Mid-Range Game 66: Knights of Wind and Truth

[Guest Ψιτιsτηε Βεsτ]

21 minutes ago, Aeoryi said:

Of course, this could all be explained if I was the only elim remaining, busy suffering in Fifth's extensively rigged distro, and just wanting to end the game rather than attempt a 5 v 1.

Think about it. How would you feel if you were an Elim that had your only elim partner die and you couldn't do anything because you're by yourself.

I was wondering if anyone would make that observation, but here you go. Aman is a wise one.

As for the DB shot, think about it this way: If I flaked, and STINK shot and archer was protected then immediately I get Exe'd. Too dangerous not to shoot archer

Oh, and in the unlikely event I got the ideal you'd all be screwed if you didn't exe me

Is this a full admitting?

[Kasimir he/him]

16 minutes ago, Aeoryi said:

I agree that Aman is definitely right.

Ultimately, the goal of each game is to improve

Do u want to see the "why Araris had to be C1'd" ppt?

The fact there is actually a PowerPoint makes the suffering of C3 worth it, Mat ilu

[Aeoryi she/her]

1 minute ago, ΨιτιsτηεΒέsτ said:

Is this a full admitting?

Well I'll let you figure it out

Just now, Kasimir said:

The fact there is actually a PowerPoint makes the suffering of C3 worth it, Mat ilu

I wrote it, not mat

[Fifth Scholar he/him]

GM panic announcement: a player who swore an Ideal C1 was accidentally not informed of this >> Results PMs got scrambled and I hurt myself in my confusion >>;;; Please forgive and carry on but note that there has been a discrepancy and I am talking with Wilson about it >> 

[Aeoryi she/her]

10 minutes ago, Fifth Scholar said:

GM panic announcement: a player who swore an Ideal C1 was accidentally not informed of this >> Results PMs got scrambled and I hurt myself in my confusion >>;;; Please forgive and carry on but note that there has been a discrepancy and I am talking with Wilson about it >> 

Ahhh

That makes sense

Sorry wit

You can see the Araris C1 PowerPoint here

@Kasimir

[Kasimir he/him]

5 minutes ago, Aeoryi said:

Ahhh

That makes sense

Sorry wit

You can see the Araris C1 PowerPoint here

@Kasimir

Appreciated but I'm not touching a link that goes to Drive until after the game. If you are Evil, and a very small part of me is expecting a late hour Meerkat claim, a doc link that potentially goes to the Elim doc or through it is hard confirmation. That's not something I want to be trafficking in.

I will admit that it is very likely that nothing short of peak!Aman himself resurrected would likely change my vote at this point, for reasons that include the circumstances of the game and the case I was arguing with STINK and the post I made in which I voted you. If it is a tunnel, I'll live with it.

FWIW openwolfing is just a calculus between you and your teammate and if Mat's cool, then so be it. I can respect not wanting to go 5v1. I myself would probably have just slugged it out, but it would be so much suffering I absolutely get not wanting to, and I recall Orlok and I agreeing to hardgamble because I was suffering too much. So yeah. I get it.

[Aeoryi she/her]

Just now, Kasimir said:

Appreciated but I'm not touching a link that goes to Drive until after the game. If you are Evil, and a very small part of me is expecting a late hour Meerkat claim, a doc link that potentially goes to the Elim doc or through it is hard confirmation. That's not something I want to be trafficking in.

I will admit that it is very likely that nothing short of peak!Aman himself resurrected would likely change my vote at this point, for reasons that include the circumstances of the game and the case I was arguing with STINK and the post I made in which I voted you. If it is a tunnel, I'll live with it.

FWIW openwolfing is just a calculus between you and your teammate and if Mat's cool, then so be it. I can respect not wanting to go 5v1. I myself would probably have just slugged it out, but it would be so much suffering I absolutely get not wanting to, and I recall Orlok and I agreeing to hardgamble because I was suffering too much. So yeah. I get it.

I can deliver it as a PDF if that's better. 

Lemme check the link tho. It shouldn't lead to the Elim doc, I don't think so. 

Just think like it's just going to be more Detrimental to others irl lives if I try to go down fighting. Like, I understand that it's a contraversial call but I mean it's what's going to halprn

[Guest Ψιτιsτηε Βεsτ]

I vote Aeo

[Aeoryi she/her]

2 minutes ago, ΨιτιsτηεΒέsτ said:

I vote Aeo

Wise choice, youngling

 

[Guest Ψιτιsτηε Βεsτ]

1 minute ago, Aeoryi said:

Wise choice, youngling

 

If you are an elim, I admit that I am a little disappointed. Giving up? 

[Aeoryi she/her]

Just now, ΨιτιsτηεΒέsτ said:

If you are an elim, I admit that I am a little disappointed. Giving up? 

We refer to it as openwolfing

[Kasimir he/him]

2 minutes ago, Aeoryi said:

I can deliver it as a PDF if that's better. 

Lemme check the link tho. It shouldn't lead to the Elim doc, I don't think so. 

Just think like it's just going to be more Detrimental to others irl lives if I try to go down fighting. Like, I understand that it's a contraversial call but I mean it's what's going to halprn

If you're worried about me specifically, just to be clear, especially for players reading this, I'm fine with it, but I thank you anyway. FUD is a key Elim tool. I'd never ask it be off the table. I knew what I signed up for. I can’t say I'm thrilled to be the guy who keeps taking the brunt of it but that's on me for wanting to give potential Villagers every chance before exeing.

I did resent being told or made to feel like I was doing something wrong when refusing to engage with Mat for my own mental health. I knew my limits and slugging it out with him wasn't good for me, so having Mat demand I not ignore him didn't sit well with me. There was an argument for exeing him. That was all.

I'd say just leave links for after the game tbh. There's no good way around it because any GM or IM reaction is telling.

Again, I'm poster boy for "would rather die than bus Orlok and 5v1 Illwei, Maili, Ash, TKN, and Archer" so I fully understand your position here.

[Devotary of Spontaneity]

Aeoryi.

[Aeoryi she/her]

Current VC:

Quote

Aeoryi(4): Kas, Aeoryi, Wit, Devo

Wit(1): TJ

Devo(1): Stink

 

[STINK he/him]

I'm such a unique individual look at that vote

[Aeoryi she/her]

3 minutes ago, STINK said:

I'm such a unique individual look at that vote

OMG is that a CW? 

I like how Wit vote could cause massive ripples

[|TJ| he/him]

Sadly no, Aeoryi.

[Kasimir he/him]

4 minutes ago, |TJ| said:

Sadly no, Aeoryi.

Wir denken gut zusammen bhai. Glaub nie 'was Anderes.

[Aeoryi she/her]

Just now, Kasimir said:

Wir denken gut zusammen bhai. Glaub nie 'was Anderes.

Aeoryi

1 minute ago, Kasimir said:

Wir denken gut zusammen bhai. Glaub nie 'was Anderes.

All I saw was "gut" and I immediately thought, huh, gut read?

[Guest Ψιτιsτηε Βεsτ]

Aeoryi

again 

[Kasimir he/him]

Keleran thought he was going to be sick.

His mind went back to the ring of Blades, the Ellublade in his hand. Watching as Shay's eyes burned with a fiery red light. Shay was dead, of course. The first time Keleran had killed. He didn't think the whitespine counted. 

The Truthwatcher, after that. Jenel falling over, slumping into Keleran's arms, as the Ellublade fuzzed into mist and Ellu said, concerned, "Keleran? Keleran!" and Keleran thought he was going to faint. There was so much blood and there was a roaring in his head and he hated the sight of blood, it made him sick to his stomach.

There was a second death that day. A touch of irony to it; Keleran was not skilled enough to treat a gut wound, and Jenel too newly-bonded to their spren to wield Progression. By the time someone had thought to get a Stormlight sphere to Jenel, it was too late. And Keleran—

Keleran had frozen up.

As he had always feared. 

As he had always thought he would, when push came to shove. 

"You should never have—" he choked out, head buried in his hands.

"Oh, shut up," Ellu said, fiercely, and Keleran actually did shut up, stunned by the peakspren's uncustomary viciousness. "You can't save everyone. I'm not an honorspren. I don't care about that."

"But I do," Keleran muttered. "Jenel..."

Had depended on him. Had trusted him. And Keleran had cold-bloodedly let Jenel step to TBD's side, blocking off the potential angle of attack, because he'd judged it more important that TBD stay alive, and he hated that calculation, the knowledge that it had to be done, when everything in him screamed to be the one to do it, to be there, to be the big storming target.

If he couldn't even do that, what was he good for?

He hated Callar, too.

Hated that Callar had left them to it, left them to organise themselves. Or really, as it amounted to, left Keleran to organise whatever the storms they were storming doing. Wasn't Callar supposed to be there for them just as much? The thought of abandonment made him sick to his stomach. It was what they did. It was what they swore to, he'd known now. Taking the fight others wouldn't, no matter what sort of fight that was.

And when Shay had called for TBD to face her, Keleran had hidden. He wasn't a warrior, and he knew that now. But not all fights were fought in the sand of the training yard, with what Ellu would've called a murder pole in hand.

Oh, of course, he'd hidden TBD, or at least done his damnedest to. Sworn that Shay would only get to TBD over Keleran's dead body. Meant it, too. What good was he for, if he couldn't even ensure that their last Skybreaker still lived and breathed?

"Made the choice," Ellu said, hands on her tiny hips, and in a moment, she'd fuzzed into a small, miniature stony replica of Jenel. "How about respecting that?"

He looked at her, stricken.

"I..."

"Keleran," Ellu said, because she could never get the voice right. "If I were Jenel, right here, right now, what would you say?"

He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry," Keleran said. "I'm sorry because I would do it again. I'm sorry because I would do it, but we knew they would never believe me. They wouldn't. I hate it because you trusted me, but..."

But it had to be done, and that was the sort of person he was becoming. The sort of person Callar had become too, he supposed.

"...But I had no choice."

He warred with his own revulsion. Felt the wetness prickling in his eyes. But he would face this head-on. Jenel deserved as much. Keleran was not going to shy away from it.

Ellu said, and she was Ellu now, "The Oaths don't demand perfection, Keleran. I'm a peakspren, not a high spren."

"But they demand commitment."

She nodded. "They do."

He was committed, he thought. To the death, then. Every name was a sacrifice that Keleran didn't want to make. But, and he was beginning to see this now, there was the larger fight. That was what Ellu was getting at. That was the one thing they didn't remotely want to lose. The battle for the soul of the squad.

That was what had guided him, when he made that decision to let Jenel take that fatal step. That was what mattered.

But what came after...

"Kel," said Ellu. "There were six others in the ring, and Callar. It wasn't just on you."

"I can't control what they do. I can only control what I do." Well, no, that was the joke, wasn't it? He couldn't either. He couldn't even manage that, and he felt a sick fascimile of that old white panic clawing at his lungs as he remotely thought about the need to get back on his feet and work on finding out who Shay's co-conspirators were.

Galatar. TBD. Saffron. Wit. Orotha. And of them, he was only sure of TBD.

Who was he to do this? He had to, but he was a surgeon's son, playing at war.

Ellu shook her head. "You can't control what they do, but you're a squad, Keleran. You all work towards the same thing, or don't. It's not about you. It was never about you. Everyone chose to hide TBD. Everyone made the choices they did."

He stared at her, tumbling at the edge of paradox, caught between self and the greater whole.

"I don't have all the answers, Keleran," Ellu said, patiently. "But I think we have to find out for ourselves."

[STINK he/him]

Devo

Aeoryi

A shocking twist for me to change my vote I know

[Kasimir he/him]

You knew what the Oaths were. Difficult not to, when the Coalition was determined to restore the ranks of the Knights Radiant, and there were Stonewards in the ranks above and below you, and you knew what shape their Oaths had taken, even if each Oath was difficult, and left you feeling raw, but strangely ebullient.

Keleran steeled himself and moved among the rest of his squadmates. 

Wit seemed confused, but genuine. Keleran'd caught him asking Callar all sorts of questions about his spren and his abilities, which his senior was answering with patience, even though the Lightweavers were a subtler order than the Stonewards. As such, Keleran could not imagine Wit a traitor.

There was Galatar.

Keleran's stomach tied itself in knots. It was...important to him that Galatar remained loyal, that his squadmate wasn't a traitor. He supposed it was because they'd worked on a number of training exercises together. You put your life in another squadmate's hands, and trusted he would return the favour. For this reason, accusing Galatar had never sat well with him.

He remembered Gen-ku, sent off to be court-martialled. Gen-ku whose last words to Keleran had been, "Watch Saffron. She knows too much."

He'd protested, at that time. But Gen-ku's words curled about in his mind and wouldn't leave, especially when word returned that Gen-ku had been a loyal Skybreaker after all. A Skybreaker knew, surely, about treachery, about the insidious threat they were dealing with. Much better than a surgeon's son, who knew the texts, but not the topography of human motivations.

He ran over the Oaths in his mind. The first was always the same, of course. Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination. A commitment. The beginning of the path.

The second was the commitment to the fight, what separated the Stonewards from the Windrunners from the Lightweavers from the Elsecallers, the other nine Orders. "It's showing up," Ellu had said, and Keleran had understood. Sometimes you were mistaken about what the fight was. But the second was the commitment to taking it and holding it, no matter what you felt, no matter the cost. It was about being there, because no one else would. It had to start somewhere.

The third he'd sworn, shortly after. Couldn't help but feel like a fraud for it, as though there was something strange about this path he'd swiftly walked. Callar'd said, afterwards, when congratulating him—the shared understanding they had of their Order's Oaths connecting them—that the third felt harsh, for Stonewards. The demand you stand your ground, even if no one else was. Even if all seemed lost. Even if it seemed hopeless.

Did it seem hopeless?

Keleran supposed so.

Six of the squad remained. Two of them were likely compromised. Of those who remained, TBD was a Skybreaker, but could not guard himself. Keleran was no fighter, for all he'd come to a better understanding of his Surges. He felt the reflexive anger at Callar leaving them to it, and set that aside again. It was irrelevant. They had to deal with the situation as it was, not as Keleran wished it would be.

Callar'd said something about Wit swearing the Second Ideal, for which Keleran was direly grateful. And there was Galatar, fledging Bondsmith, and how the storms the third Bondsmith had showed up in their squad was something Keleran did not understand but Galatar bore no Shards. Did storming things with his Surges that Keleran could not understand, so it balanced out, he supposed.

Saffron, the resident Dustbringer, and Orotha, the enigmatic Elsecaller.

At least one of them was a turncoat. At least one of them was a murderer waiting to strike again.

Galatar hadn't been there. Keleran supposed he bore resentment over that, while Wit had been off on his own too often. He'd spent far too much time arguing with Orotha, and he and TBD alone weren't going to be able to ward off the traitors, if at all. 

He sucked in a deep breath.

"Captain Junior," Shay had mocked. A dig, of course, at Keleran's Surges, and the fact he was of Callar's Order as well. As far as he could tell, the only other Stoneward in this squad.

He felt the Fourth Oath, like an impending storm. Thunder in his bones. So much pressure. Knowing it was looming, knowing he had to face it. Knowing what Callar himself had spoken. The knowledge felt like a burden. It would crush him.

Resting on his shoulder, Ellu said, and she'd been so quiet, uncharacteristically so, allowing him to brood, "Will you say it?"

"I don't know," he said. 

How could he swear they would rise together, that his entire squad was his strength, just as he was theirs, if he didn't even know how many of them could be trusted?

[Kasimir he/him]

Apologies for the double-post. I just wanted to finish the mini-arc I was working on for Keleran since I realised I'd hit Fourth Ideal this cycle, and I'd rather not deal with a morning rush.

@|TJ| Specifically if you want me to change anything let me know, I just figured you were never gonna RP so whatever sure I can give Keleran a bro moment for the Fourth Ideal bump and sort of stole Galatar for laughs because why tf not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

---

Keleran felt the restless energy coil inside him, much like lightning, waiting to strike. Saffron was busy accusing Galatar, which felt...too quick. Too ready, as though she was trying to seize the opportunity while it presented itself. While Keleran himself had made accusations against Galatar.

And you? he wondered, watching as Galatar shrugged haplessly. He had that way of doing that, that made you want to let your guard down. "I was busy," he protested. "You know my spren is a little more particular, I missed the first meeting because I was caught up and thought I had more time, and then just forgot."

Saffron said, "Most of Shay's potential co-conspirators include Galatar."

Keleran knew this. He knew this. And yet, it seemed so unfair that every particle of his being screamed to put himself between his squadmate and this latest threat. Even if it was a threat that Keleran himself had instigated.

Galatar looked at him. It wasn't a pleading stare. He never did beg, Keleran found himself thinking, numbly. Thought of the training manuevers that Callar had sent them together on, something about fostering teamwork and getting them used to their new powers as Knight Radiants. 

Galatar had never made Keleran feel...uncomfortable. Had always made him feel as though he was becoming part of something greater than the sum of its parts, something that meant something. That was worth defending for, no matter how hopeless. 

Around Galatar, he never felt like Keleran the surgeon's son, catastrophically-unsuited to be a Knight Radiant. He guessed that was just part of Galatar's charm, his easy indifference.

"I didn't do it," Galatar said, earnestly, as they went aside and recused themselves for the moment. "You know me, Kel. I've always shown up when it mattered; to drills, to maneuvers, to exercises. I wouldn't. If it were me, Shay'd never have gotten caught in the first place."

Keleran looked at him, searchingly.

So easy to be wrong, Keleran thought. So easy to want something to be the truth, even if it was a pretty lie, if it meant you didn't have to face things that were uncomfortable. Was this Keleran lying to himself? He wanted Galatar to be telling the truth, wanted Galatar to not have been conspiring with Shay and Stormfather-only-knew who else to murder them all.

He wanted Galatar to have been genuine. To have been real.

He wanted to know his trust wasn't misplaced.

Such a simple thing, to trust. Such a terrifying thing. And yet, in that moment, Keleran found himself making that step. That leap of faith. Everything in him screamed that Galatar was truthful. That—of everyone in their squad—it would not have been Galatar, not after so much.

"In fact, I think you should be asking harder questions of Wit, and of Phil Swift."

"Swift's dead."

"Oh," Galatar absorbed that information for a moment. "Well, then," he said, brightly. "I think you should ask questions of Saffron. She hasn't really committed to much where Wit's concerned, it's always been about Orotha or me. It's like she's protecting him."

The pieces fit together in Keleran's head, then, and he felt the sudden surge of adrenaline burn through his veins. 

"No," he said, quietly.

Galatar cocked his head at him. "What do you mean, no?"

"Think it through," Keleran said. 

It didn't flow. It didn't work. He wasn't the smartest; he'd struggled with his studies, since he was a boy. His brothers, though. They'd been the bright shining stars of the family and could do little wrong where their father was concerned. Keleran, really, had always been the troubled one, and a little of a disappointment. Maybe that was why it'd taken him so long to see it, until Galatar had said it, and suddenly all the pieces were tumbling like grains of sand through a glass.

"It's not Wit," he said, urgently. The memory that Galatar stirred loose had Saffron accusing Galatar, then claiming that if Galatar proved innocent, they should cross-examine Wit next. And yet, hadn't Saffron also said that Wit seemed too guileless while Orotha was too enigmatic? If you thought about it, it didn't follow. He said it, haltingly. You could wonder if it was really suspicion, or a convenient noose, meant to fit any neck at all. "It's Orotha. She's shielding Orotha."

He looked wonderingly at Galatar.

Had they found the last two traitors?

He couldn't have done it. Not on his own. Not fretting, not striding circles in the training yard. Not glaring at the problem as though it would resolve if he was more determined. If he went and was him at the problem.

"Good catch," said Galatar. He was frowning. "Not Wit then..."

"Thank you," Keleran breathed.

Galatar's gaze was querying. 

"You handed it to me. What you said. I just...did the analysis on it. You helped me remember." He found himself saying. "We make a good team, don't we?"

Pressure, as though a storm was bearing down upon him. Knowledge that it was here, now, and—

And Keleran found himself able to say it.

"We do," Galatar smiled.

"Not alone," Keleran said. A Stoneward didn't have to be alone. You fought when you had to, even if no one would back you. Even when hope was lost. Even when you had nothing, no one at all. Even when you didn't want to, for no other reason than you were needed.

But you didn't have to.

You had your squad. Your team. Your friends.

Fumbling, he said, "It's been distrust central around here, lately. I'd...almost forgotten." What it felt to stand shoulder to shoulder against onrushing Singer infantry. What it felt to be schooled in the use of their shared Surge, expressed differently. 

Be wary of Saffron, Gen-ku had warned. Keleran had carried the words, the warning, even now. Leading to this moment, when all of it coalesced in his head. 

Galatar, prodding him. Orotha devising the plans with which they planned to strike back at the traitors. TBD having done his own investigations, and then requesting support. A known face with which to bring the challenge forward. Jenel offering to shield TBD.

They were each other's strength. He saw that now. Orotha was their cunning. Galatar and him worked so closely they knew each other's reactions by this point in time. TBD's investigative grit, meant for the benefit of all. Jenel's willingness to protect the rest of their squadmates. They made each other better.

It was in the drills that Callar had them run, as a mixed squad of Knight Radiants. They had all sworn the Immortal Words. They were all on a journey together.

They were in this fight together. 

"Forgotten what?" Galatar asked.

We rise together, Callar had intoned. We are each other's strength.

"That we're stronger together," Keleran said. "We carry the weight together." That they depended on each other, that he relied on them to be there for him, just as much as they relied on him to be there for them. Even when the highstorm struck and the rains began to pour.

Thunder rumbled acceptance, bone-deep.

Edited November 12, 2023 by Kasimir

[Aeoryi she/her]

It was over.

And Saffron had only reached the second ideal.

It was pitiful.

They always said to keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

Saffron had tried.

Keleran had been a genuine friend. Tuning into him gave Saffron all the hope he needed. He knew everything. And as a good friend, Keleran had even defended him.

But Saffron was not as experienced as Shay at hiding, lurking, and betraying at the right moments. He was a terrible infiltrator, even if he was the last to be executed.

Perhaps it was his sense of honor that got to him first. He tried to help them, but even when all cards were laid out on the table, no one trusted him.

It was to be expected. Everyone expected a double meaning behind each word he spoke. A meaning besides genuine error.

It was all in desperate faith.

Journey before Destination.

The journey was over. But why had he given up? Was it true that another might've been able to succeed where he could not?

He hadn't even tried.

Strength before Weakness.

This line was often overlooked, but saffron liked it greatly.

Life before Death.

He should've never given up.

He couldn't even be a decent Dustbringer.

He couldn't even be a Knight Radiant.

Even holding acceptance, something felt off.

He needed to go apologize to Keleran.