Long Game 110? [Sign Ups]: Termina Abandoned (A Majora's Mask Mafia Adventure)

[Amanuensis he/him]

I cannot explicitly confirm or deny any specific player's rupees earnings or how they've been spent. I have made some mistakes that some players have told me about and I quickly corrected those, and have now gone through recounting the relevant counts to make sure I did not make a mistake. If I did or did not find mistakes and correct them, I can't elucidate further. Y'all gotta sort the rest out, not me

[Archer he/him]

Thank you for doing all this before rollovet, it's much more convenient.

Based on the VCs, you can sell me on a world where Coco/Hael/Burnt are teammates. 

L1D3: Hoid Slayer/Twin Storm ties Hael up with TUM late. Coco was publicly tracking votes and intentions, which makes them and Hael look paired. Doc was around EOD and didn't change their vanity vote. 

Quote

• (3) TUM: Archer, Mistfallen, coco, 
• (3) Haelbarde: Divergent, Stick, Hoid Slayer, 
• (1) Doc: Wonko, 
• (1) coco: Araris, 
• (1) Divergent: TJ,
• (1) TJ: Doc,

L2D1: Doc voted for Burnt, Hael and Coco voted for the CW. 

Quote

• (5) Divergent: Araris, Haelbarde, TUM, coco, Archer,
• (4) Burnt:  Divergent, Doc, Wonko, Ashbringer, 
• (2) Mistfallen: Warheit, Stick, 
• (1) TJ: Burnt, 
• (1) Stick: Mistfallen, 

Assuming Doc can explain their rupee count, I'm prepared to believe them.

Stick looks village here, so I'm left with evil Drake. 

Rereading L3D2, Drake pushed TwinStorm and Doc as the exes, and strongly asserted that Hael was village. Could be they read the writing on the wall with an upcoming Hael exe. The plan would have been for us to exe Stick and think they were the third elim, while really, Drake was. We would repeat the exes (saving Burnt for the tiebreaker) and lose. If the elim team assumed Hael would be exed without action, they were losing the loop either way, so NKing Drake was valid. 

Worst case scenario of us exing Hael after all is no different than the outcome of doing nothing/trying to change minds without changing the circumstances. 

@Mistfallen Soldier don't you get rupees for unique recipients, not unique senders?

Edited March 16 by Archer

[Amanuensis he/him]

2 hours ago, Mistfallen Soldier said:

And D1A we established that you got rupees back from the amount of players sending PMs, not the amount of PMs sent.

To be clear on how Postman's fully works (no one ever went to the Post Office to discover its secrets SMH)

• Postman does not pay to deliver his own messages, but is restricted to the same 500 limit split up to a max of 5 ways
• Postman does not earn any rupees from delivering their own messages or if they receive messages
• Postman earns exactly 1 rupee for every unique player that receives a PM per Turn (i.e. if A and B PM C, that's +1, but if D gets a PM too that's +2, etc)
• For further clarity on "Turn" a Day and Night are separate Turns in a Cycle, therefore PMing C in the Day and then again in the Night is +2, not +1

Edited March 16 by Amanuensis

[Myst He/Him]

4 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

To be clear on how Postman's fully works (no one ever went to the Post Office to discover its secrets SMH)

• Postman does not pay to deliver his own messages, but is restricted to the same 500 limit split up to a max of 5 ways
• Postman does not earn any rupees from delivering their own messages
• Postman earns exactly 1 rupee for every unique player that receives a PM per turn

Receives? I thought it was each unique player that sent a PM

But that changes things, It means Doc is right about the number of rupees he got. So he does have a silver mask. And I’m back to believing him

Edit: my bad everyone 

Edited March 16 by Mistfallen Soldier

[Amanuensis he/him]

Just now, Mistfallen Soldier said:

Receives? I thought it was each unique player that sent a PM

But that changes things, It means Doc is right about the number of rupees he got. So he does have a silver mask. And I’m back to believing him

Nope! Sorry if I did not word that correctly. You can think of the payment as a "tip" received from the person who receives the message, but they don't tip extra for getting 3 letters instead of 1

[Myst He/Him]

1 minute ago, Amanuensis said:

Nope! Sorry if I did not word that correctly. You can think of the payment as a "tip" received from the person who receives the message, but they don't tip extra for getting 3 letters instead of 1

Thanks, that means I just misunderstood how Postman worked 

[Burnt Spaghetti she/her]

2 hours ago, Mistfallen Soldier said:

You said nonsense. It didn’t make sense. You tried to say something in a language you didn’t know, and ended up saying nothing. Archer can back me up on this

12, that could mean something depending on how it’s formatted. 

That does sound like something I would do. I'm frequently trying to quote song lyrics from other languages, and it never goes well. 

I just wanna be included  I want fun thread codes too lol.  

I must say this is quite a strange experience for me. Being talked about loads in thread, but not being talked to. 

How am i meant to get my discussion posts up 

 

[Haelbarde he/him]

Just now, Burnt Spaghetti said:

I must say this is quite a strange experience for me. Being talked about loads in thread, but not being talked to. 

I have at'd you in the Dead doc a few times, does that count?

[Myst He/Him]

3 minutes ago, Burnt Spaghetti said:

That does sound like something I would do. I'm frequently trying to quote song lyrics from other languages, and it never goes well. 

I just wanna be included  I want fun thread codes too lol.  

I must say this is quite a strange experience for me. Being talked about loads in thread, but not being talked to. 

How am i meant to get my discussion posts up 

 

I mean, you did say something your first attempt and it was surprisingly really close. It was saying something, but what you were saying just was factually wrong.

After that it was the nonsense.

I’m not sure you can. Anything and everything you say will pretty much be ignored, unless you start listing your teammates. And even then. We’d just analyze assuming that you were lying with the potential of one of the people in it being an Elim because you wanted to throw us off or something 

[Burnt Spaghetti she/her]

6 minutes ago, Mistfallen Soldier said:

I mean, you did say something your first attempt and it was surprisingly really close. It was saying something, but what you were saying just was factually wrong.

After that it was the nonsense.

I’m not sure you can. Anything and everything you say will pretty much be ignored, unless you start listing your teammates. And even then. We’d just analyze assuming that you were lying with the potential of one of the people in it being an Elim because you wanted to throw us off or something 

I had a theory about what your codes were. Had an idea of it being one of two things, player count with rupees or player count with masks. 

I know, its annoying. I have many thoughts, but ultimately there's no point me getting involved when i can't even do anything anyways. Not like i can vote  Or more, not like it sticks. 

  

12 minutes ago, Haelbarde said:

I have at'd you in the Dead doc a few times, does that count?

So rude. Talking about me where i cant even read or respond 

Edit: why is that guy so big. Idk how i even did that. Yay big sad?

I suppose i am wearing the mask that is meant to make me unnoticeable. Yall dont see me i dont exist.

 

If Cindra was any good at pickpocketing now would be a great time to practice. 

Edited March 16 by Burnt Spaghetti

[Myst He/Him]

4 minutes ago, Burnt Spaghetti said:

I had a theory about what your codes were. Had an idea of it being one of two things, player count with rupees or player count with masks. 

I know, its annoying. I have many thoughts, but ultimately there's no point me getting involved when i can't even do anything anyways. Not like i can vote  Or more, not like it sticks. 

  

So rude. Talking about me where i cant even read or respond 

 

I suppose i am wearing the mask that is meant to make me unnoticeable. Yall dont see me i dont exist.

 

If Cindra was any good at pickpocketing now would be a great time to practice. 

That would require Archer to also be tracking rupee counts. Otherwise it’d just be me talking to him

And we just see a very weirdly shaped stone when looking at you. Non of us know where Cindra went

Edited March 16 by Mistfallen Soldier

[Through the living Wahr He/Him]

7 hours ago, The Unknown Medallion said:

@Wahrheitswächter

I kinda want to say the thing, if you know what I mean

Edit: I don't think not having this info out would help that much 

Yes, you are probably right.

So TUM was not refrencing Docs Mask of Truth but me Owning the Bremen Mask, which I had already informed TUM about. 

I didnt want to reveal it until this day to avoid being NKed for it. 

[Myst He/Him]

9 minutes ago, Wahrheitswächter said:

Yes, you are probably right.

So TUM was not refrencing Docs Mask of Truth but me Owning the Bremen Mask, which I had already informed TUM about. 

I didnt want to reveal it until this day to avoid being NKed for it. 

So… probably block either Stick or Hael depending on who gets exed. Which seems like Hael is, so probably Stick

Unless you know something I don’t 

[|TJ| he/him]

 not another storming claim. Flipping hell guys... 

So buy Mask of Truth N1C

Equip it D2C

Scan Hael N2C?

Why did you decide on Hael? @Doc12

 

[Myst He/Him]

3 minutes ago, |TJ| said:

 not another storming claim. Flipping hell guys... 

So buy Mask of Truth N1C

Equip it D2C

Scan Hael N2C?

Why did you decide on Hael? @Doc12

 

It’s been complicated. I started this loop intending on voting Hael, and right now Im voting Hael. So maybe not, but it’s been a roller coaster 

[Haelbarde he/him]

I keep forgetting Burnt has the stone mask and cannot take actions while wearing it. I could not make sense of why Doc would be so concerned about Stick dying if they had the resurrection mask. But it's making a bit more sense now.

If there is one elim dead by the start of Night 3, the game state is at 8:3. 

• If nothing happens during the night, 8:3 is a village win.
• If a night kill happens, 7:3 is a elim win
• If a resurrection happens, but not a night kill, 8:4 is an elim win
• If both resurrection and night kill happen, 7:4 is very much an elim win. 

So the fact that there are mask in play that could interfere with both the kill and the resurrection does mean that even 1 elim dead is not ideal. 

So what are the worlds where there's at least one elim dead.

So I know, even if I cannot prove it, that Doc is evil. I can only see that Doc would reveal himself if Stick being under threat risked the elims losing this loop. This means I am think it's safe to lock in Stick as evil.  The only question then is who in the Mist / Coco / Twin pool is the final elim. With two of them being dead, this puts us in one of two worlds:

World 1: No dead elims

Evil team is Burnt / Doc / Stick / Mist.

If Stick dies, as per above, provided the resurrection and kill aren't both prevented, they win. Say they don't actually have the res mask, Doc pulling fire makes it more likely that Mist gets off the night kill even if Stick does die. This might be slightly more risky than just trying to talk the village into killing me over Stick, but not overly so. 

World 2: One dead elim

Evil team is Burnt / Doc / Stick and one of Coco / Twin.*

Problem with Stick dying is that now two elims are dead. 9:2 going into N3. Even with a kill and a resurrection, you end up with 8:3, with a village win. Plus, Burnt cannot take actions, so it's just Doc who can do anything so you only get the kill or the resurrection, not both. So Stick dying is a definite Village Win.

So Doc exposes himself to try and ensure Stick survives. This puts us into the 8:3 N3 world from above, with Doc and Stick able to put the resurrection and kill in. Though both exposed, they still have a shot at successfully achieving at least one of the actions, making for an elim victory.

There is the question of why no N2 resurrection. I think that's because it would unnecessarily have exposed Doc as evil (being the only possible person to having enough rupees to pull it off), and when there was no reason to expect that Stick would have been exposed by Don Gero this turn, why risk it when you could have just resurrected Coco/Twin this evening after a simple Hael execution.

(*: There is the world where the dead elim is in fact Drake. This does not make much sense though, as e!Drake requires v!Stick, and with Stick and I as the only candidates, I don't see why Doc would need to expose himself.)

---

The upshot of it is, Doc exposing himself as an eliminator with potentially the rupees to buy a hundred rupee mask is not an unreasonable action despite being an unusual and confusing move at first glance.

[Myst He/Him]

3 minutes ago, Haelbarde said:

I keep forgetting Burnt has the stone mask and cannot take actions while wearing it. I could not make sense of why Doc would be so concerned about Stick dying if they had the resurrection mask. But it's making a bit more sense now.

If there is one elim dead by the start of Night 3, the game state is at 8:3. 

• If nothing happens during the night, 8:3 is a village win.
• If a night kill happens, 7:3 is a elim win
• If a resurrection happens, but not a night kill, 8:4 is an elim win
• If both resurrection and night kill happen, 7:4 is very much an elim win. 

So the fact that there are mask in play that could interfere with both the kill and the resurrection does mean that even 1 elim dead is not ideal. 

So what are the worlds where there's at least one elim dead.

So I know, even if I cannot prove it, that Doc is evil. I can only see that Doc would reveal himself if Stick being under threat risked the elims losing this loop. This means I am think it's safe to lock in Stick as evil.  The only question then is who in the Mist / Coco / Twin pool is the final elim. With two of them being dead, this puts us in one of two worlds:

World 1: No dead elims

Evil team is Burnt / Doc / Stick / Mist.

If Stick dies, as per above, provided the resurrection and kill aren't both prevented, they win. Say they don't actually have the res mask, Doc pulling fire makes it more likely that Mist gets off the night kill even if Stick does die. This might be slightly more risky than just trying to talk the village into killing me over Stick, but not overly so. 

World 2: One dead elim

Evil team is Burnt / Doc / Stick and one of Coco / Twin.*

Problem with Stick dying is that now two elims are dead. 9:2 going into N3. Even with a kill and a resurrection, you end up with 8:3, with a village win. Plus, Burnt cannot take actions, so it's just Doc who can do anything so you only get the kill or the resurrection, not both. So Stick dying is a definite Village Win.

So Doc exposes himself to try and ensure Stick survives. This puts us into the 8:3 N3 world from above, with Doc and Stick able to put the resurrection and kill in. Though both exposed, they still have a shot at successfully achieving at least one of the actions, making for an elim victory.

There is the question of why no N2 resurrection. I think that's because it would unnecessarily have exposed Doc as evil (being the only possible person to having enough rupees to pull it off), and when there was no reason to expect that Stick would have been exposed by Don Gero this turn, why risk it when you could have just resurrected Coco/Twin this evening after a simple Hael execution.

(*: There is the world where the dead elim is in fact Drake. This does not make much sense though, as e!Drake requires v!Stick, and with Stick and I as the only candidates, I don't see why Doc would need to expose himself.)

 

---

The upshot of it is, Doc exposing himself as an eliminator with potentially the rupees to buy a hundred rupee mask is not an unreasonable action despite being an unusual and confusing move at first glance.

It actually doesn’t make sense. In your first world, he doesn’t have to say anything and they win via resurrection.

In your second world it does make a bit of sense, however, your first assumption is wrong. Doc PMed Wahr and TUM about having the truth mask(and potentially about scanning Hael) which means a E!Doc would’ve had to have this ploy thought of N2C, before Stick had heat, meaning your premise of Stick being Elim is unfounded.

[Araris Valerian he/him]

So from Hael’s initial claim, we know there is at least one elim in Hael/Drake/Stick. And from Doc’s claim we know there is an elim in Doc/Hael. Assuming we haven’t lost, there is at least one elim in Twinstorm/coco. Burnt is an elim.

There is at most one elim in Wonko/Drake/TJ/Archer/Araris/Stick/Divergent, and at least 3 elims in Doc/Hael/Twinstorm/coco/Mist/Burnt. I guess that means that e!Mist only works if no elims died L2.

If I was v!Doc then I scan either Mist or Hael, and Hael makes more sense given Burnt’s claim D1. But it doesn’t really matter who he targets, because from his perspective I think Mist/Hael would have to be e/v unless coco and Twinstorm are teamed.

[Myst He/Him]

4 minutes ago, Araris Valerian said:

So from Hael’s initial claim, we know there is at least one elim in Hael/Drake/Stick. And from Doc’s claim we know there is an elim in Doc/Hael. Assuming we haven’t lost, there is at least one elim in Twinstorm/coco. Burnt is an elim.

There is at most one elim in Wonko/Drake/TJ/Archer/Araris/Stick/Divergent, and at least 3 elims in Doc/Hael/Twinstorm/coco/Mist/Burnt. I guess that means that e!Mist only works if no elims died L2.

If I was v!Doc then I scan either Mist or Hael, and Hael makes more sense given Burnt’s claim D1. But it doesn’t really matter who he targets, because from his perspective I think Mist/Hael would have to be e/v unless coco and Twinstorm are teamed.

My understanding of this post was basically that Doc is probably V, meaning Hael is Elim. Which I already thought.

Anyways, too add to this, I’d say it’s a Elim in Stick/Hael not Stick/Hael/Drake since Drake was NKed and that’s a risky play for N2 that only works if all other 3 Elims are alive, which would mean burnt, plus two of Me/Doc/Hael are Elim. But we also know there’s one Elim in Hael/Doc, and since I know I’m Village, that means If Drake is Elim, Hael is Elim.

[|TJ| he/him]

I will say this, though. This matches up with Doc's behaviour in D1C and responses in N1C. I thought it was unconscionable that a villager does not go for Stone Mask in D1C when having the funds for it. This makes sense if he was saving up for Truth. Doc's enthusiasm about proving that they do not have Stone Mask also makes sense now. 

3 hours ago, Amanuensis said:

Postman earns exactly 1 rupee for every unique player that receives a PM per Turn (i.e. if A and B PM C, that's +1, but if D gets a PM too that's +2, etc)

Let's say, for example, Jo is a Postman -> 

If Jo sends a PM to Aman, it is NOT +1 because the sender is a Postman. 
If Aman sends a PM to Jo, it is NOT +1 because the recipient is a Postman. 

Jo receives a rupees for ever unique recipient for a message NOT sent by him; Jo himself does not count as a recipient. 

If Jo received 12 rupees is a cycle, it is because:

[Number of unique recipients receiving a message where recipient != Jo AND sender != Jo during the DAY] +
[Number of unique recipients receiving a message where recipient != Jo AND sender != Jo during the NIGHT] = 12

Correct?

[Through the living Wahr He/Him]

TUM and I recieved Docs Claim Via PM in D2

During N2 i used a Code in thread to let him know who he should Scan in my oppinion (Hael) 

And in N2 he let me (and presumeably TUM as well) via PM know that his Vote would indicate Haels allignment (he couldnt send a PM because of Delay Reasons)

 

 

[Araris Valerian he/him]

19 minutes ago, Mistfallen Soldier said:

My understanding of this post was basically that Doc is probably V, meaning Hael is Elim. Which I already thought.

Anyways, too add to this, I’d say it’s a Elim in Stick/Hael not Stick/Hael/Drake since Drake was NKed and that’s a risky play for N2 that only works if all other 3 Elims are alive, which would mean burnt, plus two of Me/Doc/Hael are Elim. But we also know there’s one Elim in Hael/Doc, and since I know I’m Village, that means If Drake is Elim, Hael is Elim.

Yeah, I don’t think Drake is an elim. The only e!Drake world that made sense to me was the one where both coco and Twinstorm are elim, but that would bring us up to 5 with Burnt and Doc.

I was mostly thinking out loud to myself that Doc’s claim makes sense from a village perspective. I’d say that’s a necessary but not sufficient reason for Doc to be village.

[Amanuensis he/him]

6 minutes ago, |TJ| said:

Let's say, for example, Jo is a Postman -> 

If Jo sends a PM to Aman, it is NOT +1 because the sender is a Postman. 
If Aman sends a PM to Jo, it is NOT +1 because the recipient is a Postman. 

Jo receives a rupees for ever unique recipient for a message NOT sent by him; Jo himself does not count as a recipient. 

If Jo received 12 rupees in a cycle, it is because:

[Number of unique recipients receiving a message where recipient != Jo AND sender != Jo during the DAY] +
[Number of unique recipients receiving a message where recipient != Jo AND sender != Jo during the NIGHT] = 12

Correct?

Correct

[Myst He/Him]

3 minutes ago, Araris Valerian said:

Yeah, I don’t think Drake is an elim. The only e!Drake world that made sense to me was the one where both coco and Twinstorm are elim, but that would bring us up to 5 with Burnt and Doc.

I was mostly thinking out loud to myself that Doc’s claim makes sense from a village perspective. I’d say that’s a necessary but not sufficient reason for Doc to be village.

yeah, agreed. That means, Hael and Burnt are Elim. Considering that Ash was willing to share info with Hael, I think we can say Stick is Elim?

With E!Hael, I can’t think of a reason to share the dead doc’s thinking. Maybe in case they lost the loop? Which means at least one of Coco/Twin is Elim. Otherwise there’s no reason to try to get dead doc goodwill.

And he must’ve been sharing it somewhat accurately otherwise he wouldn’t have had access to the info Ash had.

That means that Drake did claim that Stick targeted him. And since Drake being Elim doesn’t make sense, Stick is Elim. So we have a Stick/(Coco/Twin)/Hael/Burnt Elim team.

what I can’t figure out is why share the dead doc. If they have only one Elim in the dead doc there’s no reason to share. If they have two, that means Coco and Twin are Elims, and they’re going to lose anyways, so they have to get goodwill, but then that gives us a 5 Elims.

So… we can’t be winning right now, so we need to exe Hael today. But I’m not sure why Hael is doing what Hael is doing because it doesn’t make sense. Thoughts?

[Amanuensis he/him]

Sorry this took so long folks  I know I keep making excuses but a combination of a lot of things has made writing hard the past few days. It's 4 am so I will go sleep now.

 

Wayward Few

Quote

The Happy Mask Salesman said nothing while the others debated. Only Thistle seemed willing to voice her conflictions. Kieran and Wahi quickly saw his way of it, however, and the others seemed to agree with silence, their eyes forward, weight settled. The posture of people who had already made the decision and were waiting for the motion to carry them. Some nodded, but it was Ap who took the first step, encouraging the others.

The problem was the Gorons.

Link stood at the edge of the shore and looked at the boat with the expression of someone who had been brave about a great many things and was now being asked to be brave about something his body considered categorically different from all of those things. Gor Elam stood beside him with his arms crossed, which for a Goron meant his fists were approximately level with his collarbone, and stared at the hull with deep professional skepticism.

Shallow water was one thing. Puddles, rivers, even the user controlled flood chambers of Woodfall Temple — manageable, navigable, recoverable. The open bay was another matter. They were made of stone, and the sea was deep. Gorons could not swim, let alone float.

Ap jumped back onto shore, smiled at them, then put on the Goron Mask. She stepped onto the boat without ceremony, planting her full Goron weight on the deck in one solid movement. The hull dipped. The water displaced around the hull. The boat remained a boat. She stood on it, heavy and round and thoroughly afloat, and looked back at them.

Link stared at her. Then he put one foot on the deck, testing. The boat did not immediately sink. He put the other foot down, and stood very still, and the boat continued to be a boat, and after a moment the tension in his shoulders dropped by a fraction.

Gor Elam watched this, then stepped on after him with the dignity of someone who had decided not to make a fuss about it. The hull settled lower in the water. Still floating.

The Happy Mask Salesman was already untying the mooring lines. "Excellent," he said, and took the tiller.

 

The bay at night was wide and dark and the Ghost Ship was not on it, or not visibly. They took shifts at the stern — an hour each, eyes on the skyline in every direction — and passed the night in the particular quiet of open water. Ap dozed in short stretches on the deck, Goron-heavy and uncomfortable, but unwilling to lose the mask's solid feeling. When she was awake she watched the water and thought about not very much, which was its own kind of sleeping.

The Ghost Ship didn't appear. Whatever it had gone to do at Zora Hall, it was doing it without announcing itself.

The Happy Mask Salesman didn't sleep at all. He stood at the tiller through every shift change, pointing them northwest.

The sun came up behind them just as the Zora Cape resolved out of the dark ahead — the great stone arch of it, the hollow below where the water churned, the island beyond. And above the cape, against the lightening sky, smoke.

Not a cooking fire. The thick grey columns of something that had been burning for hours and had not finished.

Underneath the smoke, hundreds of cries and screams carried across the water that the crew of a fishing boat had no good reason to be hearing at this distance.

The Happy Mask Salesman looked at it. He looked at the cape, at the island beyond the arch, at the water between them and the shore. Then he adjusted course slightly and kept them on heading.

"Grandfather," Ap said.

"I know."

"We could—"

"I know." His voice was even. Not cold — steady, the way a wall is steady. "We cannot. Not from out here, not in time, not without abandoning what we came for." He didn't look at her. "The only way to help them is to get the mask and rewind again. If we go in there now, we lose everything."

Thistle was sitting at the rail, watching the smoke. She didn't speak.

Nobody did for a while.

"Sometimes," the Happy Mask Salesman said, to the boat generally, "being a hero doesn't mean fighting every battle that's put in front of you. It means choosing the right one." He paused. "Even when the wrong battle is burning right in front you."

He steered them toward the island.

 

It was small — barely more than a rock with enough flat ground to stand on, ringed by deeper water on all sides. The Happy Mask Salesman brought the boat in alongside it with a surprising amount of skill that Ap never knew he had. Upon being asked, Ap hopped off to tie the line to a jutting spike of a rock. She was back to being a girl now. Sometimes she needed a moment to breathe as herself.

She straightened up and looked back at Zora Hall. The fires were clearer now that they were closer, the screams less so, which was either better or worse depending on how you looked at it.

"We didn't see the Ghost Pirates until the night," she said, to no one specifically. "Does that mean they go away when it gets bright?"

The Happy Mask Salesman looked up. Not at her — at the moon, sitting fat and low and too close in the morning sky, its shadow stretching long across the water.

"If we're lucky, maybe," he said. "But something tells me the moon's shadow will get in the way." He looked at the smoke, then back at her. "Considering everything you've told me about Woodfall and Snowhead, it seems like the Dreamers, or the Skull Kid, or both are doing everything they can to interfere with us at every turn. Which means we're on the right path." He tilted his head slightly. "Obstacles only matter if you're pointed somewhere worth going."

Ap looked at the fires.

She had stood at the edge of a swamp temple while people died inside it. She had watched the moon fall twice. She had played the Song of Time and taken all of it back — the deaths, the fear, the long ugly hours of it — and none of the people who'd lived through it had to carry any of it forward except the ones who remembered. That was something. It wasn't nothing.

Thistle was quiet at the rail. Thistle, who had put herself between strangers and danger more times than anyone had asked, who had come through both loops holding everyone else together and carrying her own damage on the inside where it didn't slow her down. She was going to be all right. They were all going to be all right, when this was over. If there was something Ap could do about the memory of it — when this was all done, when the song had been played the final time and the world was still standing — she was going to find a way to ask. Maybe the Happy Mask Salesman would know. Maybe there was a song for that too.

Maybe she'd want to forget some of it herself.

She was eleven years old and she was tired in a way that sleep hadn't touched for three loops, and she was frightened, and she was standing on a rock in the middle of the Great Bay while a hall full of Zora burned on the shore behind her and the moon pressed down from above. She knew all of that clearly.

She also knew the island she was standing on, on what create she could summon here, and what was waiting inside the temple at the bottom of the bay.

She reached for the ocarina.

"The New Wave Bossa Nova," the Happy Mask Salesman said. "Do you remember how to play it?"

"I remember," Ap mumbled, suddenly feeling less confident. "Specifically, I remember that I was never very good at it..."

He nodded assuringly, perhaps expecting her answer. "Just play what you know. Start slowly."

She raised the ocarina and played the first phrase. It came out almost right — three notes true, the fourth a half-step flat, the rhythm stuttering at the turn. She stopped and started again. Better, and then worse, the melody slipping at exactly the same point both times, the part where it bent back on itself and required the kind of relaxed certainty she didn't currently have.

Lili was watching her.

The little Zora girl put her hands in her lap, and tilted her head, and began to hum. Not the part Ap was stumbling on — the whole song, from the beginning, clean and clear and slightly louder than the wind off the water. She hummed it through once without stopping.

Then she hummed it again, and again, and kept going.

Ap put the ocarina to her lips and played along.

She missed the bend again but she didn't stop, and Lili didn't stop, and the melody kept moving forward underneath her like a current she could follow even when she was fighting it. Then the Happy Mask Salesman began to hum from his place at the bow, low and solid, locking in the rhythm. Thistle picked it up next. Then others, one by one, until the whole crew was humming the melody softly into the morning air, watching Ap, not watching the fires, filling the silence around her mistakes with the same notes she was reaching for.

She played it again from the start.

This time the bend came and she leaned into it instead of against it, and it went where it was supposed to go, and the rest of the phrase followed cleanly, and she reached the end and began again, and it was right this time, and she kept playing.

The water around the island changed.

It had been ordinary bay water — dark, choppy, moved by wind. Now it had a quality of intention. The surface rose slightly at the edges of the rock. The rock itself shifted, and shifted again, and the shift was not the rocking of a small island on the tide.

Then the island moved upward.

Not the rock. The rock was a shell. What was underneath it — ancient, vast, patient — had been sleeping here long enough that moss had grown on its back and gull nests had accumulated in its ridges, and it opened its eyes now the way something opens its eyes when a sound has been calling it from a very long way away, and arrived.

The Giant Turtle rose from the Great Bay with all the unhurried certainty of something that has been here before and knows how this goes.

The boat lurched against its line. Everyone stabilized their stances, grabbed for something solid, some holding onto each other.

And in the bright morning light on the water — in the shadow of the moon, which still draped itself across the bay regardless of what hour it was — shapes appeared.

A dozen of them. More. Standing on the water or close enough to it that there was no visible difference, pale and translucent and absolutely still, arranged in a loose ring around the island. They had been here the whole time. Scouting in the half light, either invisible or well hidden. The sound of the song had drawn them close enough to be caught in the moon's shadow, and in the shadow they were solid, or solid enough, and every one of them was looking at the boat.

The lead pirate rested her hand on a cutlass that caught light that had no business reflecting off something you could see through.

Everything was quiet as it sliced through the Happy Mask Salesman's neck, decapitating his head.

Finally y'all can know why the turn is called Cut and Run lol

Edited March 16 by Amanuensis