Ashbringer

I think there was something with @MacThorstenson's character warding them off because Ronald was aligned with them? That's the conundrum my character's are having (mainly Cassie) - right now I'm just going with they're seeing more of the physical effects of people's memories coming back and reshaping/breaking reality, but the seeing of those effects are drawing the creatures. ... as for more, give me a second to finish this post

Is that just where players refuse to acknowledge that time progresses at a different rate for their characters?

Signing up as Faleast, who has also only been in the WoT world once which went... interestingly. He's quite confused.

That could work. Did we ever figure out if Sanax is immune to Byron's bubble? Last I remember he would be (same as NullBlade, so they'd move at real time speed while everything else moves slow), which would let him wake up "faster" and also definitely catch Byron's attention.

The people are right on the edge of his bubble, so Vivica could probably roll right out of it if she felt so inclinced. ... should the earthquake stop once Sudiov's power fixes the rift Cassie's seeing, or is that going to be an ongoing thing now? Or whichever way causes the most chaos?

Byron's intentionally limiting the time-change as much as he can (which is actually a lot - I think 9/10ths real speed is his max). So it might be a noticeable difference but it shouldn't cause everything to fall apart immediately. Although if they do end up having things collapsing, Byron will probably increase it to make sure they've got some time before they all hit the ground. ... Byron's a bit strong, I might try and get him re-point-calced this era

@ZincAboutIt - I'm not entirely sure what Vivicia would see in Byron, besides maybe his sight of the dark snake monsters, slight Forgery tampering, or the fact he's much much older than he looks. I'm also not so sure what level Vivica actually has insight into that, but those two interacting should be fun regardless Also how close is Vivicia to the records room where Aln and Ronald are? I missed if it was right there or a bit more distant.

"Are you alright? If you're afraid of needles then try to look away from it, it will help a bit." "Stop," was the first thing Cassie said, directed at the nurse. They hesitated, needle still clenched tightly in a shaking hand. It would have to do. She was clenching the chair tightly, too. "Are you seeing something we don't, Cassandra?" NullBlade called out. "If you can't see it, then yes," she replied, trying to keep her voice calm. "There's a... the wall, to the left, there's a... gap in it. Like someone started redecorating in a random way. Except it's growing. Shifting. Like a..." Void. Cassandra Adama did not know much about the history of the Alleyverse, but she knew it was built on blood and darkness. And that is what she saw. Maybe she was just looking at a dimly lit surgery room. Maybe it was something much more horrifying, something her half-alloyed brain was looking to justify away. But it couldn't explain the rift, the hole in reality. Cassie knew there was an obvious explanation - that her half-alloyed brain had gone completely bonkers - but that seemed... unlikely. It had been too fast. And she'd felt crazy before. This felt... calculating. Stubborn. Rigid. Rusts, maybe her brain was going. Just not the way she thought. But that wasn't important. "Like a void to a place that looks different than here. I don't know what it could be. I haven't experienced any hallucinations before, and as far as I can tell it seems... like it's real. Is this a symptom, is this..." The nurse suddenly gave a soft cough, and Cassie wrenched her eyes to see a black line detach from the ceiling and fall on the nurse like some eldritch snake. "Rusts!" she said, standing up but unsure of herself. "Can you see-" Then the whole building started to shake. A thermometer rolled on the counter, transforming into a wicked probe as it crossed the threshold of the rift. But the rift was closing, now. Still there, just shrinking. At the same time, more lines of darkness were springing from the door, the walls, everywhere. They were coming for... the rift? The nurse? Her? Focus Cassie. One problem at a time. Byron chased the three worms of ink until they eventually stopped. Then suddenly they split up, two heading back and one... burrowing into the wall? That was weird. This whole thing was weird. No. They were definitely headed this way, they'd gone around three turns together, where were they- The building shook. Byron stumbled forward, watching as doors crashed shut and bulletins fell off of the walls. He took a step, but another tremor throbbed and his knee gave out almost immediately. Okay, that's not working whatsoever. He reached a shivering hand into his coat and uncorked a vial of cadmium. Just a vial, for now. No need to spend the whole day in a bubble just yet, just needed some... he gulped down the metal. Calm. Byron burned cadmium. Just a little, but enough to notice the things on the walls falling slightly slower, the tremors having that wobble his legs instinctually countered, the slight shimmer of the edge of the bubble his eyes instinctually filtered out. His stride immediately shifted to a near run - still a little off balance from the earthquake itself, but much faster than his previous walk even after calculating the time difference. Cognitive Ward. Records Room. Where were these things going? There. A doctor, maybe another, maybe a patient. The patient was on the floor, but she didn't seem to be attacking anyone. She didn't... he wracked his brain. It was an impulse, that maybe this was the right path. It was the first group of people he'd seen since those snake things. The tremor shook harder. A crack appeared in part of the wall. There wasn't any time. His ability demanded it. So he just poked his head in, expanding his time bubble to encompass the group. "Um. Does anyone know what's going on? There's... weird things happening." @ZincAboutIt @Fatebreaker

I think this is just something that needs talking about, how to deal with burnt-out or overstressed players. I'd normally just say bluetext it, but it's not that simple, because if the stress is caused or aggravated by being Elim or Neutral (or Villager - but mostly those two), then it makes it hard to blue-text because it's hard to judge if you'd really react that way as the other alignment. Bluetext works nicely if you're going to be completely inactive, like going out of internet service, but a lot less so if you just can't find the will to post. At the same time, I don't think we can say just never lie about personal issues, because 1) some things just don't need to be / shouldn't be explained more than 'I'm going through something stressful', and 2) a full ban on lying about stress or inactivity can lead to a lot of questions if you were to, say, completely miss the fact that someone posted the same idea you had two posts above you, which IMO shouldn't be something that can be verified, and there's a lot of instances I can see it turning into overpressuring people for the truth... and 3) I guess it's a pressure to come up with a reason, when sometimes there isn't a reason that can easily be put into words. Maybe that's category 1. Idk. Part of it's definitely an equivalence issue or just... not wanting people to have details. Or maybe that's just me trying desperately to draw a Dingo parallel when that's sort of an opposite issue. So maybe a better step is to just start / start 'normalizing' posts saying "I need a break, my parting thoughts are X, make whatever judgement you think is best from my prior posts" and have trust that people will actually do that, and not refuse to exe (or decide to exe) someone who needs a mental break because of that break. Because pretending we're not going through things is Not Good. That being said, @Lotus, @Araris Valerian, thank you so much for running this game! I feel bad that I wasn't able to get into the Bachelor RP mindset, but it was a really interesting concept with a nice game gimmick that I definitely have no outside attachment to. And from what I've picked up you both did an excellent job with all of this. So thank you.

A brief summary of the game for me, courtesy of my appearance in the dead doc: I'm still not entirely sure why I went Dingo there (usually that's an Elim response or a pressure response, both of which... weren't really present this game, just a lack of time). But it was fun! Also I think the Aftermath double-posted, maybe

Ash, having outside knowledge, Cannonized it. With a Cannon.

... that may take a while.

In world or irl? IRL it's been about 2 years. In world... significantly less. Maybe a month or so.

Wait forget about Tyrian, Faleast and AraRaash are my real power character(s) Although they actually somewhat earned things. One of these days I'll make an Alleyverse sheet for those two and then never use them because they've got way too many things

Pretty sure that's what draws most people in... the spikes make them stay. That and early characters are all power, later characters are mostly personality. Looks sheepishly at Tyrian

Er... @Thaidakar the Ghostblood, @MacThorstenson, did you two finish polishing Darien?

Of course not! It's a valid method of ambitious assassination wrapped up in a tantalizing form of delivery. ... I forget what was more chaotic, the 1st Oath Radiants or the random waffle machines.

Maybe the Stranger needs to find a bunch of Cryptics... then we can have Alley Forgery Season 2.

I'm... I'll pass. I'm overwhelmed enough by 70 posts a turn, 700 would break something. Plus there's a 50/50 shot I'll end up just doing RP and make people very confused.

It is certainly a fun progression. Hmm... @Rushu42, is Aln wearing a Lightweaved face or just the doctor's coat? I'm trying to figure out where the shadow monsters Byron's following should go, and that's essentially either Aln and Ronald, Folorian, or Cassie and NullBlade. And I'd rather not have Cassie and Byron meet just yet (and two characters in the same scene is confusing). I could also have him run into Sanax, but I need to get him involved with another character somehow instead of just running around. Edit: Or Vivicia. That would be interesting.

Too many question marks, and one floating in the abyss. Maybe still, idk where TUN is. I’m curious as to what’s changed between the last three cycles and now that people are voting me again for C1, but I can’t even really tell if that’s true. Presently? Every time I look at Archer I get mentally dragged to try and figure out what Striker was planning. But I think Archer was V. Striker pushed them quite hard C1.

We don’t have anything remotely resembling a consensus. We’ve got half an hour to make one.

I didn't want E!Kas to win without any suspicion whatsoever, mainly. But he's also right. Nothing he could do about Orlok and Orlok fits my idea of the Elim team - inactive to some degree, inactive in the exes, but also finding a benefit from bussing Striker early. Also they've only got one post in on potential exelo, and I suspect them mildly more than TUN and more than Archer.

... okay. I'm voting Orlok. But I don't have the info or mental energy to do more organizing. Doesn't seem like most of us do. But if today is exelo, we need to all be on the same page. And we are most definitely not. ... this is going to make a new page, isn't it. Edit: Nope! Could have avoided a pun. Now it's just awkward.