Long Game 24: The Godless City

[Ecthelion III]

1 hour ago, Alvron said:

So, kill both of you so we get new characters?  Consider it done.

You'll get a new character on a planet other than Sel. Aeleus is many things, but a Worldhopper is not one of them.

[Mailliw73]

I'm changing my name to Esheo in light of the circumstances surrounding Day 2. 

[STINK]

The wizened, weathered man was strolling down the street, a smile on his face. Eyes gleaming, he knocked on the door of the nearest inn, looking for a vacant room. Surprisingly enough, someone actually opened the door for him, looking surprised at their own actions. Jumae was used to it by now, after all, he did have some special talents. The innkeeper turned towards him, teeth gleaming, and started to ask about what he could be doing at such a late time before Jumae interrupted him.

“Why does everything in this storming city gleam?”

The Innkeeper shut his mouth, hiding his gleaming teeth from everyone in the room, but it wasn’t enough. One of the customers had gleaming hair, which Jumae took quick notice of.

So it was at that moment that everyone in the Inn got even more confused, when everything became monochrome. Jumae had his finger pointed up in the air, the only colour in the room an orb around his cuticle, going from red to blue to yellow to no other colours, as there were only three Pokemon GO Teams (side-note, watch out for my Pokemon QF coming soon!).

“Now nothing shall gleam in this despairing night!” Jumae exclaimed, reminding everyone that even though the colour had seemingly drained out of reality, there was still sound. Instantly, everyone clamoured to have their thoughts heard.

“But Hearthstone needs it’s colour to fully appeal to it’s audience!” The Innkeeper cried out.

“But my gleaming hair! That took 3 months of Dove™” the customer with the previously-gleaming hair screamed.

“Hey! Who turned the lights off!” Some poor deaf guy screamed out, unable to hear Jumae’s points of wisdom.

Jumae only laughed, or cackled if you thought he was evil. This was only the beginning of what would happen in ‘The Godless City’, and he knew that there was much more to come, he could feel it in his fingers and his toes. With a final flourish, he pointed at the Innkeeper and bellowed out…

“MAKE SURE JOE KNOWS MY CHARACTER NAME IS JUMAE AND NOT STINK!”

Edited July 25, 2016 by STINK
Formatting

[Magestar]

Wow.  That hurt my head.

[Mailliw73]

11 minutes ago, Magestar said:

Wow.  That hurt my head.

-Standard reaction to Stink's posts.

[STINK]

Thanks for the compliments guys

[Amanuensis]

Atop the once gleaming walls of Elantris, a man with skin the color of mahogany and long, flowing locks of snow-white hair wept openly into the sleeve of his billowy robe, its golden sheen hardly radiant in the pallid moonlight. "Aona! Aona! Wherefore art thou, Aona!" he yelled between the sobs that wracked his chest, throat raw and voice cracking with strain. An echo resounded back, reminding him of the poor reflection of his former self he had become. A Vessel he may be, but ever since the day she left him, he was surely an empty one.

Even before he held Honor, Tanavast was an honorable man. His honor then was a gentle thing, not yet twisted by Sorrow and Hatred. He was never much of a fighter, though he thought himself as chivalrous as a knight. The kind of man who would hold a door for a stranger and expect nothing in return, or buy a beggar a drink and offer his ear to hear his woes. For anything more he was often too shy to act; at least until he met Aona.

It was love at first sight. From the moment he laid his eyes on her, he knew she was the woman he had been waiting for his whole life. At that very moment he made a promise to himself: to do anything and everything for her. Whatever it took to make her his. Though his hasty introduction was undoubtedly awkward, she said she thought him cute, and by the grin on her face, he thought it true. That he might truly have a chance. After an era of reflection, he knew now that she never saw him as a someone she could love, but someone she could use. And use him she did.

Adonalsium. Tanavast never wanted any part in that plot, but Aona had him wrapped so tight around her little finger, his mind could not even summon the word no in her presence. And so he committed the ultimate crime: deicide. And how did she repay him? By abandoning him and running away with that dastardly rogue Skai. If he wasn’t such a coward, he would have thrown himself into a chasm right then. Not that Senna would have let him, anyway.

Before the Shattering, Leras’ sister never paid him any mind, but once she took up Cultivation that all changed. She could feel his pain, and by god's grace, she became determined to heal him. His power changed him, too. While she became obsessed with mending the broken, he became obsessed with keeping oaths. Somewhere along the line she ended up falling for him, though he could not reciprocate those feelings. He was much too focused on that first promise he made, now so long ago.

He would do anything and everything for Aona. Whatever it took to make her his. He already helped her kill god. What was one more casualty in a war for love? Only he knew he was not strong enough to face Skai alone. And if Aona ever caught wind of his part in his death, she would certainly never forgive him. And so he made a deal with that devil, Rayse. It was a simple plan. Let Rayse kill Skai, and then just before he could kill her, too, Tanavast would swoop in to save her, like a knight in shining armor, and win her love.

Only Rayse didn’t hold back. Not like he promised. So foolish he was to trust such an inherently evil man to keep his word; let alone one who bore god’s Hatred. He tried to fight him then, but despite the storm raging inside him, he could not defeat him there. And so he fled, clutching a wound at his side that was too big for his hands to close, all the way back to Roshar, to Senna’s embrace, and collapsed. She healed him then - one last time - before she left him too. He was never very good at keeping secrets from her, what with her ability to tell the future so strong. It was a miracle he had kept his plans a secret from her for so long.

That battle had not ended with Rayse unscathed, either. Until then, that man thought himself untouchable. Seething with anger, he searched the Cosmere for Tanavast, destroying everything that dared get in his way. But when he finally found him on Roshar, he did not expect him to be so brave or strong. How ironic it was that Rayse’s betrayal would transform Tanavast into the one man capable of defeating him.

Tanavast could have killed him then, though death was too good a fate for a man like Rayse. Instead he bound him to Braize - a jagged, molten world - and made sure the pain he felt was inflicted on that demon ten-fold. It took him a long time to be satisfied, but once he was, he left for Sel again, his Heralds and their Knights Radiant left to rule in his stead. Stepping out of Sel's Perpendicularity, he could have sworn he heard Aona's voice. But no, that couldn't have been her. She was dead. Shattered, just as Adonalisum was shattered so many lifetimes ago.

Tanavast had only one hope left: to gather the pieces Rayse left of Aona in the world, and with his power put them all back together. Maybe then, with the power that her soul had been devoted to for so long restored, she would be too. It was a faint hope, but it was also the only hope he had left.

Tanavast. Once, he was proud of that name, but after everything that's happened, the name tasted vile. If he wanted to redeem himself, he knew he'd have to take on a new name, a new persona, like Midius the Meddlesome. But what? Honor's Vessel thought long and hard, his once shuddering breath now steady with concentration. Honor... or in the local language, Mai. Now that he thought about it, he could pass as a Korathi Priest. He was devoted enough to Aona, after all, though he would have to get used to calling her Domi. Father Mai. It could work. It even had a kind of ring to it, albeit an ironic one.

A frigid wind blew, prompting Father Mai to rise. It was late, and though he didn't really need sleep, he was mentally and emotionally exhausted. If he were going to play the part of a normal mortal, it would do him good to take on the routine of one. And so he descended along a path down the eastern wall, straight into the heart of the city of Kae, until he happened upon a monochrome inn, oddly devoid of color, and purchased himself a room.

Edited July 28, 2016 by Amanuensis
Removed Father Mai's oath to never help kill again; how could I possibly play this game with an oath like that? :P

[A Joe in the Bush]

Yay! I have WiFi! but only an hour and a half of battery life before I'm dark again. So let's make this quick. Did I miss anyone on this playerlist? If yes, please post again. If no, cool. This game was originally designed with about 27 people in mind, so this number is pretty dang good.

1. Ecthelion III    {Aeleus}
2. Mailliw   (Esheo}
3. Silverblade   {Ryth}
4. Elenion   {Ashkelon}
5. Arraenae   {Anelin}
6. Master Elodin   {Lexicon}
7. The Young Bard   {   }
8. Eolhondras   {Eoltias}
9. Straw   {Straw}
10. Magestar   {James Kailin}
11. Amanuensis   {Father Mai}
12. OrlokTsubodai   {Locke}
13. STINK   {JUMAE}
14. Conquestor   {Lorien}
15. Jaimeleecee   {Janomi}
16. Elbereth   {Liadan}
17. antgrgmn   {   }
18. Wilson   {OG Wilson}
19. Araris Valerian   {Alaraon}
20. TheSilverDragon   {Fiydir}
21. Burnt Spaghetti   {Naara Ghetti}
22. Kipper   {Kipper}
23. Aonar Faileas   {Aoryn Rasiar}
24. Alvron   {Adonai
25. . . .
26. . . .
27. . . .
28. . . .
29. Is Cloudjumper gone for good?

The Game will be starting in about an hour and two days:

Edited July 27, 2016 by The Only Joe

[cloudjumper]

13 minutes ago, The Only Joe said:

 

30. Is Cloudjumper gone for good?

Unfortunately I am. Sorry. I'll be back in the winter. Spring at latest.

[Arrae]

Anelin checked the numbers one more time, dotting each line of work as she checked it. Four other columns of dots ran down the paper, each representing a round of inspection. She was right, as she always was. 

Anelin frowned and dropped her quill. She didn't have enough money to rent a room at an inn for a month. Her greedy pig of a brother had confiscated most of her travel funds to finance his own drinking. While she impressed Iadon, he would entertain himself back in their Deo estates.

Anelin's eyes darkened. I'll pay him back one day, she thought. Meanwhile, she had a lack of money to deal with. She grabbed a piece of paper and listed out necessities for this trip, things that she couldn't cut funding to.

• Food
• Water
• Appearance

Anelin paused at "appearance". She needed to look every part the strong representative of the wealthy family that she was, and she already was at a disadvanatge -- rumor held that Iadon disapproved of females. The least Anelin could do was look clean.

• Housing

Anelin paused again. She couldn't rent a room for a month, but her cousin, Naara, had graciously offered to let her stay in the outskirts of Kae as a stop on her journey to the new capitol. Maybe she'll let me stay a few days more, Anelin thought. That would solve my housing problem neatly.

[Arrae]

I can't edit my posts, so I'll have to double post, unfortunately.

I'll be inactive Wednesday to Thursday afternoon.

[Elenion]

Ashkelon kept his hood up, obscuring his face. Although his Dula features wouldn't have appeared too out-of-place, he concealed them in an attempt to look as imposing as possible, in order to keep any would-be bandits away. He couldn't be robbed... not today, not while he still carried It over his shoulder. He turned and looked at the duffel, making sure that it was still there, even though its sizable weight was assurance enough.

He searched for reputable housing: pick something too rich and he'd make himself a target; pick something too poor and those at the inn might become suspicious if he couldn't act the part. And he couldn't act poor very well: he had lived his life in elegance on a Dula Senator's salary, up until he had traded his previous life for It.

He eventually rejected his previous logic and chose an inn that conspicuously was in monochrome: something that made it stand out from the multicolored street outside. My enemies wouldn't possibly suspect that I'm in the most-easily-found place around, he thought, even though the reasoning exacerbated his headache. He could reason when he wanted to, but he was tired from his travel, especially with It in the bag weighing him down, and the fatigue from the journey had given him a headache.

He walked into the inn, and noted that the inside was as conspicuous as the outside. Reaching into his pocket, he deposited enough coins for exactly one week. He could have paid more, of course, but he decided that it was better for it to be assumed that he didn't have that kind of money. He also didn't leave a tip, that was for personal reasons: he hated the idea of giving someone else more of his money than necessary. He found the idea of tips especially abhorrent.

He lugged his single duffel upstairs and into the room he had been assigned. He immediately pulled down the drapes: an uncovered window was an invitation for thieves, and thieves he hated even more than tips. They were the two T's that he hated: thieves and tips, symbols of corruption, anarchy, and generosity, all of which he hated with a vengeance.

Ashkelon wondered for a second: What will happen to my company? The moneylenders don't know that I've sold out to the syndicate. But he didn't think of that too much: empathy led to generosity, and generosity led to tips and thieves.

He opened the duffel, taking out the few things he'd brought with him. He took out each, examined them, and set them aside. The ledgers of his moneylenders came out first, taken so they would have no proof that there was once anything in the vault. Next was the money from the vault itself, because even though he sold the business to the syndicate, he didn't really count last month's profits as part of that. Third out was a gold-plated crossbow. While it was not very effective, anyone who crossed him didn't know that. Last came It.

He had got It from the syndicate in exchange for selling his business. He had carried the briefcase inside his duffel for most of the trip, and it was It that had made him so paranoid about robbers. He opened one clasp, then another, then a third. He had sold his entire enterprise for It, against the wishes of the stockholders, directors, and the employees themselves.

He opened the briefcase and leaned back as he smelled the money inside.

[Young Bard]

Just so you don't lynch me for acting differently, I'll let you know now that I'm trying to get a lot more RP done in this game. As in, everything that's not 2 minutes before rollover or before I'm leaving a WiFi zone will have RP elements.

Joe, if there's a conversion role this game, would we know if/when they convert someone? (I'd guess there is, mainly because every LG I've played so far has, and it's been strongly implied that there are 2 non-regular alignments.)

EDIT: That probably means I should create my RP character, shouldn't it...

Idom and Areo stared at the figure before them. Areo looked down. "Come, see reason. We only need a little information. You can tell us."

The figure, a man, hunched over nearly to the ground and backed into a corner, shook his head determinedly.

"Come now. You must know the answer. We can help each other here. There's no need to let this carry... further." As he said it, his eyes drifted slowly over to his brother, calmly shaving his nails with a carving knife. "My brother doesn't have the same... sensitivity that I do when it comes to these matters." He looked back down.

"It's ironic really. Idom here is named after mercy and compassion, and yet has none. And yet his brother, Areo, named after retribution, is always the one to attempt to help people." He crouched down, next to the ground. "You don't want him to go near you. This can all end now. Just tell us what we need to know, and we never have to meet again."

The man nearly broke down, but shook his head. Areo sighed. "Idom, try not to get too much blood over your costume this time. We don't want the neighbours to fret." With a sigh, he stood and walked out of the room. The man looked up, and saw a large, bulky silhouette slide over him, carving knife in hand. And then he saw the teeth, gleaming as the man beamed down on him.

A few minutes later, Idom walked back out. "Nothing. The man was too frail to get any information out of."

Areo sighed. "You could have been a bit softer on him. He was our strongest lead."

Idom looked at him. "We tried playing soft. It didn't work. He died.

Slowly, they walked down the pathway. As they passed a rose bush, Idom discreetly opened his palm and let a handful of teeth slide out into the soil. "We will find it."

 

Slowly, the main raised his hand. He tried moving his fingers. His index finger worked. Good. So did his middle finger. something appeared to be wrong with his ring finger - but that was probably overrated anyway. He didn't need it for his research.

Slowly, he dragged himself towards the door. One laborious slide after another, each sending a thousand bursts of pain up through his nerves. He just had to get outside. He just had to get outside. He just had to... He just... get... outside.

After what seemed like an eternity, he reached the door. He grabbed the hat rack, and began to propel himself up, ever so slowly, to reach the knob. One hand after the other, he rose up to the knob, before grabbing it and turning it, releasing the catch. He tried to clamber down slowly, but slipped and landed on the ground. Lifting his hand up, he opened the door the rest of the way, and moved out the door and onto the street. He began to turn, but energy defeated him at this point, as he collapsed on the roadside. Through fuzzy vision, he just managed to see someone hurry up to him. With the last of his strength, he lifted his head up. "...Help..." After that, he fell into blissful unconsciousness, as the man began to lift him up to carry him to help and safety.

Huh. My RP is really cliche past midnight. Also, it ended up a lot darker than I was planning. Weird how that happens.

Edited July 26, 2016 by The Young Bard
RP!!!

[Burnt Spaghetti]

Naara stared at the letter she held in her hands, eye twitching slightly. “Uh oh :).” Her cousin wanted to stay for longer than a day. If she messed with Naara’s patterns... No. She won’t ruin the patterns. If she does i will frown. My patterns. But, depends on which patterns…. If it’s my patterns that's fine, but if it’s my pattern then that's not. Heeehee… Will be fun to observe her patterns though.  Anelin… she’s the number cousin! I bet she’s orderly. Number people often are. Well. 82% of number people i’ve observed follow orderly patterns.  Hmm. Naara folded up the letter into a little paper hat which she placed on her head as she went to find more paper to reply back to her cousin. The first piece of paper she found wasn't the cleanest, but, the few ink splotches there could easily be hidden with some glue and glitter. Don't be stupid. That will make it look like some prissy princess barfed on the paper. Oh come onnnn… glitter is awesome! Doesn't mean you should use it :[ . Pfft totally does :P. No it does not and anywa-put that down. No. Bad Naala. No more glitter. No mo- *sighs*.... oh shut up. I can do what i want *eye roll* you know you could at least pretend that you are a normal boring sane person. Nope. Sanity is boring. I'm not going to bore myself just to listen to what i have to say. I will be as un-sane as i want just to spite myself so there. Naara finished her mental debate with a smug grin and then wrote out a… reasonably sane response to Anelin, stating that she is welcome to stay longer and that it will be such fun having her around. She had a urge to add a few sentences at the bottom, critiquing the irregularity of some of the letter sizes of her handwriting, but somehow, she managed to seal up the letter before she had time to. “Oh well~” And without further ado, she arranged for the letter to be sent.

 

---

So I'm also going to try post rp this game (yay!).

Also i'm not too sure what's going to happen with my activity levels this game. About 60-80% of the time i'll be mobile only so that might affect my activity, and i also am going away on a camp in some… time…. I think in maybe 3 weeks? Or something. But i don't believe it's an internet dead zone. But i'll definitely be less active when that happens.

[Elbereth]

Well, I wasn't going to RP this game. But I may just have to. I'll get at least one post off before I leave tomorrow morning. I'll be back midway through D2, if things go as planned.

Joe, I will note that I'm on your list twice...

[A Joe in the Bush]

11 hours ago, The Young Bard said:

Joe, if there's a conversion role this game, would we know if/when they convert someone? (I'd guess there is, mainly because every LG I've played so far has, and it's been strongly implied that there are 2 non-regular alignments.)

PAGO. Just to be clear, i'm not implying anything. I'm just leaving everything unsaid and therefore possible.

Elbereth, i shall remove your second name on the list.

[Mailliw73]

5 minutes ago, The Only Joe said:

PAGO. Just to be clear, i'm not implying anything. I'm just leaving everything unsaid and therefore possible.

Elbereth, i shall remove your second name on the list.

Play and Goof Out? Play and Green Out? Play and Golf Out? So many options for that G.

[Amanuensis]

Just now, Mailliw73 said:

Play and Goof Out? Play and Green Out? Play and Golf Out? So many options for that G.

I too was struggling to ascertain the meaning of this letter G....

[A Joe in the Bush]

Play and gain omniscience.

[Mailliw73]

1 minute ago, Amanuensis said:

I too was struggling to ascertain the meaning of this letter G....

I guess we have to PAFO what PAGO is. 

Edited July 27, 2016 by Mailliw73

[Mailliw73]

1 minute ago, The Only Joe said:

Play and gain omniscience.

That's a big promise to make. 

[A Joe in the Bush]

I'm not promising I won't immediately spike it out of you.

[Mailliw73]

2 minutes ago, The Only Joe said:

I'm not promising I won't immediately spike it out of you.

I want proof that I had omniscience, for however short of a time.

[A Joe in the Bush]

Aren't you going to be gone?

[Mailliw73]

3 minutes ago, The Only Joe said:

Aren't you going to be gone?

You just said I had to play to gain omniscience. I'll be around till the end of Day 2.