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

[Salmon Meerkat]

1 minute ago, Amethyst Scorpion said:

Honestly i have no clue why you'd think I'm a valid place to look, seeing as I have been spewed clear now by both Falcon and Ostrich in so many ways. And that only makes sense if they're planning to set me up as a convert target.

As in looking at you to make sure you haven't been converted.

[Chartreuse Penguin]

To all the people clarifying why shooting Scorp is a bad idea: Yes, I agree, I didn't think through how e!Ostrich could accuse whoever and I agree that Scorp is village.

[Amethyst Scorpion]

Just now, Salmon Meerkat said:

As in looking at you to make sure you haven't been converted.

you're really saying

"the Elims wouldn't convert them, because we'd expect them to be converted, so we shouldn't expect them to be converted, because the elims wouldn't convert them because they think they-"

lol

[Fuchsia Ostrich]

"Guys, I can explain! Please!! It's all a setup!!"

Cody eyes the other Mistrunners, visibly nervous. This isn't what was supposed to happen. Albatross was supposed to be an escaped experiment, not just some Mistrunner! Why would another Mistrunner demand to know who the source of the intel was? Why would that source of intel lie? Nothing added up.

He reaches for his pistols, only to remember that they've been confiscated. He checks his timepiece and--

---

what do you know? it's openwolf o'clock

In an epic and astonishing plot twist, I am the escaped SynthKandra you are looking for.

hi 

There is, unfortunately, no possibility of me not killing and replacing one of you tonight. But we have some time to chat and make nice before that happens.

The floor is now open to any questions you may (or may not) have. Within reason, I may even try to answer them honestly.

[Chartreuse Penguin]

11 minutes ago, Fuchsia Ostrich said:

The floor is now open to any questions you may (or may not) have. Within reason, I may even try to answer them honestly.

• Are we speaking to OG Falcon, or are you a second kandra?
• How many people do you have as teammates?
• Who are they?
• Why should the coinshot not kill you tonight?
• Favorite color?
• RP writing tips?

[Ivory Dragonfly]

tbh i think the half chance of taking out an open wolfing kandra is worth it

better by far than questioning if theyve been converted

 

wait no

wait yes

kel tells us if it was night kill or not so thats not an issue

[Fuchsia Ostrich]

12 minutes ago, Chartreuse Penguin said:

• Are we speaking to OG Falcon, or are you a second kandra?
• How many people do you have as teammates?
• Who are they?
• Why should the coinshot not kill you tonight?
• Favorite color?
• RP writing tips?

• I am not a second kandra.
• I have three teammates other than myself. Not all of them are kandra.
• I said I would answer truthfully within reason, silly! That said, Amethyst Scorpion is not currently on my team.
• My appeal to any coinshots out there is that they aren't real and can't hurt me. (There is no coinshot.)
• Salmon!
• Uhhh I wouldn't say I'm very good at RP  But for what it's worth I would say experiment! And mostly just keep writing if you can.

[Indigo Weasel]

I wonder if Ostrich claiming scum could be a gambit to try to scare off any sharpshooters if they don't have a way to protect Ostrich. Because claiming scum makes it seem like there's no way for Ostrich to fail a convert.

@Fuchsia Ostrich, why are you so sure that there aren't any coinshots?

Honestly I don't know if it's worth taking any of their answers seriously, because Ostrich is just going to be trying to create as much chaos as possible. But I guess having information to go off of could be helpful later in the game when stuff start to be revealed and we discover if they are just completly lying.

Some more questions.

How many hops does your team have avaliable?

How many of your teamates have roles?

If you have a role, what is it?

[Kasimir]

And time's up. Please have some soothing AoE2 music while waiting.

Will Ostrich live? Will someone become an unwilling co-inhabitant? Find out after the commercial break!

Edited April 30, 2022 by <kel>

[Kasimir]

Day Three: Worth A Shot

Cody Eight and Scorpion had been left in the charge of Weasel and Jack Ladrian. Kesed had figured that with enough eyes on them, they could sort out the matter of Albatross for once and for all.

Albatross though, had proven an unfortunate casualty: a mistrunner through and through. Which meant that one of Cody Eight or Scorpion was lying.

“At least one,” Whyren said, though he struggled to keep pace with him. Kesed hadn’t realised he’d said that aloud.

“Risky for two SynthKandra to lie in concert.”

“Do you think you have a good idea of what a SynthKandra’s risk appetite is like?” Whyren asked sardonically, one eyebrow raised lightly.

“No,” Kesed admitted. “I haven’t even worked out what their plan is. Someone turned them against Heron Industries?” He glanced over at Whyren. Of all people, Whyren should’ve known, should’ve had some inkling. After all, he was the senior researcher working on the project. Kesed had his shot at such responsibilities, years ago. He’d said no.

Whyren laughed, bitterly. “You think another corporation could break their conditioning just like that?” He shook his head. “Project Replicant is extremely valuable. You know this. If some other megacorp—for Penrod Ventures or some other megacorp to have discovered the existence of Project Replicant and managed to so thoroughly sabotage it, it would have to be a colossal failure of security at all levels in this facility. Heads would roll.”

That, his tone suggested, would be an understatement. 

“What then?”

“You’re the lapsed Pathian,” Whyren shrugged, and looked away, but Kesed could tell the movement was not at all natural. There was something here, buried, and for a moment, he almost thought Whyren was resentful. But how could that be right? “You tell me what they want.”

It was an answer that seemed so easy. Far too easy, Kesed thought.

“Freedom?”

Whyren shrugged. “They’re synthetic life-forms, Kesed. We agreed years ago that this is what they were designed for.” His voice had the air of an old argument, one left unfinished. Kesed frowned. He remembered the arguments, but…

But there were gaps. Things he didn’t recall so clearly now, things faded to irrelevance after all these years. He hesitated. Didn’t know if he wanted to remember, or to press on.

“If it were enough, then we wouldn’t be looking at a containment breach, and SynthKandra murdering the teams sent in to secure the facility,” Kesed said.

Whyren shrugged again. “True,” he said.

They lapsed into an uneasy silence for the rest of the walk.

 

 

Cody Eight hadn’t been much of a meal.

The SynthKandra that had ambushed Cody Eight had taken the mistrunner as he strayed from the group. Cody Eight had drifted around a corner, and the SynthKandra had seen weakness, and had struck.

Cody Eight emerged, hid the bones the SynthKandra had been wearing before that—a security officer, a jailer, no one of note—processed Cody Eight’s memories and Identity in its memory banks, and then strolled out to join the others, tugging the Heron hoodie just so.

Cody Eight would’ve worn it with a sloppy devil-may-care attitude, so that was what the SynthKandra-who-was-now-Cody-Eight did, hood slipped over his head. Cody Eight, the SynthKandra was beginning to learn, had definite ideas about how a professional mistrunner looked and behaved, and the SynthKandra slouched and spun his pistols about in his hands just so.

It was laughable, how a little lying here and there confused the mistrunners enough, and left an opening for him to fire the fatal shot.

He knew what he was doing, even if Cody Eight hadn’t. It was a single shot, fired straight from the hip, and it took Albatross precisely in the head.

After that, Kesed’d ordered someone to keep watch over him, and that someone apparently meant both Weasel and Jack Ladrian. “Don’t move,” Jack Ladrian ordered. “Or—”

“Or what, you’ll shoot me?” Cody Eight asked, wryly. He injected just the right amount of confusion into his voice. “C’mon man, you gotta believe me. Seriously, Scorpion told me that this Albatross guy was seriously suspicious. Hit him with a shock knife, even.”

“He’s lying,” Scorpion said, flatly. Scorpion’d agreed to be manacled, and Cody smiled—just ever so slightly—as the electro-cuffs slipped on over his wrists and both mistrunners relaxed visibly.

Never show weakness, thought the SynthKandra.

“Am I?” he asked, lightly. “Funny, that. You told me that you’d checked Albatross out and you thought it was really important that everyone else knew that too.”

“You know,” Scorpion said, “It’s entertaining how much you lie. As though telling them all again and again that I supposedly made you shoot Albatross is supposed to make you look anything other than a filthy SynthKandra—and me look anything but a mistrunner.”

Cody glanced at the timepiece on his wrist and smiled inwardly.

Well, then.

“Well,” said the SynthKandra-who-was-Cody-Eight, “I suppose this was worth a shot. Tell me though—what did you think electro-cuffs would do against a shapeshifter?”

In that moment, the SynthKandra-who-had-been-Cody-Eight moved.

He’d’ve preferred not to lose the bones but there were always ways to improvise. He melted, synthetic flesh peeling back from bone, the manacles dropping to the ground as all of a sudden, they weren’t holding on to anything at all. 

The smoke grenade was hooked onto Jack Ladrian’s belt, in plain sight. All the SynthKandra-who-had-been-Cody-Eight needed was one free hand.

He lunged, yanked off the smoke grenade, pulled the pin, counted, and lobbed it.

Darkness. Everyone coughing in the thick, obscuring smoke.

“Shoot him!” someone shouted, and then was rewarded for it by more coughing in the chemical fog. A gunshot, but no sign of whether they’d hit him.

To add insult to injury, the SynthKandra-that-had-been-Cody-Eight left the bones behind, and slipped away, to find another temporary body to wear, another identity to don.

Perhaps, mused the SynthKandra, the new identity would be…less flamboyant.

 

 

“He took a smoke grenade,” Jack Ladrian finished, “And then we lost him.”

Kesed stared at both of the mistrunners and took a deep breath. And then another. They’d had one of the SynthKandra in custody. And then they’d lost him. So much for that.

Scorpion said, witheringly, “Seeing as I’m not in fact capable of slipping my restraints, unlike that SynthKandra, do you think it’s about time you let me go?”

“Let Scorpion go,” Kesed ordered, and Weasel moved to unlock the electro-cuffs. “Ladrian, comm Atari and Snips. Tell them they won’t be needed here after all, now that the SynthKandra has escaped.”

“At last,” Scorpion muttered, shaking her wrists out and rubbing at them.

“It looks like the SynthKandra are as tenacious as designed,” Whyren said, as though he was commenting on the performance of a research subject, rather than a potential danger to everyone in the facility.

“Not the time, Whyren,” Kesed said, flatly.

“You don’t find it fascinating?”

“My job right now is to keep everyone alive and to end the lockdown. Knowing that we have a containment breach and hostile SynthKandra on hand doesn’t help.” Kesed pinched at the bridge of his nose and tried to think. “We can’t afford to keep losing mistrunners to trying to find shock knives. We’ll have to make do without them and go further in.”

There had to be other caches. Kesed didn’t expect the armoury here to be the only place where shock knives could be obtained.

Whyren shrugged. “You’re in charge, Kesed. I’m just here because I’m supposed to be, apparently.”

“You think I want to be here?”

“I think you’ll do your duty,” Whyren said, as his gaze fixed Kesed in the eye. “Even if it kills you. And I’ll do mine, because it’s where I want to be, and we know how Sandhya and Heron Industries takes to being told no.”

Which was not very well at all.

 

 

Fuchsia Ostrich was killed! He was a SynthKandra Hacker!

Found pinned to a bulletin board near one of the labs:

Spoiler

The Day has begun! It will end on 3rd May, Tuesday, at 0100hrs SGT (GMT+8)! PMs remain open!

Edited May 2, 2022 by <kel>

[Kasimir]

Rule Clarifications:

Spoiler

• Smoking works like a Tyrian Smoker. You can switch that coppercloud off, or extend it to someone else. There is no Smoking someone else without Smoking yourself.

Player List:

Spoiler

1. @Chartreuse Penguin - Jack Ladrian
2. Magenta Albatross - Mistrunner Infiltrator
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 - SynthKandra Field Operative
10. @Charcoal Hyena
11. @Oxblood Beagle
12. @Amethyst Scorpion
13. Fuchsia Ostrich - Cody Eight SynthKandra Hacker
14. @Ivory Dragonfly
15. @Amber Vulture

 

Edited May 2, 2022 by <kel>

[Amber Vulture]

A hacker kek I called it, although I can't say this is what I had in mind when doing so.

[Coral Swan]

Wow, 5 hours and no posts. I feel decently that Weasel has switched up their terminology and playstyle enough between C1 and C2 that there is a reasonable chance that they are who Falcon bounced to. Hopefully the elims have no more jumps, and we haven't lost too much in the way of roles. I suppose it's worth going through D1 to check for Ostrich's interactions, assuming Falcon didn't jump to them. There might not be a third elim, but I wouldn't bet on that unless the elims have another jump (or even 2). 

Edited April 30, 2022 by Coral Swan

[Amber Vulture]

Ivory Dragonfly The jig is up.

[Melon Dingo]

AuRel's mind whirled.

The Cody person wasn't a person. How had he missed it? And where was the not-Cody not-Kandra?

How many of the others were not-Kandras? How many others could he not trust? And who, and what if he was killed and cut apart like that other person, and what would he do, what should he do now? What should he do if all the what-ifs happened? What if a not-Kandra tried to steal him? Should he--- he should. He would drop his bones and leave. He would survive, though he knew Harmony wouldn't be very happy with him. He would try to help from the shadows, but wouldn't show himself. Who could he trust to watch his back? Would anyone trust him to watch theirs?

Groups of two weren't safe. The not-Kandras had gotten people already. Would groups of three work any better? Probably not. Someone else had been a not-Kandra too.

If AuRel went back to the shadows, would the not-Kandra notice him still? They would. Not-Cody was a not-Kandra, and AuRel had made himself very visible to him. Too visible. He couldn't be invisible anymore, not here. Since he couldn't be invisible, he would have to be visible enough that someone would notice if his face was on a not-Kandra wearing his bones.

Unable to hide the insecurity in his voice and the fear in his eyes, he asked "You're Atari, right? I'm Rel, can I stick with you? And can we find a third person and maybe a fourth and maybe we'll still not be safe anyway?"

[Coral Swan]

30 minutes ago, Melon Dingo said:

Unable to hide the insecurity in his voice and the fear in his eyes, he asked "You're Atari, right? I'm Rel, can I stick with you? And can we find a third person and maybe a fourth and maybe we'll still not be safe anyway?"

"Uh, sure. I'll do my best to protect us." Atari's eyes hardened slightly. "But, well, if you're one of them... I'll do what I have to to save the others from you."

[Salmon Meerkat]

2 hours ago, Amber Vulture said:

Ivory Dragonfly The jig is up.

What is this about?

Spoiler

We reconvene with the group just in time to see everyone split up into small teams. “Status report?” Tamara asks of a pair of Mistrunner I do not know.

“Where have you been?” one of them demands. “Never mind, if all four of you are SynthKandra you probably know already. This fellow Cody Eight, a supposed “lone wolf” type up and murdered Albatross out of nowhere and blamed Scorpion for telling him they were a Kandra. We chained them both up for interrogation since we still don’t have any shock knives but some idiot must not have been watching them closely enough because when Snips and Atari came back to question them all they found in Cody’s restraints were discarded bones. That SynthKandra could be anywhere by now and we don’t have time to look because we still have to make it to that security terminal.”

“Acknowledged,” Tamara responded. Then “A pair isn’t good enough unless you can trust each other. Fortunately, we can remedy that.”

“What?” questions the other Mistrunner, backing away from her. I already know what Tamara wants me to do and hasten to comply, putting out my shock knife after dropping my rifle and advancing on the mistrunner.

“What is that? Is that a shock knife? Where did you get that?” asks the mistrunner, now fully panicked.

“A lot of Heron Industries surplus finds its way to those who need it more,” Underscore steps in to answer. This knife is no exception.”

The first mistrunner speaks up. “How do you know it works? If the electric charge isn’t properly calibrated it won’t correctly disrupt the neuro-musculature of a SynthKandra.” Edrena wouldn’t have sent me on this mission with a shock knife that wasn’t properly calibarated, but I can’t tell them that.

“Awfully knowledgeable about the subject, aren’t we?” Tamara observes, saving me from having to come up with an explanation. “Have you found any other shock knives lying around?”

They sigh and offers their left arm to me. “Worth a try ri-owww!” as I stab them. I watch closely but there’s no signs of shifting. Seeing their companion accept the test, the second mistrunner steps up reluctantly instead of trying to run and I stab them too. After a suppressed shriek of pain but no signs of being a Kandra they say, “Well I hope that was fun for you, but we all need to get going. I’m sure there’s lots of other people you’re eager to share that delightful experience with.”

As the two of them walk off, Tamara turns to me. “You were very quick with that knife, Vel.” That’s not a question, so I don’t answer it. “Have you had to use shock knives on people before?”

Now I do have to respond. “Yes, but not for this purpose. I guessed what you expected of me and acted in accordance.”

She frowns. “Why are you basing your decisions on what I expect of you?” I can’t think. I said the wrong thing and now she’s asking more questions and I don’t know how to answer except to tell her that I would do whatever she wanted of me forever but I can’t say that because Edrena’s listening so I just stare at her, blinking randomly in a distribution around fifteen seconds. Through me, Edrena must be staring at the hologram of Jade. I store a reminder to myself to replace Tamara’s figure with Jade’s in all my memories of this mission. After three blink cycles Tamara sighs and addresses me again.

“Do you want someone else to do the knife testing?” ‘Want’ is not a very useful word when applied to me but she’s looking at me closely now and I feel the need to answer her this time. I try to think what response she wants me to give. Then I consider what Edrena would think of me giving away equipment she’d given me.

“No,” I try. I recognize her expression as disappointed so I attempt a better answer. “One of you can take the knife if you want it but I need it back before the mission’s over.” Now she’s looking at me the same way she did after I tested myself with the shock knife. I don’t think that represents a positive emotion because her mouth is tilted down. That must have been the wrong answer too. If no and yes are both incorrect, what is there left to say? I’m saved from having to come up with another answer when Sal interjects.

“If Vel can help me and we acquire the correct materials, we can charge other knives to the same frequency as this one.” He turns to me. “Is that an acceptable compromise? That way the rest of us can perform tests without you having to give up your knife.” Asking for my opinion again. The real question is whether Edrena would care. I imagine how I would portray this moment in a memory. Giving the Terns the ability to make shock knives is beneficial to the current mission and only detrimental if they survive past it, which Edrena expects will not be the case. Possessing shock knives would not stop me from killing them so that should not be a concern for her. I think she will accept this.

“That is acceptable,” I tell Sal.

“Excellent!” he says. I’ve heard there’s a workshop up ahead where we might find supplies.”

“Then let’s go,” Tamara says. “Diamond formation.” Underscore and Sal form up as if they’ve practiced this and I take the fourth position on the left as the four of us head towards the workshop.

 

[Melon Dingo]

3 hours ago, Coral Swan said:

Wow, 5 hours and no posts. I feel decently that Weasel has switched up their terminology and playstyle enough between C1 and C2 that there is a reasonable chance that they are who Falcon bounced to. Hopefully the elims have no more jumps, and we haven't lost too much in the way of roles. I suppose it's worth going through D1 to check for Ostrich's interactions, assuming Falcon didn't jump to them. There might not be a third elim, but I wouldn't bet on that unless the elims have another jump (or even 2). 

C1 Weasel was talking quite a lot about reads and reasoning and gamesolving. C2, he didn't do that at all. When I asked during C2 about why he wasn't doing the solving and reads comments in-thread, he said he liked PMs better and wanted to think things through in PM first. However, during C1 he implied that he felt PMs were more risky, and said he'd heard about pocketing and sounded very cautious about letting PMs affect his reads.

I've asked him if he's talking to others the same way he was talking to me. He hasn't answered yet, so I'm asking the thread now.

What are your interactions with Weasel in PM?

[Ivory Dragonfly]

so either ostrich was right about there not being a coinshot or idk theyre inactive

idk why u dont shoot an openwolfing ostrich otherwise

even if u really had something else u thought was a better bet nobody else died or got attacked

anyways good news im around more from now on

i will be focusing on going through last cycle more

preliminary thoughts are that with a dead village smoker we should maybe look at the fact that swan was smoked during the first cycle according to somebody

also also preliminary thoughts of looking at who was up for vote yesterday before albatross happened

other than scorp bc scorp is most likely fine

those people are vulture penguin dingo

but for now

swan

3 hours ago, Amber Vulture said:

Ivory Dragonfly The jig is up.

so is this a reaction test or what

[Chartreuse Penguin]

Sorry I haven't really been playing this game since it started, I'll do better starting now.

...Starting tomorrow :P.

Thoughts right now are that I'd like @Indigo Weasel to give reads because I don't think they've done so at any point in the game and I don't like that. I do suspect Swan a little bit, I think mostly due to the angles they're pushing being weirdly specific and kind of random, but a reread should help me refine that read. In short I'm alright with both existing trains but I do want to know what Vulture means regarding Dragonfly because I village read Dragonfly right now.

[Amber Vulture]

12 hours ago, Melon Dingo said:

he said he liked PMs better and wanted to think things through in PM first

Has Weasel been talking in PMs with anyone else? I was the one to start a one-on-one PM with Weasel last cycle and they haven’t talked at all apart from answering my questions (that aren’t really game-related). C1!Weasel showed interest in solving the game in the group PM between me, Falcon and them.

12 hours ago, Chartreuse Penguin said:

I do suspect Swan a little bit, I think mostly due to the angles they're pushing being weirdly specific and kind of random

For what it’s worth, I brought up the Weasel allegation to Swan in PMs last night turn so it’s not entirely out of the blue. But I’d like to hear your thoughts on Swan after your reread regardless.

12 hours ago, Ivory Dragonfly said:

so is this a reaction test or what

No, I simply lacked the motivation required to type up a case for a dead thread. 
You admitted earlier that you would have broken the tie against Scorp in the D1 exe, so why didn’t you? 

Edited May 1, 2022 by Amber Vulture
Autocorrect completely changed a word

[Indigo Weasel]

I wonder if nobody actually read my post from the second day because it was so long? It's on this page:

Life has been rough, but I'm going to start working on revising my reads when I have more time later today.

[Coral Swan]

1 hour ago, Indigo Weasel said:

I wonder if nobody actually read my post from the second day because it was so long? It's on this page:

This is the post that Vulture flagged as being pretty different tonally from your D1 content (and I agree, hence my vote). 

[Indigo Weasel]

36 minutes ago, Coral Swan said:

This is the post that Vulture flagged as being pretty different tonally from your D1 content (and I agree, hence my vote). 

That was to Penguin and Dingo who said that I didn't give reads after the first day or not. And yeah in case ya'll haven't figured it out yet, I'm not actually new to the site...

Which is why that big post sounded different because I was letting the real me slip through.

[Coral Swan]

12 minutes ago, Indigo Weasel said:

And yeah in case ya'll haven't figured it out yet, I'm not actually new to the site...

Which is why that big post sounded different because I was letting the real me slip through.

Fortunately, this is an AN, so we have no way of knowing whether this is an honest claim or not . My vote is gonna stick at least until your reads list. And even if you were clean D2, you might not be now.