
31	"He is less of an impediment than some people who might be on the board," she says. This is not a compliment to the Wry Functionary, but she is still inclined to spare him.
35	January considers for a moment. "She is not sympathetic, but she is predictable," she says. "Which means that she can be used. I vote against excising her. Any replacements might be less easily controlled."
100	January tilts her head and considers the plans dispassionately. "There's not much aesthetic ambition here, is there?"
105	January shakes her head. She favours the fortress idea in principle; she just doesn't have much confidence that this example is well enough constructed.
115	January offers a rich variety of critiques on this idea, including that it is showy and bizarre; [...] and that the GHR's limited understanding of the Infernal aesthetic is likely to result in something more embarrassing than accurate.
120	"Is it meant to gain the Bazaar's favour?" asks January, squinting sideways at the plans. "If so, we'd probably get further by writing a poem of grovelling praise, the way lickspittles used to do."
130	If you had designed this plan specifically to aggravate January, you could not have done a better job. She despises the appearance; she despises the message. She recommends [...] a new station be proposed that is as unlike this as aesthetically possible.
140	"It could be a great deal worse," says January, in a tone of surprise. "But I'd still rather we didn't build it at all."
150	"It's embarrassing," January remarks, "when people think they miss the Sun." She won't be drawn to say very much more than that in the present environment.
160	January has a great deal to say on the subjects of insulation and thermodynamics, which she is delighted to explain at length.
181, 184, 187	"This proposal insults my intelligence," January scoffs. "Do you think I don't see through this scheme?"
182, 185	"It's not the worst location," January says. "But it's not ideal, and I see no reason to settle for this proposal."
300	"The proposal has the merit of frankness," January remarks. "But that doesn't make it a desirable goal."
310	"Ah, yes. Philanthropy." January's voice is wry behind her mask. "It's always certain people who get to be the philanthropists and decide where the charity should go, and certain other people that are meant to be grateful."
520, 521, 523, 525 - 529	"It is a fool's strategy," […] "Why is it that no group of more than three persons can ever lay down a sensible plan?" This remark seems to land more strongly with some […] than others, and you have the sense she is only partly talking about the GHR.
800, 910	January listens intently. Then she looks as though she is going to deliver a learned speech critiquing the injustice of appointing this candidate. But she simply votes No, instead.
933	[…] "No, I don't think I'll go along with a plan so transparently driven by the Masters' desires." You can't get a good look at her expression behind that mask […] "Perhaps we should be asking the Union to consider a change of leadership, instead."
1000, 1010, 1030	"I would take a different approach," says January. "One that offered us more leverage against our other opponents."
1100, 1110	January closes her eyes and pinches the bridge of one of her noses. "The War is a distraction. Anything we might learn there is of necessity a lie. There are more important concerns closer to home."
1200	January gives a short, irritable speech about how the city was founded for the express purpose of keeping it away from London. It doesn't (in her view) need an increase of tourists or the questionable oversight of London authorities.

Other Votes	Second paragraph of Failure Description
Jovial Contrarian	The Jovial Contrarian nods without looking in January's direction – as though a clock were striking at the expected moment, or a heavily-favoured horse coming across the finish line.

• Persuasive is increasing…

Redirects to: Debating Matters of Business with the Board