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I love the irony about writing an essay about why essays are stupid. So I wrote a poem instead Essays are stupid, it's true, They're a waste of time, through and through. Why do we have to write them, I ask, When there are so many other tasks? The tedious research and endless citations, The convoluted structure and awkward transitions. Who decided this was a good way to learn, When it's clear it just makes our brains burn? But alas, we must soldier on, For grades and degrees are what we're on. So we'll sit at our desks, pen in hand, Hoping this essay will not be so grand. But let's be real, essays are a drag, A tedious chore that's just a fad. So let's revolt and say no more, To these stupid papers that make us a bore.

Brandon has uploaded the SoS: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2022/ Reading through it now, but anyhow, for those who've been waiting, it's up

QF64 Cycle Six: A Sixth Sense The tenasi Matrim was not having a good day. First, he had his pocket money stolen by some kind of scam artist preying on the Erven district; second, his workload was bigger than ever given the chaos happening in the SDPS – everyone was quitting and dying en masse, and those remaining had to hold everything together with grit and overtime. That was how he’d ended up walking home well past midnight, bleary-eyed and exhausted. He’d considered just sleeping in the office, but he wanted to spend a little bit of time with his family in the morning before going back and spending another fifteen hours in back-to-back meetings. Most on Starsight kept a uniform sleeping schedule, so the streets were desolate, trees swaying ominously in time with the artificial wind. Something felt wrong. He could feel it in his bones. It was like that old saying about a “sixth sense.” He shook off the feeling, continuing onwards. Surely the spies wouldn’t go after him– He felt himself being grabbed from behind, and everything faded to black. *** “It just feels like we’re going in circles!” Winzik said hysterically. “We’ve killed four innocent people and one spy. I… need to flee. I need to get out of Starsight.” “We can’t promise that any potential starship crews we might be able to scrounge up for you won’t be spies,” Faela replied. “If you think being stuck on a station with them is scary, imagine being stuck on a ship! And besides, I believe we’ve found another lead. Rsskisk has a new human that has displayed some… aggressive behavior. We have reason to believe he’s in contact with the UrDail.” “Do it,” Winzik said. The councilman’s pet human wasn’t important, anyway; Winzik reasoned it’d be fine to kill him. “Right away, sir.” ----- Matrim's Dice was killed! They were an SDPS Member! NerdyAarakocra was executed! They were an SDPS Member! Vote Count Nerdy (8): Bookwyrm, TUN, Aman, Mat(t), Kas, Stick, Hael, Insanity Stick (1): Almond Aman (1): Nerdy The turn will end on Friday, December 23 at 9:00 PM PST (12:00 AM EST). Player List

This thread right now:

when 31/43 games on your steam wishlist are on sale because of the winter sale but you're a broke college student i might just do it i'm about to waste so much money

I read the state of the Sanderson... it was great! Knights of Wind and Truth... I wonder what that could mean... mhm...

It’s not really a meme, but I just had this random thought. What if there was an Inquisitor who really liked puns? Like, he’d go up to another Inquisitor, do finger guns and say “Looking sharp.” And everyone’s annoyed by him but somehow he ends up in charge. After a failed mission or whatever he says “We better step up our game before the people start to skaa-ff at us”

I was scrolling through WoB's on Atium, and I noticed this one talking about what happened when Elend burned Atium with duraluminum: The wording of this surprised me, honestly. Elend "spared" Marsh? Considering how that fight was going and that Elend had just burned away all of his Atium, it doesn't seem like he'd have much choice in the matter. Unless Duraluminum Atium allowed him to continue splitting Marsh's Atium shadows, or even bypass Marsh's Atium somehow. He did see "every possible move his enemy could make", so maybe that would've allowed him to react to anything Marsh did, regardless of Atium That last part is just speculation, and is a lot to base off of the possible implications of one WoB from 2008, but the futuresight ability of duraluminum Atium is still very strong. Elend was able to see Preservation's plan, which took Kelsier holding the power of Preservation a while to figure out. Admittedly, Elend did have more information about Preservation's plan, but still. Now, we have this WoB that says electrum could replicate Elend's feat, albeit with more "interference": Of course, without Mistborn to burn duraluminum, this wouldn't be possible. However, hemalurgy exists. As do Nicrobursts. So any Oracle that's friends with a Nicroburst and has enough money to buy electrum can see the future whenever they want. They might not be able to have the same understanding that Elend got, as one of Atium's major effects is increasing the mind's ability to comprehend what it sees, but an F-zinc medallion or metalmind could help with that. With hemalurgy, it would be fairly easy to make Allomancers capable of seeing the future on demand. Any Allomancer with A-duraluminum, A-electrum, and F-zinc should have no problem seeing the future. Now, unless something we haven't seen is preventing this from working, I'd say this places Scadrial on the top of futuresight in the Cosmere, aside from Shards and potentially Wyrn. The Returned get only one glimpse into the future, and they don't even get to keep their memories of it. They see glimpses of the future they've seen in their dreams and in paintings, unless they recover their memories, which doesn't happen often. On Roshar, corrupted Truthwatchers can see the future, but they can't choose when to receive their visions and they only see parts of the future, through paintings. The only futuresight that's been onscreen that could potentially match this (besides a Shards, of course) is Riino the lighthouse keeper's. Kaladin managed to get a glimpse of the future without training, and if training allows one to get better visions, it is possible that it could match boosted-electrum futuresight. However, as that method requires a Highstorm, boosted-electrum futuresight is still superior to it in ease of access, even if it does work just as well in quality of futuresight. So, what do you all think? Is there a reason that electrum futuresight wouldn't work as I think it would? Is Scadrial going to become the new center of futuresight in the Cosmere? Do you think that an Allomancer with A-duraluminum and A-electrum would be able to use the ability in combat as effectively as Atium?

I regret to inform you all that my wife has said Knights of Wind and Truth sounds like Knights of Wind and Toots and is going to be a book about farting.

"I guess I'd better Lutha-deal with these skaa uprisings, haha."

In The Lost Metal, we are introduced to the concept of purified Dor. (I haven't reread Secret History with it in mind, but even if the Ire use it there, I'll call this its introduction. Secret History was more like creeping on it through a window, rather than being properly introduced.) Standard Dor, you have to access through AonDor or some other Invested art from Sel; but purified Dor can be used by TwinSoul or by Armal and the other kidnapped allomancers. It's still Dor (which is why they still call it Dor), but now it's in a form that anybody can ingest it and apply it to their Invested art. Impure Investiture If this is "pure Dor," then what is the impurity in regular Dor? There's some retconning going on right now around atium versus pure atium, and I don't think that's the same situation as Dor versus pure Dor. The impurity in atium is electrum; it manifested in the pits as an alloy of "true atium." I don't think that Dor has a material contaminant, but it's going to be more like a property of the substantial Investiture, why it's only able to be used within the context of its Invested Arts. Think of it like Identity on an unkeyed metalmind. Normally, the Identity associated with that metalmind prevents anybody from accessing it through their Feruchemy. When you strip the Identity off of it, anybody can access it Feruchemically. Now, take that a step back: Investiture like the Dor is inherently tied to its Invested arts, and it can only be accessed through them. I'm going to go out on a limb and call it "Connection to a magic system" up front, and I'll make callbacks to the concept in later sections as it becomes relevant. Pure Investiture has that Connection stripped away from it so that it can be used by anybody, even if they don't have access to the appropriate magic system. This also kind of gets into why Rysn, as a Dawnshard, isn't permitted to bond a spren. She's the flip side of the coin; the Dawnshard allows her to manifest Investiture with dangerous flexibility, so she's not allowed to gain the ability to breathe in Stormlight. Pure Dor, on the other hand, can be used by anybody, but it doesn't do anything on its own. (As far as I know, it doesn't innately heal you like Stormlight does.) But, by the nature of the purified Investiture, it has been stripped free of the "locks" that normally prevent anyone from Investing themselves with it. But is this actually the first time we've seen pure Investiture in the cosmere? Medallions Did you know Brandon alluded to medallions containing pure Investiture six years ago? Relevant portions bolded below There is a parallel between pure Dor and medallions in that you can access it without already being its magic user. There's something special about the piece of Investiture stored in the nicrosil portion of a medallion. (Which is a discrete piece, like what is stored in a coppermind.) So, you've got this piece of Investiture that grants, say, iron Feruchemy and brass Feruchemy. Not only is it unkeyed (no Identity), it is also pure (no Connection to Feruchemy), so anybody is able to tap it. (I don't think it needs to also grant nicrosil Feruchemy, but that's just my gut feel.) But hold up, isn't this getting too complicated? Why put pure Investiture in nicrosil, instead of just doing it to the brass metalmind, for example? That gives you something anyone can tap, but the Bands are more complicated than that. And the weight medallions; you need a medallion anyone can fill. And it also wouldn't let you make allomancy medallions; nothing to tap there. So, practically speaking, you wouldn't be able to replicate all the observed effects without pure Investiture in a nicrosilmind. But beyond that, it also begs the question of the specific mechanism for removing this Connection and whether it could be done to other metalminds, or if the phenomenon can only be accomplished on nicrosilminds. We know how to blank the Identity. But how to remove the Connection? Well, this touches on the mystery of why Feruchemical duralumin (i.e. storing Connection) is relevant to the creation of medallions: I don't have a great handle on exactly how it's relevant yet, but I think it's something a Feruchemist does to themselves while they are in the process of creating a medallion. Because, when you think about it, nicrosil Feruchemy is the only type of Feruchemy where there is no conversion of an attribute into Investiture. For pewter Feruchemy, you can't "purify" your strength, because your physical strength isn't Connected to a Shard. You convert that strength into Investiture and store it in pewter, but then the Investiture is in pewter; if you tap it to manipulate it, it turns right back into strength. But Investiture that you store in nicrosil, you can manipulate it while it's still part of your own spiritweb, and then that purified Investiture can merely be moved out of your soul (or compounded to duplicate it) and placed in nicrosil for anybody else to use. So, a lot of details there. But take a step back and think of the big picture: both pure Dor and medallions are types of magic that anybody can draw on, even if they are not a magic user. I think that's the big takeaway of what pure Investiture is and why it's important to the future of the cosmere. Other pure Investiture Where else have we seen Investiture that can be used by anybody? There's a WoB making a direct parallel between medallions and Honorblades. I think the "same princple" is that they are both pure Investiture; Honor made ten pieces of pure Investiture that anybody could use to Surgebind. Breath is another candidate for inherently pure Investiture. Which would be kind of a revolutionary concept; can you use Breath to power Allomancy without any hoops to jump through? I suspect you can, but the utility of Breath is greater than just using up as an Investiture source (i.e. holding Breath doesn't run out, and it grants you Heightenings). But three things make me wonder in that direction. First is how anybody can be invested by it, same as pure Dor. Second is the mother-of-pearl description it gets, same as the pure Dor. And the last is how it can be transported offworld, made intentionally by Endowment without some of its otherwise-expected Connection. And I think pure Stormlight is where we're heading in the books, with everybody trying to get it off-world. The same WoB I shared for Breath ends with a bit about Stormlight, that it needs to be "refined" before anybody can use it. And Kelsier knows how to purify some forms of Investiture (since he made the Bands of Mourning), but if we ever get the full medallion creation flowchart, I think we'll see that his mechanism for creating the Bands of Mourning and the medallions won't quite work for Stormlight (somehow). They need a new mechanism, one that could work on both Stormlight and on spren. Autonomy? Bonus theory that I came up with while researching purified Investiture. The perpendicularity that Autonomy was creating may have been made through pure Dor, as well. It's described as being visually similar, and it gets used up by allomancers in the exact same way. Combined with two of our Ghostbloods in Rhythm of War being Selish exiles, I'm worried Autonomy has already gone to war with Sel. And won. And now she's got access to all of this purified Dor to use to make perpendicularities, but her adversaries just have little bits and pieces of it that they save in jars. And, out-of-universe, that's the reason Brandon's still saying that Elantris sequels are important to Mistborn Era Three. Because Autonomy is the antagonist for both of them.

Potatoes have eyes, right? So if you hit a potato with a Shardblade, do the eyes burn? Also, normally if you destroy a potato's eyes, it can grow new ones. If you hit a potato with a Shardblade, can it grow new eyes?

Time's up! Stop posting! That means you, Kas.

Hael here's the thing with my no reasoning for yesterday. Honestly I thought I put in reason, I probably didn't but I meant to. It was a lot of the inactivity stuff which was the same as LG91. In that game Xino was an elim, all though they ended up with Aman as a pinch hitter. I really thought that I put more in but my muddled flu brain didn't. So I'm sorry for that. I wasn't trying to do anything. But I really thought I had more reasoning down. Sorry. Also my vote for today is Nerdy. Even before we voted out Xino there was a lot of discussion about how one being village should mean the other is elim. Hopefully that's right. I really need to be getting to bed so hopefully I can get an actual restful night of sleeping in. Good night.

I might post these as I do them, rather than wait to post them all together. Though I may collect them later into one post. Play by Play Vote Tallies Cycle Four For the moment, wary of Mat(t)'s moving his vote around all cycle. Not sure how I feel about Infiinte and Bookwyrm. Yes my comments are contradictory, but if I'm looking for suspicions, there's a world where just following the existing wagon is sus, and there's a world where trying to provide another option is sus. Infinite's is more supicous in general though, given we know Xino was village, so with e!Nerdy, e!Infinite was helping to take heat off their buddy, whereas e!Bookwyrm bussing e!Nerdy seems a weird play. So overall, Mat(t) and Infinite seem the ones to watch, based on this read through of the votes.

I feel like you should know that I saw an advertisement for a Silhouette machine and I was very confused why you were on a sign. I got it eventually. But silhouette capitalized will never not be you!

WE HAVE A STORMLIGHT 5 TITLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! spoilers for the state of the sanderson:

Bro isn't that kind of a big problem with that theory But look. You are E!Stick. Why write a Silver case anyway? If you do that for distancing, surely the logical thing to do is to follow through, and then have Silver agree to respond? He checked the thread at least twice but said nothing. Why would you spend the effort casing a player and then throw it away by not even voting on them? If Silver had shown up as pre-arranged, she could withdraw: even then, in light of Silver's non-response, she could easily say she's uncomfortable leaving it there because it's not productive. And I think something I also wonder: doesn't E!Stick accept the own goal as it is? Suppose you are Village for a moment I know, very big assumption since I have your GM PM and you do not, but work with me here. Does E!Stick talk me off paranoiding on you or trying to construct a more robust E!Mat world? I feel like anything that keeps the Set of Four more viable is good. The thing that has struck me about her play this cycle is how much she's narrowing her own ML options down, by clearing Almond, Insanity, reversing on Nerdy, and so on. Encouraging me to paranoid on you effectively puts us both to brawling and the survivor could plausibly be blamed for any ML. Sure, we're not IC, but we're a distraction and that's good enough. I do feel like a world in which we vote on quieter players is better for E!Stick - I have my guesses about the IC doc, but I feel the fact that a certain profile of player is being targeted may be suggestive of the state of it. Add to the fact we've agreed the Village thing to do is probably to stay as quiet as possible in it. So I feel the fact she is pushing against us resorting to that strategy is a positive sign, potentially. Edited to add: @Szeth_Pancakes was warning us U_U The existence of the Inner Circle was a warning. It was a sign! A sign we would be doomed to spend each cycle running in circles!

That claim was extremely unnecessary tbh but Archer’s was even more unnecessary that entire game was a series of unnecessary suspicious decisions from the elim team I think Stink was the only sane one

I like how this is how I find out the SA 5 title, and no other way. Seems about right for me

Presume it's the JNV Winzik thing? Is it possible to learn this power >> 'Cause ngl I genuinely dfgi how Bev'ika is still a null for me, minus good feels over the JNV Winzik thing and the Silver vote. The other thing I'm struggling with is I'm not computing how much Hael is a gambit player as compared to a strat player. Anyone with a memory sound off but I felt he was the guy on the Sith team most inclined to play it straight unless I'm forgetting something. Gonna open the doc and check again after this. Edited to add: Rerun ideas @Szeth_Pancakes :eyes: Me signing up for this game: Me: "It'll be fun right? We even have confirmed Villagers!" Szeth: "There will be confirmed Villagers." Me: "Excellent, I'll just ID them and-" Szeth: "But you won't know who they are." Me: D:??? Szeth: "In fact if they out themselves, you die and you lose." Me: "What sort of cursed monkey's paw game is this D:" #IncorrectSEQuotes j/k much love Szeth, as much as this is frustrating me.

Sigh. Yeah I know :/ I really haven't felt this lost in a game since MR56 or since Mat was FUDing me uber-hard in QF62 and my brain was melting :/ I am going to need my emotional support Wormmon to handle this :/ Where' Devo for some good sense :/ Oh right they friggin' murdered her :/

Boiled, mashed, or stuck in a stew?

This game is hard.

Tbfh I really don't care. We know I'm not IC and if Orlok clearing lynching me is what it takes, go ahead. Sure, in an ideal world I'd make a compelling defense since that's my job, but in this game, technically it don't really matter if I die because the Elims sure as hell ain't gonna kill me because I'm not IC. Pragmatically, I have felt lost as all frick since the Xino kill, and since last cycle when I came around to the view the kill patterns don't make sense. That's probably a sign I badly need to rethink someone. But who. Rethinking me is good and I encourage you to do it so go ahead ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ At least someone is making more sense of this than I am. FWIW if I'm on at the end and you need me to vote myself to settle a tie, I'll do it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ IDK if it's just the flu (hi, just went down, another reason I don't particularly care to), but I just feel very demoralised and confused by my inability to make sense of the last two cycles. MR56 flashbacks I guess. I'm tired still so I'm not going to do anything extensive here. I'd rather try to see if I can offer better suses. But I'm still disturbed by how much leeway TUN is getting, IMO, for what is essentially a C2 apathy clear. I don't see anything else TUN has done that helps the Village or is Village. Be happy if someone can point me to what I'm missing. It's C5 now. This is obscenely late to have an unhelpful TUN. I'm still on him. I guess maybe I was too quick on Hael but I'm not sure about that one. Because if not Stick, and not Mat, then ok we can flip me. But after me, if you still want a noisy kill, FWIW, I think it has to be Hael. I just do not intuitively feel good about Stick next to Hael tbh and that's the only thing driving the fact I keep coming back to Stick. Sort of "ok if I have to revise, gun to my head, who do I revise on." IDK if this is because bro feelings are blinding me to Hael but that's fine, I can go re-read him in a bit, I have meds and tea, and two hours before I need to get more sleep. FWIW (sorry so many digressions): -I'm not revising Aman. Hardlock Village. -I get all the arguments for Village Stick. I just still am on everything I mentioned C4. But I also still feel her solving orientation and attitude feels fundamentally distinct from her approach in LG91. So IDK. -I am worried I shouldn't lock Mat Village. I know the tunnel is what makes everyone else consider Mat Village. To me, it's still the opening claim. IDK how an Elim makes that. At the same time, I'm not fully sure I feel Stick on his play because I've been quite the opposite for chunks of this game. Potential sniper. -Hael. ...Ok tbh the fact that I actually full null on Hael and the most positive thing I feel he has done is the Silver vote and the JNV-Winzik thing should make me worried I guess. IDK. I guess I could say I should just equal opportunity rethink <Stick, Mat, Hael>. But I also worry I've talked myself into an AG2 trap here to be honest. My problem is I was ok with V reading everyone but I can't see how this works if one of them isn't Evil >> K. So my unextensive replies: Low profile kill isn't my kill pattern. If you think I hid it, you can read through my Elim docs in MR59 and QF59 that I typically subordinate my kills to teammates to hide a distinctive pattern. This means that I would have been letting someone else make the kill decisions, but then you're essentially using someone else's kill patterns to say I'm Evil. You can argue that I IDed Devo and JNV off the IC doc, but I should've been able to recognise if Wiz wasn't IC. If you think I'm that good at IDing people off AG8, and I agree, I'm sorry, Wiz would not have been a snipe from me if I had IC doc access. I would like to think I have far better accuracy than that. So I'm the one who needs it to be explained why I'm still alive, but not you or Hael, both of whom have not been hardcleared as not IC? Really? Killing JNV C1 is harsh, even for me. I like playing with them, and I'm aware they like playing with me. Even if I IDed them as IC, why not give them a cycle or two? They're not going anywhere, and they can always be MLed as well. And...not to be cold, but JNV typically supports me in the thread. If I know they are IC, they can die whenever I kill them. Why would I immediately take off the board a player who is basically more or less guaranteed to be in my corner unless I do something majorly sus? They've said multiple games now that they have a tendency to V!read me, sometimes to their detriment. And if I theorised they were Winz, I'd want that vote manip on my side, holy chull. For that matter, my typical IDing accuracy is known. Why not go one or two weird kills to obscure things before going for the ICs? Again, they're not going anywhere. Why am I not guiding the lynch to IC candidates? What's the point of thread control if you don't even use it? I essentially sat back and shrugged C3 and went for Xino and refused to back Fifth. Why not make a more decisive Silver bus? There's no reason for me to switch between Nerdy and Silver, if both are Evil. I should be indifferent to them. Having at least made an argument for E!Silver and having had none for E!Nerdy, there's no reason for me to vote Nerdy at all. I said they were a null for me, but I'd get more credit having stuck to Silver instead of making that indecisive Nerdy hop. Tbqh I was honest in the thread when I said E!Kas is more careful about any kind of emotion than V!Kas because I have strong lines about emotional manipulation, whereas V me often just feels it and doesn't quash it, and doesn't have a doc/team place to vent into, and sometimes bad things happen like threadbrawls or explosions that I later regret. You can read between the lines in my conversation with Archer in the dead doc in LG91 on self-voting, and I point you back to the fallout and blowback from the AG8 finale where I was one of the players making a strong statement about how you have to be damned careful about it. I would like to invite you to carefully and thoroughly ask if I would, given these known profiles outside of the game, seriously and willingly make a controversial self-vote to try to guilt people into saving me and Village reading me. I would like you to ask if you think E!me would consider the impacts or the fallout after the game, if it was clear that that stunt was just to get a decent Village read and coast through part of the game. I would further like to ask you, and this is one reason why I Village read Aman so hard (sorry Aman), if you think this is a case of a player weaponising his pain to help his team get an advantage and if he would feel happy about winning that way, or any further effects on the community. In a simple sentence; if we can no longer trust players if they say they are not having fun, if the 'tap out' is no longer sacred, SE breaks down. Because we will be incentivised to question that in future, or we will be incentivised to leave. No one wants to keep getting gulled or taking the L. Just from me, I'd rather get C1ed and take the L than be known to do this. Which is where Archer says hard tells are bad and Connie is known to do it - which, sure. But admittedly I don't usually get that button pushed either and had been explicitly planning to play this game softing IC to try to draw a kill. But time wrecks all our plans I guess. Anyway if this line of reasoning makes you feel uncomfortable, feel free to ignore it. But I'm just putting it out there because I think willingly, thoughtfully or otherwise, you are saying E!me functionally decided the win mattered more than my ethics or any knock-on effects on the SE community. Which, ngl, is where I'd be a bit of a psychopath I guess. But honestly I'm cool with a me exe. I haven't felt I've done anything useful beyond that last second vote that cycle, and since I'm sick, I'm just not going to be doing major analysis for the most part, but I'll give what I can for this cycle. I've been living on borrowed time so I'm pretty cool with this.

Thought the exact same thing. I always thought of this as one of the core series of the Cosmere and it now seems to be demoted to a maybe side project. This was surprising.

I'm a bit annoyed that Dragonsteel is now only a maybe, but this is a #firstworldsanderfan problem. I shall just have to find a way to survive it.

RIP Venli

Lita, Hathsin, Mistkeep There was a moment where Lita was certain Laurelai had noticed, and she braced herself for a knowing smile or gentle tease. But then Laurelai slid behind her with a smile, moving to the music easily. There was a slight lapse to her rhythm for one fraction - then the tension in her hands, her fingers, disappeared completely. Lita turned again with a smile, meeting Laurelai’s eyes. The blonde’s face was alight with a happy expression - seemingly genuine. The smile Lita was used to, the one from before the Forgery. That was easy, Lita thought, and the delight lasted all of a moment before she realized how unlikely it would be for her first tentative soothing to cause such a total change in her friend’s demeanor. Keen eyes caught sight of a the small ring of flowers around Laurelai’s finger, and her heart fell. ”I’m going to go get us something to drink,” she said, voice light and easy, not betraying her inner turmoil. “Please do have too much fun without me, that is why we are here.” Lita turned, and only then allowed her eyes to close a bit, allowed herself to feel a sliver of sorrow as she walked through the crowd. It stung, but perhaps Lita had been too optimistic to expect anything else. Her company was now stressful - the problem was Lita herself. Why else would Laurelai have to change herself to be able to spend time with her? She fought off the urge to leave, to simply disappear into the crowd, go home, and do something else. Something relaxing. Her mind strayed to pouring wine, the meditative perfection of a job done to its utmost. Almost, she did leave. But no - that was a step too far. She had come out with Laurelai, and they would finish the evening together. Whatever Laurelai thought of her now, Lita was not about to add to her only friend’s reasons for disliking her company. @Voidus

That SU was a gold mine for out-of-context quotes. "Don't worry, stab wounds never hurt anyone." - @Ranryu "I'm going to hot glue it and then find a way to use it in human sacrifice." - @Ranryu "Worry not; just feed them evergreens." - @Ookla the BlowUpperOfStuff "My waffle sacrificing has granted me abilities beyond your imagining." - @That1Cellist "Yes and strawberry syrup that looks like, smells like, and has the consistency of blood." - @That1Cellist

"Oh, and fact: waffle sacrifices go ten times better with powdered sugar." - @Ookla the BlowUpperOfStuff "Then what have I been doing stabbing people my whole life?" - @Aes Sedai "Waffles are good to eat. Humans are not. That is a distinct difference." - @Ookla the Inverted "If the rabbit sacrificial waffle is made of humans, the rabbits are even more pleased because they love how people taste. The Rabbit Overlords are most dubious and are most enhungered, but if you give them people waffles they will be appeased for longer and bestow upon your their rabbit blessing." - @That1Cellist "Humans and rabbits are very different. It is impossible for the rabbit human waffle to also be a live rabbit. If a human somehow was able to overpower a rabbit (impossible) and offer it as a sacrifice to The Grand Supreme Rulers of All, they would be extremely angered and bring their wrath upon all the inhabitants in this realm not of their kind." - @That1Cellist

I definitely didn't just cut a sizable chunk of my hair out on whim. I totally did not take that hair and braid it into a ring because I went down an internet rabbit hole and thought hair jewelry looked cool. That would be irresponsible of me.

Navani for the win, she's awesome! I actually have a bit of a problem reading Kaladin chapters because I start feeling depressed as well.

QF64 Cycle Five: And All for Five Little Coins Doncie Black had a good life. Everyday, he would wake up in their comfy middle-class home on Starsight Station, put on a hologram, and scam the everloving hell out of people. “Steeeeeep right up!” he yelled to a dione passerby. “Try your skill!” They shook their head and continued on. “Sorry,” they said, drawing their lips into a line - the dione equivalent of a smile. In front of Doncie were three opaque drinking glasses, turned face down and lined up in a row. “Try your skill!” he said again to a passing tenasi. “Only five Supercoins!” The tenasi raised his eyebrows. “What’s in it for me?” “If you win, I’ll pay you back tenfold!” The tenasi narrowed his eyes at Doncie. Was that an expression of skepticism to them? Or trust? He couldn’t remember. “Sure,” he said finally, digging in his wallet and proffering five small, glimmering metal coins to Doncie. Taking the coins, Doncie palmed them, then pretended to slide them under the cup in the middle. “If you can tell me where your coins are, you win.” The tenasi looked confused. “That one…?” He pointed to the cup in the middle. “Sorry, but no.” Doncie lifted the middle cup, revealing empty space inside. The tenasi’s jaw dropped. “How…” Doncie lifted the third cup, at the same time depositing the coins on the table beneath it. “I’ll give you one more shot,” he said coyly, putting the cup back down. Then, he began to switch around the cups, moving faster and faster until the tenasi’s eyes crossed trying to keep track of them. The coins rattled softly against the sides of their cup as Doncie’s hands slowed, then stopped. “Now,” he said, “Where are your coins?” The tenasi pointed to the cup on the left. He was correct, but as Doncie lifted the cup, he swept the coins into his hand. “Nope!” he said, masking the coins’ jingle. The tenasi sighed. “Thanks for playing!” Doncie said. “You’re welcome,” the tenasi replied glumly. The citizens of Starsight were always polite, no matter how much they got screwed over. Doncie hated that. He hated everything about this scudding station. But where else was he supposed to go? Certainly not one of those “human preserves.” The rest of the day was uneventful. Doncie made bank, as he always did. At sunset, he packed up his table – which folded into a small, compact bag, and headed home. He walked inside, shrugging off his jacket and boots. He tapped a few buttons on his wristpad, then looked around furtively. He knew there was no one in his house with him, but it couldn’t hurt to check before he deactivated his hologram. “We know what you’ve done,” a voice hissed behind him. “You… what?!” Doncie turned. A figure wearing all black was silhouetted against his doorway. The figure drew a knife from its belt. “I don’t hurt anyone. I’m not aggressive! What is this?!” “Justice,” said the figure, lunging for him. *** “We did a sweep of the city,” said Faela. “Turns out there was a human posing as a dione street scammer in the Erven district.” “Was?” Winzik replied. “So you…” “No. He was already dead.” ----- xinoehp512 was killed and executed! They were an SDPS Member! Vote Count Xino (5): Aman, Insanity, Kas, Hael, Mat Nerdy (4): Stick, Xino, TUN, Bookwyrm The turn will end on Thursday, December 22 at 9:00 PM PST (12:00 AM EST). If @ExoticAlmond and @NerdyAarakocra do not post today, they will be killed! Player List

1. LOST METAL ARRIVED YESSSSSS 2. Why is everyone trying to murder Santa? Or is it the Lord Ruler?? I can't tell. Can someone please explain what's going on there and why it is in so many people's signatures? ;-;

Well, I think something you might be forgetting is similar to something in Harry Potter where the Muggle prime minister is like "you're so powerful! how could you ever struggle in a war?" and Fudge is like, "well, it's because the other side has magic too." The Fused also have these powers. They're also immortal and have more experience than the budding Radiants. The Radiants are struggling to find the needed people, there aren't enough Radiants and they just got the powers that year, most of them. The Radiants may be powerful, but there are so few of them and they're very inexperienced, as opposed to the millenia-old immortal Fused, who have the same powers, even though it's just one, but they are so much more experienced. Along with that, there's the fact that the characters may have healing powers for their physical wounds, they still have struggles that are more internal, that make these incredibly strong power-wise characters seem vulnerable. Also about your second-to-last paragraph... well... Keep reading. Don't give up yet.

I love how long this exchange went on until Brandon was finally like, "fans, just let it go. It was a just a comment I made once."

Wow, that's a beautiful profile picture!

Yes unfortunately neither of those are narrated by Kramer and Reading. The Warbreaker one I have was narrated by James Yaegashi (was not a fan of his narration). There is a Graphic Audio version which can get expensive and then looks like a newer regular version narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan who I have not listened to before but looks like she gets good reviews. I was not crazy about the narrator for Elantris either but it was better than the original Warbreaker narrator. Easy though to get spoiled with Kramer and Reading!

Glad to see him calling out Audible.

I guess the one issue is: given vote volatility over the past few cycles, do you really gamble with that? It feels to me like you don't put a kill on Xino unless a dead Xino is actually acceptable to you even if volatility happens. While I joke about Stick's "Aman should WGG", and want to leave that aside for the moment: If Xino were just the Elim IC candidate, they should be fine leaving him to get MLed next IMO. The fact they were ok with killing him feels like a suggestion they believed he would no longer be MLed once Nerdy flipped. Edited to add: @Haelbarde, @Amanuensis IMO we only began to entertain more active Elim team members more seriously last cycle. Odds this was meant to draw our attention back to the inactives because only an inactive/low activity member could've 'missed switching the kill'? Edited to add 2: @Matrim's Dice Your thoughts too

Happy birthday!

Why does english break it's own rules so much? It's like it makes the rules just so that it can break them.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday!

Day 0 - Interlude: Prelude for the Straying Stars “Well, some nights I wish that this all would end ‘Cause I could use some friends for a change [...] But I still wake up, I still see your ghost Oh Lord, I’m still not sure what I stand for, oh.” —’Some Nights’, Fun Fallion’s Tears turned on Kast. Perhaps he should have seen it coming. After all, he seemed to know something about the spikes. And one of them had read a novel where one of the detectives was the murderer, and if evil lurked beneath the tired and worn faces of the private investigators, it was surely the surly and bitter Kast Spiers, rather than the charismatic Wyl Sharpe… “Right,” said Wurum. “I’m going to have to stop you right there.” Khas sighed. “Are you storming serious?” he wanted to know. “You wanted a story. I was, mind, under absolutely no obligation to entertain you, but I obliged out of the goodness of my heart—” Wurum held up one finger. “It’s a bad story,” he said, bluntly. And then he held up a second. “I’m not interested in entertaining your martyr complex again.” “It’s my story,” Khas replied. “You asked for a story. You didn’t specify exactly what kind of story you wanted. I wanted something a little dark, a tale of murders in a rural Scadrian village. You said that was fine with you, and now you’ve got exactly what you asked for. I can’t see what reason you could possibly have to object to this.” Wurum stared judgementally at Khas from across the battered table. “I can see every possible reason to object to this. I’ve sampled a broad selection of Alethi literature, and I don’t think I’ve heard anything as appallingly bad before. The private investigators are obviously a thinly-veiled attempt at self-insertion, a hallmark of bad writing if I’ve ever heard one.” Khas dismissed that with a wave of his hand. “Ah yes, your heretical reading pursuits. You ever get worried you’d be strung up if someone caught you actually reading?” Wurum raised an eyebrow. “If anyone ever finds me reading in the safehouse, I’ll have bigger problems than whether reading is the proper pursuit for an Alethi male. In other words, no.” “You’ve got a point there,” Khas admitted. “Don’t I always?” “But,” Khas continued, “What I was really saying was that your pursuit of trashy detective novellas, a couple of adventure books, that forty-book Saucerworld series, and garnishing that selection with a half-hearted read of the Way of Kings is pretty damned heretical, if you ask me.” “No one asked for your opinion.” Khas grinned. “I know. I offer it freely regardless. It’s part of my charm.” “It’s...something,” Wurum said. He sighed and pushed half-heartedly at the assortment of papers on the table. “You still haven’t learned to clean up properly.” Khas shrugged. “I have a lot of side projects,” he said, unrepentant. “I’m currently working on a short paper for submission to Silverlight. Applying Menzi’s ethical framework to the practical problems of working as a Ghostblood operative—” Wurum stared at him, aghast. “You can’t possibly publish that!” he hissed. “Your superior will—” “Gotcha,” Khas smirked. “Had you going there for a bit, didn’t I? No, I understand opsec. Probably a little better than you, even, what with that one time you revealed yourself in a Scadrian village on the first night.” Wurum sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. He felt the beginnings of a headache coming on. “Fine. Get back to your story.” The villagers of Fallion’s Tears turned among themselves. The killer—or killers, as it were—clearly lurked among them, but who could it be? Dr. Aliker turned on Lasalen, the alchemist who had procured far too many ducks than was reasonable for a sane person. After all, what manner of reasonable person would wrangle so many ducks? Clearly, only such a depraved individual would be capable of the horrific murders of Leas Fel and Bartholomew. Meanwhile, Lasalen had quickly stepped up to accuse Dr. Aliker in return. Where had he gotten his medical credentials? Why would a doctor even retire to Fallion’s Tears, if not to hide some dark secrets—perhaps even to practice murder? The cobbler, Marll joined in. According to him, Dr. Aliker was suspicious for jumping so swiftly to accuse Lasalen. Perhaps Dr. Aliker knew more than he was letting on? It was at that point that calamity struck. A seemingly ordinary villager who went by the peculiar name of Obliteration decided for reasons unfathomable to all that evil lurked in the heart of the surly and bitter Kast Speirs. Probably read too many detective novels, like the trashy Scadrian murder-at-a-mansion paperback, Death Comes At The End where the narrator was the killer after all. Of course, his partner, Wyl Sharpe, might have been considered guilty, but Wyl was charismatic, and suspicion seemed to slide off him like water off a duck— “It takes skill,” Wurum interjected. “Well, that and a basic understanding of human psychology.” Khas let out an irritated sigh. “I thought you had decided to let me tell my story?” he asked, pointedly. “I’m regretting it.” “Not as much as I’m regretting letting you in,” said Khas. “You barge into my safehouse, demand to be entertained, and tell me you left your last posting because you were bored—” “Ah, and your story is most certainly not sufficiently entertaining. Check and mate.” Khas’s eyebrows drew together in a frown. “I could tell you that a Shardblade duel broke out,” he said, ominously. “That Kast summoned a Shardblade and fought his way free of the gathered mob, just like in those trashy Blanch novels you used to follow.” “A Shardblade? In a Scadrian murder tale? I think you’re godmodding here. That’s way too overpowered.” “You like Shardblade duels, as I recall. Eighty Splendid Suns was full of them.” “Yes, and it isn’t exactly what I’d consider a prime example of Selish literature,” Wurum retorted. “Your point, being?” Khas heaved a long-suffering sigh. “After imposing yourself on me, and demanding a story, the very least you could do is to hear me out.” “Very well,” Wurum conceded. “Carry on with your tale, then.” Once Obliteration had decided that Kast must be the murderer who was merely pretending to investigate the killings, other voices soon joined in. The storyteller, Variel, recalled that he’d seen Kast at the scene of the crime a few days ago. The fact that Kast was supposed to be investigating Leas Fel’s death seemed to have conveniently eluded him. Perhaps because they’d gone entirely quackers, Lasalen joined in, insisting that if they rid themselves of Kast, there would be no investigation and therefore no more murders. One had to believe Lasalen had a weak grasp of the concept of causation— “What are you storming doing?” Khas snapped. Wurum had been peeling an orange, but at that point, he’d simply lobbed it straight at Khas. Fortunately, Khas’s reflexes saved him, as he snatched it out of the air before impact. “Common decency,” Wurum said, with a shrug. “That pun was awful. Did you know that in Natanatan of old, they used to lob rotten fruit at performers who were doing a seriously sloppy job? No? Well, consider that your free fact of the day.” “You make worse ones,” Khas sneered. “I’m confiscating your orange.” “But what will I throw at you then, if not an orange?” “You’ll figure something out, I’m sure,” Khas said, with a long-suffering sigh. He set down the orange, and Wurum promptly snagged it, even as Khas rescued his papers and shuffled them hurriedly into a stack before harm could come to them. “For the last time, Wurum. Listen to the damned story or get out of my safehouse.” “Fine. When you put it that way…” “I most certainly do. Are you going to behave yourself?” “Under objection and under duress, certainly.” “Well, then.” Nevertheless, others joined in. Roko the Basilisk, who was gazing at a photograph. No, Wurum, don’t you bloody dare. Something about the photograph told Roko that Kast was most likely the villain blighting the benighted village of Fallion’s Tears. Illwei though, hesitated. Was there something suspicious about Obliteration’s insistence that Kast was evil? (The answer, obviously, was yes.) A random bystander joined in, and voiced suspicion of Obliteration. Who would even bear such a name? Clearly, no one with good intentions. Niru, the village’s resident ash watcher took his eyes off Bartholomew’s ashes and the most suspicious ‘Derrick’ who very certainly did not have literal skeletons in his closet to mention half-heartedly that he had no idea what was going on but probably Variel the Storyteller was suspicious. No one had the faintest idea why. As Kast tried to interject and bring some semblance of order and common sense to the mess, Wyl simply stood there and whistled. It was as though he had not a care in the world, especially for the welfare of his business partner— “What is it now,” Khas sighed. “I didn’t say anything,” said Wurum, serenely. “You were thinking it. I know you were. Out with it.” “What if I don’t want to say what I’m thinking anymore? I’m a sensitive person, and you’ve been silencing me so strenuously.” “You expect me to take that seriously?” “Yes?” It was Khas who cracked first. It usually was. “Fine,” he sighed. “I’m sorry for shushing you so aggressively. Please share with the class, Wurum. What exactly is on your mind?” “Have you tried seeing anyone for that PTSD of yours?” Khas blinked. “I have talked with El a couple of times, but I think I’m making good progress?” “I mean, it’s obvious to me that you’re still holding on to a great deal of repressed trauma from those riots on Kholinar, Khas. I don’t think that’s very healthy, frankly.” “It is not trauma, it’s a healthy distrust of you and your motives!” Wurum clucked his tongue disapprovingly. “Exactly. Since when have I had anything except your best interests at heart?” “Pretty sure shooting me with an arrow from a storming Grandbow doesn’t count,” Khas snapped. “Nor does stabbing me five times and leaving me for dead.” “Ah, but I’m on your side now, and you’re not dead, so clearly it worked out for the better. Aren’t you happy? Didn’t I promote your best interests after all?” “God, I hate you.” “The retort of a man who knows he can’t argue with logic,” said Wurum. The last straw was when Tesse Mourn, resident metallurgist, voiced her suspicions of Kast. He’d come to her store to purchase metals a few times, after all, and something about that was innately suspicious. The villagers advanced on Kast, and he most certainly did not pull out a Shardblade. He attempted to defend himself, of course. He wasn’t reckless, and he wasn’t out of his mind. But his reasoned words fell on deaf ears. There was a powerful undercurrent of fear running through Fallion’s Tears, and now that they had determined that Kast was guilty, the villagers could not be dissuaded. He fought back. But he was getting long in the tooth, and his leg had never recovered from that night on duty in Tremredare. And Wyl did not lift a hand to help him, merely watched as they beat his erstwhile partner to death with his own walking cane. “That’s how it ends?” Wurum demanded, incredulously. Khas nodded. “That’s how it ends,” he confirmed. “God, I take it back. This isn’t a bad story, it’s outright awful. Worse than the one with the falling rocks where everyone dies. There’s no sense of plot, nothing. The villagers turn on Kast, he dies, and everything ends. Fade to black. You could’ve just told me that in a single line and saved us all the effort.” “That’s how life is sometimes, isn’t it?” Khas retorted. “Sometimes we make the wrong decision, and everything ends. We trust someone we shouldn’t have, eat the wrong orange—” Wurum’s eyes narrowed as he looked down at the orange he was pulling apart. “Yesterday, one of the recruits made a bad call and was killed by an incipient Skybreaker. Panicked, of course. But these things happen.” “Are you appealing to a tragedy in the organisation to justify your appalling storytelling skills?” “No, I’m saying that you wanted a story, and sometimes, stories are just unsatisfying. That’s just how life is. Art reflects life, and all that. In real life, sometimes the private investigator dies rather than finding out the villain. Sometimes, the innocent are killed, or arrested. Sometimes, the emperor dies of fever rather than conquers the known world, or a famous general is thrown from his Ryshadium and cracks his skull and dies and a kingdom is saved, all entirely by the caprice of chance.” “Don’t you bring your philosophy into this.” “Well, you came to me and asked for a story. If you didn’t want one that was even a little philosophical, maybe you found the wrong man.” “You know, you’ve been insufferable ever since you earned that degree at Silverlight.” “It’s called lifelong learning, Wurum. As I recall, you’re a proponent of it yourself.” “Bah,” scoffed Wurum. “You have far too much time on your hands.” “The privileges of seniority,” said Khas. “As you yourself undoubtedly are aware. So come on then. Show me how it’s done, Master Storyteller. You never did tell me about what happened on Notemos all those years ago. As I recall, we lost an entire cell in practically a week.” Wurum’s eyes narrowed. “Notemos? That entire affair? How did you come to hear of it? You were away on Silverlight finishing up your second degree, as I recall." Khas tapped the side of his nose with a finger. “Sources, old friend. I have my sources. Spill it.” Wurum stretched out his legs and reached for a carafe of water. “Very well then…” he said. “So, our story begins this way: Footsteps on the dusty floor alerted Wurum to the presence of someone else within the room…” Books (1): Danex Danex (1): Maili Experience (1): Experience Kas (5): Order, Striker, Books, Gears, Quinn Order (2): Illwei, Randby Striker (1): Ventyl Kast was a Veteran Private Investigator in Khas's story! Unfortunately, neither the Village nor the Spiked have won this game. The only winner has turned out to be Wurum Heron/Wyrmhero, for offering Khas a thorough tongue-lashing for telling a bad story! And for letting me drag him repeatedly in/into the write-up >> Thanks for playing LG74! You guys have been astonishingly energetic and fun players, and I hope to GM you all sometime again. I'll post GM thoughts on the game format sometime soon, after I finish drowning my sorrows over failing as a GM again with some alcohol.... #MR7 #neverforget #neverforgive #atonement [Lolnope get ready, don't forget your dirty secrets/skeletons, sign-ups close as announced at 2300hrs GMT+8 on Friday, and I aim to get the game up and running an hour after. See you then!]

There is a conversation between them when Syl reveals she's watched other people "being intimate" and when Kaladin tries to think about being with a woman and Syl watching (and I think he imagines her offering suggestions and encouragement), he is thoroughly uncomfortable. Just her being present is unthinkable to him, let alone being involved.