Long Game 33: Life

[little wilson she/her]

Um. Did you forget the part where I retracted from both?

[BrightnessRadiant she/her]

Amelia sat in the library, twirling her hair, and studying once again. The trip to Imre had proven very refreshing as she'd hoped. It was an exciting experience. There had been people arguing about the sold out grams, people selling contracts, and other very interesting things to look at. It was a very enlightening experience, but mostly it had taken her mind off of skindancers for a while.

Now she was back to her usual studies and currently was taking notes on her fellow students in the building. There was Telar, returning a very large stack of books, as usual. He was actually early this time. How did he manage to read so many books so quickly? He must be a genius. 

Then there was cluny, asleep at his table, and...was he chewing on his pencil and making squeaking noises? Hmm he was an odd one to be sure. Amelia started scribbling notes down on everyone she saw and what they were doing. She never knew when a skindancer might just slip up and doing something suspicious. She kept watching, and waiting.

Edited May 4, 2017 by BrightnessRadiant

[Elbereth she/her]

Term 2, Month 1 is over. Please do not post or PM. New turn will be posted in 12 hours. 

[Elbereth she/her]

LG33: Term 2, Month 2 - Studying and Power

Glavion was in the library, as he always was, working and studying. Always wanting more knowledge, more time to study. That was the most important thing in his life, after all. Studying and learning. 

He had found another report on the Skindancers. This one was a bit more useful than the last. He hadn’t gone out into the world to share its contents yet, but perhaps once he needed food again he’d go and share a few potential signs for Skindancers with those he thought he could trust. 

He strolled through the Archives, a long arm deftly picking out books from this side or that, stacking them into his arms until he had a big enough pile to leave them on the floor to pick up later when he finished his stroll. He had wandered further than usual today, and wasn’t in fact sure what area he was in, except that the books on either side of him were either travelogues on distant lands or books covering obscure fruits. 

Then he saw something different. A high-level book on Naming? That was news… He didn’t think he’d entered the banned books section, but not every banned book was there? But think how useful it could be, how much he would learn. 

He set down his current stack of books and reached up for that one, opening it. His eyes skimmed the contents of a random page somewhere in the middle. 

Glavion’s eyes rolled up in his head until they only showed white. Slowly, he collapsed to the ground, book still in his hand, mercifully closed for the sake of those Archive students who found him. 

He did not speak again. 

---

William Opuscule knew what he wanted, when he came to the University. Mastery. 

Power. 

That was the meaning of life, he thought, while listening to the Chancellor’s speech. To be able to control the world around him. Change the world how he felt like changing it. 

He threw himself into his studies ferociously, made key friends, was doing everything right. Ignoring Naming and the other arcane arts beyond the bare minimum, of course. They made no sense, and were likely just tricks to dissuade new students. But the others… He even tried approaching Chancellor Varda once, though she was not particularly pleased with the interruption to her work. 

He was almost there. So close to being elevated, one more step on his way to Mastery. 

“Isn’t it a pity you’ll never be able to achieve those dreams,” a voice said as he studied in his room, daydreaming about power. 

He started. “What? Who’s there? And how did you-” he stopped himself, as a mocking laugh filled the room.

“How could you have wanted power? How could you want anything? You don’t understand this University at all. Thinking Sympathy is a trick?”

The sympathy lamp in his room went out, shadows in the corners fading into complete darkness, silence within silence and no sound of footsteps even as the voice from everywhere increased in volume.

“You’re insane, William. Just like the poor students in the Crockery. You, having power? You don’t have anything. Nothing but a few empty dreams and your mind.”

He felt… something, and then it faded in an instant with his dreams of power. 

“And now, you don’t even have that much.”

---

Sloan entered the room gracefully, examining the long, crescent-shaped table in front of her. She’d never been on the Horns before, and it was certainly new. 

“Sloan, Student of the University,” she was announced to the Chancellor and the Masters. 

She walked up to stand in the assigned spot, smiling. It was either that or tremble so much she couldn’t do anything, after all, so she treated this like any performance. Smile, and keep dancing, and no one will ever know you’re wrong.

“You have been charged with gathering other students together into an unsanctioned society and creating a ‘flash mob’ in the center of the University. Do you deny these accusations?”

“No, Chancellor,” Sloan said softly. “I do not.”

“May I ask why you would do such a thing?” Varda asked in exasperation. 

“Why not, Chancellor? It entertains them, and they enjoyed it.”

“It also pulled them away from their studies and disrupted life here, and is unfitting for the students of the greatest center of learning in the world.” Varda stopped her protest. “You are hereby charged with Undignified Mischief, and must publicly apologise for your actions before the school.”

“...yes, Chancellor.” Sloan curtseyed carefully, for exactly the proper time, and left the room.

---

“E’lir Locke Alveron.”

He entered confidently and nodded to the Chancellor and the Masters, just deeply enough to be properly deferential. 

“You have been charged with causing distress to your fellow students and attempting to convince them of your own apparently bizarre beliefs.”

“Yes, Chancellor,” he responded. “I had no intention to cause distress, of course, but is not the purpose of the University to develop our own beliefs through learning in each field and to spread them as befits a center of learning?”

 “True…” Varda said slowly. “What beliefs, specifically, were you spreading?”

“Nothing terribly ‘bizarre’, as you so kindly put it. Merely that we students are the future of this University and of the world, are we not? And so we need to work towards our future however we can, to become the best generation under the best leaders of our time.”

“A remarkably reasonable ideal, given what I’d heard.”

“Blatant lies, to tarnish my reputation and try to defame me,” Locke dismissed.

Varda smiled. Locke had dangerous qualities, perhaps, but if he was promoting the University and studying, perhaps he was worth keeping around for the moment.

“Very well. You may go, Re’lar Locke.”

A raised eyebrow was his only show of surprised. He inclined his head again, a bit more deeply, and exited as confidently as he’d entered.

---

“E’lir Dele Fajro and Student Esuan.”

“Dele, again?” Varda said. “It’s barely been a month!” 

Dele looked down sheepishly. “Sorry, Chancellor…”

“Very well. You are both charged with…” Varda examined the paper in front of her more closely. “Creating a great array of… some sort of device, which you then lit on fire in order to…”

“Create pretty patterns, Chancellor!” Dele interjected. “See, we made a great wheel out of wood and metal and some other interesting things and set it up so it’d make a giant circle of flames shooting upwards, and then we put it out in the middle of the square and lit it from a safe distance with Sympathy and boom!”

“A leaf then blew through it, caught on fire, and hit another student.”

“Well, yes, we didn’t think of that. But still. It was so cool!

Varda looked at her for a long moment.

“You are both charged with Reckless Use of Sympathy, and will receive ten lashes at noon, tomorrow.”

“But-”

“No.”

---

There is a meaning of life, Balthazar Myrrh mused as he stared across the river, leaning on the light rail that separated him from a watery death - or, at least, a rather cold bath. 
 
“The meaning, of course, is to exist,” he said aloud to himself. It wasn’t exactly like anyone was listening, and he didn’t particularly care about madness at this point. “The most valuable thing in the world is existence, because without it we would have nothing else. The meaning of life is simply to exist, to go on about our lives not considering this and just living. The steps on the way to work or school, the scratching of our pen creating words which will outlive our existence, every little imprint we make to shape the world. Those are the meaning.” 
 
“Maybe,” a voice drawled behind him. “Or maybe it’s just death.” 
 
Balthazar froze and turned. “I don’t think so,” he replied as politely as he could. “What gain is caused by dying? Existence benefits the world, pushes it forward, advances it. Existing leaves the world different than it was when you entered. What does dying do?” He looked at the mercenary across from him, a stocky woman wearing a club. 
 
“But think about what they all have in common,” she argued. “Everyone dies.”
 
“That doesn’t make it the meaning,” he noted.
 
“Why not? It makes sense, doesn’t it?” She took out her club. “And who are you to be arguing with me, anyway? Just a little street rat?”
 
“Um… no, I’m a student! A student of the University!” Balthazar said, desperately. He’d only been a student there for one term, but hopefully that would be enough…
 
“Dressed like that?” the mercenary sneered. “Let me prove to you how the meaning of life is death.” 
 
He dodged her blow, but she wasn’t aiming for him. She knocked out a few feet of the rail behind him, the one protecting him from the river. He tried to run, but her second blow knocked him backwards, perfectly through the hole and down, and down, and down…
 
He fell and sank like a stone, the encrusted mud from his clothing rising up around him and blinding him, so he couldn’t even open his eyes for a last glimpse of sunlight. He held his breath as long as he could, but the current was strong and he couldn’t surface. Eventually, he had to breathe, and seal the doom and the end of his existence, forever. 
 
Blackness. 
 

---

Paranoid King and Haelbarde went insane!
Wilson was brought on the Horns and charged with Undignified Mischief!
Burnt and Amanuensis were brought on the Horns and charged with Reckless Use of Sympathy!
Orlok was brought on the Horns, but charges were dropped!
Aonar, Arinian, Drake Marshall, Jondesu, Hemalurgic Headshot, The Only Joe, Orlok Tsubodai, and STINK were elevated!
Darkness Ascendant was killed by a Mercenary! He was a Student!
Also, someone used a name. 

Term 2, Month 2 has begun. You have 36 hours to send in all actions (Imre, role actions, impressing, lodging). Do not forget lodging orders.

Player List
1. Queensteph - Vintish Noblewoman 
2. Randuir (Telar Pike) - Yllish Commoner
3. Hemalurgic Headshot (Noremac Quwester) - Aturan Nobleman 
4. Aonar (Aodhan Breacadh) - Edema Ruh
5. Wilson (Sloan Walker) -  Cealdish Commoner
6. Straw (Medicus Novis) - Yllish Commoner
7. Paranoid King (William Opuscule) - Yllish Commoner Insane
8. Ornstein (John Springer) - Aturan Nobleman
9. Jondesu (Vell) - Yllish Commoner
10. Drake Marshall (Greyson) - Cealdish Commoner
11. Assassin in Burgundy (Jurdaan Longfell) -  Yllish Commoner
12. Burnt Spaghetti (Dele Fajro) - Vintish Noblewoman
13. Orlok (Locke Alveron) - Cealdish Commoner
14. Magestar (Magestar) - Vintish Nobleman Insane
15. Alvron (Stryker Nox) - Cealdish Commoner
16. Arinian (Darian) - Aturan Nobleman
17. Stick (Stick) - Aturan NobleStick
18. Darkness Ascendant (Balthazar Myrrh) - Yllish Commoner Student
19. Cluny the Scourge (Cluny) - Aturan Nobleman
20. Silverblade (Ryth) - Cealdish Commoner Insane
21. Amanuensis (Esuan) - Yllish Commoner
22. BrightnessRadiant (Amelia) - Aturan Noblewoman
23. Eolhondras (Eolah) - Yllish Commoner
24. STINK - Yllish Commoner
25. Hael (Glavion) - Edema Ruh Insane
26. Sart (Titud) - Edema Ruh
27. Joe (Chalks) - Yllish Commoner

Edited May 27, 2017 by Alvron

[queensteph she/her]

ok guys i thought the cycle ended at 1AM last night which is why I was all like "burnt cant defend herself" and now i just feel dumb and can only plead slightly lost as randuir said.  will read the writeup in a minute.

[DeTess she/her]

Okay, so Hael and PK went insane. If I'm not mistaken there are no offensive actions that cause insanity apart from sabotage, so one of these two must have gone insane naturally. Hael hadn't advanced yet, so he wouldn't have had a source of insanity from that, and PK had only advanced once, so that would have been at most  a +1 (not enough for natural insanity to occur).

PK is an yllish commoner, and had posted enough to be able to afford Ankers without exceeding his tuition (I think, I haven't done a precise count of his actions yet), so he wouldn't have gotten extra insanity from his lodgings.

Hael, on the other hand, was an Edema Ruh. If he wanted to stay at Ankers (2 talents for Edema) he'd have to have had at least 5 talents of reduction on his tuition, and I don't think he managed that after quickly glancing over his posts. If he was staying at the mews then it is possible he just got unlucky and went insane naturally.

So it seems that PK must have been the target, and Hael just got extremely unlucky. However, this brings up the question of why they targeted PK. Some people, like myself, where suspicious of him because of his actions in starting the voting on D1, and making him go insane removes that suspicion. He was one of the people that had advanced in the previous cycle though, so the elims might have targeted him if they suspected he had advanced in a dangerous field. Let's dig a bit more in that possibility.

The following people advanced last turn and did not claim as specific field of interest in the thread: Queensteph, PK, Burnt, Orlok, Alvron, Eolhondras and Sart. Maybe it's just me, but if I where going to take a random guess at who would have a dangerous field, I'd go after Alvorn or Orlok, as they are dangerous players in their own right, even if they only advance in logic and rethoric or some other field with low kill-power. This makes me suspect that the elims either want to avoid eliminating the more high-profile players this early, or they already knew PK's field of study.

Has PK told anyone what he was studying or that he claimed to some specific people?

Edit, Edit2: Also, there have been only 8 elevations this turn, which means that one field is not getting any attention at all. At a guess, I'd say it's the field PK or Sart was studying (as otherwise I'd have expected one of those that had advanced previously to be elevated again).

Edited May 5, 2017 by randuir

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

...and, new cycle!

Anyway, surprise bandwagon on me last cycle in the last few hours while I was offline, so thanks for that. On the bright side, through some stroke of great luck, it barely affected me. I only even lost a single elevation point. Seeing how lucky I got, I'm finding it hard to particularly take issue with your voting on me in the first place. Particularly STINK, because he was literally following my suggestion.

In terms of defending myself? I'm not even quite sure what I'm being accused of. Voting on burnt? I'm pretty sure I said why I was doing that, even as I acknowledged that I could be wrong. People have been voted up for an outright kill on less grounds then the whole burnt thing, shaky as it was. Gotta say though, if you were serious when you said that if Burnt isn't a skindancer, I probably am... You might be more crazy than PK or Hael.

And some other developments this new turn it looks like. Mercs took their first victim, but DA was dropping out anyway...

And, judging by the writeup, I'm guessing Hael went insane from an unlucky insanity role and an arcane field, and and PK got sabotaged. I'm guessing they pick PK because he got elevated... Odd that they don't pick someone both wealthy and elevated, since such a player is simply more powerful and thus more a threat.

Also, yay, I got elevated. I want to get at least Re'lar in this...

...and I'm going to go to bed now. Goodnight. See you all in a few hours.

[Elbereth she/her]

Burnt, Aman, and Orlok's writeups have been edited in. 

[STINK he/him]

Thanks everyone for letting me get my Linguistics rank up higher than it ever was in the last game. Mucho appreciated, We'll get everyone into Linguistics soon enough

[queensteph she/her]

I have to sleep rn. I'll try to get a post up whenever I'm awake. see ya!!

[queensteph she/her]

Steph's mind was beginning to grow frazzled. She had been trying her hardest at University and yet she felt she hadn't learned nearly enough. Steph had never been the brightest student, in fact, she was really near the bottom of her class. It wasn't that she didn't want to learn, she just had trouble staying focused. Her mind tended to stray every which way, not just in lessons, but in her day to day conduct as well. But she was eager to learn, which had always kept her from failing. Her mother always said "My dear, I don't mind if you're not the top of the class so long as you do your best, and don't give up is what's really important." 

Her mother...Oh how she missed her mother. It had only be a few months since she'd last seen her, but it seemed like ages ago.

Sitting by the fireside at night in her mother's chamber, the dim lighting making her nod off to sleep as her mother stroked her hair.
She ached for that sense of peace and protection again.

She was already anxious enough about going off to University on her own, but really? Skindancers? NOT what she had in her original list of things to worry about.

How could this be happening? It almost seemed unreal, but yet she knew it was most certainly real. Several of her fellow classmates had already fallen victim and gone insane. Would she be next?

"I want to go to town, I'm sure some shopping would put my mind at ease. Maybe I can buy myself a new outfit.....or maybe some rare fruit... I'll go tomorrow, but first I really need to sit down and write my mother a letter to tell her how everything is going(probably not everything, no need to cause her to worry as well)" she thought, as she tried to calm herself from the fears dancing* through her mind. (*pun intended)
 

 

Who needs sleep right?  I was laying there and thought up a RP so I thought I'd write it up and post before it got lost in my thoughts. Goodnight all for real. 

Yay for an actual RP (pretty sure this is my first RP that was longer than a paragraph. woot woot )

[STINK he/him]

2 hours ago, Drake Marshall said:

On the bright side, through some stroke of great luck, it barely affected me. I only even lost a single elevation point. Seeing how lucky I got, I'm finding it hard to particularly take issue with your voting on me in the first place. Particularly STINK, because he was literally following my suggestion.

Drake. My votes are meant to have meaning! Not one EP loss, thank you very much.

[queensteph she/her]

1 hour ago, STINK said:

Thanks everyone for letting me get my Linguistics rank up higher than it ever was in the last game. Mucho appreciated, We'll get everyone into Linguistics soon enough

btw @STINK what happened to 

Stink 19 hours ago: "Yeah, don't say what field you're being elevated in / what EP you're doing. That's a bad idea."

 not like it was a secret tho since you've said it multiple times that you're going into Linguistics. I guess Linguists do like to talk.  

[DeTess she/her]

Sunlight streaming in through his window woke Telar up. He still felt incredibly tired. His mind was fuzzy and he could barely remember the previous night. He’d spent most of it in the archives doing research, but why he’d done so eluded him.

He slowly got up from his bed, and got a first good look around his room. A large amount of papers were strewn across the floor. Telar picked one up and found it covered in numbers. Apparently it was a list tabulating how many cases of cracking the university had to deal with during a period a number of years back. But why had he…

Telar’s mind finally joined the rest of him in the waking world, and his memories of the previous evening came back. On a whim, he’d looked into a Master Hael that was mentioned in a note in a  book he’d been reading in the archives. This had led him down a rabbit-hole of reports and ledgers, and though nothing he could get his hands said it outright, it was clear something really bad had occurred. A large number of students had either gone insane, had been expelled or had been killed. None of the ledgers he’d had access to had mentioned skindancers, and when he’d asked one of the scrivs for a report mentioned in one of the ledgers he’d been told that the masters had restricted that information to members of the Arcanum.

That hindrance would be solved soon though. Telar started changing into a clean set of clothes. He had been summoned by one of the masters, and Telar was pretty sure he would be elevated. The meeting was somewhat early in the morning, but judging by the sunlight coming in through his window it was still early.

‘Wait. Sunlight is streaming in directly through my window. The window that is facing west.’ Telar groaned. Missing that meeting meant he could probably forget about getting elevated before the end of the term.

 

[STINK he/him]

I'm always the wonderful exception, of course  Should I go into how around an hour ago you said you'd be asleep? 

But yeah, I really advice others to not say what they're going into. When I do it it's kinda okay (mostly 'cause it's Linguistics which isn't really that threatening) but if everyone did then wew, that'd be a mess.

[Straw he/him]

Hi, I'm bored. Does anyone want some graphs? I already made one:

[Stick. she/her]

1 hour ago, STINK said:

I'm always the wonderful exception, of course  Should I go into how around an hour ago you said you'd be asleep? 

But yeah, I really advice others to not say what they're going into. When I do it it's kinda okay (mostly 'cause it's Linguistics which isn't really that threatening) but if everyone did then wew, that'd be a mess.

Isnt every field is a threat to the elims though? I mean, take Analysis for example. Much threatening.

[STINK he/him]

4 minutes ago, _Stick_ said:

Isnt every field is a threat to the elims though? I mean, take Analysis for example. Much threatening.

Analysis ain't that much of a threat. For one, I think that doing the whole 'I ain't evil' thing is super lame, and also analysis won't tell me if they lied 1 or 20 times. 

[Stick. she/her]

Just now, STINK said:

Analysis ain't that much of a threat. For one, I think that doing the whole 'I ain't evil' thing is super lame, and also analysis won't tell me if they lied 1 or 20 times. 

PM spying, then

[STINK he/him]

Just now, _Stick_ said:

PM spying, then

You ain't getting me to talk about my strats in-thread, Stick.

[Straw he/him]

Stink is right. "I am not a Skindancer" is really lame. Also, Stick, stop trying to get him to tell you his abilities.

[Stick. she/her]

...

Amusing how I've been voted on in almost all the turns till now, and no-one's given a good enough reason (or any reason at all) for them ... 

[Straw he/him]

Except for Stink, he gave a reason.

[STINK he/him]

8 minutes ago, _Stick_ said:

...

Amusing how I've been voted on in almost all the turns till now, and no-one's given a good enough reason (or any reason at all) for them ... 

Amusing how you seem to be saying that I don't have a reason rather than ya know, responding to the reason.

EDIT: Got Ninja'd by Straw, thanks I guess?

Edited May 5, 2017 by STINK
those darn ninjas

[Straw he/him]

Orlok, do you have anything to say?

EDIT: This thread is Hot!

Edited May 5, 2017 by Straw