Mid-Range Game 61: Shadows and Dust

[Mat he/him]

Just now, Alvron said:

Wizard. Personally, I would like to see a tie.

To be fair, it already was a tie :P.

[Alvron he/him]

1 minute ago, Ookla the Tall said:

To be fair, it already was a tie :P.

Sorry. Had a phone call and half posted. What I meant was, I would like to see a tie between Mat and Wizard. From what I’ve read, they’re unlikely to be teammates so tying it between the two would give better odds of getting either the Cultist or Sith.

[Mat he/him]

Just now, Alvron said:

Sorry. Had a phone call and half posted. What I meant was, I would like to see a tie between Mat and Wizard. From what I’ve read, they’re unlikely to be teammates so tying it between the two would give better odds of getting either the Cultist or Sith.

How does that logic track? xD Wouldn’t that give far worse odds? Maybe I’m missing something but I really don’t get how a hypothetical v/e tie gives better odds of killing an elim than a hypothetical e/e one

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

It is not actually currently a tie, by my count.

Vote Tally
Ookla the [Redacted] (3): Ashbringer, Wizard the Myopic, Matrim the Tall
Matrim the Tall (2): DrakeMarshall, Madagascar
WIzard the Myopic (2): Alvron, Fadran the [Redacted]
Ashbringer (1): JNV

 

Also, to y'all who are saying there could be E/E action between Matrim and Fadran:

Why the dickens in that case would Matrim and Fadran have formed competing trains like this then?

I do not believe they are E/E, I increasingly think Fadran is village this cycle.

I would also like to point out that other than Matrim's completely understandable self-pres vote, the other two votes on Fadran are largely unexplained. I would have been happy with even one sentence that was concrete and not a rephrasing of "I think Fadran is the most suspicious" but I do not feel like that happened in either of the other Fadran votes. And while both Ashbringer and Wizard promised to revisit things, tbh I am more concerned with the outcome of this cycle than any hypothetical explanation we might get in later ones. And while I did say voting is more important than explaining, I do not think that I feel the most good about a largely unexplained countertrain taking the lead on cycle 5. That is still pretty darn suspect as far as I'm concerned.

That is all.

[Channelknight Fadran]

Hrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

FINE

Wizard; Matrim

After all this he finally managed to push me to the dark side

[Madagascar]

Retracted Matrim, I did. Waiting for a response to my duel challenge, I am.

come onnnnnnnnnn, Sith-y McSithface! Do you wanna do this the executioners way or the cool way?

you know how to my retraction get, mat. Confess to your cultist ways and retract I will. Come to single combat.  Got my finest lightsaber out and everything I do. Don’t you want to see what color my lightsaber is?

(it’s plaid)

Edited December 6, 2022 by Madagascar

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

If Matrim turns out village I'm gonna feel bad for pushing this quite as hard as I did

Village!Drake pretty much spends all his time either building cases for a train or wondering if the train is actually wrong after it has support

But my doubts haven't gotten to the point where I think another vote is actually better

I am going to have to trust that the past version of myself who was probably thinking better about all of this tbh was on the money

EDIT: Actually wait it's only a 4/3 vote anyways xD

Yeah no I'm gonna go with Mat still being sus probably

Edited December 6, 2022 by DrakeMarshall

[Kasimir he/him]

Yet another bunch of clarifications:

Quote

• If the last Jedi and the last Reborn die in the same cycle, you get to go fight yet another duel. No no I'm just kidding, it's a draw. (Like I honestly don't think you all want to go to an actual duel just to tiebreak, am happy to be proven wrong.)
   
• Redirects change who a vote manipulator is targeting. If Kas was going to shift a vote from Ren to Wyrm, and Wyrm redirects Kas to himself, then Kas moves his own vote to Wyrm instead. Simple?
   
• Duelists will be prohibited from posting in the main thread. I think this is the most common-sensical flavour-compliant perspective. Villagers are not going to tolerate you calmly interjecting while you are doing your damnedest to kill someone else or not to die. I am fine with thoughts being posted in the duel thread; just get your RP in if you don't want to die. Or...not, I guess.

The current vote count I have is:

Quote

Mat (4): Drake, Fifth, Fadran, Mads
Fadran (3): Ash, Mat, Wiz
Ash (1): JNV
Wiz (1): Alv

 

[Madagascar]

Duel! Duel! Duel! Duel! Duel!
 

DUEL! DUEL! DUEL! DUEL! DUEL! DUEL! DUEL! 

DUELLLLLL

[Madagascar]

retract Mat, the coward.
Master Alvron, to a duel I challenge you!

Know I do that everyone on winning very much wants, and yes a Sith Mat probably is, but really what Moff most cares about is that there is a duel.

If a matter of simply eliminating the suspects on fifth’s short list it is, a short and boring game it will be. If just start dueling each other for the heck of it we do, legendary our force party will be.

C’mon, @Alvron Your dukes and your duchesses, put up.

Edited December 6, 2022 by Madagascar

[Kasimir he/him]

11 minutes ago, Madagascar said:

Duel! Duel! Duel! Duel! Duel!
 

DUEL! DUEL! DUEL! DUEL! DUEL! DUEL! DUEL! 

DUELLLLLL

At the risk of potentially intervening in a game I am running:

I may point out that nothing really stops you all from choosing to brawl in this thread itself and I will commit to taking any such brawling seriously in the write-up even if I can't actually mechanically do anything with it except to connect it to the results of the voting  

[Madagascar]

TIME TO DO THIS

Moff intimidatingly draws himself up to his full height, 18.5 inches.

The stench of alcohol so powerful is, all of the Gizka in the area die immediately of alcohol poisoning.

he reveals his weapon, a plaid lightsaber

the other hand he uses to force lift a table

”throw me out of Jedi academy for underage drinking, will you? Then DIE, YOU SHALL”

With a bloodcurdling squeak, he hurls himself straight at @Alvron throat and throws the table right at @Ookla the Tallhead.

 

[Alvron he/him]

12 minutes ago, Madagascar said:

Master Alvron, to a duel I challenge you!

C’mon, @Alvron Your dukes and your duchesses, put up.

As tempting as this is, I’m about to go to sleep so sadly, I will have to pass.

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

4 minutes ago, Madagascar said:

all of the Gizka in the area die immediately of alcohol poisoning

"Cease and desist!" Dr. Dacken Humtumb walked onto the scene. "Why must everyone try to kill my poor gizka?!! What is it about their cute countenances that make people abuse them so??!!"

"Also, hello! I understand that you're very, ah, excited. And by excited I mostly mean drunk. But I don't suppose you could be persuaded to take your alchohol-fueled rampage somewhere else? Um. Not to put too fine a point on it, but enough is enough. If you do not leave the gizka alone, the Jedi won't be your only problem, methinks."

[Ashbringer he/him]

Kalabel's eyes shot up as a table flew across the bar. She quickly dove behind one of her own, clutching the pyramid to her stomach. Part of her wanted to go out there and... oh who was she kidding, she couldn't fight. Especially not a drunken Jedi. Jedi? Maybe Jedi. Seemed close enough.

Or just stay here. Find a way to slip out and head to Galtaran's. This wasn't something to fix, but he sometimes knew how to fix things that were broken in weird ways...

Kalabel's train of thought drifted away as her hands once again began twitching over the red prism. It was a puzzle. One that wanted to be solved, because there wasn't much time. Wasn't much time for something. She jammed one of her unchewed fingernails into a small seam at the peak, feeling the nail flex as she tried to force it open. No luck. Moff seemed to be getting more agitated, there wasn't an answer, there wasn't time, she could feel it asking and begging and promising everything if it would just open-

And then it did. With a satisfying whoosh.

And Kalabel heard a beautiful voice.

 

@Madagascar perhaps I can duel you tomorrow, if engineering doesn't try and ruin me again 

We are tied. Why are we tied. Fadran Matrim. Need to either do homework or sleep, but I'd much rather not have a tie than try and piece together why I sus Fadran and why you all don't. I think I have the general idea though.

[JNV]

Ok hi sorry I fell asleep at my desk yesterday Ashbringrr and I had a whole thing about Matrim bit I think the shard ate it while I was asleep so just really quick Matrim ok now I got to get to school see you on the other side

[Madagascar]

7 hours ago, Alvron said:

As tempting as this is, I’m about to go to sleep so sadly, I will have to pass.

truly the worst response to a duel challenge ever I have heard

Have the Jedi no honor!? Bunch of goody two shoes, they are! no wonder kicked out from Jedi Academy for partying in the padawan dorms, Moff was. The one that snitched, you probably were, surprised I wouldn’t be!

[Mat he/him]

8 hours ago, Madagascar said:

With a bloodcurdling squeak, he hurls himself straight at @Alvron throat and throws the table right at @Ookla the Tallhead.

Smarts ducked, and the table sailed over his head. It appeared that the suspected Cultist was trying to kill him prematurely. He didn’t get the point, not when he was going to die anyway.

Edited December 6, 2022 by Ookla the Tall

[Madagascar]

Well, you know, more fun to die fighting and all that.

Is that not the way of the Sith? Or Jedi, or whatever you are.

here, just for you. Have a whole pack of death sticks. True it is that they cause lung cancer but least of your problems that is now.

[Mat he/him]

Trust that Kas will give me a valiant end in the writeup, I do. :eyes:

I am neither Jedi nor Sith, as I’ve said many times >>

And I mean. Smarts is a bit cowardly. He works with his hands, creating, fixing. Not fighting. So he’ll duck under your table but he can’t do much to combat a plaid lightsaber

He just can argue that you attacking a confirmed Jedi proves his case, but what would that do :P.

Edited December 6, 2022 by Ookla the Tall

[Fifth Scholar he/him]

How will my true heir be known? Unless I should tell, he never shall. My instinct is always to guard, to guard, to guard. The time has come, however, to cast the veil of secrecy aside and step into the light.

Upon this my confession, have some anagrams k 1

aaeiinopst 7

aadioon 3

adeeijorssx 4

aacddiilosvv 2

einoors 5

eegimnorrtux 2

aeelmmnou 5

May the best players win, Sith. Before this cycle is ended the seeds of wrath shall be sown; tread carefully when the harvest comes. 

[Madagascar]

Hey, light side, dark side, all sides of the same coin they are. Moff is on no one’s side. except the side of partying.

a spare lightsaber I have for you. Paisley, it is. Something to fight with, no?

fed to the gizkas while defenseless, none should be

Edited December 6, 2022 by Madagascar

[Kasimir he/him]

And the cycle is closed!

No more votes or actions will be accepted, now you can stop sending me fifty different retractions in two minutes! >>

[Mat he/him]

o7

[Kasimir he/him]

Cycle Six: Where The Fun Begins

Hamartano strode into the Drunk Side, his blaster in hand. Sajhe looked up from where he was cleaning the glasses, and adjusting the settings on the hotpot that he had heating at all times.

This was where it began, Sajhe thought. Or where it led to. 

Two roads, in the desert. The desert in the heart of your brother. The path of mastery, the path of exerting yourself on the world. The path that led away: the path of denial, the path that embraced the tumultuous tides of the world, the world in all its embodied misery and joy, sorrow and celebration.

Hamartano claimed the tallest stool in the bar and swung a leg over, sitting astride. “Well,” pronounced the swoop ganger. He flicked a catch above the trigger, and the length of the blaster shrank, contracting into itself. Another flick of a button and a bar of humming blue plasma snarled forth from Hamartano’s hand.

The bar fell dead silent, except for the whine of blaster fire.

Two stray shots, probably from nervous trigger-fingers, which Hamartano casually deflected into the floor and the ceiling of the bar.

“I am on the Jedi Council,” he proclaimed. “And we have decided it is time to show ourselves to you once more.” He pointed at Nees Bac, who he acknowledged with a smile, the first Hamartano had cracked in ages. “The Jawa man has been my helper here. A little short, but the Council thought he’d do alright. And he has. Saved that one—” he now jabbed his finger at Turtle—“from some Sith a couple days ago. He’s been the one actively fighting them, you know. Had the nerve to put me on reconnaissance, saying the Force would guide him to his needed targets. I guess it has. Me, I just rely on Old Faithful here.” He patted his lightsaber hilt. “That said, the both of us have been doing some watching and messing around with the Force, and we’ve got news.”

“GIZKA MAN!” he hollered, and Humtumb stumbled in. A thumb flew in his direction. “Gizka man is not one of those Desaan types we’re supposed to be hunting. Neither is the midget”— he pointed directly at Moff—“or the quieter guy there”—his finger alighted on Kalabel. “And unless the Sith have gone even more Force-mad, it ain’t Turtle either. Doesn’t stop ‘em from being in league with the unsavoury types, but it does leave us with only a few people to check.” He retracted his blade and jumped down. “Jev. Smarts. Lib. KD. One of ’em wants me and Nees dead. Reckon it’s Smarts, from my sense of the guy, but it’s never too soon to be exploring other people too. I ain’t never felt good about Lib, and KD has been tailing Smarts too much for my liking anyway. One of ‘em wants to try me, they can come at me. I’ll be ready with this guy.” He flourished the lightsaber and ignited it once more, twirling outside and sending four blasts deflected into the hearts of the gizka jumping up and down near the entrance. “But till then y’all gotta make some choices.”

“Alright,” said Smarts, slowly. “You say this. And why should we believe you?” He set down the jumble of circuitry he was working on. “Old Barles just saw a madman with a lightsaber the other day. You say you’re one of them. From my point of view, you’re just as likely to be with those Sith cultists as anyone else. And you, figuring I’m a Sith cultist? That’s rich, Hamartano, coming from the guy who offed Myhar Impay. What does an ecologist have to do with the Sith, even?”

That put the fluffkit among the gizka, as the bar erupted into noise. Settlers of Dreshdae argued. Surely the Jedi had come, the Jedi knew that the settlement was beleaguered—hadn’t they heard, after all, about the Jedi who had saved Turtle?

Turtle, who was scarcely to be found now, as though fear of the Sith cultists had driven him into hiding. Some suspected more nefarious reasons behind Turtle’s disappearance.

Tantyck glanced over, his eyes flicking from Hamartano to Smarts, as though he was weighing them up, deciding where to set his feet on unstable ground. “Frankly, Hamartano, you’re unreliable. You’re a maniac, and I’m not certain that someone like you would actually be a Jedi. At the same time, I don’t trust Smarts, and I think we need to proceed carefully here.”

“Believe that I do,” belched Moff, who had briefly pulled his head out of a keg of Mandalorian ale that was higher than he was tall. “Wave that lightsaber around, you should not. A laser pointer, it is not. Impressed I am not. Bigger, mine is. And plaid!”

He pulled out his own lightsaber, with a flourish, and flicked it on.

A plaid blade hummed to life, with a shower of alcohol fumes.

Moff narrowed his eyes. “The same to me it all is. Whether the Jawa a Jedi is, or lightsaber Louise there is. Or the technician. Only one answer there is to the question. Taught us they did, in Jedi school.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask,” Smarts said, caustically.

“DUEL! DUEL! DUEL!” Moff chanted. “The victor the Jedi is! Simple, it is!”

“What,” said Smarts, flatly.

Moff beamed beatifically. “Winner, the Force is with. Loser, dead is. What could be simpler?” He swept the lightsaber in a flourish that was made a touch more complex by the fact he was inebriated and swaying. 

“THROW ME OUT OF THE JEDI ACADEMY FOR PARTYING, WILL YOU?” he demanded, drawing himself up to his full height. “THEN DIE, YOU SHALL!”

With his free hand, he gestured. A table ripped itself free and slammed through the air, tumbling straight for Smarts’s head. At the same time, with a shriek like a mynock out of hell, he flipped through the air, lightsaber blazing vengefully, tumbling towards Nees Bac’s throat.

 

 

Nees Bac ducked.

“Ny shootogawa! Ny shootogawa! Eyeta! Eyeta!” Nees was babbling. Bar9 patched a translation in to Kalabel’s comlink. Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! Friend! Friend! 

But who knew anymore, in these days when Sith cultists lurked in the streets of Dreshdae and Jedi apparently hid under the guises of swoop gangers and Jawa?

It didn’t matter. 

On the other side of the Drunk Side, the table hurtled with lethal intent towards Smarts—and just stopped.

Right there.

With a snarl of frustration, Smarts gestured and the table reversed course and sped right for Nees.

“TOLD YOU, I DID!” Moff exclaimed, triumphantly. “REVEALED HIMSELF, THE SITH HAS!”

The very-abused table slammed into the wall, and stopped there. Nees Bac crouched, flinching back from it, shielding himself with his hands. “Eyeta!” he cried out. “Jar’bo’ba, eyeta!”

The air rippled, almost as though forming a solid wall as Smarts shoved. Moff’s cry of triumph was cut off as the Jedi dropout was smashed back into the wall of the cantina, and he proceeded to drop to the ground, blinking like a stunned mynock.

“I have had it with the challenges!” Smarts growled, striding forward, blue-white lightning crackling in the palm of each hand. The rest of the cantina were scuttling out of the way, sensibly. “I have had it with the constant suspicion, the disrespect! I have had it!”

He thrust both hands outwards, and the ball of lightning flared, blasting out at Moff, who was huddled in a small ball at the base of the cantina wall, battered and dazed.

There was the whine of a blaster bolt, and Smarts whirled about. The bolt deflected from his bare hand.

“It was you,” Turtle whispered, emerged at last. Perhaps he’d been drinking to drown it all in the Drunk Side. No one in the aftermath was really sure. “You tried to kill me.”

Smarts clenched his fist, and Turtle gasped, lifted into the air. He began clawing desperately at his throat as the invisible vise grew tighter and tighter, battling an unseen force.

In the moment Turtle grew limp, Moff struck.

A single, clean blaze of speed and light and power.

And then, it was over.

Moff calmly pressed the activation button, and the plaid lightsaber blade slipped back into the hilt and disappeared entirely.

“Wha—” breathed Smarts, as he toppled over, a black hole burned into his chest. He struggled to breathe.

“Worse nights, Moff has had partying,” Moff informed him. “The power of a hundred death sticks, one after another, cut with spice and recreational Force Lightning. Immune I am now, Experimented, I did, in my partying days at the Academy. Expelled for a reason, I was.”

 

 

Meanwhile, Hamartano had zoomed in on his target. His eyes narrowed. The world narrowed down to a simple tunnel: that state he thought of as focus. No one else mattered—just him and the target he was tracking down.

The Desann Reborn. The last of Tavion’s elite cultists.

So close now that he could feel what success tasted like. Reporting in to the Council would feel so satisfying.

He held the humming lightsaber blade out to his side, ready to strike.

“Not in here,” Sajhe said.

For a moment, Kalabel had a vision of Sajhe, battle-worn, battle-scarred, in armoured robes of a design she hadn’t seen in her life, standing between Nees Bac and Lib Wubum, a golden blade the rich hue of sun-ripened wheat blazing to life in his hand.

The moment passed. He was just Sajhe, holding that old battered hallikset, his shoulders straight.

“No blasters, no lightsabers. Not interested. Take it outside.” He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. “You’ve screwed with my cantina enough. Gonna cost a great deal to fix the damage you and your delinquent friend have caused.”

Hamartano looked as though he was going to object. 

Lib Wubum hefted his electro-spear. “You’re making a big mistake,” the Gungan bounty hunter said, calmly. “My quarrel isn’t with you, and my bounty isn’t on you, Jedi. You can still walk away.”

The red pyramid puzzle hummed in Kalabel’s hands. Better off without them, she thought. Better off without them all. It sang to her. Sang of power, of freedom.

Of the ability to do exactly what she wanted.

No rules.

Only desire.

Hamartano angled that bright blue lightsaber across his chest in a defensive stance. “Sure,” he said, to Sajhe. “You want to die on your feet, Sith?” he demanded of Lib Wubum. “Or you want me to cut you down right here?”

“So be it,” spat the Gungan bounty hunter, disgruntled. He snatched up his spear, and stalked out of the door, without a backwards glance. “You chose, Jedi.”

 

 

Mat / Smarts was executed! He was a Cultist! (For real this time!)

Turtle / Turtle was killed! They were a Settler! (I know, this was such a surprising flip!)

@Fifth Scholar and @Ookla the Myopic have entered a duel! They are now prohibited from posting in the main thread! They also cannot vote or be voted on this cycle!

Quote

Mat (5): JNV, Ash, Drake, Fifth, Fadran
Fadran (2): Mat, Wiz
Wiz (1): Alv
Alv (1): Mads

Apologies for the wait, I was trying to do justice to Scar's duel attempts in the thread

The cycle has begun and will end on Friday, 9th December 2022 at 0100hrs SGT (GMT+8)! Please be reminded that PMs are closed.

Edited December 8, 2022 by Kasimir