Kasimir

[TAG: RP, 387 words] I think a lot of things hinges on Archer's alignment now. If V!Archer, then you and Mat are more likely V. In a world where exeing Archer gives us a flip, sure, that makes sense. But since we don't automatically get a flip just by exeing him, that becomes a question of whether people want to play preventive action against an E!Archer world or not. They do need three fields for field destruction, so the bigger question IMO is whether STINK missed EP or whether Sart's calculations hint that he went into Naming. Even then, the field victory really doesn't feel like the intuitive path forward for an Elim team. @Ashbringer - Suppose you're V. Who would you vote to exe today and who are you looking to DP? lxxxiii. renlin “Hey, Renlin,” Kevan greeted, as he encountered Renlin, a sheaf of papers in hand. “Hey, Kevan,” Renlin nodded a greeting, then gestured with a flick of his head the direction of the Chancellor’s Office. “Still at war with the Chancellor’s Office?" Kevan nodded. That gesture encompassed an entire universe of weariness. “You?” Renlin grimaced. That expression, too, said everything that Kevan needed to know. “Yeah. I think Master Anders is really tired of this kraem—he went over and started asking why they were taking so long the last time. I’m hoping they’ll actually process my appeal by today.” “Yeah, Master Bob said he’d talk with Master Volatile, see if there’s anything she can do about it.” Personally, after slightly over a month of constant back-and-forth with the Chancellor’s Office, Kevan had come to doubt there was anything Master Volatile, even in her capacity as Chancellor, could do about the eldritch alternate dimension where paperwork and the souls and hopes of students went to die. Said eldritch alternate dimension currently masqueraded as a benign Chancellor’s Office, but really, they all knew better. They both shared weary smiles. Neither of them really cared for Advanced Sympathy II, which was in Kevan’s view, interesting but really not what he was in the University to study and it was, moreover, putting him in violation of Master Bob’s fairly reasonable study guidelines for El’the in his Medica, whereas Renlin simply found sympathy utterly boring and wasn’t afraid to slag it repeatedly in Master Anders’s classes. “Master Volatile resigned. You didn’t hear?” Renlin asked. Oh, kraem. Oh, Tehlu’s bloody balls. He supposed he should’ve put two and two together since Issal’d become Master Alchemist, even though one way or another, if you thought about it, it was insanely unrealistic. No one made Master Alchemist this quickly (just like no one made El’the this quickly? His mind asked. In Kevan’s opinion, this was the foremost reason to suspect something was wrong with this universe: these, and the intransigence of the Chancellor’s Office.) “No,” Kevan groaned. “Who’s Chancellor now?” “Who knows?” Renlin shrugged. “I feel like they’re probably going to tell us to get our paperwork endorsed by whoever takes over from Master Volatile.” “Kraemet brevetan Aerin,” Kevan cursed. “Yeah, I hate it too,” Renlin sighed. “I really hope the new Chancellor fixes this, somehow…”

There isn't. And one way or another, I don't really see why this line of reasoning works for you: from V!TJ's perspective, the scanners have to be lying one way or another, correct? Because if you are V!TJ, then there is no way in hell you scan red. The problem is the only world in which you are V and the scanners V is if Wonko is E or I am E. Due to a separate scan, it's pretty clear TKN is V. I don't really understand your logic here. So if the scanners are lying, why is the withheld kill even part of the calculus? Edited to add: To be clear, you are more or less committed to E!me, E!Wonko (then why'd Wonko get C3ed?) or E!Archer. I think E!Wonko is the least plausible, E!me is pretty kayana too, and have been going to and fro on E!Archer but lean no right now.

Should note for everyone's benefit that I gave STINK the rainbow message to post because I asked if he was cool with doing something loltastic. I wish I found something more funny but skittles are still cool. Drake had 8 EP then 7 EP in Arith and didn't elevate. We traded our class and EP D1 because I threatened to do it to him to horrify him in some other game. Each Month, at most one student elevates per field. Mat's ability to PM freely despite being expelled indicates he has Linguistics 1. You were the only player I had no account for and since Drake didn't elevate, the only explanation is you did.

He did go on the Horns at one point so I guess it's possible but hard to model. If your numbers are right, this entails making judgement calls on STINK and Archer at this juncture.

...I guess your votes now have a function!

STINK claimed Linguistics 3 and has proved to have both Linguistics 2 and 3. Steel has Archives 1 because Archer started with Archives but did not elevate. That part is easily worked out and if he's Village, implying E!Archer, makes the inactivity more galling.

Sure, I'm not 100% certain, but I'm not really about to vote a player I don't think is Evil. I still have a Village read on STINK so I don't currently feel like killing him just in case he turns out to be Evil. I'm not interested in paranoia-lynching rather than going with my reads, so Steel's still the option for me. I can't stop y'all if you want to vote Archer, I'm just not convinced that's the right answer here as we don't have sufficient leeway to mess around. Edited to add: I don't have to be 100% certain, I just have to have moderate credences.

Agreed. How is the exe on literally any other player productive, if one believes E!Ash and E!Steel?

[TAG: DISCUSSION, 277 words] Sorry, opposite - my unarticulated view is Szeth doesn't work on a four man team (as that shouldn't be missing kills anyway), so this is indicative in my view that he wasn't a hit. Am tired. Edited to add: One more question. Why does an E!Ash, E!Archer, E!me world go for the field destruction victory? That's literally nonsense on stilts - I claimed a protect and roleblock on two consecutive cycles, that's literally time in which I could be killing and narrowing the numbers since pretty much no one would have roleblocked me when I was roleblocking or protecting. In the world the three of us are Evil together, Archer could just as easily afford an Assassin since he isn't really scanning, or a gram on Ash. Why waste time getting fancy with field destruction when we can just kill Sart and STINK and call it a day? STINK doesn't have protection, and Sart was vulnerable too. If we were Evil together we could've straightforwardly won in the last Turn between that and the fact I have a total of a five vote swing due to Soothing (two votes) and votejacking. We'd just steamroller in that world tbh. The only way E!Archer and E!me work I think is if we have an E!partner who is dead and even that's pushing it - just kill Sart and Ash, leave STINK alive and finish him off with my voteswing. What's STINK gonna do in that world? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Edited to add 2: Noting as well that TJ didn't remotely try to pass the Bloodless, which IMO suggests it was - to use his favourite term - Village appeasement.

[TAG: DISCUSSION, 1661 words] ...You forget I have R&L, which enables me to Soothe two complaints if I must. And this is halfway through the cycle. I think it's more than fair to advance an alternative wagon - consolidation can wait for later. You're assuming this is my final vote and it's not - this is as much me asking people if they're cool with this as trying to advocate my current line of thought. Because we can't exe Ash? Because I legit think his ally is Ash, and Ash is unexeable. I don't believe there's much of an E!STINK world. There is no reasonable world in which E!Sart without E!Archer, and I struggle to see E!Sart accepting a three Turn roleblock just for Village cred. Ash's immediate Szeth votes felt wrong. Ash's NKA excusing TJ - my mind still goes back to this repeatedly. I feel he slipped TJ out a bit too quickly. STINK being willing to repeatedly post write-up messages despite TKN clearly saying alignment could be scanned from them. Like...sure, do you want me to vote Ash? I can do that, but it'd do nothing. You're @ing me about this but why in the name of God's blackened and burned body wouldn't I? I legit guilted out of a game because I was knowingly exeing a player I thought was Village and that was the game right before this. I have strong issues with trying to push players I think are Village so why the hells would I ever want to vote in <Sart, STINK>? Archer I don't have such a strong V read on and am willing to gamble, but that's about it. I'm concerned about losing tempo, mostly - I am not willing to believe Ash doesn't have a gram (remember, TJ had two votes missing, and TJ claiming to make a Bloodless was always nonsensical.) And if Ash did make bone tar, then that's potential for a mass kill right there. So I want to vote the player I believe is Evil, from Archer's scan, and then to go push for an Ash kill next round even if we'd have to wait. That's where I'm coming from. Edited to add: Let me put it this way - if it's E!Ash, which is where my credences are at the moment, then every Turn we spend exeing a Villager, we are allowing him to fulfill his wincon. All he has to do is to outlast us. Do I believe V!Archer enough to maybe want to just go for Steel? Sure. From my point of view, given the fact I know I'm Village, Steel is a guaranteed hit. Given I'm pessimistic enough to expect taking Ash out to be a real pain in the pula, I don't want to paranoia lynch and give him extra tempo. Is it a paranoia lynch? IDK. I go back and forth about Archer. That's literally the point of me asking people in the thread - because - surprise! when people don't want to discuss, I start talking myself into and out of things. This is literally why I kept begging for a discussion partner, and ngl Wonko, if you spent that time logging everything I said instead of trying to keep discussion up, that's on you. Edited to add 2: This is the part I dislike: Ash does NKA and TJ and Mat are slipped out, but mostly more time or focus on Archer, but in his conclusions, suddenly Mat comes up again. It just feels like a weird set of moves to be making. Source post here. Edited to add 3: @The Known Novel - Weird thing to be asking, but as I think the logic of V!you is inescapable independent of Archer's alignment - and as you were the V player V!me tried to knowingly ML in LG95, care to back this up? Edited to add 4: Honestly, sure, let me push back on this. Strictly-speaking, there is quite literally no world in which an exe on a Villager increases the odds of Village victory, since no matter what, as long as a Villager is getting exed, you are helping the SDs do their wincon for them. Strictly speaking, it decreases the odds of Village victory. Now, you could definitely say that we can, in some worlds, mitigate this decrement or that it's an acceptable decrement to tank. But it's just really odd to want to @ me by saying that exeing an Elim doesn't increase the odds of a Village victory. Well...yeah, no crem, but it doesn't decrease it either, which an exe on a Villager most assuredly does: fewer actions, fewer resources with which to bring to bear on getting a kill because Ash cannot be ousted by any other means, and - you literally cannot deny that this is helping them winnow our numbers down since expulsion is part of their wincon too. That's one fewer player Ash has to kill. Long story short, if I have strong V!credences on Sart, moderate on STINK, moderate on Archer (IDK, I will agree I go back and forth on Archer), it's logical for me to not want to go for anyone in that set, which leaves Steel as the primary push that makes sense for me. Ash is still unexeable. I still think that if you wargame out a gram!Ash world, that's a real problem for us because it'll take three kills to end him for good, and unless there are multiple bodyguards, that's a lot of tempo we are losing. Model it out for me, why don't you? TO ANYONE WITH TLDR; SKIP EVERYTHING AND READ THIS BIT BELOW vvvvvv Suppose: -If none of us are in Imre right now (advise people not declare their status as TJ can still sabotage), the earliest we can stick an Assassin on Ash is next Turn. -Recall that expelled students cannot target Ash. Ash is untouchable by an Assassin from an expelled student as long as he is on the University grounds. I'm going to highlight this as I don't think you really internalised that in the implied PM with Araris. -I'm not saying there isn't real value in sticking one on him anyway to lock Imre off from him, but Ash can make bone tar, and he spent a previous Turn finishing a fire stop (claimed to me a while back) so he has nothing to fear from bone tar anyway. -Now, if I'm wrong and Ash doesn't have a gram, we're fine, he goes down, and if the game doesn't end, sure, start squinting at STINK/Archer from my POV. As an aside, noting that Archer's scans don't leave him very much room to revise his beliefs on a player. I don't find that super compatible with what E!Archer wants because the only player he can coherently claim to revise on is me. Any other player will get him @ as a scanner who supposedly cleared them. -If I'm right, and it's E!Ash and he has a gram, then it takes three kills to take him down. These kills have to be from enrolled students. I reserve my comments on who might have the $ to buy Assassins and note also that the more we buy them, the more the Assassin market price is probably going to increase, which puts them further out of reach for most of us. -So let's game this out: let's suppose the most optimistic world: we can all buy Assassins and they all only cvost 30 talents. Suppose we expel Archer. THis also assumes the student pool left is: <Sart, me, STINK, Archer.> T3M2: We expel Archer. Free sabotage/kill. Suppose Sart goes down, as that's a low info kill. I note, you are now on two players left. Two fragile lives between the Village and SD victory. T3M3: One of us goes to Imre and buys an Assassin. In this period, free sabotage/kill as Ash really doesn't have to fear us voting him out - it's bloody impossible. Free sabotage/kill. Suppose I go down. T4M1: One of us goes to Imre and buys an Assassin. First hit on Ash. In this period, free sabotage/kill as Ash really doesn't have to fear us voting him out - it's bloody impossible. Suppose STINK goes down. Win for the SDs. T4M2: One of us goes to Imre and buys an Assassin. Second hit on Ash. T4M3: One of us goes to Imre and buys an Assassin. Third hit on Ash. None of these considers worlds in which E!TJ again makes a second gram for E!Ash, which we won't know about because, hey, he's now expelled so the voting telltale is now gone. This does presume I'm fundamentally right that it's E!Ash rather than E!STINK. I am pointing out that you kind of have to make a hard decision here on E!Archer or V!Archer, in my view. Unless you want to hope that there are no grams, the time delay with Assassination fundamentally means we are going to be repeatedly caught out. Our tempo limit is tight. This assumes we can reliably access Assassins. If you can buy > 1 Assassin in a cycle, then our odds are better. But I am directly saying that unless my projections are wrong - and I invite you to show me how, because I'd love to be wrong - then we don't really have that much of a leeway, and that's why I was so frustrated with the tempo lost on Szeth. (I'll note here that my unarticulated view is Szeth only works on a four man team and that shouldn't be missing kills.) In an E!Archer world, V!TJ, and then the gram worry is moot. In a V!Archer world, it categorically has to be E!TJ, and we know TJ was making something. In his shoes, I'd do it too - what do I have to lose? I'm already out and so I can't help my team win, so I'm going to gun it and see if I can make my unexeable teammate tanky enough to win.

[TAG: DISCUSSION, 235 words] It is. The one place I can see this line of reasoning work has to do with the difficulty of getting rid of a Master as none of us have Namers in our pockets, and my EP is in Physicking, which Does Not Kill so I am just a pacifist this game apparently. (Agreed people just have to take this on faith, but given my commitment to method acting at this point, it's at least not too far a stretch.) So keeping in mind that STINK is probably on Master track with the +5 EP bonus as well, we could be looking down the barrel of needing to shoot three Masters which is a bit more kayana. (I'll note this gets easier in a V!Archer world because of Banned Books but YMMV.) Time-wise...IDK. Assassins are a delayed kill, for one. If - I am not saying I know this for sure - if we are considering TJ/Ash/Steel, who's to say the missing actions/kill issues weren't from, e.g. TJ making a gram and passing it to Ash, using all his free slots? Basically I don't think we can take it for granted that Ash can be killed, much less in good time. Comment in a PM. But I am not necessarily sure this is the best solution. Edited to add: If you think Ash is E, then fundamentally there's no reason to assume he'll play ball.

[TAG: DISCUSSION, 219 words] Sorry Wonko. I'm willing to be talked out of it, but I think I'm willing to gamble on V!Archer at this point. I'm struggling to see E!Archer going to the extent of aggressively PMing everyone left with the results to try to get them in on it, mostly. Steel Steel FWIW, I roleblocked Ash last Night. Might be the reason behind the missing kill, IDK. My other thought is that because if we're working with an E!Ash world, then Ash essentially controls three DP meaning that if we have votes on anyone else, Ash gets to decide if that player gets exed or not. I'm not certain that's control I'm willing to surrender to him. Functionally I guess I can accept the pragmatics but I've never been fond of willingly exeing a player I believe is Village. Edited to add: But how the frith does a TJ/Ash/Steel team miss a kill????? Edited to add 2: Actually. @Sart, @The Known Novel - you have the dubious honour of inhabiting my Village reads at this point. I'm aware of Wonko's opinion. Will defer to whether you want to roll the dice or not. I still have my V!Archer reasoning but I honestly kind of struggle with the missing kill in a TJ/Ash/Steel world and that's the main reason I'd relook Archer.

My anger isn't about overcommitting, thank you. It's about expecting people to even try to do the bare minimum and a single line of analysis or engagement. I invite you to go back and look over the last two cycles. There was none. Absolutely nothing. We had a kneejerk onto Szeth from the very start, no analysis, no engagement whatsoever with the issue, no attempt to think. I would not be this angry if people had honestly tried and been wrong. I would not be this angry if people had even made a single sincere attempt, however short, however lacking. People didn't even bother. You can refer to to @Devotary of Spontaneity as you like. But I'm not going to sit here and be told dismissivelyit's invalid to be angry my team isn't remotely interested in even trying to play the game and that it's unreasonable to expect a basic modicum of sincere effort. I reject the claim I’m expecting Aman level effort from everyone as a bad faith straw man. If it's unacceptable to expect basic sincere effort from everyone and that diminishes your enjoyment of the game, I'll point out my enjoyment of the game has gone into the negatives as well because no Villagr can be bothered to even try. How do you believe this should be resolved? Cajoling did not work. I will also say this: if everyone believes that "do whatever" is acceptable and expected and cannot be called out, I will take this as my play guidelines going forward. If everyone is clearly of the opinion that since Aman level play cannot be in good faith required of all, nothing need be required of all, I will remember this and apply that, starting from this Month onwards. I am tired of trying to hold a standard people can't remotely be bothered to and believe that the only way people will be incentivised to change is if they discover they dislike this standard after all. I'm done here and will not respond to further goading.

Yep. Hasn't logged back in.

Was it? How do you know? You tell me I don't know either, and I didn't know, but both Sart and I commented about our bad feelings about this. I also struggled in various PMs with people on two points, which people never bothered to address or talk out: 1. If E!Szeth could kill, why didn't he file EP and elevate sooner? Did he try Naming? 2. If Szeth was Evil, why the frick was D1 so chill? Did the Elims seriously not care he was in the lead trains? 3. General complacency/people being alright with the vote. I am not saying we don't exe Szeth. I am saying that if we tried to remotely think about it, it would have been preferable to us simply assuming it was right. You setting the bar at 100% confidence is a straw man. The point isn't 100% confidence - the point is making a discussed, reasoned vote rather than kneejerking to Szeth or at least trying to think it through. With Ash being unexpellable, STINK out of country, and Steel deadweight, sure. Remind me, do we have a kill? If we don't, the only worlds in which we are getting rid of E!Ash is if one of the unexpelled players gets down to Imre and sets an Assassin on him. If there is one. If we can afford one. If Ash doesn't just DP that player and block off Imre locations for them. There are so many ifs here I am questioning if you've considered the actual size of your cushion - in a two Elim remaining world, I'm not even sure we have the votes to insure we don't lose to a double expulsion. I was wargaming with Wonko about an E!Archer world and concluded that E!Archer could win in two Turns. We do not have that cushion, I'm sorry to break your illusion. Question for you: how many times does a scan fail before it seems weird or as though the player is just buying time? Not sure about Ash. Is there some reason you have a good read on Ash? I'll say outright I liked his post last cycle, but am not sure that's much to base a read off. Thank you. Edited to add: @The Known Novel - Second question for you. You don't have Sart and myself on the list. Why? Edited to add 2: Is the opinion that this is a roleblocked kill or that this was a deliberately withheld kill? I -hmm. Weird question. What if we refused to expel anyone today. I know Wilson is gonna hate me for this, but... Look. There's been two failed sabotages. If it wasn't a roleblock, if it's a deliberately withheld kill, isn't this functionally a 'who blinks first' situation? Gonna admit I lowkey think this is a bad idea but at the same time, it fundamentally depends on whether: A. You think Archer's scans can be trusted B. You think Ash should be allowed to go hog-wild with Plum Bob.| C. You think Sart or STINK should be allowed to go hog-wild with Linguistic Analysis or whichever capstone Sart is trying for.

I wanted people to actually sit, discuss, and consider. I pointed out things that didn't make sense. I wanted us to at least consider what is going on. I wanted us to consider discrepancies and to make sense of things: does an Elim say X? Does this make sense with that team? I have pointed out issues germane to Szeth and the sense that Ash should be considered. I have made 22 posts over the last cycle and 21 over the previous, and 95 PMs and 45 PMs respectively, soliciting thoughts, begging, always begging for engagement. The fact of the matter is that I have been ignored since the cycle where TJ was lynched where as of seven hours to rollover that cycle, I have been actively begging people to please engage with the discussion. I do not appreciate being tone policed after reasonable anger at being ignored for one and a half cycles straight of begging, cajoling, and pleading. The attitude of this community and playerbase towards playing a game you all signed up to play is abhorrent and negligent. You all decided that it was acceptable to rest on your laurels and to not remotely consider other cases. I extensively warned people this could be problematic. I extensively and repeatedly cited MR53, where you all famously ignored Az, deciding you all had the game in the bag. Az was not a hit. I cited MR52, where Drake and I simply assumed Xino was Evil. Xino was not a hit. This is not the first time people simply cannot be bothered to play a game they have signed up to actually play. I remind everyone I have been pushing for more analysis or sensemaking since T2M3. I have been repeatedly ignored. I have put in more effort to beg and cajole people. I continued to be ignored. I don't care to hide my anger at the state of the game any more. I have said my piece. At this point, I could hardly care less, and if they can give me a pinch-hitter, I'm more than happy to take one so I don't have to deal with this.

Archer Archer I swear to bloody Tehlu I'm going to just vote every single one of you.

@little wilson @Elbereth So, what are, hypothetically-speaking, the chances of my getting a pinch-hitter if I'm absolutely karking done with the kraem attitude from this Village and don't really have the desire to keep playing on? Edited to add: Like Tehlu's freakin' angels. I kept asking questions. I backread. I pointed to stuff that didn't really work. Not a single Tehlu-damned person here even thought it was worth engaging with. I wanted to get that karking lynch right instead of wasting our karking time and everyone thought it was so karking in the bag we could sit the frick back and frickin' do nothing and not even bother discussing because hahaha why did we sign up for this game right? I should stop ranting but I'm so mad if I had a kill right now I'd murder y'all and just call it a day. Christ.

Please, for the love of Tehlu, tell me you targeted someone who was expelled. Also, I really don't want to bloody say it but I absolutely feel I must, given I was frustrated to the point of swearing in my GM PM at the constant refusal of anyone to try to discuss, even as I kept saying this was not making sense and could people please fecking discuss rather than sitting the feck down with Village fecking complacency. Edited to add: @Elbereth Write-up is borked. Literally. I sat in the karking thread begging people to discuss. Y'all decided the game was so in the bag we could afford to piss that karking momentum away. I'm pretty karking disgusted with everyone right now because it feels like I'm playing for a Village that absolutely gives zero crems and isn't remotely interested in trying to play a game they signed up for.

Tell us something new... :eyes: EDITED TO ADD: @Araris Valerian Given that I was asking a thread that had zero mood to discuss whose flip they most wanted and stated I wanted TJ's, I think it’s pretty clear who I'd go for.

[TAG: RP, 473 words] Szeth Szeth [OOC: Going to revote to make sure Wilson and El catch this as I recognise my vote is buried in a long post.] lxxxii. requirements “Well,” Master Bob was saying. “I’ve read the draft of the last chapter you submitted to me…it’s disappointing that the broadroot didn’t turn out to be particularly promising, but I suppose that’s how research goes. However, I must ask…” he stared pointedly at Kevan over the rim of his gigantic tea mug. “Have you considered picking up the pace a little?” Kevan sighed, and tried to bury his aggravation. “Bob, honestly I’m still locked in a quiet, terrifying cold war with the Chancellor’s Office.” Master Bob blinked and set the mug down. “Whatever did they do now?” he asked. “What haven’t they done?” Kevan asked, bitterly. “They told me I needed to get a 27B/6 filled out and accompanied by a signed letter of approval and then endorsements from you and the Chancellor. Then, they tell me to wait a week for a reply. Then, they dismiss my 27B/6 request because ‘Advanced Sympathy II is a fundamental prerequisite for any graduating student and can only be replaced with the appropriately listed Alchemy modules—” Master Bob thumped the table with his fists. “That’s ridiculous!” he snorted. “You don’t need Advanced Sympathy II, what you need is more time and more focus on your research project right now, you can do Advanced Sympathy II in the summer, or in your spare time or whenever,” the negligent wave of his hand showed pretty much what Master Bob thought of Advanced Sympathy II. “I know, right,” Kevan said, aggravatedly. “And then they tell me to file a AS33420 form to appeal the decision so I do that and that needs to be endorsed by the Chancellor and so I had to have a long conversation with Master Volatile about the merits of tea and coffee.” “...Ah,” said Master Bob. “She’s like that, yes.” “And then,” said Kevan, really getting into it now, “I bring them the AS33420 and they tell me the window for a 27B/6 withdrawal has passed so my appeal cannot be considered, and then I have to file another appeal in order to get them to look at my first appeal, which was only past the time window because they sat on it for a fecking week!” “Language,” said Master Bob, reflexively. “Not in my Medica!” “Yes sir, I mean, yes Bob, but look, they deserve it.” “I suppose they damn well do,” Master Bob said, “But even so.” He shook his head. “I’ll talk to Volatile, see what she can do. Maybe write them a sternly-worded letter…it’s unacceptable, really, in a University of this calibre. You shouldn’t be fighting the administration to graduate or even handle your classes.” “I’d appreciate that, sir.” “So. Skindancers then?” “I didn’t look close enough to check,” Kevan said, glumly. “At this point, I’d take skindancers if they just let me drop Advanced Sympathy II.”

[TAG: RP, 390 words] Have a good trip, have fun lxxxi. advancement There were whispers (since when weren’t there?) about Issal. Some thought that he must’ve been possessed by the skindancers, to have advanced so quickly. Rumours that he would be graduating or replacing Master Volatile soon enough. Kevan wondered what that meant for Master Volatile’s tenure as Chancellor, realised that Issal was probably going to be an improvement. Hell, even if he were possessed by skindancers, he’d be a damn improvement to the damned Chancellor’s Office, and Kevan was firmly of the opinion that any Namer wrecking the Chancellor’s Office and the infernal bureaucracy that the place ran on was going to be doing the students of the University a public service. Some of the whispers were about him. Kevan wasn’t really all that surprised. So far, he and Issal had advanced in lock-step. It made sense people would wonder about why the Latrian was moving forward, why he was not. Part of his woes stemmed back to the University and the bloody-minded bureaucracy of the Chancellor’s Office. He was nearing the midterms, and his studies were still in limbo because dear merciful Tehlu and angels of light and goodness, apparently the 27B/6, the signed letter of approval, and the dual endorsements from Master Bob and Master Volatile weren’t enough and now it was unclear if he’d be allowed to count the class credits from this term towards graduation. Sometimes, Kevan really wished he’d gone into Naming. He hadn’t the aptitude or the interest, of course, but still. He felt like the Chancellor’s Office could use a little cleansing out. Perhaps they’d discover the supplementary forms he’d filed asking them to reclassify one of the classes he was taking towards foundational El’the requirements instead. Part of it… In truth, he was scared. He didn’t feel ready. He had so much left to learn, that he didn’t even want to think about possibly replacing Master Anders, or Master Bob. He didn’t want to be—anybody. He just wanted to be their student, to learn as much as he possibly could. And then to make the world a better place, he thought. A small piece at a time. Just doing his bit. (“The philosophers,” said Alfons, in the text Master Anders had recently assigned him, “Have always only sought to interpret the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.”) Edited to add: @The Known Novel Oh yeah you asked about GM response times. If you want a faster response, you have to conduct an especially secret and special ritual. First, you buy a large jar of Nutella. It must be Nutella, I have not had luck with speculoos but you can try it if you think it works. Then, you must take the Nutella jar and immerse it, very lightly, in a small pool of blood. Not too much blood, because we're doing PR rehabilitation right now, but preferably the blood of your foes. After that, you cleanse it in the bright radiance of the sun. If you are feeling very aggressive about it, you can go full blast, but if you're hoping Wilson will be kind rather than troll you mercilessly or burn you alive, you'll need to go for the gentle warmth of the golden hour. Let it soak that in for say, twenty minutes tops? IDK bro it's not really a science tbhhhh. So when all your preparations are done, you spread out hello panda crackers on a picnic blanket - mind you, they must be chocolate, strawberry and matcha simply will not do - and then you recite her name three times, with proper solemnity and respect. Not just @little wilson, but you have to hail her by her praise names and her battle-epithets. And then she will arrive and answer the list of questions that you have. ...Don't expect to keep the Nutella, it's the price you pay for your questions answered posthaste

Ah. Wonderful. I am really going to scream at certain things that have happened >> I mean I don't care if you have a sneaky elevation if you are Village. My problem is that while I had a good read off your early play, I also feel ??? about your NKA slipping TJ off pretty early, alongside your votes. And Szeth still feels like too easy an answer, though I will definitely be happy if that closes the game for us. @Archer @Wonko the Sane @Sart @STINK Repeating this to anyone who votes. I am washing my hands off of this as it's clear from the last couple posts I am the only player who apparently cares to think through this and I am really very done with the level of apathy here. SDs, if you want, just kill me already because I have had it up to here with Village complacency. Keep in mind: Good luck, have fun! Edited to add: Got caught in traffic, you know how it is. Commute between the Crockery and the University can be a right mess. And I'm done here. This will be my last serious post for the cycle. It is serious disheartening to be repeatedly @ing people and to receive little attempt to discuss and little attempt to plan, coordinate, or to try to actually puzzle through what this means for the Village and how to unfeck the Village from the corner we may be fecking in and oh, opsec so I can't just spill it out to the thread even though I think it is pretty damned stupid because if you ain't gonna even bother trying to solve, you think your precious opsec is gonna do anything? But whatever. I'm done. I am not going to put in effort or to try to solve when no one else is bothering. I have been giving 110% for this Turn to the point I have zero RP, and making up most of this thread, and am getting crickets, and quite honestly I have used stronger language to express my disgust in my GM PM. I'm done here. Either Szeth is a hit, or he isn't. @Ashbringer, if you're Evil, do me a favour and smite me with your new DP when you ascend so I don't have to deal with this goddamned crap on wheels. Edited to add 2: Last set of non-RP words from me this cycle. If Szeth isn't a hit, I'm going to say I told you so as the only player apparently willing to actually try to think this through/puzzle this out. I leave you with this:

[TAG: ANALYSIS, 374 words] No, because of the green scan, which is why you might have noticed you were the only other player besides myself that I was willing to regard as confirmed Village enough to be greened alongside JNV, Wonko, and Drake in my link chart. Functionally, there's no reason to give you up given you were gunning Master Namer. I don't care what you say about finances - think about it. Ok you can buy grams. Great! Naming can punch through grams, hahaha. You can buy an Assassin! How were you, an expelled student, going to get that Assassin into the University and what if the target never leaves? Great! You can buy a Bodyguard! Because that'll totally save you from the exe, right? When expelling SDs also helps the Village win? That's half of it - that means if you were Evil, the Archer team would have to include at least one scanner as well. But there's no strategic reason for giving Master Namer up next to that. As you pointed out to me, you were at 14 EP - quite likely to make Re'lar and then go on. And of course, if the scanners check out, then they're right about you being V, so there's no need to remotely consider you fitting on an Archer team. I don't deny expulsion isn't the end, but you need abilities IMO to be swingy, and even then, the targeting restrictions feel rough. And again, I go back to the fact that as a Commoner, I agree I don't feel the oppressive weight of tuition fees (...well, maybe my extensive RPing helped), but I really can't do much in Imre, other than going hogwild with nahlrout. So I really don't think it compares, tactically, for an Elim team. (I mean sure you could argue gambit world, but it's an unnecessary give-up and I don't for a second think E!you would like your team forcing you to give up Master Namer fun just to...what, hoodwink the Village when you could be softcleared by the scanners?) Side-note: This is where I also disagree with TJ FYI. Easy to pass you off as a redscan, everyone was willing to believe the roleblock was damning enough, so why lie about TJ specifically?

[TAG: DISCUSSION, 373 words] Wonderful, welcome to Team 'Screwitol I'm Done Let's Just Araris Everyone And Village Win.' @Everyone: Ash reads? K. Ash, I acknowledge my primary theorised team is still TJ/Szeth/Araris, but you're probably in there as a secondary. And I recognise if you are Village this is going to be downright awful and I apologise in advance, but feel this must be tabled as a risk. But I want to get the Ash reads on the table because in a world where Ash is a Master, and I'm a couple of EP off so he's probably closer, unless he's been going quietly for a different field - Well. We are going to have a lot of fun To recap: -Ash claimed to be at the Windy Tower for last Turn. -Ash and I both hit El'the during T1M3. I'm going to bet that Ash started with 8 EP, just as I did. Crude model here: suppose Ash put everything into Alchemy. T1M1 = 8 EP (Elevated - E'lir) T1M2 = 8 - 5 + 5 = 8 EP (Elevated - Re'lar) T1M3 = 8 - 5 + 4 = 7 EP (Elevated - El'the) T2M1 = 7 - 5 + 3 = 5 EP T2M2 = 5 + 3 = 8 EP T2M3 = 8 + 3 = 11 EP T3M1 = 11 + 3 = 14 EP T3M2 = 14 + 3 = 17 EP (Elevated - Master.) tldr; I think it's pretty much a consensus that Szeth is going to be exed. And maybe all the more fool me for trying to solve since everyone seems to be in 'chill and see' mode and giving up tempo/not interested in hedging/planning for non E!Szeth worlds. Kind of still very aggravated about that, but I guess that's how it is. Hopefully, no more Weird Kraem will go down next Turn, and we can dump the results, and I cannot promise I will be patient if Weird Kraem happens again. We basically have until T3M3 to read Ash, one way or another. State of my head right now: Primary: TJ/Szeth/Araris Secondary: Substitute Ash in. Tertiary: Archer/STINK/Ash Do I consider the tertiary that seriously? No, but this is for bragging rights if I'm right ¯\_(ツ)_/¯