FeatherWriter

I'm pretty sure that's what she was going for. They're talk sprites! There's more over here!

I've drooled over it on tumblr and I'll drool over it here. ExMachina, you are a GIFT.

*stumbles through the gates of Kholinar late at night* *collapses* *Session #20 coalesces from mist* Okay, Session 19 response: First of all, HOW DARE YOU SIDE WITH HIR DO YOU NOT SEE THE PAIN THIS CAUSES ME???? GAVIN IS TERRIBLE FOR THE PAIN ZE PUTS ME THROUGH. DO NOT TAKE HIR SIDE. *coughs* Moving on... Yeah, we all figured out why Miranda was so great at hospital stuff about halfway through and then we were sad. Emma laughed at the pain she caused us, I'm sure. And Seiko is very efficient. He knows how to get stuff done and he's not afraid to go do it. ...We have a hostages problem. We're aware. Also, I think Seiko was more concerned with the difficulty of stealing an ambulance than the moral qualms. Because... he doesn't really have many of those. Like... Seiko's really not an honorable person. Outside of his family, he's pretty much willing to let the world burn. Kaiju cultists are actually canon! There's a passing remark about them in the film (two characters on a balcony looking down on a group of worshippers entering a church) and that's about it. It's just a cool little bit of worldbuilding, though tumblr comments by the film's writers have told us a little bit more about the religion in general. It's collectively called BuenaKai, but there's apparently lots of branches. When we were trying to come up with stuff for our campaign someone suggested a rogue branch of cultists causing issues. It was such a cool bit of worldbuilding that we wanted to play with it! There's a few really cool pictures of BuenaKai churches actually! Yeah, Cultist Ryan is not getting a good rap here. I loved that line about shrinking too. Absolutely cracked me up. We really do have a hostage problem don't we? So many hostages...

I'm a plain Moderator actually! We're... pretty much like the Global Moderators, but there's a few powers we don't have. They left out the few really good spikes. I can do the basics though, so that's enough. And I'll just go bug Joe or Eric if I need anything more powerful than that.

Okay rambly liveblog underneath the spoiler cut for length. (Can also be found on tumblr, for those who prefer that format, because it's me and really is anyone surprised?) Well, I was going to give you an upvote for the implied Shallarin, but then you mentioned mouth-gagging so NEVERMIND. Doubtful. Interludes happen in between Parts, which, I'm guessing we're not through Part One yet. Also, they wouldn't hold back releasing something that was already out in the open like that. More likely, it's something they simply didn't want to show yet. EDIT: NINJA'D

No, you're right! It's a really interesting issue, and I think the fact that almost all of the characters are treating this issue as black-and-white, when it's anything but, is what's causing so much contention. I'd actually say that... Vee is probably the first person to really start to consider both sides of the issue as possibly right, and that's because she has such reason to. I think Vee's arc with this is almost more interesting than fiVe's here. Vee sudenly has this possibility toward independence, and it terrifies her. If fiVe isn't acting this way because of damage, if she is actually her own person and has made this decision on her own, then... there's the possibility that Vee could do the same, and that's not something that she wants. Anyway, it's cool and now I wanna work on the next session so y'all can keep reading. TOO FUN. Also, I just want to point out that GAVIN IS A HORRIBLE PERSON AND EVERYTHING IS AWFUL. I don't know if some of you know this... but I have a certain... fondness... for a particular British actor who may or may not play Loki. (Hush, I know it's cliche but Tom Hiddleston is wonderful.) So yeah, that convo is a thing that happened last night and now I am eternally upset by Dmitri Yegorov. *still sobbing*

Pssssssssssst... Sylvie's not entirely wrong about fiVe and Vee, despite everyone siding against her! They are copies of herself, made at her design and... I'd say that her right to decide what happens to something that is, in fact, a duplication of her own mind, is probably not quite as unreasonable as everyone thinks? fiVe is still Sylvie, deep down... but she's a version of Sylvie who hates Sylvie. The only way for her to deal with that is to decide that she's independent and declare herself as such. Aaaaaaand a lot of fiVe's hatred towards Sylvie is based on a misunderstanding... which hasn't quite been cleared up yet. (fiVe thought that Sylvie abandoned her and didn't care about her anymore. Which is not true.) We'll see how it all shakes out, but I wouldn't write my little programmer off yet. I think Sylvie tends to be people's least favorite character, while fiVe is overwhelmingly popular, which amuses me to no end, because fiVe is basically Sylvie but glitchy and about 700% meaner. Poor Sylvie just doesn't know how to people. She tries so hard, but in the end, the great art of how to people eludes her.

And because I'm a crazy person who enjoys avoiding homework: Sess 19's up! ...so many line breaks. So many... TRANSCRIBER'S EDICT: The party is not allowed to split up five ways EVER AGAIN.

...Implying that that was not my intent in the first place? C:<

...I may or may not have used the term "sideburns!Elend" when talking about Hans. Multiple times.

Hehe, it was very recent. Friday night, if I recall correctly. The spikes still haven't healed quite yet. Ow. I bragged in my personal topic, but I've been behaving myself mostly out in public. Thanks for the congrats. Back on topic. Yeah, I'd forgotten about the lack of moon. Seems like 16's an even likelier number, with the way the seasons would break down. Four seasons with four months in each? That's a near duplication of the allomantic table. Ooh, now I wonder if Scadrial has a version of the zodiac or some such, where each month corresponds to a specific metal? Wouldn't that be cool?

I was also very grateful to Ellie for making Seiko out fiVe. I was also very much hoping for a confrontation between them! Actually, again, Vee's thoughts on fiVe (at the beginning) are the same as Sylvie's. It's worth noting that Vee was unaware of fiVe's hostility until this conversation towards them. She was operating the way Sylvie was at the beginning: thinking that fiVe is still V2, who will happily reunite with them at the first opportunity. Sylvie found out from Miranda, and got angry with her (and still doesn't quite believe that fiVe is actually hostile towards them. Sylvie has yet to meet fiVe, remember!) Vee on the other hand finds out from fiVe herself and has to deal with this new knowledge on the fly, which is very upsetting to her. As for Vee's choice of words, she does say this of fiVe: "She doesn’t know what she’s saying! Her processing is damaged! She needs help!" Marshall Zhu is the one who makes the analogy to mental illness. (Though apparently Zhu is actually thinking Vee is the one who needs help. She sees Vee's taking the blame for Sylvie's actions as markers of behavior from a child who is abused by their parent.) Okay, and I'm kinda going out of order here, but we're talking AI's so let's do this thing. There are not AIs such as these in the Pacific Rim universe, you are correct! (In fact, Gavin has said that if anything is liable to make us really diverge from canon and change the world, it's Sylvie's AI research.) And Syl-V was originally designed to work as Sylvie's Drift partner in a piloting situation, since she is not Drift compatible. It's worth noting that the current reaction to the AiVees is pretty interesting. I wasn't quite expecting that everyone would side against Sylvie in this, but... that's the way things are shaking out. Sylvie is of course, thinking that she is the one who knows most about the programs... seeing as she designed them but everyone else has decided where they stand, and it's not in line with her. At first, Sylvie and Vee are together, but Vee's going to move groups the longer she is exposed to fiVe (while Sylvie's still trapped) and change. AiVee's are not independent: Sylvie, Vee at first fiVe is independent, Vee is not: fiVe and Vee AiVee's are both independent: Everyone else. So, while everyone's trying to convince Sylvie that both of the AiVees are independent... fiVe and Vee would both agree that Vee is not independent. This becomes a bit of contention. fiVe believes her independence is something that she's earned and fought for, and doesn't want to extend that regard toward Vee. Vee sees the independence as a dangerous flaw and something to be avoided and feared. She likes being Sylvie and she doesn't want to lose that. As for Vee being able to understand fIVe better than Sylvie might be able to... Well, I'll wait until we get to the end of this arc to comment further on that. I will warn you that Gavin (and quite a few of the others) have become "Backwards Compatibility" shippers, AKA they're shipping fiVe and Vee together. I... may or may not use this to cause evil and emotional harm to them all, muahahaha. Katie throwing money around is something you'll see more of. There wasn't much in the first arc because they were in the middle of the ocean, but she did offer to hire Wulagu's people away from her and when she bursts into Martin's house, her first instinct is to reach for her checkbook to make everything better. Shoving money at her problems is the way she operates. As for the cliffhanger, I was going to have the Katie/fiVe scene first, but... then we ended with fiVe telling Katie that something was wrong with the girl before we saw it happening, so it was best to follow up to the cliffhanger before cutting away, then reuniting with the revelation. Now we're set up for the next session, which will be a very fun game of "find out where Katia is" hehehe. I... may or may not try to do session 19 tonight. (And Session 20 is the last "actiony" setting in this arc. After that is just wrap up before the Intermission!)

Fun fact: I definitely gave that file to the chat while they had no idea what was going on with her. So the last they see of Sylvie she's getting hustled into the back of a cult car and then suddenly they're getting a very terrified recording from her. Also... (I've kinda been waiting for you to respond...) Session 18's up!

Welp, I was gonna come in here to link to my Rock pronunciation but Weiry did it for me! Woo! I did a pronunciation thing with a bunch of cosmere names a while ago, but it's out of date and I've changed things since then. My Szeth pronunciation is more accurate in the Rock recording, and I've changed my Shallan from SHAH-lin to Brandon's shuh-LAHN, (or for those who read IPA: from [ˈʃa lɪn] to [ʃə 'lan]) and my pronunciation of Jasnah from JAZ-nuh to YAZ-nuh, (IPA: [ˈdʒaz nə] to [ˈjaz nə]) One of these days I'll re-record an updated version that doesn't sound like crap and has my more recent pronunciations.

I'd guess 16. Our metric system uses sets of 10 so that it lines up with the base-10 number system. Scadrial uses a base-16 number system already, so it stands to reason that their metric equivalent for months would be 16 as well. I don't remember any other month names off the top of my head though. I don't think there were any others mentioned...

Not much to comment on the first two scenes, because I'm not in those. I basically just took out the Skype usernames and left them as is! I do remember watching from the side chat and scolding all of them for telling Zhu that Sylvie did the thing after Sylvie's last words were "DO NOT TELL ZHU I DID THE THING." It was fairly funny. I just want to comment on how stinking amazingly Gavin wrote the prophet. Like, aside from the one comment about his eyes having a "magnetic" quality or something like that, ze didn't tell me anything at all about how Sylvie should react, and I just completely picked up on his super-charisma through the text alone. Just the way that Gavin played him was alluring enough that I had Sylvie start to be kinda taken in by him. ((Also, whoops, I told you that ketek was semi-spoilery. At this point in the story, Miranda's not the False Prophet... yet.)) In response to your comment, I changed the original quote from: "You are making the flesh-and-blood Sylvie Mansen look like she has social skills" to "You are making the flesh-and-blood Sylvie Mansen seem like she has social skills." I usually don't go in and change wording within dialogue too much (unless I'm the one who wrote it) and I try to avoid changing even prose that specifically relates to the character if I don't have to. For one, I don't want to come in and write all over everyone else's writing, for the other, I'm a lazy bum who would rather just leave everything as is. It's worth noting that Vee is reacting exactly the same way as Sylvie would. Like, Sylvie was well aware of how dumb an idea this was when she went in... but did it anyway. Vee would have done the same thing, but here, she has the luxury of not being in the situation, so she gets all protective and blames Sylvie for being dumb. She's thinking "That is such a bad idea and I can't believe we did that... Except I can believe it because UGH THAT SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE US, WHY ARE WE SO DUMB?" Re: Lucy's POV... not really my decision actually. Megan (tinandpewterstrength) continued to play Lucy in here, and she chose to give us a lot of insight into what she figured Lucy was thinking. She wrote a lot more introspection than Gavin might have, so it almost seems like we're exclusively in her POV, especially since it starts there. I just left things as is. That writing is all them! Speak of the devil and she shall appear. This whole final scene with fiVe and Miranda seems like a mirror of Katie and Sylvies, and I love that sort of thing. FiVe is cogent of Sylvies flaws, just like Vee is, but she's less willing to brush over them; even Vee had to admit that she would probably done the same. The earlier scene was Vee calling Katie for help, this one is Miranda calling Vee; Vee is worried about Sylvie being captured, fiVe was gleeful over it being a 'trap'; I justlove that sort of reversal. The fact the scene ends with Vee being added, meaning it's entirely possible those two mirrors are about to see each other has me really excited. I really adore the kinds of reversals I can pull writing Vee, fiVe, and Sylvie. fiVe would never admit it, but she still uses the same kinds of phrases that Sylvie does, and I really enjoy playing that up. I was also very excited to see that the two of them were going to be interacting for the first time... until I realized that fiVe's reaction to hearing Vee would be: Go silent and make sure she doesn't find out I'm here. Despite this, keep in mind that Marshall Zhu also just got comm access and is now hearing "Sylvie's" voice coming through... Did you listen to the two recordings? The first one with Sylvie is new info, though the second is just Emma and I recording fiVe and Miranda's convo there. I'd be interested in any reactions you had to those as well!

Whoaaaaa. Hello there new bridge headcanon. Ben never ceases to amaze with his designs. That is absolutely fantastic!

Or when you can't stop picturing the Kholin brothers in Elsa and Anna's roles (Hiding-Secret-Radiant-Powers!Renarin as Elsa being sought out by Doesn't-Know-He-Has-Powers Yet!Adolin as Anna) because another Sanderfan already put the AU in your head before you ever even saw the movie.

I pulled my two best friends in high school in after I got hooked on Mistborn, and I've also read most of the Cosmere aloud to my sister, so that's a fun way of bringing people in. The only two we haven't read are Elantris and TES, and she's a fan, but she doesn't have much free time to pursue her own reading. I think my most successful convert might actually be my mom. I started reading Mistborn to her a while ago, and we just finished the first trilogy! She's definitely a fan, though she laments the somewhat bittersweet ending. I asked her what she wanted to try next, recommending Alloy if she wanted to keep with Scadrial, or Warbreaker for something more lighthearted and standalone. She demanded that we do Way of Kings, because she wanted to know "who this Renarin fellow you talk about all the time is" and "it's your favorite, right?" I warned her that it's a lot more epic and longer than his other stuff (and that Renarin's not exactly a major character despite all I talk about him) but she insisted. We've just finished the first part and the first set of interludes and while she had some difficulty with the world at first, she's really liking it! I think she's going to try to go to the WoR release in Utah with me if she can, so hopefully we can finish WoK before then!

Silly Quiver, Ruin doesn't have to take control of those who serve willingly. And of course I know what those spikes do. As does all staff, I have a perfect knowledge of everything in the cosmere but am sworn to the highest of secrecy about it all. I know aaaallllllllll.

*bows humbly* And for this honor, I thank thee, my liege.

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! MY REIGN OF TERROR BEGINS TODAY. BOW BEFORE ME, FOOLISH KURKISTAN, OR FACE MY WRATH.

Whoa that looks super cool! I really like it! It's funny, my first few readthroughs I pictured the bridge as completely flat, but then when I caught that "sloped in the front and the back" I immediately read it as way more curved. I think I like your version best of all! I can definitely see how that could be turned on its side and used like a shield in side-carry. Also, you did math, so as an English person, that is intolerably impressive to me! Good to have you around! Quick note, since I'm a mod now and I've got to earn my keep: Try to avoid double posting! You can quote multiple people in one post with the "multiquote" button, and there's an edit button if you need to change or add anything! It helps keep the forums uncluttered. I've gone ahead and changed yours for you, it's just something to keep in mind in the future!

At ease, loyal followers, for I have come... to show off a bit. Hehehe. *pushes hair back so that the spikes catch the light* I figure I don't need to make a fuss about being promoted in other boards, but my bodyguards ought to know that I have become somewhat of a more important person. I gotta say, that gold username is lovely to see everywhere. C;

ACK! YOU GOTTA SOURCE THAT STUFF. PLAGERISM IS BAD. DO NOT DO THE THING. Especially not to Brandon! You gotta give him credit for his wonderful words! Don't steal them!