Long Game 85/Anonymous Game 12: Do Kandra Dream of Electric Sparrows?

[Indigo Weasel]

I don't get why a towny would push the general idea of killing more than their preferred kill. I accuse Oxblood Beagle

[Chartreuse Penguin]

1 minute ago, Amber Vulture said:

Kinda want to let the emotional allomancy decide

I just can’t justify letting someone I elim read less than my current vote die because of my unvote

Edited April 26, 2022 by Chartreuse Penguin

[Kasimir he/him]

Night One: Breach of Containment

Whyren’s words were the first stone cast in a still pond. They skipped across the surface, and everywhere, ripples and eddies cut into each other, intersecting, marring each other.

“What do you mean SynthKandra?” This was one of the hired mistrunners, the one who went by the street name of Vulture.

“You mean one of the Faceless Immortals?” demanded Albatross.

Whyren glared at the gathered mistrunners. The last thing he needed was yet another Pathian coming along for the joyride. On the one hand, this was classified information. On the other hand, Sandhya had already made the runners sign a veritable wall of non-disclosure agreements, and—and for a long moment, Whyren had the sinking feeling that old crows were coming home to roost. Old sins long buried but never forgotten. The ghosts haunted you, always. 

You could never get rid of them. The price you paid, for knowledge worth having. Whyren told himself it was worth it, and it had certainly secured his promotion to the senior research position. 

“It was one of the primary research projects being carried out in this facility,” he said. There was that brief, disconcerting flash of recognition in Kesed’s eyes, and for a moment, Whyren thought he felt the ground threaten to give way beneath him. 

Memories, sharp enough to cut. 

 

 

“Harmony has his kandra. Why not make our own? Synthetic beings with the capacity to perfectly imitate their targets, with access to their target’s memories, impulses, and instincts. Synthetic beings programmed with a deep loyalty to the corporation.”

Whyren paged through the display, watching the sector heads carefully for any indication of interest. The response he saw gratified him: most of the research and lab heads looked fascinated. One or two of them looked revolted, but Whyren supposed that was not unusual. There was the occasional Pathian among Heron Industries employees, and talk of creating a shadow of Harmony’s own kandra seemed to sit poorly with them.

Kesed said, “We’ve coined the term SynthKandra to refer to the entities this project proposes to create. This will require deep research expertise in Hemalurgic engineering, as well as the mechanics of identity. We don’t seek to repurpose mistwraiths or to gain access to Harmony’s own kandra.” 

Whyren wondered idly whose benefit that disclaimer was for. Harmony was careful about intervention. This was the only possible explanation for how the megacorps had become so dominant in the Scadrial of the future. 

And then there was Kesed’s own sensibilities. For a while, back when he’d suggested the idea, jokingly, over drinks, Kesed’d hesitated at first, before he’d seen the practicality of it. They needed a research proposal that would interest the sector heads, and industrial espionage and gaining an advantage over the competition was always a strong selling point. On top of that, it was the sort of challenge that Kesed thrived on: something just barely on the edge of possible, and audacious enough for Whyren’s own ambition. But then, for all Kesed was decidedly indifferent, you never really knew, with those Pathians.

They took turns, walking the section heads through the various elements of the proposal. Whyren laid out the various budget concerns, and the resources that they would require. They’d argued over it for long nights: Kesed pointing out that they couldn’t submit a proposal to the section heads without being able to account for and minimise expenses, and Whyren pointing out they needed to be taken seriously and that meant establishing what the project needed instead of cutting it down to size to be run on a shoe-string.

In the end, however, it was obvious. Whyren had offered them an idea too tempting, too interesting to be ignored. Not in this brave new world where megacorps jockeyed and jostled for every single shred of advantage over the competition.

And Kesed had offered them a clear roadmap to achieving it.

“Let’s see what you can do with the funding, Halcyon, Arnkell,” section head Cen said, with a toothy grin. “I think you can consider this project fast-tracked for approval.”

 

 

The SynthKandra project had been a long time ago. Enough time that Kesed had walled the memories away, and compartmentalised them. He knew, of course, that Whyren had continued to work on Project Replicant. It had been their collective pride, their brainchild.

Whyren had been promoted to a senior research position, and the project had snowballed and attracted more funding.

And Kesed…

Kesed had lost his nerve. Burned out. Had a crisis of conscience. Whichever way you wanted to put it. And he’d left, and things had never quite been the same between them again. Maybe that was it. Maybe there was that lingering grudge, because Whyren felt as though Kesed had in some way betrayed him.

Maybe.

“SynthKandra function as normal kandra do,” Whyren was explaining. “They are able to devour and to perfectly imitate their targets. They can also generate bodies if given a suitable template.”

“Fine,” Scorpion bit out. “And how do we kill them, if they’re killing us?”

“Anything can be killed,” Atari said, with quiet assurance. Kesed supposed that for a man sporting body armour he wouldn’t be surprised to find on elite private security forces like Knight Errant, and with a Tekiel Avenger and a plasma blade holstered on each hip, he would’ve felt pretty assured too.

“Of course they can,” Scorpion retorted, heatedly. “But how? And how do we find out if they’ve replaced us? Because I’m not sure if it’s occurred to you, but we’re currently trying to re-secure this facility here, and our egghead tells us that this damned place has suffered a containment breach which means there might be more of them!”

“Someone found out,” Kesed said. He nudged at the corpse with the toe of his boot and swallowed the reflexive discomfort. One thing when Project Replicant was theoretical. Another thing to see the results of years of research lying dead on the floor. “And someone killed it.”

Whyren said, “Most of Project Replicant’s SynthKandra were designed with failsafes.”

Kesed snorted. “Of course there’s failsafes. There’s always failsafes.”

Whyren hesitated. Kesed supposed he would too, in Whyren’s shoes.  If Whyren was telling them the truth, then no matter how many NDAs the mistrunners signed, Heron Industries would probably demand the liquidation of every single one of them. Project Replicant was that important.

Knowing the SynthKandra existed was one thing. Knowing the failsafes built into their design was another.

“There should be an armoury on this level,” Whyren said, at last. From the way his knuckles were white as he clutched his datapad, Kesed knew he wasn’t telling the whole truth. Oh, Whyren, he thought, with a touch of sadness. Years, and he hadn’t changed. Still as readable as ever. “I’d advise securing the armoury before going deeper into the facility.”

“I’ve always wanted to play with some megacorp toys,” Beagle smirked. It didn’t reach his eyes, though.

Whyren glared at him. “The armoury should have shock knives—modelled after the Rosharan pain knife, they carry a non-lethal charge specifically meant to disrupt the neuro-muscular systems of a SynthKandra. Used correctly, the SynthKandra will lose control of the shift for a second.”

Kesed blinked. That was new. He didn’t remember that at all. Then again, he hadn’t worked extensively on that aspect of Project Replicant.

“So we work out they’re SynthKandra from that,” Beagle drawled. “Sweet. Do the knives kill?”

“What part of ‘non-lethal charge’ do you not understand?” Whyren demanded.

“Any knife can kill,” Kesed stated. “You just have to stab hard enough and in the right place.”

Whyren said, “You don’t start.”

“Am I wrong?”

From the way Whyren’s shoulders tensed, the tight, angry line of his mouth, Kesed knew that he wasn’t. Whyren took a deep breath and then said, “The knife won’t kill a SynthKandra. And the shock won’t kill an ordinary person.”

“Good enough for me,” said Beagle, “If disappointing.”

Kesed thought that was rather pushing it, considering the mistrunner crew was armed to the teeth. Probably literally, in some cases. He noticed Vel was watching, but saying nothing. There was another person who bore watching. He thought he noticed Vel keeping an eye on Whyren. Perhaps another plant. 

When it came to Heron Industries, nothing was obvious. Sometimes you had an entire circle of accountability going, with everyone watching everyone else.

“Let’s move out then,” Kesed said. “You heard the man. I want one team to check for the armoury. The other team, you’re with me and Blue Team.”

Whyren raised an eyebrow. To the unasked question, Kesed said, “We may know there is a containment breach but we also know there was a firefight here. I intend to find out exactly what happened here.”

 

 

“I don’t trust you,” Vulture said, point-blank.

Crocodile said, “Oooh, shiny,” and even unflappable Atari had a near heart-attack when Crocodile bent down and scooped up a shock grenade from the ground, the pin still in.

“Please put that away,” Jack Ladrian said. Part of him wondered why he’d agreed to come on this job in the first place. Crocodile seemed an utter chaos demon, he was keeping an eye on Vulture and was certain that Vulture was watching him with just as much wariness, and as much as  he’d taken this job for the same reason he’d taken the one before this, and the one before that, the revelation that the facility had suffered a containment breach and there were possibly more SynthKandra among them seemed to send his senses on high alert.

What would Breeze do? For that matter, Jack felt that Wax wouldn’t have backed down from a challenge like this. 

He felt a brief spike of excitement at the thought. It was as though he was following in his ancestors’ footsteps, after all.

It was what he’d always wanted. Maybe he’d found his shot at it, here and now.

“If we’ve quite finished playing around with how much we distrust each other, I’d like to get back to work.” Atari glanced from Jack to Crocodile, those watchful eyes lingering on Scorpion. 

“I don’t trust you either,” Vulture stated.

“Good,” Atari said. “Now that you’ve gotten that out of your system, shall we?”

He strode on down the corridor with a confidence that would have been arrogance in another runner, but Atari wore it well.

Still, Jack noticed, Atari was very careful not to turn his back to Scorpion.

 

 

No one was terminated!

Quote

Amethyst Scorpion (3): Coral Swan, Magenta Albatross, Oxblood Beagle
Mauve Crocodile (3): Amber Vulture, Azure Mouse, Chartreuse Penguin
Oxblood Beagle (2): Indigo Weasel
Chartreuse Penguin (1): Mauve Crocodile, Salmon Meerkat
Emerald Falcon (1): Amethyst Scorpion
Fuchsia Ostrich (1): Emerald Falcon
Indigo Weasel (1): Charcoal Hyena

The Night has begun! It will end at 0100hrs SGT (GMT+8) on the 28th April, Thursday! PMs remain open!

As always, please refrain from posting until I have reserved the second post.

Edited April 29, 2022 by <kel>

[Kasimir he/him]

Rule Clarifications:

Spoiler

stuff

Player List:

Spoiler

1. @Chartreuse Penguin - Jack Ladrian
2. @Magenta Albatross
3. @Salmon Meerkat - Vel
4. @Mauve Crocodile
5. @Coral Swan - Atari
6. @Melon Dingo - AuRel
7. @Indigo Weasel
8. @Azure Mouse - Hauer
9. @Emerald Falcon
10. @Charcoal Hyena
11. @Oxblood Beagle
12. @Amethyst Scorpion
13. @Fuchsia Ostrich - Cody Eight
14. @Ivory Dragonfly
15. @Amber Vulture

 

[Oxblood Beagle]

So, what was said about the vote manipulations ensuring someone would be exe'd?

And as for why I'd prefer an exe over no exe, it's because now we have far less information to work with than if someone had died. Even if whoever died had been a villager.

So, right now, my top suspicions are Weasel for opposing a D1 exe, and Vulture for actively trying to prevent one.

[Emerald Falcon]

Well, we basically get a new D1 with one less villager. Isn't that wonderful. 

I guess this probably means that there isn't vote manip? Maybe a villager chose not to use their manip, but I would have expected an elim to change it so they can get a kill. Unless both Scorp and Croc are elim.

[Oxblood Beagle]

There was definitely vote manipulations going on. I only have one person voting for me, but have 2 votes.

[Amber Vulture]

Oh for crying out loud

[Emerald Falcon]

Just now, Oxblood Beagle said:

There was definitely vote manipulations going on. I only have one person voting for me, but have 2 votes.

Oh I'm blind. So someone wanted beagle dead and someone wanted penguin protected. 

[Coral Swan]

1 minute ago, Emerald Falcon said:

Oh I'm blind. So someone wanted beagle dead and someone wanted penguin protected. 

Or someone wanted to be able to prove their role by doing a useless Riot, because there was no chance of Beagle or Penguin dying.

[Salmon Meerkat]

@Chartreuse Penguin "I feel this way" is a great way to put players wherever you want without needing to provide details. Certainly people have posted full D1 reads before, but the examples that come to mind immediately are Hyena in AG 8 and Striker in QF 59 as elims.

[Emerald Falcon]

1 minute ago, Coral Swan said:

Or someone wanted to be able to prove their role by doing a useless Riot, because there was no chance of Beagle or Penguin dying.

Not no chance of them dying, but yeah that's another possibility.

[Amber Vulture]

No one should be trying to prove any roles - PM safety is more important than ever because we know the kandra inherit roles. Trying to prove your vote manip role on D1 is confounding to say the least.

[Mauve Crocodile]

Well. Thnx guyyyyss much appreciated for that late train thanks for not killing me you would've probably hated being without PMs the rest of the gaaaaaame :))))))))))))))))

[Emerald Falcon]

4 minutes ago, Mauve Crocodile said:

Well. Thnx guyyyyss much appreciated for that late train thanks for not killing me you would've probably hated being without PMs the rest of the gaaaaaame :))))))))))))))))

Why would you claim auggghughguhguhgguh

One, we don't know you are the only one with that role (if in fact you do have it). 

Two, elims are more likely to attack you now because pms don't help them.

EDIT: meaning getting rid of pms is something elims would want

Edited April 26, 2022 by Emerald Falcon

[Amber Vulture]

6 minutes ago, Mauve Crocodile said:

Well. Thnx guyyyyss much appreciated for that late train thanks for not killing me you would've probably hated being without PMs the rest of the gaaaaaame :))))))))))))))))

Why didn't you vote in self pres despite being online for EoD? Better yet, if you were going to role claim, why wait till after the turn? How does claiming here help anyone? It's almost as if you knew you wouldn't die 

4 minutes ago, Emerald Falcon said:

Why would you claim auggghughguhguhgguh

One, we don't know you are the only one with that role (if in fact you do have it). 

Two, elims are more likely to attack you now because pms don't help them.

EDIT: meaning getting rid of pms is something elims would want

I doubt it. Though they probably have a smaller PoE list now of important roles they might want to usurp. 

[Mauve Crocodile]

7 minutes ago, Amber Vulture said:

Why didn't you vote in self pres despite being online for EoD? Better yet, if you were going to role claim, why wait till after the turn? How does claiming here help anyone? It's almost as if you knew you wouldn't die 

I doubt it. Though they probably have a smaller PoE list now of important roles they might want to usurp. 

Ohhhh i don't know, maybe i was catching up on the thread while also doing work stuff because some of us have real life things we doing and can't spend all day every day on a game :))))))

[Chartreuse Penguin]

1 hour ago, Salmon Meerkat said:

@Chartreuse Penguin "I feel this way" is a great way to put players wherever you want without needing to provide details. Certainly people have posted full D1 reads before, but the examples that come to mind immediately are Hyena in AG 8 and Striker in QF 59 as elims.

Your first post about this seemed to say that you found it suspicious that I had details about everybody, and now it’s suspicious that I don’t have details? Which is it?

A reads list with everybody but not with reasons on everybody is effectively not a readslist with everybody, and indeed I didn’t have anything about some nulls and little about a few other people

Which I guess is your point, but in all honesty I just cpd the player list and went down the line filling it in. Please don’t sus me for effort :P.

47 minutes ago, Emerald Falcon said:

Why would you claim auggghughguhguhgguh

One, we don't know you are the only one with that role (if in fact you do have it). 

Two, elims are more likely to attack you now because pms don't help them.

EDIT: meaning getting rid of pms is something elims would want

Elims like PMs, especially kandras. Roleclaims might be in inherited PMs. PMs offer grounds for manipulation. Plus, I’d be kinda surprised if there was only one Tineye, though I think this is the smallest Tyrianish game I’ve played. I don’t think elims are likely to attack Croc because Croc is either an elim or their misexe potential.

Also remember that a vote manipper could have hit a Smoker.

[Mauve Crocodile]

4 minutes ago, Chartreuse Penguin said:

I don’t think elims are likely to attack Croc

You would know!!!!

[Salmon Meerkat]

5 minutes ago, Chartreuse Penguin said:

Your first post about this seemed to say that you found it suspicious that I had details about everybody, and now it’s suspicious that I don’t have details? Which is it?

That you were able to come up with details for so many people that formed into a coherent tiered reads list. Comparing to

and

with 15 minutes in the day.

[Fuchsia Ostrich]

Wait it's night?

Why didn't anyone die?

[Oxblood Beagle]

1 minute ago, Fuchsia Ostrich said:

Wait it's night?

Why didn't anyone die?

Yes, and because there was a tie on the vote.

[Emerald Falcon]

2 minutes ago, Fuchsia Ostrich said:

Wait it's night?

Why didn't anyone die?

Tie results in no kill

[Fuchsia Ostrich]

Oh, that's a thing.

Well, now I feel bad about not voting.

[Amber Vulture]

Despite me advocating against roleclaims, it has come to my attention that Coral Swan is smoked this cycle because someone's vote manip failed to work on them.