"And there's not really a great way to start that conversation, to tell them 'I'm not actually some radical anarchist, I just play one on TV' - That is the conversation you want to have, I think. Pointing out that - Freedom is you, but she's not all that there is to you, that you are still Lawful at heart."

"That does seem like the way to have the conversation. And like it answers what was previously a slightly puzzling question about my own psychology, which was why I felt vaguely morose that the army hadn't attempted to beat the rebelliousness out of me - I don't think it's necessary and I know I'd hate it, but I'd abide because I in fact want them to be able to treat me the way they treat other people and I want them to know they can do that and that's  - one thing it might look like if they definitely did know. …why are you so good at unentangling my head. When I have to do it by myself it takes hours."

"Well, I'm very clever - too clever for my own good, I've been told - and I find you very interesting and spend a lot of time thinking about you. And of course I'm outside your head looking in, and sometimes that's just a better angle for seeing through the tangles."

Iomedae can't think of a good way to bring up the topic so she decides to just attempt more differentiation between Freedom and Iomedae, and to be more on-task and reserved when being Iomedae, and see if things improve over time.

Also, she'll pick some different churches to pick on. 

Freedom interviews a priest of Cayden Cailean and spends a good chunk of the segment on a rant about the damage alcohol does in terms of addiction and domestic abuse. ("We're against that, obviously. But it's possible to drink responsibly -")

"It's possible for many people to drink responsibly! For addicts, it is often better to quit! Completely! Never go near a bar again! The kindest thing the bartender can do for them is refuse to sell them even a single drink! And if you have addiction in your family, I wouldn't even start. It's possible to do all kinds of reckless and ill-advised things responsibly. But many of the people trying will, in fact, ruin their lives. It doesn't seem decent to me to weave pit traps with spikes at the bottom through all of the fabric of civilization and then point out that you can jump over them, not when we can just go out there and count how many bodies the traps collect each year."

"I wonder," Alfirin says later that night, "Whether you still get the mafia if you do prohibition before there are guns. I guess we don't really have time to run that experiment."

"We really don't but it's tragic that we don't," says Iomedae. "It was a noble experiment even on Earth. …I guess I'd expect Lastwall asked Iomedae some time if it was a good idea. It seems like the kind of thing you'd ask your friendly governing god about, if you had one."

"Might be worth asking again - It might've been a bad idea when people were still relying on alcohol for food preservation and water purification when there's no priest around, and we've got iodine now, and a grain surplus coming next year -"

"Would you be willing to suggest that? I'm trying to not make political comments in strategy meetings, see if this improves matters more than any declarations I could make about how much I am or am not Freedom."

"Mhm. It'll be pretty obvious what inspired me to the thought, but I can still be the one to push it. No aversions whatsoever to playing the big bad anarchist democrat - I think that's a contradiction or something, but no-one else is going to know if you don't tell them."

"Ah, those mad anarchist democrats with their suggestions that you Commune with your goddess on whether now that there are antibacterials, her authoritarian theocracy should ban alcohol."

"Oh you mock me but you know deep down I want to ban alcohol for the good of the brotherhood - nay, sisterhood of all mankind. Be warned, alcohol prohibition is just my foot in the door!"

Alfirin is too delightful. How does she do it. Is being in love always like this or only if you are in love with the objectively best person on the planet. On these and other questions, Iomedae finds she needs to conduct a great deal more research. 

In the strategy meeting she is focused on her production charts and has no political opinions except one glance sideways and smile.

Alfirin can be a very polite troublemaker. She'll wait until all the other business is done before bringing it up.

"If I may suggest one more item? I was moved by Freedom's interview yesterday, to consider the matter of alcohol. Lots of people are moved, by drink, to ruin their lives or the lives of people around them. It's bad for children - makes them grow up stupider, it's bad for pregnant women, it's bad for men who drink too much even if they have the decency and sense not to do anything dangerous while drunk or to hurt anyone else - America tried to ban it once, and I think Lastwall should think about trying too. In America it went badly because it empowered the…thieves' guilds, who became the only places that anyone who was interested could still find wine or liquor. I think Lastwall doesn't have a problem with organized crime, so it might work better here, and of course you have a god who answers questions who can venture an opinion."

"That…seems like an overreaction. And besides, what would people drink?"

"...water?"

"I don't know how it is in America but sometimes the water here in Golarion has sickness in it."

"You can clean water with Iodine, which as it happens can be refined as a byproduct of the process we're using for gunpowder."

"It would lower the number of soldiers getting drunk on duty, a problem which despite our best efforts we've failed to find any other solution to."

"Of course Veena Heliu, who never drinks any wine that hasn't been conjured up by a wizard, thinks we should just ban it in the entire country. It might help a smidge with discipline but it'd be a disaster for morale!"

"Endel."

"...Sorry, Veena."

"All is forgiven."

"I think it would have big enough effects, one way or the other, that we should put it to the Goddess. We still ought to debate whether we think it's a good idea, but not for more than…ten minutes, I think. Anyone else opposed?"