Kasimir

Right, could you do me a favour, and flip everyone in this damned University >> I don't care if I die, you're functionally Village, so you win for us and we call it a day. I wanna see the write-up bleed with red Skindancer flips, God- Tehlu damnit, God has no place in this Tehluforsaken flipless nightmare we have created by not having a single Namer survive to Araris this place up >> Every Month we stray further from God's light >>

This is going on the list of things I've had to explain to people that I've never wanted to, along with my classmate, bless her, loudly asking me what a certain citrus fruit was in Chinese class [Note please do not Google, not Shard friendly.] >> Tbh my gut feeling is that this is not a hit. It feels too—simple for that. Like when Drake and I ganged on Xino figuring he was Evil or when y'all immediately pushed Az and it was Mat all along. Serious question for everyone: what do you see as the game plan going forward? And if you could flip exactly one player, who? My vote would be TJ due to the teams and the fact I think Sart is much more likely to be Village than him. Edited to add: Do you realise this game has truly become modern? With the loss of all Namers, flips are a feature you pay for. This is the birth of microtransactions!

I think the point is, if you take it at face value, does it make sense to claim that, regardless of alignment?

Tbf, E!Mat/E!Araris is somewhat interchangeable at this juncture due to expulsion. Implications a bit more dire with E!Mat but nevertheless. I need to check if they cross-voted. Don't see any cross-voting on a quick scan but rough D1 landscape: Contra-TKN, don't believe you'd want out from Wizard School this early. Archer and Mat both being in lead trains - sure, granted, Drake's fault - feels a bit inexplicable in light of Mat's refusal to self-pres. (Though there's a question: does V!Mat self-pres there?) You might work in that world as well but there's the fact you made one vote and on Szeth. Not too fond of this either: Still don't believe getting teammates expelled is best for Elims - your targeting restrictions among others become so much more dire. That's cross-voting for you. But yeah know you're strictly saying NKA. Really still think E!TJ because his behaviour is just screwy but I'm struggling to work out why E!TJ wants to rush an item, and of all things, a Bloodless prior to expulsion.

[TAG: DISCUSSION, 416 words] Two brief comments on mobile: -Yes, but getting voted out is a losscon for them, remember. Elims who are voted out also cannot target Villagers unless they are reckless enough to advertise their presence in Imre or are expelled. They also forgo significant field advantage to the Village as they cannot elevate or file EP. Even worse, they can be expelled together. This is why I’m not so convinced that distancing is rewarding here. Because even after being expelled, they can pretend to be Village and sow confusion. I'll also note money is honestly pretty tight for most players not nobles—that's my experience. I can afford some fun Imre shenanigans but it’s hard to get too fancy and I'd bet it's way worse for Ruh. -Maybe the way I'd put it: I don't believe they'd just allow the Village to obtain Naming dominance. Naming is too OP. -Szeth IMO doesn't fit on a four man team. Vint is pretty OK -You are thinking STINK, not Sart, for the lashing. I think willingness to post an identifying message is a good look there. -I laid out my reasons for my Mat read but I'd note that if you believe E!Mat, then anything from TJ is tainted anyway because the Elims would be on high alert that there was a redcheck, even if they didn't know who. Edited to add: To Whom It May Concern: Rule clarifications received: An expelled player cannot pass items to a non-expelled player unless the non-expelled player is in Imre. You need a general action period to pass items. Hint: you also need a general action period to kill! You therefore cannot pass items while you are in Imre because you lack general action periods. Expelled players can hire Assassins. I guess we're all screwed If an expelled player hires an Assassin to target an enrolled student, the Assassin just hangs around until/if you go to Imre. Simple solution don't go to Imre damnit >> (Barring I presume cases like Burnt's Assassin airdrop.) Why do I feel like we should have asked this sooner. Edited to add 2: Ngl I'd note Archer/STINK is a pretty possible team. STINK with the lashing, so Archer puts in the kill, but their only viable partner is Araris and I need to check how that works again... Yeah no Araris has an Archer preclusion. Ash? But then why not get Ash to kill smh. Bah, this is nonsense on stilts flipless games are nonsense on stilts.

Little Black Dress / bicycle. Term I learned in 2009 or so for popular shipping characters because "they go with anything." Please, please don't make me explain why bicycle, I can’t legally I'm using the term here in the context of the fact that your voting patterns only preclude fewer players than most—so you pretty much go with most teams.

[TAG: DISCUSSION, 770 words] I'll mention that I'm especially put out because I've been asking since seven hours to rollover for T2M3 which I think is a longer period and more active for the NAs. Hmm. Unlikely crem does happen at times, but I'm curious about the mystery of Szeth's missing EP. I still think Szeth likely should have filed EP if Szeth has been killing, but if Szeth at all filed in Sympathy, then Szeth should've elevated a long time ago. This and the Szeth T1M1 seem mildly abnormal. Hah, you're definitely in Imre. Yes, I think they keep making the same c/p mistake. So your read hasn't shifted? Going to note for the benefit of everyone that my revision on TKN is backed by the fact that TKN scanned green, too late for us to do anything about it. Even if you think that this was an Elim ploy, the fact the scanners did not do what would be, in my view, the fairly reasonable move of asking for a delay to scan TKN, suggests to me that either way you slice it, he's Village. I'll note I explicitly asked them to make the judgement call, and said that I would, if they requested it, stop pushing TKN for the cycle and actively advocate for the scan. I'm curious if anyone thinks the time for secrecy has passed. With mostly-inactive Szeth and Steel, the formal, non-expelled, 'can target each other and vote' player pool has shrunk to me, Sart, Archer, STINK, and Ash. Furthermore, the Elims can only use the general action slot to kill - I asked and they can't just substitute extra action slots in. I generally prefer to keep everyone in the loop. @Archer @Wonko the Sane @Sart @Ashbringer @The Known Novel @STINK - anyone else can chime in, I'm just asking the fellas with skin in the game. Apothecary may have restocked across the term. TKN, presuming you are still aiming to go with the plan? I'll drop you a PM when I wake up properly as it's maybe 4:44AM right now. Gotta love meds. I take the fact that Bodyguard and Assassin prices haven't shifted to be potentially indicative no one has gone for them yet as they're supposed to fluctuate with market conditions. @The Known Novel Sorry for the multiple @s. My problem fundamentally comes back, still, to what sort of team would be having Szeth make the kills. As I've laid out the teaming possibilities earlier, these look directly at hostile/near-lethal voting and works with the presumption that given: A. proportional odds for DP, B. expulsion being a SD losscon, and C. de facto fliplessness until players acquire kills, the tolerance for distancing is much lower. My issue is that most Szeth partners more or less should be making the kills with their general action slot - the presumption seems to be that you only get Szeth to make the kill if you are using your slot for something else. This is why I initially thought it might be intuitive for there to be a STINK team due to lashing, but also think he seems Village, and that posting an AM that is traceable to him after you were explicitly telling the thread you could be scanned and cleared by posting one takes serious balls for an Elim. So we have to explain, no matter what, what sort of Szeth team would be missing their general action slot. And that seems to come back (for me) to: -One of the team members was in Imre (therefore no actions, could not kill) -Other team member was either expelled or had their action slot used up I'm trying to see if we can place anyone in Imre at that time, but no dice. I feel like any V!TJ world requires E!Wonko which is patently absurd. Or, the other option. (Speaking obliquely here for the moment.) But for the other option to obtain - could you see that being possible? I feel it'd explain why you got removed instead of scanned, but also feel that it's reasonable not to want to lose tempo and to just pursue the roleblock option as being the most likely. STINK is theorising that E!TJ is just lobbying me to get the same improvement in status that Mat and you did, but Mat actually had some form of voting behind it, and you had the backing of a green scan as well. I feel like you know what LBD is, and you just want me to have to explain the term... Amazingly, none of them are I feel like you should know this!

So, would you like to explain why your votes on Szeth are missing, then? Repeating the call for Imre people to tell me what's out of stock at the pharmacy and to report Assassin and Bodyguard prices. This is important, thank you.

[TAG: ANALYSIS, 1295 words] U called, I came. SkaDOOSH!! Collated: #1. Assume E!TJ world. Logical space for TJ partners: <Mat, Kas, TKN, JNV, Wonko, Drake, Ash, Szeth, STINK, Araris.> Removing every player I have strong Village credences in - this is purely exploratory, hence ignoring my tiers. TKN, Wonko, JNV, Drake were hit. Logical space for TJ partners: <Mat, Ash, Szeth, STINK, Araris.> Chart doesn't consider inaction: TJ was very chill about Mat and Szeth getting voted D1. This is a bit more explainable with Szeth than with Mat. Possible that E!team did not realise how DP works, and felt less concerned given presence of lead trains. Implies at most one Elim endangered T1M1. Struggling to make sense of complacency around Szeth train. Let's take Mat out but leave Szeth in, italicised. TJ single-voted STINK T1M3. Araris +1ed, adding to threat on STINK. It's possible that TJ has a decent risk appetite, especially since Sart had an 8-vote monopoly. Logical space for TJ partners: <Ash, Szeth, STINK, Araris.> Exclusions: largely Archer, Sart, and myself, due to pushing TJ. Since Ash, Szeth, STINK, and Araris are our prospective TJ partners, let's take a closer look at them. #2. Assume E!Ash world. Logical space for Ash partners: <Mat, Kas, Steel, JNV, Wonko, Archer, Drake, Szeth, STINK, Sart, Araris, TJ.> Exclusions: partial for me and Sart. Again, throwing out strong credences to make this neater. Logical space for Ash partners: <Mat, Steel, Archer, Szeth, STINK, Sart, Araris, TJ.> K Ash's problem is he's functionally the team bicycle/LBD. Moving on. #3. Assume E!Szeth world. Logical space for Szeth partners: <Mat, Kas, TKN, Steel, JNV, Wonko, Archer, Drake, Ash, STINK, Sart, Araris, TJ.> Exclusions: full for JNV, partial for STINK and Sart. Logical space for Szeth partners: <Mat, Steel, Archer, Ash, STINK, Sart, Araris, TJ.> Tbh anyone because he's deader than a Triton moon. Moving on. Wow this is easier than I expected lol. #4. Assume E!STINK world. Logical space for STINK partners: <Mat, Kas, Steel, JNV, Wonko, Archer, Drake, Ash, Szeth, Sart, TJ.> Exclusions: partial for Araris, full for TJ as this chart doesn't account for last cycle. Logical space for STINK partners: <Mat, Steel, Archer, Ash, Szeth, Sart> #5. Assume E!Araris world. Logical space for Araris partners: <Mat, Kas, TKN, Steel, JNV, Wonko, Drake, Ash, Szeth, STINK, Sart, TJ.> Exclusions: partial for Ash, full for STINK. Logical space for Araris partners: <Mat, Steel, Archer, Ash, Szeth, Sart, TJ.> Thoughts: TJ has the smallest possibility space for partners, which means if we stick with E!TJ, we are pretty much supposed to look between <Szeth, Ash.> STINK less likely because I think it takes serious balls for an Elim to post an anon message to the write-up in the same cycle TKN hinted it could be scanned. Mildly offended by how much Ash and Szeth like LBDs. We know Araris went for Arithmetics during T1M1 EP filing, which runs a little against his claim to ignore Arithmetics. Simply put, this is because Drake had 8 EP in Arithmetics, down to 7 EP during T1M2, and never elevated, implying someone else took Arithmetics. Each student who elevated during that cycle is accounted for and mildly cross-validated, minus Ash and myself. Due to chronology, it is likely Araris was in Imre during T1M2 and did not file then. (He mentioned the velociraptor contract and contracts require a Turn to accept bfeore they can be fulfilled for currency.) Will note I do expect at least one Elim to see the sights in Imre. As a bonus round, here's the logical space for Sart partners: <Kas, TKN, Steel, JNV, Wonko, Archer, Drake, Ash, Szeth, STINK, Araris.> Exclusions in Mat, Kas, TKN, Wonko, TJ, weak exclusion in Archer. Results are: <Steel, Archer, Ash, Szeth, STINK, Araris.> Araris lightly defending Sart does make him a better partner for Sart. But also feel that Sart's 8-vote monopoly implies it is unlikely he is Evil, as is the way he and TJ gunned for each other in votes. There is an elevation gap for TJ which makes feel that there is something weird going on: this is because TJ claimed to have started with Arithmetics and pushed for Artificery. If we look at the elevations, TJ elevated in T1M1, not in T1M2, and then in T1M3. There's an inconsistency here, and I'll spell out why. As far as we know, Artificery is a dead field. (If anyone has Artificery EP at all, please tell me.) We know that one field did not have elevations T1M1. And since a player with starting EP in Archives did not elevate during T1M1 - this tells us that someone else must have elevated in Archives T1M1. Furthermore, the fact that despite starting with 8 EP in Arithmetics, later reduced to 7 EP via the Horns, Drake did not elevate at all must imply that both in T1M1 and T1M2 had an Arithmetics elevation. T1M2 is likely Araris, but the interesting question is: why did TJ not elevate in Artificery T1M2? Either there is something spicy with his EP, or someone else had a double elevation (this happened to me T1M3) and then a different field won, so Artificery had no elevations. TJ elevating twice in Artificery subsequently (T1M3, T2M1) suggests that there isn't all that much competition in that field. The fact that Araris is such a LBD suggests in my view that he's probably Evil. Yet another bonus round - this is the logical space for Archer partners: <Kas, TKN, Steel, JNV, Wonko, Ash, Szeth, STINK, Sart, Araris, TJ.> Exclusions in Kas, Wonko, Drake, Araris, TJ, partial in TKN. Culling gives us: <Steel, Ash, STINK, Sart>. Alright, pretty much looks like V!Archer. Szeth Szeth Edited to add: Still not over the fact y'all make me do work stuff here >> Edited to add 2: Low key theorise that Drake was killed because of market manip shenanigans but by that point - we know TJ complained about Drake baiting him which, combined with TJ's speedrun Artificing and the fact he's got Arith and thought a two Assassin plan was possible, makes me think that he was intending to go full market and get Assassins. Think we may need a full Physicking roleblock on him, or to use existing Imre assets to swarm. Edited to add 3: While Szeth is the LBD, I'm trying to think through some considerations: I do think that the playstyle shift could be attributable to a change of alignment. It's difficult to see E!Szeth with Szeth being on the lam for D1, and then not elevating. If Szeth isn't elevating, and no one else put in any EP, then why not? Potential theory E!Szeth went for Naming I guess - his first elevation was T2M2, which was after TKN and JNV and Wonko had dominated Naming. @The Known Novel and @Wonko the Sane are you able to share your EP for each Turn from the start until T2M2? I'd like to be able to get a sense for how likely this is. If it's unlikely Szeth went for Naming, I think he's more likely V. Because it's strange to me that Szeth would put in a kill (even miss it) and not file EP. It's the sort of thing you'd do together. Archer teams include Steel, Ash, STINK, weak Sart possibility. The problem is that none of these teams have a reason for Archer to be submitting the kill, which suggests that we don't take this world seriously, thank you. TJ teams include Ash, Szeth, STINK, Araris. Main world with the missing kill requires Szeth, potentially swapping out Araris for Ash. It's theoretically possible they spent time in Imre trying to sell off for Assassins, I guess, which would burn their regular actions. Still lean more to Szeth and Araris with TJ though.

[TAG: DISCUSSION, 266 words] Guys. I think I've cracked it. @Elbereth confirmed the vote count was correct. But it is not - not as we know it. TJ voted on Szeth. And those votes are missing. I've asked repeatedly until I think I'm crazy. Szeth where???? Quoi?????? Which means that our madlad TJ can't be an artificer. Unless there's something I've gotten wrong, he's actually a Physicker Which has very interesting implications as another player not me claimed to be a Physicker If Szeth were in the Pony, the votes would appear, just be nullified. Same for any R&L I bring to bear. Recall does not affect complaints, as you can see: People in Imre can still file complaints, as I did. Now, TJ absolutely did PM me last cycle. I tried to get reads off him. But... :eyes: The complaints were not simply nullified. They did not appear at all. For reference, these are TJ's Szeth votes: Edited to add: I think it's also possible he could be Artificer-rushing, or he's the actual Alchemist, not Ash, meaning an Ash/TJ team. Unsure about feasibility. I'm going to try to validate the Physicker results. Edited to add 2: Possible he lied and has rushed bone-tar. Would recommend a roleblock on him to ensure no further shenanigans. Edited to add 3: Cancel that, he can't have. Wouldn't recommend a roleblock or...hmm, let's think this through. P.S. I hate the fact that this game has made me pull out the one technique I never wanted to use smh y'all I leave work at work I don't want to do link analysis here >>

How many hours left in the cycle?

[TAG: DISCUSSION, 402 words] Interesting. Think we can't rule out that Archer was targeted, then. But there's also the very spicy other option. Archer Archer I invite you to tell me exactly why I'm kayana. Because I've been PMing a lot of people and absolutely no one is currently willing to tell me I'm kayana and I'm annoyed about it. Edited to add: Literally guys is it so bloody hard for y'all to just communicate, in thread or in PMs. Look. It took me hitting 50k to hit this point but I want to solve the game and it's frankly off-putting that not a single damn person is interested in being a thread or PM partner to help me work goddamned crap out. I am going to spam this thread to the end and beyond if that's what it takes to work this kraem out but where the hell is Aman when I need him damnit Edited to add 2: I admit it's annoying insofar as I signed off with a vote manip order left on TJ and I low key feel things could've been better if I'd had the damned sense to just vote manip Archer and Szeth simultaneously - then we'd get pretty clear confirmation of whether a recall happened or not. Edited to add 3: Working with ongoing E!TJ credences: with TJ endorsing a Szeth push, I'm curious whether this means an E!TJ/E!Ash team instead. But in an E!TJ/E!Ash world, I'd think that the kill really shouldn't have failed - the failure of the kill is largely only comprehensible in light of E!Szeth or E!Archer. I think TKN is pretty solidly Village in either world. @Ashbringer - Could you, for clarity's sake, claim your accommodations for the last two Terms? Not interested in this Term, just last two. Edited to add 4: FWIW y'all if TJ is Evil and has been just FUDing me and I cause a Village loss, I'm going to blame and judge each and every single one of you who is Village for not fecking talking me out of it. Look at Mat. Look at QF62. Y'all know I am insanely vulnerable to rethinking/overthinking and not a single person as far as I can tell CBA to talk me out of it and tell me I'm kayana and that's seriously goddamned offputting and I'm annoyed af and just want to know what the chulls is going the f on.

[TAG: DISCUSSION, 664 words] I had a bad migraine and needed time for the meds to sink in. And then remembered I was doing the count for Wilson and El - due to my volume in this game, it's helpful if I at least take ownership of my own figures for them. So I had to log back in enough to give them my set then pass out. Again: doesn't that come down to overwriting evidence v. being systematic? I think, here's the question. Were you, or were you not accusing me of being Evil? If not, what would it take for you to think I'm Evil? There must be a point in the game that prompts revision, correct? You have to go from lower suspicions to higher ones. You don't go into a game and immediately whack someone in your higher tiers or that you have reason to chunk into higher tiers 'just in case.' This is obviously bad Village play. You keep bemoaning it'll take me forever to go to the scanners. Yes, but if the scanners are cross-validated, from my point of view, you were low in PoE to begin with. It's not like there was an intuitive reason to V read you. I've pointed out that your behaviour seems pretty E to me and the places where I do V read you aren't strong. I spent a decent chunk of the early cycle trying to decide if you were or weren't being performative and you letting me drive our PMs doesn't really feel like your usual V meta. [Edited to add: Lower suspicion tiers - you don't hit trust tiers or even Tier 1/2 if you have Tier 3/4.] I respect that you wanted to just elevate and stay alive; I definitely did, and even I overwrote those impulses on occasion to push players I thought were Evil because sitting by and watching the Village do stuff or sitting by and potentially voting a player who might be Village, that I would not have voted had I been putting in the work, didn't feel right to me. I don't rule out it's possible but again, your overall read just doesn't seem great and I emphasise that's the problem. It is not just a matter of a redscan. It is the fact that your read and the scan are both awful. If the read was good and the scan said you were Evil, I would be more tempted to argue that the scan was wrong. But the read is bad, and the scan is cross-validated. So where does that leave me? Let me rephrase this: give me reasons to V read you. Show me through your subsequent posts that you are Village and I'll be more tempted to reconsider. In either case, I'm waiting for some of the plays and insurance to come through right now. Imre people, tell me what the existing charges are - are things out of stock in the Apothecary? Any weird contracts? What are the Bodyguard and Assassin costs right now? It really does. Because you 180-ed on Szeth with no reason except a theory it must be to buy Assassins. Well, the Imre people will confirm if Assassins were or were not bought. I emphasise I had secret income and even I struggled to hit 30 - I'm not quite there unless I do market shenanigans with Devi. Again, if not Szeth, then who? I repeat that if you cannot name a consistent or coherent team, then it does matter because it is suggestive that at this point in the game, you are naming suspicions out of convenience rather than what's actually true. We're very close to a final few configuration right now, thanks to Szeth and Steel being functionally nonsense, with Szeth refusing to do us even the courtesy of dying. Inability to name a coherent team is indicative and powerful at final few, and the fact you cannot see this or refuse to see this is worrisome.

Not gonna lie I'm watching our National Day Parade rn because that's what one does I guess and I just saw a filmed segment so awful and cringe I nearly forgot where I was and typed forbidden words that rhymes with what the duck into this thread by accident. It has now gone into Discord chat with Wyrm instead. Edited to add: Ngl strangely emotional to watch our President's last term. Not saying I voted for her because we didn't get an election and that's why people so tilted but tbh I feel like being generally decent, not dying, not having health issues, and not having controversies is an astonishingly low bar we haven't met in the last couple months tbh Also kinda cool we had a Muslimah pres ngl And I guess they're right her term kinda sucked lol we got smacked by COVID during it RIP Edited to add 2: Ngl mildly spicy comment but I'm disappointed that we don't actually get Singai Naadu, not enough people love Singai Naadu Edited to add 3: Ngl I loled IRL when the next film segment actually captured a damn koel. Bane of everyone who wants to sleep in

What would be the point of doing so when that doesn't advance your wincon? Edited to add: Can I just slack off today and stop fretting >> Majulah Singapura >>

[TAG: DISCUSSION, 470 words] Bunch of possibilities here, yeah. In an Araris/TJ/Szeth team, TJ can't put in the sabotage (or if he did, it'd fail) and I trust TJ to be savvy enough to know this. So Szeth was likely DK. In a world where we're looking at something like that team, I'd expect Elims to try to kill me - E!Szeth, E!Ash for instance would probably have a harder path to victory as the survivor and I think he needs to kill within the group because obviously, killing in <Sart, STINK> just makes him the next immediate target. Another side possibility if they were concerned about killing me was to try to kill Archer. Since Archer is a noble, it's possible the recall affected him. If the target is untargetable, then the kill fails. There's...a similar option there, in which TKN was the target (i.e. TJ decided to actually kill TKN.) The plan or from what I heard, he was supposed to do, was to use Wind to make himself untargetable. IDK if that happened, as TKN said he wanted to uh, spice it up. Yet another possibility is an E!TJ world, though it makes the Szeth stuff weird. [Edited to add: Meant E!TJ/E!Steel] Minor crack theory I dreamed of in which Ash and TJ are Cealdim and they killed Drake so they could monopolise his market scheme but tbh IDK man, does "It came to me in a dream" really work in SE There's also... Would E!Ash say this? IMO he'd be forced to claim it, one way or another, but I could be wrong Either way, I'm waiting on the results from the double-boosted mass scan because oy vey do migraine meds really knock me out for a long while >> Edited to add: @Devotary of Spontaneity @Elbereth @little wilson - Notice that TJ's votes on Szeth are missing. Edited to add 2: Also, here's why I didn't really believe TJ's double noble Assassin plan - I found an unexpected income source in this game, and I still struggle to hit 30 talents. Couldn't even reach it this cycle. Edited to add 3: Maybe let's go this way: Again, we know there are only three ways the kill misses. Did Not Put In Kill - This points to E!Steel as potentially the last Elim IMO. Killer Was Roleblocked - This points to E!Ash or E!Szeth or E!Archer or E!TJ, but low credence on E!Archer, low credence E!TJ tried to submit. Error 404: Target Not Found - This points to TKN or Archer being the targets. Given the thread's Szeth consensus, there's no way Szeth would be the target. That's where I am. Edited to add 4: True story guys. The GMs borked my elevation the first time, and put me down as Physicking so I did this whole RP about going into Physicking. Then they realised, oh crem, no, it's R&L, I had more EP in R&L, so they put me down in R&L. I had to actually write an unintended RP arc justifying why Kevan suddenly swapped from Physicking to R&L -.- And then. Last night. El PMs me and goes, "Hey btw do you even have a second action slot." Me: "Uh, yes? I'm in R&L I have an R&L action slot." El: "You only have one R&L elevation though???" Me: :joy: Me: "Omg not this again ELLLLLL Y'ALL TOTALLY MADE THAT MISTAKE THE FIRST TIME YES IT'S R&L :joy:" I am never gonna stop making fun of this because I think it is utterly hilarious Edited to add 5: @Ashbringer tbh how do you suppress Paranoid Threnody Ash because I'm struggling. Thanks guys next time I sign up for Mostly Flipless please stop me for my SAN >>

Does seem that way doesn't it. This right here is why I don't play flipless smh. Where's Aman to thread PM when you need him. Have legit sent way too many PMs asking people if we are dead sure the scanners check out and the cross-validation is OK, even knowing it's already been gone over. I also have asked the GMs at least three times if Namers can feign insanity, only to be told it can be done but absolutely not with Wind. Do you at least think/agree it's—you know, the best route? I don't know why I keep on asking the same question. I suppose because it is TJ and I don’t like pushing my bros. I also suppose it is because I feel the Mat and you pushes were bad and don't want it to happen thrice. And I guess because I will never not doubt anyway even if I feel it's the correct move forward. I have asked the GMs "why" too many times this cycle. Digimon tri. meme stands. I keep asking the question. But fact still boils down to that revising any higher tier reads is unnecessary paranoia and bad Village play on my part. I cannot afford to indulge this right now. Really know how the LG92 Village felt smh.

[TAG: RP, 303 words, DISCUSSION, 1084 words] lxxx. acquaintances "I'm sorry," said Kevan, abashedly. He couldn't help but glance towards the guards that filled the Archives, as out of place as the skindancers were in a place of higher education and learning. There was a saying, in Yll, about naming King Cailan, and the King showing up, which felt exactly like the sort of situation he'd landed himself in. "I was thinking aloud, I guess." God, that sounded like a pitiful excuse. "I'm sorry," he said, again. "I don't think we've taken all that many classes together. It's good to meet you." And he meant it. He'd heard something about Elena Resterford working in Naming, which put her far from the quotidian sort of circles in which Kevan moved. A chance encounter in the Archives... For a moment, the part of Kevan’s mind that had been thinking about Salva and Percyl and the threat of the skindancers stuttered to a stop and wondered. But no, he told himself. Of all the people in the University, and this was in spite of Kevan’s burying his head in his books and getting dragged out by, it seemed, everyone else, he did not think Elena was in league with the skindancers. Not after what Soren and Valerra and Jarvik had studied in their Fae Lore classes. The apple did not stray so far from the tree. “Are you fighting them, then?” He wished he could take back the words that had come right out of his mouth. He was alright with people, give him an academic setting, or a casual one, and he was fine. He did not know what to do here, and he felt wrong-footed. He looked down. “They took my friend. I think.” Salva, oh Salva. You didn’t have to be close to feel the pain, and God, if they’d taken Soren… [OOC: Wonko - sorry, needed to uh, do something about the fact my PM to post ratio is abominable rn and I help the GMs by counting because I feel badly about causing them stress so haven't passed out yet.] [OOC: Hasn't seemed to hurt Steel yet, sadly, as it'd at least be a resolution for us. Keep in mind he hasn't logged in since T1M2, if I'm correct in tracking.] [OOC: I insist that this show up as a truth in Linguistic Analysis.] Perhaps. But it also is a classical Elim response though. Counteraccusing is standard to both sides. Framing proof in terms of definites skews Evil. I am pointing out your perspective is inconsistent with the gamestate and game facts as we currently have them. The fact that it is inconsistent is troubling. For this to be 'genuinely one of the options', you need an Elim team that most players consider prima facie unviable. You continue to be unable to name a partner or a coherent team that could be in this position. This has to be troubling to anyone who wants to believe your innocence and exists in fog-of-war, i.e. any normal Villager. Perhaps, and V!me would do so in your place, but then as a Villager weighing the facts to try to find the best way forward, my duty as much as I dislike it at this juncture is to also make the case against you and to interrogate your responses. Expel you, mech clear/damn basically 80% the playerbase, with a mixture of rules interactions I can't go into depth on right now, redo analysis and reads and kill the last few we can't By that point, working will be shown to everyone left voting, who then can decide whether or not this is correct. I've got a bunch of 'best worlds' and 'worst worlds' in projections but the fact of the matter remains, that - what's wrong? If the game is not over then, then no crem, that means we re-evaluate and continue? I don't understand why you are raising this as a serious problem. This is basic Village play. Even bracketing the scanners, I point out that you, Ash, and Szeth inhabit the lowest tiers of my reads right now. It would be seriously strange for me not to go from lowest tier to upper tier when revising and pressuring! Beyond that, I point out LG92 - I am definitely aware of how fog of war makes people kayana and enables more flipless shenanigans. But I have faith in the Village, and I have faith in the fact that if the scan were seriously strange, it would be the thing to call out. It's like why no one believed the scan on Mat despite Mat scanning as Village in LG92. I remind you that if you insist the two scanners are the ones who must be Evil, that you are then saying they waited for a significant length of time before faking a scan right here and right now. Again, I agree that you are obligated to say this regardless of your alignment - but what's their incentive to lie right now? This is exactly why you've had to insist they can end the game now, and I once again point to the fact I have asked and will continue to ask this and you still cannot name me a coherent team that can end the game this cycle with your ML. I accept you are obligated to say the ML is wrong and the scan must be wrong. From my point of view here, the opposite is clearly the case, which is that if there is no coherent world in which the Elims have an incentive to lie right here and right now, specifically about your scan, then it's more likely that you are Evil, and we have to play to that world, however much I hate it. Again, you talk about proof. I'm interested in why you are obsessed with proof. This was not a concern for any lynch before this, and now the inability to give 'proof' when every normal Villager, in any normal game, has had to prove themselves via their gameplay is significant? I also point out that the lack of proof has not stopped revision of the Mat and TKN reads, even post-expulsion. The game does not end despite the lack of proof. I really find that insistence an Elim tell. Let me frame it this way: if I could actually flip you, would this resolve the proof issue in your eyes and be an acceptable solution? Because that can absolutely be on the table. I have considered doing that instead. It would not make me unvote you here and now, but if you feel putting an Assassin on you after you are in Imre is more helpful, I can certainly work towards that. Edited to add: Again. If I bracket the scan, sorry, I cannot remove you from PoE right here and right now. In fact, in terms of PoE strength, you are at the very bottom, which means objectively, I have to look at you one way or another. If you think Szeth is Evil, then us going for Szeth after you should be a world you are more than fine with, after which we revise accordingly, based on tiers and best available evidence, and the mechclears. Unsure why this should be an appalling possibility - it's basic Village play. I mean if it's a straightforward question: do I believe beyond all reasonable doubt that you are Evil? Like hell no. I never trust my reads 100% and would not be surprised if I've made some mistake somewhere. But I am obligated, as a Villager, to vote with my reads, not against them, and to follow the evidence, and to doubt where necessary and to revise accordingly. To let my inner Kevan out a bit, I'm required to do my epistemic best and then move on. I won't ever want to 100% believe you are Evil and I think it's reasonable to doubt. But that doesn't mean I vote against evidence. I vote with my evidence and my reads. This is where it takes me at the moment. I won't deny I really hate this situation and it's giving me flashbacks to how Devo had to keep me on Aman in LG94 but it is what it is. The fliplessness doesn't help and I ask the same question over and over again: "Why? Can't this be wrong? Must I?" and still I know the answer, I just don't want to accept it.

No. You don't and usually do not specifically talk about 'definite proof' when defending. You are usually much more self-assured and claim you prove yourself as a Villager via your play. Insisting that you can't meet an arbitrarily high standard of evidence when you were willing to lynch for much less than that, cf. the very last Turn, is Elim - it's just like Stick pointing out your insistence on accountability was Evil. I point out, and have pointed out to the point I am genuinely sick of having to remind people of this, that 'deliberately did not send in a kill' is not the only option here, and I think it's telling that both you and Araris immediately jump to this as the first alternate possibility. I believe that a team with you on it missed a kill, through sheer accident, e.g. Szeth being recalled, or via Ankers. I lean towards the former: I think Szeth has been this team's DK. Well, I have no doubt you will in future Depends on how many and you get a bidding war, and this ignores the fact that once again, you are postulating a two Nobles team that isn't remotely prima facie possible from most perspectives of balance. For your 2 Assassin world to work, you need two Nobles, to be clear. 30 talents is rough for anyone not a Noble. I didn't suggest your name, and I point out again that this requires a long-running con, given that I was aware of the existence of two scanners by early mid-game. That's not very plausible in the situation you suggest - you are ignoring the fact there is no incentive for an Elim team to deliberately fake things to ML you in particular. You have still failed to suggest a coherent team or set of partners, and the fact you can't do that strongly suggests there is something wrong about your suspicions. Isn't it? You literally up and propose to the thread, right here and right now, that it's lylo and everyone is going to die if you are lynched this Turn. Strangely, this was not a concern last cycle when TKN was lynched on flimsier, if not equally flimsy evidence - I say flimsier because we all acknowledged last Turn it was probabilistic and failed in [GAMBIT] and [KRAEM HAPPENS.] Even then, you did not hesitate and told me, the simplest answer is best. Let me get several things straight. 1. Last Turn, you were entirely willing to lynch TKN off evidence that was just as strong as in here, if not weaker. The thread suspected a roleblock had taken place. We did not know for sure. All we saw was the absence of a sabotage. We actively knew it was possible, given TKN lacked actions, that he'd genuinely been roleblocked, and this was unrelated to the lack of a sabotage. And still, we voted for TKN because we act towards the most probable world. 2. Let me recontextualise everything, in this game, in light of your behaviour. Your STINK votes felt LHF: on re-reading, I noticed STINK had in fact contributed: he just doesn't pack it in long, detailed posts like everyone else. You, surprisingly, ignored Szeth's D2 utterance, despite also calling out both Alpha and Fae in prior games for making similarly transparent thread declarations. In fact, despite such a glaringly ??? post from Szeth, you haven't actually given Szeth any attention at all, which makes me think Szeth is your most likely E!partner here, and clearly the bus, given his inactivity/desire for a PH anyway. (I could go on about Szeth's playstyle shift as compared to LG95 and QF66 in which he was a Villager implying potential alignment stunlocking here, but you are the focus right now, not Szeth.) You displayed a chronic lack of WiM all the way through to this cycle: I agree and get that you are busy and RL happens, but I have known you for this long, and I have known you to proactively seek to solve as a Villager with me in PMs. You lacked this; where you did PM me, you floated suspicions like test balloons, similar to LG93, where E!you let me dictate the pace of the solving, and backed down quickly and immediately if I challenged you strongly, suggesting you had no real convictions there. I'll note something else: I hinted as much when Archer challenged you on the Windy Tower choice. What's the point of speedrunning Master if you're not remotely Villaging? Roles are roles, bro. We both agree on this. Villaging is essential. V!TJ has never been afraid for his life if it advantages the Village. We both have had to fight each other for the right and honour to die for each other. Suddenly, you, a player with 1 Arith 2 Artificery - suddenly you develop such fear of going insane, even when players can break out and can be broken out? You could make items to protect the Village from sabotages - an actual +1 to insanity which is pretty damn small all things considered, and Ash himself has been willingly tanking this with no issues - and suddenly you say you aren't doing it because you are afraid? I think you are not doing it because it would make your job harder. And you are looking into making grams for the Elims because the Elims fear Naming. Why? What does a Villager have to fear next to the benefit to the team? Where is the bro who would fight with me to see which of us can die first and do what's best for our team? Psychologically the only way I can make sense of your play, of what you are doing, is that you are Evil. 3. I'll note as a final point that I felt you were very stunlocked for the first cycle of the game. I take that as a point in favour of V!Mat and would note that arguably, it takes Elims the longest to grapple with this game and the rules - it makes sense you and your team would sit back. Most of us are just wading in without a care. I don't find this to be the strongest point, but I note this anyway. I think 1 and 2 matter more - we have to acknowledge that in any other world, you would consider this an acceptable lynch. I agree that regardless of your alignment, you would be forced to disagree here. But as a Villager who is not you, I have to work from my evidence base. And that is where I go. Can I say I don't doubt this at all? No. Bhai, I don't want you to be Evil, and that hangs powerfully over my analysis. That, and my own doubts. I want to have been misled, and I want the scanners to be lying. I keep going back and asking myself because surely I am wrong, and surely there is a mistake somewhere. But the circumstances don't check out. The simplest answer, to quote you back, is that you are Evil and the scan is correct. And even without the scan, there are things to doubt about you. That's my whole point: in any other lynch, for any other player, as we just saw last cycle, we would have said yes and done it. And if you truly are Village, know that we will avenge you. Appendix: I want to make a couple more comments here. The set of still-living players includes: <Kas, Archer, Sart, STINK, Ash, Szeth, Steel, TJ.> I am going to bracket anything I know and to simply speak as an analyst. 1. I think Sart should be a decent mid-tier Village read for most. It's worth noting that the thread demonstrated low tempo on T1M3, when Sart had 6 votes, which suggests that the Elims were not particularly concerned by Sart coming under threat. I'd also note I have a positive read of Sart, in general: I have mentioned the perpendicular V!Sart tell, and for me, the fact V!Sart and I tend to butt heads more is helpful. 2. I think STINK should also be a decent mid-tier Village read for most. I think one reason is pretty obvious to any player who has been paying attention I also agree with Mat about having good vibes tonally from STINK's posts - this isn't Elim pretend indignation, this is a player who is upset about not being taken seriously which suggests to me he does take his posts seriously, even if he doesn't always frame his suspicions and thoughts in 'accepted' ways, cf. calling TJ out T1M# for having too many gut reads. As a side-note of interest, here is the post STINK called out, my comments in bold. TJ voted there but I've removed the votes to avoid confusion. 3. I think Steel is Village. I've explained Steel's psychology as a player and my read of him, based off the long analysis I performed in LG94. I feel Steel is more performative when Evil, and tends to show up more. Despite being excruciatingly busy, he was present in my LG92, and that's not something we can say of this game. I acknowledge it's difficult to read a player in absence but also point out it'll be easy for us to know if he's the last Elim left because the kills will stop. 4. I think Szeth is Evil. I base this off TJ's defense of Szeth prior to the scan being revealed, and TJ's Szeth-sized blindspot. I fully agree with TJ that in an E!TJ world, we need an explanation for why the team ended up missing a kill, and Szeth being the Designated Killer who was, somehow, also so allergic to answering a simple "Did you get recalled?" Y/N question who did in fact get recalled makes the most sense. The other half of it requires one in <Mat/Araris> hence the increased pressure to kill for TJ and Szeth - I'm currently leaning towards Araris, as in an E!Mat world, I don't see him completely refusing to vote D1. Keep in mind that he started with 3.04 talents and being brought on the Horns cost him most of his cash. I don't see the Elims being that willing to tank that penalty for their Ruh, as losing that money made Mat's existence very precarious. Voting anywhere at all would have diluted the threat of the lynch on Mat, improving the chances the DP are assigned to anyone Not Mat. In addition, the low tempo D1 makes me believe at most one Elim was under threat - between Mat and Szeth, Mat would have had more to fear from the lynch. Szeth would not, being wealthy. There are some other inconsistencies about Araris which I don't really want to spell out right now because I need sleep but will happily do so if anyone wants to know once I'm awake, if I'm still alive. If not, ask Wonko as I yeeted my notes at him. (Sorry.) There are also other V!Mat factors, but again, sleep. 5. I think Ash is Village but I cannot say I am confident in this assessment. This is a very weak inclination. If E!Szeth, Ash voted Szeth D1, causing the entire trouble in the first place. That's a bit counterintuitive, given this game is flipless in voting so Elims generally do not get punished for defending each other. I don't love Ash slipping TJ out of his first NKA, and I feel worry about some of Ash's later votes. While I do have an alright tonal read of him, the result is that I could see Ash being an E!partner, but he's not my first, intuitive read/candidate. 6. I've said my views on TJ bro. Moving on. 7. Archer. I've argued from - I think D3? - that I've come around to V!Archer and on balance, see no reason to change my views. Vote precarity, extreme proactiveness (Actions Anonymous) in a cycle that was characterised by low activity, go-getter attitude, and damned insistence on hauling me into the game because he suspected TKN are fairly Village, in my eyes. E!Archer does not need to go to great lengths to pocket a V!Kas who isn't giving a damn and for all he knows, would not bother going to bat for him. There's very little pay-off there. And while I'm not a very strong Village player, I'd argue Elims would take the free 'out of it Kas' rather than seek to actively put me in it. The fact that I can't have a nice chill RPful game is 90% his fault, and I'm damning him for it by Village reading him 8. Me. I'm not really gonna bother here, not sorry. Calling it a night. Wait no I lied I haven't finished on TJ. Here's my problem, in a nutshell. Even if I bracket the scan, quite honestly, I am more or less committed, by sheer PoE, to be looking between <Szeth, TJ, Ash> and TJ comes out as a higher priority problem than Szeth, who is at most simply doing nothing and submitting kills. The fact that there is a scan, which is fairly well substantiated, puts me in the position of simply having to say that by normal SE standards, quite before TJ tried to evoke a State of Emergency, this is pretty compelling reason in total to vote for TJ. And so that's where I'm at. My best and cross checking and 'checking again' has still led me back to you, and I'm sorry. If you are Village, I will avenge you and this is really just Pyrrhic for the Elims. But - honestly, sorry bro I don't think you are. See y'all in the morning. @Wonko the Sane Apologies, will RP respond by then, it's been a very long day so need the rest to recover P.S. TJ, I can say the same to you, which is that by the same token you argue that E!you would kill V!me first, you also argue V!me would always eventually catch you so I am a danger to you. So which is it? Edited to add: Very last word, promise. Who is your team? How many of you can name at least one theorised coherent team? I keep asking TJ that question and he keeps dancing around it. Who does Szeth fit on a team on? If this is a hypothesised Elim last ditch effort, why can't he name the team? Is it a Szeth/TKN/X team? A two Noble team, really? If not Szeth/TKN, why is the spectre of two Assassins coming up? If not, then what sort of Szeth team is this? Why is there no ability to ID a coherent team when even STINK was able to give me a prospective E!partner for TJ off the bat and to acknowledge TKN and Szeth don't work well together on a team? My point is that the main reason TJ can't do it is he keeps running into the fact the PoE is narrowing, and it's harder to FUD the survivors. I agree I have often argued that the inability to name a coherent theorised team at start to mid-game is a problem. But we are six cycles in. By this point, you should be able to at least propose a coherent team, or a set of theories. Why can't he? What's wrong here? Edited to add 2: Like, my point about the SAN is - where's the proactiveness? You didn't make any effort to find a Physicker? Bro, when I got Physicking, I started trying to find people to help. I know V!you is proactive and I don't see that here, and when your role can actively make protections against the sabotage, that's really questionable at best. Even when I offered you Physicking, you said, at least twice, that you weren't interested. I feel like V!you would've leaped at that offer to actually do these things without significant fear of failing IP and cracking.

[TAG: RP, 216 words] lxxix. possession Kevan stared. It couldn’t be. He didn’t want it to be true. And yet… He bit at the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood. He’d liked Salva. They’d run into each other occasionally in classes, before Kevan’d gone for readmission as an E’lir on a clean-slate basis. Back in Kevan’s days as the terror of the Fishery. Back in his days as Master Rhys’s despair. For a wild, abrupt moment, he hated skindancers, hated how they turned friends against each other, hated what the skindancers had made of them, what they had all become. Jumping at shadows, whispers of sabotage. Bright students, bright stars falling from the sky. Getting crocked. Hated how the skindancers were, if the reports were right, and Kevan believed them, oh, he did, he’d spent many a sleepless night poring over the reports with the incisive clarity of a Rhetoric and Logic student and the desperation of a friend—they wore your friends, like clothes. Twisted them, took them over. Could they even be saved? Kevan did not know. What became of those possessed, those taken? (The mind rebelled at the thought of Soren, overtaken as well.) He ground his teeth together. It did not matter. It was doing Salva an injustice if they didn’t stop the skindancers, here and now.

[TAG: DISCUSSION, 308 words] Like. K. Say I accept you're Village. Legit why of all things ML you? Why fake a series of scans and pull a moderate-duration con specifically for this particular moment? You cite a Drake scheme, and I point out a lot of Drake's lies are very short-lived, and this is the exact opposite. Do you think it's a STINK/TKN/Szeth team trying to go for the final kill here? Because lol, literally they could kill anyone, in that world, right? Doesn't have to be you, so why would they invest all that time in doing so? Sart is the weak point in this world, but Ash is just as MLable. Just look at Sart's voting. If not, then I presume you suddenly accept that STINK is Village? You think it is acceptable and not OP to have a team of double Nobles? You, who told me any Elim team with Szeth and especially with Szeth and TKN together was underwhelming - suddenly becomes overwhelming with me on it? Because that's the other direction of your postulated team, right? Me who, let me quote Araris, has extremely known tells when Evil, and can't last a game as Evil without having mental breakdowns to the point I'm notorious for it, and who conversely, is also very well known for not being able to stay disengaged and actually chill out when Village. You don't have a coherent team. That 2 Assassin + 1 ML + 1 Sabotage? That's so much fear-mongering. This reeks of Elim desperation: shut down the arguments by making people scared and paranoid that loss is around the corner. It's not. If it were, I wouldn't have been doing my job properly. I went down to Imre precisely because I harboured concerns about Elim kill hoarding, and it's pretty clear that's: A. not happening. B. not going to happen.

[TAG: DISCUSSION, 737 words] Gonna be blunt: the fact you are speaking about definite proof is a clear E sign right there. Most Villagers don't think in terms of definite proof in terms of defending themselves. Claiming you can't definitively prove your Villageness is classic pure defensive E!mentality. I have checked. I have checked multiple times, because bro, I did not want you to be Evil, despite my misgivings about you and your play, telegraphed by my repeat indications since last cycle that I was harbouring doubts about you. Unfortunately, RNGesus and the distro gods, it seems, do not care about what we desire. I'm going to spell this out clearly: this is not a case of 'oh there was a roleblock and a missing kill so we are shooting the most probable suspect', which, I'll note, is a point you yourself supported and endorsed, as the simplest answer. This is a case of a direct scan yielding the result that you are Evil, with cross-validation among the scanners. To the thread, I apologise and will candidly say I am withholding some of the details for reasons of operational security and sensitivity, but am able to be much more forthcoming next cycle. If I die, then I die with honour for the Village, and Wonko or some of the players in the know will explain things in my place. (Note: Guys, if I'm dead, please do that. Keeping the Village as informed as possible is, IMO, pretty important.) There's currently a play going on which in most wargamed scenarios, will help the Village close things out within two Turns. Things didn't align until last Turn, and I admit we took unreasonably long to make the pieces work. I've done more that just note the points with the lies, I've gone back to re-read the last few cycles to the point I'm sick of staring at posts. Quite frankly, the other options and failure points are not remotely plausible. No, actually I now think I made a very serious mistake in not listening to TKN, for which I apologise. As a player, I sometimes get unnecessarily tilted by players insistence on small points that are incorrect. As I have honestly told the thread in games before this, I sometimes overcompensate by becoming too easily convinced. Sometimes, of course, the opposite happens. I nail down on one point and then defend it to the death. On my re-read, I now think that Mat is Village and TKN is Village. I think the team I'm looking at is TJ/Araris/Szeth, with a potential Ash side. I've re-read and while I can see some reason to think V!Ash, I don't really love some of his votes, and feel that his NKA is too swift to excuse you. I don't think you forwent a kill - I think you were concerned about JNV's role in the planning nexus because you knew JNV was functionally a confirmed Villager and knew this could come back to bite you. You knew it was unlikely JNV would be protected and deliberately shot JNV to both try to frame the Roleblocker, as well as to try to cripple Village planning and communications. The JNV kill, to me, precisely points to a team that was left in the cold and that wasn't in on Village comms, because an insider would not need to kill JNV, not when JNV had no actions. Not when JNV trusted most of them, particularly via me. Unfortunately, I'm still alive. Possibly. Possibly not. The fact I was not doing serious analysis up to this Turn might have been a contributory factor - precisely because you state you would not have the bandwidth or the energy. Lol. Two Assassin kills? Where are they gonna get the Assassins from? Assassin kills can't be staggered like that, bro. You order and that's it, no takebacksies. Sir, I feel like your hypothesised E team isn't really consistent and this might be a problem, maybe I welcome them to try, really. If 2 Assassin kills and 1 sabotage can kill the Village in its current state, I have failed in the job that has fallen to me to harden the Village defenses. Sorry to say, but that much is true. Strongly do not believe this is an ML, and if it is an ML, then we go into next cycle knowing exactly who all the Elims are and Wonko avenges you. That simple.

[TAG: RP, 261 words] [OOC: Feel like we blame Volatile for this tbh she probably did some remodelling along the way.] lxxviii. our town Kevan imagined taking a term off the University. Taking the old Aturan road down to the bustling port-city of Tarbean; from Tarbean, taking swift ship across the dazzling blue waters of the Reft, to emerge blinking into the sun-drenched soil of Yll; rolling green hills and hot rectangular slices of sunshine and woolly fluffy sheep and beyond, at the other coast, the brighter warm blue of the Centhe Sea. You felt odd, he imagined, returning to where you grew up (even though he hadn’t been born in Tirnagh, had been born in a small village on the windswept coast where the jagged green cliffs met the glittering necklace of the Centhe Sea.) You didn’t always fit where you had been once. Ached to see his mother and grandmother again, as more than just words on a written page. (His grandmother didn’t write, they’d seen a scribe for that, of course. Wondered idly if she’d ever send him story knots, beyond the one he’d left home with. You were allowed to regret ambivalence towards your history, Kevan thought.) He would step away from the University changed; you couldn’t help that, the people you met, the experiences you had, it all changed you, and perhaps not always for the better, but he imagined—could not imagine, rather, struggled to imagine—fitting back into quiet Tirnagh, struggled and failed to see himself settling down like his schoolmaster before him had, with the hallmarks of University education but also a quiet desperation. You could return home, thought Kevan, but it could fail to be home, after all.

[TAG: RP, 248 words] lxxvii. crockery They crocked you, if you snapped. Placed you in a compound (“Haven,” they said, in the Medica and in the Chancellor’s Office, an act of double-speak that Kevan privately considered a betrayal, a dereliction of duty, but what did you do with students who weren’t quite there anymore, who’d snapped, and who could unmake parts of physical reality with a fractured smile and a whistled tune?) He tried very much not to resent it: that Jenali and Elena Resterford’d broken out, that somehow, Percyl was still trapped in there. You didn’t ask, Kevan thought, about the difference between the drowned and the saved. But still, you wondered. At how unfair life, God could be. You gave thanks that friends incarcerated had returned, even if there were whispers of skindancer sabotage placing them in the Crockery in the first place. And you made plans with others. Quiet, secret plans, to ensure that should the worst happen, that when they came for you, because it was not if but when, because being mostly-harmless (but Percyl was never quite harmless, no, he’d plans, and shame on them as ruined them, the knife-brightness of his smile and those manic eyes) hadn’t saved Percyl and it sure as kraem wasn’t going to save Kevan either. Maybe he couldn’t save himself, but he could make them hurt to put him away. And one day, the sun would shine on the University again, and the Omethi waters would rise and wash the skindancer stain clean.

[TAG: RP, 242 words] [OOC: Oh, we absolutely did. I would've insisted on it. I usually treat people who try to get me to turn on you as sus, as we are both aware. It's a red line Aman has learned to be wary of when it comes to me, since that, among other things, got me to hard-reverse on him in AG8. Given I've believed the veracity of the scan even knowing you had Arithmetics, and that the scanners didn't report missing funds, I think it's pretty clear that I have both insisted on checking the claimer, as well as checking how the rules interaction works. Funny story: it doesn't class as targeting you, but it absolutely gives your alignment anyway. Wilson said she regretted letting me discover this. So yeah, I set up the exploit, and let the scanners pick their targets, as I never like telling players what to do with their actions. P.S. Incidentally, even if it somehow didn't, I feel like being dead broke should probably help with that!] lxxvi. fourth wall ii “That prologue assumed I survived,” Kevan complained. “Looking at how everything is going now, it doesn’t seem as likely anymore. It also made my days at the University sound so chill, so slice-of-life vibing along with friends. And then look at how much of my storyline is straight up sadness and trauma from rescue work and undeveloped missing parent issues.” “Look,” said Master Alys, “Sometimes stories don’t develop the way we want them to. Sometimes unexpected GMing mistakes that need to be rationalised can force a shift in the narrative. And sometimes, players just want to meet their goal and run with it, and then before they know it, everything becomes sad and also weird.” She rustled through the Resterford records, cheerily. “Sure, you didn’t want to care about the skindancers, but since when have certain people ever been very good about staying out of trouble?” Kevan sighed. “Look, at least Elena Resterford is here. That’s got to be something, right? It doesn’t have to be on me anymore?” “Jellybeans jellyfish singing moonlight serenade cascading effervescent marshmallows rambling swallow light-fleeted silver on Tarbean Avenue!” rambled Percyl, wandering randomly through the Archives. “Goddamnit,” said Kevan. Corrected himself, “Tehlu damnit.” “My lad,” said Master Bob, “It was never on you anyway.” “Yeah yeah have you seen how well certain players react to watching villages get wrecked? No can do,” said Renlin, cheerily. Kevan felt as though his life was some sort of cosmic joke.