Long Game 97: Midnight Whimsy

[Szeth_Pancakes he/him]

That's the end of the turn! Hands off your bakes.

[Szeth_Pancakes he/him]

Congratulations! You broke the loop. Keep doing what you're doing (꒪ω꒪υ)

LG97 Night Three: I Think There's Been a Glitch

One week ago

Cochalis felt… odd. Something was off. Something was off. Something was–

His mind unraveled, twisting in on itself, the Narrative fracturing, all he could see was the Floral’s sickening, wide grin, all he could see, grin, sickening, Floral–

“Hey. Snap out of it,” said the Floral’s voice from the other side of the table. Cochalis woke up, though he wondered if he’d truly been asleep.

“Do you ever get the feeling…” Cochalis asked hesitantly, “that you didn’t exist before today?”

“You’re catching on.” The Floral laughed mirthlessly. “Now, the reason I called you here is because you have an extremely high base amount of Investiture. So much that you’re beginning to sense the fabric of what I call the Narrative.”

“What do you mean?”

“I said I was going to show you, didn’t I?” He had, hadn’t he? For some reason, the earlier part of their conversation seemed like it had taken place ages ago. “Follow me.” The Floral got up from the table, motioning for Cochalis to do the same.

The two of them walked back through the hallway, the incandescent lighting dancing eerily across their faces. Didn’t there used to be stained-glass windows here? thought Cochalis vaguely. Something was off. Something was off. Something–

***

Perched regally on his branch, Whamsy surveyed his Shardic territory. Right now, it included two birds, performing an intricate dance in the air in front of him, and a few tree-snakes, their slender, sticky bodies slowly inching across the bark of his perch.

What had he been doing again? Oh, yeah: he’d been working on forming his Perpendicularity. He concentrated really, really hard, his mind entering the Cognitive Realm and pushing on the boundary between the two worlds. He let out a frustrated noise, pushing against his branch as leverage. It bent beneath his considerable Shardic weight, then snapped in two.

This is fine, thought Whamsy. He’d just use his powers to stop himself before–

Despite his name, the sound Whamsy made as he collided with the dry ground was more of a splat.

------------

VC:

Szeth (1): Frustration

Matrim (1): Araris

Araris (2): Matrim, JNV

***

Araris was executed! He was Not Affected!

The turn ends at 5:30 PM PDT on Thursday, October 19.

Players:

Spoiler

1. @The Known Novel - Cain Abbel
2. Experience: Not Affected
3. @Matrim's Dice
4. Araris Valerian - Whamsy, who ran into a wall really hard one day, “WHAM!” and now thinks he’s a shard: Not Affected
5. @Aeoryi - AMBITION, who ran into a wall really hard one day and now believes she is a shard.
6. DeTess (removed): Not Affected
7. Devotary of Spontaneity - Calephor, a Mage of House Azalea: Not Affected
8. Archer - Aschu the Blessed: Non-Affected Fighter
9. @JNV - Jellin
10. @Mark IV - Mark
11. @Frustration
12. @STINK

 

Edited October 19, 2023 by Szeth_Pancakes

[Aeoryi she/her]

3 minutes ago, Szeth_Pancakes said:

Congratulations! You broke the loop. Keep doing what you're doing (꒪ω꒪υ)

LG97 Night Three: I Think There's Been a Glitch

One week ago

Cochalis felt… odd. Something was off. Something was off. Something was–

His mind unraveled, twisting in on itself, the Narrative fracturing, all he could see was the Floral’s sickening, wide grin, all he could see, grin, sickening, Floral–

“Hey. Snap out of it,” said the Floral’s voice from the other side of the table. Cochalis woke up, though he wondered if he’d truly been asleep.

“Do you ever get the feeling…” Cochalis asked hesitantly, “that you didn’t exist before today?”

“You’re catching on.” The Floral laughed mirthlessly. “Now, the reason I called you here is because you have an extremely high base amount of Investiture. So much that you’re beginning to sense the fabric of what I call the Narrative.”

“What do you mean?”

“I said I was going to show you, didn’t I?” He had, hadn’t he? For some reason, the earlier part of their conversation seemed like it had taken place ages ago. “Follow me.” The Floral got up from the table, motioning for Cochalis to do the same.

The two of them walked back through the hallway, the incandescent lighting dancing eerily across their faces. Didn’t there used to be stained-glass windows here? thought Cochalis vaguely. Something was off. Something was off. Something–

***

Perched regally on his branch, Whamsy surveyed his Shardic territory. Right now, it included two birds, performing an intricate dance in the air in front of him, and a few tree-snakes, their slender, sticky bodies slowly inching across the bark of his perch.

What had he been doing again? Oh, yeah: he’d been working on forming his Perpendicularity. He concentrated really, really hard, his mind entering the Cognitive Realm and pushing on the boundary between the two worlds. He let out a frustrated noise, pushing against his branch as leverage. It bent beneath his considerable Shardic weight, then snapped in two.

This is fine, thought Whamsy. He’d just use his powers to stop himself before–

Despite his name, the sound Whamsy made as he collided with the dry ground was more of a splat.

------------

VC:

Szeth (1): Frustration

Matrim (1): Araris

Araris (2): Matrim, JNV

***

Araris was executed! He was Not Affected!

The turn ends at 5:30 PM PDT on Thursday, October 19.

Players:

  Reveal hidden contents

1. @The Known Novel - Cain Abbel
2. Experience: Not Affected
3. @Matrim's Dice
4. Araris Valerian - Whamsy, who ran into a wall really hard one day, “WHAM!” and now thinks he’s a shard: Not Affected
5. @Aeoryi - AMBITION, who ran into a wall really hard one day and now believes she is a shard.
6. DeTess (removed): Not Affected
7. Devotary of Spontaneity - Calephor, a Mage of House Azalea: Not Affected
8. Archer - Aschu the Blessed: Non-Affected Fighter
9. @JNV - Jellin
10. @Mark IV - Mark
11. @Frustration
12. @STINK

 

Look at the tags: don't trust the GM

@Araris Valerian are you dead

I don't know what we did.

Stuff we did differently the last cycle:

Spoiler

1. RP actually happened. Remember, RP driven play is encouraged

2. TKN was not up for Exe that D3 version

3. We didn't trust the GM

4. Days were shortened to 24hr (from 48)

Okay. Mat is immediately suspect for pushing Araris' death.

If there are three elims, it's GG for them if the NK goes through.

If there are two elims, then we get to have exeLo

TKN's NK role is immediately useless to us since it'll be useless by Exlo- if it happens

Frustration, how many investitures do you have?

Also, the writeup mentions a dude with a whole lot of investiture. This seems like a red herring, since the tags and the D3v3 writeup say "Don't trust the GM"

I might complaint flag frustration.

 

[Mat he/him]

Sighhhhhh sorry @Araris Valerian, I hope my case made sense at least, but I guess I'm just not actually good at this game >> laugh all you want tbh

On my way home it occurred to me that e!Araris wouldn't have been exed with that little resistance today (whereas D3.2 I could have seen it) but the resignation and silence today should have been a clue ig. Idk smh. By then it was too late.

I will say that if the three elims are TKN/Frustration/Stink I might quit, like that would be so absolutely uncool I can't even

Hopefully that's not what's happening.

31 minutes ago, Aeoryi said:

1. RP actually happened. Remember, RP driven play is encouraged

2. TKN was not up for Exe that D3 version

3. We didn't trust the GM

4. Days were shortened to 24hr (from 48)

The only one of these that's possible for changing it imo is 1, because 2 is too arbitrary, 3 isn't measurable, and Szeth didn't even know about 4 beforehand. But I think it's much more likely that 3 D3s was a predetermined thing that had nothing to do with anything we did in thread.

32 minutes ago, Aeoryi said:

Okay. Mat is immediately suspect for pushing Araris' death.

That's a quite shortsighted way to think about it. You gotta look at my entire play, and you can't ignore the work I've tried to do around this game. I still think my case was good, even if it was wrong. At least I made one. At least I'm trying ;-;

36 minutes ago, Aeoryi said:

Also, the writeup mentions a dude with a whole lot of investiture. This seems like a red herring, since the tags and the D3v3 writeup say "Don't trust the GM"

I have never played a game where the writeup has hidden info about the gamestate. That's just not a thing.

I think part of the problem here is that we play past each other because we have such different views on how this game should be played lol

[Mark IV he/him]

Hey, if it was RP that drove the turn forward (the mention of Narrative in the Write-up makes me agree with this theory), then we could just not RP right now and complain someone out instead. That's withhold the NK from the elims in an otherwise dicey N3, no?

 

Thoughts?

[Mat he/him]

I don’t think anyone RPd the previous nights. Haven’t checked though.

[Aeoryi she/her]

27 minutes ago, Mark IV said:

Hey, if it was RP that drove the turn forward (the mention of Narrative in the Write-up makes me agree with this theory), then we could just not RP right now and complain someone out instead. That's withhold the NK from the elims in an otherwise dicey N3, no?

 

Thoughts?

Oooh... good point.

Although if anyone RPs then we have to complaint them out. Village, please do not RP. 

24 minutes ago, Matrim's Dice said:

I don’t think anyone RPd the previous nights. Haven’t checked though.

Maybe N1 (devo probably). Although RP being used as a time mechanic is honestly really cool. Makes sense with the complaints, putting pressure on both sides to not just sit back and not rp.

N2 is probably a no. So maybe it just affects the next turn? 

Also, cool stuff to notice:

2 Elims seems more reasonable than 3 with such ... unconventional mechanics.So we probably have ExLo D4. Unless we complaint out elims early or something.

I am going to complaint kill frusteration this night

Honestly, I have no obvious elim reads. Slight e's on Mat and TKN. If the Elims are busy laughing at us, well played. 

[Mat he/him]

11 minutes ago, Aeoryi said:

Unless we complaint out elims early or something.

I am going to complaint kill frusteration this night

irony alert lolllololol

honestly don’t care anymore though, feeling disheartened about my play because it appears I cannot village anymore

I mean I never was great at it but I feel like I used to be able to read with any accuracy at all.

Also there’s just no way the RPing is a real thing like absolutely no chance that’s affecting anything

[Aeoryi she/her]

3 minutes ago, Matrim's Dice said:

irony alert lolllololol

honestly don’t care anymore though, feeling disheartened about my play because it appears I cannot village anymore

I mean I never was great at it but I feel like I used to be able to read with any accuracy at all.

Also there’s just no way the RPing is a real thing like absolutely no chance that’s affecting anything

dont blame man rp vry important part of se without it this wld just be some random sub cat on the fgrs so b happy 

u cant b bad at v cuz it requires geniuity so if u say anything at least ur bing urself and ppl wont hate u so b happy

bsides bing v is not too hard imo just vote on person who is sus and kill them have reason explain reason

i mean if u dont car just take a brek and come back or dont but either 1 is chill

also i would mske this longer but my mouth is hurting like damnation so sorry cant do anything about it so yeah i also mightta cost v the w so it may be my fault if v loses

oh crem okay time to leve

[Mat he/him]

1 hour ago, Aeoryi said:

bsides bing v is not too hard imo just vote on person who is sus and kill them have reason explain reason

Funny that you say this and still say you suspect me tbh

[Aeoryi she/her]

27 minutes ago, Matrim's Dice said:

Funny that you say this and still say you suspect me tbh

i mean ive nvr played a conversion or a game as elim so this is my 2nd time being village which is good and raison is that mat was being voted upon by a cv and that cv ends up dying after being constantly voted upon by dice and even then the die denies being evil and is good instead apparantly uh look its not for good reasons its cus my top suspects shiv dramatically when the othe stuff happen sso yeah that chill i mean i cannot unsuspect u if thats what you're sking so sorry i dont see what u wnt me to do 4 u idk this is prrob nk lo for v so yeah sure yeah

 

[Mark IV he/him]

6 hours ago, Matrim's Dice said:

honestly don’t care anymore though, feeling disheartened about my play because it appears I cannot village anymore

I feel like you're Village.

Better not say anything yet, honestly. If you're elim, then this is really good play because the only reason I have right now to suspect you is that the elim team looks terribly unbalanced otherwise. Which is not a reason I'm taking seriously at this point.

Idk what's going on, but 3/3 lynches with no elim flips, no leads would usually make me think the elims are really good at this.

BUT this is a blackout game, so I'm more keen on betting that we're not using some mechanic(s) that we ought to *nudge nudge, wink wink*. 

In my current position, the only effective actions I can take are:

1. Gather investiture
2. Pass investiture
3. If I have a mage role, then I can use my ability
4. PM someone
5. Complain at someone (but my charge is exhausted rn)
6. Vote for someone (only in day turns, not rn)
7. RP to advance the cycle (maybe, not confirmed)
8. Ask the GM questions?
9. Something to do with items? I don't have one, and I've heard other people haven't been able to do anything with them.

Either the solution lies in these actions, or it's something we haven't tried yet. 

Personally, I haven't passed investiture yet either. Has anyone else passed investiture? Does it have any side effects?

Has anyone else done anything not in this list that might have had any effects?

 

6 hours ago, Matrim's Dice said:

Also there’s just no way the RPing is a real thing like absolutely no chance that’s affecting anything

I'd actually like to test it out by not having any RP this turn, then seeing if it repeats, then having RP if it does. 

I usually don't RP cause I'm bad at it, but I can try, if it's to advance the game.

6 hours ago, Aeoryi said:

dont blame man rp vry important part of se without it this wld just be some random sub cat on the fgrs so b happy 

It's not been a constant of SE, from what I recall. Early SE was full of RP (say, until LG 20, maybe?) But later SE had some games with almost 0 RP. Didn't make it any less fun for me, but I'd wager there's people who were at least mildly disappointed by the meta change. 

Edited October 19, 2023 by Mark IV

[Mat he/him]

6 hours ago, Mark IV said:

Idk what's going on, but 3/3 lynches with no elim flips, no leads would usually make me think the elims are really good at this.

The frustrating thing for me is that you are the only elim I’d be cool with describing that way. Everyone else is just too inactive. A good elim doesn’t flake, a good elim is active and trusted. There’s a difference there imo

edit: Oh also Aeoryi I’d definitely say that too but I just think they’re village lol

Edited October 19, 2023 by Matrim's Dice

[JNV]

Honestly I wouldnt be surrprised if 3 D3s were just the GM tormenting us while we run around like that pigeon box experiment about the food and rituals and all that  it seems in character anyway the wording of Affected wincon as the cannot be defeated bit like possibly gives me hope cause like maybe theres osme hidden mechainsm thatll change things at the final hour but honestly Ive got no idea about anything and I kinda feel like were all just grasping at straws anyway I guess someone can drop a complaint on Frustration to possibly avert an instant loss tonight if theyre evil theyre at two anyway I was going to make the ordered kill list from last turns engagement activity but it ended up as basically all the low actives are tied and all the high actives are tied but lower down so yeah the only thing I feel sure about is Aeoryi village

[STINK he/him]

JNV would you like some punctuation while I'm off to the shops

[Mark IV he/him]

1 hour ago, STINK said:

JNV would you like some punctuation while I'm off to the shops

I got some spare laying around:

....,,??!!.?.,"..",,,,*&(((!?!)))

Enjoy

4 hours ago, Matrim's Dice said:

The frustrating thing for me is that you are the only elim I’d be cool with describing that way.

Touché.

Except I don't think you've ever seen my elim play. It's ... not the best. At least, it wasn't the last time I was an elim. But that was almost half a decade ago, at least.

 

Here's an idea: how about we just vote everyone out. At least we'll find out what's happening once we get to the other side, hopefully. 

Jk

I don't even know what direction of discussion to pursue at this point. Feels like everyone's talking past each other, mostly because there's nothing concrete to talk about. 

@STINK you intend to complain at anyone?

[Mat he/him]

49 minutes ago, Mark IV said:

Touché.

Except I don't think you've ever seen my elim play. It's ... not the best. At least, it wasn't the last time I was an elim. But that was almost half a decade ago, at least.

I just mean that you’re the only other player being active and making reads. Thanks :P.

[Frustration he/him]

2 hours ago, Matrim's Dice said:

I just mean that you’re the only other player being active and making reads. Thanks :P.

Well there's not exactly a lot to make reads on.

Though I will say looking at the "alive" players I don't think many of them have even voted. Not sure what that says but it's an observation.

[Mat he/him]

1 hour ago, Frustration said:

Well there's not exactly a lot to make reads on.

Though I will say looking at the "alive" players I don't think many of them have even voted. Not sure what that says but it's an observation.

I wonder why. Maybe because no one is voting. Or posting. Wonder what we could do about that

(Please don’t read that as passive aggressive, it’s not meant to be, but the irony here is funny to me)

That’s why I keep begging for you three to pick it up. I can’t make reads when there’s nothing to read, and the game becomes unwinnable because I need to vote somewhere, and I start seeing shadows in situations like Araris.

[Szeth_Pancakes he/him]

Whoops — turn was over 14 minutes ago! That’s it.

[Szeth_Pancakes he/him]

LG97 Day Four: Bloodshed, Crimson Clover

Ka-crack.

The sound came from the floor below Matrim. Odd- there shouldn’t have been anyone down there this late. The dorms (which weren’t, of course, officially called dorms; most of House Peony was composed of University graduates, and the name had carried over) were located on the top floor of the House, and the curfew was strictly enforced.

It was probably a fellow scion sneaking out for a midnight rendezvous with a lover in another House. Nonetheless, it was with some amount of trepidation that he descended the stairs, flashlight clutched in hand. He’d heard stories of scions on night duty being murdered by members of rival houses: so as to not befall the same fate, he clutched the hilt of his rapier, ready to draw it out of his scabbard at a moment’s notice if need be.

Thunk, he heard as he reached the hallway at the bottom of the stairs, wriggling his toes nervously in the soil-covered floor. “Who’s there?” he asserted loudly. 

One of the doors began to make a strange creaking noise. He walked closer to investigate, readying his sword as the door caved in with a massive crunch. It took his mind a few seconds to process the… thing that emerged.

It had dozens of long, angular, pointed legs, poking out from a bulbous body. Its purple, slimy skin emitted a putrescent odor; rot and decay filled Mat’s nose as he dropped his weapon in shock. It bared its teeth, long and sharp, and began crawling towards him at an alarming speed.

Mat’s survival instincts kicked in, his heart pumping, adrenaline filling his body, and he ran down the hallway, the monster easily gaining on him. As he ran, one of its claws reached out and speared him elegantly through the abdomen. He fell to the ground, shaking, blood leaking out of his stomach and snaking up his throat, choking him as he died.

------------

Matrim's Dice has been killed! He was a Non-Affected Protector.

The turn ends at 7:00 PM PDT on Saturday, October 21. [I have a previously-scheduled thing at the normal time.]

Players:

Spoiler

1. @The Known Novel - Cain Abbel
2. Experience: Not Affected
3. Matrim's Dice: Non-Affected Protector
4. Araris Valerian - Whamsy, who ran into a wall really hard one day, “WHAM!” and now thinks he’s a shard: Not Affected
5. @Aeoryi - AMBITION, who ran into a wall really hard one day and now believes she is a shard.
6. DeTess (removed): Not Affected
7. Devotary of Spontaneity - Calephor, a Mage of House Azalea: Not Affected
8. Archer - Aschu the Blessed: Non-Affected Fighter
9. @JNV - Jellin
10. @Mark IV - Mark
11. @Frustration
12. @STINK

 

Edited October 20, 2023 by Szeth_Pancakes

[Mark IV he/him]

So, clearly, it wasn't RP driving the cycle forward. Phew. At least, that was the case for the night turn. 

Mat! Noooo! 

Okay, for the sake of sanity, I'm gonna assume this is a normal game in terms of the actions available to me. 

In terms of my reads:

Village: Mark, Aeoryi

Neutral: JNV, Stink, TKN, Frustration.

If there's two elims left and the game ends at parity, then D5 features only 4 people left, which would be a loss if we don't kill an elim right now. 

TKN, you have your kill ability, right?

Frustration has 2 complaints on them.

And then there's the vote kill. 

We could potentially remove 3 people at the end of this turn. 

What do you guys think? I think we should remove 3 people, leaving the three most village players alive, that way there'll be a good chance only 1 of them is elim at best. (If this game works like other normal games). 

 

[Frustration he/him]

I don't think nuking everyone in the hope to kill more Elims than you do players is a good idea.

Statistically there have to be more of us than there are of them, so random death is more helpful to them.

 

TKN and JNV would be my first guesses personally.

[JNV]

So i guess theres two evils then or maybe its lose at outnumber but if its that were basically doomed so 4 2 we need to hit an evil today um who still has complaints Frustrations at two so itd be easy to knock them out anyway I trust Mark I tink Aeoryis village and everyone else is soup so I guess Im down to vote Nvoel or Stink

[Szeth_Pancakes he/him]

[Remember to get your actions and votes in by 6:00 pm tomorrow due to the server downtime!]