Quiver

(Whoops. Sorry for falling out of this thread guys, but it looks like it'll be the case for another few days. Commander, you have the Bridge. I should be back to regularly active duty in a couple of days.)

Or they might be an Obligator, constructing a cunning plan ; ) (Seriously, I'll try post more often in the future) Um... we don't vote again until tomorrow. Speaking of... Since we don't have an imminent deadline hanging over us, I say coin shooters, lurches and the rest wait until Oeng gives us some sort of feedback. You're free to interpret it s you want -and debate it here, it'll help us get closer to figuring out everyone's games- but right now, he's the only one with information from the horses mouth, unless anyone wants to volunteer their roles in public. (And I'm not calling anyone out. If you guys think that's the right call, I'll out myself as well.)

I need to learn to type faster. So, Feather, I edited my response for the fiVe drift into the post you made... just before me. I'm going to go read the Faint of Heart interlude, and I'll edit this post for that once I'm done. Hmm. Okay, so non-committal tone probably tells you this is not my favourite interlude. It's surprisingly light, given all the angst these things are typically filled with, and I'll grant that Sylvie, in particular, could use some cheering up. It's neat to see her taking some steps towards being a better person. I also thought Vees reaction was a little odd. It might be because of how she confided to swapping cyber spit with fiVe, but... the disconnect between her and Sylvie seems more pronounced here. It might just be how I'm reading it, but it seems like fiVe is already having an influence on the Mansen family.

Okay, so I have been slacking. Apologies for that; I'd already read session 23 and didn't get my thoughts posted on it. The abbreviated version would be that you were right, this chapter had a lot of shipping in it. I can't comment on romance, but I did like some of the revelations that came out about the characters: Backwards Compatability It was nice to see the two AI's getting along (relatively), and for Vee to admit they might be wrong about fiVe. That being said, I want to reserve judgement on that until Vee and fiVe speak again, since it seems possible that, if Sylvie and her drift, it might make things substantially worse. I do find it kind of funny, in a weird way, that Vee and fiVe have that 'almost relationship'. It seems a bit reminiscent of Sylvie's drifting; the only person who could stand either of them would be... the other one. Advanced Hydrophonia I stand by my comment that Seiko seemed like Worf or Wolverine in the first session. That's not a criticism per se, since both those characters developed. I've been commenting on Seiko's evolution for the last few sessions, and this is another step in it. The fact he's an excellent cook, a lousy drunk, and croons j-pop doesn't add much to the overall story, but it does add and round out him, the same way his use and swappage between first names and surnames does. What's the Marshall and the Captain's ship name? Okay, so... I can't help but think that Kayie's haircut is symbolic in someway, but unless it's related to the fact that her and Zhu's relationship takes a big step forward this session, I'm not entirely sure what that symbolism is. Sorry! But, like Seiko, I thought this session helped give Katie (and Zhu) some in-game depth. You've mentioned in your tumblr about Shu being trans, but I think this reference to her 'transition' might be the first time it's really been mentioned in-game. Similarly, the latest sessions hinted that Katie has had bad experiences related to her family, so having it openly confirmed is a nice throwaway. It also helps open up some mysteries for both of them- if Zhu's trouble had nothing to do with her transition, then what was it? And if Katie's family was homophobic to the point she's hinted at, how did she get control of all the money? Kal-Eleanor Again, I like how stuff was answered. I didn't expect it to be her parents; for some reason, I thought Eleanor might have lost a cold to the tentacultists. Her alcoholism is also a neat contrast to how professional and controlled she seems to be most of the time. Eleanor Interlude Getting this after Act two seems appropriate; this is the act that the majority of El's background with the judges, and her confession to Sylvie, came out in after all. I like the time jumps, and the contrast between young Eleanor's happiness and later Eleanor's depression(?). If I was to critique it, I'd say that I wish there was maybe a bit more of a linguistic change as the sections go on, starting off childish and becoming more adult, but that's a minor point. I like how the situation was prism'd through the eyes of a child, and there was a general feeling that... there is more going on than what we see. That was one of the points where .i thought the growing up viewpoint was well-used, since El becomes more cognisant of the bad things around them, culminating in her feather echoing the chant of the Assembly. I don't know if he's still alive, but I hope so, because a confrontation between them would be great. fiVe Just completed the fiVe interlude. Again, as I've said with the other AI sections, I like how you mess with grammar/pronouns/etc. It helps create that disjointed confusion the V's face. I also liked how you worked in certain lines that, in the modern time, seem to have become part of fiVe's philosophy; stay in the present, the memories lie, humans get better. It's interesting to see where those things started, and to compare the fiVe here begging to get back to Sylvie with the one in the main game. As a matter of fact, I thought Seiko, and Eleanor came off well here as well (discounting Mira since I think she's the one who has changed the least; being the antichrist for a religion hasn't kicked in yet), both being different from their current counterparts in a way that suggests continuity. As a complaint to balance that... I'm not overly fond of the structure. I liked the time jumps, again, but I feel like there should have been one more with Seiko to mirror the one with Miranda. As it is, a lot of fiVe's resolution seems to happen in the last section, which only covers one afternoon. There's clearly more development that happens between then and now, but I think a book ending scene with the current, more assertive five wouldn't have gone amiss.

Gemstones were woven

When you try to get a good deal by devaluing your products in the hope the customer will appreciate your honesty. This... does not work in real life.

Minor update: despite not haaing written or posted anything in a week, I am still sort-of working on Chriomancy short stories. At the moment, however, my timetable is a little full, which was a bad time for my brain to start throwing out thoughts along the lines of "HEY, WOULDN'T IT BE COOL IF---" But, I'm posting here because I want to get a quick response on something. As the threads show, my main idea with chiromancy is that it's expressed through fingerprints. I've also had a bit of trouble coming up with other cultures, which is why everything has been so centralised on Tamith. That being said, I did do some reading on a topic. t might be interesting to incorporate, but I'm unsure; I'm a little worried it might seem gimmicky, or beating a good (in my mind) idea to death by attempting to show how clever I am. Anyway, the idea I had was for palmistry to be a more important aspect of another nation. Chiromancy and Printing still applies for them (I like the idea of a universal magic system, especially one that causes social upheaval) but their secondary to it. I thought it might build up a few interesting twists and differences between the two systems; Chiromancy is based upon an individual in the immediate moment. It's a reflection of who that person is. Palmistry is similar, since reading a palm gives you more insight into a person's identity, but it's also more concerned with the future, and who a person will be. The first has a more social usage, since I like the idea of hyper-empathic people who till retain a strong sense of "This is who I am"; the second leads to people being more reserved about physical contact, since they have their own goals to work towards. I might be explaining it badly. I haven't thought about it beyond the idea that it exists, so I'm not sure if I should make it a separate magic system, a cultural relic, or something of religious significance. I thought I'd air it out here and get some feedback on whether it's a good idea or not before I start treating it as a time sink. (An aside; in the real world, palmistry is also referred to as cheiromancy, manteia and chiromancy. Which might be a sign, if you believe in that sort of thing.) EDIT: Oh, and Power, if you happen to read this... I've seen your thread about an oppressive magic system. I've been meaning to post there, but I want to try and have something meaningful to add to the conversation when I do, and at the moment, I don't really have any ideas. Sorry about that, but thanks for posting in my thread.

Oh, yeah, I saw that, hence the agreement. I was just putting it that way for dramatic/role play reasons; Quillion sucking up by being very formal and professional to the Mistborn. I wasn't entirely clear whether we were supposed to be naming the votes in red (since I thought Kurk mentioned not doing that so Peng's stood out?) but just in case, to make it officially, I'm following the crowd and voting for Wes.

"A Mistborn." Ollivier frowned, leaning back in his chair and placing his hand against his cheek. Quillion nodded, shuffling through his notes. "Yes, my lord," he said, fidgeting. "So he said anyway." Ollivier nodded dispassionately, but Quillion could see something stirring in his eyes. It wasn't a shift in attitude, or a desire to turn this revelation to his advantage. It was fury. Ollivier was displeased, and Quillion thought he knew why- the old man hadn't expected any Mistborn to be present. Well, now you know how I feel, the obligator thought stubbornly. Lord Ollivier had appeared uninterested when he was told about the poison currently rushing through his agent. If he wanted to, he could have had Quillion cured; the Canton had the resources and the funds for that. Instead, he told Quillion to play along with the rest of the crews infirmity. And he had known about the Inquisitor from the start. He had implied as much, before the venture began, of course; but he had known that an Inquisitor would strike out at the group and attempt to kill them. The same way he had known that whoever he sent to the inn was going to die. Sometimes, Quillion wondered if Ollivier was burning atium, fiendishly resourceful, or had the luck of The Lord Ruler. Then he reminded himself that it could just be all three. "A Mistborn," he repeated, his free hand curling into a tight claw on his desk. He drummed his fingers against his cheek. It was, Quillion realised, somewhat gratifying to see him in such distress. "Quillion, talk to this Mistborn," he pronounced. "Follow him. Offer prayers to their... Survivor if you have to." He looked like the word left a bad taste in his mouth. "Do whatever you need to to gain his trust. When this is over, I will want to retain his services." Quillion bowed low. "Yes, my lord," he said. I'll talk to him alright, he promised. I can even think of a good person for him to kill. So, whenever the Mistborn announced to the crew his suspicions, Quillion, in his first moment of action since the whole affair began, stood up and said, "As representative for the Canton of Orthodoxy, I witness this vote and cast my own with yours, Mistborn."

I think my problem is that it isn't balanced when it comes to the music. The songs of the film are so front-loaded, and the second half so barren that it sort of made me think there were more than there were. Now, for the record, I enjoyed the song's of Frozen. "Let it go" is a pop cultural phenomenon at this point. I just thought the first half of the film broke into song too often, especially since the back half... didn't. By the way, did anyone else get a "Look down" vibe from the opening song? I happened to see the 2013 Les Miserablés film before I saw Frozen, and the opening scene, of men engaged in manual labour in a song that sounded more like a marching chant felt very familiar.

Okay, so I haven't been especially active. This is half a reminder to you guys that I am still reading this stuff, and I'll try posting as often as possible, it's just that some unexpected stuff has come up so I may be about less often for a while. And... I'm tempted to follow through with what everyone else seems to be doing and PMing my role to Penguin, though do we actually have access to a tin eye at the moment? We lost the only one we had last game so quickly that I'm not quite certain how the mechanic works.

I thought it might be Wash's last name, but I couldn't remember. Most of my Firefly experience was "Wow, what a gorram cool captain Mal is!" (Incidentally, he has my second favourite sci-if coat. The number one slot goes to Jack Harkness.) Anyway, I owe you a Scroungers post, so I'll edit in Reika's interlude. Sorry for the delays. Okay, so... I'm sure the implication is meant to be that this is a letter from Zhu, given the previous debriefing and her assurances of help... but for some reason, this feels very, very wrong. If Wulagu realised where the family was, I doubt she'd jump through this many rings, but... I won't be convinced this is legit until calling that number activates Vulcan Spectres launch sequence. So, for building tension, we'll-done, because I'm jumping at shadows from this one. The opening line was a pretty good one too.

Frozen isn't the best film, even recently from Disney; I much prefer Tangled. But I connected with Elsa in a way that I haven't with any Disney character since the Lion King, so this is the most significant thing I can share about the film.

My take on this (based on not having Warbreaker in months, mind you) was that once you put Breathes in an object they, basically, become it's. So if I have 50 breathes and store them in a shawl; And You have 50 breathes and store them in a shawl; It's not a case of "there is a shawl with 50 breathes from two different people in it". It's a shawl with 100 Breathes, and it's open season for anyone who wants to take the Breathes out of it, or Awaken it, or whatever; I don't have any control over (or, I suppose, legal right to) the shawl once I put my Breathes in it.

I hate him so much more than Tor. At least there I can avoid the chapters. Here we have the Words of Radiance forum and people rubbing in our faces that they've read it! So unfair. Minor thread derailment, but since we're talking about whether Shardic intents are internal or external, do we also have any indication as to the range of the intents? Were Preservation and Ruin only focused on preserving and ruining civilisations on Scadrial, or would either of them have turned towards trying to preserve the Cosmere from Odium or ruining him directly? I have a vague theory that Odium might be evading Harmony so that it can become invested enough on Scadrial not to notice/care about the disharmony that blowing up Shards elsewhere in the Cosmere might cause. EDIT: 'evading' or 'avoiding' would have made sense, so I said Odium was evaioding Harmony. Naturally.

I like to think there is an alternate universe where Sheathe is taking advantage of GoodwillKindness right now, through wittier repartee than what I'm coming up with. (Though, I think I'll dare to point out that, despite you're title claim to the contrary, you haven't show yourself not to be spiteful or malicious. For all I know, you're laughing along with what I say whilst plotting a crippling revenge, designed to debilitate my delicate psyche. It may be judgemental of me, but I am rather inclined to think of someone who calls themselves that in terms of supervillainy.) EDIT: OH, HEY WAIT! YOU'RE SPITEMALICE, AND I'M GREEN ARROW. Congratulations. You are officially my nemesis.

The name of it, combined with Syl's line about honourspren "binding" things, seems to imply that the oathpact was, if not solely of Honour, then at least majorly his design. It actually makes me wonder what a 'prison' formed from Cultivation would be like, and if that might be the key to defeating Odium on Roshar. A Prison which grows and becomes more powerful as time passes? Or maybe she wasn't involved in the Oathpact because spending millenia between Desolations would result in her 'cultivating' Odium's hatred.

And here I thought pointing out King's retconning made me clever lol. Gamma; I think there's a Word of Brandon that the overarching story of the Cosmere is told through ten planets, so I wonder if maybe there are six worlds like the one in Silence- small, unimportant shardworlds which aren't particularly relevant and which have no hope. (I mean... I suppose, if we're trying to look for symbols... 16 is the number that might be associated with negativity, where as 10 is hopeful? Snapping to match a metal is traumatic and could kill you, whereas the ten orders of radiants and the Heralds are the last hope Roshar has against the Everstorm.) EDIT: Okay, I was wrong. According to the Coppermind, there are a lot more than six worlds like Silence; worlds which only have a splinter or a part of a shard. It also says that there are ten core Shardworlds that tell the overarching story of the Cosmere, and that right now we know of six of them. http://coppermind.net/wiki/Cosmere So... this makes me wonder which six worlds we've seen are important. Are all the worlds we're going to see that have significance Shardworlds? As big a fan I am of Warbreaker, I've always sort of discounted it from the major cycle, since writing and publishing it online was such an experiment. Oh, and... can anyone give me any details about The Silence Divine? I've seen some of you guys around here discussing or talking about it, but I can't find anything about it beyond whats on the wiki.

My much delayed Scroungers post. I blame you, for obvious reasons. So... for a start, more drama/conflict, which, again, is something I like. Given this is the epilogue, I'm rather curious about what might have happened if you hadn't found the tracking device- Act 3 opening with a kaiju kultist krack attack? For the actual character stuff, again, I like how isolated Sylvie is getting from the group. I also thought it was appropriately ironic (is that the right word for this situation?) how she defends her actions, primarily her attempted overwrite of fiVe, by saying Miranda and the crew are denying her autonomy. The ending with Vee had me a little curious as we'll; like before, when I wondered if she was more sympathetic to fiVe than Sylvie was, I wonder if her deciding not to drift before seeing Zhu is showing the first seeds of a more individual identity. Scene two and, I have to start by saying I found the time displacement here a little confusing. It might just be because I didn't re-read the first part before I read this one, but going from Zhu calling for Syl-V to "Ah, fiVe, just who I was waiting on!" To be a little disorientating. Given how this scene is going on at the same time as Miranda finding the tracker, I don't think there is any other way you could have broken up the sections, but still; minor disorientation. I did like how you mentioned the Eleanor thing in scene one, then showed her approaching Zhu here; I'm guessing that she'll walk up to Katie later in the session to provide a through line. You've already commented on my calling her a sociopath, but in fairness of my interpretation, here she has admitted that she sometimes -possibly accidentally- spies on the rest of the crews conversations. As for fiVe, reading Zhu's conversation with her kind of made me realise how like Sylvie she still is. She claims to be different, and in very many ways she is, but for some reason Zhu's line about how she's only ever drifted with two people reminded me of Sylvie's situation with her Vees. They also have a similar stubborn streak in them. Random thought, do the V's represent different parts of Sylvie's character arc? You have Vee who, at the moment hasn't drifted with Sylvie making her the past, and you have the somewhat-more-sociable fiVe. I can almost imagine Sylvie amazing to choose one or the other.. Hah, given Sylvie's outburst last time, compared with Vee finding the idea of fiVe hating Mansen -hating herself- so impossible, I feel my theory has been vindicated! To an extent. It might need some more work. But anyway; again, a little bit of almost-autonomy from Vee, and again, some similarities with fiVe, with the jokes about bytes and chips. Again, I think this scene is kind of a reflection of the conversation with fiVe, so that while that one had fiVe fearing that she'd be drifted, Vee freaks out here because the possibility might be taken away forever. The way Vee's voice drops between being softer and sounding 'more like Mansen' also sounds to me like she's developing a bit, just from having been away from Sylvie for this short period of time, and the spike that happened in her hard drive is... interesting. Seiko pretty much highlighted his own character development; that he's been more open, and more forward, with Zhu than he has with anyone else on the team. Of course, that's not exactly saying much, since he still lied about the genders of his family and where was hiding them, but I suppose the thought counts for something. A lot more interesting than the fact he mentioned them (at least to me) was his words at the end, about enjoying talking to Zhu about them someday. Maybe he was being polite, or maybe it's because Zhu has clearly already shown she knows everything and is a 'goddamn decent human being', but the fact that he also said he wanted them to be more like her than him is intriguing. It sounds like he has a lot of respect for her, in more than just her capacity as the Marshall of the shatter dome. Until now, he's had to be going along with her- I've kind of wondered if some of the scenes,like him confessing about Sylvie to her, was a deliberate ploy by him to get Zhu on his side- but the idea of talking genuinely about them seems both sincere and a huge step forward in his character. Again, first of all; Eleanor was the through line from the start of this part to the end! My crazy theories were true! Again, we have the stuff I like Eleanor doing, speaking in a semi-professional manner. I say semi because I don't know if the advice she gives about secrets and lies is legitimate psyche talk, but it sounds like it should be. I also empathise a lot with Miranda here; I really do get the idea of having to be better ([benedit Cumberkhan "I am better" reference here]), but I'll save Miranda talk for her debrief. Again, fiVes violence towards Sylvie, to me, kind of seems like it's meant to be indicating Sylvie's own perception of herself at the moment, though I am glad to see the crew stick up for her at this point. The whole thing has been balanced against her, in spite of the lip service paid to 'all the vs are equal' so it was nice here (and in Zhu's conversations) to see that just as abusing fiVe won't be kosher, neither will abusing Sylvie. I'm going to go through this thread and make a list of things I predicted, because having Miranda say drifting is bad sounds like my earlier comments about addiction were pretty right on. To my shame, I have to admit I don't remember enough about Firefly to get the joke towards the end, but I suppose that since Zhu seemed grateful that Miranda hadn't asked her out, my theories on her being interested are largely unfounded. I guess we can call this section a Wash. ; ) I did like how the reality of Miranda's job was addressed. The rest of the Scroungers have either shady professions, or are literally rich enough to do whatever they please. Given our celebrity media, I'd be a little surprised if no one ends up reporting on the oil billionaire heiress having dropped off the face of the earth for a few weeks, but Katie's rich; that sort of eccentricity can be waved away. Miranda's full time work isn't as easily ignored. Given the revelation about Lucy, it might have been kind of fun to have her keep the job, snooping around the office and rooting out the cultists in her work hours as well as of-the-books work, but ai imagine that would be far too difficult to co-ordinate with the rest of the players, so what you did is more practical. Still reading section seven, but imagining Katie protecting Seiko's investments with a 'hostile takeover'. Lol. After opening up so much to Zhu, it's neat to see that continue and contrast here. Seiko didn't trust Zhu with the information, she took it, but he's still willing to form a more cordial relationship with her. Meanwhile, Katie offering to move heaven and earth for them is bound to be a pretty attractive offer. It's also kind of neat how he changes the names he's using. When he talked to Zhu, he was so much more formal, skipping the ms or mrs titles completely, but here he slipped almost all the way into calling Eleanor her first name. I'm not entirely sure what to say about that other than that it seems significant, as does the fact that, rather than just hide in his bunk like he did in the first Act, this time he's actively attending and providing food for the potluck. And more confessions, more opening up and general good vibes. The romance between those two at the end was sweet, but then, I have a tendency to favour that sort of gentle non-expression more than I do out and out declarations of love.

I love hearing people's reactions to series, even to stuff they didn't like; to my mind, being a fan doesn't mean being uncritical of something. But, as a Sanderfan, I still have to encourage you to go out, and buy Hero of Ages. I also noticed no one threw out any suggestions for Alloy of Law or Warbreaker, so I'll add those to the pile.

I think there's a pretty important difference between the Dark Tower and Brandon's work though. If I recall correctly, 19 wasn't an important part of the series when it started; King went back and revised The Gunslinger to introduce it earlier and make it fit with the later books shifts towards meta-narrative. Maybe the numbers 16 or 10 have a personal significance to Brandon, but I doubt they'll be the same thing. (Of course... if you take the number of Shards (16), the number of non-shard people present at the shattering (Hoid) and the non-shard entities (Adonalsum, the Unknown Force) and add them together, you get... 19.

Welcome to the forums. This is the part where I put some witty banter playfully and insincerely mocking you whilst encouraging you to engage in discussions (much as the King's Wit). Alas, my last attempt at such did not work out right, and I feel that antagonising someone who goes by the name of Spite might be... unwise. So, welcome to the forums and enjoy yourself.

already invested with

by a scadrian

When your response to this is "I'm not the only one!!" and a smiley face.