Jondesu

I even posted exactly that, and tried to participate in a way to encourage that, but it never really sunk in to the others. Oh well.

It's confirmed (I believe) that there is a Perpendicularity on the top of the Horneater Peaks (which we could fairly safely assume from the in-book information anyways) as well as a "mobile" Perpendicularity belonging to Honor, which many of us assume is in the highstorms, though there may be other possibilities. On Sel, I suspect the second Shardpool is in the area where Jaddeth is said to be imprisoned, or perhaps in another part of the world entirely with a civilization we haven't yet seen. The Skaze are confirmed splinters of Dominion while the Seons are splinters of Devotion, so there are still some separate parts of them, even though the Dor itself is an amalgamation of both (and certainly could be argued to perhaps be merging into a single Shard, a theory I like).

I dunno, that WoB does indicate to me that there could be something different going on. Odium was going after Ambition, we know he found and mortally wounded him (or at least badly hurt, I don't remember how that WoB was phrased), but then his plan goes off track when he's trapped in Roshar? Sounds like maybe he wasn't actually planning to go after H+C yet, but something forced him into it. Did Honor not just trap Odium in the Roshar system, perhaps, but actually sacrifice himself to pull Odium there to save the rest of the Cosmere? That would be Honorable, in a way, plus Tanavast's personality could likely still push through that type of Intent a bit (not doing something dishonorable probably, but certainly interpreting the idea of Honor a few different ways).

Had my first visit to Mayo Clinic on Monday (I know, that's been a little while now), and I'm headed back up tomorrow for at least two more appointments (a couple of scans and an appointment with one of the other departments the neurologist wanted me to check with before he did any treatments), but while the overall result is still up in the air, the one good thing I heard is that he wants me to stop the antiviral treatments I've been doing. Those are annoying because it's so many extra pills on top of what I already take, so anything that cuts down on that will be nice.

Ok, a couple thoughts from last cycle and this one. Last cycle we started with a vote on Straw from Silverblade, for "not being helpful". Perhaps a fair criticism, but not one that indicates alignment in my experience so far, and I find it very annoying that this bandwagon ended up winning despite all the other discussion that formed, with so little evidence behind it. I don't think this implicates Silverblade, btw, just that we got ourselves locked in on just a few people (Stick and Straw mostly, with Silverblade also being tied for the lynch at one point IIRC). Hence, I want to put more of my focus on those who have been allowed to be ignored. I read back through the last cycle, and most people's posts were the usual D1 stuff: strategies (well-intentioned, as far as I can tell, even if some were bad, though none of that should clear anyone), poke votes, etc. I can see why people reacted to Straw, Silverblade, and Stick's posts, but honestly? I think we focused too much on things like being quiet (Straw was right, his activity was normal for him) and suggesting plans that might not be that good. Honestly, we need to look elsewhere, like people who just lurk amongst us and toe the line of activity without being suspicious, or who are quick to jump on bandwagons. In that light, one players posts did stand out to me: Paranoid King. Specifically, this post (can't actually quote from a closed thread, so I'll @Paranoid King so you see this): PK, how is this a helpful pattern of voting? It lets you "put pressure" on people, sure, but in a nonsensical way (who can defend themselves against something like that?) and it lets you seem to be involved without really having to justify much. Granted, I haven't played with you much (at all?), so maybe this is normal for you, but it strikes me as something an Elim would try. I'd like to see why you think voting on people in order to build up votes on them is helpful, especially since that's a good tactic to avoid giving us information about you except that you're not trying to analyze and vote appropriately. Kyle lay on the ground panting as the last of the chalklings were destroyed, the breach in the Circle repaired finally, and they could rest. The chaos was nothing new to him, but the feeling of both relief and numbness after a battle was a familiar and yet always foreign sensation. He could never fully wrap his head around the end of a battle, and having to go back to "normal". As he blinked away the adrenaline and tried to clear his head, his heart sank as he saw the dead body of K'Sarben laying in the camp, no Rithmatic lines around him. At first he'd thought the man had just been driven away from his defenses and swarmed, but he quickly realized that no chalklings had attacked him. K'Sarben (what kind of name was that?) had been stabbed, and no chalkling could hold a knife, of course. Then chaos truly set it, a sight to behold after a battle such as that. The fanatic voice of Regem gleefully exclaiming about the Forgotten was cut off suddenly by a savage and quick attack from Ryth, though Kyle had noticed that there were several voices encouraging Regem's death as well. It was over so fast, he hadn't even risen to his feet before the group was dispersing from around the two dead bodies, some of the others barely giving them a glance. Kyle looked around a bit incredulously, then pushed himself upright and forced himself to walk over to the quartermaster's tent, fetching a couple of shovels. "Let's get their bodies in the ground and pay our respects. Neither of them deserved this, and the least we can do is give them a proper rest." His eyes glinted sharply. "And then put the body of whoever killed K'Sarben in the ground next to them. Or better yet, just toss it to the chalklings."

I have to say, I considered this factor too, but remember, you can't do the same line twice in a row. If he did a Line of Warding, he'll be vulnerable this cycle, so revealing that would be a bad idea. If he did something else, it's less of an issue, but I still think revealing that publicly is a risk we don't necessarily need to take. I'm constantly wary of Aman's analysis and have to be careful I don't just agree without critically thinking it through, but I do agree it's likely Lopen wouldn't have killed DA in these circumstances. Not only does it run a great risk of making him seem guilty, but he probably would have tried to manipulate DA instead, to gain some powers for himself or Elim teammates. I agree that hearing from Lopen about this is important, but I just wanted to add my two cents there. I'm going to go through the thread now and try to do some more analysis if I can, so hopefully I'll post again or edit this post in a little while.

Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies. Once you get it, you have it forever. You think you've gotten rid of it, and then you step into the sun and...whoops, flare-up! (Credit to Demetri Martin for that joke.)

Drat, I knew we were likely to hit a villager of course, but losing a non-Rithmatist is a bit annoying, especially since he might have been the only one. Hopefully not, but I guess we mostly lose a chance to clear someone with an Artist or Duelist. Randuir: I'll be honest, I probably misunderstood or failed to fully read something in your post, but I also knew it wasn't particularly dangerous to vote on you at that moment, since it was very unlikely to be a successful lynch when I was the only one, but I did want to let me thoughts out to be analyzed. I agree now that your vote doesn't seem that suspicious, though I'll maintain I had nothing better to go on. I'd forgotten these would be combined cycles, so two deaths isn't bad like I thought, just expected, but we still have growing pressure as usual. Did anyone know DA was a non-Rithmatist, and if not, who would have wanted him out of the way? Or was it a basically random killing? I'll try to do better this round, btw, and probably the next, but next week I have more medical appointments so I'll be less involved again. I won't ever go inactive or not put in an order if I can help it, though.

As usual for D1, I don't have any strong suspicions, and the plans I saw proposed seemed to be genuine, even those that weren't really good ones, so I'm not particularly suspicious of those suggesting them. Len's plan is needlessly complex, for instance, but doesn't help the Elims that I can tell, and is proposed with the right idea in mind. I'm wary of Aman, Lopen, and Len simply because I have to be, but nothing stands out in their posts. Right now, I'm going to place my vote on Randuir, for the same thing @BrightnessRadiant brought up: why did you put your vote on HH after talking so much about your suspicions of Stick, @randuir? ---- Kyle jumped up from his seated position when the cry went out that chalklings had broken through, and charged towards the front lines. Other Rithmatists were setting up ther defenses and sending chalklings and Lines of Vigor out into the enemy horde, and he didn't hesitate to do the same. He swept his chalk out expertly, forming his Circle of Warding first, then quickly settling on just two bindpoints to stabilize it. If he didn't start getting attacks off soon, no amount of defense would be worth anything. He did add a Line of Forbiddance in each of his additional Circles of Warding to add some stability, then began sketching chalklings. He had a fondness for wolves, and had often put together packs of wolf chalklings that he'd found would even sometimes work together like a true pack, though he didn't fully understand how. He put only minimal detail into many of them, focusing on quantity, but after the first group was off, he drew a few with great detail and even some armor, and drew chains attaching them to the bindpoints of his anchoring circles. They would protect his circle better than more anchors would have, since his opponent wasn't going to be firing Lines of Vigor back at him. Speaking of which, he knelt down and drew several quick Lines of Vigor, aimed away from his own chalklings and instead toward the waves of wild chalklings that were swarming the defenses of his fellow Rithmatists.

Sadly, sometimes there isn't much competition worth switching to. I know if I were to switch from Comcast, I'd have exactly one other option (CenturyLink), and I'd take a huge decrease in my speed, probably poorer reliability (if the experience I had when I tried them out a couple years ago is indicative), and not really any savings in the end. I'd put up with a poor customer service experience in that case. Hopefully not true for you, though, @TwiLyghtSansSparkles!

Apologies for the late start, but I was off at medical appointments yesterday and while I was able to read some of the thread, my mind wasn't clear enough to even consider posting. I haven't read every post in the thread yet, at least not in detail, but I've been looking over the suggested tactics, and I generally am both against any approach that requires claiming roles or publicly voting/choosing what people will do, and am wary of those that suggest those tactics. Well-meaning villagers can certainly suggest such tactics, but often it can be Elims trying to get villagers to reveal information, of course. The coin-flipping solution is definitely the most beneficial for the town without just leaving everything up to each villager's decision (I know I would probably want to tend towards using a special ability over a "generic" one like the Line of Warding, but if we all do that we're in big trouble), so I'll be following that approach myself. Artists and Duelists, make sure you see Aman's post about how you can confirm villagers (until the next conversion) and contact them, but otherwise, I don't think there's any roles that should be revealing themselves, at least for a while. It's worth remembering that if I understand correctly, we're unlikely to have any conversions in the first two or three cycles (the third cycle is the first with a decent chance, it sounds like, but that would be at the end of the cycle I think), so we can trust any information we get early for a little while, and then need to exercise both caution and our deductive skills to watch for changes in gameplay (though I didn't get caught by a change of gameplay in LG32, so that's not a foolproof solution ). Best to assume that anyone you confirm villager is a likely convert, because it's like having a gun with a safety: the safety is always off. Always treat it with caution and be safe. I'll hopefully get some RP up in a little while and I'll see if I have a vote worth casting, which I think is important, but I'm not going to cast one until I can read the thread in a bit more detail to understand who's proposed each solution and supported them. I've got about 7 hours I believe, which should be plenty of time for both, and I'll prioritize the vote of course.

I haven't gotten very far into the books yet, but I'll sign up. I'll be Vell, a student of the Alchemical arts, albeit with limited access to practice before attending.

I think that one is fine. "Instruction" in that case is a gerund: a verb used as a noun (if I'm not mixing up my grammar rules). It's past tense, hence "had", and it makes perfect sense as a native English speaker.

It was worth it, wasn't it? Pretty cool story.

Yeah, I never read comic books before, but I've picked up a few, and the difference between new and old is…unbelievable. I still haven't read many, though, just not a format I enjoy that much.

Ouch. Was the Jewish friend just joking, I hope? Zombie Jesus jokes can be funny as long as they're not meant to be insulting, unlike what the other person said. And...I thought Muslims believed Jesus existed but was just a prophet, not that he didn't exist?

I'll be out of town Monday night through at least Tuesday afternoon and possibly longer, and while I have no doubt I'll get on and play some (I'll need to distract myself), I won't be as active as I would normally try to be.

If the person we see is truly Taln (and I think it is, and Brandon has either been trolling us by refusing to outright confirm it, or is hinting at more), the Blade we see him with at first was swapped out for the Shardblade that Amaram ends up trying to steal. That Blade (the first one) was almost certainly his Honorblade, and someone now has it, but we don't know who. We know it isn't Hoid, though, or at least that he wasn't the one who did the swapping. I'm really hoping it didn't end up with an evil character, but it's possible.

I'm almost certainly still going to be able to have lunch with the extended family, so that'll be nice, although that's also exhausting under the best of circumstances. Fortunately everyone has now come to understand what I'm going through, at least to a degree, so if I need to go lay down on the couch or in a bedroom, no one gives me a hard time.

Definitely something to keep in mind. I love how real it makes these characters feel. They're not just two-dimensional characters copied from the pages of comic books (though even in those, at least the good ones, there is some character development). They feel like real people with these amazing powers thrust on them or snatched up by them, but especially for someone like Tony, a former warmonger and still a hugely egotistic and arrogant personality, having gone through the experiences he has and made the (big) mistakes he has, he's really changing and learning. He knows he won't ever completely change, since he's got too much anger and too many issues piled up, so he's putting all his hopes now on Peter, since he drove away Steve and most of the rest of the Avengers in Civil War (and I think he regrets his actions there for the most part, though he still believes in the reasons for most of them). He's going to end up being like an overbearing parent I think, expecting too much but also providing a ton of guidance, albeit not a lot of emotional support. He means well, though, and he's trying.

Heh, I know. In our church, we usually use a variation of what you found. "Christ is risen!" and then the response would be "He is risen indeed!". Same meaning, just a slight wording change.

It's true, there really aren't any other fandoms we have a problem with. I mean, I can't think of a single book series or author that is disliked by even a majority of people here, at least openly. That's not true of hardly any other fandoms I know of.

I'm at home instead of going to church for Easter Sunday since my head is hurting so much (I miss most Sundays, as well as most other stuff, but still).

It's true that there were prophecies that that would happen to the nation of Israel, though they were never meant to be something to celebrate. Most of those prophecies appear to be pointing at the exile to Babylon, anyways, but there were plenty of people who attributed them to the later centuries. Regardless, the Jews are still God's Chosen People, even though he opened up salvation to all through Christ, and while I don't believe that means every Jew will go to heaven by any means (after all, there were plenty of evil Jews through history too, like Ahab, who I think we can all agree did not repent and won't be saved), I do believe he still cares for the Jews specifically and has a plan for them. Many people think they will have a huge part to play in the end times, though it depends a lot on how literally you interpret the events of The Revelation of John. I don't think it's meant to be literal, but even taken symbolically, Israel probably still will be important until the end of time, in some ways. They might go through more times of really awful suffering, or they might spend most of the rest of time in their own land, but either way, there is a plan for them. And by them, I should be saying you, although it's obviously more than just you personally. I'm actually not sure if that's offensive or not (to say them instead of you, or vice versa), so apologies if it came across wrong. That certainly wasn't intended if so.

Well, he already was, but 'tis a good day to celebrate it! And to anyone who doesn't, I hope you have a great day too!