Divergent He/Him Posted February 24 Posted February 24 18 minutes ago, Archer said: I agree with Divergent that Wahr and I are probably teammates. Wahr’s play is unusual. Wahr’s player mindset is solely focussed on personal success. Their retaliation votes are indiscriminate because they’ll do anything to save themselves. There’s an underlying entitlement that thinks if they play perfectly, they don’t deserve to be voted on. Are you going for a TWTBAW strategy? What do you think about Wahr not self-pressing on you if he was focused on personal success? 13 minutes ago, Doc12 said: I'm game. Wahr Hoid Slayer Still don't think this vote will gain traction within the next hour but yeah, Wahr's behavior doesn't quite ring alarm bells for me the way its doing for others. And I do think there's a marked difference in Hoid Slayer's play that's uncomfortably similar to when we were last evil together. I'm open to Hoid being a wagon, but for next cycle. I had marked him as one of the lower activity players, but noticed earlier that he actually is one of the top posters on this thread, so that feels somewhat off to me because I hardly remember if there was any post that was game advancing
coco.pudding she/they Posted February 24 Posted February 24 Just now, Divergent said: I'm open to Hoid being a wagon, but for next cycle. I had marked him as one of the lower activity players, but noticed earlier that he actually is one of the top posters on this thread, so that feels somewhat off to me because I hardly remember if there was any post that was game advancing He’s posting a lot, but they’ve mostly been one-sentence posts or little rp bits. There hasn’t been much actually useful in there I’m also down to vote Hoid, I’d just rather do it next cycle as hopefully he’ll be more active. (Though he has said he probably won’t be active much for most of the game so I kinda doubt it)
Hoid Slayer He/Him Posted February 24 Posted February 24 18 minutes ago, Doc12 said: I'm game. Wahr Hoid Slayer Still don't think this vote will gain traction within the next hour but yeah, Wahr's behavior doesn't quite ring alarm bells for me the way its doing for others. And I do think there's a marked difference in Hoid Slayer's play that's uncomfortably similar to when we were last evil together. Oi Oi Oi attack me if you will but don’t blame my activity, I made this commitment before distro Now normally I would defend myself strongly here but honestly in a game where Imll reach aírate I’m not sure what show bad exeing a village really is so if anyone can pull that up thank you 3 minutes ago, Divergent said: Are you going for a TWTBAW strategy? What do you think about Wahr not self-pressing on you if he was focused on personal success? I'm open to Hoid being a wagon, but for next cycle. I had marked him as one of the lower activity players, but noticed earlier that he actually is one of the top posters on this thread, so that feels somewhat off to me because I hardly remember if there was any post that was game advancing That’s cause I don’t wanna solve, but I do like talking 1 minute ago, coco.pudding said: He’s posting a lot, but they’ve mostly been one-sentence posts or little rp bits. There hasn’t been much actually useful in there I’m also down to vote Hoid, I’d just rather do it next cycle as hopefully he’ll be more active. (Though he has said he probably won’t be active much for most of the game so I kinda doubt it) Do not count on me being more active Can I get a VC?
Amanuensis he/him Posted February 24 Author Posted February 24 15 minutes remain (5) Wahrheit: Araris, Mistfallen, coco, TJ, Divergent, (2) Hoid Slayer: Archer, Doc12, (2) Archer: Wonko, Hoid Slayer, (2) Mistfallen: Wahrheit, TUM, (1) Coder: Stick,
Ashbringer he/him Posted February 24 Posted February 24 The sounds of battle had died down, at least enough. Coliver had barely managed to create a bandage around one Gerudo's bloody wrist, but the others around seemed to appreciate the help and plenty were capable of bandaging themselves. She wasn't the only helper around, either. Plenty of people were here for the festival rather than as any guard. Makazi had a rougher time, looking at her hands covered in blood that wasn't hers. Coliver hadn't pressed the story, but she'd been over where the Deku Sprouts were. That hadn't gone well for them. "M... Marton's heading for the first boats," Mak finally stammered. "I want to... I should..." Coliver just gave her a hug. Moonfall, she still couldn't tell her. "Mak, he can take care of himself. You're not a fighter. He..." No. She couldn't tell her, but she couldn't lie either. "... I don't know what he is anymore. Please. If we can't stick together, the three of us, don't get yourself hurt following him." And don't leave me here alone, was what she hoped her eyes conveyed. "I'll think about it," Makazi said, eyes returning to her hands stained red. Some part of Coliver understood. The majority of her was currently rebelling at doing any thinking at all. Action. Motion. Something to prove, something to help, something, something, something that wasn't realizing where she was and what had happened to them all. But she wasn't alone in that. There were others. Someone was carrying around bundles of plants, trying to help a group of too many people. Coliver started staggering her way over towards her. "Hey, do you want some help? I'm out of bandages but I've got an extra set of hands. I'm Coliver, this is..." she turned. Makazi hadn't followed her. In the distance, Marton's body was boarding a boat to head into flame. ( @Doc12 , or anyone else! ) 2
Haelbarde he/him Posted February 24 Posted February 24 1 hour ago, Amanuensis said: I clarified this in thread previously, but only D1-A has no exe. All other days have mandatory exes 1 hour ago, Burnt Spaghetti said: I believe Aman stated previously that the exe must happen, and if we dont vote i think someone was randomly picked? Otherwise then yes, no exe would let us win on numbers Edit: Ninjad by the man himself Ah, thanks. Another detail I overlooked in the rules Guess I'll have to redo some of my number crunching, but that does reduce some of the complexity, so that is at least something.
Hoid Slayer He/Him Posted February 24 Posted February 24 5 minutes ago, Ashbringer said: The sounds of battle had died down, at least enough. Coliver had barely managed to create a bandage around one Gerudo's bloody wrist, but the others around seemed to appreciate the help and plenty were capable of bandaging themselves. She wasn't the only helper around, either. Plenty of people were here for the festival rather than as any guard. Makazi had a rougher time, looking at her hands covered in blood that wasn't hers. Coliver hadn't pressed the story, but she'd been over where the Deku Sprouts were. That hadn't gone well for them. "M... Marton's heading for the first boats," Mak finally stammered. "I want to... I should..." Coliver just gave her a hug. Moonfall, she still couldn't tell her. "Mak, he can take care of himself. You're not a fighter. He..." No. She couldn't tell her, but she couldn't lie either. "... I don't know what he is anymore. Please. If we can't stick together, the three of us, don't get yourself hurt following him." And don't leave me here alone, was what she hoped her eyes conveyed. "I'll think about it," Makazi said, eyes returning to her hands stained red. Some part of Coliver understood. The majority of her was currently rebelling at doing any thinking at all. Action. Motion. Something to prove, something to help, something, something, something that wasn't realizing where she was and what had happened to them all. But she wasn't alone in that. There were others. Someone was carrying around bundles of plants, trying to help a group of too many people. Coliver started staggering her way over towards her. "Hey, do you want some help? I'm out of bandages but I've got an extra set of hands. I'm Coliver, this is..." she turned. Makazi hadn't followed her. In the distance, Marton's body was boarding a boat to head into flame. ( @Doc12 , or anyone else! ) Avery didn't know what was happening when he next came to. The Shadow was hungrier these days. It demanded more of him, took more from him. When he regained his consciousness, he didn't even know where he was. All he knew was the blood on his hands. "Hey, do you want some help? I'm out of bandages but I've got an extra set of hands. I'm Coliver, this is..." Avery looked at the woman. She seemed... she seemed pained. Yet strong, at the same time. He walked over to her, looking around in the fading light as he did so. An entire day, gone. Yes, the Shadow did grow hungry. "Hello," he said. "I'm Avery, and I don't know where I am." 6 minutes ago, Amanuensis said: 15 minutes remain (5) Wahrheit: Araris, Mistfallen, coco, TJ, Divergent, (2) Hoid Slayer: Archer, Doc12, (2) Archer: Wonko, Hoid Slayer, (2) Mistfallen: Wahrheit, TUM, (1) Coder: Stick, Alright well it looks like Wahr is falling tonight Only other maybe options are me, Archer, and Mistfallen, and I like Archer and Mistfallen's activity so I think I'mma let things slide the way they are 1
Ashbringer he/him Posted February 24 Posted February 24 The only vote manipulation currently available is tied to the Roleblocker mask, right? Hmm.
Doc12 Posted February 24 Posted February 24 3 minutes ago, Ashbringer said: The sounds of battle had died down, at least enough. Coliver had barely managed to create a bandage around one Gerudo's bloody wrist, but the others around seemed to appreciate the help and plenty were capable of bandaging themselves. She wasn't the only helper around, either. Plenty of people were here for the festival rather than as any guard. Makazi had a rougher time, looking at her hands covered in blood that wasn't hers. Coliver hadn't pressed the story, but she'd been over where the Deku Sprouts were. That hadn't gone well for them. "M... Marton's heading for the first boats," Mak finally stammered. "I want to... I should..." Coliver just gave her a hug. Moonfall, she still couldn't tell her. "Mak, he can take care of himself. You're not a fighter. He..." No. She couldn't tell her, but she couldn't lie either. "... I don't know what he is anymore. Please. If we can't stick together, the three of us, don't get yourself hurt following him." And don't leave me here alone, was what she hoped her eyes conveyed. "I'll think about it," Makazi said, eyes returning to her hands stained red. Some part of Coliver understood. The majority of her was currently rebelling at doing any thinking at all. Action. Motion. Something to prove, something to help, something, something, something that wasn't realizing where she was and what had happened to them all. But she wasn't alone in that. There were others. Someone was carrying around bundles of plants, trying to help a group of too many people. Coliver started staggering her way over towards her. "Hey, do you want some help? I'm out of bandages but I've got an extra set of hands. I'm Coliver, this is..." she turned. Makazi hadn't followed her. In the distance, Marton's body was boarding a boat to head into flame. ( @Doc12 , or anyone else! ) Cutting it close for RP but this is fun! Thistle looked up, there was a (I believe you're a zora?) woman offering her hands, looking slightly glassy-eyed, the way Thistle felt. They took the woman's hands, and though Thistle's own hands were also trembling they steadied each other. "Thank you for coming, friend. Breathe for me. In and out. We can help best if we're not panicking either." When Coliver's breathing came a little steadier, Thistle put her to work. "Bandages are in short supply, and I'm trying to conserve the hearty food for serious injuries. Folks have been volunteering some of their garments to rip up for bandages - you can help with ripping those up, or if you know herb-lore you can help me find yarrow to stem bleeding. Can you do that for me, Coliver?" 3 minutes ago, Hoid Slayer said: Avery looked at the woman. She seemed... she seemed pained. Yet strong, at the same time. He walked over to her, looking around in the fading light as he did so. An entire day, gone. Yes, the Shadow did grow hungry. "Hello," he said. "I'm Avery, and I don't know where I am." Another figure, also looking lost. Thistle took a deep breath. "Hey, you too. You're with us, and you're healthy. Do you want to be useful?" The man might have nodded, or maybe they were just shaking. Either way. "Keep watch for us or help us rip up bandages." 1
Ashbringer he/him Posted February 24 Posted February 24 Yeah I realized how close it was a little late
Archer he/him Posted February 24 Posted February 24 @Wahrheitswächter you can figure out who has the mask that lets them spy on your doc by asking them to say a specific, obscure word in thread. They likely will if they're village. Everyone else, if you could oblige by saying a few nonsense words next round for cover. Be mindful that you don't know who might join you in the doc later on. Thank you for your sacrifice!
Hoid Slayer He/Him Posted February 24 Posted February 24 1 minute ago, Archer said: Thank you for your sacrifice! I know rollover passed but this is giving "May the odds be ever in your favor" vibes
Amanuensis he/him Posted February 24 Author Posted February 24 Sorry, had to step away for a moment. Day 2-A is now over! Take a load of while I prep Night 2-A. 1
Amanuensis he/him Posted February 24 Author Posted February 24 (edited) LG110, Night 2-A: "Safe" Harbor Day 2-A will end on Tuesday, February 24th @ 10:00 PM EST. Professor Kashika The bones burned well. That was the one mercy. Stalchildren were not like ordinary dead things. Bury them and they came back. Scatter them and they came back. But fire — proper fire, hot enough and long enough — unmade them in a way that stuck. Professor Kashika had confirmed this through experiment two years ago when a particularly bold Stalchild had wandered through the embassy's east window and she'd had nothing on hand but a lantern and her own considerable irritation. She'd written it up afterward. Ishala had not been surprised by the methodology. She had, by now, stopped being surprised by most of Kashika's methodologies. The courtyard was full of smoke. Kashika stood at the edge of it with her notebook open and her hair escaping its braid in every direction, watching the pyre and making notes about burn rate. Behind her, Ishala cleaned her blade on a scrap of cloth with the economical care of someone who had cleaned a great many blades over the years. "Thirty-seven," Kashika said. "Thirty-eight," Ishala corrected. "You missed the one in the east garden." Kashika made the correction. "Thirty-eight Stalchildren, mobilized, coordinated, sent against a single target." She drew a line under the number. "Someone organized them. They don't do that on their own." "No." Ishala sheathed the blade. "They don't." The smoke rose in a dark column over the palace walls. In the distance — from the north, from the direction of Clock Town — the sky had a quality Kashika didn't like. Too bright for this hour. Too orange. She had been not-looking at it for the last several hours with the practiced discipline of someone who understood that looking at it would make it harder to work. "She'll be all right," Ishala said. Not for the first time. "You don't know that." "The monkeys are fast. And the Queen is not a fool." Kashika closed her notebook. "The monkeys are fast and the Queen is not a fool and we are standing in her burning courtyard at dawn with thirty-eight piles of ash where her palace guard used to be." She pressed the notebook against her sternum. "I ran the calculations last night. The moon is accelerating. Not quickly — not yet — but the rate is not stable. If it continues—" She stopped. "If it continues," Ishala said evenly, "you'll figure out something." "I am a physicist, Ishala. Not a—" "I know what you are." Ishala came up beside her. She was a head taller, and she had the particular quality of stillness that Gerudo warriors developed over years of training in the desert, the kind that felt less like the absence of movement and more like the presence of something waiting to move. "I also know what you'll do." Kashika looked at her. "And what is that?" "You'll stand in this courtyard and list the reasons it's impossible." Ishala's voice was matter-of-fact. Not unkind, just precise, the way she was precise about most things. "And then you'll go inside and start working on how to do it anyway. Because that's what you do. It's what you've always done." She paused. "It's why they came for me. Before all this started." Kashika went still. "You told me they approached you. You didn't tell me what they said." The silence lasted a breath too long. "They showed me the moon," Ishala said. "A vision. I don't know how — some mask they had. In it, the moon had already fallen. Clock Town was—" She didn't finish that sentence. "They said it was inevitable. That anyone with eyes to see had already accepted it. That the only question was whether you faced the end as a coward or a soldier." Her jaw tightened slightly. "I told them they had mistaken me for someone without options and left." "And then they sent the Stalchildren." "Then they sent the Stalchildren." Kashika was quiet for a moment. The pyre crackled. A monkey screamed somewhere deep in the swamp — distant, not distress, the high territorial call they used to mark direction — and both women turned their heads toward it. "She's alive," Ishala said. "I know." Kashika opened her notebook again. "I know." They heard the boats before they saw them. The flat wooden knock of a hull against the dock posts carried well over the swamp water, followed by voices — the particular sound of a large number of people trying to be quiet simultaneously, which produced a noise all its own. Ishala had two Deku scouts positioned at the outer gate. The gate itself was solid old timber, twice the height of a man, wrapped in living vines that the Deku cultivated deliberately — they served as a secondary alarm system, sensitive enough to tremble when someone put weight on the bridge. The bridge was trembling. Considerably. The gate opened on the first vanguard group and kept opening as more came through behind it. Kashika watched them cross the outer bridge: a young Clock Ward with a cut on her brow and the posture of someone who had been in charge of things all night and was not quite ready to stop yet; soldiers and civilians mixed together without the usual social distance between the two; a Deku scrub — Hylian-sized, wrong for a Deku Scrub, and moving with the visible self-consciousness of someone wearing a body they hadn't chosen. Several others who had the particular look of people who had recently fought something and won and were still deciding how they felt about it. The Ward commander reached the courtyard and looked at the smoking pyres and then at Kashika and said: "Professor Kashika?" "Yes." "Danna. Acting commander, Clock Ward southern escort." She looked at the smoke again. "We saw this from the swamp road. We thought—" "The palace is intact." Kashika gestured at the pyre. "Stalchildren. Overnight. We dealt with them." A pause. "The Queen is a different matter." The exchange that followed was not quick, but it was thorough. Danna had a soldier's instinct for information — she delivered hers clearly and received Kashika's in the same spirit, without interrupting and without the kind of visible horror that slowed things down. Clock Town evacuated. South gate the only clean exit. Hundreds still on the swamp road waiting for boats. The moon. The mask. The Dreamers with their branded wrists and their fused faces. A girl who had worn a hero's mask and couldn't take it off, from what she gathered from that Squircle fellow. Kashika wrote as Danna talked. Ishala listened and said nothing, which was her version of paying close attention. When Danna finished, there was a silence. "Majora's Mask," Kashika said. "Yes." "Stolen." "Yes." She wrote that down too, drew a box around it, and looked at Ishala. Ishala looked back. An entire conversation passed between them in the span of three seconds — the kind that only happened between people who had been in each other's company long enough to develop a shared shorthand for catastrophe. Kashika closed her notebook. "The palace will take your people. All of them." She turned to the nearest Deku staff member, a senior attendant who had been standing at a respectful distance throughout this conversation with the practiced patience of his profession. "Mako. Dormitories, full capacity. And tell the kitchens to start — everything. Whatever we have." Mako bowed and departed at a brisk shuffle. "We have eight boats we can put on the water," Ishala said to Danna. "Not tourist craft — our embassy security fleet. Flat-bottomed, six oars each. Send two back now and two more in thirty minutes. We'll have everyone across before midday." Danna's shoulders dropped a fraction. Just a fraction. "Thank you." "Come," Kashika said, and turned toward the palace entrance. "I'll show you where to put people. Then I need to find the Apprentice." The Deku Palace did not look like a human building. It did not try to. The outer gate gave way to the entry bridge — planks of pale cedar spanning the bogwater, lily pads drifting below on both sides, the surface of the water carrying the morning light in pieces — and the bridge led to a second, inner gate, this one carved all over with the Deku Kingdom's emblems: the great flower, the spinning top, the crescent moon they'd adopted long before the moon became an urgent concern. The gates were open. Beyond them, the main corridor ran straight to the Royal Chamber: a high-ceilinged hall of close-set timber, walls of living wood that had been trained and shaped over generations, the grain running in deliberate patterns that caught the torchlight differently at different hours. Vegetable plots ran along both sides between the columns. The Deku grew their food inside the palace walls the way other cultures grew flowers — as a matter of comfort as much as necessity. The smell was green and faintly sweet. The inner gardens opened off either side of the corridor — wide, tiered spaces where platforms of compacted soil rose on climbing vines, patrolled on normal days by guards who had, currently, more important things to do. The guard stations were empty. The gardens were not: Deku staff were already moving through them with the organized efficiency of people who had been given a task they understood, rolling out sleeping pallets from the storage rooms beneath the raised beds, carrying linens from the dormitory wing in stacked armloads. The dormitories themselves were built along the palace's eastern face, long rooms with low beds of woven grass that smelled of the particular clean smell of things dried in open air. Small. Warm. The Deku ran their buildings at a temperature that their visitors sometimes found close, but close meant warm, and warm meant sleep, and most of the people coming through the gate had not slept in close to a full day. "Families with children in the east dormitory," Kashika said, walking. She did not slow down for the tour; people could follow or not. "Injured in the anteroom off the Royal Chamber — the floor is flat, easier to lay people down. The Chamber itself we'll use as a common room, but the Queen's seat remains untouched." She paused at a junction. "She would have objected to that, incidentally. She won't be objecting to anything at the moment." Kashika kept walking. The Royal Chamber opened wide at the corridor's end — vaulted ceiling, the great flowering throne at the far wall, currently empty, the carved wood of the dais still and formal. The boiling punishment pot had been covered with a cloth. Under the circumstances, this seemed like the right call. Guards were setting up long tables across the floor, trestle-style, stretching from the base of the dais almost to the doors. Through the chamber's side arch, the kitchens were already making noise. "Eat," Kashika said, to the room, to anyone listening. "Sleep. The dormitories will be ready within the hour. If you have injuries you haven't addressed, the anteroom." She stopped at the center of the chamber and turned to face the stream of exhausted people coming through the corridor behind her. "The moon is not falling tonight." A pause. "Tonight, you are safe." She said it with enough certainty that several people in the doorway stopped moving for a moment. She believed, more or less, about sixty percent of it. That was enough for tonight. She went to find the girl with the Deku mask that wouldn't come off. RP Quest: Explore the Deku Palace, get something to eat, and get some rest until the morning. (5) Wahrheit: Araris, Mistfallen, coco, TJ, Divergent, (2) Hoid Slayer: Archer, Doc12, (2) Archer: Wonko, Hoid Slayer, (2) Mistfallen: Wahrheit, TUM, (1) Coder: Stick, @Wahrheitswächter vanished mysteriously during the boat ride and was removed from the Loop. The Postman's Hat remains donned and Night PMs will be allowed to be delivered in the Day. Player List 0 Amanuensis Ap the Apprentice 1 @The Unknown Order Heroshi 2 @Araris Valerian Arenta 3 @Wahrheitswächter Wahi 4 @Ashbringer Coliver 5 @coco.pudding Amora 6 @|TJ| Cosmetica 7 @Stick. meeee 8 @Haelbarde Link the Goron 9 @Wonko the Sane Zymni 10 @Doc12 Thistle 11 @Burnt Spaghetti Cindra 12 @CoderDrag0n8 Squircle 13 @Mistfallen Soldier Kieran 14 @Divergent Gor Elam the Goron 15 @Archer Ouae the Zora 16 @Hoid Slayer Avery Edited February 24 by Amanuensis 6
Myst He/Him Posted February 24 Posted February 24 Okay, despite checking in twice before rollover to see what was happening, I have no idea what happened. I’m gonna go review that. And be back with some thoughts
Amanuensis he/him Posted February 24 Author Posted February 24 Sorry that one took so long now to go rush to finish my maths 1
Divergent He/Him Posted February 24 Posted February 24 I have like, 5 RP posts to make, so I guess, that's something I'll work on tonight
Archer he/him Posted February 24 Posted February 24 y'all have better things to spend your money on than sending me six PMs I definitely misunderstood how those work, btw * monopoly waterbug pretzel
Ashbringer he/him Posted February 24 Posted February 24 No one's spent a PM on me, that's probably a good sign. Maladaptive rosemary marmit!
Amanuensis he/him Posted February 24 Author Posted February 24 (edited) Just to clarify my OP announcement re:PMs, you can send messages tonight as well. Same 500 word cap divided in 100 word increments (200 to one player, 100 to three players, w/e combination). I felt that PMs were too weak in their current state, given all the other limitations. Edited February 24 by Amanuensis
CoderDrag0n8 He/They Posted February 24 Posted February 24 1 hour ago, Amanuensis said: LG110, Night 2-A: "Safe" Harbor Day 2-A will end on Tuesday, February 24th @ 10:00 PM EST. Professor Kashika The bones burned well. That was the one mercy. Stalchildren were not like ordinary dead things. Bury them and they came back. Scatter them and they came back. But fire — proper fire, hot enough and long enough — unmade them in a way that stuck. Professor Kashika had confirmed this through experiment two years ago when a particularly bold Stalchild had wandered through the embassy's east window and she'd had nothing on hand but a lantern and her own considerable irritation. She'd written it up afterward. Ishala had not been surprised by the methodology. She had, by now, stopped being surprised by most of Kashika's methodologies. The courtyard was full of smoke. Kashika stood at the edge of it with her notebook open and her hair escaping its braid in every direction, watching the pyre and making notes about burn rate. Behind her, Ishala cleaned her blade on a scrap of cloth with the economical care of someone who had cleaned a great many blades over the years. "Thirty-seven," Kashika said. "Thirty-eight," Ishala corrected. "You missed the one in the east garden." Kashika made the correction. "Thirty-eight Stalchildren, mobilized, coordinated, sent against a single target." She drew a line under the number. "Someone organized them. They don't do that on their own." "No." Ishala sheathed the blade. "They don't." The smoke rose in a dark column over the palace walls. In the distance — from the north, from the direction of Clock Town — the sky had a quality Kashika didn't like. Too bright for this hour. Too orange. She had been not-looking at it for the last several hours with the practiced discipline of someone who understood that looking at it would make it harder to work. "She'll be all right," Ishala said. Not for the first time. "You don't know that." "The monkeys are fast. And the Queen is not a fool." Kashika closed her notebook. "The monkeys are fast and the Queen is not a fool and we are standing in her burning courtyard at dawn with thirty-eight piles of ash where her palace guard used to be." She pressed the notebook against her sternum. "I ran the calculations last night. The moon is accelerating. Not quickly — not yet — but the rate is not stable. If it continues—" She stopped. "If it continues," Ishala said evenly, "you'll figure out something." "I am a physicist, Ishala. Not a—" "I know what you are." Ishala came up beside her. She was a head taller, and she had the particular quality of stillness that Gerudo warriors developed over years of training in the desert, the kind that felt less like the absence of movement and more like the presence of something waiting to move. "I also know what you'll do." Kashika looked at her. "And what is that?" "You'll stand in this courtyard and list the reasons it's impossible." Ishala's voice was matter-of-fact. Not unkind, just precise, the way she was precise about most things. "And then you'll go inside and start working on how to do it anyway. Because that's what you do. It's what you've always done." She paused. "It's why they came for me. Before all this started." Kashika went still. "You told me they approached you. You didn't tell me what they said." The silence lasted a breath too long. "They showed me the moon," Ishala said. "A vision. I don't know how — some mask they had. In it, the moon had already fallen. Clock Town was—" She didn't finish that sentence. "They said it was inevitable. That anyone with eyes to see had already accepted it. That the only question was whether you faced the end as a coward or a soldier." Her jaw tightened slightly. "I told them they had mistaken me for someone without options and left." "And then they sent the Stalchildren." "Then they sent the Stalchildren." Kashika was quiet for a moment. The pyre crackled. A monkey screamed somewhere deep in the swamp — distant, not distress, the high territorial call they used to mark direction — and both women turned their heads toward it. "She's alive," Ishala said. "I know." Kashika opened her notebook again. "I know." They heard the boats before they saw them. The flat wooden knock of a hull against the dock posts carried well over the swamp water, followed by voices — the particular sound of a large number of people trying to be quiet simultaneously, which produced a noise all its own. Ishala had two Deku scouts positioned at the outer gate. The gate itself was solid old timber, twice the height of a man, wrapped in living vines that the Deku cultivated deliberately — they served as a secondary alarm system, sensitive enough to tremble when someone put weight on the bridge. The bridge was trembling. Considerably. The gate opened on the first vanguard group and kept opening as more came through behind it. Kashika watched them cross the outer bridge: a young Clock Ward with a cut on her brow and the posture of someone who had been in charge of things all night and was not quite ready to stop yet; soldiers and civilians mixed together without the usual social distance between the two; a Deku scrub — Hylian-sized, wrong for a Deku Scrub, and moving with the visible self-consciousness of someone wearing a body they hadn't chosen. Several others who had the particular look of people who had recently fought something and won and were still deciding how they felt about it. The Ward commander reached the courtyard and looked at the smoking pyres and then at Kashika and said: "Professor Kashika?" "Yes." "Danna. Acting commander, Clock Ward southern escort." She looked at the smoke again. "We saw this from the swamp road. We thought—" "The palace is intact." Kashika gestured at the pyre. "Stalchildren. Overnight. We dealt with them." A pause. "The Queen is a different matter." The exchange that followed was not quick, but it was thorough. Danna had a soldier's instinct for information — she delivered hers clearly and received Kashika's in the same spirit, without interrupting and without the kind of visible horror that slowed things down. Clock Town evacuated. South gate the only clean exit. Hundreds still on the swamp road waiting for boats. The moon. The mask. The Dreamers with their branded wrists and their fused faces. A girl who had worn a hero's mask and couldn't take it off, from what she gathered from that Squircle fellow. Kashika wrote as Danna talked. Ishala listened and said nothing, which was her version of paying close attention. When Danna finished, there was a silence. "Majora's Mask," Kashika said. "Yes." "Stolen." "Yes." She wrote that down too, drew a box around it, and looked at Ishala. Ishala looked back. An entire conversation passed between them in the span of three seconds — the kind that only happened between people who had been in each other's company long enough to develop a shared shorthand for catastrophe. Kashika closed her notebook. "The palace will take your people. All of them." She turned to the nearest Deku staff member, a senior attendant who had been standing at a respectful distance throughout this conversation with the practiced patience of his profession. "Mako. Dormitories, full capacity. And tell the kitchens to start — everything. Whatever we have." Mako bowed and departed at a brisk shuffle. "We have eight boats we can put on the water," Ishala said to Danna. "Not tourist craft — our embassy security fleet. Flat-bottomed, six oars each. Send two back now and two more in thirty minutes. We'll have everyone across before midday." Danna's shoulders dropped a fraction. Just a fraction. "Thank you." "Come," Kashika said, and turned toward the palace entrance. "I'll show you where to put people. Then I need to find the Apprentice." The Deku Palace did not look like a human building. It did not try to. The outer gate gave way to the entry bridge — planks of pale cedar spanning the bogwater, lily pads drifting below on both sides, the surface of the water carrying the morning light in pieces — and the bridge led to a second, inner gate, this one carved all over with the Deku Kingdom's emblems: the great flower, the spinning top, the crescent moon they'd adopted long before the moon became an urgent concern. The gates were open. Beyond them, the main corridor ran straight to the Royal Chamber: a high-ceilinged hall of close-set timber, walls of living wood that had been trained and shaped over generations, the grain running in deliberate patterns that caught the torchlight differently at different hours. Vegetable plots ran along both sides between the columns. The Deku grew their food inside the palace walls the way other cultures grew flowers — as a matter of comfort as much as necessity. The smell was green and faintly sweet. The inner gardens opened off either side of the corridor — wide, tiered spaces where platforms of compacted soil rose on climbing vines, patrolled on normal days by guards who had, currently, more important things to do. The guard stations were empty. The gardens were not: Deku staff were already moving through them with the organized efficiency of people who had been given a task they understood, rolling out sleeping pallets from the storage rooms beneath the raised beds, carrying linens from the dormitory wing in stacked armloads. The dormitories themselves were built along the palace's eastern face, long rooms with low beds of woven grass that smelled of the particular clean smell of things dried in open air. Small. Warm. The Deku ran their buildings at a temperature that their visitors sometimes found close, but close meant warm, and warm meant sleep, and most of the people coming through the gate had not slept in close to a full day. "Families with children in the east dormitory," Kashika said, walking. She did not slow down for the tour; people could follow or not. "Injured in the anteroom off the Royal Chamber — the floor is flat, easier to lay people down. The Chamber itself we'll use as a common room, but the Queen's seat remains untouched." She paused at a junction. "She would have objected to that, incidentally. She won't be objecting to anything at the moment." Kashika kept walking. The Royal Chamber opened wide at the corridor's end — vaulted ceiling, the great flowering throne at the far wall, currently empty, the carved wood of the dais still and formal. The boiling punishment pot had been covered with a cloth. Under the circumstances, this seemed like the right call. Guards were setting up long tables across the floor, trestle-style, stretching from the base of the dais almost to the doors. Through the chamber's side arch, the kitchens were already making noise. "Eat," Kashika said, to the room, to anyone listening. "Sleep. The dormitories will be ready within the hour. If you have injuries you haven't addressed, the anteroom." She stopped at the center of the chamber and turned to face the stream of exhausted people coming through the corridor behind her. "The moon is not falling tonight." A pause. "Tonight, you are safe." She said it with enough certainty that several people in the doorway stopped moving for a moment. She believed, more or less, about sixty percent of it. That was enough for tonight. She went to find the girl with the Deku mask that wouldn't come off. RP Quest: Explore the Deku Palace, get something to eat, and get some rest until the morning. (5) Wahrheit: Araris, Mistfallen, coco, TJ, Divergent, (2) Hoid Slayer: Archer, Doc12, (2) Archer: Wonko, Hoid Slayer, (2) Mistfallen: Wahrheit, TUM, (1) Coder: Stick, @Wahrheitswächter vanished mysteriously during the boat ride and was removed from the Loop. The Postman's Hat remains donned and Night PMs will be allowed to be delivered in the Day. Player List 0 Amanuensis Ap the Apprentice 1 @The Unknown Order Heroshi 2 @Araris Valerian Arenta 3 @Wahrheitswächter Wahi 4 @Ashbringer Coliver 5 @coco.pudding Amora 6 @|TJ| Cosmetica 7 @Stick. meeee 8 @Haelbarde Link the Goron 9 @Wonko the Sane Zymni 10 @Doc12 Thistle 11 @Burnt Spaghetti Cindra 12 @CoderDrag0n8 Squircle 13 @Mistfallen Soldier Kieran 14 @Divergent Gor Elam the Goron 15 @Archer Ouae the Zora 16 @Hoid Slayer Avery Squricle waited with Ap. Kashika would come soon, and Squircle had enough exitement for today. - - - 48 minutes ago, Archer said: y'all have better things to spend your money on than sending me six PMs I definitely misunderstood how those work, btw * monopoly waterbug pretzel daytime seven minecraft enter option misunderstood
Ashbringer he/him Posted February 24 Posted February 24 2 hours ago, Doc12 said: Thistle looked up, there was a (I believe you're a zora?) woman offering her hands, looking slightly glassy-eyed, the way Thistle felt. They took the woman's hands, and though Thistle's own hands were also trembling they steadied each other. "Thank you for coming, friend. Breathe for me. In and out. We can help best if we're not panicking either." When Coliver's breathing came a little steadier, Thistle put her to work. "Bandages are in short supply, and I'm trying to conserve the hearty food for serious injuries. Folks have been volunteering some of their garments to rip up for bandages - you can help with ripping those up, or if you know herb-lore you can help me find yarrow to stem bleeding. Can you do that for me, Coliver?" Another figure, also looking lost. Thistle took a deep breath. "Hey, you too. You're with us, and you're healthy. Do you want to be useful?" The man might have nodded, or maybe they were just shaking. Either way. "Keep watch for us or help us rip up bandages." (Yep, all Zora) "I know yarrow. At least I'm pretty sure I do. Tiny poof flowers, little triangle leaves?" Coliver said. "I'm a baker, I've made herb cakes a few times... didn't know it had more medicinal purpose than that. But I can tell what plants can be cooked or eaten raw." She didn't want to do bandages again. And she liked her overalls, even if that thought made a part of her recoil. Shouldn't she be grateful? Or was that just her trying to be proactive? Night was falling again, and they'd been walking for most of the day. "And... thanks. I needed that. Makazi probably needs it more, but she's... not ready yet." Coliver tried to smile, though she wasn't sure how far it reached. She turned to a nearby patch of plants in the forest - no yarrow, not that easily, but she was pretty sure she'd used some of the berries there for scones. One careful bite: yep, honeysuckle. Not terribly sustaining, but any food in a famine. "Avery, do you know anyone who hasn't gotten something to eat? These are edible." @Hoid Slayer 2
Myst He/Him Posted February 24 Posted February 24 Okay, I think I understand the rollover chaos now. @Archer @Doc12 yall mind summarizing the Hoid Votes for me? From what I could tell it was mostly because he wasn’t being remotely helpful plus he was acting like the Andor Game. ——— Kieran speared a small wriggling thing. “it’s not much, but hopefully it’ll be a bit tasty” It wasn’t. As Kieran slowly roasted it over a small fire, it kept giving off this weird smell. Not bad enough to vomit, but enough for discomfort. After the meat was cooked, Kieran took a bite, and immediately spit it out, coughing. “I.. Am never eating that… Thing… Ever again” “I should meet back up with the others, maybe they’ll have found something edible” 1
Burnt Spaghetti she/her Posted February 24 Posted February 24 Cindra finally let herself relax and little as she sent off the child shed been watching to be with the other children. The Deku palace. She hadn't been here before but was so very grateful to have shelter after yesterdays events. They could sit, they could rest, they could even eat. She wasnt really hungry just yet though, and intended to get some food a little later. Instead she found a seat to the side of the hall and pulled out her flute. While the mood was certainly better than before, there was still this awful tension, there was still the weight of grief. She couldn't fight, but maybe she could at least cheer some people up. She was an entertainer. No matter how grim things get, she should try and keep things optimistic. And so she began to play, playing the same tunes shed play around the markets oh so often. At first it wasnt very confident, she was entirely relying on memory so the notes were not perfect, but they were there, and they were familiar. 1
Stick. she/her Posted February 24 Posted February 24 this is going to be a long game i will probably just not catch up and focus more on the current happenings since im alr quite busy irl from d2 ive gathered the following ppl volunteered to be 'exed to be cleared' in the first half of last turn: archer, wonko, coder (lmk if i missed anyone) my gut says there's 1 elim in there, because often elims will feel pressured, almost obligated, to volunteer with a 'me too' in these scenarios if someone else has already posited the idea, for fear of being perceived as suspicious for not acknowledging it. for this reason i think archer (the first volunteer) is least likely to be e amongst the three. it's definitely not impossible based on archer's meta but id let him cook i saw some discussion around people who could be e/e with wahr (off the top of my head divergent mentioned archer potentionally) and imo since we only need 1 e to win this loop it might be smart to actually exe someone who's NEVER e/e with wahr so we're covering all bases. thoughts? 10 hours ago, Burnt Spaghetti said: Also Stick! Hai! Its been forever, Good to see you, good luck on the catch up of thread! That does make me a bit less sus of Honors ghost then if they genuinely didn't have time, does also mean that theres not much to go off with stick, so definitely a look into later, and probably fine for now i think. hey burnt! when was the last time we played? it mustve been like 8 or 9 years ago. nice to see u hope ur having fun with that one mask hint hint wink wink
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