Kasimir

Edited to add: Keldorn scribed down the tallies in chalk on the cheesemonger's board, figuring he'd just apologise later. Although this seemed correct, Keldorn felt trepidation...Tower over him He also felt that Jox and Var were probably not teamed as Spiked. They'd seemed to be at cross-purposes in a genuine way.

"To be honest," Keldorn admitted, "I trust myself with analysing accusations and accusation dynamics more than I do analysing what people say. On those grounds alone, I'd probably go for Derrick over Kéamen." @StrikerEZ @A Jo in the Bush @Biplet Since they were apparently the last few people remaining in the market square. "As far as I can tell, there is no tie." Jox'd voted Derrick as well. He hoped Aral could provide them with a tally, but supposed Aral would roll his eyes and tell him to help himself, especially since he did the figures for the Canton of Finance. @Araris Valerian

Rust it, Keldorn thought. He wasn't sure it made enough of a difference that a pivot was possible, but he'd liked the resignation in Var's tone. He'd also struggled to make sense of Var's late switch, and had argued in privately to and fro with Fox. The way Keldorn saw it, if Astrid was Spiked, then Var switching from Lijal to Astrid at Keldorn's behest to avoid a tie was a little odd. You could argue that Var was the sort of risk-loving bastard who would willingly switch to throw an inactive teammate under the wagon to make himself look better. Keldorn'd seen it done before. But it wouldn't be his first line of thought. A tie with no death was just better for the Spiked on balance than losing a teammate, despite the Village credit gained. You could make sense of Var's switch in a world where Astrid and Lijal were both Villagers, if you said Var was Spiked and therefore didn't give a toss about which of them died. It was slightly risky, but Var seemed to love risk. At the same time, Keldorn just didn't see why Var would switch from Lijal to Astrid and then back to Lijal after Madiane's vote as a Spiked. It felt like a lot of unnecessary extra steps, and at least seemed to suggest Var sincerely preferred Lijal dead. "Anyone feeling a switch to Kéamen?" Keldorn asked aloud, since Var'd mentioned it. Wasn't sure he'd get it though, at these numbers. It was neck and neck, wasn't it? Ah, well. ...He hadn't liked Derrick's side-train vote, anyway.

"That," Keldorn said flatly, "Was what I was asking. It should've been life and life, or life and death." He didn't want to add that he'd actually asked because he'd made a note that Fox, too, had not seemed to realise that tied votes resulted in no execution. It was something Keldorn had taken note of, if only because it had formed such a significant point of contention between Copper, Kéamen, Keldorn, Jox, and Var on the first day that Keldorn had wondered (it was a little insane, he conceded) if Fox and Derrick had a hidden base in which that misunderstanding was shared. - Aral said, "Are you sure?" Of course he wasn't asking about Keldorn's health. Probably the damages, considering. Bloody Astrid, Keldorn thought. Tosser couldn't be bothered to show up to do his damned job, so of course Aral was shoving it onto Keldorn, among all the other things he was juggling. Because there was no such thing as a good thing in a world like this, and Keldorn really needed to pay his landlady before she started jotting down more debts, both real and imaginary. So there it was. There it went. Keldorn said, shortly, "That's why you lent me five Garrison, didn't you?" "Guards," Aral corrected absently. "Try not to get them killed, we need them." Keldorn grunted. Of course they did. Damned koloss didn't have the damned decency to just drop dead already, or vanish into the mists and be eaten by mistwraiths. He was just finished buckling his sword on when Aral poked his head back into the room. "Actually, there's no need anymore," he said. "What," Keldorn said, flatly. "The ground just gave way beneath the inn and Antari crawled out," Aral informed him. "What," Keldorn said, his tone still flat. He wondered if they could arrange for a similar miraculous intervention with the koloss. "So...I'm still getting paid for this, aren't I?" "Shut the inn down," Aral said, finally. "Arrest the innkeeper and take him and his thugs to the jail. Last thing we need is the Laughing Koloss continuing to run illicit kidnapping and extortion schemes out of the cellar." "Told you that place was a front," Keldorn said, absently, nodding in response to his new directives. "Stew like that, they weren't going to be making any boxings. Gang was clearly laundering dirty boxings through it."

Keldorn had been going over the events in the market square yet again, and he only just realised. Derrick had said "life and death, or death and death." Var had said, and this was Teal's bone to pick, that someone had to die. "Derrick," he began, slowly, frowning. "Why are the choices between life and death, and death and death?" This was extremely specific wording. It was suggestive of something—something niggled at the back of Keldorn's head—but he let it steep for the moment like tea leaves in an old, chipped mug, and awaited Derrick's response.

Keldorn'd just gone over reports from his own informants. "Yeah, I can see the difference," he admitted. That ancestor or relative of Jox had gone in hard and fast, accusing Exp, and Keldorn'd actually quite liked the energy of his entrance: dynamic, aggressive, and focused. It was a bit of a contrast to the way Jox'd backpedalled under pressure here, with more interest in investigation. It was true that another ancestor of Jox had mentioned not wanting to die, and Keldorn'd thought he could kind of see that influencing Jox's overreaction here. He supposed that was still a point against Jox, though, and Keldorn found himself reconsidering his view of the man. However, he'd also found himself reconsidering Kéamen. First, Keldorn'd sat down and made himself think about worlds in which Astrid was in fact a villager, out of worries he was over-tunnelled on Astrid. In those worlds, he felt that he could no longer afford Kéamen credit for voting Astrid to create a tie. Second, he'd gone over Kéamen's posts again, in light of the former. In truth, he felt Kéamen was quick to throw shade on multiple suspects, spreading suspicions shallowly, seeing what took, and then picking generally safe places to cast accusations, such as Lipitor. Kéamen's switch to wanting no executions on the basis of a completely different set of circumstances didn't really feel genuine given his view on pressure, and the fact that the different set of circumstances just didn't apply here. Keldorn was also forced to reconsidering if his call for Seekers was at least fishing for reactions a little to hunt for potential Seekers, because a Seeker should only claim to their target, and in the world they found anything malicious, claiming it outright or via a previous cleared scan was the obvious course. Although Kéamen had claimed he was exerting pressure to elicit reactions, Keldorn felt he seemed uninterested in actually drawing conclusions from how his targets reacted, nor how the market square dynamics shifted based on his pressure accusations. Keldorn wondered if he'd been too quick to consider Kéamen's behaviour to check out on the basis of his informants' reports.

Keldorn sighed. He would need to revisit his informants. "Could you spell out a little more clearly what you think the differences are?"

Keldorn winced. His back and his leg were both on fire. The report was done, but having pulled an all-nighter to clear it was probably one of the worst ideas ever. He wasn't as young as he once was, and he was probably going to need the time for his body to recover from the abuse he'd stacked on it. "Someone stabbing you, or shooting you full of holes tends to be loud," Keldorn said, dryly. "Everyone would hear of it, whether Thug or Lurcher. The only worlds we don't are one where there isn't an active Coinshot, or they have the same attitude about death as you do, or a Soother got to them first." He counted the possibilities off on a finger each. "Did your interactions with Lipitor or Antari help inform reads on them?" Keldorn wanted to know. He felt as though Kéamen was implying something that Keldorn could not quite make out. Keldorn wondered in what universe voting on Fox, having Jox come in and also vote Fox, being against accusing Lijal, who was Fox's preferred target of choice, having expressed wariness of Fox, and then Fox following his lead onto Madiane counted as constant support. Although Keldorn continued to believe Astrid was probably Spiked, he acknowledged that since no Coinshot had chosen to resolve the situation, they were left sitting around until someone, probably a kandra, ate and replaced Astrid, at which point he supposed they would then hope that the kandra was easier to read than Astrid had been, since that passiveness was the prevailing attitude at present. (Copper was probably screaming at him from death, he thought.) It was not the first time Keldorn had made note of Kéamen's takes being a little strange. He acknowledged that there was at least a connection, as Derrick had noted, to Copper, who had distrusted Kéamen among others prior to death. And yet. In the world Astrid was Spiked, it was difficult to make sense of Kéamen as being Spiked as well, due to his voting Astrid to tie the votes up rather than leaving Lijal to hang, which endangered Astrid potentially. In addition, while, Keldorn was beginning to feel wariness of Kéamen's takes, which seemed both glancing and inconsistent (he acknowledged the power of accusation and pressure, but simultaneously felt any doubled accusation was problematic), he acknowledged that it seemed very loosely consistent with how his informants had suggested Kéamen had behaved previously, with a reluctance to initiate voting suggestive that Kéamen was hesitant, and a response to Stick suggestive that Kéamen often gave glancing, surface-level takes. For that reason, Keldorn briefly marked Kéamen in his head as someone he would continue to be a little wary about, but moved on. Keldorn had previously outlined his reasons for feeling positive about Jox. To briefly reiterate, he felt that Jox had in general behaved in a more attention-grabbing way than a Spiked murderer would be comfortable with, and had early vibes of comfort with the market square. He felt that was a net positive. He'd aired questions last night, but as far as Keldorn could tell, had received no answers to them. To wit: He'd wanted to know if Jox [ @A Jo in the Bush ] had any private interactions with Josha, and what those interactions had been like. He'd wanted to know if Jox had established Astrid's presence, implying that Astrid was making a calculated decision to ignore the market square, possibly to avoid heat, but was otherwise present. He'd wanted to know what Fox's [ @|TJ|] claimed wariness of Jox stemmed from. Fox had referenced a feeling, but Keldorn was hoping that Fox could explicate it a little more. He'd wanted to know why Derrick had chosen to start a side-train at two hours and thirty-five minutes to sundown, particularly when said pressure on Antari would realistically amount to nothing. This appeared more performative than of actual use. He'd wanted to know what Var's [ @StrikerEZ] and Madiane's [ @Biplet ] current reads on each other were, particularly given the end of the first day. Mil [ @KaladinsSenseOfHumorSpren ] had made note of himself and Jox but was declining to offer a read. It was a slight improvement from the random accusation of the previous Day, but Keldorn wanted to see an actual commitment from Mil. Teal [ @BigBadBagsworth ] was a little in the same boat. He noted Teal was behaving in a somewhat more laidback fashion than his informants had indicated, with no real interest in the accusations. Perhaps Teal needed time to get going, though Keldorn worried time was in short supply. Josha [ @TwinStorm ] was interesting. Keldorn did not like Josha's behaviour - lurking indicated investment in the goings-on of the market square, but no interest in solving. However, his informants had also indicated that Josha was capable of appearing as though he was investigating when he was actually corrupt. For this reason, he'd given Keldorn's informants trouble previously. Keldorn tentatively revised his assessment of Josha slightly upwards. Lipitor [ @KelsierApologist ] existed. He was capable of better. At this point, Keldorn was of the view that Antari [ @ThatOneWorldhopper ] and Astrid [ @Lord Spirit ] were making a calculated and deliberate choice to lurk and this did not endear either of them to him. He was concerned about a world where the Spiked chose to lurk beneath the radar and allow the inhabitants of Blackkeep to kill each other. Antari had interacted with Kéamen, while Jox had reported Astrid's presence when delivering bread. This suggested they were engaging with Blackkeep but choosing to do so on a low level. Perhaps he was not being patient enough, and not giving them enough time. He didn't think shouting their names again would achieve anything. At the same time, he didn't care if it annoyed them. Keldorn had also come to slightly spicier conclusions about Madiane. However, he didn't wish to share it with all at present for certain reasons. Ask again later, he thought.

@ThatOneWorldhopper @Lord Spirit Keldorn drew in a deep breath. Diplomacy had never been his strong suit, and he rather suspected Aral Penrod was going to be mad at him. However, this needed to be said. "You chose to come into Blackkeep," he said, simply. "You made a commitment. Jox seems to have indicated Astrid was making a deliberate decision to watch but say little. Antari has been present in the area but has refused to show up at all. None of this works at all if all of us don't show up and try to find the Spiked. In a way, it cheapens the efforts of those who are there, having to work around you. I'm not asking for you to give up your day jobs, or to spend a great deal of time finding the Spiked. Indeed, I have discovered that life is a great deal more pleasant when it isn't devoted to doing nothing but finding the Spiked," he mentally inserted 'finding whichever unlucky bastard was siphoning boxings from the Canton of Finance' and 'finding whoever the hell Aral had a problem with' in place of 'the Spiked' but it had the same energy, he figured they'd just go with it. "Please, make an effort," he said at last. "Thank you." Mil, Lipitor, and Josha had not escaped his notice either, though Keldorn figured he'd at least give Lipitor some points for actually being present and for taking some time to acclimatise. Apparently being a folk hero was disorientingly hard work. He hopped off the cardboard box that had mysteriously materialised and went back to writing his second report and dreams of the squared circle. He thought he'd done rather well, all things considering. Nary a curse, and only a little frustration vented.

Keldorn'd heard it from his informant network, even before he'd stepped out of his lodgings. The Spiked murderers had struck again. And Copper Stopper was dead. And Keldorn, at least, had been permitted another day. Looked like Copper might've been criminal, but at least he wasn't high on whatever the Spiked were dosing on. Cold comfort, Keldorn thought. One of Blackkeep's residents was dead, and it looked like the Spiked would keep on killing until they managed to stop them. He grunted. Was that way with some of the cases he'd taken up. Obligator who kept on accepting bribes to cover up all sorts of misdeeds. Would've probably gone on for another decade if he hadn't been found, or stopped. Way Keldorn saw it, there was probably at least one cool-headed person among those Spiked. Copper'd spoken out in the market square, but Keldorn didn't think his voice was among the loudest, and that sometimes tended to scare people if they were'd cold customers. Figured it could be a low-profile killing, perhaps. Other option was Copper cutting a little too close to the vein in some of his takes. Keldorn was pretty sure he was gonna need to run that back, see what Copper'd that he'd missed. Word was, Derrick [ @Ashbringer ] was a decent hand at figuring out the workings in a murderer's head. Maybe he'd swing in on Derrick, ask him for his thoughts on this. Keldorn was still wary of Astrid, but figured that this could wait. For the moment, he figured he'd tail Madiane, and see what she was up to.

Keldorn found Kéamen's dismissiveness strange. According to his informants, at least half the figures in Blackkeep had done this for generations. This was evident in Var explicating the textbook position on Allomancy, in Derrick's strange talk of places named Fallion's Tears, in Copper's identification of the deep history of Jox's family line. They weren't babes in arms. They weren't tyros. This would be one thing, asserted of someone like Lijal. It was another statement to make of someone like John Derrick, known as a scout with five years of work in mapping out the environs of the area surrounding Blackkeep, nevermind he'd apparently fallen off a mountain. Edited to add: Fundamentally, setting aside the contextual implications of Derrick's vote, Kéamen was insisting on taking Derrick's vote at face value, despite the brute fact Derrick's vote was not going to achieve what Kéamen claimed it would. At the same time, Kéamen thought Jox's initial vote could not be taken at face value, and also felt that Jox deserved suspicion for voting Astrid. There was an asymmetry of charity here, and Keldorn found himself trying to consider what implications this had.

This was a perspective Keldorn found strange. Derrick had accused Antari two hours and thirty five minutes to sunset, with three accusations targeting Lijal and two on Astrid. In what world did that realistically elicit a reaction from Antari or Antari's teammates? A wise man knew to apportion his response to the degree of threat. Most people didn't take a crossbow to a knife fight. Their arms were too short to box with God. Trying to turn the screws on someone at sunrise, or early into the day was one thing; trying to make their co-conspirators jump, thinking they needed to be saved was another. But it had been neither early enough to reasonably expect reaction (which to Keldorn's mind, made the Astrid accusations contextually different), nor was a solitary accusation at that juncture likely to carry much threat and thus weight given the dominance of the existing accusations. At the point of accusation, Lijal had been leading in the votes and would likely have been executed. At that juncture, it would make sense for a canny and experienced Spiked to vote elsewhere: to give the illusion of helpfulness while avoiding riling up the villagers of Blackkeep by making it seem as though a mob had formed on Lijal (although Keldorn had already been alarmed thinking four accusations had rapidly built up.)

Keldorn was short on time due to the report in question. However, he decidedly felt it was important to get his thoughts out as much as he could. He thus drew up a fresh sheet of paper and began to jot down notes as he thought back about the events of the past day:

Keldorn narrowed his eyes. That last minute double accusation on Lijal had caught his attention, though the close timing of it with Var's switch made him feel that coordination between Var and Madiane didn't seem realistic here. The way the Lijal accusations had taken off didn't feel right to Keldorn, though he'd noted that Kéamen had caught he might have made a mistake with the figures. It was difficult to read Astrid in absentia, and Keldorn hoped the elusive Watchman would return. However, while the Lijal accusations seemed fairly normal for an early investigation, the extent and the last minute way Lijal had overtaken Astrid accusers didn't quite sit right with him. The low scattering of accusations made it seem as though there was relative investment in keeping Astrid alive, which Keldorn was wary of. While he was suspicious of Astrid, Keldorn wondered if a Spiked Var truly swapped from throwing his co-conspirator under the bus to voting to accuse Lijal just like this, on the flip of a clip. It seemed as though if Astrid might be Spiked, then perhaps just one in Var and Mandiane was. He was currently tied up writing a few minor reports wrapping up prior investigations for Aral Penrod, but resolved to spend more time examining the events of the day before dawn came. After all, in times like this, you never knew if you were permitted to see the light again. Another long night, Keldorn thought, with a sigh and a yawn. He wasn't beating the "sleep cycle screwed ten ways to hell" accusations anytime soon. Edited to add: Partway through the report, Keldorn'd fallen asleep. He dreamed again of the strangely-squared ring, of the ropes and the light. Great joy warring with disbelief, that something impossible had happened, because the world was not kind. The world did not allow you things, or happy things, and there was surely a hook somewhere, yet to lodge its barbs into this joy. (It was about stories, after all. Everyone liked heroes. Fox was saying, for some reason, that he wasn't beating the allegations and was laughing at him. Rusting bastard.) The truth was there; the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and the truth would not be denied. The truth cried out in a voice of flame and then cut off the past deliberately with a snip of shears. Chains dropped to the ground, and then became braids. Killings, unleashed, borne on the cheering and the cries of the crowd. ("You're all miserable people," someone accused, heatedly. "They aren't the same people," someone else pointed out. He knew that person, in the dream, and couldn't say why. "You're upset, but for Keldorn, this is the happiest day of his life." And he was happy. It was just... This wasn't permitted, was it? Wasn't it? Everything had led him to believe that faith only got the world ready to kick you down. He hadn't forgotten the events of Mania. That the General'd returned...that seemed the sort of fantasy that wasn't allowed to happen because heroes always won, and people from a certain country weren't prepared to understand stories that didn't fit their narrow cultural frame.) And then Keldorn woke up. The candle had flickered out. One report down, one more to go. He'd doodled the ring on the report. Aral would just have to deal with it; he didn't have time to make a fair copy and to also continue his investigations.

@StrikerEZ @The Unknown Order Keldorn wondered if anyone could be persuaded onto Astrid, or to switch to avoid a tie. Overall, he wasn't convinced of Lijal, but a tie seemed bad too.

The sun was going down, casting blood-edged shadows in the market square. Lijal was one of the names on Aral's list, and had been accused of being one of the Spiked murderers. Keldorn wasn't so sure about this. He distrusted both the fact that the day had begun quietly, after the shock and horror of the council's deaths, and had suddenly picked up speed, with a total of four people casting accusations at Lijal. He'd been tailing Lijal, trying to figure out if a killer potentially lurked behind the street urchin's unassuming features. Her body language suggested she'd accused Fox, out of seemingly banal motives: he'd accused her first. Keldorn didn't know what to make of that. Truth to be told, he liked it: he liked that Lijal wasn't particularly hiding that petty human urge to lash back out at her accuser. It made him feel like she wasn't fussed about how she appeared to others, wasn't interested in keeping up a veneer of total innocence. He distrusted the extent of the accusations, too. The sudden convergence on Lijal made him feel as though his suspicions of Astrid, really meant to just provoke a shift in the complacent quiet, had actually struck a nerve. He considered the possibility of connections between Astrid on the one hand, and Mil and Var on the other. At the same time, he admitted his thoughts on Lijal kind of partially boiled down to the idea he was rewarding basic vengeful behaviour, which was fundamentally how he'd expect a normal person (not a hardened criminal!) inexperienced in the arts of murder to behave. ("Too suspicious to be criminal is a scam," he could all but hear Prelan Wyred screaming in his head. Then again, he really needed to stop letting Wyred live rent-free in his head, didn't he?) He supposed if forced, he would admit to his misgivings and remain on Astrid. Var'd cut a fine speech urging everyone to vote for Lijal, but Keldorn distrusted it, too. Where was this urgency coming from? With four accusations, and the next being Astrid at two, he doubted Lijal was going anywhere but the hangman's gallows. (Harsh world, this.) What did everyone voting for Lijal really do here? The shift in Kéamen's demeanour was something Keldorn would pay attention to. His informants mentioned that Kéamen'd previously not demonstrated any scruples about convicting or executing another. (Perhaps it was more Kéamen's profile than Kéamen himself.) So where was this new hesitance coming from? Keldorn didn't want to relitigate a very ancient debate, but also felt that urging the reawakened market square to surrender what tempo they'd gleaned was detrimental and risked allowing the Spiked a free night in which to wreak more death and chaos. This did put him in agreement with Var, at present. "Madiane can do the job," he reiterated. Damnit, but one way or another, he would make his voice heard in electing their new representative to the council.

The way Keldorn saw it, the murders had happened under Astrid's watch. "Who will watch the watchmen?" Keldorn asked, quietly. Almost under his breath. The worst thing he could possibly imagine as former Garrison was a traitor, a soldier turned by the promise of boxings against his own cohort. Perhaps it boded ill for Astrid and the guards employed that someone had murdered the council. Perhaps not. Either way, Keldorn hoped Aral was at least questioning those tasked with that duty.

Well. It seemed that a lot of people on Aral's list were showing up today. Keldorn figured he'd accept the small victory. It saved him the trouble of having to hunt them down. "Council's dead," he said, tersely. "If anyone's not told you that yet, Josha, then I scarce know what they're doing with themselves." Market square was dead quiet, all things considered. Keldorn didn't like it, though he knew he sometimes worked odd hours, hunting down the leads he'd surfaced. All part of the damned job. "'Least I see it, you're asking for thoughts I've already given. Copper's oddly bold, and isn't making much sense here. Jox is biding his time on Copper, which makes me reconsider thinking they're teamed, but I've only so many thoughts about why that lad'd accept blatant falsehoods about himself, and they aren't pretty. I haven't decided how I feel about Kéamen yet. I haven't felt good about Fox's response to a private meeting, either. And the market square's too damned quiet, which makes me think that the murderers in our midst are happy enough to saunter around, ask us about our thoughts, without any particular sense of urgency! What about your thoughts, you've been in the market square long enough as it is!"

Shortly past his conversation with Kéamen, Keldorn found himself watching the emptiness of the market square with some wariness. He distrusted the silence. It felt like the calm before a sudden, violent ashfall. There were too many they hadn't heard hide nor hair from; Lipitor, Teal, Astrid, and Antari, based off the list of profiles Aral had handed over to him. It was easy enough for the Spiked murderers to hide among the silent, though Keldorn did not feel the missing were their primary concern at this juncture. With the scout reports of advancing koloss and the council murders, Keldorn had no doubt that anyone missing for more than two days would find Blackkeep's Garrison hauling them out of hiding. No, he was more worried if any in that number was merely lying low. They'd need another day to know for sure, however. Of those his informants had caught sight of, Mil, Lijal, Var, Josha, Derrick, and Madiane seemed content to merely establish their presence. Keldorn distrusted that. (Admittedly, he'd a slight fanciful theory about Jox and Josha, though he'd not seen fit to give voice to it quite just yet.) Jox and Fox had both made accusations, though Keldorn could work out little enough from what they were saying. Copper though. Copper and Kéamen were particularly vocal, and Keldorn'd noticed the slight connection between the two of them. What to make of it, he was unsure, though he found himself a little wary of both. He agreed with Copper's assessment that Kéamen likely fit the profile of the sort who was wont to immediate and wild distrust of anyone who was a little more forward about trying to find the Spiked. (He thought he remembered someone like that, once.) Still, there was a conspicuous overlap between that and two different-but-similar sorts of profiles that Keldorn could think of, like a horseshoe. Sometimes a new murderer would panic and immediately push someone they thought was loud. It wasn't deliberate, Keldorn didn't think. It was a strange kind of involuntary kneejerk, no different from the way you might end up inhaling water when drowning. Sometimes, an experienced murderer did it on purpose. That was a mindset Keldorn struggled to understand, though he knew of it. Which way Kéamen fell, Keldorn was not immediately certain. It was the point of reservation he kept to himself. At the same time, Copper wasn't as clean as a whistle, and there were whispers that Copper had connections to the Mob, one of the more notorious thieving crews that'd dabbled in all sorts of crime and vice. Keldorn was wary of that, and wary of the aggressive way Copper'd come in. Didn't seem very much like his profile of the fellow. Where was Copper getting the idea it was uncharacteristic for Jox, anyway? Keldorn distrusted the pattern he saw. Copper's uncharacteristic behaviour (the irony was not lost on him), at least not for someone of his more relaxed profile, the seemingly-performative question Jox'd already addressed publicly made it seem as though Copper's wariness of Jox wasn't particularly sincere. Sometimes, criminals did that: they made it look like they were at odds so you thought they weren't working together, but little things gave it away—the shallowness of the accusations, engagement along a tangent... Certainly, Copper'd claimed that Jox might've been making loose accusations. Still, a significant part of his wariness appeared to be careful artifice—artifice which Keldorn had misgivings about. One way or another, Keldorn was ill-inclined to make too much comment about the disposition of the defenders of Blackkeep or the Spiked murderers in their midst. He often felt this was not the sort of thing that could be established without more information than they currently had. All the same, he did feel that there were enough strangers in Blackkeep that it was worth cautioning any Tineyes or Mistborn burning Tin to be sure to vandalise somewhere prominent and to hide some secret means of confirming their identity in that vandalism. At least he wasn't the Watch here, and he didn't need to care about other kinds of petty criminal misdeeds, Keldorn thought, grimly. There were only so many hours in the night, and particularly as they found more and more Spiked (the alternative was not a future Keldorn cared to contemplate), anyone who could spend the night vandalising public property certainly couldn't be killing. Edited to add: No one was asking him, but in Keldorn's opinion, Madiane had his vote for new council member, if not the rank of Master @Araris Valerian

Keldorn had had a very strange dream. There was a strange squared ring, made of ropes, in the centre of limelights. A man in green, his face daubed up in streaks of green and black, tossing a stuffed—Keldorn had never seen a creature of that like in his entire life, but in the dream, he was convinced it was called an iguana—onto someone else to take the pin. A lynx snatching up the iguana to stomp it onto the floor, hit it with an elbow drop, and a strange move that Keldorn knew nothing about, except that it was surely overkill for a stuffed iguana. There was a crowd, too. The boos and shouts seemed to shake the entire frame of the dream. They really seemed to love the iguana. Fox had said something about another animal, something called a cobra. Keldorn hadn't the faintest idea why he was dreaming about the recluse, and that talk about a match between the cobra and the iguana was more than he'd gotten out of the man in days. Probably meant something, though. Sometimes, dreams were things your waking mind had yet to process. A man clad in black, rolling under the bottom rope into that ring of light. Something about the truth being dead? The cheering. The dream trembled, shattered. Keldorn awoke to cries of murder, of the entire city council being killed by Spiked.

Keldorn struggled to fit the brass key into the heavy lock, blinking and cursing as ash fell around him, glancing off the wide brim of his hat, and slathering his greatcoat. The way Keldorn saw it, keys were tricky little beasts. You had to try both sides, and then the third time around, it'd go right in, with the sort of ease that seemed as though it was asking you whyever you were struggling so hard in the first place. The key turned in the lock. Damned things. He kneed the door open, grunting slightly at the old ache in his leg. Campaign wound, from that rebellion just south of Seran. Put him out of Garrison after that, but commander knew a fellow who knew a fellow, and alla that meant Keldorn was here at Blackkeep now, had been for years, keeping his eyes and ears open for what work the Ministry swung his way. The Canton of Inquisition handled things in-house: the farther away you were from them, Prelan Wyred was known to say dismissively, the better off you were. Still, the Canton of Finance often had need for people who could ask what needed to be asked, who could poke around, and who could find answers, and that meant they had use for a washed-up man who was former Garrison. Didn't need a good leg to find out what the Canton needed, see. Sometimes it was mind-dullingly boring things, like an obligator skimming off a shipment here, or a Prelan accepting bribes there. Sometimes, it was a little more interesting. 'Course, Ministry contracts had dried up of late. Didn't take someone who'd seen the amount of crap Keldorn had to know what was in the wind, not when boats coming from Luthadel were announcing the fall of the capital, and the death of the Lord Ruler. Figured that with the way things were going, sooner or later, someone was gonna work out how to put down even a god the proper way. The sort that was gonna stick. Some woulda said it was an overdue thing. Keldorn accepted jobs from the Ministry that paid, so he kept his mouth shut, even if he paid the cheesemonger a little more than he should. Fellow was a Rebellion sympathiser, he knew that. But you did what you could, didn't you? Wasn't here to keep his morals pure, anyway. He was just here making a living, trying to survive. With the Ministry contracts drying up, Keldorn supposed he was lucky that Aral Penrod'd always seemed to be able to find work on the side. A small investigation here, a quiet tailing there. Nothing fancy, apart from the time he caught two of the councilmembers in bed with each other, but it paid the bills. Scut work, sometimes. Things the watch didn't want their hands on. It put coin in his pocket though. Allowed him to keep baywraps on the table, and he wasn't gonna turn that down. 'Course, maybe he'd feel differently once he'd a chance to sit and process Penrod's latest request. Wanted Keldorn to figure out what was happening with the dead prelan, did he? Keldorn brushed the fallen ash off his shoulders and shut the door. The things he did for a paycheck. Realised I forgot to sign up, so here we go. Signing up as Keldorn, a cynical washed-up former Garrison soldier with a bad leg. Takes on private investigative work for the Canton of Finance, and sidejobs for Aral Penrod.

Circles - Post Malone

Hey there, welcome to SE! Start time of the game is here: You've successfully signed up (or will once Araris acknowledges you.) Basic rules/welcome package are here: Now that you've signed up, all you really need to do is chill and wait for the game to start at the announced time. You can hang out in the thread and RP with people, etcetera, all of that's fine Once the game starts, Araris will send you a GM PM telling you about your role and alignment, and then the game thread will go up - that's where we all play. Just check this subforum for updates at the time itself and you're good to go! This is basically like Town of Salem/Among Us/Werewolves but with an RP-skin so if you've played social deduction games before or IRL, that's what it's gonna be like

@ThatOneWorldhopper @BigBadBagsworth As requested, here you go!

I was cooking here