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Rushu42
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Posts posted by Rushu42
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Yes! I've been wrapping Forgery stuff in the Era 5 threads, but timelines are weird right now - I can put something here, too. Or you can have your character approach Aln in the Vigil thread! She's going to be there anyway; it could be a natural way to be introduced.
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~Aln, the Alleycity~
Aln's memories were slipping away, like water through a sieve. Like the rain that had begun to fall on the Alleycity, dark clouds now obscuring the previously clear sky. She'd wanted this. She'd risked her life for this. But now that it was here, now that the Forgery was really breaking, Aln felt a deep, sudden grief. Years of dinners with her brother and his fiance, watching him proudly display his mostly-functional new fabrials, of staying up into the early hours of the morning with Folorian, mugs of tea cooling at their elbows as they laughed at what passed for statistical analysis in the latest oculatory research papers from the Free Kingdoms, of watching her fledgling guild build itself into a real community, were fading, replaced with... what? A mostly finished thesis and an emptiness in her soul?
How broken I am, she realized with a building desperation. How long as it been since I've called someone a friend? Since my university advisor? My brother? My long-lost sister returned from the dead, and all I could feel was panic. For how long have I been ignoring my own loneliness?
She knew the answer to that question. Suddenly she was on her feet, in the rain, running as fast as she could back toward the Alleyverse Post. Energy crackled in the air around her, filling her with storm and power. At each step, the world around her was different. Buildings were shifting places, roads were rerouting themselves, and she even saw a young man simply blink out of existence - but she hardly paid any attention. She had a horrible fear that if she were too slow, she would forget the Forgery entirely, and would let herself fall back into her still little world. She would let Folorian drift away.
The Alleyverse Post building was still there, stubbornly unchanged. At least, she thought it was unchanged. Had the font been different before? It was like trying to remember the details of a dream. She knew she didn't have much time before that life was gone. She yanked open the door and burst in, eyes searching immediately for Folorian - her best friend, a stranger - but she stopped. In the middle of the room was a tall, very grey figure. A Lifeless, it looked like.
"Um," was all she had the composure to say.
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~Various NPCs, the Alleycity~
It was a clear, cloudless, windy morning, just the kind that Sevar liked. He found himself whistling as he walked to work, mind running happily through the inventory of his flourishing bakery. It was going to be a good day, he told himself. And he believed it, until he heard someone scream.
There was a crowd gathered on the street corner ahead. He thought there was a newspaper kiosk there - yes, look, people were holding copies of the Alleyverse Post. He could see the man who'd screamed, now - he was sitting on the ground, eyes wide, feeling desperately at his chest. Sevar pushed his way into the crowd. "What's going on? Is there something in the news?"
Instead of answering, the lady next to him just handed him a newspaper. He dug in his pocket for a coin to pay her back, but she shook her head. "They're free today." Her voice was strangely hollow, and Sevar felt a dreadful anticipation building in the pit of his stomach. He didn't want to look at what the woman had given him, and yet he felt, somehow, that he needed to.
The first page was almost blank. The only text was printed, plainly, in the very center of the page. The information in this newspaper is true, but it is also dangerous. This is not a prank or a hoax, no matter how incredible it may seem. Do not read on unless you are prepared for your life to change.
Sevar opened the newspaper, and felt the world fall out from beneath him.
***
Torenat knew that he should be worried about Aln. He hadn't seen his sister in weeks, not since that night at the festival, not since her guild had been attacked, not since the hospital exploded. Why wasn't he out searching the streets, or calling everyone he knew? How could he sit in his home while his sister was missing or dead?
And yet... something about this felt right. Normal. Aln was off someplace dangerous, and he was at home, messing with his fabrials. He had a strange sensation that he had been living in a dream. The city that he knew so well had taken on a fantastical quality in his mind, until he could hardly imagine how he fit into it. His thoughts kept drifting back to Roshar, familiar scenes interspersed with unsettling daydreams of backwards storms and a towering city of stone. Unless the Alleycity was the daydream, and those the reality...
He didn't know. The one certainty that he could cling to, like a leaden anchor in his stomach, was that either way, he was a coward.
~Aln, the remnants of the Scholar's Guild~
Aln stood in front of the wreckage of what had once been her home. Someone, she didn't know who, had put up yellow caution tape, but that hadn't stopped the more enterprising of the city from making off with a decent portion of her belongings. The structure itself didn't seem in danger of collapsing further, though, so she unlocked what was left of the door and let herself inside.
She hadn't told anyone she was coming here; she'd wanted to be alone. Maybe that was risky, with the DA theoretically still looking for her, but she doubted that she was their top priority at this point. The city was waking up now. You could see it in the faces of the people you passed, even feel it in the air, like the pressure drop right before a storm. The world was returning, slowly but violently, to reality.
Pel, she said softly in her mind, Do you think we did the right thing?
"What is 'right', Aln?"
Can't you give me a straight answer for once?
In his way, Pel said nothing for a long moment as he thought. "You acted in a way that you believed was moral. You adhered to the oaths that you made. If you are looking for reassurance or absolution of fault, I know of no authority that can provide that. You made a choice, and we shall see the consequences."
Strangely, his words settled something in her, some conflict that had been warring in her mind since her memories first returned.
"Well," said Aln aloud, "I don't know that this Forgery would have lasted long, even without my interference. The truth has a way of being found out."
And she sat on the broken piece of an armchair in her shredded library, and watched the world change.
Quote@18th Shard I was nearly finished writing this post when you posted yours, so I decided to leave Aln's part in. If you want to roleplay out the scene where Xanas joins, though, I can say that this scene was a day earlier and write another post responding to yours.
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Aln:
SpoilerName: Alanis (Aln) Sheneth
Appearance: Very short for an Alethi, which translates to roughly average height in other places. She has has slightly curly dark brown hair, streaked with a lighter brown. Her eyes are either brown or green. She wears practical clothing with lots of pockets. Her mode of speech is noticeably stilted and oddly accented, though still understandable.
Guild (or intended guild): The Scholar’s Guild
Personality: Aln is generally reserved in social situations, often concealing anxiety. However, she gets very excited when discussing interesting research topics, and will ramble for hours if given the opportunity. She has a strong moral compass, and can be very stubborn when challenged.
Concept: A brilliant scholar who has prioritized her work over anything else in her life, but is slowly coming to understand the value of human relationships and personal happiness.
Motivation (Short & long term goal):
Short term - Aln wants to help the Alleycity establish free trade of information and a scientific community independent of the Dark Alley.
Long term - Aln dreams of creating a complete, unified theory of Investiture that can be used to understand all the worlds connected by the Alleyverse.
Merits:
Minor - she dabbles in fabrial creation, so she has ready access to basic fabrial technology (about comparable to modern smartphones, for example). She also enjoys gardening, and has been using Progression to cultivate a courtyard full of plants from around the Cosmere. She writes and understands (though doesn’t speak) a number of languages from around the Cosmere, including Scadrian, Azish, Arelish, and ASL, and has been trying to develop a way to translate Alethi into sign language.Normal - She’s extremely intelligent, and is an expert scholar who has dedicated her life to the study of Investiture, Realmatics, and the Cosmere.
Major - She’s a third oath Truthwatcher.
Flaws: Aln is deaf. However, she has visited the Nightwatcher, who granted her the boon of being able to visually see speech - like video captions. The bane that was exchanged for this was that all her investiture (including the boon) works increasingly poorly when she’s around people she knows well.
NPCs (Eg. Family and Friends): Aln is close with Folorian (@mathiau), and is generally on good terms with other members of the Scholar’s Guild. She has an older brother, an ardent named Torenat who lives on Roshar, and a younger sister, Temeria (@Sorana) who is somewhere in the Alleycity. She also has two living parents, but she hasn’t spoken to either in over a decade. Her spren is named Pel.
Home Planet: Roshar
Current Residence: The Scholar’s Guild
Backstory:
SpoilerAln was born to a darkeyed family of the second nahn in the Thanadal Princedom. Her father was a merchant, rarely at home, and her mother was obsessed with gaining status. Despite being only half Alethi herself, and darkeyed, her mother adhered strictly to the rules, religion, and social practices of the Alethi lighteyes. Her greatest dream in life was that her children would marry into lighteyed families, and her descendants could eventually be nobility. She believed that Aln’s deafness made that impossible for her, so she largely neglected her second child, leaving Aln to the care of the nearby ardentia, where it was assumed she’d join once she came of age. There, Aln spent her childhood reading dense scholarly texts or playing alone in the garden. Her one point of human connection was her older brother, Torenat, who she loved fiercely. In defiance of Alethi standards of masculinity, he learned to read and write, and the two would sit together and have long written conversations, mixed with their own invented hand signals. They spoke frequently of traveling to see the world together, Torenat’s enthusiasm wearing away at Aln’s trepidation. They didn’t expect that their plans would begin so abruptly.
When Aln was 16 and Torenat 18, their mother caught Torenat reading and writing. Furious and determined to turn him into a ‘proper’ man, she enlisted him in the army. When Aln returned home from the ardentia that day, Torenat was already gone.
The following period of time left Aln more alone than she’d ever been before. Torenat had been helping her learn to speak, but she had very little idea of how to interact outside of the ardentia, and her mother was becoming increasingly difficult to live with. It was in this period of time that she began to attract the attention of a spren, Pel. A few months after Torenat left, Aln swore her first ideal and set out to find him.
They reunited on the Shattered Plains, where Torenat was serving as a lookout. Eager to fulfill their dreams of seeing the world, the pair set out to travel Roshar together, and along the way heard stories of the Nightwatcher. Aln decided to supplicate her for a boon, although Torenat was apprehensive. The Nightwatcher granted Aln the ability to see speech, giving her the ability to at last understand the people around her, but also granted her the bane that her magic would fail around the people that she knew the best.
With Torenat’s period of leave nearly over, they returned to the Shattered Plain. Torenat was reassigned to the front lines, and badly wounded on a plateau assault. Aln found him on the battlefield and tried to heal him, but her bane prevented the magic from working. She managed to get him back to the warcamps to recover, but the process was long and left him permanently unable to walk. It was during this recovery that Aln stumbled upon the Alleyverse, and was astonished to learn how much larger the universe was than she thought. Torenat was still recovering, but he convinced her to leave without him. Aln did, and swore her second ideal in the process (“I will seek knowledge wherever I can find it”).
Aln found the Alleyverse to be a dangerous and frightening place, so she moved through it quickly and on to the rest of the Cosmere. She spent time visiting Scadrial and Sel, but ended up settling in Silverlight to study at the university. She buried herself in her studies, absorbing information in almost every subject, but largely retreated to her customary solitary existence. In breaks between semesters, Aln continued her travels, building a book collection from all across the Cosmere. After three years she graduated and began work on a PhD in the mechanics of Investiture. Her project was overambitious, a theory for unifying models of Investiture from the Cosmere with magics from the Earths, and every time she got close to a finished thesis she’d inevitably end up broadening the scope of her research. Eventually her advisor retired, and Aln was faced with the choice of starting over with a new professor or moving on to something new in her life. At Pel’s advice, she decided she’d had enough of solitary research, and returned to the Alleyverse to begin the Scholar’s Guild.
Details of her life in the Alleyverse can be found in various threads, but important plot points have included her capture by PlasmaCore in Era 3 by a Sleepless, resulting in a very traumatic experience, her brief and contentious reunion with her sister Temeria in Era 4, and her attempts to destroy the WorldForgery in Era 5.
Loose ends (What is unfinished in their life?): She has some unresolved conflicts with her family, especially her sister. She also completed nearly all of a PhD at Silverlight University, but never finished because she kept adding new topics to her thesis until her advisor retired. She still tells herself that she’ll finish it soon.
Links (Eg. Theme song, a spotify playlist, a pinterest mood board): 5, by Sleeping At Last
Acacia:
SpoilerName: Acacia Smedry
Appearance: She's about average height, and would be unremarkable if not for the fact that she makes a point of dressing differently every day, to 'confuse her enemies'.
Guild (or intended guild): The Scholar's Guild, through the Alleyverse Post
Personality: Acacia is far more rational and orderly than most Smedrys, traits which trouble her as being far too much like a Librarian. Because of this, she will occasionally act aggressively reckless and ridiculous just to prove that she deserves her surname. Even with her relative level-headedness, she genuinely enjoys adding chaos and variety in everyday life. She’s habitually mischievous, instinctively playing minor pranks even when there are no Librarians around to thwart.
Concept: Newspaper editor who is trying way too hard to act like a Smedry.
Motivation (Short & long term goal):Short term - Acacia is easily bored and wants to inject a little more chaos into the lives of those around her.
Long term - Acacia's trying to figure out how to use her suddenly influential position for good.
Merits:Minor - She's surprisingly adept at library science. She's a good writer, and knows how to keep a newspaper running, though tries not to show it.
Normal - Her Smedry talent is being underfoot, which often leads to her showing up in inconvenient places at just the right time - convenient for sniffing out secrets. She is also trained in infiltration and general mayhem.
Major - Head editor of the Alleyverse Post.
Flaws: She has a hard time respecting authority, and tends to cause problems for herself. She's also severely claustrophobic.
NPCs (Eg. Family and Friends): Acacia left her whole family back at home in the Free Kingdoms, so her main relationships are now with her colleagues at the Post.
Home Planet: Earth (Alcatraz)
Current Residence: A small apartment near the Alleyverse Post
Backstory:SpoilerAcacia was born in the Free Kingdoms, and was taught the standard Smedry ways. However, she displayed a greater talent for Librarian-related skills than the rest of her family, and was therefore chosen to go undercover in the Hushlands to spy on their operations and to undermine everyday operations. In pursuit of this, she trained to pretend to be a Librarian, and to be able to defend herself in high-stakes situations. As soon as she was old enough, she was sent to the United States.
In the Hushlands, she found a job filling out paperwork for the Librarians, and began to send reports of their plans back to her family. Throughout it all, she endeavored to create as much minor chaos as possible. She prided herself in her ability to create dozens of minor inconveniences without drawing attention to herself. She’d deliberately misfile paperwork, or subtly rearrange furniture. One night she snuck out and switched all the “push” doors to “pull” doors and watched people crash into them all day. After a week, she put them back.
Throughout all this work, however, she began to have doubts. Though she detested how the Librarians lied to their people, she couldn’t help but appreciate some of the efficiency of their systems. Not only this, but she even began to befriend many of her “co-workers”. She began to wonder whether the chaos she spread was really the right way to fight.
To distract herself from this internal conflict, she decided to do something big. On some false pretense, she got herself into the Highbrary, and managed to replace the key to their filing system with a slightly incorrect one. On her way out, though, she was caught, and her cover was blown. She fought her way out and ran. As she was running, she took a shortcut down an Alleyway, and suddenly found herself in an entirely new city. It took her a while to become accustomed to the idea of a Cosmere, but eventually she found a job as the editor of the Alleyverse Post.
Loose ends (What is unfinished in their life?): Acacia is still torn between her loyalty to her family and her secret love of the Librarian way of organizing information. She often worries that she's not Smedry enough.
Links (Eg. Theme song, a spotify playlist, a pinterest mood board): TBD2 -
Guild or Organization Name: The Scholar's Guild
Members (3 minimum): @Rushu42, @mathiau, @NerdyAarakocra, @18th Shard [I'm pinging the people that I've recently been in contact with that are interested in the Guild. We've had other members in the past, and are always looking for more, so please let me know if you want your name on this list! Employees of the Alleyverse Post can decide whether or not to be official guild members as well - let me know.]
Purpose/Mission Statement: The Scholar's Guild is dedicated to free trade of information and the general increase of knowledge.
Description: Though primarily a research organization, the Scholar's Guild is also active in various educational initiative and publications, including the production of the Alleyverse Post, the Alleycity's most widely read newspaper.
How to contact: IC, swing by the Scholar's Guild building or send a message to Aln. OOC, PM @Rushu42 (or another guild member)!
What do you plan to do: After participating in the fall of the Forgery, the Guild is now engaged in efforts to rebuild the city. The Guild has also become committed to the discovery and distribution of information outside of the control of the Dark Alley, and will using the Alleyverse Post for this purpose.
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"Perhaps we can find a way to present it as a choice," Aln said thoughtfully. "We can't fully explain the danger without exposing people to it, but we can place a warning on the first page. If the residents of the Alleycity continue to read the paper despite the warning, then it is their decision to choose truth over safety, rather than ours. It's not truly an informed decision, but it is possibly the best that we can do."
QuoteSince the actual steps of getting the paper printed and distributed would be somewhat tedious to roleplay, may I suggest that we fast forward to a few days later, once the paper is printed and the consequences have begun? I'm not sure if anyone else is planning to interact with the paper, but if they are then we can give them an opportunity to do so. (People can use this as an opportunity to regain memories, for example).
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1 hour ago, mathiau said:
Folorian was standing at the entrance to avoid disrupting Aln's illusion, accompanying his word with lightweavings of the words at her intention he voiced his concerns
"Are we really sure about that plan? We are basically diffusing a major infohazard to the whole city there, whether or not the plan succeed we will be responsible for the death of many innocents, we're bending the first oath very far here."
Of course it wasn't exactly like they had any significantly better alternatives. If they had any idea of a way to stabilise the Forgery things would have been different -at least from his point of view they would be, Alanis would probably not agree with him on that point.
Doubt twisted in Aln's insides like a knife. She had accepted the fact that she and Folorian didn't see eye-to-eye on the Forgery, but the risks to the people of the Alleyverse were very real. "Of course I'm not sure," she said. "I don't pretend to understand the motivations of the Dark Alley; I am simply gambling that their actions will remain consistent with the past. If we get this paper widely distributed, we are placing them in a situation where they have no choice but to be revealed; either by the fall of the Forgery, or by their own attempts to cover it up. In the past, it seems that the DA has preferred that the Alleycity remain largely intact, so I am hoping that they will not respond with widespread violence."
"It's- it's not a decision we have the right to make, truthfully. But I'm not willing to leave the city in this state, unaware of the danger in its midst. Perhaps we can try to find a way to minimize the damage."
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8 minutes ago, Arlin said:
"You want this pumped out 'ASAP' right? Well your in luck then I guess, because it turns out I won't be getting any sleep tonight." Opening the door, Bell's hand stilled on the handle. His face breaking into a self-deprecating smile. "This pich is your memories, your story; and I'm making coffee with brown-suger in it."
"You want in?"
"Coffee would be much appreciated, thanks. And - thank you for trusting me."
Aln turned back to focus on Acacia, who had already begun sketching a mockup of the front page. "You're not bothered by what I'm asking, then?"
Acacia shrugged. "I didn't understand most of what you were talking about, but it sounds like these DA folks are the evil librarians of this world. Sounds like messing with their plans is a no-brainer."
Aln nodded, grateful. Storms, Pel, I really hope we're doing the right thing.
QuoteAre you interested in RPing this out any more, or do we want to skip to the paper being printed?
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17 hours ago, Arlin said:
Bell watched the radiant mist breifly rase off the paper slowly shifting the black grains in his vial pendent to white. He began to reflexively store and tap his breath, calming himself. "Maybe folklore was a bit impersonal. I don't know why but something about letting this run terrifies me. These 'storeis' are what my parents used to scare me to sleep at night, scared themselves to put me in self defence classes."
"I am not going to pretend that I'm arrogant enough to challenge you on this. If the guild leader says she needs this to be the Headline article, I will make it happen. Its just, and I'm sorry if I'm overstepping but I won't be able to sleep if I don't ask. If its true that you that you remember all this," Bell said, holding up the pitch. "can you honestly tell me the past you remember is better than the present we live in now?"
Aln paused, framing her thoughts, as Pel spun slowly beside her. "You are correct. The world that I remember was, in. many ways, a cruel one. The ever-present threat of the Dark Alley led to a city often plagued by fear and violence."
"But," she continued, "these things still exist today. They are simply easier to ignore. Over the past several days, I have twice nearly been killed by denizens of the alleys. Had they succeeded, I have no doubt that I would simply have been written out of the WorldForgery, and you would have continued your life unaware that there ever was such a person as Alanis Sheneth. Is this safety, or merely the illusion of bliss that is afforded by ignorance? I understand that it is often easier to turn a blind eye to the world's horrors, but given a choice between the easy lie and the difficult truth, I will always choose the truth."
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I have a question about the new character sheet that's specific to my character, if any mods could help me out. I would consider Aln's scholarship/intelligence to be her major merit, because that's the skill that her character is built around. But, obviously, 3rd oath Knight Radiant is also a major merit. Her bane does interact with her Radiant powers in a way that makes them less powerful - but I'm not sure if that's enough to downgrade it to a normal merit, since that'll only apply in some scenarios. Do I need to tweak this power balance, or does the fact that these advancements were previously approved mean that I can keep both merits?
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9 hours ago, Arlin said:
“Alright what is it, Did Little-Phantom finally make it back? Does she have anything for-“ Bell popped into the office and immediately stiffened with layered recognition of the woman standing opposite to Acacia’s desk. That coat, caked in gray concrete powder which he now realized was worn by a face he could quickly attach a name to. Scud.
“Alanis Sheneth, people call me Bell I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure of meeting.” Bell shook himself “But clearly not what is important here, lets see what brings our guild leader down to the ground floor.” Bell began thumbing thru the pitch. “Right. Kay, can see why brought me in on this… Wait, is this a Headline! I mean, I’d be fine running this in my column but you’re sure you want a story based on folklore and doctored images as the front page article?…” Bell stoped, and a chill ran past him. There was a familiar cast to Alanis’s eyes a distance yet focus to them. As if what they saw wasn’t what they expected to see anymore. Like his mothers eyes the night after he had last seen this woman.
“Spikes, you really believe this don’t you?”
Aln met his eyes. "I don't just believe it. I remember it."
She pointed at the pictures decorating the papers - great birds of flame circling above a crumbling skyscraper, strangely twisted beasts running through the streets, a figure seen at a great distance hanging in the sky, hand outstretched over the city - and they fuzzed into stormlight for a moment. "These are no 'doctored images'. These are lightwoven recreations of my own memories, memories that every resident of the Alleycity should share. Our collective history was rewritten by beings that treat our lives as their playthings. Somehow I managed to slip through the cracks of their WorldForgery, but the majority of the Alleycity is still under their control. I believe that the 'folklore' you study is the last remnant of our true history bleeding through into the stories we tell."
"I hope that you will be willing to believe me. I understand that this is quite a bold claim to swallow, but I have sworn myself to seek truth - I may be mistaken, but I am not deliberately lying to you. This is perhaps the greatest deception in the history of the world, but this newspaper and these images may have the power to take it down. I only apologize for the risk that this forces you to take."
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1 hour ago, NerdyAarakocra said:
'Murder Camels' are relatively minor. The guild is actually focused on researching Identity. I just really wanted to use the camels as part of my character. I'll change the guild name when I rework my character sheet.
If you want to be focused on research, you're also welcome to join the Scholar's Guild. It might be easier to be a subsection of a larger guild than to try and get other players for something so specific. Up to you, though! New guilds are fun.
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Acacia Smedry was getting tired of her job. It's not that she was bored, not really - there was always plenty of weird news to go around. It's just that that news had been getting a lot less fun. It used to be that the most unsettling reports they got were of flying cats or strange patches of greenery in alleys. But now there was talk of an explosion at the hospital, of strange creatures glimpsed in alleys and sewers, of people vanishing, of an attack at the Scholar's Guild. Heck, on that point, Acacia's boss had apparently vanished. Who knew if she'd even have a job much long-
Acacia's feet fell off her desk. "Al- Ms. Sheneth?"
"Aln is fine," said the guild leader, pushing open the door to Acacia's office and promptly tripping over a poorly placed stool. She seemed physically unharmed, despite the torn and dirtied state of her clothing, and she clutched a sheaf of papers in her hands.
"What happened to you? We're printing a story on the Scholar's Guild attack right now; we thought you were-"
"Cancel it," said Aln. "I have a very important edition for you to run. How quickly can you have this to the press?"
Acacia took the papers and started flipping through them. "The Dark Alley? 'Voidus'? No offense Aln, but did you get hit in the head during that attack?"
"It's not a conspiracy theory," she said. "I have proof - or at least very compelling evidence - that our reality has been altered by a SoulForgery on a grand scale, enacted by a group of incredibly powerful and secretive demigods. I have a way to counteract this Forgery, but it requires the use of this newspaper. Will you help?"
"I- what?"
"Unfortunately," said Aln. "I may have to ask you to just trust me on this. I don't know how much time we have before the beings who attacked the Guild find me again, and it's very important that these images get distributed."
Acacia blinked for a moment, then shrugged. "It's still not weirder than some of what my cousins ask me to do. I'll get my team on it, and we should be able to have this out on the streets in the next day or two."
She stuck her head out of the door and hollered, "Hey Bell, get in here! We need to get these papers formatted for print ASAP!"
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Aln opened the door abrputly, and looked startled to see Folorian standing just outside it. "Oh, Folorian! Excellent, I was just about to come find you."
She had the disheveled look of someone who didn't sleep very much the night before, but her eyes were lit with excitement as she gestured him inside. "I think I've figured out a way to weaken the Forgery. Obviously, there's no precedent for anything so grand-scale as this, but I found some detailed records of what one experiences when an individual SoulForgery doesn't take. Essentially, they become unable to reconcile their present with their remembered past. It's that sense of incongruity that we need to increase."
She stepped to her desk and picked up the files from the hospital. "The most interesting thing that I found in these was an account of a nurse who, when treating a patient with false memories and hallucinations, began to experience the same 'symptoms'. It suggests that being exposed to the memories of others can accelerate the process of breaking free from the forgery. All we need to do is show our memories to as many people as possible, and the Forgery will start breaking down at an exponential rate - theoretically, faster than the DA can suppress. If only we had a way to spread information quickly..."
Then she held up an edition of the Alleyverse Post and grinned. "Oh right, we do!"
QuoteFor the sake of speed, I'm going to go put a post in the Alleyverse Post thread to get that started, but feel free to respond here anyway. Otherwise we can accelerate through the process of creating, printing, and distributing the paper.
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Aln (my character) and Folorian ( @mathiau's)
Spoiler
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5 hours ago, mathiau said:
Rust, I knew this would happenThe posts don't really contradict each other, with Folorian's bane he could easily knock on a door someone is already knocking. Or he could have arrived at Rushu's door right after she let Balance in.
As for the discord RP idea, I'm not sure it's a good idea since Discord's backlog does not make looking at what happened in the past easy (especially if we stay at just one RP channel like we have now) but if you want to try I'll follow.
Btw, in case anyone here didn't have an invite https://discord.gg/zVV7fKAR
QuoteI think we can find ways to make the Discord RP work - I don't think the plan was to stick with one text channel, plus we can use threads. I think there are advantages to both methods. For something that's a larger stakes plot-driven post, I agree that putting it in the forums will make it easier to go back to later. But for things that are more about individual conversations between characters, Discord allows for faster/easier response time (at least for me) and a more fluid way to chat.
I'd rather have these posts be at different times, also? I want to do the Folorian and Aln scene justice, and I don't think it makes much sense to try and do both at once.
I propose trying Discord for the character interactions. If it doesn't work, we can just switch back.
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On 7/11/2022 at 4:05 PM, mathiau said:
A song to give peace to the weary hearts. Somehow this felt fitting at the moment, as if the universe itself was mourning someone and couldn't let go.
"Thanks you again, Balance" Folorian said as he went to Aln's room
"Aln? Are you awake? I have something for you" he said as he knocked on her door
On 7/9/2022 at 1:00 PM, EmulatonStromenkiin said:Balance woke as a small tremor rippled through the city. Most of what he saw was in his Framesight, which he had gotten used to in the mornings. However, the lines were twisting violently in the faint tremor that he had felt. And he felt a ... twisting, like the twist in the lines was trying to bend him, too. He rushed to get dressed, then ran to Aln's room, and knocked on the door. By the time she opened the door, the twisting was like a fire burning through him, making it hard for him to see.
"The Lines ... they BURN!" he managed to rasp out in a strangled voice, then collapsed on the floor in front of her room door.
QuoteWhoops! It's been a bit, hasn't it. These two posts contradict each other, though, so I'm not sure how to respond? @mathiau I think there was discussion of moving some RP to the discord, so if you want we could do our character interactions there and move forward with the plot stuff here.
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53 minutes ago, EmulatonStromenkiin said:
I think I'm good, can't think of anything specific that we might want to do, except: do Aln and Folorian want to tell Balance that they are Radiants?
I assumed that that would come up in the explanations of what's going on. Oh, you'd probably learn something about their special Nightwatcher boons, too. Aln would probably just let him know that she's deaf, but has a way to mitigate it as long as she can see the person she's talking to. (It gets somewhat more complicated with the way that her bane interacts with it, but I don't think she'd get into that with a new acquaintance). @mathiau can decide how much Folorian would share.
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2 hours ago, ZincAboutIt said:
Alright I am probably going to call the Boarding House for the timeskip this evening. I think everyone has wrapped things up but please let me know if you haven’t.
Sounds good to me! I was just about to ask about what scenes we want to do @mathiau @EmulatonStromenkiin
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1 hour ago, mathiau said:
I was waiting for Aln to part with her memories of sound to have Folorian realise he doesn't like it and do the music thing we talked about. But I can do it right after the timeskip if you prefer
We can do it at the end of the timeskip, or we can write it as a scene happening in the middle of the week. The issue with that sort of scene is that it's a lower stakes thing that would happen in a moment of downtime, which is harder to do when everyone's rushing around trying to save the world. I'm absolutely open to writing a few things to be interspersed during their research, though.
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On 5/12/2022 at 10:24 AM, EmulatonStromenkiin said:
Balance did not respond for a moment, but then seemed to draw on an inner strength, and sat up. His hood fell off, revealing for the first time his dark hair and his strange black and gold eyes. "Unless a forgery is stable, something similar to the flux in the wireframes is what I normally sense. The more drastic the forgery, the more evident the flux. From what I have gathered, my sight is somewhere between steelsight lines and cognitive realm viewing, though that is far from a perfect comparison especially given I have never seen either." he paused, and took a deep breath to calm himself.
"You are right, and I thank you for giving me your name, Aln. I will return the favor. The name I go by is Balance the Realizer, though most call me Balance. I am a Truthbound, and so cannot knowingly lie. You saw evidence of my powers earlier, though I do not know how to classify them. May I have my memories back?" he gestured to the medallion that she was still holding.
Aln carefully poured the memories she'd been given back into the coppermind, leaving her only with the lingering feeling of disorientation. It was a strange feeling, she reflected, to only remember her reaction to an event, and not the event itself. A bit like waking up from a dream.
"It's good to meet you, Balance, and I'm pleased to discover that you were telling the truth," she said as she handed him the medallion. "I'll explain to you everything that I know, but it may take some time, and Folorian and I have both had a very long day. If you are not opposed, I would like a night's sleep and a good meal before we begin to tackle this problem."
QuoteI propose we timeskip our characters forward the week. I think Balance would be filled in on what Aln and Folorian have put together about the Forgery and the DA - if you need any ooc explanation of that, Emulaton, let us know. I suggest that the week be spent implementing the plan that Aln proposed, using lightweaving to analyze small differences between her memories of the other world and the one that they observe. We can have them discuss findings when we jump back in, and do any other scenes. (I know you and I were discussing a few between Aln and Folorian, @mathiau, if we want to work any of that into the mid-timeskip interim or something).
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On 5/10/2022 at 11:03 AM, mathiau said:
He gave her a playful smile "That being said it still won't help with my bane, so if you wanted to dump it all back on me it won't work"
Aln smirked back at him. "Well, there goes my plan." She paused to survey the Epic's rented room - it was outfitted simply but comfortably, with a style that reminded her vaguely of a Rosharan stormshelter. It was mostly the lights hanging on the wall - the multicolored lampshades seemed to call back to the spheres that had illuminated her childhood. "We'll need more stormlight," she said, looking back at Folorian. "And this would take time. I don't know if it's the most efficient way to get answers, so if you think we're operating under too much of a deadline, we can seek alternatives. Once we've learned a little bit more about our new companion, perhaps, we can decide."
On 5/10/2022 at 10:17 AM, EmulatonStromenkiin said:Gasping, he opened his eyes and shot to his feet, then dropped the coin to the table between Aln and Folorian. "It is done," he wheezed, and he sank back to the bed with his head in his hands.
Aln hesitated slightly as she picked up the metalmind. She'd accessed copperminds before, mostly in Silverlight libraries, but they were always simply a more efficient way to store easily damaged texts, not recreations of experiences. She wasn't sure entirely what to expect as she closed her eyes and reached out to the cache of memories.
A sudden wash of alien sensation, of seeing the world through the wrong eyes, the wrong height, of an artificial familiarity with a body that she could still feel was not her own - and of sound. An incomprehensible force pushing at the inside of her skull, like a scratching at her brain, her neural pathways struggling to associate that noise with those people talking, assaulting every corner of her perception as she fought to focus instead on the energy signatures and those flashes of other worlds-"
Aln opened her eyes and found that she was leaning on Folorian, knees weak. She quickly pushed herself upright, struggling to reform her thoughts after the wave of disorientation. "That-" she took a breath. "Interesting. It - well, from what I could tell, those energy signals seemed strangely fluid, not what I'd expect from a static Forgery, unless it's somehow being actively maintained. It might not be a Forgery, but rather some related form of reality manipulation - or perhaps it's undergoing constant revision, an continuous effort on the part of the creator to keep it maintained?"
"Regardless, it seems to corroborate your story." She cocked her head. "And it occurs to me that we weren't actually properly introduced. My name is Aln - Alanis Sheneth, for the formal."
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"We can get another room or two for the night," Aln said distractedly, eyes flicking between the people in the conversation. "Sorry, I... I zoned out for a moment there." As she turned back to look at Folorian, her absent-minded frown sharpened, eyes touched with the excitement of discovery. "But I think I have an idea. I'll tell you about it on the way upstairs."
As she made her way out of the room, Aln launched into her explanation. "Folorian, do you remember that paper you showed me a few months ago - the one about subconscious Lightweaving and hypnotherapy? We were excited because of the theoretical implications for the function of Intent, but I wonder if there's a more relevant practical application for this. Normally lightweaving a whole scene with any level of precision requires tremendous focus and clarity of mind, and even then most details will have to be fabricated. A coppermind, obviously, bypasses the issue of faulty recollection, but even then the actual creation of the illusion must be filtered through the potentially faulty perceptions of the Invested. Unless - " she held up a finger - "we can apply the same techniques they used in that study to directly access the subconscious as the memory is being accessed. Theoretically, if the process holds, we could directly translate a stored memory into an image while maintaining even inconsequential details. This is where I think it can be helpful for our investigation. We have access to conflicting sets of memories here, but most of that information is going to be largely irrelevant, a necessary side-effect of rewriting so much history. But if we can analyze those discrepancies in more detail, maybe we could start to see patterns - certain missing buildings, or events that were completely erased. That could give us an insight into what this SoulForgery is actually accomplishing."
She stopped, then, and looked sheepishly back at Balance. Crem, I wasn't supposed to reveal any of that until we knew we could trust him... I really am terrible at subterfuge, aren't I?
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Shardhunt: Another Puzzlehunt by the 17th Shard
in General Discussion
Posted
A few years ago, some members of these forums formed a puzzlehunting team for fellow fans of Brandon Sanderson, dubbing ourselves the 17th Shard in honor of this website. We started doing puzzles, and basically haven't stopped since - we even wrote our own puzzlehunt in 2021, themed around fantasy books - you can find our announcement for that here.
Well, we've grown a lot as a team since then, both in numbers and in skill. Our team isn't just for Sanderfans anymore, and neither are the puzzles that we write, but we still feel a connection to the website that originated our team. So we're returning here to announce our second puzzlehunt, Shardhunt*! You can find our website here: https://shardhunt.com/
Wait, I have questions.
So what is a puzzlehunt, anyway?
A puzzlehunt is an event where people gather in teams to solve a set of puzzles together. A puzzle can take any form, including crossword puzzles, logic puzzles, wordplay, math, and more, but in every puzzle your goal is to extract a string of letters, usually an English word or phrase which is the answer to the puzzle. As a point of reference, picture something somewhat akin to an escape room, but entirely digital, and with harder puzzles. Puzzlehunts also contain metapuzzles, which are puzzles that require the answers of previous puzzles to solve. Each puzzle in a round of the puzzlehunt will feed into a metapuzzle, and solving that metapuzzle completes the round.
Who are you guys, again?
Not all of our writing team have been on the forums, and those of us who are aren't super active anymore, but you may recognize @Rushu42 @MetaTerminal @Exalted @Moonrise and @MiToRo94 among our puzzle authors!
How should I solve this hunt?
We strongly advise forming a team of 8 (or more) people who are going to be active throughout the hunt - puzzles are easier in groups!
How does this hunt compare to the last one that you wrote?
Our last puzzlehunt was a small affair, for about a dozen teams, and aimed primarily at people from this community. This hunt is significantly larger in scope - we predict that we'll have a few hundred teams, from the general puzzlehunting community - and much harder. We have a couple beginner-friendly puzzles in the opening round, but it gets harder as it goes along. It's also longer, with about 30 puzzles in total.
Is this puzzlehunt directly Sanderson-related?
I can't reveal any spoilers about specific puzzle content! However, the story of this hunt does not have any connection to the Cosmere, or other Sanderson books.
I have questions about hunt logistics.
Specific information about the hunt itself can be found on this page of our website: https://shardhunt.com/rules. If you have more questions, feel free to send a message in this thread!
Happy puzzling, everyone!
*Because this hunt is open to a much broader community than our previous Shardhunt, we've decided not to confuse people by calling it Shardhunt 2. Instead, our previous hunt is Shardhunt 0, and this is Shardhunt 1.