Arraenae

He heard us! Accusing him really wasn't a good idea… and it wasn't even a very good accusation. Oh, come on. Nobody was saying anything. Would you rather have had nobody say anything? You heard Captain Kaladin -- someone's been murdered. We need to find the killers. What if we catch the wrong person? We can always stop accusing them if we later think their innocent. Besides, all we'll be doing is throwing them in jail. A jail run by Radiants can't be that bad. I'm more likely to speak in my normal voice in PMs, otherwise I'd never get any PMs going because of Ralaanar's shyness. It's only in my RP voice if my response is bold or has a lot of filler words.

Rissa... if Jonly is evil, isn't it a really bad idea to, you know, provoke him? Especially by saying he's evil? Pfffffffft. Strength before weakness, Ralaani! Journey before destination! You're a Radiant now, so act like one. Besides, Jonly hasn't said anything, so I doubt he cares. Maybe that's another mark of his evilness? Um... I'm not sure how that works. What if he's just biding his time?

Ralaanar was walking outside when he noticed a group of people shuffling outside. They all did something strange around their waists, as if fiddling with a belt. Ralaanar pulled out a sheet of paper to sketch the scene. They all wore the uniform of the new Knights Radiants, each with a cape of vibrant Kholin blue. Some of them seemed to be banging against the wall, for some reason. A gentle rain began falling. Ralaanar tried to ignore the droplets that fell on his paper, then gave up. He packed the sketch away, into a waterproof bag. “What are they doing?” Ralaanar asked. “Dunno,” Rissa replied. “A highstorm’s coming. I know a place you can hide.” “Alright,” Ralaanar said. He took another look at the Initiates. Why were they still outside in this rain? Shouldn’t they be going back inside? The rain became heavier. The gentle pitter-patter of water against the ground crescendoed into a roar. “Wait,” Ralaanar said. “Did they get locked out? In the rain?” He hefted his bag and started walking towards the group of Initiates. “Ralaanar, turn around!” Rissa said. “There’s an overhang where you can hide from the storm!” “Um, right,” he said.“I have a key. Took it from one of the Squires. I think I can get in.” He pulled it out so he could show it to Rissa. He walked towards the building, trying to go as fast as he can. His dress wouldn’t let him run, so he pulled it up and sprinted for the building. “What are you doing?” Rissa screeched. “The door’s locked. That’s why they’re all stuck outside. Turn around! Turn around!” “I can open the door for them,” Ralaanar shouted back. “Then I’ll get inside.” Ralaanar almost reached the door when a gust of wind knocked him over. He pulled himself up and kept running for the door. Finally, he reached it. He shoved the key in the lock and turned it. The door didn’t open. Ralaanar threw himself against the door, but it still stayed stubbornly closed. Around him, the Initiates screamed, cried, and yelled. He turned his head and saw them being tossed by the storm. One of them, an old man, seemed to have gone into hysterics. Suddenly, the wind blew on Ralaanar from the side. He grabbed onto the doorknob, but was wrenched away. Rain pelted him like little stones. Ralaanar shrieked and tried to grab onto something, anything. His hands found something. A rope? Moments later, he smacked into a body. He tried to apologize, but terror ate away at his ability to speak. “You’re not going to survive!” Rissa yelled. “Storms, you have to say the Words!” Ralaanar opened his mouth. Water filled it and he spat it out. He blinked furiously. Rissa floated in front of his face. “The Words, Ralaanar!” Rissa repeated. “Say them!” Ralaanar’s stolen cloak flapped in the wind. Then it opened, and flew away in a flash of blue. “Life before death,” he shouted. “Uh, strength before weakness! Journey before destination!” Ralaanar breathed in. At that moment, battered, bruised, and probably bleeding, he felt more alive than at any other point in his life. Then he was pulled away from the wall and slammed into another body. El, there you go. One moment of bodily contact, delivered.

“I’m sorry, but I think I need to talk to someone.” Ashetvl turned away, placing her glass back down on the food table. Ralaanar watched Ashetvl’s retreating figure, stunned. That… that had been so quick. Had he scared her off? Had she noticed him looking at her? Had he been too silent? To talkative? What had he done wrong? “Wow. That was the rudest thing I’ve ever seen,” Rissa said. “I know,” Ralaanar groaned. He buried his face in his hands. “I shouldn’t have…” “Not you, you idiot,” Rissa said. She crossed her arms. “I mean her.” “Is it because I look like a girl now?” Ralaanar said. “What?” Rissa asked. “I’m dressed like a girl. Did that scare her off?” Ralaanar said. Rissa scoffed. “Nah, it had nothing to do with whatever gender you look like right now and everything to do with Ashetvl’s an arrogant chullholiness. C’mon, Ralaanar, stop moping. There are plenty of other people who aren’t rude pieces of crem.” Ralaanar grunted and continued burying his head in his arms. “Aww, don’t sulk. You gotta feed Addy, remember? She’s got to be pretty lonely outside,” Rissa said. Ralaanar didn’t reply. Rissa smacked Ralaanar in the face. He flinched. “Pull yourself together! You can’t just abandon your axehound for some chullhole who happens to look nice. C’mon, get up, get up. There, that’s better.” Rissa shooed Ralaanar out of his chair and towards the exit. “Let’s get some chouta while you’re at it. Might as get something out of this party.”

Hey, Almighty (Aman)! Yeah, you! I heard that reflection spren are really good at spotting other spren. Can they see Skybreaker spren too? I'm insulted by everybody who says that liespren are useless. Obviously you've never had your secrets leaked by a nosy spren before. Storming busybodies, sticking their fingers in everyone's business. Seriously, they run the rumor mills in Shadesmar. Same for reflectionspren. They see everything, including what types of spren a Radiant has, even the ones that try to hide. Have you ever played hide-and-seek with a reflectionspren? No? Trust me, I'm a spren. I know what I'm talking about.

“So from what parts do you hail?” Ashetvl asked. Ralaanar thought. Should he tell the truth or make up a lie? He needed to ask Rissa, but he couldn’t speak to her in front of Ashetvl. “Um. Uh, I come from, uh, Alethkar. Kel -- Kholinar. I’m from Kholinar. Yeah.” Rissa facepalmed and Ralaanar shot her a helpless look. What could he do? He needed her help! You know what? I’m not going to let Ralaani speak anymore. I can’t stand watching her make a mess of what she wants to say again. *audible sigh of relief* I’ve seen a lot of liespren here recently. Good people if you want someone to talk to, but really, really nosy. They’re really good at hiding too. They can be anywhere, listening in on your private conversations. So be careful! Even if you’re talking to someone you trust not to blab, the liespren won’t care about keeping your information safe. If you’re really paranoid, set up a code. You can use something like a one time pad. Don't even think about paying someone else to use their machine to decode it for you. Journey before destination, peeps! That’s what you’re a Radiant for. If the Stormfather catches you breaking your oath, he's gonna give you a smacking to remember. Just be smart, folks. That's all I can say.

Hey, don't say that. You're talking about gaming the system. Journey before destination, remember? Hey, um... Rissa? Rissa? Uh, let's not talk to him. I -- he looks like he sees things. And he looks scary. Um, this is not a good idea...

“I seem to be out of a drink. Do you care to come fetch another with me?” Ashetvl asked. Ralaanar froze. "Uh, um, yeah," he said. "Yeah, sure." As they walked towards the drinks, Ralaanar alternated between sneaking peeks at Ashetvl and staring resolutely ahead. Ashetvl was beautiful, but at the same time something seemed off with her. She didn't seem to fit her clothes. Her shoulders were a bit wide, her chin a little too square, her butt a little small. Ralaanar blushed and then forced his gaze forwards. He was not going to think of what Ashetvl looked like. He wrapped his cloak around his shoulders a little more tightly, grateful that he had brought it. Rissa floated in front of Ralaanar, eyeing him smugly. She winked, and Ralaanar's blush deepened.

"I'm, uh, Ralaani," Ralaanar said. He took Ashetvl's hand. "Um, nice to meet you too." From now on, all game related discussion will be in the voices of my characters. Ralaanar is normal text, Rissa is bold. Everything from me will be in purple. Um… hi? My name’s Ralaani, my spren’s forcing me to talk. Uh. Not much to talk about. Um. Uh, uh, uh... The Unjust. Remember what you practiced? Oh, right! I’ve, um, I’ve heard something about, um, some people called the Unjust. How often do they become Skybreakers? And, uh, isn’t it good if they do? Aren’t they Radiants just like us? They swear the same things as us, right? Why is that bad? I’ve heard that they’ll make us all lose, but... Okay, let me clarify for Ralaani. She wants to know why how often Skybreakers are made, and what conditions the Unjust need to make us lose.

Ralaanar yanked his shoulder strap back on. Then he looked up at the woman kneeling over her. She was Thaylen, with long, white eyebrows that framed her face. Her eyes were a startling shade of azure, like the ocean on a sunny day. No, not like the ocean. Prettier than the ocean. Ralaanar gaped at her face for a few seconds. Then he remembered her question. He stared for another few seconds before answering. "I -- um. Um. Uh. I'm okay."

Ralaanar sat in a corner of the room, chewing on a sugary puff of... something. He didn't know what it was, but it tasted exactly like the other 20 something foods he'd sampled already. The only difference was its color, pink. The sugar dusting the puff sparkled in the light, but its appearance didn't make up for the taste. It was cloyingly sweet, enough to make Ralaanar gag. If he hadn't been so hungry, he would have thrown these away the moment he tried them. "I think I'm going to be sick," Ralaanar mumbled to Rissa. "Too much sugar." "There's a nice stack of chouta on the left table that's calling your name," Rissa said. "I can’t eat that! They’ll know who I am if I do,” Ralaanar said. “Oh, come on. How are they supposed to divine your real gender from a single piece of chouta?” Rissa asked. “Uh. There’s a book, um, Arts and Majesty,” Ralaanar said. “It, um, it says something about women only eating sweet things. So I can’t go over to the men’s table.” “This the same book that says all men should fight?” Rissa asked. “Um, yes,” Ralaanar said. “That’s a stupid book, then.” Rissa said. She rolled her eyes. “You should eat whatever you want. Sneak outside to eat it if you have to. Say it's for Addy.” Ralaanar paused and set down his sugar puff. Normally he wouldn’t want to risk exposure, but he was hungry. He needed actual food, with salt in it, not these sugar puffs or whatever they were. Still, he’d have to actually get the food. People would see him. “C’mon, do it already,” Rissa said. She grabbed his arm and tugged on it. “Fine,” Ralaanar muttered. He stood up and smoothed his light blue havah. Then he threw on a cloaks he’d taken from a guest. It was Kholin blue, a royal color. He glanced around the room, then started walking around the walls. “Stop looking around so much, Ralaanar! Nobody’s going to eat you,” Rissa said. “Don’t say my name!” Ralaanar whispered. “They might be able to hear you.” “Fine,” Rissa said. “Ralaani. Ralaani Ralaani Ralaani. Better now?” “Shhh,” Ralaanar said. “They’ll get suspicious if you say it like that.” “So now you want me to shut up, huh?” Rissa said. “Figures.” They continued arguing, and Ralaanar stopped watching the rest of the room for signs of suspicion. They made it through two walls of the room and were almost at the men's table when Ralaanar collided into a Thaylen women. He cried out and stumbled backwards. This was bad. Your turn, @AliasSheep

I think it's likely that the train of thought would be something like "so that would mean that the girl was born from unmarried parents" (in a more concise form, at least). I'm very certain that Silence talked about her dead husband, though.

“Hi, my name is Ralaani and I’m an artist. I’ve come to Urithiru to practice sketching the local architecture and, um, uh…” Ralaanar trailed off. His axehound, Addy, stared at him, as if prodding him to go on. Her shell was a comforting shade of speckled brown over dark orange. Ralaanar focused on her shell and took a few calming breaths. Then he continued. “Uh, I also wanted to travel to a new place, see new things, see new places, see new things, um, yeah, to see the Radiants.” I wanted to get away, Ralaanar silently added. The thought made him forget the rest of what he was going to say. His planning slipped out of his mind, and he stalled, panicked. He fingered the smooth fabric of his dress as he tried to remember. Finally, he gave up. “Ummmm, I hoped you liked my speech thanksforlisteningbye!” Ralaanar’s cheeks flushed and he buried his face in his hands. Holy crem, that had been awful. If he couldn’t even practice introducing himself in front of his axehound, how was he supposed to introduce himself to the people out there? What if he forgot what he was going to say in front of people like Navani Kholin, or Shallan Davar? He’d die of embarrassment. Someone clapped painfully slowly. Ralaanar looked up and saw Rissa, his spren. Her body was an iridescent green with streaks of sky blue and yellow green. Her head was the most humanlike, while her legs were made completely of vines. Even though her body was made entirely of leaves, Ralaanar could clearly see her doing her best imitation of a sarcastic clap. “That,” Rissa announced, “Was absolutely, awe-inspiringly dreadful. Storms, I don’t even know why you even bother. Maybe this is a new piece of information for you, but normal people don’t practice for every bit of human interaction ever, ya know? Just wing it, Ralaanar!” Ralaanar whipped his head back and forth to make sure nobody was nearby. He glanced down at his dress and smoothed out its wrinkles. Then he checked to make sure that his left hand was covered, which it was. He almost breathed a sigh of relief, but noticed some people standing nearby. Either they were potential radiants or had already sworn the first oath. Either way, he didn’t people as powerful as they were knowing his secret. “Shhh!” he hissed at Rissa. “They might catch me if they overheard my real name. If they find out that I’m not a girl --” Rissa rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. Nobody’s around to hear. Stop being so jumpy all the time. They don’t know as much as you think they do.” She huffed in annoyance and floated into the distance. Ralaanar watched Rissa leave, sad to see her go. She was the only person who really talked to him, spren or not. Sure, she might be a little mean at times, but she was much better than the people back in Kelathar. Once Rissa faded out of sight, Ralaanar turned to watch the crowd of Radiants. There were quite a few people, some marked with the distinctive glow of Stormlight. It was a beautiful glow, and the sight of so much of it took Ralaanar’s breath away. From the distance, the Stormlight looked calm, but Ralaanar knew that up close the Stormlight raged like a Highstorm. Behind the Radiants was a line of people that stretched into the distance. Dalinar Kholin, the most powerful man in Alethkar, stood in front of the line. Most of the people approaching him were rejected. Ralaanar sympathized with them. He knew what it was like to be rejected. “HEY PEOPLE!” a voice yelled. Rissa. “MY HUMAN HERE’S GOT SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO SAY, AND SHE’S GONNA INTRODUCE HIMSELF. BE KIND TO HER.” Multiple heads turned Ralaanar’s way. He froze. This was bad. This was very bad. Addy prodded him forwards with a claw, and he stumbled forwards. Under the weight of all those stares, Ralaanar had no choice. He had to speak now. Hopefully they wouldn’t notice anything wrong with him. “Uh, hi, my name is Ralaani,” he said. “I’m an artist, and, um, um, I’ve come to Urithiru to draw, uh, the local architecture…” Sign me up as Ralaanar Ralaani, an artist pretending to be a girl so he won't be judged for drawing instead of going to war.

Ahem. This statement works on the assumption that Arinian is stupid. Obviously, he's not. If Arinian had scanned someone and seen them show up as blocked, he would have reported them as blocked, not confirmed villagers.

That sounds pretty bad, Silverblade. Do you want a hug? I'm really not looking for a partner now. Not much time, don't really want to spend the effort. I have enough on my plate as it is.

Heh, that's good to know. I'll keep that in mind.

Yeah, sorry about that. :/ I've been on a bit of burnout, recently. Doesn't help that I've discovered Worm.

To be fair, teenage boys can also be confusing. Plus, it might not help in a relationship when you want something (ex: to go with someone to prom) and you've been told for a great deal of your life to be passive, be quiet, let the man take the lead, etc. Or maybe they thought it was as obvious as Awakening a sign with glittery letters to wave in your face, when in actuality the sign was waved so vigorously you couldn't read what it said.

Wilson, I don’t think I was gaining that much suspicion until D3. I think it’s inaccurate for you to say that I’ve been “gathering suspicion” by N3. I feel like it’s really weird that Drake chose to Smoke the people he did, but I’d like to point out that he smoked me N3. People started getting suspicious of me D3, which happens after N3. Now, it might be possible that Drake is an elim who wanted to put suspicion on me, but if a villager wanted to Smoke people, N3 I wouldn’t have been that bad of a pick. I don’t think Nyali or Dalinar burned Atium, saw what I was going to type around one to two days into the future, and then told Drake to Smoke me. Though at that point Dalinar still wasn’t dead, so maybe they thought some Seekers might scan me to make sure I wasn’t an elim leading the village on a wild goose chase? I think it’s possible that he’s a villager who got a shiny new power and wanted to use it. Still, I can’t ignore the possibility that Drake is an elim Smoker who sought to create chaos with his Smokes. We’ve had no indications of tremendous amounts of vote manips, and we had someone publicly claim Seeker. In fact, Arinian specifically didn’t say who he would scan in case they got Smoked. He could have Seeked anybody. What sort of villager would run the risk of blocking a Seeker scan when there are no visible benefits from it? Drake. If you could provide reasoning -- it doesn’t have to be long, just a few sentences per person -- on why you chose to Smoke people on the Nights you did, I might consider taking my vote off of you.

Drake, If Arinian had been double-tapped, the writeup would have said something like this: Arinian was attacked but survived! Arinian was attacked! He was a village Seeker! Lopen was double-tapped (obviously, since any village Lurcher with a brain would have wanted to protect themselves. The elims knew that and double-tapped him to override his protection.) His death announcement looked something like that. I can think of several scenarios based off of this: There are no more village Lurchers left. Which could mean that: A. The one who protected Wilson was a village Mistborn. They protected her once, but only they know if they have access to iron since. B. Lopen lied about not protecting Wilson, for some reason. This scenario seems unlikely. C. Lopen did not protect Wilson. An eliminator did. Either they tried to create a Wounded Gazelle Gambit or a Healthy Gazelle Gambit. All this really tells us is that the elims are intelligent, which is an assumption that we should always make. There are village Lurchers left, but they protected someone other than Arinian, or didn't protect anyone at all. And this means: A. The Lurcher(s), for whatever reason, didn't protect anybody. Maybe they were inactive, or had RL issues, or just plain forgot. I think this is possible, but not plausible. B. The Lurcher(s) protected someone else. Maybe they didn't trust Arinian, or they found someone else more important to protect, or they thought it was unlikely that Arinian would be attacked. I think it's telling that Arinian wasn't double-tapped. This probably means that the elims don't have a Coinshot (though they might still have a few more Mistborn. But hopefully we got them all, or they won't get steel.)

When Nicki walked back in through the door, she did it much more cautiously. She didn’t want to step on Rin’s body again. She walked over to the shelf. Hundreds of vials filled the shelves, each containing metal suspended in a little bit of alcohol. Nicki grabbed as many vials as she could hold and then began downing them. Steel, iron, zinc, copper, brass, tin -- she couldn’t tell which was which, and she didn’t care. She could burn all of the toxins out of her system with pewter. Another metal reserve opened up in Nicki. The booklet had been right! She took a deep breath and flared her new metal as hard as she could. The world distorted around Nicki. She winced and closed her eyes. When she looked up, someone was staring at her, and someone was staring at her. She was a woman whose threats of violence barely covered her insecurity. A scar ran down her face, from the bridge of her nose to her cheek. Her father had died the day he had been taken, but she still acted as if the abomination she’d seen at public executions was him. She had no concept of subtlety or persuasion. She burned her pewter even when she didn’t need to, leading to a sort of addiction. This woman lived a lonely life, with only her and the fading memory of her father. She was a woman who lacked the strength to do what needed to be done. Her hands were soft, and though she still practiced defending herself, her body was weak. When her father had been taken, she had stayed to run her House. Even though her father was still alive, she acted as if the Inquisitor flying around Luthadel was a stranger. By necessity, she had learned to cheat and lie and steal and backstab, but she never was the one to deal the final blow. She burned pewter only when necessary, to lend an extra bit of grace, or to stop a fall, or survive an assassination attempt from her enemies. This woman had long stopped caring for her family. Somehow, she was both at the same time. But the other one was weak, a fool. Nicki glared at herself and clenched her fists. By the Lord Ruler, she sickened herself. Meanwhile, she relaxed at the show of aggression and smiled lazily. Nicki punched her other self in the face. She screamed and flew backwards, into a wall. Immediately, she burned pewter and got up. She punched again, but blocked the blow. Really, was violence the best that she could do? Nicki couldn’t see how she had survived at if violence was her solution to everything. No matter how many bones she broke and people she killed, her father was gone. Nothing would bring him back. Denial wouldn’t solve anything. Nicki kicked at her head. Contemptuously, she caught her foot and pulled up, bringing herself to the ground. How had she forgotten that lesson? Her father had told her to never give a skilled enemy an opportunity to catch her legs. She pinned her other self to the ground and began pummelling her head. Nicki have to give herself credit -- she was better than the Erikell assassin. Still, a Noblewoman never went unprepared. She brought her hands to her face to block the blows, but some still landed anyways. Pewter dulled the pain. The vision ended as abruptly as it started. Her other self faded. Gasping, Nicki collapsed onto the floor. By the Lord Ruler, what --- how -- what metal was that? She didn’t remember all of the allomantic metals, just the useful ones. She stood up and walked away from the shelf of vials. Whatever metal that had been, she had no interest in burning it again.

I'm not sure what it is, but Drake's posts are giving me a bad gut feeling. Also, Assassin, I don't really see the connection between an elim tunneling on someone and that elim wanting to kill them.

Assassin. He's been quiet, so quiet that the first few days I was doing notes I thought he wasn't even playing. At least Headshot was active during that time.

I'm not very sure about Herowannabe. On one hand, he strongly advocated for Dalinar's death. On the other hand, the first day he advocated for it, Dalinar had pewter. It could have been an attempt to waste the village's time, since Dalinar wouldn't die regardless of how the village voted. Additionally, D4 and D5 he voted for the person with the msot votes who was not Nyali. I'm pretty sure Arinian is a villager. D1, he voted on Nyali for bad reasoning, and Dalinar in turn jumped onto him and Lopen. If I remember right, Arinian was the first person to vote on Nyali. I don't think an elim would try to undermine another elim's reasoning like that outside of a bandwagon. (Obviously, this isn't a set rule. I know that there's at least one game where Nyali and her elim teammates jumped on each other the moment one came under the tiniest amount of suspicion.) The way Arinian claimed makes me trust him. I think he's more likely to be a villager than not. Headshot gives me a bad gut read, but I'm not sure how much of that is eliminator-ness and how much of that is newness. D3, Headshot voted on Lopen. I think this might have been a last-ditch attempt at saving Dalinar. It was also kind of successful -- Lopen got five votes on him. That's a lot of votes, if you don't compare it to the eleven that Dalinar got. Additionally, his posts sounded extremely forced D1. For example: It's possible that could be first-timer awkwardness. Most first-timers seem to have a really hard time finding things to say. D1, Joe, Wonko, and Dalinar voted on Headshot and then retracted. (Joe then put his vote on Dalinar, so I'm not as suspicious of him.) It's obvious why Dalinar would vote on Ecth, so I won't bother with analyzing that. If, if Arinian is really a seeker, Wonko should be a villager. If Arinian is telling the truth, then I don't think that was an attempt to save an elim Dalinar. Also, reading back through D1, I found this from Lopen: Worth looking at D1 again for? Len voted on Conq D1 and Lopen D3. Can someone please mention Silverblade, Droughtbringer, Stink, and everybody else who has been quiet recently? Mentions are still broken for me.

Can anybody tell me who said that it seemed like counter-bandwagons seemed to form on Nyali whenever she was up for the lynch? Even better, could someone post a link to that please?