WWJ IX: Psychotic Penguins: The Crossing of Helcaraxë

[Encaitare]

Voting is now like this:

Eonwe – 1 (Macalaure 1)
Spawn – 2 (Diamond 2, Naria 4)
Encai – 1 (Ang 3)
Naria – 3 (Spawn 5, Encai 6, Phantom 7)

EDIT: Cross-posted with Phantom and edited to include his vote.

[Firefoot]

I'm going to go ahead and vote for

++Naria

Thanks for fixing that, Encai... I feel dumb, listing Spawn twice...

[Roa_Aoife]

Voting with no time.

I can't vote for Naria and maintain intellectual integrity. There's no case against her except that Boromir said she was quiet and the fact that she's quiet. Right now my suspicions lie with Firefoot- combine Bormir's remarks, with her over defensiveness, and refusal to state facts in her attacks, she looks quite bad.

Also, if Eonwe doesn't show today I'm voting fo rhim tomorrow unless a really good case for someone else is presented.

Thanks for your help, phantom, and good luck. Three gifteds in three nights... oh dear... Just be wary of crafty birds.

++Firefoot

[Anguirel]

That's...bizarre. Foul play, phantom, though I'm sure accidental; I swear I saw you vote for me, then edit it to Naria.

And Enca telepathised you'd meant to vote for Naria.

All in all, weird, but I had to point it out in case no one else saw it happen.

[Valier]

Well without further ado, at least it was someone on my list...

++Naria

I have suspected her from the get go and we will now finally be able to put our suspicions to rest one way or the other.

Also Phantom
I would not pick me tonight if you want to catch a wolf! If you must then do it, and you will all see. May I suggest taking either Ang or Firefoot with you if you go. I am sure one of the two is a WP.
Edit: I forgot about the Logical hunter thing....go ahead and take me with you, it will prove my innocence.

[Anguirel]

phantom, any chance of you explaining your conduct in voting for me, then trying to cover it up without a formal retraction? Am I hallucinating? I'm sure it was just a slip due to exhaustion, but I would like an explanation.

[Valier]

Originally Posted by Roa

Also, if Eonwe doesn't show today I'm voting fo rhim tomorrow unless a really good case for someone else is presented.

Read the discussion thread....he has left the game.

[Roa_Aoife]

Originally Posted by Valier

Read the discussion thread....he has left the game.

Oh, never mind then. Sorry!

[Thinlómien]

Please stop posting (and voting, of course), little Elves.

Naria's death will be up soon.

[Thinlómien]

They were all shocked by the death of Lalaith. Or, shocked and shocked.
“They killed Lalaith? I'm shocked!” the phantom opened the Day.
“I figured I'd just show up at the very end to vote”, he added.

“Who are you and what have you done with our phantom?” Dimwë asked him jokingly. And they went on to nag at each other the whole Day, the discussion covering all from lurid dreams involving Aimé to hotpants and fishnet stockings.

But there seemed to develop some more serious duels of words. For example, Roa_Aoife, Elenwë’s personal guard, and Firefoot, Aredhel’s friend, were on each other’s throats.

But above all, everyone was quite unsure who to suspect, and even more tales of old were brought to the discussion than before. Encaitare, the standard-bearer, even tried to recount the tales of every family involved. Not everyone saw the profit of the endeavour, and she stopped.

Valier didn’t like it when it was stated that there was a movement against her. “I wasn't aware there was a movement”, she complained, “I still don't like when people put stuff in their posts.”

“Six votes in an electorate of twelve isn't merely a movement, m'dear. It's practically a Crusade!” Ang corrected her.

“If Eonwe doesn't show today I'm voting FO RHIM tomorrow unless a really good case for someone else is presented”, Roa proclaimed. They all looked around, but Eonwe was nowhere to be seen.

“How gajopyiferous”, Ang commented.

---------------------

I’m not going to watch this kinslaying-thing go forwards anymore! The case with the Teleri was enough, Eonwe thought during the morning, as the Elves were accusing each other ever more louder. Silently he crept outdoors and breathed the fresh cold air. He wandered to the shore and stood there alone for a time. He had decided already. He had made his decision. Slowly he took the steps needed to reach the water and fell to the embrace of the chilly seas. He let the currents take him to wherever they would.

No tale tells his fate.

-----------------------

In the end, the suspicion of Naria was quite mutual. The accusation “too quiet, must die” came from many directions.

Naria listened to the accusations piling up on her. She was pale, but remained calm outside. Inside, she was torn, and there was no trace of calmness there. I deserve this, she thought. I deserve this for what I did to Lalaith. And to Kitanna. And to Thinlómien and Nogrod. I deserve to die. I don’t want to live with this.

“It’s Naria then. She must die”, Valier voiced the inevitable. By that time, Naria was already running.

“Where is she?” Firefoot asked, worried.
“She’s running away!” the phantom yelled, seeing her through the window.
Desperately the Elves ran after her, weapons in their hands.

But Naria was already out of their reach. As she ran, she began to transform. Her skin grew black and white feathers, her legs shortened making it more difficult for her to run, and her nose turned into a beak. Wholly transformed, she reached the gorge Boromir had been dumped into. He had been the Rockhopper. And she was the Chinstrap.



She gave one final glance to her fellow elves. With her small right wing, she waved goodbye. Then she cast herself to the abyss.

~ The Dead ~
Nogrod - a troubadour, singer – mod, blowed up in the Big Bang on Night1
Thinlómien - a troubadour, harpist – mod, blowed up in the Big Bang on Night1
Boromir88 - The Mouth of Turgon – werepenguin, cast into a gorge on Day1
Kitanna - servant who empties and cleans chamber pots – ranger, body and soul separated by Cartesian Dualism on Night2
JennyHallu - An Embroiderer, lost, not related – cobbler, shot dead in to the sea on Day2
Lalaith - Aredhel's tutoress – seer, blinded, mutilated and torn apart by the Owl of Minerva on Night3
Eonwe - Turgon's herald - ordo, lost in the waves of the dark sea on Day3
Naria - Family's goat herder - werepenguin, driven into a gorge by her consicience on Day3

~ The Living ~
Anguirel - Lalwende's semi-canonical lutenist and Findis's demi-canonical flautist
dancing spawn of ungoliant - animals' dung cleaning specialist
Diamond18 - Dimwë the half-wit second cousin of Elenwë
Encaitare - A standard-bearer
Firefoot- Aredhel's friend
Macalaure - Turgon's nephew and part-time-repentant kinslayer
the phantom - Ecthelion's hotheaded nephew and personal squire
Roa_Aoife - Elenwë's personal guard
Valier - Elenwe's personal chamber maid


Night4 has now begun.

Emperor, send your pick to Nogrod.

[Nogrod]

“Saatanan tunarit!” the Master cursed in a secret tongue only the Maiar lured by Melkor knew. Then he switched to Quenya: “Fools! Idiots! Petty songbirds! How could you fail me? How could you?” The Emperor knew it was wiser not to answer at all.
“Those little bastards! They failed me. I should have chosen someone else!” the Master raged. Then he turned to the Emperor again, his eyes flaming: “Don’t you dare to fail me too.”
“I will die for your cause, Master”, the Emperor swore gravely, its head bent down.
“That is not enough, you swatter! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!” the Master went on. “You must not die. You must make them die. Understood?”

-----------------

One of the Elves awoke that Night to a small click that came from his door. He jumped up just to see the Emperor penguin turning to face him. He reached for his sword and was just turning to defend himself when he heard the low and friendly voice of the penguin. The Emperor didn’t look especially frightening, standing there remarkably shorter than the tall elf.

“What are you thinking at the moment, kinslayer?” it asked innocently.
“You dare to call me kinslayer, you Dress Coat Demon! I at least repent it part-time! Mind you, I’m thinking of beheading you with my sword right now”, Macalaure flared up.
“Before you go on with it, could you just reflect it, to show me that you can?” the Emperor asked calmly and looked him in the eye.
“What are you talking about, werecreature? Do you find your death a fun thing? I have killed my own kin, so surely I wouldn’t hesitate to kill a mere bird”, Macalaure declared, emphasising his words by raising his sword.
“So, if you are thinking about beheading me, can you also become conscious of the fact that you are thinking about beheading me?” the Emperor queried in a peaceful tone.
“Of course you stupid bird! It’s called self-reflectivity. It’s something that divides the beings with fëa from those that do not have one. It’s like you yourself looking at your thoughts from above. Even the children know this... and we have been assuming you to be intelligent!” Macalaure answered without hiding the sarcasm.
“Well can you then become conscious about yourself being conscious of your thought of killing me?” the penguin asked carelessly, like in passing.
“Surely I can!” Macalaure snapped back. “What are you after, you foul creature?”
“I don’t believe you if you don’t try and prove it”, the Emperor grinned thinly.
“Okay, I’ll show you”, Macalaure lowered his sword and thought about the act of killing the penguin. Quite immediately he became conscious about thinking it. And pretty easily he managed then to become conscious of this reflective stance to the original thought of killing the penguin. “Ha! It wasn’t even difficult. So what about it?” he asked, raising his sword again.
“Well, if you can reflect your self-reflection, could you also reflect that reflectivity over your self-reflection?” the Emperor answered with a question, now already smiling as wide as one can smile with a beak, “Or could you even be looking from the outside your reflection on your reflectivity over your self-reflection?”
“Erm... You mean to see myself becoming conscious of being conscious of seeing myself thinking something?”
“You can put it that way if you wish. But just before you try, think also, which one of these is your innermost self or the “I” that you yourself are? How deep will you have to go to actually find it?” the Emperor tried to hold an earnest expression on its face, but it was difficult. It giggled (only think of what a giggling penguin would look like and you just might have the correct impression).

Macalaure was now getting deeper and deeper into the layers of himself, slowly drowning further and further away from the here and now. At the same time his brain started to heat, no, it started to overheat from the thoughts leading to infinity. He was absorbed into a kind of Reverse Total Perspective Vortex that sent him spiralling down to the infinity of himselves always eluding him no matter how deep he got. It didn’t take long before Macalaure’s brains exploded. The boiling hot blood sprinkled all over his room and the headless body dropped to the floor.

The Emperor had already drawn back to its room by then. Nice things these vicious regressions that play with infinity, it thought before it fell asleep, being careful not to attempt the same thought-experiment itself.

(WARNING: Kids, do not try this at home.)

---------------------

When the Elves once again assembled in the corridor the next morning, they were so delighted to see the phantom alive against all expectations that they all ran to embrace him. The phantom was generally cool about it, but in the end he had to admit: “Well, I guess it’s better to be embraced by a bunch of droll Elves than sliced by a dreadful avian monster.”

“I think we still have lost one of our number”, Encaitare remarked, counting the heads. A gloomy silence fell upon the joyous Elves. “Macalaure’s missing...”

Spawn was standing near the door of Macalaure’s room and pulled it open. There was blood all over the tapestry and the headless body of Macalaure was lying at the floor. “You don’t want to see this, but he’s here”, spawn said. She closed the door. “Rest in peace, Mac”, she whispered.

That rest was not granted. Kitanna’s bruised body appeared from behind the corner.
“Oh no, it has broken free”, the chambermaid Valier sighed.
“Oh Eru, look at its condition”, Firefoot said, her quiet voice almost trailing off.
“We should have tied it up better”, Roa muttered as the zombie tumbled against Macalaure’s door and hit its head for the thousandth time. Kitanna’s living corpse looked very bad indeed.

They took Kitanna’s soulless body downstairs with them and tied it up again. “I can take care of her, as I outwit her”, Dimwë the half-wit promised solemnly.

“Breakfast-time. Breakfast. Now. Breakfast now”, they heard a cheerful voice from above them.
“Oh, shut up, silly bird”, said Anguirel bitterly.

~ The Dead ~
Nogrod - a troubadour, singer – mod, blowed up in the Big Bang on Night1
Thinlómien - a troubadour, harpist – mod, blowed up in the Big Bang on Night1
Boromir88 - The Mouth of Turgon – werepenguin, cast into a gorge on Day1
Kitanna - servant who empties and cleans chamber pots – ranger, body and soul separated by Cartesian Dualism on Night2
JennyHallu - An Embroiderer, lost, not related – cobbler, shot dead in to the sea on Day2
Lalaith - Aredhel's tutoress – seer, blinded, mutilated and torn apart by the Owl of Minerva on Night3
Eonwe - Turgon's herald - ordo, lost in the waves of the dark sea on Day3
Naria - Family's goat herder - werepenguin, driven into a gorge by her consicience on Day3
Macalaure - Turgon's nephew and part-time-repentant kinslayer – ordo, brains exploded after entering a vicious regression concerning the possible infiniteness of self-reflective consciousness on Night4

~ The Living ~
Anguirel - Lalwendë's semi-canonical lutenist and Findis's demi-canonical flautist
dancing spawn of ungoliant - animals' dung cleaning specialist
Diamond18 - Dimwë the half-wit second cousin of Elenwë
Encaitare - A standard-bearer
Firefoot- Aredhel's friend
the phantom - Ecthelion's hotheaded nephew and personal squire
Roa_Aoife - Elenwë's personal guard
Valier - Elenwë's personal chamber maid

Day4 begins now.

[Roa_Aoife]

*blinkblink* I was afraid of this....

The lack of phantom guts adorning the place means one of two things- either Valier is a wolf and didn't want to be killed last night, or the last wolf wants us to think that and lynch her.

Quite the cunumdrum, indeed.

I went through Naria's posts- as you can imagine, there wasn't much to be found. She seemed to go along with other people's votes, and never said anything certain herself, except for the one list of players. I'm going to go back through and look at it.

With Naria dead, and it being unlikely that Boromir would list to of his fellow penguins in the same group, I'm going to let the Firefoot case go. Fow now. That may just narrow things down significantly.

[Valier]

*Sigh* well this is just great! Why, oh why, in the world Anguirel would you pick Mac instead of me? ........Oh did I say Ang? Yep that's right! I figured it was time I started .....what did Ang call it?.....Oh yeah a Valier style campaign.

I just knew this was going to happen..and it sucks! I was actually hoping the Phantom would get killed and then I would be a proven innocent and have some sway in getting Ang killed today. But since that didn't work, I still will stand by my suspicions of him. I will try my darnedest to find useful and insightful info today.

Oh and Phantom? You did have some sort of a plan worked out for if you didn't die right?

[the phantom]

Well, well. The Penguin decided to let me live, eh?

Well, since I'm still here, I have a request.

I had a neat little idea towards the end of yesterday that I think might yield some interesting results. Don't worry- it's not some kooky plan. It is merely a method for accusations and defenses that I thought could help make everyone's thoughts very clear, and help me make my Hunter pick tonight.

So if you would, DON'T VOTE or go crazy with lists and such until later today, when I'm back and have explained my plan. I don't have time now. I'm running late for class. I'll be back in five hours or sooner, so we'll still have plenty of time.

Thanks.

[dancing spawn of ungoliant]

“Saatanan tunarit!”

Well, having phantom still around is nice although it was somewhat predictable.

The obvious conclusion of this is that Valier is the last penguin and she didn't want to get killed by the hunter. Another option is that this was an attempt to frame her up.


Again, I'm suspicious of Ang. In addition to what I've said earlier, I think the way Boro spoke about him looks like an avian alliance.

"Anguirel, has popped in couple, said his say, nothing strange there." ~Boro #33

"At first it seemed to me like Anguirel was going off with what he had at the time, but good points have been raised against him. I'm going to hold off until he gets back." ~ Boro #46

Ang's vote from Day 1 looks quite suspicious as he changed it from Eonwe to Kitanna giving her a second vote after Boro had got his first one. Then, of course, there was the incident when Ang defended Boromir against Roa, but I don't know how much that tells.

Here's what Naria (#298) said about Ang.

"Anguirel- Hmmm he's a tuff one to understand. I don't like the way that he is being so pushy with his posts especially towards people that I don't find particularly evil right now. Quite frankly some of his posts don't make any sense at all and that doesn't sit well with me."

It's notable, though, that she didn't say anything very precise about anyone.

Here's what Anguirel (#308) said about Naria.

"Naria-till recently, no evidence, really, except vague kudos for, in the end, acting to save Lalaith. Recently analysis which still doesn't reveal much, but does show complete trust in...Diamond! Argh! It's a conspiracy! Also accuses me of making no sense. How gajopyiferous."

Like Boromir, Ang speaks quite positively about her considering that she had barely spoken. YesterDay Ang voted for Enca, and refrained from commenting on people voting for Naria even though he was around till the end. I can imagine Anguirel as the emperor penguin, and right now he's my main suspect although I wish to look closer at other villagers, too.


edit: cross-posted with... everyone

[Roa_Aoife]

And another one! I'll be back soon with a cross-check between Boromir and Naria

Naria says:

Trusts

Diamond
Mac
Phantom (duh)
Valier

Unsure

Enca
Firefoot

Suspicious

Ang
Spawn
Eonwe
Roa


Other's Say

Trust

No one

Unsure

Roa
Ang
Firefoot

Suspicious

Valier
Phantom
Spawn
Enca

Doesn't mention (that I can find on Day 3)

Mac
Eonwe
Diamond

Cross-overs

Suspicious

Spawn