Mat

After his narrow escape with the backpack, Mat finally was able to find a tree. It was a nice tree, tall and sturdy. Climbable. Soon, Mat was up in its branches, looking across the arena. He could see more than he thought he'd be able to, actually; the leaves weren't very thick. That made him nervous. What if someone else in a tree looked across and saw him? If they crept to the base of his tree, there wasn't anything Mat could do. He wouldn't survive that, even if he did have the high ground. Reluctantly, Mat lessened the worth he had given to the tree strategy. Theoretically it was good, but in practice not so much. On the ground, he was more hidden and could escape easier. Both of those things became doubly important now that the sun was going down. Mat looked up at the sky, appropriately bleeding a red sunset. Was the sky even real, or was it a hologram put on by the Capitol to mimic Day/Night cycles? Mat hoped it was the real sky. That way he could look up and know that his family was looking at the same sky. He sighed. Best not to dwell on them, for now. Mat moved quietly, looking for somewhere to camp for the night. He wasn't quite sure what he was looking for, but he figured he'd know when he saw it. Mat heard a branch snap, and spun in a circle. Was that me? Mat didn't know, and that frightened him. Probably just me. A form off in the bushes shifted, and something gleamed in the dim light. Mat jumped, barely keeping his composure. There was a girl, right there, and she had a sword. Thinking quickly, Mat spoke, trying to sound more relaxed than he felt. "I see you there," he started. Was that weird to say? Was it better to run? He thought he was pretty fast, but had no desire to test that theory. "How bout we truce for the night, and go our separate ways?" It was a lame offer. Mat had no weapons, and had a nice backpack of supplies. If this girl was even a little bit bloodthirsty, Mat was done for. The good news was that he was decently sure she was from District 12, and that made him think this had a good chance of working.

Welcome! Happy to have you here

I mean, to me a ‘perfect Windrunner’ doesn’t struggle progressing with the Windrunner oaths— I also feel like, generally, splintered Shards will stay splintered. That tracks to me from a magic mechanic standpoint and a narrative standpoint, but I wouldn’t have guessed Rayse would be only a 2 book villain either :P.

Blinking at the sight- was that girl holding a sword?- Mat fought the urge to flee. One of his favorite tricks back during mentorship was how to judge posture and body language, and how to use that to your advantage, and he guessed by the equally surprised faces before him that they all had stumbled here by chance. Initially that thought seemed unlikely, but Mat reasoned that when running away from certain death at the cornucopia most tributes probably went about the same direction without realizing it. The second thing Mat noticed was the scattered camp. Not much was here, just an open backpack and the sword that the surprised girl was holding, one Mat guessed wasn't hers. Or it was now. Minutes ago it likely was at the cornucopia. Supplies. I need those. Mat recklessly inched forward, towards the pack. "I'M ARMED," the girl yelled. Mat raised his hands in the air, to show innocence, before snatching the pack and rushing back into the forest, heart threatening to burst out of his chest. Why had he done that? Rule One: Trust No One. Trust gets you killed. If I had tried that on day four, it might not have gone so well. At least he had supplies. Strangely, the theft didn't bother him. The last weeks had changed his nature. There was something about impending doom that did that to a person. Too bad he hadn't gotten there in time to take the sword as well. Thinking of that reminded him of Vapor's, and he briefly wondered how she was holding up. The thought faded quickly. Trust no one.

Mat's hesitation at the cornucopia didn't last long. I know I'm supposed to grab something, but I also know I'm supposed to survive. There wasn't anything within arms reach, and he didn't feel like risking his life for a sword when his preferred strategy was to hide in a tree. Maybe he could borrow Vapor's sword, though he doubted there would be a moment where giving up defense would be worth it, even for a member of your own District. So Mat ran. Again. He'd probably be doing a lot of that over the next few days. If he lived that long. Mat tore into the jungle, not really caring where he ended up. Just as long as it was away. Far away, somewhere he could find a tree. A fruit tree, where he could hide out the first little while. As he ran, he fleetingly considered being more careful- this was the Hunger Games. Even though he had been mentored over the last weeks, it didn't feel useful. What was he supposed to do? Something about watching for tracks, and being careful not to run into- Mat broke out into a clearing, and found he was not alone. @Szeth's Facepalm @#1 Taln Fan @Mystic Syn

I like how these two rules cancel each other out Questions: What, specifically, is the elim wincon? Former Detective = Delayed Coinshot? How exactly does Politician work, I thought I understood but the clarification confused me xD Is it a Rioter, but a passive one that doubles your own vote if no action is submitted? I assume Hired Thug is a Day action? Skyeel Enthusiast is separate from the even night skyeel attacks, correct? What can happen on N0? Also, more a suggestion: Maybe post the 'Night Thread' onto the end of the Day turn, just to not make an overabundance of threads, if you know what I mean- So like you can say 'Time' at the end of D1 but then just post N1 on the same thread, since no one needs a new thread to talk in, if that makes sense. Maybe this isn't a big deal, idk Oh, I'm signing up as well

You can always type out ;ph34r;. Most of the time I do anyway :P. I like the changes, thank you!

I’ve shaken Elder Bednar’s hand. He has a good handshake.

That sound. Mat had been warned about that, but it still startled him. That means go. The most dangerous part was now, survive now and you had a good chance... A better chance, at least. Every second alive improved the chance of winning. Mat ran forward, knowing he had to grab something. He'd had a shortlist of items that he thought would be the best to have, but in the terror of the moment he had completely forgotten what those were. He'd take anything. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Vapor grab a sword. Good. She was from his District, and while he figured they had an alliance he honestly wasn't sure. The Hunger Games were known to split allegiances, despite the 'purpose' the Capitol perpetrated. Everyone knew it wasn't about bringing the Districts together, it was about intimidation. To drive the point home, he witnessed the first death. District Seven killing District Seven. He hadn't known either of the tributes very well, but the sight was awful to see. That couldn't be the only death, surely. Mat looked around frantically, but somehow couldn't seem to find anything worth grabbing. Why am I here? I should be running. Far away. I should run far away. Hide. Hiding means winning. But what had his mentor taught? Get something at the cornucopia. So Mat waited.

Mat waited.

Actually, with your vote the VC would have still been in my favor: Mat (2): Bort, Tani Bort (3): Mat, JNV, Thaid To be fair, about half of my interaction with Thaid was already in a PM :P.

I shouldn’t have survived that. I dunno how I did. I was expecting my fast typing to blow up in my face C2 and had zero expectations of survival on C3 :P. But sometimes you get a surprise. @JNV, hopefully the next time someone uses many many paragraphs to explain away Occam’s Razor you’ll be able to poke the holes in the case The simplest answer is often the right one, and I trust that I won’t be able to ever do this again If you’d like a position among the Dakhor, I’m sure we could conjure some sort of Cognitive resurrection and you could act as an Elantrian Shade. We’d love to have you in our numbers. Special congrats to Tani for being the most skeptical C2 and then being absent during C3 and of course to Exp for, uh, blocking the elim kill. We did get pretty lucky in offing the scanner C1 and the bodyguard targeted me every cycle, so… :P. Anyway, thanks to @The Unknown Novel and @Devotary of Spontaneity for running the game! TUN, can you stick the doc links in the OP? Edit: I see that they are there now, thanks Edit: Wait a second @Thaidakar the Ghostblood

Nae wept. She wept because she knew what she had done. Her brother… “Merciful Domi…” she whispered. Funny how she still prayed by Domi’s name, after all this time. All this time. It hadn’t been that long. Just a few weeks. Nae hadn’t been able to take her brother’s death, and that was before she discovered the Dakhor were behind it. The realization had been too much. Nae immediately had stormed into their territory, crazed, bent on revenge. Of course, the monks were only amused. Instead of killing her… Nae looked at the broken form of that sweet blind man, and the corpse next to it that she had just... Asri. Poor, kind, gentle, trusting Asri. Nae wept. But Nae did as she was told. Long enough. It had been long enough. And to think the Dakhor had given her the powers of protection. Drying her tears, Nae stood. As she walked towards the gates of the dying city, her remorse for her own actions faded. Elantris would fall. In Nae’s broken mind, that knowledge provided an iota of comfort. Elantris was where her brother had died. A Dakhor Monk emerged from the gates. Perhaps Elantris was where Nae had died as well.

I can’t do that, can I :P.

Why weren’t you planning on voting? It’s lylo.

So Is this a bad time to mention that I have another secret? :P. I mean there’s always another secret but that's beside the point— I’ll just say it. I’m not a RBer, but I am a liar. I had good reasons. Or okay ones. And ones that didn’t pan out, because Exp was village, but they’re definitely explainable ones. And hopefully understandable ones. Put yourself in my shoes, for a moment. The shoes of an Elantrian of Wisdom, who targeted Archer C1 and got back the result ‘unsuccessful because the target wasn’t attacked’. The shoes of someone who was accused of being RBd. To me, it looked very much like Exp was lying, because I knew I hadn’t submitted the kill. I probably shouldn’t have retaliated so fast, but I had been spooked by the lack of kill and Exp doing exactly what I had predicted the elims would do both happening within the first hours of the cycle. Why add in the lie that I’m a RBer, then? I needed credibility. To my misguided eyes, Exp was elim, and he had struck first. I knew that if I just went with the ‘no u’ I would be exed, and that would likely be it with the game’s lylo being so soon. So in a moment of desperation, I lied and said I too was a RBer. By the time the cycle had picked up steam, it was too late to take it back. The beginning of last cycle was too many quick decisions made with far not enough thought behind them, and I regret that, but it just makes my survival today even more important. It is lylo. My exe here gives the game to the elims. The elims. Who are the elims, then, if there was no RB? It’s simple. Bort and Thaid are virtually the only options, for being inactive C1. In truth, I’ve had this figured out since I saw Exp’s flip, but I wanted to see everyone’s reactions before posting this. (Tani hasn’t posted yet but everyone else has and I’d rather get this out sooner rather than later). To me, Bort’s posting reads like an elim who is trying to appear like they’re solving without realizing that his optimal move is just to vote me, which is kind of funny. You can see how quickly Thaid voted me as well. JNV at least considered, which is villagery. I actually told this all to JNV last night in PMs, and they understood that I only could know the specificity of the Bodyguard fail result if I truly was a Bodyguard. I got the result twice, when I targeted Archer C1 and Tani C2, for… some reason >> I’ll try to aim better today :P. Anyway, Bort or Thaid should be today’s exe, and the other should be tomorrow’s. It’s too bad Exp had to die for this, but at least we have it now.

Just successful, why? I'd be careful clearing anyone at this point if I were you :P.

No worries, take care of yourself. You might end up more confused if you look at the old cycles, like I am But you should anyway. I don’t want to try to figure out what happened with Exp. There might be a logical explanation, there might not. Bort/Thaid as a team option instinctively is the only thing that makes sense, but there’s the irregular roleblock rules in the way of that. I think there’s still room for Exp to have misinterpreted them— I did. And still do. So that’s on the table for me. Alternatively, assuming some other explanation or no explanation, JNV works for me as well because I don’t know why they were so willing to trust me so easily based off my PM. At the time I was glad to have someone to back me up, but thinking about it after the fact and going back to it now makes me realize that they really shouldn’t have bought it so easy. So I can see JNV following that trail knowing they’d get two misexes out of it. The only problem with that explanation is the glaring hole of why there was a conflict in the first place. I don’t have an answer for that. I wish I did, truly, but I don’t. Tani, Thaid, JNV, Bort, exe me if you will, I more than understand that, but before you snap vote and leave for the rest of the turn can you answer me this: When not me, who? Humor me for a minute... say I flip village. No matter how sure you think you are, answer that one question, consider that something crazy went wrong last turn. Again I totally get it if I’m the exe today but can you at least do that to prepare you for tomorrow?

>> Excuse me while I go wrap my head around what the heck that means

See his post: Which looks a heck of a lot like 'assuming I submitted the kill' to me. And in fact, I was the person to first bring up the possibility of us blocking each other, not Exp. So if anything, your reasons are flopped completely.

You... realize that the 'evidence' you propose only applies if the common view is that we RB'd each other, right? My point is that we didn't, and that you submitted the kill. The entire debate is that one of us is lying, not whether we're both telling the truth. All this does, for everyone else, is prove that one of us is lying, and that it's not Bort/Thaid, but you're framing it as proof of your innocence. Which it's not, because I did block you and it was successful. If I wanted I could c/p your post and switch our names around and it'd mean the same thing.

K thanks I mean I would think that ownership extends at least a hundred feet downward but I’ll take a castle Mhm :P.

I mean, those are the only things we can be xD e!JNV in this situation is less likely, sure, but voting Exp the way they did would give them a lot of credit (and indeed does). Technically the only vote that matters is the final one and we can’t know the final one until rollover. But really, idk the mind of elims, haven’t been one since May 2021 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (Disregarding any ongoing animal themed games in which I may or may not be playing, of course) It might be your tunnel but it’s my dirt you’re digging into :P.