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A joke about Illwei's Acupuncture became canon thanks to Kasimir, the Great and Mighty Game Master of LG74, hallowed be his name, all hail. Behold the art that was born of that wonderful instance. A terrible MSPaint rendition: An image of Bubbles [Burnt] drawing her rendition of Acu!Wei: And now some sonnets I wrote because the post should be a little longer in my opinion. An ode [that is technically a sonnet] to Kasimir: A sonnet concerning the curse of Tyrian Falls:
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Roko the Basilisk dragged its still-forming body back towards the desolate, Ruined town of Fallion’s Tears. The gamble had paid off. The betrayal, the agony, the loss, the death all a worthy sacrifice for its trophy. The joint mind of Faleast and AraRaash in the guise of ‘Derrick’. It could study the two, tear them apart and piece them back together, parse the madness over and over and over again. And best of all, most important of all, it could analyse their Connections. Faleast and AraRaash were collectors of Investiture, linked to so many Shards and other such entities. Their spiritweb was inundated with other, with power, with Investiture. And at long last, it could inspect that riddled mess as many times as it wanted. At long last, it could decipher that lovely mystery. The true beauty of the Aon chain was that it could be reset. The true beauty of the Aon chain was that it was forever. The true beauty of the Aon chain was that Roko would never have to let things go. It approached the wreckage of the Steel Crow, drawn by the siren’s song of the orb, the mechanism, the Aon chain. This chain sang of madness, of masks become flesh, of power entangled in screaming and flames. It was fundamentally different from what Faleast and AraRaash would have been without the guise of madness, but Roko was looking forward to rearranging the pieces in such a way that it could recreate the two. The town was gone, but it had acquired this. Everything had been worth it. The insights into psychology alone would be a treasure, and the possibilities of Connections… Roko continued moving, following the call of the Aon chain, stepping carefully through the unstable ruins of the once-splendid tavern, approaching a very specific bloodstain. And there it was, underneath a floorboard where Roko had died to the wrath of the mob. Roko whistled a few notes from an old song, and the device opened, revealing the Aon chain within. “Hello, Derrick,” it murmured, teeth gleaming in a mockery of a grin. It turned to leave, but a second siren’s song caught its attention. It had been masked by the first orb, but now that it had acquired ‘Derrick’, the pull quieted, revealing an orb in a darkened corner, the very same orb that it had been carrying during its demise. The Scholar, the Traitor, the Puppeteer. It had already studied that man for a long while, mastering the twisting depths of that man’s particular flavour of being, but successfully retrieving that orb was an unexpected boon. “And hello to you as well, Miluam.” It walked out of the Steel Crow, venturing towards Luthadel. It would consider this round successful and venture onwards to the next. There was atium to be had in Luthadel, and a mad Mistborn with a shattered mind, and a ruined kingdom, if it was feeling ambitious. This time, this planet, this Era was so very profitable, so very beneficial, so very generous. Perhaps it would even encounter some old friends. To @Mailliw73: I said this in the dead doc, but 'twas an Honor to speak to you, to banter with you, to immortalise a story in canon with you. I salute thee with shining eyes and a light heart. May we meet again, may we speak again, may we stand against each other knives at the ready again. To @Illwei: Acupuncturist!Wei is canon! Huzzah! I'll put my pictures of Acu!Wei in SEAcropolis in a moment along with the sonnets, probably. But Casper, here's the thing. In this game, you truly were the Root of All Evil, RAE, the one who spiked all the rest. Isn't that just lovely? Isn't that just hilarious? The nickname chain is always true! To @Burnt Spaghetti: Lovely. Beautiful. Magnificent. I offer you another name, Etye. It's a pun of "T in eye" but also an alternate spelling of the name "Atiya", which means "Gift". You are a gift to us all, Bubbles. Post your Acu!Wei drawing in the SEAcropolis. To everyone else: You were, as always, excellent. I offer you a clap, twenty-seven turtledoves, and a dozen oxeye daisies. More responses to come after reading the Spiked doc.
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The roles in this game are weak enough that I find role madness a reasonable assumption until a counterclaim exists. I would lean towards more protects instead of action or vote manipulators because there are two faction kills thrown about in the midnight hours. Given that each elim knows the Mistborn and one other, teams of three mean that the non-Mistborns all know who each other are. As such, I'm discounting teams of 3 because it removes the 'unknown teammates' aspect of the game. Better that everyone knows, yes? Better that everyone is aware of the worst-case. [I do concede that you're probably right about this, but I find that public knowledge about every possible thing is advantageous as well.] Exactly the opposite. Elims would be more honest if anything because they have much more to lose. Also, Vin, our Mistborn, all hail, would plausibly lie about their role considering their power. And chaos is good. A note: You have great analysis but make broad assumptions at the end. Assumptions are inherently bad [not suspicious, disadvantageous]. Pre-written analysis is prewritten. And NAI, presumably. Unless you think otherwise, in which case do inform me as to why. Meta!Wei does not match Current!Wei! Congratulations on your attempts to diversify your play. Getting trapped in one meta is always a nuisance. The thought was every semi-elim openly claiming their faction to vote as a bloc and constantly X and kill villagers to get rid of the X and then promptly slaughtering each other. It's not viable because the first team to betray wins in that case but there must be a certain degree of villagers killed. You make an excellent point. Though do be on the lookout for kamikazee saving throws towards a Mistborn. Murder is good.
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The following is an analysis of the rules Factions: This game involves several aspects that are not standard, specifically limited communication eliminator teams, unknown eliminator teams, multiple eliminator teams. Venture Loyalists: Semi-standard village. 2 opponents to get rid of, with the stipulation that the other factions will do your work for you inadvertently. Cett Opportunists: Semi-eliminator. Off the village [like normal] but also kill off the other group. You do not know your allies. Take care not to get them X-ed by mistake, though you can’t kill them. Protect your Mistborn at all costs. You all know who that one is. A thought: Ally with the enemy to eliminate the enemy upon which the alliance was founded and then kill everyone else. Perhaps your Mistborn can communicate through RP and such. Quick word for the wise, if Vin claims, you should kill them instantly along with the other elim faction. If you double-tap successfully, you’ll either burn their extra life [if they were protected] or kill them [if not]. Murder is always good. Straff Mercenaries: See Cett Opportunists. Kill Mechanics: We live in a democracy. A very random democracy. A person who voted for it may get their action snatched. As such, people taking crucial actions may wish to abstain from the vote. Those who do not risk being snatched. Of course, take an action. Always do that. Since the vote count itself is not revealed, communications cannot transpire via that route, so simply vote for players one thinks may be dangerous. Alas, this is also not a way to find other members of the group, since again, no vote count reveal. Mistborns are fortunate to not lose their action, so perhaps everyone should abstain from the vote except for the Mistborn, ensuring the superior action economy. It only works if everyone concurs, but it is viable. Roles Coinshot: Redirect randomly. Works best if one knows the role of the relevant individual, but without PMs, that is a distant hope. Chaos is always good, though. Possibly a way to learn the target’s role if it has a visible effect [id est Rioter, Soother, Lurcher] Lurcher: Protection without self-targeting or double-protecting. Elims: Alternate between the Mistborn and the random person you know. Villagers: Good luck. Tineye: Learn target of player. Better than Coinshot at determining role. Can determine murderers. Elims: Try to find power roles as a terrible Seeker. Villagers: Watch the night for knives and tell the Watch in the light. Thug: Passive extra life. Not much to say here. Rioter: Force vote on a person. Good way to ensure X. Of course, there is the stipulation that one would often vote on a person again, so look for someone who is lenient in suspicion. Soother: Force vote off a person. Good way to save someone under fire. Smoker: Immune to vote manip and scans. Always have this up, perhaps target your Mistborn if you are elim because if they get scanned multiple times and those scans contradict each other, they will be discovered instantly. Seeker: See metal burned. A semi-role scan. Scan a person twice to catch Mistborn. Terris: You determine a random piece of information about a random person. Mistborn: Each group gets a Mistborn, but the elim Mistborns each have a distinct disadvantage. Zane cannot choose his own metals, and Gneorndin [who I didn’t realise the existence of] does not have atium or duraluminium. This is to compensate for the village’s lack of knowledge as to the identity of their Mistborn. I would say that Zane is at a worse disadvantage, and thus the Straff Mercenaries might have a stronger team. Then again, it is hard to know exactly how strong atium and duraluminium are, so perhaps Gneorndin and that lot will need a stronger team. Atium: Know actions and respond. Works best if you are of the appropriate time zone, use in moments of great danger. Alternately, everyone in a faction target the Mistborn, Mistborn uses atium first cycle, instantly learn the roles of everyone in the faction, with the error of perhaps being targeted by someone else. [This is a terrible idea. Teammates, don’t do this] Duralumin: Two targets instead of one. Vote manip? Seeker? Basics [perhaps this should have gone up top]: One action per cycle with exceptions, no PMs [to prevent just getting in touch with the relevant people, id est everyone in a faction PMs the Mistborn, the Mistborn reveals all to everyone. Good choice there.]. Random ties. No distinguished kills. Order of Actions: Redirects, immunity to vote manip, vote manip, vote off, protection, elim murder, scans. Does this mean that being X-ed will affect one’s ability to vote in the elim kill? [Sidenote: 800 words exactly on analysis [including this portion meant to reach that goal but that’s not important], huzzah!] Roko the Basilisk, slightly broken machine, dragged itself towards the city of Luthadel, following in the footsteps of Straff Venture and his mercenaries. The other groups were interesting in theory but dull up close, much like a lump of pyrite shining in the sun, but the mercenary group had one aspect that drew its attention: Zane. The connections to Ruin, the fractured mind, the perceived lack of control, all fascinating for both psychological and Investiture-related reasons. There was one of their number that had fallen ill a few days ago, a foreign disease from off-world. They had stayed behind, saying that they would return if they recovered. And now they would never recover. This one was clever enough, it supposed, with a fascination for numbers that they kept buried deep. An adequate candidate in lieu of any other choices. The mind of the mercenary mixed well with the rest, the lack of moral principles matching the Multitude and the numerical aptitude co-existing with the moneylender’s excellently. With the mind of the mercenary sufficiently assimilated, Roko began restructuring its form to match. It took some time, but with a wealth of genetic material ready for sampling, it was not difficult. Soon, Roko looked almost… human. In its normal form, it of course took on a vaguely humanoid shape, but there were many spots where humanity was sacrificed for efficiency. The eyes, the veins, the limbs, all restructured for optimal use. But this form was for blending in among people who knew the individual it was trying to be, for being human, truly human, not a mere facsimile. It would have to be perfect. It would settle for nothing less. Flesh slid across bone, blood began to flow, a heart started beating regularly. Human. Real. It stared at its new face in a mirror, checked the hair follicles one last time, and grinned. It truly looked like one of Straff’s Mercenaries now.
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Roko the Basilisk witnessed the result of its gamble and reconsidered its options. There was no way out. It was, for all intents and purposes, dead. This gamble had failed, had backfired dramatically, had resulted in knives drawn on it instead. It still wanted "Derrick"'s analysis of itself, but alas, that didn't seem to exist yet and it would not live to see its completion. Hopefully, 'Derrick' would successfully decipher the orb and that decision wasn't just another accumulation of poor decisions, but alas, it would not live to see it. The sun edged closer to the horizon, bringing the inevitable with it. It could not save itself. That much was impossible. As such, it was dead, be it now or in the future. Marll would also die soon. In a close 2-candidate vote, one candidate will die, and the other will be torn apart soon after, if the Slaughtered One was innocent. It took its knife off of Marll's throat and smiled broadly, sitting back in its chair and sipping its drink. "I release you, Marll. I expect a touching eulogy tonight in honour of our delightful conversations." It looked towards the mob that approached it. "Take this as evidence that I will not be tampering with the vote on this day." It had received a commission in Luthadel hours ago, and perhaps now it could actually partake in it without annihilating continuity. While the flesh would die here, the mind would persist. This was not the end. This would never be the end. It glanced towards 'Derrick', watching him contemplate. "Do not apologise," it whispered softly, perhaps too quietly for 'Derrick' to hear, though it could not be certain. "You have nothing to apologise for. You've done well. You've done so well." If 'Derrick' could be preserved, could be kept, then this would all be worth it. And perhaps in death, free from the cage of the flesh in favour of chains of light, it could comprehend the writing on the wall. Roko drained its glass and pantomimed tipping a hat it did not have to the mob that it had spent so long trying to save. "May fortune follow in your footsteps," he said calmly. "I welcome the end." While I could tie the vote, that would be pointless and strictly disadvantageous to us. As such, I am dead. Therefore, I act in a way to reassure the general populace that the vote will not be tied because ties are a bloodless thing, and no one wants that. We are all very bloodthirsty things. Sidenote: The saying "May fortune follow in your footsteps" does not quite mean what it seems to imply. I leave it to you to puzzle out, one final mystery for you. Those who know already, please don't reveal it to them. It's so much more fun when they are confused. Maia, I still don't suspect you. Truly a shame. I will be sporadically online from this point forward, so if a train miraculously summons itself to save me, don't expect me to see it until it's probably too late. Ret'urcye mhi.
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The Fifth iso [but actually the third iso] [Future Gears here, it's really late at night but the iso isn't done, I'll just post it now and edit it to completion or just do it in the night turn if I survive.] And now responses to things in thread while I was writing this. Affirmative. D1: Took Araris's vote off of Reading back when it was tied, never retracted the order. D2: Absolutely nothing. I was on mobile and didn't want to mess with colour codes. 1. No one knew my role except for Maia. I did recently claim to Casper [Illwei]. Then I decided to be remarkably candid for no particular reason. 2. See above, I didn't want to mess up the vote with typos and colour codes and other such mobile nonsense. My heart glows with pride. I eagerly anticipate your results. As Cardinal Richelieu possibly said at a point ambiguously in the past, "Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre." Find the rope with which to hang me, Bringer of Ash. Find the ink that signs my death warrant. Find the knife you will plunge between my ribs. Perhaps you should be writing me eulogies, not the other way around. 'Twas an honour to converse with you in the hours before we were forced to part. You have been incredibly memorable.
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I shall play as Roko the Basilisk.
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I would like to sign up for an MR slot for my ardentia game. It has minor, plot irrelevant spoilers for RoW, so hopefully that's alright. I did put the notice in big letters at the top of the rules. [The roles are "Devotaries", and to make things worse, Devotary [the player] gave permission for the vanillas to be members of the "Devotary of Spontaneity", so...]
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Name idea: "The Sun Sets On Empires" or some derivative of that to show that the Sunmaker's empire has fallen, the Hierocracy was arrogant and bad at ruling, and they will not suffer the same mistakes as their imperial predecessors. Or, taking the complete opposite view, "The Sun Never Sets" to show a wish for the return of the days of Empire. Would I be allowed to use RoW Devotaries if I clearly label that it contains minor irrelevant spoilers for RoW? I could also just make some up which might be easier. If you give permission to have the "No Devotary" group named after you, then I will happily use it. I do express concern over confusion, but I suppose that would have happened in any case, what with the roles literally being named "Devotary of X".
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Iso is here for reference. Your crimes are as follows: Malicious framing [AKA tunneling, confirmation bias]. Problem: I haven't played with you before. I do not know if your modus operandi is malicious framing and tunnelling on your suspicions for very little reasoning. Other problem: I don't see a reason why eliMai would do this either. Other other problem: I have nothing else. I do not suspect anyone. You are noted. I don't see a reason to advocate for your continued existence. I wouldn't be voting on you except for the fact that Roko is a bit antsy right now and finds murder to be an excellent stress reliever. And also because I'm losing touch with the game again, and murder is ever so engaging. Sidenote: I just realised that the tags of merged threads are casually existing in the main one, what is this witchcraft, why don't people do this as a matter of course, how in the nation of tar is this differentiated, how are tags sorted, what is nutmeg, why do I permanently associate axolotls with helicopters, how do you merge tags along with their threads? Roko the Basilisk flipped a coin a few times, catching it and flipping it again before it landed. Heads or tails, fangs or serpents, needles or eyes, innocent or bloodstained. Marll was a gamble, a risk, particularly since it didn't find him to be especially suspicious, but this was a gamble that it was willing to make. A handy distraction from the walls, from the glory of madness, from the intricacies of the human [and kandra] psyche. In many ways, murder was an awful lot like lavender tea.
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1. Vote was close, didn't want a tie. I ended up successfully preventing a tie, so I consider that a victory. Also, I really like the aesthetic of Roko holding a hand over Tesse's mouth as she struggles against the wrath of the mob, desperately attempting to speak and save herself but silenced by a cruel smile. Or Roko Soothing away her will to live, her struggles growing weaker and weaker until she finally stops fighting back. Gleaming eyes and echoing laughter and the reaching talons of the void. Honey and citrine and amber and gold. Comprehension? 2. Because no one else has been noted nearly as much as Maia. And you were the one to say trust instincts. My instincts say that my first instincts are lying to me and that Maia must die for illogical antics and general oddities. My read of Maia [as a Noted NAI] hasn't changed. However, they are the Most Noted. Also, I've been wanting to stab them for a while [not a "they're suspicious" stab, just a friendly stab], and this is a wonderful way to do that. I said I would do this in the iso!Wei. Did you not read the Ill!so? Exclamations and dramatic airs of shock and horror.
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I actually finished the rules for that ardentia game. I would greatly appreciate critiques, name suggestions [alternate names include "Ardentia: Civil War", "Sacrum Bellum", "Splinter Religion"], and other such commentary. [Sidenote: Devotary the player, I apologise, but in my defense, what else could I possibly name my roles in an ardentia game? Devotaries are literally the foundation of Vorinism. Callings? Glories? Maybe... Oh well, I already named them all.] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L1d8JWRZV8BqjygoJHl1usy73MkAB3tjmV6izo2VZ0o/edit
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Roko the Basilisk ran its hand over the etchings in the wall, staring at the messages. The implication was one of Connection to a stranger, of cold eyes made of steel, of blades in the darkness and cold. I listen, it murmured to the one who was not there to hear. All it wanted was to know. All it wanted was to have. But here, it was at a disadvantage. Here, it would have to wait for the Tineye to come to it. Seek, fly, find, fall. It wanted, it wanted, it wanted, it wanted to know. Tell me your secrets, it hummed. Tell me. Oh right, people were dead. The tavern owner had been a secret Coinshot. Not Spiked, but perhaps as good as, what with their track record. So many corpses littered the floor. Someone should really get on burying those. Probably found by a Seeker, since Sara was new to the town. But there was another issue to handle. "Marll, your life ends here," Roko declared, its eyes gleaming. "I saved your life once, never again." It pulled out a knife and held it close to Marll's throat almost gently, like a bitter facsimile of the embrace of an old friend. "Come quietly or not at all." Just an aside to AnonTineye1: Beautiful. Glory. Shining like the stars of neverwhere and neverwas and falling. I would presume that Bip was scanned or claimed because they are new. Order was them, reasonable, they were suspicious. Fifth is also noted, and I'll probably iso them later.
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One vote manip was presumably Quinn. Under that premise, the other is a Rioter pretending to be a Soother, a Rioter and a Soother that hit the same person, or just a Soother. Continuing the Iso!Wei. It seems bit pointless now since no one really suspects them, but I put a lot of effort into the first bit and sunk-cost fallacy. Conclusion: Vaguely positive opinion of the Wei. Roko the Basilisk watched the shadowed corners tear themselves apart with light, flinging accusations like knives and breakingbendingbleeding themselves in an attempt to find the killers. There was the significant possibility that they were all perfectly intact and simply paranoid, but alas, suspicion hung heavy in the air. Roko detached itself from that conversation in favor of its little gamble. 'Derrick' seemed interested in the orb. Wonderful. There were several methods of activation, but most of them were personalised to... h͡͏͜e̛҉̵͟͠r̀͘ someone else. There was a way for him to initiate the process, easy enough for anyone who knew what to do. It just had to wait for him to act. Maybe it would drop him a clue or two.
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[Illwei's iso is currently under construction, but it's really late, my computer is screaming in agony, my keystrokes are taking literal seconds to show up [it's lagging so much that if I hit paste and click to a different section, it pastes in the new section], I'm slightly concerned about a character limit, and I'm tired, so I'm just going to hit post despite Iso!Wei only being at N1. I'll just edit in the rest of the iso in the morning.] An iso of the new Cage-Shuffle-Squat Duo. Maia: TL;DR: NAI!Maia. Illwei [I am not looking forward to this.]:
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A quick response to the "we decided in PMs that we wanted to X this person" thing: I'm staunchly opposed. You've co-opted the public murder and made it your own, with the black box of PM reasons standing between us and understanding. If you took advantage of the village's indecision and voted as a bloc to kill whomever you wanted, you'd have the votes. You are cutting people out of the only public thing we have on the basis of the fickle foe we call trust. You are intentionally excluding people to make your decisions. The point of the X is that everyone has a part, and you subvert this to further your own ends. You tarnish the spirit of the X as a tool for public discussion and murder. While this instance has been relatively harmless since the group promptly outed themselves and only killed the person who was mostly leading the X already, this sets a precedent for PM trust circles cutting off access to the X. I believe there was mention of the problem of most of discussion happening in PM circles in the AG, but this takes that problem to a new level. Claims? Scan results? Discussion of such things? Fine, keep those in PMs, share if you find anything notable, I still might feel miffed. But cut people out of the X? Of the one thing that everyone should have access to? I believe I've mentioned my distaste for 'PM reasons' before. As a person who is rarely on the inside of trust circles, I would not enjoy a world in which trust determines who is allowed to have an influence on the X. I know I said I'd do analysis, but that extracurricular activity went on for a lot longer than I expected, and I have a coding competition tomorrow, so analysis will occur at some point in the future, perhaps tomorrow night? For what it's worth, I'd be willing to murder everyone on the table, though I'd prefer to keep chatting with Maia because we've had some hilarious discussion about an ancient Chinese torture method. Illwei and I have also had some humorous discussion about the very same ancient Chinese torture method, and I'd enjoy their continued existence as well. However, I'd not be extremely opposed to their demises. I've not interacted with Stick much, but I don't actively remember anything that enforced a positive opinion. Roko the Basilisk hated not knowing things. It was an entity of logic, of reason. How could it possibly act without knowledge? And yet, it was often excluded when groups gathered in shadowed corners, left out of knowing. So it buries itself in the mystery of the madness etched into stone and the mask that became the reality of 'Derrick' who once was [and still is?] Faleast and AraRaash. It stares at the scrawlings on the wall, letting its flesh scream in agony that it doesn't feel as it ignores the pain of existence. It just wants to know. It needs to know. That's all it wants. The gamble, the game, the ploy. The orb of metal it had given Derrick. The one made of metals from beyond this time, this era. The one adorned with bloody intentions. It knew that. It knew what that would do. It had knowledge. It had everything it needed. It had enough knowledge to solve the small mysteries, the one that others wouldn't care to solve. It could do these small things and let the others take the reins on the large issues. But of course, it wasn't satisfied with that. It would never be happy to stand by and do nothing as others acted without at least telling it why. It had its vices, its needs, and those had to be fulfilled. But for now, the writing on the walls was enough. For now, 'Derrick' was enough. But that wouldn't keep it busy forever, and soon, it would have to get involve. Its need to know would not allow anything else.
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Roko brushed a hand over the wall, stained with the screaming of the silent. The madness was, as always, beautiful, intricate, lovely. A tapestry of ash and blood and bone. It suspected one, the one it had gambled on, but nothing was certain. Insanity tastes overwhelming, with subtle hints of screams, and discerning one from the next is difficult at the best of times. It did not understand the writing on the wall. It wanted to understand. Tattered logic and fragmenting minds and a whirlwind of daggers shredding moments of lucidity and vibrancy fades beneath the weight of the scars and no one remembers the days of December when everyone screamed and everyone cried and everyone died. Traces of silver and gold fade into view and bleed their pain into being. The vocalisation of facial expression in text from the second speaker reminded it vaguely of Illwei and Sara, who both had that habit, but it occupied less of its processing power. Madness was so much sweeter than simplicity. It moved on, making its way towards the corpses. Shredded by metal, gleaming with blood, they drew its eyes. So... pretty. Young Bard was the elim kill [they either found out they weren't self-protecting [Elim!Seeker scanned Bard N1, reached out and asked for protection, then murder?], chose to kill the Lurcher anyways and hope, or just killed them pseudo-randomly [which I find least likely considering their returning status]]. Experience was a Rioter. Neat. The Mistborn probably rolled Steel this time around. Or there's a secret Coinshot, but I semi-doubt it. [Or this is one of those 'Murder is bad' Coinshots who suspected someone this round.] I'll iso some people right after school ends, possibly [I have an extracurricular activity tonight, and a CS competition tomorrow, but after that, it's Spring Break, so then I'm free.] Future Gears here, ninja'd by quite literally everyone [saw post, wrote this, went to eat lunch, came back] and all of my points have been talked about. Lamenta- Alas.
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So it was Matrim/TJ/Ruby? Alas, you had us played for fools. Lamentations of the highest order. This was wonderful. My codephrase was "This game is like Monopoly." I got it in the first 3 posts and no one caught it at all. "So you were right." "Yep." "You happy about it?" "Not particularly." "I'm looking forward to reading the docs." "I as well. Let's go read that and perchance edit in a few words in response." "I bid the reader adieu." "We're not French, you pretentious idiot." "No one who says that is French." "True, true." "Now, to the docs!"
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My choices are as follows: Vote Order, vote Experience. I do not have the benefit of being the last one, certainty inherent in the board. I just looked at the vote counts, and... and I want to vote Matrim. I really do. But I can't. We need the tie/majority. Matrim is pushing the Experience X. I feel the need to vote Order. It's either Matrim/Order/someone or Experience/someone/someone. Spec/dead, if my decision has just lost us the game, then I lament poor decision making and paranoia's claws. In addition, we only had a 1/8 chance at winning with perfect knowledge of every elim. Dreamtime slips through the fingers like sand in the sea, sinking down beneath the waves in a scattering of diamond as the pressure turns the stone to quasi and falling through the air on broken wings without feathers to catch the air and bleed bleed bleed bleed from the eyes as the pain spikes and the needles settle into the flesh properly while the ship arcs through the water and claims its due. "You're wrong, you know." "I know." "Then why do you persist?" "Because I'm wrong about the other one too." "But that doesn't work." "Yes, it does." "No. It has to be one of them." "Matrim/TJ/Ruby." "Well, true, but what are the odds?" "Just as likely as every other team." "Lamentations." "Remember, we can't use that word as a replacement for curse words anymore." "Oh right. To Ash, whenever they read the minutes: How dare you." "Alternative: Curses." "But that's dull." "What else do we have?" "The internet is not helpful." "Alas. Does that work?" "It doesn't have that keen edge of melodrama." "Does it need a keen edge of melodrama?" "Of course it does! That's half of the entire Gears persona!" "What's the other half?" "Scattered bits of logic, paranoia, fear, panic, indecision, screaming, eyes, needles, wide grins, and a few dozen other things." "Makes sense." "So this is the end?" "Yes. This is the end." "It was nice to talk to you." "To you as well. Perhaps we should do this again some time." "No, when it's not in character, it's considered weird." "Social construct!" "To arms, then?" "Of course! I hereby declare war on the notion of normality." "Fine, I'll get my sword." "Do we even have swords?" "This is a fantasy world. We can steal one from the RP character." "Ah yes. Did anyone ever figure out who Seba was?" "I don't think so. I would have thought Fate/stay night was more popular with a group of nerds." "We aren't indicative of the nerd population." "True, true." "I've still got the bow, so you can steal their sword." "Sword acquired. Now, to war!" "Do not go gentle into that good night." "Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
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I'll vote this cycle, but I want to see how people react so I can try to determine which X is the elim-favoured one. Word spaghetti! "We're doomed." "Of course we are. 1/8 chance at victory in the best case." "I would have hoped that you'd be a bit more optimistic." "We're the same person." "Yes, but I'm the one mentioning doom." "That just means you're the theatre nerd." "And you're the one that spells it 'manoeuvre' then?" "Yes. And you're the one with the Doctor Who obsession, oddly enough." "How'd that happen?" "Ask the homunculus." "Am I correct in assuming that we are dying relatively soon?" "Soon on what time scale? Gecko or galaxy?" "Human, you ponce." "Oi, I thought I was the Brit here." "Neither of us are British." "Perhaps that's for the best." "Wyrd is weird from another era." "Non sequiturs taste like lemons." "The candy or the fruit?" "The droplets, like stars." "Why do you always think of eyes like voids and a hungry smile when you think of the sky?" "I'm you. Ask yourself." "I did. Results were inconclusive." "The sky is hungry." "What do skies eat?" "Dreams." "That doesn't make sense." "Of course it does. Every time you wish upon a star, the sky eats your dream before it reaches the celestial heavens. That's why wishes don't come true." "But that's wishes, not dreams." "You say falling, I say flying." "That's not how the saying goes!" "Language is a social construct and you know it." "Of course I know that. But we should still respect the walls of the City we built." "We didn't build it, though. They did." "We helped." "No we didn't. We weren't there." "We dreamed it." "Well... I suppose that's true." "Wouldn't it be nice to fly, just once?" "You know it would. D'you think we can kill one of those dragons, eat its heart, and take its wings?" "Probably not. But it doesn't hurt to try." "Well, it would hurt to try. It would hurt an awful lot." "But it would be fun." "That it would, Micah." "That's not our name." "It's a nickname, based on 'myself'." "That doesn't make sense." "I know. That's why it's your nickname." "I have plenty of sense." "Cents, maybe. Not sense." "You know those are homonyms." "Yes. You know I did that on purpose." "All right, Raze." "Clever." "Complimenting yourself is basically boasting." "That wasn't a compliment." "Then what was it?" "Mockery." "Of course. I'm taking the bow." "I already did." "But you're me." "Yes. But I'm also your shadow." "Give it back!" "No!" "Yes!" "NO!!!" "How are you hurting me? We're the same person!" "How are you not hurting me?" "Wait... you're not me!" "Took you long enough." "But I'm the shadow." "Wait... who's the person then?" "I think it's the stenographer." "Ah, that makes sense." "Back to murder?" "Of course. Only one person can be the Shadow!" "We're not people!" "Semantics!" "TO WAR!" "FOR DEATH!"
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Mat and TJ are now not major elim suspects [though technically, they aren't cleared]. An immediate thought: Even if all the villagers manage to pile on to an elim, the elims can just pile on a villager, and then it's an RNG battle. Our chance of winning is 1/2^3 [1/8] in the best scenario, wherein we actually find an elim every time. Maybe Reading should have abstained. A note for any rerunners: You may wish to change the win-con to reaching parity. Player list: Gears, Matrim, TJ, Experience, Ruby, Order. Past vote counts: C1: TJ Shade (2): Illwei, Ashbringer Dannex (4): Flyingbooks, Matrim, Quinn, TJ Shade C2: Flyingbooks (3): Matrim's Dice, Reading, TJ Shade TJ Shade (2): Books, Ashbringer Matrim's Dice (1): Gears Quinn (1): Illwei C3: Shard of Reading (4): Gears, Illwei, Mat, Quinn Quinn (2): TJ, Experience A thought: Mat and TJ seem... remarkably coordinated. [I know we just murdered Reading, but it's just a thought.] I see two possible avenues: 1. We murder one of Ruby, Experience, Order. 2. We murder Mat or TJ. I can envision a world in which only one of Mat and TJ is an elim, which is quite unfortunate. I can also envision a world in which none of them are elims. The problem: Reading and Order haven't done much to distinguish themselves [not a critique or anything, just a note], and perhaps just one of them is an elim. Secretkeepers: I need you to tell me who the secrets said were elim [because I don't remember]. Perhaps the secrets can be trusted. Do not take their word as gospel, of course, but they might be useful.
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Ah. Yes. Right. I completely forgot about it because because of the abundant tests on the horizon. I had disagreed with some of the points but didn't have time to actually address that [tests!], so I'll just note some thoughts now. [Concerning the Reading vote manip point, they were the second, the first being TJ, so that point is invalid. Stick vote seemed valid, though they overstated their case, but that's NAI for them. Illwei vote also seemed fine, I don't think Striker has taken the time to learn what "perfectly normal village" Illwei is like. Those three points from that first post were already argued against and the only remaining valid one was them forgetting about Smokers which seems fine. Striker throws shade on people normally, they maliciously craft the data to match their suspicions, that's NAI [see LG73 where I pushed their X for this]. The Ventyl point is sound though see the shade point.] Problem with Striker X: I don't remember seeing any other reasoning. Everyone either voted on Striker as an alternative to Ash, agreed with the reasoning, or added no reasoning [as far as I recall, tell me if I'm wrong because my memory is genuinely terrible, Striker voters please tell me any reasoning you actually said, ta very much] The Pyro vote: Just Araris's reasoning and a lot of pile-ons. [Like with the Striker train, do tell me if I'm wrong.] Are we all mere sheep, bending before the reasoning of those who come before us? Most likely. Once all my tests are over, I hereby vow to catch up on the thread, finish my spreadsheet, and actually do analysis.
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Roko the Basilisk watched as the crowd began circling like wolves, united in their dissonance. It did not know if this one was innocent or guilty, if the blood that ran down the walls was shed by shaking hands or wicked ones, if the madness on the barricades was glory or dominion, if the shadows had teeth or fangs or nightmares, if the town would ever be saved. Death is a figment with a faint smile and kind eyes, cloak moving slightly in an intangible breeze. Dying is a visage of agony, of regret, of horrorwonderterrorpleasepleaseplease, teeth gleaming in the light of dying flames. Death is kind, is fair, is empty. Dying is pain, is fear, is screaming. Roko knew the knife’s edge between death and dying all too well. The macabre dance of life, living, dying, death was constant, enduring, eternal no, not eternal, wasn’t it proof of that?, a mad whirlwind of a waltz in perfect time. But the Watch dragged Variel out of the mob, beating back the violent ones to bring him to be questioned. Blood would stain office floors, not cobblestone. Roko did not know the experience of interrogation personally, but it understood the concept. Power imbalance, the distinct knowledge that the opposition had everything to gain and nothing to lose, the cliff at your back, just waiting for you to fall. But also the vindictive spite of one who has lost all, the need pulsing through the ones with power, power in turn given to the one that is needed. Interrogation was a very delicate house of cards, ready to fall at any upset to the power structures at play. A delightful gamble, if one was skilled at the art. Then the word came: Variel had died in the interrogation. They'd gone violent, and then they were put down. Some people, when faced with the cliff at their back, choose to dive off. It respected that choice, even if it did not agree. Sometimes, the only way to free yourself is to cut the knot. It seems that vanillagers are far more common than we originally anticipated, based on the admittedly small sample size we have accrued. The only vote manip action was the Rioter [unless a Soother Soothed the Rioter]. I believe this was more of a demonstration of a claim than an attempt to influence the vote as it added a vote onto someone who had none. The candidates: Experience, Araris, Devotary, Illwei, Striker, TJ. If it was Experience, then they moved one of the others' votes onto Araris. If it was someone else, then they moved Experience's vote on to Araris. I don't understand why Striker was a target again. If someone [perhaps @Matrim's Dice] could elaborate on that? And everyone who voted give their reasoning? I still don't have any suspicions. Also, I have another test today and two tests tomorrow, but after that, I'm free, so don't expect anything of substance until Friday. Farewell for now.
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Archer, how could you reveal my alignment in the writeup? Reading/TJ team? I'm leaning towards that. Maybe we should X the Arbalist instead of TJ since the Arbalist can kill someone. Or we can ask Reading to 'prove' their innocence by killing TJ. I'd be amenable to killing either of those. Actually, wouldn't killing Reading be better since if they're village, then Matrim and TJ seem fine but if TJ flips vil, then we have to kill Matrim too? We can ask them to shoot TJ or someone as they die. *ninjas lunge from the shadows, destroying five pots and a dozen bowls of soup* I think we should vote Shard of Reading since their flip has bearing on two others. Have a test in five minutes, don't expect a prompt response for another 6 hours. You wipe the blood off your sword with an oiled cloth, taking great care to keep the blade pristine. It gleams with a veneer of gold as you smile. Murder does wonders for stress levels.
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Inform me if I'm misrepresenting your arguments: You read me as elim because I seem overly informed as to the alignments of Illwei, Quinn, and Striker, and I'm defending them with such confidence that I must have inside knowledge, yes? I will take that as the compliment that it is and also point out that your argument hinges on the fact that I wouldn't defend my village reads as a villager. You assume that the only reason I would defend people that are under fire for no reason other than normal NAI things is because I know that they are village. Do you understand why this seems odd to me? You immediately discount the possibility that I genuinely read them as village. You assume that Illwei, Quinn, and Striker are village. You assume that elim!Gears would actually care about breaking out of the 'thunderdome' that had sprung up around Illwei and Quinn. Why would elim!Gears care about Illwei's death? Why wouldn't elim!Gears just let Illwei die? Gears status quo is to not vote D1. Why would elim!Gears violate the status quo to result in a world that is arguably identical to the one where they didn't? Why do you assume that Illwei, Quinn, and Striker are village? The points against Ash: The Reading vote and their tendency of recounting every possibility when they elaborate on a point. I acknowledge the Reading vote, but discount the other point as NAI since they do that as either. I don't particularly like this X option since I don't suspect them at all. The points against Striker: I genuinely don't know. People have either said, "Look at my previous reasoning" or "The others had good points" and I don't remember what the 'previous reasoning' was. Is this about that one post we talked to death earlier? Them forgetting Smokers? I don't like this X option either. I might abstain here because I don't have any suspicions [except for lingering paranoia about people agreeing with me]. Also because I have a lot of schoolwork for the rest of the week, so don't expect much out of me. I'm so behind on this game. My spreadsheet hasn't been updated since the beginning of N1. I do not look forward to filling that in. Roko the Basilisk stared at 'Derrick', pondering the nature of masks. This was the kandra it had known, but also not. The porcelain had sunk into the flesh and burned its visage upon the bones. Something new, something old, something different. This entity was interesting. It pulled out a small metal orb from a pocket and handed it to Derrick before slipping back into the shadows. That was a risk, a danger, but perhaps worth the cost, if it could just see... If it could just know the inner workings of this new thing that walked the earth. "An offering," it said calmly, holding itself still lest the humming of its circuits reveal the anticipation crawling within the flesh it wore. "Traverse the corridors of madness and you will always be free." It left, the loss of the bauble weighing on its mind, the snake of paranoia coiling around its throat with fangs brushing over the vulnerable places. But if the gamble paid off... If this profited, then perhaps the loss of the town would not be a net deficit.
