Katzaniel

* makes a flushing noise * Have fun, Vlad. And yeah, don't keep going when it's no longer fun. Or when you're bankrupt.

Yes, and often without anything good to laugh at. I honestly don't know what my problem is, I'll be laughing so hard at nothing at all that I wake people up, or that people start talking about Bambi's dead mother to see if I still laugh, and it doesn't help, I simply can't stop. * sighs *

Neither does mine. But I'd like a shot at it anyway, so I'm going to slightly alter the question, if no one minds. What if I had initially done something differently? For interest's sake, I will pick a moment many years ago. Ah yes.. what about at the point of time where I was the student who had been picked out to be picked on? What if instead of living through 3 years of self-confidence bashing terrorizing by the students in my elementary school, I had switched schools? Well, I would never have learned how to deal with other kids, never understood their desire to be popular, never seen how egotistical and unknowing most of them are. I went through a long, long period of readjusting my self esteem, relearning how to talk to people, look them in the eye, speak my opinion. I am still not finished remodelling myself after those years. I am still a much quieter kid than I'd ever been, but I finally have some confidence again. Anyway, without that I would have more confidence in one way, but less in another, since I would not have worked to get it.. I guess I am saying it would be more fragile. When I went to high school and met the same kids, and some different ones too, I would not have known how to deal with them. Possibly I would have gone through the same whole ordeal but a little later... but it would have been different. I would not have had my english teacher to help me relearn how to talk in front of a class. I would not have joined debate to help myself learn how to present a point. I would not have made all the friends that I did in university, and of course I would not still be good friends with the few people from elementary school that treated me well. Would I know the same people from high school? Probably not, since many of them were introduced to me via the elementary school friends. My boyfriend of many years? Likely not. Who's to say whether I'd have a boyfriend at all, or maybe many failed ones? I'd have a whole different set of friends, and they would probably reflect this other me. They might be more or less shy, hard to say... they might not have placed the same importance on schoolwork, meaning I would not have graduated with as high an average, I would not have had the luck I've had with finding jobs. Very, very likely, had I switched schools so many years ago, I would still be single, I would have a minimum wage job (nothing wrong with that, except that it doesn't look so good on a resume) and be in a totally different field in university. Of course all that puts me in a totally different place for the rest of my life after this point... I'd truly be a totally different person. Not to mention the effects that would have on my friends, who would no longer know me, my boyfriend, who may or may not have found another girlfriend, the person who would have gotten the scholarships I didn't, my english teacher, whose life I have recently reentered, my boss, who would have settled for someone who might not have gotten the job done... and everyone who would be affected by each of those people's altered lives. This good enough, Regel? Interesting topic, indeed.

OOC: Salinye, you fought very well at the end there. I was confused what your plan might be, if guilty, and it really made me wonder if maybe you weren't. If we had given you one more day, would you have tried to attack me and then claimed that Salinye was baned & therefore innocent? Or passed on the kill and tried to argue that the wolves had it in for you? Or some other, sinister plan? I'm so glad Jaqui wasn't wrong... would you guys have all lynched me the next day if I had been? I was planning on *not* baning myself, if wrong, on the hopes that the wolf would assume I was. Suicidal, perhaps, but at that point Jaqui would be feeling a little suicidal. In response to Tanny's questions: Luck was so strongly on our side that time. I doubt that most baners would find the wolf on the first night, or the seer find the *other* wolf on the second night... We would probably have to try again with the no-kill rules to see how it turned out a second time. Personally, I like it, as it increases the baner's involvement, changes their strategy, and allows them to mark off innocents. Hey, I wonder what would happen in a game where the seer/baner are told each other's names and allowed to communicate via PM? We'd have to make it 3 wolves or something though. Or do that thing where they're not allowed to reveal themselves IC. Ooh... that would be interesting.

"If only that would work," Jaqui sighed. "You should know as well as any of us that the killer would lie low for a day, and you would be implicated tomorrow. Thus the second werewolf, whether you or someone else, would simply be one kill closer to getting us all."

Tanny asked me to tell you all that since the Pen went down just as she was finishing her post, and she can't post for the next 6 hours anyway, there will be an extension. This means you are allowed to roleplay, accuse, change votes, whatever... day phase continues for the next 6 hours!

Jaqui reaches out to Serena, fumbling, trying to hold her hands. "I want to be wrong. It's important that you know, I want you to be innocent. You seem like exactly the sort of person that I wish I'd met sooner, exactly the sort of person that I could be friends with. I also emphathize with your desire that we not waste time incriminating an innocent, since I will probably be next if I am wrong. But you understand, don't you, that we can't do anything else at this point?" Jaqui hangs her head, a look of supreme sadness on her face. "If it really is you who committed these murders, and the odds in my mind are extraordinarily low that the attacker would be so adamant against the same person twice, and so early on... if I'm right, we could put a stop to it here and now. All we have to do is lock you up. And, like you said, you're safer there anyway... now that I can't protect you any more."

Katzaniel considers sticking her tongue out at Finnius, and instead settles for what she hopes to be a disconcerting glare.

Huh? Wasn't the question whether or not we'd change anything? I gave three examples of interpretations of the change, and gave my response to them (so what if it ended in a question mark, you can clearly read my intentions from the phrasing), and then reiterated that NO, I would not change anything. How can you say I've dodged the question?

Jaqui suddenly looks very old. "I have not lied to you about what I know, Ms. Christie. If I am somehow wrong in my conclusions, I hope that we will not waste time in locking me up, but if that is your choice, I am willing to accept it. For now, what is important is protecting ourselves from Serena. Is there no one else who is willing to support me?"

As Katz eyes the big purses of her competitors, she suddenly realizes that this is a fight she just might lose. Tightening the grip on her spear, she squeaks out a "Sixty six!" and goes back to glaring at her foes.

If I could go back in time, just moments after a decision... why wouldn't I have made the right decision the first time? If I could go back in time, just moments after seeing the immediate results of a decision... now, that would be cheating, wouldn't it? If I could go back in time, years afterward... what's the point? Perhaps I would feel differently if I'd ever killed someone with a stupid mistake, or something else that drastically bad, but other than that, no. I've never done anything so bad that it would warrant changing what I'd done.

Upon hearing of Shana's death, Jaqui is visibly shaken. She spends a few minutes in silent prayer, while others collect themselves and react in their own ways. Finally, she stands up and finds her way to the head of the hall. She thanks Wetherby and then coughs to gather attention. "I have something difficult to tell you all. Please, do not interupt me until I have finished..." Jaqui looks into the blackness of what she cannot see, glad for not the first time of her blindness. Sometimes, it is good to not know things. She imagines everyone looking angrily up at her, she imagines them in disbelief after her confession, but then she imagines them calm, and she finds the strength to continue. "I feel that in a small way, I share the guilt for Shana's death." Varied gasps are heard, but Jaqui keeps on. "I have the ability to protect you all, and I did not. Last night, I decided to protect only myself, and as a result, Shana is dead. However, I did this for what I see to be good reason. If I had tried to protect you all, I myself would be at risk, and I have the information that can end this all for us, today. I let one of you die so that more would not follow." Whispers echoed through the hall, and Jaqui's excellent hearing picked up surprise and doubt, but not anger. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Twice since the first death, I have put wolfsbane on one of your doors. Twice has a murder been averted. Twice may not be enough to convince every one of you but twice is enough to convince me, enough to put myself forward, at risk and for your scrutiny. Either that door was the door of a wolf, unable to pass and unable to kill, or it was twice the door of the intended victim. I myself am certain of this person's guilt, as certain as I am of my own small share of guilt. I do not regret waiting to tell you all, for if we had detained her sooner, I would not have had a lead to finding her partner, and I would not have been able to protect you all each night. I risked myself twice to protect each of you, and yesterday I risked myself again by trying to become friends with the werewolf, in order to learn more. What I regret is my inability to risk myself last night to save Shana. However, I am alive right now to tell you this, and that may well be the most important thing of all. The second killer, among us at this very moment, is Serena." Edit, OOC: Oh, yeah! Voting for Salinye / Serena

"Oh my god," blurts Jaqui, shocked. "But suddenly, it all makes sense." Her eyes narrow, and she hangs her head. "I hope you can all forgive me for what I mean to do now." The blind girl exits as quickly as she can. Shana tries to grab her arm. "Where are you going?" Jaqui squeezes her eyes tight, muttering a prayer for strength. Then, louder, "You must all trust me. There's a risk here, either way... but let me go, and I promise you, it will all soon be over. Tomorrow morning, I'll explain.. but for now, there is something I must do." Shana and Serena both look at Jaqui, confused. The whole room looks at her, trying to figure out what she means. But they let her leave.

Katzaniel points her spear menacingly at the other two bidders, with a smile that is halfway between comforting and wicked. "Fifty." The word hangs in the air for a split second before the auctioneer begins petitioning for an even higher amount. Katzaniel stands tall, playing with her tooth necklace meaningfully.

First off, instructions on voting and so forth: Here. Look - here - this - lovely - item - for - bidding - it - can - be - yours - for - a - low - low - price - just - get - your - geld - and - step - right - up - is - anyone - willing - to - bid - on - this - excellent - pendant - it's - a - real - bargain - no - matter - what - the - price - step - right - up - do - I - hear - one - geld - two - two - geld - for - this - lovely - item - I - hear - three - five - five - now - Ten! Let it begin.

You asked for different perspectives. I have two ideas of home... One which has already been thoroughly described, and the other which has not. Home can also be simply your "home base". Where you live or used to live, or where your parents or friends live. My home has suddenly moved many times, from within one city and then to another city and then back again. It's gone from being just one place to two places to three and back to two. But, according to perspective #2, it's not necessarily a place where you feel comfortable, or a place you want to be. Just the place you spend all your time when you're not doing everything else.

I smile at *all* the strangers I see. Is that weird?? Have you ever been going about your business, working on an assignment or doing the dishes or whatever, and suddenly become so aware of how the sun reflecting off of your pen makes a beautiful pattern, or the bubbles in the bowl form a face, that you had to stop and take a picture of it? Have you ever memorized fifteen minutes worth of Shakespeare simply because you liked that particular speech? (Anthony's funeral speech in Julius Caesar... yes, all five or six parts of it.) Have you ever spoken to an object and then apologized to it for that?

Some of them are waiting on their dates.... * bows her head and averts her eyes *

Jaqui tried all through lunch to make sense of the killings. She listened to everyone and put their comments through her psychology learnings. She wished Amanda were here, this stuff had always come more naturally for her. Then again, better that she was not here, much safer. Finally Jaqui comes to the conclusions that: one, there were no real conclusions to be had; two, feeling stalked and scared all the time was not the solution; and three, it might be safer to have a friend in these troubled times. Walter hadn't really responded to her questions, seeming to not care for the idea of becoming reaquainted with the blind girl. So, Jaqui turned to the pair, Shana and Selena. They were roughly her own age, they seemed friendly, and she had never really known them in high school, meaning she had never been mean to them. "I believe your names are Selena," said Jaqui, turning to where Selena had been when she last spoke, "and Shana," nodding in Shana's last direction. She hoped they hadn't moved, but given her white cane and unmoving eyes (she still distained the idea of covering them) she suspected they might not think too much on it if she were off by a bit. "I'm sorry I did not properly introduce myself earlier, but I have heard you talking and wish now to make friends." She shook hands with the two and they said polite hellos. Jaqui wondered if they were exchanging expressions or mouthing anything to each other. What were they thinking? "I also wanted to tell you that I agree with you, Shana, about Mr. Black. Perhaps that is what Mrs. Black was hiding, the knowledge that her husband could not be trusted. I think we might all be safer if they were both locked up away from the rest of us." OOC: Vote for Marcus Black / Degenero Angelus

Congratulations, cryptomancer! The writers for the Pendant were: 1. Cryptomancer 2. Tamaranis 3. Tanuchan 4. Wyvern 5. Ozymandias the Elder

I was thinking that if my sig weren't so themed, I would be asking permission to add that whole post to it. "Getcha bum a'clickin..." !

Valdar: Does it count to argue yourself into something you didn't want to do?

#1: Yes! Yes!!! Oh, the amusements of mismatched singers! #5: Peredhil??? And I thought I knew you. Have you ever wandered the almost empty halls of a normally busy institution and felt comfort in the strange silence? Have you ever walked the long way just to have done it? Have you ever poured your heart out to a God, knowing full well that if he does exist, he already knows what you're thinking? Have you ever stayed awake for so many hours in a row that you started hallucinating? Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night, certain that leprechauns were pillaging your bedroom? Have you ever really looked at the dark or listened to the silence? Have you ever come this close to dying?

Okay, I've got one. Killing all Attackers of The Pen, Zeroing in on danger, Anihilates threats to her home Never tolerates evil, Incises and removes, Ever keeping us safe, but Longing for more.