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Kasimir

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  1. Kasimir
    Awesome! This is slightly embarrassing but I've run a search for 'Mistrunner' on NaNo but can't find you there. D'you have a profile link, by any chance?
  2. Kasimir
    Anyone want to be writing buddies on the NaNo site? I'm RangerofAnor there, if anyone's interested. I can definitely understand that. Every time I do NaNo, I have always had periods of regret, because I find that it doesn't encourage me to produce quality work. I know they say to just fill words and to edit later, but I honestly do not like it and find it suboptimal. I like my writing to be considered and careful, even on the first draft. But my biggest problem right now is: A. I tend to write more fanfiction than original work, and B. I don't have the discipline to sit down and produce something. In that sense, NaNo is great for me because it gives me a month I can set aside to focus on original work, and even better, to do so in the company of lots of people making the same journey For that reason, I'm participating.
  3. Kasimir
    it's 8 minutes to the beginning of NaNoWriMo where I am. Anyone else taking part in the madness here? (I'm tempted to just count the words I'm using for my papers and thesis and projects...)
  4. Kasimir
    I'm tired. RP later. I did deliver, didn't I? Action Two:
  5. Kasimir
    And have more RP from Nax. I'm almost done with both Nax and Ani now! Anaximander Heron #5: Radioactive Anaximander Heron #6: Storm Front Anaximander Heron #7: Eye of the Tiger Anaximander Heron #8: Night of the Hunter
  6. Kasimir
    What are you talking about, Kas? Go study >>
  7. Kasimir
    Remember I said I owed some RP from Aniketos Heron and Anaximander Heron, among others? Well, have some of my stockpile: Aniketos Heron #6: A Sword-Day, A Red Day Aniketos Heron #7: Lost Stars Aniketos Heron #8: If I Drown Tonight
  8. Kasimir
    I've been given permission to make one brief, last post explaining my decision, in particular, since I was rather active over the past cycle. As I've alluded to here and elsewhere on the forums, it boiled down to a bunch of simple factors: 1. I overestimated how busy I was getting in the upcoming weeks, due to some deadlines and assignments coming in late. That really didn't help matters. 2. I normally don't have much difficulty balancing work and play, but truth to be told, my motivation's been running low this semester, and given how fun and challenging SE is, I found it causing issues with my focus and how much time I'd planned to be spending on 17S. (For instance, I was supposed to be just making one contributive post a day, and spending the rest of the day on the work I was really supposed to be doing.) So that it was enabling my procrastinative tendencies was seriously problematic. 3. Yesterday, I received the results for a 40% exam for one of my courses. I have never before failed an exam until yesterday, and now if I wish to pass the course, I absolutely need to ace the two exams upcoming next week. I am massively disappointed in myself, and in what was going on. I don't like to walk out on a game, especially when someone else could need the pinch-hitter more. I also dislike encouraging the practice of signing up for a game you know you can't be active for. But 3. made it such that I think I can no longer afford to continue like this. I apologise to all of you for ducking out on a game halfway, especially Gamma, and thank you for the fun I've had. Keep carrying on and keep having fun Also, Ripple: you did deserve a second chance Make the best of it, will you? So long, folks, and thanks for all the fish. If you've got any luck, please send it my way: I badly need it to rescue my grades.
  9. Kasimir
    I have to admit I feel rather conflicted. On the one hand, I just don't see why Joe would lie about having been visited by someone, when that could still be found out upon questioning. (Going back to those who could have visited him: there is a possibility it could have been a Lurcher. As he has pointed out, I agree that it is unlikely he was visited by a Rioter or a Smoker, and a Soother is unlikely as this would require a Skaa Soother and a Village Smoker acting on Joe; alternatively, a Village Soother has little reason to Soothe Joe. A big possibility is therefore a Seeker, IMO. And I think the Seeker's value, for instance, strongly decreases over the game because they will have fewer and fewer charges left; more importantly, they only find a metal if someone is actually burning. If said person isn't burning, then the Seeker's just wasted a charge.) I suppose it's possible but it seems awfully chancy to me, if he identifies the person and they say they never targeted Joe. On the other hand, I'm slightly uncomfortable with Joe's connecting 'skaa vibes' to 'trying to cast suspicion on him'. For one, my modus operandi is less about focusing on suspects as focusing on inconsistencies and points of reasoning (mostly) that just don't make sense to me. For another, I think that it is a rather problematic criterion for suspicion/putative skaa-ness. Are you suspicious of every single person who pointed out flaws in your plan or that you could be lying, or who simply expressed some uncertainty about you, Joe? Because if you aren't suspicious of at least the set of people as follows: <Orlok, Creccio, Clanky>, then I must confess that despite having argued that I think we're on the same team, I'm starting to think I might have backed the wrong horse. Zephrer, thank you for the honesty then I suppose as one of the Urbain Inquisition, I can always condone not trusting me--or anyone. Especially not 100%
  10. Kasimir
    1. So, Joe. Zephrer has made an appeal to raw instinct; you've just used the vague term 'feels off'. Care to share with the class what that consists in? Or are you simply availing yourself of a cheap way to cast suspicion since I argued that we can't simply discount intuition? (Let me be clear, for those who aren't following: I don't think we should sneer on intuition but I think it needs to be a starting point, as I've argued. In particular, a starting point for interrogation and a starting point for discussion. And some of that does include voting. This does not entail that I also claim that intuition can be taken simply as it is; I certainly don't, and we sure have the right to challenge it. To see why I think so, it's easy: let's just imagine an entire game where we play by nothing but instinct.) Storms, Zephrer. What do you think triggers that raw instinct? 2.Clanky, Araris: Maybe I should have made my position clearer, as I will do now. I think that second votes that do not add anything to the table need to be challenged, as they are an easy way for Eliminators to simply slap another vote onto a person and roughly say nothing much different from what was said before. And as I see it, stacking another vote for Araris for the question, "Why Meandbooks?" does not actually add much. I consider it a cheap question, and as such, I feel it ought not to pass without question. (Needless to say, the claim that we should question these kinds of occurrences is a subtly different claim from the claim that these kinds of occurrences are bad/wrong. Obviously if we want to get around to lynching anyone, we are eventually going to have to put a second vote. But I am not fond of uninformative second votes (or at least ones that present little information.) ) To remain consistent with what I have said, I am going to ask Venture Mistborn to be more forthcoming about what grounds their suspicions.
  11. Kasimir
    Seconded. I've realised that my motivation to work is at an all-time low this semester and SE games just encourage self-destructive, procrastinative behaviour in myself. Requesting spec doc as well, Chief.
  12. Kasimir
    Well, thank you Araris (yes, I have greened you out in my original post as well, won’t be making that same mistake again). As I have a paper due somewhere in the hazy boundary between tonight and tomorrow afternoon (gotta love extensions), I’m probably not going to be able to come back on and do more analysis. So I’m going to try and bring up some issues that I think are relevant; quality over quantity, and all that. 1. Joe: I think your assumption that you were visited by an inquisitor is unwarranted. The skaa knew Maili wasn’t one of them, but I don’t think your preferred conclusion, that they concluded you were honest necessarily follows from that premise. Innocent players have been wrong all the time. Storms, how many times have any of us blundered in previous games and trusted someone we shouldn’t have or overstated our claims? (Yes, Wyrm, I’m looking right at you.) The knowledge that Maili was innocent implies that Maili had no reason to lie. It does not entail that you were not lying to begin with, or that Maili could not be mistaken. In fact, the only way we could perhaps reach the conclusion you want us to draw is if we add the additional premise that Maili knows you too well. You have claimed this, and I have alluded to this, but do the skaa buy that? Remember, you have a reputation as an ‘experienced player’, and presumably, for craftiness. (I use scare-quotes as I am starting to feel very uncomfortable with how the term has come to be employed in SE.) I don’t think it’s clear, and so I don’t think we’re entitled to this assumption. The upshot is that I’m asking you don’t reveal their name to us (I doubt you were going to anyway) but that you keep a close eye on them. Wait and see, in other words. At this point, I am slightly inclined to think you’re on Team Good. On the one hand, I think your reasoning about Meandbooks makes sense, and it’s certainly been in your style in Village play to continuously come up with the (if I dare say; wackiest) plans. That’s consistent at least. I don’t really see you having any reasoning to lie either about having been visited, if only because if you have to name a name (though to be fair, it’s unlikely to happen) and you’ve lied about it, that would be incredibly awkward. Unfortunately, I don’t think we can reason from Meandbooks (likely) not being skaa to any conclusion about those people involved in the last-minute voting, since there was no real bandwagon. We know that Ripple and (likely) Books are non-skaa, but we can’t exactly conclude that there was no skaa involvement in the lynch, simply because the people who were are Orlok, Adavantos, and Ripple. We don’t need to talk about Ripple. As I’ve previously mentioned, I argued that distancing himself from the lynch would be perfectly consistent with Orlok’s being skaa. (It could, of course, also be due to Orlok being a rather decent sort, which I would say he is.) However, it does incline me to think somewhat more positively about Adavantos, as he threw a vote onto Phat to make it a tie in order to save Ripple. I think a skaa would prefer to cement a lynch, and even that would be rather risky, as people tend to look askance at last-minute voters who cause a mislynch. [My point being that if he felt it was too risky to force a lynch, he seems to have no reason to even intervene, although one could argue that he counted on the vote being past the time limit and not valid.] I’m more convinced by the former than the latter. 2. Creccio: Thanks for replying. I must admit that I in part wanted to see how you would react; as I’ve mentioned, words like ‘this argument doesn’t roll for me’ are quite vague, and it’s often worth the effort to press someone to say a little more about them, lest they end up being about as useful as instinct. While you’re puzzlingly defensive about this, especially since you previously invited us to interrogate everyone who voted for Ripple—yourself included, I am not inclined at this point to further press the issue. (To be fair, I was more concerned with arguing for the claim that instinct does play a role, rather than immediately condemning you solely on the grounds of having appealed to reasoning as opaque as instinct; apodictic evidence is so rarely obtained in SE that we’re better off not sitting around and waiting for it.) 3. Winter: I mean I am disagreeing with you. 4. Clanky: Any reason why you stacked a second vote on Araris, when he already had one on him? Could this be a convenient way to push someone for the lynch? Clanky already has one vote on him, so I don’t really want to be a hypocrite by stacking a second on him. 5. Maili’s death: it’s obvious, folks! Wyrm killed him! Wyrm has the Death Note! We’re doomed! Okay, more seriously: while I like to keep an open mind, I’m also a fan of the principle of parsimony. It seems to me that the most parsimonious explanation is in fact that it’s a fear kill. Let me put this in perspective: say Meta was in this game. He dies on Day 1. Would any of us really find this surprising or seek further explanations? No. He’s a dangerous player. He’s the kind of player you kill ASAP because you don’t want him sticking around to give you more problems later on. So I think the reason we keep digging for an extra explanation on why Maili died has to be phrased contrastively: why Maili? Why not ? Well, my understanding is that Maili has been doing pretty well in previous games of late. In particular, I suspect his success at manipulating everyone and just generally being a real pain in the pula probably scared a number of people who saw LG14. It’s just the same as how Wilson started getting attacked more after some of her landmark games. This sort of thing just happens: you play well, and you get boosted in terms of people’s threat perception, particularly if that watershed game was a recent one. And I think in Maili’s case, it was. And since I don’t find it surprising that Maili died in light of his recent achievements, (just as I don’t find it surprising that Alv is our resident Dodo, nor that Meta gets killed early, nor that Wilson attracts her own share of kills), I don’t see the need to further apply a contrast/foil “Why Maili and not X?” and search for more explanations. In fact, Clanky, I think your argument further supports my contention that it was a fear kill. If you are correct in your claim that “normally you don't target someone who is potentially going to get lynched”, (i.e. that it would not be the rational decision to target someone with suspicion on them for the kill), then that precisely indicates to me that our skaa were not thinking rationally but were strongly motivated by fear. And as I’ve argued, I do think Maili’s recent shenanigans supports that. Actually, scratch that. I am in fact going to slap down a second vote on Clanky. Why do you keep trying to running over Maili’s death again and again and turning it into the Mystery of the Cycle? Could it be that you are in fact a skaa trying to subtly connect Joe, Wyrm or myself to Maili’s death, thereby casting suspicion on us? Edited because link was not showing up. Also, long post is long. Sorry guys. I'll try to be more concise next time :/
  13. Kasimir
    Thank you for speaking up, Zeph I want to concur with Winter and Clanky here: instinct matters. You say instinct points you towards several people. Who are they? Why are they flagging your instincts? Even if instincts are unformed and unspecific, the more you interrogate your feelings, the more you can get out of them. Sharing this with us--even if it's as small as who you instinctively suspect--still gives us another angle on which to discuss things. Remember, we don't want to tunnel onto only a few options and issues. While discussion itself is selective and focused, it always helps when we have more fodder for discussion, and even knowing who your instincts are pointing to is something to consider: do other people feel the same way about that person? Why/why not? Drawing these connections are especially helpful for later in the game. In addition, Clanky is correct to point out that we do not always have concrete evidence before a lynch. Many times, a lynch is pretty much a bit of evidence, crossing our fingers, and hoping for the best. Sometimes, we're lucky and we have a smoking gun. Not always. And on Day 1 and Day 2, these are the times when things are especially tenuous; cases against a player, if they exist, are more or less stitched together by instinct, with bunches of holes. Last, I am going to differ from Winter. Even with the understanding that Ripple wasn't supposed to be lynched (GM error happened), her lynch was partly a matter of instinct. Alv acknowledged as much when he claimed that his vote on her was nothing more than unsubstantiable instinct. I want to challenge some of Creccio's implicit reasoning as well when they claimed that: What is 'good reasoning'? 'Does not roll for me' is an appeal to intuition or at least deeply-held personal standards of evidence that are not articulateable (if you can articulate them, I'd be glad to here them) and which therefore function just like instinct because they are not intersubjectively accessible grounds for the rest of us. - My point is, we shouldn't eschew instinct as a reason for making moves at times, or to even kickstart discussion. It's sometimes unavoidable, particularly early in the game, and sometimes instinct can work very well. It can, more importantly, form a good starting point for discussion, or at least something for which we can go back and look at a few cycles on. Not all of us are great at analysis or have the patience for it. I can respect that. With the work on my plate, my attention span for these things has been increasingly short, of late. But I intend to try, and I intend to at least share my impressions and instincts--even if I have to carefully earmark them as such. - ...Okay, I'm going to stop procrastinating and get back to that paper on privacy rights now :/
  14. Kasimir
    So, Ripple is dead, and it's unclear if she was even supposed to die, given Adavantos pointing out that her retraction only occurred after the cycle ended. I came back only after the cycle ended, and I generally do not like to post after the cycle is supposed to be closed, so I am going to have to retrace a little old territory here without the context of the previous Cycle. I will try and condense the less pertinent bits, now. Thanks, Alv, for pointing out that we're supposed to green our original vote as well. I now feel like a right moron for having just skimmed the other parts of the rules and blithely assuming that retractions work the same way they did in previous games played. I somewhat expected that you held back for information-gathering purposes, but it's good to hear that, anyway. My bigger concern was more or less the timeline, but I consider the issue to be straightened out now. 1. I must confess that I am rather disappointed with how the Ripple issue ended up. Setting aside the issue of the GM error, I am uncomfortable with the idea that a player has ended up feeling seriously attacked and hurt by our seizing on an error--and even worse, the error turns out to have been a genuine one. I at least feel that it was not worth getting a skaa--doing, as it were, our part to 'win', if this is the means by which we do this. Orlok claims that he raised the issue because it deserved some attention but did not intend a lynch train. The fact that he retracted and attempted to put a vote on Joe instead seems to support this, but I'm not immediately convinced, as it's also a good way, I think, to instigate a lynch train and then absolve yourself of responsibility thereafter when a lynch ensues. So while I'd like to hear more from Orlok, he's already got a vote on him, and I'll move on. To be frank, Joe, your logic for voting Ripple works against you too: you claim you would not have voted for her if not for the number of people who have spoken up in her defense, ergo we would get information if she's skaa. It seems to me that given how prominent your mysterious plan was in prior discussion and given how swiftly Maili defended you and other people such as Clanky took positions on the matter, would we not gain as much information from lynching you? After all, while misreading the rules happens (as I myself have just done, with not changing the colour of my votes), your withdrawal of that plan after strident challenge about potentially wasting Lurcher charges can be cast in a rather fortuitous light. By that same logic for which we voted for Ripple, then, shouldn't we vote for you too? That seems to me to be rather problematic. I don't know what to make of Alv. It's not like we have much evidence on Day 1, and people go off guts just as much as anything else. 2. Quality! Enough on the Ripple affair. I want to challenge Araris on his reason for voting Meandbooks. While we do need to make sure that inactives are actually showing up in thread and contributing, I also note--as have others--that it's rather convenient to just show up in thread, slap a vote on an inactive, and leave. I won't deny that we do need to encourage each other to activity, but does this really help? Recall how players like Jasnah and Karlin would just camp and not care about votes slapped on them. In these kinds of cases, I argue that poke-voting isn't exactly effective. We don't just want everyone speaking up and discussing, quite frankly, we want people saying useful/fruitful things. And what do I mean by useful/fruitful? Well, a good start might be talking about their positions on various disputes that have come up in-thread and their various suspicions. In a sense, I am less suspicious of those who have the guts to commit to a position because in my opinion, an Eliminator must be careful not to appear too certain; they must be careful not to overcommit, because committing is risky. tldr; I consider poke-voting to be the most non-committal form of appearing to be participating. Although poke-voting is helpful, I want to see more participation over and above poke-voting. It's okay if you don't have much time: at least say something, in the time you do have to participate in this game. I don't want to add too much fire to the Sart-Clanky debate, but I do want to add that poking people is one way of helping, Sart, but not if we don't know anything else about what you're thinking. In this category of non-informativeness, I include, non-exhaustively, Zeph, Winter, Badger, polkinghorne, Nicocoberru, Alfa, Venture, Phat, Shallan, Deathclutch, Meandbooks, but I'd extend the worry to pretty much anyone. In fact, Winter is another major offender here: many, many posts, but none of them particularly helpful. I stress again, people: I'm not asking for yards of analysis. I'm not asking for the Wilson Monologues or for the Adavantos Papers. I'm just asking you make your own views heard. So: Keep talking, people! Discussion is our main weapon here. Discussion and analysis. Our two main weapons are discussion, analysis, and our shiny new spikes. Our *three* main weapons are...god, I'll just come in again. 3. Wyrm confirmed for holder of Death Note. Chief, can you please do me a favour and never use me in your examples of who might die? >> (Be interested in what you have to say about it, though.) Edited to bold persons of interest for easy reading.
  15. Kasimir
    Snatching a moment between classes. Maili, while I'm not sure about you, I'm not sure about anyone except myself right now, but I'm willing to buy your Joe-reading abilities at this point in time. Joe, I think that's an awfully tentative hope off which to work, much less to potentially lose a charge from each of our Lurchers over given the collective-action problem but I am going to reserve judgement for the moment. I don't have the time to go over the Ripple-brouhaha, but I do have a question for Alv. If you believed Joe to be an atium skaa making a sacrifice play, then why only interject later into the cycle? The danger that our Lurchers did not follow/see in time to change orders was real, due to timezones.
  16. Kasimir
    Welp. This is why I should not have signed up to join MR9, although admittedly, I didn’t know the week was going to get so bad. I stay off the Shard for a day or two to get my piracy paper done, and y’all are tearin’ up the thread like it’s the Second Coming of the Urbain Inquisition. What gives, folks? Anyway, I’m coming off having pulled an all-nighter and I have a second paper due on Thurs, (everpresent threat of thesis…) so: A. a day in the life of a final year student, B. I’m rusting exhausted, and am prone to rambling but will try to make at least one constructive comment. 1. I have made my position on Day One lynches clear several times over previous games, to the point I’ve given up on doing so for reasons. The core of my position is that I distinguish between a lynch discussion and the lynch: the former is obligatory, while the latter is not strictly necessary (although if, for instance, the game begins with a night cycle and a kill, then that’s a different story.) Furthermore, I think that discussion needs the threat of a lynch in order to be fruitful, but this condition is insufficient and only weakly necessary. [tldr; if we have already pre-determined that we won’t lynch anyone, then there are no stakes. There isn’t really any pressure to discussion. But just because we are slapping votes on people doesn’t mean we can’t withdraw them or finagle things so we get a tie: having voted does not necessitate a commitment to a lynch.] 2. The Joe-Clanky-lots-of-other-people debate has ended, because Joe went and pulled a Macen [=did not read rules properly] (j/k) Consequently, I’m not really keen on going over the whole ‘will this or will this not work’ issue because the point is now a moot one. However, I’m a little curious as to why Maili is so quick to trust Joe, because I sure as blazes wouldn’t trust Wyrm this much to stick my neck out for him, in particular on Day One, but perhaps you’ve played enough games together that you feel you have a good read on him? Anyway, Joe, since the plan has failed thanks to Rule of Gamma, I’d like to know how, exactly, based on your initial interpretation of the rules, you were planning on soliciting a Seeker to confirm with you about what sort of action you were targeted with. There’s no PMs in this game and you were not forthcoming with your plan. How were our Seekers supposed to read your mind and go with what you had thought about? For what it’s worth, have a Fact of the Day, courtesy of my paper on pirates: The Balangingi raiders used to drink blood “collected from the severed arms and opened veins of captives”, when they were really desperate and drinking seawater and their own pee just didn’t work anymore. So, this is kind of passé because Bear Grylls does that too, right? Well. In extremis, when they run out of food, they have also been known to eat their own poo. Yeah. Exactly what I said. They go through it (their poo) in search of “hard, re-edible grain called layagan” and then they wash that and eat it again, kind of like rabbits. Keep in mind that these maritime raiders could have raiding expeditions of up to three years, so that was a long time, and food/water deprivation was a pretty possible hazard. #stuffIlearninuni Edited for spelling. They're Balangingi, not Balangangi! Oh Lord, prof, I'm so sorry...
  17. Kasimir
    I got to admit, Great Lord, I really like it when you GM because you're about 12 hours apart from my timezone. It makes calculation real easy Also, close-reading, Maili Kendrick Erikell withdrew. I never said I was withdrawing, even though my activity level will undoubtedly suffer... - Koschei Jerzy watched as the looming form of the Inquisitor sat calmly in the adjacent cubicle--Wyrm's cubicle, he reminded himself sourly--long fingers smoothly carressing the hilt of an obsidian knife. He gripped the steel sheet in his hands and did his best to conceal any trace of emotion--anticipation, nervousness, ambition--as he studied the letters painstakingly scratched into the metal. Three days ago, Wyrm Heron had received just such an invitation from the Canton of Inquisition. One did not, he thought, simply decline such invitations. Not when you were an obligator in the Canton of Finance, doomed to forever go through dusty reports, checking for accounting errors and hints of more nefarious activity. Lady Verlaine, it was charged, was secretly bankrolling skaa rebels. Certainly, he could not uncover any signs of where the missing funds had gone to, and he had instead begun to suspect a lover on the side. There were many more mundane reasons as to why a House's Lady would siphon off her House's funds... None of which would endear him to his superiors, much less the Canton of Inquisition. No, they demanded results. And Wyrm Heron, that rusting fanatical maniac that he was, always delivered them. It was hard keeping up with the latest key performance indicators, but somehow, Wyrm Heron managed all of that with an ease that made Koschei have a stomachache to think about. He hadn't been surprised when Wyrm had received an invitation to join the Canton of Finance--he'd only been surprised that a similar invitation had come for himself, a few days later. He'd hoped that with Wyrm out of the way, his prospects of promotion would be higher. Now, they were non-existent. He resisted the urge to put his head in his hands in frustration. You were supposed to give up all loyalty to your House, when you joined the Steel Ministry. The Lord Ruler's obligators were impartial; they served as extensions of their god and master--you gave up your former name, and all claims to your loyalties that your House might ever have had. They told you this, again and again, as they etched the tattoos into your skin around your eyes, marking you forever as the Lord Ruler's property. They told you this when you were first an acolyte, and again, as obligators proper, and tested you. In theory. He'd never heard of a Lord Prelan who wasn't a Heron, a Tekiel, an Izenry, an Erikell--one of the few influential and powerful Houses in Luthadel which everyone called 'Great'. House Jerzy, on the other hand, was a minor House, a distance away from Tremredare in the Western Dominance. They grew grapes and made fine wines; bred swift horses. But the House Jerzy he'd grown up with had been impoverished: the best of the vines struck by the stem-rust and shrivelling, their herds thinned by raiders. "Skaa," the other Houses in the Western Dominance said. But House Jerzy knew better. So did Koschei. You gave up your House name when you joined the Steel Ministry, but Koschei knew better than to think that you left your House behind. Some prelans were good at looking the other way, at proposing the best deals for a House which just so happened to be theirs, or a proxy for their House. He looked at the steel plate he held, re-read the words. It was clear, he thought now, with a strange sense of resigned calm. He wasn't going to be offered a choice. The obsidian knife in the Inquisitor's hand said as much. Scritch went the knife; he was going to join or he was going to die. No one refused the Canton of Inquisition. And perhaps it was some sort of twisted punishment. He was going to be Lord Prelan, he was going to find a way to save House Jerzy. All gone now; all snatches of mist twisting out of his fingers. He looked at the Inquisitor--the woman, if the term still applied--gone preternaturally still, the spike-tipped eyes regarding him, silently. "I accept the invitation," he said. And even managed to make it sound as if he was genuinely grateful for the opportunity. The Inquisitor stood up and nodded to him. The obsidian knife vanished into a sheath. The Inquisitor gestured. Numbly, Koschei packed up his scant belongings and followed.
  18. Kasimir
    Unfortunately, Great Lord, due to reasons and time constraints, I'd like to formally request to withdraw Kendrick Erikell from this game. Thank you!
  19. Kasimir
    Kyrus Heron #2: Chiaroscuro Kyrus Heron sighed as he regarded the note that had been all but nailed to the front door of Keep Heron. “And I suppose you didn’t consider stopping her?” he asked the sentry on duty, sardonically. He waved off any possibility of a reply. “Never mind.” No guardsman would have, if he valued his life, attempted to stop a House Lady (as the case was) from doing what she set her mind to. Particularly when she was an Allomancer. “My older sister has always been difficult to resist,” Fianna said, dryly. She eyed the spike driven into the door and tugged at it, and then raised an eyebrow. “And she always wanted to go the extra mile with the dramatics.” Kyrus made his own attempt at removing the spike, testing it. It remained firmly driven into the door. There was no help for it then; he burned pewter and braced himself and yanked. In a rush of power, the spike ground free of the wooden door. He eyed it with distaste, thought of tossing it aside, and then thought the better of it. The door, however, was ruined. “I never really liked that door anyway,” he said, studying the ragged hole in the wood the spike had left. “I don’t know,” Fianna said. “It does lend our door a certain character, doesn’t it?” Kyrus snorted. “Character is right,” he said. “Indignity might be a better term.” He slipped the invitation free of the spike that had imprisoned it and held it out to her. Fianna took it and glanced at it. Wistfully, she said, “I haven’t attended a ball in a long time.” “You know I wouldn’t stop you,” Kyrus replied. “I know that,” Fianna agreed. She held the invitation, as though it were something fragile. And perhaps it was: House Urbain did not always hold balls, and this, Kyrus suspected, was one more noteworthy than most. “I haven’t spoken with Grace in a long time.” “Were you close?” Fianna studied the invitation. “Somewhat,” she said, at last. “Grace was always the more elegant one, the one who was preparing to become House Lady. I knew that from the beginning. She would never lose her composure; you never really knew what she was thinking. Or maybe she was that way when it was just the two of us. I used to try to annoy her, when we were younger. I just wanted to see what made her tick.” She folded up the invitation, taking care not to damage it. Her mouth twitched in an expression Kyrus could not quite make out. “I was young,” she offered. “We all were, at some time,” Kyrus replied. He thought of his own childhood, spent at the glass workshop of Master Tormod, now aging and reaching the point at which he had decided he would retire. He thought, as well, of the distance that had sprung up between himself and Thales, except that he could simply never remember a time when he and Thales had been quite close. They had been fire and water, or, rather, water and oil; settling apart in layers that occasionally touched but could never mingle. “Are you going?” Fianna asked. Kyrus shook his head. “I’ll have to see to the door,” he said. “And then I plan on making the journey to Tremredare to see how the recruitment and training efforts are going.” He offered her a nod. “You were right; the policing force is getting long in the tooth.” And so had Thales; he remembered his younger brother rolling his eyes as he spoke of the work he did on glass with Master Tormod. He knew how to shape glass, how colour and light drew the eye, how to cast pieces of coloured glass in a frame for a work of art that would last generations, that could endure, that could speak to the essential heart of men just as much as it did to their eyes. There were mosaics in the public squares of Tremredare that had been his work, the colours carefully selected to gleam bright even despite a faint covering of ashes. None of that taught him how to run a city, and for all he’d learned the business of governance with his father once his apprenticeship had run its course, it struck him that he still knew terribly little. He hadn’t a mind for numbers, for large policies that affected all the people he was supposed to be in charge of. He knew how things should be, but not how to make things work. He knew what the possibilities were, but not which were feasible. Thales would’ve known, Kyrus thought. And perhaps Thales had been right in accusing their father of squandering time he should’ve spent learning governance on glass. And yet… Fianna was like Thales, in that way. She saw the bigger picture, grasped the consequences intuitively, saw what had to be done and how to do it. He never did. “Go with me?” Fianna asked. She reached out, and took his hand. “I should be in Tremredare,” Kyrus replied. “And I’m not overly fond of dancing.” “You haven’t spoken to Grace either,” Fianna said. “I’ve been busy.” Still, he acknowledged the point. “It’s a small indulgence,” Fianna said. “The situation in Tremredare isn’t about to boil over anytime soon, and you’ve heard the old expression about watched pots and boiling. I would like it very much if you came with me. And I’ll come with you to Tremredare.” “Well,” Kyrus Heron said, heavily. “I suppose it doesn’t do to go without speaking to your in-laws for several years, hmm? All right then. I’ll go.” He smiled. “Let’s see if Grace knows anyone who can do something about the hole she’s put in our door…” - I'd like to make it clear that this is Fianna Urbain's impression of her older sister, and hopefully this should not be taken as any kind of characterisation of Grace Urbain since I mostly have your post to go off, Gamma. Any issues and I'll change things up.
  20. Kasimir
    Just 'trade' him for it, like Wayne. Stealing's bad, but it ain't bad if you leave something in return...
  21. Kasimir
    Ask Shelob Wyrm. I think he's still missing a hand, especially since Hreo took to waving it around as his lucky hand. Might even be his left hand, too.
  22. Kasimir
    You bloody done gone and murdered him, you godless--godless--mother-son! >> I'm not trying to commit vengeance against you, I'm trying to get into character here. Stop hindering me from doing so--the fourth wall is there, don't let it hit you on the way out.
  23. Kasimir
    Ooh, is this the pre-game bit where we trash-talk and banter? Because I never knew this was a thing. In which case: WYRM HERON! YOU CHRONIC BACKSTABBING ICON OF (FAMILIAL) BETRAYAL! > ...Inb4 we're both on the same team again >>
  24. Kasimir
    Clearly, the solution is to play more games you are not playing. Is that the take-home lesson of today? inb4 I forget I signed up for this game and get killed due to inactivity
  25. Kasimir
    For the first time in a long while, I am reclaiming my House. I am Kendrick Erikell (and glad to not have to be a Heron again, no offense Wyrm, but I started as an Erikell, and I'd like to stay Erikell.) Kendrick Erikell works for the Canton of Finance. He doesn't want to be outdone by Wyrm bloody Heron, of all people, and so he has decided to accept admission into the Steel Ministry. (No, it's certainly not because of the looming Steel Inquisitor cheerfully sharpening his obsidian knife in the corner, why did you ask?) ...Life's hard when your cousin is far too enthusiastic about his job and you aren't. Family pride, Heron-Erikell rivalry and all that; such is a noble's life. Just someone please remind me I'm actually playing this game, yeah? ><
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