This story is a sequel to Tales Of The Canterlot Deportation Agency: Soul Survivor
Out of all the entities in Equestria, human and pony, Joanna is the only one who has been Saved. Long before finding herself in a realm of evil temptations and demonic powers, she heard the Word, and so her soul alone is safe. All of those around her will find their deaths lead to nothing more than eternal torture, and Joanna is perfectly content to tell them all of the details. She doesn't understand why anypony has a problem with this, much less how she's become the most hated resident in New Cynosure. But that doesn't really matter, not when her soul is Saved.
And it's not as if she knows that everything else about her is broken.
(Part of the Canterlot Deportation Agency series, which has its own TVTropes page. Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.)
Cover art from Distorted Harmony. No, really.
I hate to say it but this soul may be too far gone for any reason to get to. It makes it all the sadder that if they weren't so brainwashed reason could work but it will not happen.
...this is a terribly depressing story for tonight.
There's also a truly scary thing and a truly sad thing.
The truly scary thing? I was afraid for the first fifth of the story, she was one of the Saved converts of the Golden Promises Ministry. Whom were being lead by a cultist in an effort to summon the Elder Gods into the world as the walls of reality grow thinner and thinner every day. Making it easier to call upon things like the Black Pharaoh, Nyarlathotep in all of it's many varied forms. And now, one of them is here, and the walls between worlds grows thinner and weaker every day...
The sad thing? I can see why she holds onto her faith so hard.
From what we've seen about her, Joanna lives in an oral shame culture, patriarchal in a way that that the NPCs screaming about "mainspring" and "misogyny" would never understand because it's the real thing. She's been told, every day, that these are the rules, obedience to them is praised, disobedience is punished. If she fails to punish others for their sins, to take her punishment for her sins, she is even more guilty and deserves to be punished even more. To take her punishments, to suffer in the cause of the Word, is praised and exalted. She is considered mad by ponies, because she isn't insane.
She's mad because the world that has pounded her, again and again and again and again like iron on the anvil, it has constrained her within the walls that she has always lived in. And, this spiritual agoraphobia, the harem girl's best friend, is now in a circumstance where the rules no longer apply to her. The walls don't exist.
And, the world that she has created to exist, bound with faith and the thought that because she has done everything right, she has that small little reward of salvation...is gone.
She is mad because there is no longer the walls, the boundaries that served to comfort her by keeping her away from things. That despite everything she has done, she's been thrown into Hell and her faith is the thinnest of reeds in this place. She's experiencing a massive case of spiritual decompression, and her soul is exploding.
(Oh the stories of spiritual decompression I can tell, especially in the Islamic community...)
She might be going into the Cells for the simple fact that the governor of her mind is flailing her soul out of control. And, I feel that Princess Luna is being a bit hypocritical, especially if she ever dealt with anybody like Starlight Glimmer (prior to her heel-face turn) and the kinds of cultures that they can create. Hell, how may ponies have gotten in trouble because they have had faith in their Princesses...
Oh, and Merry Christmas.
Dang,
I always love reading more from the CDA, but Joanna makes it hard. (In a good way I mean)
Well written, you definitely get the characters motivation, fears, and drive down. She's effectively spinning the wheels expecting to move forward in some fashion, but when it doesn't work, all she can do issuing and hope fora different outcome. One where her faith is proven, and the results are as she always believed they should be. It would be maddening to live I such a state of perpetual stasis, powered by dead words.
Well written, thank you for telling us more of your stories, and Merry Christmas // Happy Holidays. I hope your 2019 goes smoothly, and though it doesn't 'mean' anything in a physical sense, I'm sending good vibes your way.
Thank you, once again.
I think I can see one of your neighbors in here...
...should the title be Deportation Agency?
Damn...really disturbing. Really turns it on its head, when you put it in a new context. Hope there isn't any nonsense in the comments section later on.
Masterful work pulling off the delicate balancing act of not too sympathetic with Joanna even though she's the 'protagonist'.
She really still kept it up, huh? Even after everything that she went through, even to the bitter end. What's a negative word for perseverance? Her faith is a foul poison and what it did to her was wrong and she never had a choice about recieving it, but she chooses to continue harming others. That'll be why she's going to hell, not preordained sin.
...Anyway, on that cheery note, merry Christmas and happy holidays! I hope next year does right by you. Thanks for the story. I'm so glad you can still give us some writing to enjoy when things are so hard for you right now.
I am giving this a like, because you have kept Joanna's character true to herself. Her motivations have not wavered or varied in the trials she has set herself and those that have beset her. Sometimes that can make for the most interesting, the most deviant, the most consistent or the most terrifying of characters...
I have to give you an upvote because reading this made me physically nauseated.
Seaparately, is she from anything in particular, so I can avoid it like the plague?
Oh, Bree. If Joanna thinks these are demons, the things Bree left behind would be beyond her comprehension entirely.
9366164
The irony of someone speaking about cults while parroting the shibboleths one of the current ones uses to dehumanize its opponents and critics is delicious. NPCs indeed, little alt-righter.
That’s one of the most depressing stories on the site, for how real it is.
9366454
It really is. Estee has a serious talent.
Holy crap! They've got a Sekirei! Which means that technically Joanna's right to put the term "human" in quotation marks there since Sekirei... aren't. They're aliens.
On that note, while I've never actually read or watched Parasyte (I probably should one day... when I find the time), from my understanding while his... species for lack of a better term are parasitical, Shinichi and Migi's specific relationship is closer to symbiosis.
And I'll add in the chorus of asking exactly what work Joanna is from... possibly so I can avoid it like the plague.
I understood that reference.
In any case, I feel this is missing a Tragedy tag. There are few things more piteous than someone who refuses to see that the cell door is unlocked and she can walk out any time. Yes, she's trying to get other people to come inside and refuses to acknowledge their humanity (or equinity, or taurenity...) but with a look inside her head, it's clear why.
And then there's that first Equestria-born human. She represents all kinds of complications. Even beyond the legal concerns, if the "every sophont race has magic" rule holds true... Well, hopefully not every species has to deal with infant surges.
Masterful work. Thank you for it, and Merry Christmas.
9366450
Do you want to talk about this, or are you just being easily dismissive?
The NPC meme hits a lot of the people on that side because...they have a script, it seems. They never answer beyond the simple, easy answer that you can plug into any argument and just toss it away. You don't have to think because you have a flash card ready for any issue or problem. Have an issue with college students not having due process when accused of sexual harassment? MISOGYNIST! Wanting to make sure that hiring is color-blind and aims for the best candidates, regardless of race, gender, national origin, or species? RACIST! Asking if some, some, women of the #metoo movement are using the movement to advance their own career and take down rivals and people that have "done them wrong"? YOU HATE WOMEN!
I've found better arguments and discussions in the people you wave a hand at and dismiss simply as "alt-right," because many of them have had to think about their arguments.
(And, the really nutty people...well, I've always been of the opinion that Vox Day either is a troll that has figured out his audience perfectly, or that he's merely the same expression of socialism/fascism/communism that Utopians create-just a racial and religious one.)
To mis-quote the great and scary Malcom Tucker, "Don't call me alt-right. I'm so much more scarier than that."
9366450
Why in the hell would you think he is altright?
9366450
Get your stuff, pack them, and leave this website. Never come here again to post until you've learned not to have kneejerk reaction to words and box people into bullshit political categories. When you grow up a bit and become a more nuanced adult you are welcome to take part in this community.
9366689
I'm being dismissive because it's an absurd meme constructed to 'fight' a pile of strawmen big enough that rival schools should be trying to set it on fire. Anyone who has had 'time to think about their arguments' and comes up with 'I know, these people aren't -really- people' and thinks it original or clever is not someone who should be taken seriously.
Which is, as noted, hilariously ironic given the story we're talking about.
9366702
I generally read referencing it in seriousness to be an alt-right flag because it gained popularity through Ian Miles Cheong and is primarily a staple of 4chan's /r/The_Donald, and lacks relevance outside of that particular echo chamber and its twitter offshoots.
9366420
Change some of the names around, some of the circumstances-she's a hero, holding onto her faith even in the depths of Hell. Trying to save others, even those that she knows are demons, from Hell. Because that is what you do, save others, even in Hell.
"I have my soul. I have my faith. What do you have, angel?"
This is why the story hits us so hard. It's the dark mirror of the glory of faith.
9366725
The rest of his comment was very thought-provoking and nuanced, his immediate reply to you was pretty reasonable, and the original comment was made to highlight how awful something was. I strongly doubt he's alt-right, and frankly, your dismissive behavior is only better than them because being better than those idiots is kinda a default.
9366725
I've never thought that the NPCs weren't people. That's what makes it worse, doesn't it? They're people, they have hopes, they have dreams, they have a faith in a glory greater than themselves.
Just that to reach that glory demands that they cast out those that are not wanting to be a part of that glory, to punish those that have become apostates, to demand that the entire world be changed to fit what they believe.
Oooh! Woah! Great look at Joanna's mind and stuff!
EroticDreams about Jake. Woah.
Hoping she'll get... Better. Yeah.
----
9366438
Great Sea... So, is she actually from Theocratic Europe, and the Great Sea is the Atlantic Ocean, and America is actually fighting back?
Not sure why TVTropes is saying Theocratic America... Gonna try and find a source... Doesn't seem to be from Estee...
----
Also also, has she talked to Ben? His world and Joanna's world seem slightly similar in basic description...
9366725
That is a very narrow view, it is also relevant amount the classical liberals and basically everyone who isn't on the far left or uninvolved completely.
Its really ironic that you would claim that its a 'strawman' when you have slapped someone with a label without reasonable cause in a seeming attempt to dehumanize them.
9366728
I agree with you that the story reflects the absolute faith of zealots in the most horrifying context possible, laying starkly bare just how hollow those tenets become when stripped of widespread cultural reinforcement, while also being twisted to justify bigotry and oppression on a societal level.
But I don't think she was trying to save anyone here. There was never any real attempt to get people to understand her point of view, because she already considered them demons who were doomed to start with, and wouldn't believe anything they said anyway. She just made her prison for herself and refused any attempt to bring her out of it.
9366779
That's the best and most poisonous part of the character writing. She has no interest in saving anyone but herself. These are not people, and are beyond the possibility of salvation by dint of not being born into the caste structure she was. She has no desire to evangelize, but rather to punish people for transgressing against personal mores that she cannot even fully articulate reasons for, because they are not suffering to the standard she feels appropriate.
Given that even Ben managed to integrate enough to break Alpha Complex's conditioning, that's an impressive level of determination to be a terrible person.
More amusing, because Bree knows precisely what that sort of afterlife looks like. She used to use the World of Darkness' Shadowlands as a shortcut, and is a Euthanatos in a world where there is no Paradox.
I gotta say this: if you don't want to be accused of being alt-right, don't use an alt-right meme.
NPCs...yeesh.
wow. what a deluded woman Joanna is.
somehow this made me think of a book, "the Apocalypse Troll" by David Weber:
these crazy aliens, know to humans as the Kangas, had a crazy religion that effectively stated that ALL other species were demons that MUST be EXTERMINATED!
yes, they thought it was their sacred duty to kill ALL other life in the UNIVERSE!
they committed at least a dozen acts of "Xenocide" before they encountered humans, mostly using Bio-weapons.
oh, and "Troll" was the human nickname for the brainwashed killer cyborgs that the Kangas built to fight for them.
Faith's a powerful thing. It can sustain us in our darkest times. It can also consume us.
Joanna's just like all of the other people in the world who latch on to something, anything, to make them feel special and important. When you've built your entire identity around a certain worldview, it's damn near impossible for anything to break that worldview. She gains meaning from her delusion that she and she alone is "saved".
People are very, very good at lying to themselves.
9366742
Though if you think of NPC as people, you shouldn't say something that explicitly dehumanizes them?
9366903
It's the classic "SJWs are ruining everything!" thing, only with a new three-letter acronym.
The human mind is a wondrous thing.
If you burn something into it hard enough, even if it's not true, the mind will believe it anyway- to the point of rejecting what it's own self registers as real in order to maintain what was branded into it by trauma, or repetition.
Cracking that can take months, years, or a lifetime depending on how much it was reinforced before you started deprogramming the person in question. Joanna is quite likely more towards the latter, and transport might not have been so much a mercy as a torment of the damned.
9366903
That rant they made earlier about how people who complain about misogyny, racism, etc. are overreacting was a huge warning sign. So is the use of "NPC".
They are hitting all of the talking points and using the terminology of the kinds of people who genuinely think white men are the REAL oppressed group in society.
9367041
"NPC" is the new "sheeple" apparently.
Oh, just realized that this means that Jake has no romantic prospects in New Cynosure now...
The one person we know, who fits his physical requirements, and would be somewhat receptive, is the local Jerkass, while the person that is most relatable to him, Bree, doesn't fit his physical requirements.
Mind-switch plot for Joanna and Bree? Jokes.
Also, "physical requirements" was the best term close to hand. Not the best choice overall. Maybe his "type", would've been a better phrase?
9367465
Pretty standard right-wing straw-manning, really.
" Wanting to make sure that hiring is color-blind and aims for the best candidates, regardless of race, gender, national origin, or species? RACIST! "
"Not that I have any useful suggestions how this remarkable outcome could be achieved, given that even having a "black-sounding name" provably lowers your chances of being hired, but I want to make sure you all know the liberals are the bad guys here."
Asking if some, some, women of the #metoo movement are using the movement to advance their own career and take down rivals and people that have "done them wrong"? YOU HATE WOMEN!
"I have essentially no evidence of this [1], but if it can happen at all, it must be happening all the time!"
[1] There is a sizable false accusation problem - among teenagers and young adults, which are frequently idiots. Cases of adult female professionals, multiple adult professional women, falsely accusing the same guy? Roughly as rare as, well, unicorns.
9367798
Yeah, I've seen it before in other places too. I was kind of hoping I wouldn't see it show up in one of Estee's stories' comment sections, but oh well.
9366689
Hi, I'm a hardcore leftist who believes all 3 of the straw man arguments you raised there are serious subjects worthy of discussion.
I am calling them straw men because while they are, they're being used as shields to try and make it seem as if you are an eminently reasonable one and the NPC meme is just the natural byproduct of being surrounded by so many who are blind to reason and evidence and free speech and whatever the latest reason is to demonize The Left (copyright, trademark, and all other forms of intellectual protection not applied, but it's fun to make us seem like a Big Scary Cohesive Force)
The funny-sad part, to me, is that you are citing the character as 'See? This is what real racism and sexism and misogyny looks like' as a reason to dismiss people who live with such every day. Not to the degree of the utter Handmaid's-Tale style dystopia Joanna is from, but I see plenty of signs it exists in our world constantly.
I mean, heck. The previous entry in this series is Estee using World of Darkness to lay scathing critique on the failures of our own society & government to take care of those among us who are marginalized.
Also, related: Looking at the upvote/downvote totals relative to the commentary itself, it appears Estee has a large number of alt-right sympathizers based on comment rankings, but apparently most are not vocal (Though certainly far more prone to downvoting and upvoting than the opposite camp).
ANYHOW as for the story itself, it's a delightful look at how dogma can completely cage a mind in self-harming lies.
And it's depressing because it highlights what those of us exposed to harmful dogma of one kind or another come to eventually learn : No matter how much you want to help, you can't until they choose to want to change.
But these humans are saintly if they continue to tolerate Joanna's presence.
Or Luna just is.
Gentlesophs all, bethink you this:
The scale of the world and the nature of humanity (oh, the humanity) is such that it is entirely possible for racism and misogyny to be both vile realities used to oppress the innocent and thought-terminating clichés used as sticks to beat down anyone who gets out of intellectual line at the same time.
In fact, the myriad perversities of our nature more or less guarantee it. Pretending otherwise, in whichever direction you do it, is extremely unuseful if you are interested in either the truth of things, or in trying to make the world a slightly less horrible place.
(What this says about the required dogma of the alt-right and the ctrl-left is left as an exercise for the reader. Recommended reading here, and yes, I realize that in writing this comment I'm almost certainly doing the exact same thing.)
As for the NPC meme:
What's Distorted Harmony?
9368860
I wouldn't go recommending that article. The guy who wrote that also once posted "It's hard to stay rational in politics, so we'll just give up". He's basically someone who thinks he's too good for politics.
Yudkowsky also once responded to a critic of Lesswrong who complained that harassment from Lesswrong members was affecting his health with this:
You can update by posting a header to all of your blog posts saying, "I wrote this blog during a dark period of my life. I now realize that Eliezer Yudkowsky is a decent and honest person with no ill intent, and that anybody can be made to look terrible by selectively collecting all of his quotes one-sidedly as I did. I regret this page, and leave it here as an archive to that regret." If that is how you feel and that is what you do, I will treat with you starting from scratch in any future endeavors. I've been stupid too, in my life. (If you then revert to pattern, you do not get a second second chance.)
Because this is totally a rational and reasonable thing to expect someone to do.
9368860
Thank you.
I knew the moment I used that term, I was going to step into that particular mine field...but, yea. There are shell scripts written with a Python For Dummies book on your lap, a'la Amuro Rei in his first piloting experience with the RX-72-2 Gundam, that are more intelligent than some of the people that you run into on Tumblr. There are Twitter people that are even less intelligent, and while they can't formulate an argument to save their lives, they can damn well create a beautifully catchy meme in 140 characters or less. And, a lot of those meme makers are on the ctrl-left, and they make their memes to fulfill their agenda.
(My fondest hope is that when Anita Sarkesian and Vox Day go on to their just reward, they get stuck in the exact same hot, dark, bat-less corner of Hell and are convinced that their opposition is not being punished sufficiently to justify their suffering. 'Cause I want popcorn for that.)
When you ask a question, and get a flash-card answer, or a quick, dismissive little talking point, you get frustrated with people and the process. Just argue anything contentious, and you don't get nuance, you get two extreme sides on opposite cliffs flinging verbal diarrhea at each other. Anybody in-between, not the middle but between, gets covered in shit on both sides.
And, yes, NPC is a poor term for them, and insulting to properly written non-player characters. Whom have dialog and character to them to tell the stories to be told. It's a poor term, but it's a term that I am using because it defines a small group of particular diarrhea throwers. I'm trying to describe those monkeys with dark brown fur that like sticking pebbles in their diarrhea, versus the ones with the light brown fur that prefer to coat small rocks with their diarrhea before they throw them, in other words.
9368737
There's always been a sizable alt-right (although we didn't call it that in 2011) component to the Brony community. It's the paradox of tolerance: we're too tolerant to ostracize the intolerant. (Really, I normally wouldn't say anything myself, but having the usual rhetorical gotchas deployed like a fart in the elevator and then being asked to believe it was spring roses was a bit much)
9369168
When you use a fictional and deliberately extreme example of a bigot to dismiss people complaining about real life bigotry as "NPCs", you don't get to complain when people accuse you of being alt-right.
9369179
I realized we were in trouble the moment I found out Nazi and neo-Confederate bronies were a thing.
9369163
Yeah, that’s not much of a discouragement. Have you seen politics recently? You don’t have to share my views on the ethicality of the whole business to figure that, and I, for one, am certainly much too good for politics.
As for the rest - thank you for providing an excellent example to illustrate the phenomenon.
9369258
So rather than try to improve it or make it more rational, he decides it's better to just sneer at all politically active people. Calling politics the "mind-killer", for crying out loud. Would voting then be an irrational act?
I used to buy in to "rationalist" communities like LW. Then I realized a lot of them were too insular and more concerned with stroking their own egos. They also kept making up a lot of weird terminology that just made them look like some bizarre cult.
Damn. Really gotta hate indoctrination that heavy. I wounder who the relation to her she stoned was? I'm guessing sister.
It is such a shame the pony's aren't a bit more cold hearted, they could actually make her happier by being a little more "cruel". It's just not in their nature to understand what it is that she needs because of how she's been raised.
Maybe she'll be able to spend her years in an honorable way and not have to worry about the trial anymore. I'm sure everyone would be a little bit happier if that happened. Maybe also a bit shamed at themselves for it but happier still.
Thanks for the story. I love this setting and always look forward to seeing more of it.
9369179
As time has gone by, I've become increasingly irritated by people who claim we should be tolerant of the intolerant. For one thing, it usually (though not NEVER) doesn't lead to the intolerant person realizing the error of their ways. All it does is encourage them to keep being intolerant. For another thing, it sends a bad message to the people who are victimized by said intolerant person. Whether intentional or not, the message is "We care more about the bigot than we do about you."
Back to the story:
The ponies really ought to monitor Joanna closely to make sure she doesn't escalate things even further and become a genuine danger to everyone else. Especially given the fact that she's actually stoned someone in the past.
I personally don't have much sympathy or pity for this character. At least, not nearly as much as I do for the rest of the people who have to put up with her. Besides, it's not like she's unhappy -- she's lost in her own little world where she and she alone is special.
9369282
Leaving aside, for a moment, whether or not that would be any better than "building a better Scientology", let's just take a look back over this comment thread, shall we?
So far, you've grabbed a couple of soundbites from RationalWiki, both ad hominem and as such having no bearing on the truth of the argument I cited, threw them out there in arguments-as-soldiers mode, and then in your latest comment, doubled down on that, threw in a teleological begging the question, and then rounded the whole thing off with the argument from Anything Sufficiently Weird Per My Social Norms Must Be Wrong.
Without at any point even trying to provide evidence contrary to the proposition or in favor of politics being a hotbed of good thinking.
…sorry to say it, but thus far, the empirical evidence supports the idea that, yes, politics is the mind-killer.
9369319
I don't think it's a good idea to make a false equivalence between alt-right rhetoric and stereotypical leftwing tumblr antics. The latter is not nearly as much of a problem in today's society as the former. Equating them is dangerous. That's pretty much why I decided to respond to your initial post.
And nice try trying to brand me as irrational for actually caring about politics as opposed to deciding I'm too good for it.
I think a big part of the problem with LW is that too many people took "politics is the mind-killer" to be a call to be apolitical altogether. As opposed to simply keeping politics out of a discussion that wasn't already political in nature.
And this discussion did start out political, considering it started with someone deciding to use this comment section to bring up alt-right talking points and even using an alt-right meme to dismiss people.