Quiver

I've been joking that the later Cosmere stuff is going to be fantasy Star Trek, but wow. Scadrian spaceships, with teleporters powered by Selish magic, and Soulcasters to act as Replicators? If Lightweaving can cast illusions over a wider range, you've even got a holodeck. "These are the voyages of the starship Elendel..."

This topic... again, I was about to misread and reply to that with how much I hated Macros the Black. Maybe the later trilogies redeemed him, but A Darkness at Sethanon left me completely uninterested in reading another damnation book of that series.

evolution of skinchangers. (What? Of course skinchangers is one word. Didn't you ever read the Hobbit?)

"Goodbye! Me am Jezrien Stormmother!" Actually... you know, if you assume that prologue Jezrien is Bizarro Jezrien, the whole series makes more sense. He said "As long as there's only one of us, the oathpact will work", but what he meant was "The oathpact won't work with only one of us". So he convinced the Heralds to quit, and kickstarted the process for the Everstorm.

because they believed

I was expecting two to three pages of back and forth banter on whether it as possible, what it would mean, and how the systems would interact. I apparently underestimated the ingenuity of the 17th Shard. Of course, the quote is vague enough to promote rampant speculation, so please, O insist. In the meantime, here's an UPVOTES to each of you for your trouble.

So, this occurred to me, and. I was wondering if we have word of Brandon on the subject. As I understand it, the magic system a person uses is influenced by the world their from, hence why Scadrians use metal-based magics, while Sel is based on forms. Furthermore, the breeding of two of the metal arts changed how the systems work, so that instead of full born Furechimists (and possibly mistborn) don't exist anymore. That was a change induced by two magic systems that were connected to one another. So what would happen if magic users from different worlds crossed the beams? I'll grant it may be that nothing would happen, that being based on a human template isn't enough and, say, a Scadrian and a Rosharan couple can't have children. Has Brandon stated that? Or has he said what can happen if a child is born? Will any magic they have be determined by their parents, or by the planet they were born on? I realise, at the moment, when world hopping is a rare phenomenon, this may not be pertinent. But as the cosmeceuticals progresses towards science fiction, it sounds like an issue that might need to be addressed. After all, it only two some two hundred years after contact for half-human, half-vulcans to start appearing...

Whitey-tighty wearing grizzly

I spent all day thinking that this topic was about Hoid being able to soul stamp. I feel dumb... Anyway, I don't think he can soul cast. It's just a gut feeling though. Actually, I suppose it's possible he might have the Soul casting equivalent from Yolen. Honour/Cultivation seem to have taken or at least based their Lightweaving system on that one, so I suppose it's not unreasonable to suggest he could do the rest of their things.

Hey, I haven't watched the video yet, but can someone spoil me on what, exactly, he ended up writing about? And as for Hoid hanging with Gandalf and the Doctor, it was only a matter of time. Once you Worldhop, is it really going to take long to start Universehopping? OH. HEY. MAYBE THE TEN FOOLS ARE THE MIRRORVERSE HERALDS.

I'm torn between my pathological need for the sort of focus and direction in life that can only be provided by a charismatic, cult-like individual, and my desire to be a superhero. I guess I should ask myself what you would do... So... Uh... *Blessing of the Quills* EDIT Oh, of course! A superhero who is in a cult! Obvious solution, and a good way to promote the fellowship of Lady Feather.

We'll glad to know I'm providing you all with some solid entertainment. I was going to just post and edit (you know, the usual), but looking at them, they seemed short enough that I'm just gonna blog them both no- is that an incest tag?!? Er... anyway, I'd say these are the best pieces of fiction ever, but that might be the flowers talking, so I'll go through them in a bit more depth. My geography is faulty at the best of times, when dealing with my own country, so I can't even begin to guess the distances involved between Darwin and Sydney. I'm guessing from the context that it's a fair distance away, and Katia isn't living with her father at the moment? If so, that makes the fact she's in a coma slightly sadder, if they didn't even get to have a last conversation together. I did like all the sciences aspects to it though; years of cinema have taught me that bioterrorism involves dirty bombs, and yellow plastic rebreather suits, and seeing someone doing something mundane, like collecting soil samples, helps sell the reality of the world. It's also a change, again, from the group solution of shooting/sneaking/hostage taking. And... the Prophets. Huh. I don't have a name, so I'm calling them Brother and Sister, and that my theory continues to seem to be right because damnation. Those two are pretty polarised. However nice Brother was, Sister seems cold. Sylvie was able to have a conversation with Brother; I'm left wondering if the power Sister has over him, wearing him down and making him flinch, is because of the background they have together, because of her own overwhelming personality, or if (long shot, unlikely possibility) it's somehow connected to the kaiju. The last session here implied that the blue eyes and blood might be due to science, and I haven't any grounds for thinking PR could be a magical world, but still. GRRM shows that faith and magic can be very easily mixed... Karl escaping is a pretty interesting twist though, and I'm about 90% certain that he'll reappear- the missing 10% is because I always expect people to mess with expectations, even if that means meeting expectations.

Subtle methods? Like whispering in the ears of your followers, guiding their actions by appearing to them as hallucinations of religious figures and family members, and telling them to kill? ... Is Lady Feather an evil shard?!? I'm supposed to be a good guy!

why he needed

Shard to autocorrect

I honestly can't think of any reason not to side with hir, especially if you channel your hatred for DMITRI HIDDLESTON into sad keteks. Speaking of which... So, more keteks, eh? I know I ought to start session 20, and I'll edit this post to do so, but I thought I should comment on this first. Unfortunately, like the audio, poetry isn't really a medium I can get behind. I don't really know how to comment on it other than to say that you succeeded in making it sad. I may be biased since I don't like keteks anyway but... Anyway, reading and editing for session 20, so please hang and up try again later. Have a nice day. Reason #1 to side with Gavin and everyone else over you; given the chance to turn the raid for Sylvie into a gunning action scene, they decided it would best to send Miranda and Katie in as a stealth extraction. I've already said that I like those sorts of drama more, partly since it seems less dice-calulated randomness is involved, so I'm excited for that. It's also pretty neat that fiVe kept quiet throughout the conversation. You said she was trying to avoid talking to Vee, but given her contentious relationship with Sylvie, I wonder whether or not she was keeping silent to reduce her chances of survival. Reason #2 to side with Gavin and everyone else over you; the first words out of Mikes mouth come from the Blues Brothers. I haven't seen that since I was a kid lol. I'm trying to recall how many guards were present at the boat, and failing badly; Mike was one, so was there just one other, the female guard that Katie's contact flirted with? I like how Mike responds to the groups distaste of the Assembly. Given his profession, I'm sure he doesn't like them anymore than they do, but he ends up having to reel them back to stop them actually 'enlightening' them. Eleanor stumbling over calling Sylvie a friend looks pretty significant. Up until now, the only scene I can remember her being genuinely warm and at ease with someone was Katie. The others have had moments with her, but this seems like the moment when she sort of realises how much the team (or Sylvie at least) mean to her. Reason #3 to side with Gavin and everyone else over you; none of them broke a promise they made to their mental duplicates, particularly not in a way that's left them completely damaged. The stuff with Vee is rather creepy. Up until now, I had assumed drifts could only be between two at a time, so I don't know if she's this way because she tried drifting with three or because of the cults own tech interfering, but either way is unsettling. The prophet is also interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing his sister, because at the moment, he seems extraordinarily optimistic and trusting; since he said he saw something good in the bomb, I wonder if that makes him the yin to his sisters yang. I found myself thinking the same thing Sylvie did; he may express concern for his followers and believe what he's doing, and he may be young, but he's still a terrorist. I kind of suspect the fact that he made Sylvie kneel in front of him means he isn't as naive as he looks; she may have done it to placate him, but she did start calling him by his title after that... Reason #4 to side with Gavin and everyone else over you; those guys were pretty funny. It makes sense, but having Eleanor shrug, decide to go and immediately take a gun on a stealth mission was pretty funny. I can understand not wanting to be unarmed, but as usual with El, I end up wondering how much of her reactions to these situations is 'I need to be prepared' and how much is 'Let's kill some tentacultists!', especially since she was called in for her negotiating skills. Similarly, Seiko deciding to relax by drawing. I don't remember being told of any artistic inclinations on his part before now, so it was a surprising revelation. Seiko doesn't like giving information about himself away, so even though I know he must have interests beyond providing for his family, it's still surprising to see him so relaxed. Usually, this would be the point where he'd be lining up shots with his sniper rifle. Reason #5 to side with Gavin and everyone else over you; they at least made it into a different room before they got caught. I'm left feeling pretty uneasy about Veena, honestly. You showed us earlier how much mental trauma she was under, and while it seems worse than fiVes, I'm not convinced it was; fiVe has just had a lot longer to adjust to how broken she is. With that in mind, I'm thinking Sylvies treatment of Veena is going to be foreshadowing for how she treats fiVe. I'm struggling to think of how to put it, but Sylvies thoughts that her memories should be a map for her to work out how to fix Veena seems like what will happen with fiVe. And I was going to support Sylvie, since Veena was having such problems, but... Him. It's complicated. And Sylvies last words; just the reaction to the Drift, or the same nose bleed and confusion Miranda and Leah had? Reason #6 to side with Gavin and everyone else over you; they made it possible for me to write the words 'semi-naked cyborg lady has the pope at knifepoint', and frankly, that's more than you've ever done. I realise the logic behind it, but them finding the right room right away feels maybe a little convenient. Still, as I said, it leads to an unexpected scene. Elsewhere, I liked that the guard gave up. I've always found the willingness of security guards to die for their evil overlords kind of comical (and the willingness of heroes to murder them psychotic) so having that trope inverted was nice. Again, I liked the contrast between Vee and fiVe, and it adds to what I said before. Veena seems, to me, to be a foreshadowing or a proxy of fiVe, and I get the feeling that however the V's deal with her is going to be important to how they address the fiVe problem. I also get the impression that Sylvie has the virus now too, which might... complicate things. Reason #7 to side with Gavin and everyone else over you; after twenty sessions, I'm almost positive I have some kinda trigger word in my brain making me side with hir. I mean, why else would I have read this much? Okay, yes, it's enjoyable, and this scene is appropriately tense. I like the explanation we got (or the hints of one, anyway) as to why the Prophets eyes are so blue. I also liked Miranda's speech, which was surprising; I like the references, but using the name of the Survivor doesn't seem like it should work, since it could have been a moment for her own badassness. Instead, it does work, and it's still her being bad chull. Having Kelsiers words re-appropriated for this occasion feels... uh... appropriate. And Seio calling her out on it was a pretty funny after thought. There's also the nice little poetry about the snowflake, Karl's meltdown, and confirmation of my good prophet/bad prophet theory. Okay, I suppose I might have read this much because it's enjoyable. But I like my theory better. And the 8th reason to side with Gavin and everyone else over you is that, for some reason, I find it funny that Leah has become Miranda and Eleanor's nemesis (nemesises? Nemeses). If you don't mind my asking, what is the 'official' position on exoskeletons in the Pacific Rimverse? I had been thinking it was simply acase of. Miranda not wanting everyone to feel sorry for her or think she was disabled, but Seiko's tone kind of implies it's a little more serious than that. Anyway, another successful mission, and another enjoyable piece.

AMRAAM started lightweaving,

arts of darkweaving

When I first read Way of Kings, I loved the idea that the Parshmen were the Voidbrigners, for the same reasons you and Jasnah have mentioned. Since then, I've kind of cooled on the diea. Brandon said the Stormlight Archive is going to be two series of five, so I suppose it's possible that the Parshmen are the Voidbringers, and that plot will be wrapped up by the fifth book, but I'll reserve judgement until after Words of Radiance. Looking at those quotes now, without the surrounding scholarly context, I wonder if there's any sort of relevance to the Heralds. The interlude with Baxil's misstress and Lift shows that they may not be quite playing with a full deck, and I think the prologue mentions hooks and burnings. It's unlikely, especially since Taln's lines seem to be in the tone of a warning, but it might be an interesting plot twist if Words of Radiance reveals him to be a Voidbringer or one of the Ten Fools. (In fact, I've seen people on the forums commenting what a rotten deal the Oathpact seems to be for the Heralds; maybe they are the Ten Fools for agreeing to it.)

I'll edit this/make a new reply for session #20, since I don't have time to read it right now; I just wanted to take a moment to reply to your pain stuff you said. First of all, I'm siding with Gavin because of the pain this causes you. I like to bully the people I like, so anything ze can provide to torment you with is great : ) Thanks for elaborating on the cultists, and this is the main reason I'm replying now instead of waiting until I'm up to date. I just wanted to comment that this is a good example of what I was saying 2-3 pages ago, when I mentioned what I saw as the problems of writing in someone elses setting. It's really interesting to see you guys take a random throwaway line and develop it into what you have. Again, I find the Kaiju cults one of the most interesting concepts you have batted around in this piece, and finding out that it's an offshoot of something previously established hasn't diminished that-I like it whenever that sort of small detail gets explanded on, and it's only made me more curious about the setting. Corazon wasn't thrilled about Buenakai, but she wasn't nearly as vitrolic in her opposition as Katie and Eleanor were. Maybe it's because he's her friend, but I find the idea that there is a functional religion in this world, that isn't as extreme, based upon the creatures that are smashing it interesting. Given that Corazon has Katie's number on a cheque book, I'd be surprised if she didn't pop up again at some point. (I'd also be surprised if she doesn't just cash the cheque and empty Katie's accounts, but that's the cynic in me talking.)

Meaning you could theoretically cripple the forums if you didn't do them or misused your powers? Let's starrt work on a list of demands.

That he summoned

You read Twilight? Like, actually read the whole saga? I FEEL SO BAD FOR YOU. HAVE ALL THE UPVOTES EVER. (damnation shard of Empathy.)

Dark spirits?" Amaram

I feel your pain. Here's an up vote to make the book worthwhile.