Eve's Horizon. It was nearly the dirtiest bar on Echo Prime. The mingled dust and grit of more than a dozen neighboring worlds was ground deep into the cracks and crannies of the worn, gun-metal grey flooring. The glasses, mismatched, stacked in untidy heaps behind the counter, were smudged with oil, grease, and spit. Low, clouded light filtered through smoke and steam, obscuring as much as illuminating. It was not a bar where you went to sate a common appetite, or find a kindred soul. It was the kind of bar you went to, to get yourself hopelessly lost, time slipping through numbed fingers, numbed minds, like water spilling through the vacuum of blackest space. It was six streets from the starport terminal, and down nine levels from the surface plates and landing strips of the bustling, working city. Warmth seeped languorously from floor-plates dotted throughout the room, staving off the creeping chill that would sweep over the city from its outer edges to its core in less than three hours, if the city's reactors came undone. Light-years from humanity's distant origin, scattered pockets of life clung tenaciously to harbors of rock and metal and steel, balanced on the razor's edge separating dirt and the shadowed and star-strewn sky.
It was not the first time Marlow had darkened the doorway of Eve's Horizon. Once every few months, he would arrive, order a drink, meet briefly with hard-eyed men with slow stares, and a freighter would take on a load of cargo, which Earth Authority customs would pointedly ignore, as they had been well paid to do.
Dirk Marlow sat at his usual table, ordered his usual drink, and waited. Someone else entered the bar - not a regular. Earth Authority uniform. Nobody quite met her eyes. Marlow stared into his drink.
She lowered her voice. "Look, Dirk, I can't go through with this one."
Marlow swirled the ice in his drink. "Having second thoughts about getting in bed with the rebellion?"
She gave him a level look. "No. And don't be an ********, Marlow. We've been through plenty, and I've put my ass on the line for you more times than I count. But you need to be straight with me, this time. I need to know what I'm getting into."
"It's just another shipment."
"It is NOT just another shipment. Don't pull that on me. Arms for the rebellion - I can live with that on my conscience. But what you're shipping - sophisticated genetic splicers, DNA readers, viral recoding cultures - I don't like what that looks like, Dirk."
"And what do you think that looks like?"
"A pile of a trillion dead bodies, hatching flies. That's what it looks like to me. You people always said this rebellion was for the common man. If you start-"
"Start what? Start killing off entire planets? Have the news reports say it was all just a freak virus? Yeah, it'd be just terrible if somebody got up to that." Marlow's fist tightened involuntarily. "You know, sometimes I don't know how you bring yourself to put on that uniform ever day and see yourself in the mirror."
"That's bull*****. You know what I've done for you. And it wasn't just for the money. And it wasn't your charming personality, either. You wanna talk about looking in the mirror? That's fresh, coming from someone who wants to remake himself into a mass murderer."
"You really think that's what I'm up to? Do you really know me that little?"
She paused. "It looks bad, Marlow. And I don't know all the people you work with. I can't just rubber stamp this and let it pass. We both know that things can't stay as they are. The people won't stand for being ordered how to live their lives from people who live a hundred thousand light years away, with no real say. The five party system is broken, and we all know it. But if it comes down to it, I don't what that kind of blood on my hands, and I hope you and your friends don't, either. So why don't you tell me what this is really about, if you can. Because if you can't, that cargo isn't going to move. Not unless you want to shoot your way out."
"I can't. It's too big, and I'm just an errand boy. They say jump, I jump. But I trust them, and so should you. We've never let you down."
She shook her head. "No. No, Marlow. You know more than you're letting on. You're not just some provincial chief. I've seen the way your men look at you, the way they jump. You know more about what's going on out there than even I do. There's more to you than that. Way more."
An edge crept into his voice. "And if I say no? You going to beat it out of me? Disappear me into some lightless vacuum capsule, fire me into the sun?" He moved to get up.
"Marlow. Stop." She slammed her hand down over his. "Look, I know we've had our rough patches. But we've had some good times too, haven't we? I've watched your back this long. And I've been trusting you, for a long time. It's time for a little bit of that to come around. Make me believe, Marlow. That's all I ask." She let go of his hand.
His eyes bored a hole in the table. Then he let out a deep breath.
"The rebellion is finished, Kate. It's over. In the last week, they've wiped twelve more planets off the map. One in a thousand survives the virus, and those that survive that are rounded up into camps and disposed of. Children, too. No witnesses, no questions. Every time we win, they burn us to the ground. They will never, ever let us hold territory of our own. Not even if it means wiping a quarter of the human race from existence to stop us."
Hands shaking, he drained his glass to the last drop. She waited for him go on. "We can't let them do that, but we can't give up, either. So we have to look to the future. Lay the groundwork for a blow they'll never see coming, and never come back from. Someday, years from now, maybe decades, when their guard is down. They still think they're fighting flesh and blood. They think we're fighting for power. They don't realize that they're fighting an idea, and ideas are immortal. You plant the right ideas in someone's head, and you control them. That's what this is about. Not killing. Control."
He met her eyes. "That's all that I can say and more. Is it good enough?"
The corner of her mouth turned down as she thought. She let out a breath. "Good enough."
Quote from Initial Briefing »
Disinheritance is a game for 16 players. Players will vote not only for who they believe the most likely mafia player is, but will also vote publicly for players who they wish to "empower" [Formatted Empower: Azrael], granting those players access to new, more powerful, and more exotic night abilities. Multiple players will be empowered each day, and will receive an empowerment score equal to the number of players voting to empower them at the end of day. This system will emphasize the importance of behavioral analysis and deception more than ever before, directly linking each group's talent in the game's fundamental core skills to the effectiveness of both groups during the night period. In addition, both groups will have unparalleled flexibility and variety in strategic options at their disposal during the night period, if they are able to coordinate their (and their opponents') empower votes effectively.
To facilitate this greater cooperation, strategy, and trickery, this game will permit all players to select (at least) one player, one time, day or night, and establish a permanent one-way communication link with that player. The sole restrictions are the inability to quote role PMs/mod PMs, and that the mod must be copied on all messages. To creative and cunning minds, this should present a tremendous opportunity to exploit.
In addition, the game offers the capacity for an unlimited number of "spectator" slots. Spectators will be assigned alignments, may freely comment on the game within a separate, publicly visible game thread, will share the ability to select a player to communicate with one-way, and will be capable of affecting the game through contributing analysis, advice, and disinformation. They are exempt from activity requirements, and they do not have setup access, they may not vote for players, and spectators are not assigned special abilities, nor do they count as hidden players or hydra accounts. They can be targeted.
Like previous Azrael games, this game pushes boundaries and expectations and seeks to push the envelope of what we think of as possible within a mafia game, with an arsenal of twists and traps at the players' disposal. Unlike certain Azrael games, elegance, restraint, and clarity, were the guiding principles of this design. The emphasis is on player vs. player - not players vs. the setup, or the mod.
Hold on to your butts - the final game of the specialty queue is about to commence, and it's going to be a ride.
Well, this is a horrible, horrible mistake, but I feel like I have some sort of futile tradition to uphold.
/in
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Quote from Bateleur »
Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
2011: Best Mafia Performance (Individual) - Best Newcomer
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player
2011: Best Mafia Performance (Individual) - Best Newcomer
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player
The Year 2383, 130 Years Before the Inheritance Incident
Eve's Horizon. It was nearly the dirtiest bar on Echo Prime. The mingled dust and grit of more than a dozen neighboring worlds was ground deep into the cracks and crannies of the worn, gun-metal grey flooring. The glasses, mismatched, stacked in untidy heaps behind the counter, were smudged with oil, grease, and spit. Low, clouded light filtered through smoke and steam, obscuring as much as illuminating. It was not a bar where you went to sate a common appetite, or find a kindred soul. It was the kind of bar you went to, to get yourself hopelessly lost, time slipping through numbed fingers, numbed minds, like water spilling through the vacuum of blackest space. It was six streets from the starport terminal, and down nine levels from the surface plates and landing strips of the bustling, working city. Warmth seeped languorously from floor-plates dotted throughout the room, staving off the creeping chill that would sweep over the city from its outer edges to its core in less than three hours, if the city's reactors came undone. Light-years from humanity's distant origin, scattered pockets of life clung tenaciously to harbors of rock and metal and steel, balanced on the razor's edge separating dirt and the shadowed and star-strewn sky.
It was not the first time Marlow had darkened the doorway of Eve's Horizon. Once every few months, he would arrive, order a drink, meet briefly with hard-eyed men with slow stares, and a freighter would take on a load of cargo, which Earth Authority customs would pointedly ignore, as they had been well paid to do.
Dirk Marlow sat at his usual table, ordered his usual drink, and waited. Someone else entered the bar - not a regular. Earth Authority uniform. Nobody quite met her eyes. Marlow stared into his drink.
She lowered her voice. "Look, Dirk, I can't go through with this one."
Marlow swirled the ice in his drink. "Having second thoughts about getting in bed with the rebellion?"
She gave him a level look. "No. And don't be an ********, Marlow. We've been through plenty, and I've put my ass on the line for you more times than I count. But you need to be straight with me, this time. I need to know what I'm getting into."
"It's just another shipment."
"It is NOT just another shipment. Don't pull that on me. Arms for the rebellion - I can live with that on my conscience. But what you're shipping - sophisticated genetic splicers, DNA readers, viral recoding cultures - I don't like what that looks like, Dirk."
"And what do you think that looks like?"
"A pile of a trillion dead bodies, hatching flies. That's what it looks like to me. You people always said this rebellion was for the common man. If you start-"
"Start what? Start killing off entire planets? Have the news reports say it was all just a freak virus? Yeah, it'd be just terrible if somebody got up to that." Marlow's fist tightened involuntarily. "You know, sometimes I don't know how you bring yourself to put on that uniform ever day and see yourself in the mirror."
"That's bull*****. You know what I've done for you. And it wasn't just for the money. And it wasn't your charming personality, either. You wanna talk about looking in the mirror? That's fresh, coming from someone who wants to remake himself into a mass murderer."
"You really think that's what I'm up to? Do you really know me that little?"
She paused. "It looks bad, Marlow. And I don't know all the people you work with. I can't just rubber stamp this and let it pass. We both know that things can't stay as they are. The people won't stand for being ordered how to live their lives from people who live a hundred thousand light years away, with no real say. The five party system is broken, and we all know it. But if it comes down to it, I don't what that kind of blood on my hands, and I hope you and your friends don't, either. So why don't you tell me what this is really about, if you can. Because if you can't, that cargo isn't going to move. Not unless you want to shoot your way out."
"I can't. It's too big, and I'm just an errand boy. They say jump, I jump. But I trust them, and so should you. We've never let you down."
She shook her head. "No. No, Marlow. You know more than you're letting on. You're not just some provincial chief. I've seen the way your men look at you, the way they jump. You know more about what's going on out there than even I do. There's more to you than that. Way more."
An edge crept into his voice. "And if I say no? You going to beat it out of me? Disappear me into some lightless vacuum capsule, fire me into the sun?" He moved to get up.
"Marlow. Stop." She slammed her hand down over his. "Look, I know we've had our rough patches. But we've had some good times too, haven't we? I've watched your back this long. And I've been trusting you, for a long time. It's time for a little bit of that to come around. Make me believe, Marlow. That's all I ask." She let go of his hand.
His eyes bored a hole in the table. Then he let out a deep breath.
"The rebellion is finished, Kate. It's over. In the last week, they've wiped twelve more planets off the map. One in a thousand survives the virus, and those that survive that are rounded up into camps and disposed of. Children, too. No witnesses, no questions. Every time we win, they burn us to the ground. They will never, ever let us hold territory of our own. Not even if it means wiping a quarter of the human race from existence to stop us."
Hands shaking, he drained his glass to the last drop. She waited for him go on. "We can't let them do that, but we can't give up, either. So we have to look to the future. Lay the groundwork for a blow they'll never see coming, and never come back from. Someday, years from now, maybe decades, when their guard is down. They still think they're fighting flesh and blood. They think we're fighting for power. They don't realize that they're fighting an idea, and ideas are immortal. You plant the right ideas in someone's head, and you control them. That's what this is about. Not killing. Control."
He met her eyes. "That's all that I can say and more. Is it good enough?"
The corner of her mouth turned down as she thought. She let out a breath. "Good enough."
Slashed In:
14/X
Spare Parts:
Spec Ops:
/in
/IN
/IN
town town town
Something like that. I feel obligated to join this game.
/in
{мы, тьма}
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player
/In
/spectate
The Family
/in
Draft my cube! (630 cards)
Oooooo, I like games.
SIMON SAYS: POST ON A MULTIPLE OF TWENTY
Ha Ha
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA
YOU won't REGRET it
No! We are upset that people are so unfamiliar with Crop Circles awesomeness that they thought we were him. We die angry
Oh get a room.
о дерьмо | i can has cheezburger?
This means I'm horny.
ITS A ZOMBIE! ......oh wait, it's just Tyler Hansbrough.
Elvis! Elvis! Let me be! Keep that pelvis faaaaar from me!
Just visiting.
/in
*waves to Seppel, Iso & Tordeck*
The Family
It really is.
Manders and MandersHex were taken. How LAME is that?!
No! We are upset that people are so unfamiliar with Crop Circles awesomeness that they thought we were him. We die angry
Oh get a room.
о дерьмо | i can has cheezburger?
This means I'm horny.
ITS A ZOMBIE! ......oh wait, it's just Tyler Hansbrough.
Elvis! Elvis! Let me be! Keep that pelvis faaaaar from me!
Just visiting.
The Family
I'm glad to see you.
Wouldn't it suck if I got randomed out?
{мы, тьма}
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player
in!
/in