Jo and the Bush

Real Vote Tally: (0) A Joe in the Bush: TheMightyLopen, (2) Paranoid King: Jondesu, Hemalurgic_Headshot, Ornstein (2) Ornstein: Paranoid King, A Joe in the Bush (1) Elenion: Ecthelion III, (1) Seonid: Frozen Mint, (5) Ecthelion III: TheMightyLopen, Elenion, randuir, Jondesu, Brightness Radiant (1) TheMightyLopen: Amanuensis. Aman never had time to edit his own vote into the tally, and everyone else just assumed the tally was correct, despite the vote being right above his tally. =P Anyway, this post is coming about 8 hours later than i wanted, and only an hour and a half before rollover. Apologies. RL is messy right now. So I'm just going to give quick thoughts on the current Ecth Lynch people keep saying that there's no on defending Ecthelion, so they want to lynch someone else.. that strikes me as 'I want to defend Ecthelion, but don't want to be *seen* defending Ecthelion. Elenion did it first, after being the second to vote for him. Then Aman did it, and instead voted on Lopen, and then Seonid did it, but didn't vote for anyone else anyway. IF Ecthelion is a Eliminator, i'm going to look hard at Len, Aman and Seonid. If he's not, then I'm going to be frustrated by the lack of information provided by this lynch. For now, I will toss a vote on Ornstein, as I have neutral reads on PK and Ecth, and i would like more posts from Ornstein. His most recent vote reads like another less experienced elim who saw Frozen Mint and Jondesu discussing switching votes to PK and decided to give them some encouragement.

Since Orlok hasn't gotten anything, I will bestow upon him the shard of Cultivation. May your votes grow into Lynches, your analysis into doctrine, and your reputation into a legend.

I'll be able to respond to anything you want to throw at me in about 8 hours from now. Don't not lynch me just because of RL stuff. (Plus you know, i already said i wasn't going to defend myself anymore cause i was wasting time.)

Jonly stood, arms clasped behind him. Looking to all the who watched to be the picture of serenity and patience. Inside, a frozen river fought against a burning sun, and shards clashed for control. Memories and thought flitted across the landscape of his mind, as Cultivation grew more defenses against the fire and frost of Odium. Will and Emotion fought for control, inside the husk of his Humanity. A monster stood with a smile, awaiting the consequences of the night. Awaiting the Shadows of the Collective to collect his offering. He always enjoyed associating with the Collective. He was not a Monster when compared to them. He committed atrocities out of necessity. They committed atrocities because they hadn’t been committed yet, and they wanted to know what would happen. Jonly smiled softly as the doors opened, and Ratel appeared with his servants. “What manner of monster consorts with his foes rather than destroy them? What man would give his killer a weapon to destroy himself?” He recited the unanswered questions softly to himself, outside the hearing of a normal man. The questions came to him more and more as this deal had approached. It was madness to give the collective yet another Shard of Odium. It was madness for the collective to free Edaan. It was madness for the Brightness to give Cuddles to the man who swore to kill her. It was all so maddeningly human of them all. “Ratel? I trust the Ritual is underway.” Ratel’s smile, so like his own in confidence and control, was all the answer he needed. “My end of the bargain is being fulfilled as we speak.” Ratel looked down to the orb in his hands. “And now I do believe you have something for me. Rest assured, I have no intentions of allowing this gift to fall into the wrong hands. In fact it might never see the light of day again.” Jonly nodded, and closed his eyes, looking inward to the prison complex he had constructed in the hollow of his heart. Holding Odium without breaking had taken a coincidence of such Fortune, that Jonly believed it was planned by someone else. Odium constantly broke down whatever prison held it. Rusting metal, eroding stone, doubting will, disproving faith. Every barrier fell before the cold of Odium’s hatred. Jonly had first tried to use Preservation to contain the Broken one, believing that he could maintain his own spirit with the shard. But bit by bit, day by day, he felt Odium’s influnece grow stronger, and Preservation weaker. So he had pawned it off in exchange for a sword, which temporarily fixed the problem. Nightblood could siphon away the Hatred that leaked through the cracks. But Odium’s power never faltered despite it. So to stumble, by pure Fortune, across an uncontained Shard of Cultivation, was impossible. The shard of Growth, and Regrowth. Of Progress. As Odium broke down the barriers he created, Cultivation grew new ones twice as thick. It was the perfect containment. And now, Jonly ended it. He reached inward and swept aside the vines of Investiture that separated him from Odium. He reached his mind into the heart of the cold, and pulled inexorably at the well. His fingertips begin to numb, and he could feel moisture form on his body as the red mist began to leak from his skin. He opened his eyes, and grasped the offered Orb. His spirit reverberated with a frozen shriek as the Power left him, flowing into the draconic claws. He tensed instinctively, ready to battle against any vestige of Hatred left inside him, but instead, felt a gaping emptiness inside him. A hollow in his heart, surrounded by a great Warmth. When he smiled this time, he knew it was nothing like Ratel’s. It was serene, a lazy brook on a summer’s day, rather than an empty riverbed in the blazing sun. For the first time in a Life of Lifetimes, the monster slept inside of him. With the orb now full of churning black smoke and flashes of red, Ratel carefully placed it into one of the crates his Lifeless held. “So, you gave up all this power for what, a sword? Far be it for me to complain but it seems I got the better end of the bargain.” His soul shivered in anticipation, and the moment was over. The confidence seeped back into his grin, the river picked up power and became rapids, the serenity become purpose once more. “Different Power, for differing purposes. Thank you for you help Ratel.”

I have been dealing with RL stuff for the past 28 hours. i finally had time to make a post now, but I'm going to use that time to instead settle a rather important debt. I apologize, but you won't be seeing a post from me for another 14 hours, give or take. I have put in orders though.

Numbers added by Me 1. A, it amused me to just straight up ask if you killed him. I play these games to amuse myself. B. I wanted to see if you would ignore the question or not. And if not, i wanted to see how you approach/react to the question. Most elims don't like to directly, blatantly lie. It actually makes people uncomfortable. I'm uncertain on how much that strategy would work on you, but i figured, why not? 2. I did not vote initially, because initially, i didn't see the time restraints. Then orlok posted, and i started to, but stopped again after acid specialists were brought up. I still don't see time restraints. Normally, on day 1, i only post to cause discussion, but discussion was already going without my intervention. 3. I wasn't defending Straw, you accused me of defending him, i proved you wrong. Shrug. not much to say here. 4. Again, was not trying to cast suspicion. i don't need to cast suspicion. Literally everything anyone says casts suspicion on someone. 5. Sorry, but we both have gut reads of eachother right now. they happen to be opposite. I'm not suspicious of you, you're suspicious of me. Both of us have some reasoning to back those reads up. 6. That is Mostly True. But it's also an informative lynch in general. shrug that wasn't my reason for voting for her, but it still works. 7. I'm wasting time defending myself. All of my posts today have been defending myself instead of actually looking for eliminators. I'mma do that for the rest of the cycle. I'll defend myself next cycle. Acceptable reasoning i suppose. Joel blearily opened his eyes, at the sound of his name. Upon realizing he was dozing, he shot up to attention, furtively glancing around, trying to remember what he was supposed to be doing. Was he on watch? Luckily, instead of seeing the seargent, or whoever was in command, all he was was Jones, sitting at a table with a bottle of some foreign wine. the cook was approaching with another bottle, offering it to him. Joel hesitantly took the bottle, and made his way over to Jones. "Thanks for the kind offer Jones." He sat down, slowly uncorking the bottle. "It's been a while since I've had a drink. What are we drinking to?"

Just to restate for my own understanding. Stick and straw were tied to be lynched, and I broke the tie in Stck's favor, allowing her to survive. Several other players had also done this. You trust the Lopen family because the sister is a new player and the brother told everyone he knew DA's role before DA died, and you trust HH because he was being HH, which can be a valid excuse for Village!HH and Elim!HH. I do not have a reason to be trusted by you yet, so you're voting for me over stick, so as to not cause a bandwagon on stick and kill discussion? Aren't you famous for bandwagoning? and also by voting for me, aren't you doing what you're assuming me of doing by trying to distract from the stick lynch? Here, i wasn't defending stick, and still aren't. _Stick_. If she's an eliminator, that was not knowledge i had. I don't know her alignment. I'm just too busy to actively make plans right now, lol. By the time i first got online after the game had started, all the good plans had already been offered.

Look all you want Lopen. I had no idea or clue that DA was a Non rithamist. I hadn't caught that. And I'm not trying to cast suspicion on you, i was literally asking you if you had any leads. Also, you suspect Silver because i said i had a village read on him? In that case I have a village read on you as well. =P (I actually do btw.)

@TheMightyLopen Did DA mention anyone else he was PM'ing with? Did he tell you who, if anyone, he was giving a specialization to? Did you kill him? @Elenion you mentioned you had PM buddies. Was DA one of them?

I didn't comment on you because i didn't see anything to comment on I guess. if you want i can go and reread all your posts and try to build a case against you, but i didn't see anything on my first read through. Thank you for the response. And i think you're right, i will vote for either straw or stick. not sure which. Eh, I'll vote for Straw then. @Straw I'm not all that suspicous of you, but as i said earlier, i wouldn't mind seeing you be lynched, and your lynch might help bring evidence against Aman, if he's an elim, so that's a good enough reason for me for a D1 Lynch. I was an Elim that game, and i found that i really liked this style of posting, as it helped me organize my thoughts Aman, I'mma steal your post.

Lemme just quote every single post in the thread and respond to each one shall i? Even though I'm at work and have a bunch of homework to be doing? Even though i need to mop and sweep about 350 square feet of floor? Even though I have guests coming who need rooms prepared? Eh, whatever, SE before RL! Spoilering for length Gah, I'm done for the day. see y'all in like 20 hours. send me a pm if you need me.

I auto-follow all threads i post in. just wanted to throw that out there. I've been ignoring most notifications for a while now, so me following the thread isn't actually indicitive of me replying quickly. Rather than respond about a quarter of the players, I'll just do that thing i did a bit ago (I forget which game.) where i quote every post and reply to each one. give me an hour and a half to do that. i'm not worried about poke votes. they just irk me because of how useless they are. they're a waste of time. and yes, very terse. =P

Joel started awake, staring about desperately. "I was awake! Totally awake, uh, what?" Anyway, don't poke vote me please. If you vote me, actually vote for me. I'm going to be a bit busy today catching up on homework (Not blue texting that because I'm going to be on and off the game despite needing to be doing homework) So I'm not going to be thinking up clever plans to catch the forgotten. That said, I like Len's Coin flip idea, and I like that Orlok brought up the dictator possibility. *Goes back to Sleep

He always wore fake heads.

I'll sign up as Joel, a Sentry who has fallen asleep on watch a dozen too many times.

Oh it's not. I vote Magestar for the lynch, seeing as he's apparently come back to life. It is day 3 after all, and the GM's aren't telling him to stop talking.

But where is the spreadsheet?

So? I killed you as well.

sigh Called it Len. We both died.

I've got less than 20 minutes before Class starts, but here's the entire post by post summary of My PM with Rand. I Quote this post, and just give a generic greeting. "hey, what's happening? Any suspicions or trusts? Any suggestions for who else i should contact?" He responds: He agrees with my suspicions on phatt and stick, the ones i outlined in my first real post, and he said he was suspicious of Aman for no reason other than Aman's skill level. Then he said to contact whoever i wanted, and that he was in contact with Mage and Elenion, revealing he was a Kandra. I respond by telling him that i had contacted Stick at the same time as him, and that stick recommended i contact phatt Randuir reveals that stick contacted him, and that stick is a kandra (I already knew) I reveal i already knew that. Randuir suggests a PM chain for Cycle 2, in order to keep information passing. I'm willing to do it Randuir says he'll contact stick next cycle, stick will contact me, and i will contact him, and we'll all put a pm elsewhere as well. then he says that i should arrange protection for myself, since me, aman and Orlok are the most probable victims, and that he intends to contact Aman cycle 2. Now, gotta go take finals. Wish me luck!

My purpose was to find ruin and use them against the skaa. Not responding to the rest of that mega post because I'll need to read it at least three more times before I actually grasp it.

It's always me that gets spied on. Always. Blegh. As I said in my PM to stick, I won't tell. That means I'm not going to tell implicitly, or explicitly. Nothing i say should be taken to confirm or deny any possibility of _stick_ having any possible or impossible role. The whole situation with Aman calming he's likely to be converted reminds me of all the dead man's switches I've pulled in conversion games. In the Death note game, i offered myself up to be lynched because i was the most likely convert, and after i was converted, i continued to advocate that i would be converted soon. (Until i killed Conquestor =P) in the last shardic game, i was Converted by Alv, and publicly offered to kill myself to prevent my own conversion. To me, after reading Orlok's post, it reads as him trying to get us to believe he's likely to be converted, and therefore trustworthy now. Either that or he's playing IKYK with Kelsier, and is seeking to prevent his conversion.

@Elbereth are unconverted Half-skaa revealed upon death? currently thinking that everyone who didn't start as a Skaa has a 'side' role, either Kandra, metallurgist, or half skaa. Which makes me regret revealing my kandraness in the thread. I'm not kelsier. Can't speak for Elenion, or the other three.

?

Joe, the advantage is that sometimes we can use that to sort through how many of the people we haven't (at least to ourselves) soft-cleared, and then use the likely number of remaining elims to basically place odds on each person being one. Nothing in this game is a hard science of course, but I found that very helpful several times. So, if there are an estimated 3 elims left, in a population of 10, and you've soft cleared 3, you can estimate that the remaining 7 have a 3 in 7 chance of being elims? how exactly does that help?