Kasimir
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Too tired to RP. Sorry King. Signing up as Kasilon Erikell. (Sorry lah I watched too much Doctor Who recently. Please forgive me guys.) - So this is what it is like, thought Kasilon Erikell, to stand on the dawn of a new world. He watched as person after person he would've named friend knelt before Rashek, pronouncing him their god. He spoke of power and glory. Kasilon was not convinced. But this, he thought. This is a chance to make history. What use were the words of the Worldbringers if they had led them to the very precipice of disaster? When his turn came, he gave his word and with it, his soul.
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I come back to all the things. >> So, I'm not quite sure, but I think I am somewhat convinced by Mek's reasoning that it seems the move towards Fel's lynch makes little sense in the light of Mek having been Arelon-aligned. (This is no comment about what Mek is now; it just matters to note that the person on the chopping block (Mek), the other person on the chopping block (Orlok) had both been Villagers and therefore it makes little sense for Eliminators to direct the lynch train towards someone else completely (Fel) at personal risk.) Therefore, while I would still like a response from Wonko about why he thought publicly airing candidates for roles might be a good idea, he is, for now, not a priority on my suspicion list. There are other things to keep in mind: if Alv is correct about the Gyorn, it does indicate that people with Seons need to start getting in contact with Elantris stat, if they haven't already done so. (I'm none too happy about the continued trend of helping the Gyorn strategise--why people, why? Jain and Alv, I'm looking at you--but at least in Alv's case, I will accept it, for now, as a contribution which highlights our need to have people talking between Elantris and Kae.) People with Seons, the Elantrians are silenced. But we need to know what's going on in Elantris and ignoring Elantris is not going to be to our advantage in the long run when Elantris has secrets and seems to be a wildcard. Pick a trusted contact to disperse information to the thread if you're worried about being a target. The spice information must flow; information is power, so use it. While I'm not sure what to make of Jain, my vote will go for now to spencer. I know Wyrm's game looks really awesome, but frankly, mate, if you have time to join Wyrm's 1 year game, you sure have time to check the thread and contribute. Edit: Fail coding is fail. Edit 2: This backhanded advertisement has been purchased by Heron IndustriesTM. Be part of the wave of the future with Heron IndustriesTM.
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I, too, am Spartacus! And so's my bro, Wyrm! Ahem. I mean, I, too, am not a convert.
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Remember when I said that thing about Sleep-Deprived!Kas? Because I remembered him from the AG--he was one of my initial suspects from the dead doc when Meta was trolling us. I thought I'd typed 'Ostrich was in the AG'. Definitely making mistakes here Luckat: Apologies. I did see spencer but as I noticed people were already lighting a fire under his tail for the time being, I decided to ignore him. Forgot to mention that though :/ I'd also like to add to the reminders that Converts tell us about their new status. This may also allow the Priest(s) to eventually take appropriate action, though I believe they should at the moment focus on scanning for Cultists. I'm going to put a vote on Wonko for a different reason. While I'm not a fan of stacking votes, there's sufficient time left in the cycle. I'll grant that vote manipulators are not safe roles, but I'm a bit twitchy at the idea of trying to figure out who they are and to thereby give Eliminators a narrow range of targets to go for. I mean, sure, they could figure it out for themselves. But I'm not a fan of trying to help the enemy. And while I'm on the matter, please, please, please be careful about revealing your role, people, even if you are a vanilla. You're still helping the Cultists narrow down who to go after. People in Seon PMs are not necessarily telling the truth. Only you can prevent Seon liars! Edit because of mispelling 'Ostrich'.
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1. Cursor of Doom: Good to see our stances are generally in agreement. I suppose I should as well be more explicit: my targets are specifically those endorsing a rather skewed view that really just thinks that the destination is lynching the lurkers, and therefore missing the larger picture. I want to caution against doing so to the exclusion of pertinent factors as we do so to our peril [Again, given that this was not explained as well early on, I am still somewhat cautious about those who took the idea up so enthusiastically and proceeded to charge on with it.] Personally at least, I'm still a bit more sceptical about poke votes, and I think that Ren (and I believe Luckat mentioned it as well at some point?) is correct in criticising how poke votes have become rather institutionalised. But to be fair, Ren's critique in particular simply asks for discretion in the use of poke votes. 2. Did anyone notice Winter Cloud is 'Winter Butt' on the player list? 3. I did a quick search on the player names since I couldn't sleep. Unless I've made a mistake somewhere (possible as Schechter would hold that one ought to hold rational self-doubt in the matter, and I'm sleep-deprived!Kas), the two with no standing reason for absence and who haven't said a thing (unlike Seonid, for instance) are Luckat and Ostrich. We know one is habitually silent. Ostrich wasn't in the AG but perhaps his teammates in MR6 could shed more light on this?
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Note to self: paper on Lipton due the day after tomorrow; remember to finish annotating chapter then submit by 9pm in evening. Also remember to check w.r.t. Interstellar.
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Kaian stared at the body the guards were carting away, shaken. This is why you don't argue with people, he thought, dismally. All the disquiet the fortune teller had elicited in him was coming to the fore now, threatening to drown him. I should never have come here, he thought. And then he reminded himself that he could've been back in the monastery. This was life, in the the world as Holy Jaddeth slumbered. You made choices. You lived with them. Yesterday, Locke had been alive. Today, he was not. This was the way of the world. The ferret chattered, staring up at him with dark, inquisitive eyes. Absently, he fed it a few seeds. He really had to give it a name soon, Kaian thought. He couldn't keep referring to it as the ferret. The fortune teller's words floated through his mind again. ...You will always be together with your companion, the ferret... He smiled down at the ferret. That, Kaian decided, wasn't too bad. Before the bits about death and the Shaod. And at least that was another thing he'd done; that the Kaian who stayed at the monastery would never have. He'd never otherwise have gotten his fortune told by a fortune teller. I think I like it, he decided. Minus the death and the Shaod. He'd seen them dragging Sienene out; the stricken man was like the living dead. He was barely conscious of his shiver of fear. Holy Jaddeth willing, he would remain far from Elantris. - I've been hesitating because I'm having difficulty making sense of what is going on. I'm just going to flag some things that have caught my attention. 1. I prefer not to speculate about Orlok's death at this point. We have a number of theories: maybe the Cultists thought Orlok and Araris were lovers and tried to go for a two-for-one deal. Maybe the Cultists wanted to cast suspicion on myself and Mek. (I note this would tar Maili as well; unless I'm mistaken, he, too, cast a vote for Orlok, though his reasons seem to be slightly different.) Or maybe we're Cultists who have ingeniously banked on reverse psychology to get ourselves cleared. Whatever the case, I think that only time--and more data--will allow us to figure out the reason. All we have at this point is speculation. Consequently, I don't find it particularly helpful to spend further time on this--at this point in time. 2. More pertinently, I noticed two differing views being voiced over the past cycle. Maili endorsed tying up the votes and then looking to the vote manipulators to obtain more information. Phatt, and Wonko (by implication) preferred creating enough of a margin that the vote couldn't be played with. At this stage, I must admit I lean towards Maili's view, but ultimately, this is inconsequential. What matters is that we should not be working at cross-purposes here. Pick one thing we're going to do and stick with it. If we're going to tie and let the Debtors and Vote Manipulators do their thing and then try to figure out what's happening from the vote shenanigans, then we need to be prepared for the possibility that things could get wild. (Even better if the non-Debtor vote manipulator roles could work with us here and abstain.) If we're going to pack votes in order to avoid ties, then we need to be prepared to forgo certain types of information about the existing manipulators and their motives, but we might get information about who are crowding the votes. Decide and let's not work against each other here. (Preferably no extended debate though. I agree with Mek that we can talk about all the things--we have somewhat over 24 hours left in this cycle! But at the same time, don't obsess about this to the exclusion of all else.) 3. Similar thing with lynching the lurkers. Okay, I get that the pinch-hitter mechanic means that we're drawing a distinction between lurkers and genuine inactives. Cool. But I'm still having difficulty following why we're suddenly all gung-ho on the lurkers. (I note that according to Hreo's regulations, it will be two cycles before we see any inactive being replaced by a pinch-hitter. I suppose it's one now.) But there seem to be two problematic assumptions in this reasoning, as far as I can tell. A. Lurking is a dominant Eliminator strategy. We don't even know what this chull-spawned Eliminator team is doing. There's just as a good a chance that they're sitting among the semi-actives, rather than the lurkers, and just happily watching us go about lynching the lurkers. (Note: if I were to make a wild guess, then yes, I would guess they have a lurker or two. But there are definitely also vocal players among them, and if they have any experienced members of the team, these are bound to be at least semi-active. But this is only a guess and a fallible one.) B. Quality: Posting is not necessarily the same as making a post that can actually give us information with which to double-check inconsistencies later on. I say 'not necessarily the same' because I think that this entails that we should not conflate the two. Why? I think what happened is a perfect example. If we accept the lynching of lurkers as the dominant strategy, it's easy for people to just join the lynch train under the guise of semi-activity. It's much harder when you actually have to stick your neck out when you vote. Lynching lurkers might be successful; I don't really know and as I said, I'm not really a strategy genius in these games. Just one of the smaller fish in the pond. But it seems to me that lynching lurkers is such a safe and cheap strategy for virtually everyone (Eliminators included) since all you need to do is to agree on a lurker rather than actually examine suspicions. I've made these two points, only to take it half-back. What's done is done; no point crying over dropped chouta. Also, it's Day Two, and that's still slightly early. But I brought up these points because I want to still make some recommendations: First, we should not determine--even before the discussion has run its course!--that we will lynch lurkers. Let's not let complacency override any potential information gained from discussion. Second, I just cautioned against complacency and I will do so again. Keep a close eye on those who keep riding lynch trains for lurkers in the absence of attempting to interrogate those who are actually active. The lynch is no replacement for discussion and vice versa. Furthermore, we are not helped if we continually scrutinise the lurkers but fail to watch the active among us. Yes, we will get information and pick out inconsistencies--but only if we are mindful not to suffer from tunnel vision by focusing on a particular demographic within this game. Assumptions are deadly. They can kill. Third is more a comment than a recommendation. I brought up this entire matter because the alacrity with which the assertion that we should lynch lurkers was accepted troubles me. I know that the pinch-hitters are a new practice. But all the same, I am somewhat concerned because in earlier games, it was also suggested (in fact, I believe it was Meta who suggested it) that leaving lurkers/inactives alive wasn't too bad an idea as they could basically serve as meat shields.) I do understand that we've lately shifted towards a 'take out the inactive' strategy (particularly, this was discussed in the AG dead doc.) But at the same time, I'm paranoid. It's just me doing my job as a member of House Urbain. And when such an unobvious strategy like this passes without any opposition that I can notice, I get worried. Something seems fishy. Of what sort is to be determined. Perhaps it's just an MR6 thing as I didn't play that game. Either way, there's still plenty of time left in the cycle. I'm going to red Luckat. Having said what I did about lurkers, it might seem like a strange move. I'd pressure Dowanx but I think he's already got someone chewing on his behind for it. More pertinently, knowing how deadly Luckat can be, I'm reluctant to leave her in the silence for too long. - If I've missed anything, do let me know, guys I've been radically short on sleep lately due to juggling three jobs and a thesis, and I've been having many d'oh moments of late like scalding myself when making a cuppa >> So if I sound like a concussed wombat...this is not how I usually am (I hope), it's just my taking the next punch in the ongoing boxing match against RL.
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You don't say. Quick OOC clarification because I realised my RP could be read wrongly: Kaian just finds MenE disquieting; it's a character thing. I just wanted to dash off some quick characterisation since I've been neglecting RP in recent games and to take up Clanky's offer, really Edit: I realised the worst thing is that Ren can't say anything about this since he's stuck in Elantris
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Having a Bad Day? Stop here for a Good Rant!
Kasimir replied to traceria's topic in General Discussion
I'm so sorry. I had a similar problem last semester; the pain medication wasn't working, and when I went to stronger ones, they worked but I was dealing with the pain every single day and it just didn't stop. This went on for three months or so until I was diagnosed with chronic daily headaches and put on amitriptyline. :/ It's not cluster headaches, but I can empathise! -
Another thing he hadn't done, thought Kaian. The first day had been...chaotic, it was the word he kept coming back to, and not for the first time, he felt both afraid and excited. It was something other than the stultifying order of the monastery. That was the point. And that was the problem. A constant babble of some voices, silence everywhere else, and that silent, silent one--MenE, he remembered, snatching the memory like a fish--watching. Never saying anything, just watching with those eyes. What harm could it do? He walked forward, approaching the fortune teller. "Please," he said. "Tell me my future." The ferret chattered in his pocket.
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I have to say I like this. Thank you for sharing
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As you wish. For myself, at least, I'm still analysing the possibilities. Man, when I oversleep, all the things happen at once... Edit: Y U NO COLOUR?!
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Meta (1): Maili Wilson (0): Kas<1> Phat (1): Wilson Orlok (1): Kas<2>, Mek Mek (2): Orlok, Araris Kipper (1): Claincy Aonar (1): Meta Wonko (1): Twei Araris (1): Kas<3> At this stage, I think I'm going to tentatively withdraw my vote from Orlok and put it where it might be somewhat more constructive--on Araris. First, I admit that the comment about the pendants has slightly weakened my willingness to leave my vote in place. Second, while I've been trying to leave my votes for longer than a poke vote to exert somewhat more pressure, I think this one has exhausted its usefulness. So. I'm always interested when one player moves to defend another and tie off the vote--particularly when one additional vote on Orlok does not a bandwagon make. Furthermore, I'm having difficulty seeing what exactly Araris's exact reasoning is--nor how, depending on what it is, he escapes the same accusations he seems to endorse against Mek. (Not to mention we really should open up the suspect pool.) Kipper/Snoopy: None of us players here are making a point that says 'X, therefore necessarily Y.' We're all making inductive and abductive inferences here, and that involves some amount of inferential risks rather than the logical necessity of pure deductive arguments. So that the conclusion does not follow with necessity from whatever we cite as evidence is hardly the point. The key is likeliness. No one would be making any argument expecting any certainty--particularly on Day 1--no matter how strongly we word our accusations or come across. So yes, I agree it's not necessarily an Evil move. But I don't believe in letting it slide all the same, or at least I think it needs to undergo some scrutiny, particularly when the player in question seems to be shifting from opinion to opinion. As I see it, I admit my gut instincts are triggered by agreement. But I try not to go to a lynch (poke and pressure votes aside) on strict gut, if I can help it. What generally made me want to voice my worries about Phat was basically the reminder of Meta's dictum to always keep suspicions fluid. Tunnelling helps no-one, and I'd like to get more information before coming to a final decision Some of Phat's flip-flopping had struck me as being slightly inconsistent. Therefore, it especially caught my attention and I decided to follow up on my instinct.
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Several reasons. First, I'm by no means among the most astute players in this game. I'm not a strategic genius. My main advantage comes from the fact that besides Sart and Cessie (I believe?), I was the conversion faction on a SE game, and therefore had to directly confront and think to death some of the issues the Gyorn will be weighing right around now. So if I can figure out better strategies for the Gyorn, I'm pretty sure you can too; and so can a lot of the other strategoi in this game. (And definitely, a similar strategy came up when Meta and I were discussing Padan Fain in LG7.) Second: you may recall, as you were an Eliminator in MR4, that Wilson and Macen and Eol spent a lot of time chomping on my skinny Wit behind for attempting to answer a question concerning Eliminator strategy. Quite frankly, I'm not up to beating off Wilson with a stick again, and I don't think anyone else would normally be. (I mean, it's Wilson we're talking about, here. I'd druther have my leg chewed off by a full-grown Bengal tiger ) Having learnt my lesson, I'm hardly going to elaborate on something better minds than me have no doubt apprehended--and especially not when doing so can be read as trying to help the Eliminators. I simply felt that it was rather disingenuous to work on such a crude picture of the Gyorn's activities--especially when we don't know how this Gyorn is going to play and therefore pointed out that committing to a certain strategy leaves us vulnerable if the Gyorn chooses a different line of attack, and gave an instance of such. (Again, leaving aside my worries of relevant similarities and my suspicions for the time being. I take Meta's point about keeping suspicions fluid, but I do have other suspicions; and I'd definitely like to hear more from Phat, hopefully without my having to resort to the dreaded poke vote.) Third, I don't know if the Gyorn's thought of it, but if the Gyorn hasn't, then there's no point in stimulating their creativity They only have their own cognitive resources to draw on right now. Let's not change that. Why make their job easier for them by brainstorming what other possibilities there exist for the Gyorn? It is enough to know that they exist, and that other players have undoubtedly thought of them, and so it is simply foolish to underestimate them.
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Mental Addiction and Dependency, Emotional Allomancy, and You
Kasimir replied to Gamma Fiend's topic in Cosmere Discussion
Well, here's one thing for sure, if Scadrial is anything like our world. No one will ask ethicists when trying to devise regulatory frameworks. I mean, why ask people who spend ten years of their lives researching the ethics of Allomancy? -
Very simply, it's a Day One vote. I'm partly basing it off gut, so I don't expect other players to join in as we know guts can be Darkfriends. But your strategy also reminds me of how I was playing a conversion killer in LG6. It was very helpful for me to carefully downplay the threat I posed to the Village and to constantly attempt to redirect the discussion to the Darkfriends [Eliminators], because everyone knows they're the biggest threat aren't they? I don't deny that we cannot ignore the Cultists. But at no point was I making the argument we should ignore the Cultists. You make an assumption that discussing the Cultists and the Gyorn ends up being a zero-sum game. It is not. That assumption is flawed. You're my biggest existing suspicion. Sure, it's a Day One suspicion and therefore flimsy, but it's the best I have and I see no reason yet to shift my vote. Orlok. Edit: I will also note I'm suspicious of your trying to pass off some of Mek's worries (perhaps mine as well?) as deciding dissent indicates someone is a cultist. We have our reasons. We have given them. I did not play MR6 so I cannot judge Mek's reasons and I'm not looking for support on this vote. Your conflating genuine disagreement and attempts at somewhat reasoned suspicion (considering this is Day 1) with nothing more than petty retaliatory voting is one slip in reasoning. A second slip is suggesting that "stifles discussion". It's a great rhetorical tactic. But it also murkies the waters and makes it difficult for Villagers to claim they're voting for principled reasons separate from disagreement. You make a lot of argumentative slips and conflations that I find interesting for a Villager. My second suspicion--although not a strong one--is on Phat. I'm not certain what to make of him, but I am always automatically suspicious of players who pretty much end up constantly agreeing with almost everything that shows up and playing the clueless angle.
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I have two responses to you, Orlok. First, you're misreading my argument. My argument is that we need to remain aware of how many existing cultists there are. I am arguing that we should not neglect the Gyorn and the Odiv because that can come back to haunt us when it is too late, particularly since we have to juggle threats. You seem to be tilting at windmills since you are targeting an argument about the Gyorn and the Odiv being a major threat. That argument does not exist; if it does, then someone else other than myself is making it. Second, you're neglecting several very important factors: Kills keep going on. Not only does the Gyorn convert, but kills--both from Team Evil and from mislynches*--thin the population of people still living. At the same time, with a maximum of ten Elantrians, that's voting power lost to us here and now. Don't plan for the best scenario. Plan for the scenario with greatest attrition. *accelerants for the Gyorn. So does an Odiv who can speed up the rate of conversion.] Let's use a simple example. Let the total existing population of players be x. Because we want to be conservative in our assumptions and assuming there are minimal Elantrians is a larger assumption, assume the maximum number of Elantrians instead. So, there are 10 Elantrians. Total pool of players = x-10. [Abstracting away, at this point in time, from the exact rates at which the number of Elantrians will grow. If we have some way of knowing that, then we can begin to do the calculus.] Now, recall that the Gyorn is immune to the Shaod. Most conservative assumption means no Odiv. This gives us a population of x-11-y (where y is the number of existing converts.) There are two pressures on (x-11-y). The first pressure comes from cultist kills removing people from the existing population at a rate of 1. The second pressure comes from the lynch. The third comes from the conversion. At it's very worst, the population is being reduced by 3 every cycle. That's a substantial number when you consider we're beginning with a pool of 30 players, as that leaves 19 left in play. This does not factor in Debtor deaths, hostage deaths, or any other nasty surprises associated with Elantris. That makes it five cycles to crunch time. Sure, it's all numbers and speculation. But in a game, if you play to win, you make the most conservative assumptions in order not to get nasty surprises. And my point has always been that to avert a nasty surprise later, we ought to pay attention to the convert numbers. And as a final rejoinder: we want to know if a Gyorn is playing proactively. Frankly, right now, if I were the Gyorn, I'd be half-inclined to let the Village and Cultists fight it out and only start converting later on in the game. Knowing the Gyorn's strategy is helpful to us. Once again, it is 'information'. Edit: Thank you, Wilson.
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This is just a quick post to note something: While we are looking for Cultists, let's not lose sight of the other threat. This time, the Gyorn (and Odiv, once that fellow shows up) wins by converting everyone. Killing people off helps their objectives, sure, but unlike other conversion killers, they don't actually need to protect their converts, except for the Odiv. The point I want to get to is that the conversions are a ticking time clock. For that reason, if it's not against the rules, I would like the request that whoever gets converted by the Gyorn post the names or at least the numbers of surviving converts during each Turn (particularly during the Day Turn.) It's important for us to know how many living converts there are: you guys are a clock ticking down to however many Turns it takes for the Gyorn to win. It's not a big deal yet, but I worry that if we ignore them for too long, it'll get harder to stop the Gyorn and his Robin. (See: decreasing number of players, increasing/increasing rate of conversions.) This is exactly how much time we have to find and root out the Cultists.
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#overlyhonestSEconfessions That heartstopping moment when, no matter what team you are on, you watch Meta descend upon the ongoing SE thread.
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I miss Ren :/ Ok. I know I said 'can u not' but I think this has to be done. I apologise especially to Hreo who has to see this all over again. I think we have to distinguish between three things: 1. Lynch discussion [i.e. the discussion that goes on as we decide who is suspicious and who should be lynched, etc.] 2. Lynch kill [i.e. the actual information gleaned from someone being killed off and Hreo telling us about their role.] 3. Lynch discussion with the explicit intention to kill. Let me explain why these are separate things. Let's say we kill Wyrm (sorry King, I just had to pick someone no one would be twitchy about in this game.) We find out he's a Jindo Warrior (lolnope). That's all the information we get from the lynch kill. (2.) Now, we may get more information from the lynch discussion: e.g. who was pushing hard for Wyrm's death? Who defended Wyrm? Who abstained? Who is advocating what? Notice that this information may not even be related to Wyrm or about Wyrm. So, the information obtained from a lynch discussion (1.) is separate from the information obtained from 2. but it may complement it. It is also clearly more expansive, and in a sense, less definite. Well, what about 3.? I separate this because we can simply sit here right now and agree we will kill no one today and then discuss. Or we can sit here and discuss with the intention to discover a candidate who will be lynched. I think it is important to note I say, 'with the intention'. Why? Because our discussion can be oriented around/guided by an intention that ultimately gets overruled. There is nothing that stops us from deciding at the end of Day 1 that we don't really want to lynch anyone today after all. But. A. If we start out saying that we shan't lynch anyone today, the lynch discussion becomes toothless because the stakes are virtually nothing. No one has any reason to comply or to participate in the discussion. B. Beginning with a commitment to lynching does not mean this commitment is not or should not be defeasible. C. This is an LG. I, at least, tend to be less uptight about lynching off the bat during an LG. If it were a QF, I would not at all stress the defeasibility of an intention to lynch and would rather we lynch right away. D. ...Mislynches happen. I don't mean to be gung-ho about lynching. My point is that if they haven't stopped us in most previous games, I find it somewhat difficult to see why they should stop us now. [unless, of course, the suggestion is we wait a day or two and then lynch. But once again, I am a supporter of 3. I think this is a decision that must emerge from discussion rather than both pre-empting and precluding it.] And now, for something completely different: Has anyone noticed exactly how many possibilities for vote shenanigans there are here? And of a different sort than we're used to, too. I'm going to wait to place my actual vote, but in the meanwhile, I'd like to poke Wilson. Let's hope my head doesn't get bitten off. Edit: Y u no colour?!
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We're not going to get into a discussion about the distinction between a lynch discussion with an impending lynch, pure discussion, and a lynch itself. Not again. Right? Edited because recalcitrant coding is recalcitrant.
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You wanted to see a palace, Kaian thought, glumly. The murder of the Shu-Korath Patriarch had taken all of them by surprise, and he'd just spent the past hour or so getting grilled by a palace guard. He'd carefully neglected to mention that he'd run away from a Shu-Dereth monastery and passed himself off as a simple traveller, off to see the world. For all that the Patriarch had been murdered by a Jeskeri Mystery cultist, Kaian knew that they wouldn't hesitate to hang the blame on an adherent of Shu-Dereth. Even if he'd run away. The ferret chattered at him. He'd never named it, he realised. He dug in his other pocket for some seeds and fed it. "We will see to it that your needs are taken care of," said a guard brusquely, to a noble's outrage. Kaian wondered if that extended to feeding his ferret. He glanced across the room at where the other guests waited their turn for their interview with the guard. The captain of the King's Guard was nowhere to be seen. Kaian didn't know what he was up to. Maybe they were having collective hysterics about the Patriarch being killed under their watchful eye. Could an assassin have done it? He frowned. He hadn't been trained at Rathbore. They took only the very best. For all of that, though, he idly wondered if a Rathbore-trained assassin could've made such a kill. A Jeskeri cultist did that, he reminded himself. The symbols were clear. They'd spoken about that in the monastery. Nothing to do with the ongoing holy war between the scions of Shu-Keseg. The ferret chattered at him. "Sorry, friend," Kaian whispered, running his fingers through the silky fur. "I think we've got to save the seeds." He'd wanted to see a palace. Look where that had gotten him. - Any particular reason why you're asking the obvious again, Jain? Pardon me, but the last time you did that overtly, you were an Eliminator in MR4. I have to confess that makes me wonder.
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Well, I've done my fair share of travelling, but I'm too tired to recall the longer trips like the one to Europe (especially Germany.) So you get the one when I went to Korea in winter So, first, I'm Asian (from Singapore; i.e. perma-summer and rain). So everywhere I was going, people'd talk to me in Korean and just look really confused when I gave them a blank stare. (I didn't know Korean then and even now, I know very little.) I remember at one point getting frustrated and rambling back in German because I felt the confusion should be shared. But this isn't the bit of the trip I'm talking about. I was travelling with family and some of my younger and older cousins wanted to learn how to ski. So ok, we made our way to a ski resort and signed up for classes, the instructor takes us down a few slopes. I'm a downright klutz; I trip right out of the lift, almost bash someone in the head with the ski pole, and generally look as though it's only a matter of time before I kill myself or the instructor or someone else. So the instructor tells the others to go ahead and heroically perseveres in trying to give me individual instruction because they're all doing ok, I'm not. Let's start from the beginning, he tells me, and points to the slope. Ok, I say. We get on the top of the beginner's slope. I make my way down without incident--and then halfway down the slope, my pants drop off. I kid you not :/ My pants fell. Think I didn't secure them properly or something, and they had been a bit big. Thankfully, I had leggings beneath but that was pretty obvious. So ok, that was Incident #1. Incident #2: I take off slowly, then go faster because whooo! Wind in your face, the speed--it's rather fun, I'm thinking. And then he freaks out. "Slow down!" he keeps telling me. And I cannot for the life of me remember how to slow down. So I start to laugh. Which disturbs him all the more. "Why are you laughing?!" the instructor demands. "This is not funny!" I'm too busy laughing to explain to him several things: 1. It's hysterical laughter, 2. I'm just laughing at the thought, "Oh, chull, I'm going to be the first person to kill themselves on a beginner's slope because they didn't know how to hit the brakes.", 3. It's hysterical because I realise I have absolutely zero idea how to stop/slow down. He hauled me off and I wasn't allowed to ski again for the rest of the day >> I'm just amazed it took him that long to get to that conclusion.
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I have it on good authority that I narrowly escaped being named Albert or Eliott I'm generally cool with my name, although some people have truncated it in rather...weird ways. I admit that I like the name 'Ben' though. Much simpler But it isn't a situation in which I'd rather have been named it.
