Fuchsia Ostrich

[OOC: Hi. Sorry for disappearing. I will likely continue to disappear for a little bit due to a combination of some sudden real life issues and my mind deciding to give out on me. I can't muster up the tonal inclinations required for Koros to be done properly, so you just get me. I feel like I'm lost already, and that's mostly my fault. See apology. Luckily, the game's been fairly terse so far. Let's go page by page D1 Page 1: Mostly RP, poke/joke votes, and frivolity. A fun read, though. Page 2: The only notable thing in my opinion is Elephant spontaneously busting out Smoker advice. Not the advice itself, but the way it's framed. Might just be in my head. Page 3: Falcon frames points in very strict terms without much to back it. Particularly the Tuatara read. Also their "point 4", which seems to be attacking Dragonfly for not moving a poke vote despite the victim not satisfying the conditions for release, particularly when the individual seems tonally at odds with this narrative. Heron frames things oddly. It does feel less evil framing and more 'trying to seem like a good villager' framing. Maybe I have too high of a bar for evil players. Tangent: RIP Dingo, a blasé player with cool RP. I liked talking about glassware with you. Meerkat has a tone that instinctively makes me look twice, but that might just be anonymity at work. Or the use of the word "gosh". Page 4: I did enjoy Albatross 1.0's forthright-ness. I strongly dislike Dragonfly's last-minute vote but struggle to understand why evil would act in such a manner when a low-temperature cycle implies a lack of necessity. N1 Page 1: I'm going to slide past the meta discussion and note the second instance of Elephant giving spontaneous advice. Page 2: See above (excluding the Elephant bit). D2 Page 1: The Tineye messages are 1. a humorous aside about our status as animals and emotional Allomancy, 2. a note of existence, and 3. an interesting philosophical editorial. Page 2: For some reason, my eye is caught by Penguin's lambasting of Shard mobile. Possibly because of the exclamation points. The Heron votes are framed in a very static way considering the singular point. I somewhat agree on the Falcon point in that I cannot comfortably village read them. Page 3: I do not understand Crocodile's point about a Mouse Heron team. And now the time comes to use these limited and likely somewhat erroneous conclusions to vote. I am tentatively shelving Weasel because I cannot imagine a world where Weasel has teammates and they don't tell them to tone it down after the spew of meta discussion. I don't like the Flamingo vote. I can somewhat understand the Rhino vote but do not enjoy it. So the question is whether I think Heron is a player subject to suboptimal and perhaps panicky phrasing. My instincts say no. My instincts say that evil Heron would not couch such a vote in hesitance. This might amount to nothing more than protest, but Falcon. I have to go now. I'll see you on the other side.]

Not many people stayed in Tyrian Falls. Not anymore. About a year ago, the place survived a koloss attack. The same old story, Spiked infiltrate the town, hit more established residents, and lie low while getting the numbers to send invasion forces. But unlike most towns, Tyrian Falls survived. It was a close thing, but they lived. There were floods of migrants after that, seeking a safe place. Same old story. Spiked infiltrators. By the Agency’s count, they’d been within town limits for about half a year. But Koros wasn’t here for the Spiked or the town or the people. He was here for something a bit more personal than all that. Two years ago, his partner left the Agency. It was an amiable enough separation, with a decent severance package and the promise of future contracts. He’d even agreed to visit his partner’s family after they’d settled in. The Agency said he’d get a new partner within a month. He never got that new partner. Turns out, his partner never had a family. They’d been playing the long con, infiltrating the Agency just far enough to control data intake. His partner had been the Agency’s best, known for their ability to reach into a mess of conflicting answers and extract cohesion. They’d been cultivating the facts for years. The Agency was running blind now, with nearly a decade of tainted data to sort through and his partner’s real agency on the horizon. They needed answers. They needed Morrow. Somehow, the Agency had tracked Morrow to Tyrian Falls. Within the last three waves of migration, they said. Semi-established resident. Should be simple. It wasn’t simple. Morrow was a master of disguise and deception. It had served them well in the Agency. It served them well now, when Koros was trying to isolate a vein of gold in a lump of pyrite. They wouldn’t be one of the kids, too tall for that, but beyond that, they could be anyone at all. Still, some things couldn’t be changed so easily. Footsteps, posture, eye color, hands. If he could just get each of them alone, he’d be able to tell. [OOC: If you don’t get a PM from me, let me know.] The file was short. A range of dates, a location, and a warning. They needed Morrow alive. Failure would not be tolerated. Koros had to stifle a laugh. Empty threats from a crumbling organization. They wouldn’t kill him, not when they needed as many eyes as they could to sort through the contaminated data. Sure, they’d be furious if he killed Morrow, but he’d live. He wasn’t planning on killing Morrow, but if needs must… The town wasn’t far. He came with the latest set of travellers, wearing his story like a coat. Labourer, fallen on hard times, looking for somewhere new. An easy narrative. A simple narrative. One that gave him an excuse to be talking to everyone. Asking about job prospects, fishing for information about other residents in the meantime. The place was tense. Cold. People looked at the new residents with harsh eyes and cold shoulders. Half-completed buildings were scattered throughout. Maybe the interrogations would be a little more difficult than anticipated. Oh well. Nothing left for it but to dive on in.

I am not a second kandra. I have three teammates other than myself. Not all of them are kandra. I said I would answer truthfully within reason, silly! That said, Amethyst Scorpion is not currently on my team. My appeal to any coinshots out there is that they aren't real and can't hurt me. (There is no coinshot.) Salmon! Uhhh I wouldn't say I'm very good at RP But for what it's worth I would say experiment! And mostly just keep writing if you can.

"Guys, I can explain! Please!! It's all a setup!!" Cody eyes the other Mistrunners, visibly nervous. This isn't what was supposed to happen. Albatross was supposed to be an escaped experiment, not just some Mistrunner! Why would another Mistrunner demand to know who the source of the intel was? Why would that source of intel lie? Nothing added up. He reaches for his pistols, only to remember that they've been confiscated. He checks his timepiece and-- what do you know? it's openwolf o'clock In an epic and astonishing plot twist, I am the escaped SynthKandra you are looking for. hi There is, unfortunately, no possibility of me not killing and replacing one of you tonight. But we have some time to chat and make nice before that happens. The floor is now open to any questions you may (or may not) have. Within reason, I may even try to answer them honestly.

Well, maybe. You would know I guess!

I think I might know a legitimate technique to make people less likely to convert you, although it is not flawless: posting frequently enough that your time zone isn't very hard to guess. I don't think there is any perfect way to counter conversion.

I thought the sharpshooter would be a guaranteed kill if Scorp was lying, ok? Assuming there's a sharpshooter. But how would the elims know if there wasn't a sharpshooter? I didn't think there was much reason to disbelieve it. Sharpshooter if you are real this is in your hands I think. If Scorp is the role that gives you an extra life than that would be bad and there's probably nothing we can do! Otherwise, it's apparently a 50% chance to keep a kandra pinned down, which, well, that's better than nothing but it depends on you getting the right target.

Well, that's not supposed to happen!! I think this means that my top secret contact is not very nice so I will just reveal that it was Scorpion.

Well we had a pretty long PM conversation, and they said they village read me, but idk other than that! They haven't explained why Albatross. Maybe because they wanted somebody who wouldn't get kandra'd? That's my best guess.

"Well, that's an interesting point! I'm not sure I get it 100%, but I think they were worried Albatross might get away."

"Hello everyone, um. I have an announcement to make!" Cody says over the public comms network. The air is a lot clearer now, since the person responsible for flooding all of the messaging channels bit the dust. "A Mistrunner who will stay anonymous recently contacted me. They're really nice. They had a lot of useful tips about close-quarters combat! But, um, that isn't what the announcement is about." "I think I can set aside Scorpion for now. My SUPER TOP SECRET CONTACT says they know for sure that Albatross is an escaped SynthKandra. Or impersonated by one. Whatever. But they wanted me to tell everyone!!" "Uh. Don't feel like you need to drop whatever your doing or stop discussing things that need discussing, but we should probably keep an eye out for Albatross, okay? Over and out."

Cody sighs. This isn't really what being a Mistrunner was advertised as. There weren't any epic gunfights or thrilling chases so far... Just... Patrolling an empty lab at night, sleeping when you could, putting in the hours. It was important to be one of the ones to bring in the escaped experiments to get paid well or make a name for yourself. And, of course, you can't trust the other Mistrunners, for multiple reasons. "This is mostly the same as yesterday!!" Cody observes. "And, um, hopefully yesterday doesn't repeat itself. Uh. I think Agent Scorp is still spooky." The animal-themed codenames was probably one of the coolest parts of being a Mistrunner.

"Hello Rel!" Cody waves, while surreptitiously examining Rel's shoes for any high-tech and/or mystical properties. "Yeah, a lot of us Mistrunner types are lone wolves," he explains in a hardboiled fashion. "We can't rely on nobody to look out for us. Nobody has our back. Mistrunners like me are just too darn badchull to need that sort of thing. And the more successful you get, well, the more enemies you have. I have lots of enemies, back where I'm from," Cody explains proudly. "A real Mistrunner doesn't need to trust anybody! We live by the strength of our own wit, and, er... Strength." "...anyways... A- Are you saying you're not a professional Mistrunner? Er. What brings you out here on this fine night? You... You know there's a containment breach, right?"

Cody raises a hand to his walkie-talkie. "Hey everyone, Cody here." Honestly, the other Mistrunners were way too terse and businesslike over the public comms channel. It would do some good to be more friendly sometimes. "Just a PSA to stay sharp tonight. If you have some kind of special ability you can do at night time for some reason, then... I think you should probably remember to do it!!" "Thanks. Cody out. Have a good night!" Cody advances through the facility, a handgun drawn in each hand, pointing in every which way with evidently poor trigger discipline. Word has gotten out that there's a full-blown containment breach, and Ruin if that doesn't sound ominous. He shivers. Best find some other Mistrunners to stick around. Even a highly talented Mistrunner such as himself could benefit from having somebody to watch his back. That isn't cowardly. It's only logical. Honestly, the concept of magic cyborg shapeshifting replicant assassins sounds pretty cool. If you ignore the part about them probably trying to kill you. Which is a part that is probably best to ignore. Think about it. Who gets to say they've gone up against something like that and walked out of it? Nobody, that's who. Sounds like a fast-track to becoming one of the greats, like Twei. "What's your opinion on trees?" Cody emits a shriek and spins around, before belatedly raising his weapons to point in the general direction of the other. "Rusts, man, you startled me! And I dunno trees are okay I guess??? They make apples and cherries and oxygen and stuff I mean what's not to like?!" Slowly, he lowers his weapons back down. "I mean... It's fine. I'm fine. Trees? Kind of boring, honestly. Kind of dated. Trees aren't very cyberpunk." "I'm just a bit jumpy is all. It's good to take a job seriously, you know? Of course you know, that's why your sneaking around like that. Right? I wouldn't mind a few pointers in how you move so rusting quietly, if I do say so. It's-- Of course I know how to do something like that already, I'm very good at being a Mistrunner, but I wouldn't mind knowing how you do it, is what I mean. Sharing notes, from one professional Mistrunner to another." "You're... You're you, right?" Cody gives the newcomer a concerned look. "What's your name, anyways?"

Oh, that's a thing. Well, now I feel bad about not voting.

Wait it's night? Why didn't anyone die?

"Oh. Well, hi, Jack." "I'm a Mistrunner. But you know that already. You're clearly a Mistrunner yourself. I'd be happy to trade war stories with you sometime. Ummmm..." "I couldn't help but overhear some of what you were saying earlier, my friend. Er. Are we friends now?" "You had some interesting points." "Everyone does." "It's been... Hard to get much to go off of, if I'm being honest. I'm... Obviously I'm a super experienced Mistrunner, but my comfort zone is usually the epic an thrilling combat jobs, not, so much, the ones that have to involve sleuthing." "Now, I've been keeping my eyes open, of course. I... May have been listening for a while before I walked on in the Electric Sparrow." He looks sheepish. "And first of all, anybody who wants to get eaten by kandra is kinda just insane... Right?" Cody said. "No reasonable Mistrunner would say something like that. And, I kinda don't figure any reasonable infiltrator would either? It's all crazy head games, yeah? I definitely agree that it's not somebody I would trust when crem hits the fan, but mostly... It's just confusing." "Second, I'm.. Not sure what to think about sharing our real names with each other. I know we aren't really supposed to(?) but Weasel is raising some really good points!! What do you think about it?" Cody takes another sip of his drink, and wrinkles his nose. "Scorp and Hyena are giving me the heebie jeebies, a little bit." "Why would Scorp vote to terminate me without even knowing if I was around or not to even terminate? Scorp says Scorp didn't read the mission briefings and didn't understand how kandras can impersonate people, which would imply they are not the kandra, but then why would they post about that out of nowhere? If Scorp really was explained by someone in private how impersonation works, what is the purpose of making a public announcement about it?" "Hyena seems to have sorted themselves in the evil bucket which is more than a little concerning." "Also, my Mistrunner messaging client seems to be experiencing errors," Cody frowns. "There are a lot of empty messages in there and I don't think that's quite right!!" "What do you think??"

Cody strides into the Electric Sparrow in such a way as to impress upon everyone present that he means business. He is decked out in a blue hoodie with the Heron Industries brand on it. The outline of a bulletproof vest and pair of handguns concealed underneath it are painfully obvious. The motorized legs poking out under his cargo pants look new, shiny, and unscuffed as they clink across the floor on his way to the bar. After carefully inspecting the menu at the bar for a while with an expression of deep and profound thought, he settles on ordering what the person immediately before him ordered. He waves at the mistrunners around him cheerfully. "Hey! So I've been listening around... I hear there's a pretty gnarly mistrunner job hitting the streets. Or. Um. Not very gnarly for someone like me, obviously, but gnarly just... In general. You know?" He takes a long sip from his drink with what is very nearly a straight face. "The name's Cody. Cody Eight. You might not have heard of me, but I've done lots of jobs like this one, before. Um. In a different city." "Well, anyways, count me in. I guess. Honestly, this job sounds kinda boring if you catch my drift, I could honestly take it or leave it, but... In this case, I'll take it. But only because I have nothing better to be doing right now." He glances around the room, looking for somebody to strike up a conversation with. "So... What's your name?" @anyone

Good grief, do things usually ping this much?

And here's a meme feat. Akshay Kumar

Players who get voted out D1 in SE - Villagers entering the dead doc and finding out Beagle is elim!Coinshot -

When Penguin slips in the DisTrust PM that we suspect Beagle: Meerkat:

@Emerald Falcon, TJ is very much sad that Illwei's forgotten the 1233 message PM they had in LG74 Elims trying to kill villagers this game :

Hey, I argued that you were v with Kel in PMs initially and always advised against double-coinshotting you

I'm sorry for that annoying last cycle lmao - It was... very amusing to see Kel yelling his head off complaining about me during the last cycle @Violet Axolotl, sorry for paranoia/tunneling on you - I did try the hardest to solve your slot which probably wasn't that hard to solve but we got there in the end We've finally broken the Tyrian Curse guys! :') Also, apologies for @Onyx Flamingo, sorry for tunneling on you too for a while in the middle but then I just was like - no, she's village, not gonna go there I was clocked out of the game for D1-N1 so I'm sorry my vote on @Mauve Crocodile that contributed to getting him killled :/ I probably would have moved if I was active. @Chartreuse Penguin, you make an excellent village schemer and I really enjoyed playing with you! Also, who needed a scan to solve her slot smh, she was very clearly village @Salmon Meerkat, bro as always, a pleasure villaging with you It really was one of the best village games I've played here, and I'm happy to be part of it. Elims, thanks for giving us a good game! @Fifth Scholar, I claim that Shard of Dominion anyway It wasn't easy to reach the conclusion that Coishot might have been evil because Octo double-tap was simple elim screw up @Charcoal Hyena, really intriguing to watch you play, though your casual tidbits [ like claiming Octo kill was supposed to be Ostrich kill] is what lead me to reaching @Elbereth @Fifth Scholar @little wilson, I didn't get a chance to opt out of authentication so I did authenticate this anon account. But I did go account settings and disable it, so you might wanna check out if it's fine. Also, yes thanks for running the game, Fifth's write-ups were really good!