Katzaniel

I cannot remain IC and post a vote before Marcus has replied. I really hope he is intending to reply and not stay in hiding, or else I will have to create my post just before the time limit is up. I do have some plans for how to go about writing my accusation post, but Marcus' answer to my question will play a crucial role. And I understand you're just poking us, but I'm passing the poke to Ozy.

More Questions: So wolves cannot communicate at all on strategy? Not even inital plans on the first day? Logically, I think they should be allowed to communicate a little before the game begins. If the Seer checks on the Baner, is s/he told Baner or just Innocent? Are roles selected by dice or other totally random method (ie previous wolves have the same chance of being a wolf as anyone else, and suspicious personalities don't necessarily matter)? That last one shouldn't be answered until after this game is over. Thanks.

Katie doesn't remember that part Edit: Deg - I'm all for that. Tania? He cute enough?

Awesome... Um, I'll be Katie. Not to be unoriginal with names or anything Feel free to PM me with background story ideas, but I get the idea that this one won't require much in the way of character development. Katie thinks you stole her last boyfriend though.

Today is the day for multiples of 7! So, we've got 7 cakes (yes, Wyvern, they are big) with 7 candles each. Streamers come 7 per wall. Um... I actually don't feel very creative right now so that's it for my decorations of the birthday room. I'm sure Peredhil will come in and add some stuff later if he has time. I just wanted to make the post today for Tamaranis, best friend and boyfriend. Tam, I would have said b/f to annoy you... but it would have annoyed you. So, have a good day! I won't make any promises not to annoy you for the rest of the day (that is, when it is "today" here ) so enjoy it now. To the others, have a great 14th.

A sleek black cat winds its way into the office. Seeing Scarlot, the cat morphs into full tigertaur form and smiles crookedly. "Where do we go to make our appeals for membership?"

Trembling, Katharine looks at the chandelier in horror. Marcus and Ms. Christie are right beside her, also shocked. "I don't understand it," says Katharine. "Unless it truly was an accident.. and I don't believe that for a moment... why are Ms. Christie and I both still alive, while Mr. Cooper, the only other person under tangible suspicion, has been murdered? For any assassin that is a cocky move." Marcus reaches out to his mother and she retreats. "How can I trust anyone any more? Ms. Christie, if guilty, had us both in her hands. Marcus and Mr. Cooper would have voted for each other and she could have had her selection on the order of her victims. Marcus, please explain to me what's happening to us all!"

A lot of that I cannot really help with, however the part about being self confidence really hit home. I can share some words of wisdom there. Whether they work as well for you as for me, time can only tell, but I am no longer so shy I can't look people in the eye, or make a presentation to a group of people I ought to be comfortable with. Perhaps I am also making a mistake equating low self confidence with shyness, but to me they are interweaved. Anyway, the thing I found through hard continuous effort was that the more you try to look confident, the more you feel confident. For example, in making a presentation to a group, if you can really press yourself (I truly understand how hard this might be for you), you should look around the room while you talk, stand straight, and avoid looking at your paper. (Although probably not all the very next time, you can work up to this). To assist in not reading off your paper, you could write only jot notes to remind you of the larger points you wanted to make. If your mind is likely to blank on you this will be more difficult, but if you begin to do this more, your mind is less likely to blank. Anyway, in doing this you appear confident, and if you do this enough, you begin to feel it, too. When you're talking to friends, teachers, even other students you don't know well, work on the ability to look them in the eye. It won't come quickly, but some day you may get it to the point where you can walk down a hallway and look strangers in the eye, smiling and nodding as you pass. You project an entirely different image from the person who hurries by hunched over their books - and you feel much better about yourself, too. You are insecure. I am, too. When strangers pass you in the hall and you hear them laugh a moment later, you think they're laughing at you, right? It's hard not to wonder sometimes, but if you look at it from another angle, it's really an arrogant thought that these people who don't know you at all would both forget about whatever they were talking about in order to share a laugh about you. Maybe I'm wrong and you don't think that, but I was that way for a long time, and the thought still crosses my mind when it happens. I'm not sure what to say about needing constant reassurrance from friends. You already understand that that's a problem, and like Appy already said, that's the main thing. Maybe it would help to think about it this way: If they didn't like you, they wouldn't hang out with you. Especially someone who is constantly needing that assurance; this is a lot of work for your friends and unless they really like your other attributes, they wouldn't put in this effort. So you must know that your friends do like you. They do. Those that have stayed with you through this are the truly worthwhile ones, and they like you back. Try to forget about the people in elementary school who rejected you. They always pick someone, and they usually pick them for low confidence. If you had higher confidence before they picked on you, then realize that they pick on everyone a little bit, it's a sort of initiation process, and that you weren't singled out as being different until you couldn't deal with their insults. At least, thinking back on my own experiences, I have come to realize that this was the case. And people that need someone to pick on are not worth hanging out with, or worth your wanting them to like you. If you can just forget about them and concentrate on the people worth your attention, you will probably be happier. One last note, since at this point your experiences diverge from my own: Fun does not equal adrenaline. I don't care what the dictionary says, Fun is enjoying yourself in whatever manner you do that. Go outside in the sun, close your eyes, smile and take a deep breath. Sometimes, all you need to do to have fun is stop for a moment and forget about the "daily grind". If you can do that often then you are enjoying life more than the people who wait and wait for vacation days so that they can go skydiving for a week, or some silly thing. They hate the days in between and that's ridiculous. Instead, enjoy the days you have, even the ones where you're working, because you can see the people that you love, or because the sun is shining, or because the snow on the ground is glittering prettily, or because you have a chance to stop and write for a while today. Any old excuse you have to enjoy TODAY is a good excuse. You don't need an adrenaline rush. Even though the likelihood that all of this will apply to your situation is pretty slim, I hope that at least some of it sounds familiar and will help you deal with your own problems. Most of all, remember that recognizing the problem and wanting to deal with it are the first and most importand steps. The rest may come slowly, but if you don't expect your problems to right themselves in a day or a week, if you're willing to pick away at them like a marble statue and shape them to how you need them to be, then it will all be all right, and soon enough that you can enjoy the difference.

Katharine hugs Marcus back as hard as she can. He was the last one left on Wil's list of suspects, but Wil had been wrong twice already. She didn't know what to think about Marcus or whether he could have done it. She was sure he could not have, and wondering again about just how clever Mr. Cooper might have been. But she was also certain that it would not matter. She would die tonight and she would be able to go to her husband's side once more. Tears brimming over, Marcus asks Katharine what she is thinking about. "Your father, Marcus. He died when you were still very young, but do you remember him at all?" "I remember how he smelled, and I have a memory of him standing in a doorway once, like a great big giant, but smiling down at me. That's about all I have." "I made myself forget about him so that I could look after you and Charles. You were so helpful, watching Charles while I taught. But recently I've had dreams of him again. Visions of the accident that killed him while he worked, him calling out my name although they told me later he could not have known he was about to die. I think I am very happy to know that if Mr. Cooper kills me tonight, I will be able to be with your father again. And if the others cannot trust you, you will be with me soon after and you will know the joy of his company. I know that you are too young to die, Marcus, but at least you'll be with him and I." "Don't think about death." Marcus holds her tighter.

Having gotten lost only once, Katharine steps out from the hedge maze and continues on to the mansion. Katharine listens at the door for a little while, catching clearly that Mr. Danielson has been accused and the group is awaiting a rebuttal from him. Sighing, and walking in now with a lighter step, Katharine joins them. She reaches over to Marcus and hands him the note, then says, "I am happy to see that the rest of you also believe my son innocent. Of course I do, too - I just didn't trust my own belief. That may be hard to understand, but I hope you all can. Meanwhile I do feel confident enough to add my own suspicions onto yours. I hope we can end this all tonight. If not, and if I do not see you in the morning, then God be with you, for you will need it then more than ever." They all nod slightly, and Marcus reads the note carefully, appearing a little less burdened as he does. Obviously her behaviour has changed things between them, but not entirely unmendable. "Let's get something to eat," Katharine adds, heading toward the kitchen. OOC: A (redundant) vote for MeThinksUFoolish - Wetherby Danielson

Many hours after her outburst, Katharine is still sitting on a bench in a small but open area of the hedge maze. She finds herself staring at the berries and coming to no conclusions at all. Fishing a bit of paper out of her purse, she composes a note to her son. Marcus: I am positive that you are beyond suspicion. There is no way that you, my dear boy, could do anything as grisly as that, even if you were capable of murder at all, which I do not believe. Picking a berry and squishing it between her fingers, she keeps going over the same endless cycle in her brain. Why refrain from voting, then, and take the risk that others might perceive my speech as a hidden accusation of my own son? I keep thinking that perhaps I should go back and make clear how much I am sure of your innocence. But my certainty is contaminated, or could be. I come to my certainty of Mr. Danielson's guilt through good, solid logic... but I cannot know for sure that I am really being impartial in that. I cannot make an accusation, no matter how much it is backed by evidence and logic, when there is a block in my brain that prevents me even to ponder your possible guilt. The others see it, and I cannot. Even when the others were wrong, I could see how they arrived at their conclusions. But I cannot see how they might implicate you, forever my dearest son. And so, I cannot go back and make that vote for the butler. I'm sure I already made it clear how much I suspected him. I am sure you and they will make the right choice among you. If you accuse Mr. Danielson then I will be glad, but I cannot attempt to affect that choice. She sits for another moment. And if they accuse you, Marcus? If you are innocent like I know you are? What if you die for my silence? I think of the heart on the platter and I thought of that happening to you and I shiver. I begin to stand, to go back to you and comfort you, but the same old thoughts hold me back. Marcus, know that I am certain in my own mind of your innocence. But please try to understand: For the simple reason that I know beyond all doubt that you are innocent, I cannot proclaim it to the rest. I will probably die without knowing who they accused, and whether I have been right in letting you decide without me. Everything points to my own death tonight if you fail to uncover the assassin before evening. That does not scare me much, Marcus, for I am old and accustomed to living with that prospect. I will be glad to see your father again if this is to be my fate. I know that I will see you in Heaven, dear son. For both our sakes I hope that we can meet again on Earth before that happens. Please forgive my choices, Marcus. "Twilight draws its curtain and pins it with a star. Know that your mother loves you, though she may roam afar." Katharine Horton Katharine folds the letter and ponders going back. Maybe just to give him the note and return. Get some supper, too. Find out what is going on among the rest. She begins to make her way out of the maze.

Katharine is not to be seen most of the morning after the most unfortunate awakening. When she finally comes back into the company of the others, just in time to hear Ms. Christie's comments, she is bleary eyed and holding a drastically emptied bottle of her favourite wine. Noticing the others, she hastily sets it down, more tears falling from her tired eyes. She runs a hand through her ruffled hair and a leaf falls to the ground. Marcus, who had spent a little time trying to find her, rushes up and tries to comfort her. She lets him, but her eyes go slightly dim. Finally, Katharine brushes him off and speaks. "I have been thinking long and hard this morning. Although we all knew Wil would probably die this night, it has struck me harder than even the manner of its presentation should have done. I have been pondering the murderer's identity to no avail. Given Wil's second announced suspicion, and my own conclusions, I greatly suspect Mr. Danielson. I don't know what to think about Mr. Cooper or Ms. Christie, but they had both gained Wil's trust - perhaps he dreamed of them but declined to tell us in order to save them. On the other hand... Marcus. Marcus, you have always been the joy of my life, helping me when I need it. Oh why does this suspicion track and hunt us all! Marcus I trust you immensely. Which is why I think I must withhold my vote today. I can no longer trust myself to think impartially, and that is what is most needed for us right now. I can't think that you could possibly do it - especially in so gruesome a manner - but then what mother could? What if I am wrong? What..." She collapses into a crying heap on the floor. Marcus takes a step toward her and she flees out of the room and, for anyone who cared to watch, into the maze.

Katharine plops herself down in front of the door leading to the North tower. "If anyone would keep watch with me, I would appreciate it, for if I fall asleep and Wil dies, we cannot afford to waste accusations on the one who just happened to be near him." Looking sadly at Wil, she adds for his benefit, "I am so sorry to have been right about all of this. If only I knew whether I am right about the rest. Try to sleep well, and defend yourself well when or if the time comes." Tears are visible on her cheeks, and she hugs him once more.

"I am deeply offended at the accusation of having no reason behind my vote. I have gone over every piece of logic behind it and feel it is backed quite solidly. I am disappointed that there is going to have to be two more deaths before this can be sorted out. I am sorry Wil. I am positive you have gotten it wrong this time around, and so we will probably not see you in the morning. As such, I hope we can all take Wil's second intuition and see the butler's guilt. He does not defend himself against any of my speculations but instead claims I used no logic. Wetherby, how can you say that everyone uses you as a default vote when this is only the second time you have been accused? Since I am almost certain that every other person is innocent, and your tactic has been a good one for an assassin to have taken, I believe you are guilty. Someone has been doing these murders, and you do have access to the mansion that others do not." Katharine goes to Wil and hugs him. "You were a good boy, Wil. I hope that the assassin finds some reason let you live tonight, even it were to mean my own death. Perhaps my demise would help the rest of you choose wisely and rid yourselves of this threat, and in that case I would glady accept that fate. Watch your dreams carefully, Wil, in case you do live. Most of all know that you did all you could. I really hope you are not mistaken." To the rest, she says, "We should all sleep outside of Wil's door tonight. Perhaps we could protect him that way, by watching each other carefully. We could take shifts of two or even three to guard the door. And, if we fail he might at least call out a name to help us avenge him by. If only he did not have to wager his life on tonight's accusation. I pray that I have been wrong in my assessment."

The bandit runs away as fast as he can from the forest containing the bear and the honey and the bandit's left arm. Many people would consider it great luck to lose your left arm, but Honnin did not. This was not because he was not a grateful person, although he wasn't. Honnin had been, up until a moment ago, left-handed. So, fleeing the scene, barely able to see where he's going from the blood covering his face, Honnin finally collapses about an hour from the castle. This is when he finally takes stock of his situation and discovers that his left eye is also missing. "You won't get to the castle by digging at your face like that." Honnin looks around, trying to discern the owner of the voice. Still adapting to his situation, he spins around while trying to see and loses his balance. He collapses into a sitting position and finally looks up. In a tree above him, Honnin sees a little man stretched out carelessly on a branch and laughing silently. "Who are you?" asks Honnin but the man just laughs harder. "To get to the castle, you have to walk, not talk." Confused and a little angry, Honnin demands why he would want to go to the castle but recieves only more inane directions on how to go about getting there. No amount of questioning rewards him with an answer. Frustrated, Honnin leaves. He is in pain, but maybe he should head to the castle after all. Part of him rejects the idea simply because the little man was so insistent about it, but there was really no other place to go. The villagers would certainly not accept him now. So, onward he went. He wonders about the man in the tree, and also what one in particular of his comments had meant: "When you get there, don't go under the bridge." Naturally Honnin was curious, and when he arrived at the castle, he walked all the way around it until he found the bridge. This took some time since the castle was big, but he found that at one point the moat was fed by a stream, and there was a quaint stone bridge over the stream. He supposed that on the other side the water left the moat again but presumably there was only one bridge. So, Honnin walked onto the bridge and tried to look underneath it. He couldn't see anything strange about it. Walking around it as much as he could and looking from every angle yielded no clues. Honnin considered just going to the castle - maybe someone there could even tell him about the bridge - but he was very curious, unsure that he would be accepted at the castle any more than at the village, and desired to prove to himself, after his failure against the bear, that he could handle whatever was under the bridge. So, he swam underneath it. Nothing happened. No one came. No traps were sprung. Honnin inspected every stone. Disappointed, the former thief tried to leave - and couldn't. An invisible wall prevented it. He felt all the way around, even swimming to the bottom of the stream and back up. There were no bones there, so it seemed unlikely that the man had pulled this trick on anyone else. Unless it was really a sincere warning, and everyone else had heeded it? Fish came and were trapped by the wall, so Honnin was able to kill and eat them, and he never ran out of water. Swimming endlessly was tiring, but he found a corner of the bridge that he could hold onto and rest. Honnin actually managed to live for a few years under that bridge. He never discovered a way out and never saw the little man again. People passed occasionally, but they never looked beneath the bridge and sound apparently didn't pass up to them. He yelled himself hoarse every time it happened, though. The thief finally died one day when a crocodile from the moat got caught under the bridge with him. His bones swept easily past the invisible wall. I was challenged and I did my part, Now fellow reader it is up to you. The bear met a thief, his life was changed The thief met a man who made him blue. Your task is to tell us now, Whence came the man in the tree? Why did he say what he did? I'm curious, so answer my plea!

I don't know, Wyvern. I think that at least in the two examples you gave, "telling" gave a much more vivid imagery, because it lets you see how the protagonist views it. The air-freshener is a detail, but it pops into his mind because he probably associates Jamie with that smell, and if were mentioned simply as something that's in her car, we lose the whole sense of the smell and its importance. Also, the description of the body. Perhaps "showing" wouldn't hurt, but I wouldn't delete or alter the line you mentioned for anything, because it shows exactly what it means. I felt the same way looking at my grandfather - why does he look so different from real life? Why do they have to put him in a suit, and put makeup on his face to make him look "real"? When the protagonist notes that he looks dead, it conveys more to me than a whole paragraph on the subject could have done, because it would have to compare past and present descriptions and get into gritty detail that really isn't needed. Then again, I have a bad habit of not describing settings at all, so I might not be the best reference on the subject..

Katharine is once again shaking her head, obviously confused. "My mind is in turmoil, Wil. I understand what you are saying up to the point where Mr. Cooper accused himself. This is contrary to any logic I can fathom. If innocent, why allow yourself to be thought guilty when you can do more good by revealing your failed plan and working together with the rest of us? But you obviously trust him deeply, and if you spoke to him earlier about the plan then it was not through lack of being able to see it that way that he gave himself up." The elderly woman closes her eyes and sighs deeply. "I still think you're wrong about the stableboy. The tactic is much too clunky and obvious for these assassins. I've said it before and I'm not afraid to reiterate: From the start we have jumped upon the obvious. He would not want to associate himself with her in such an obvious manner. If the young Mr. Doyle were the killer, he should instead of remained silent the first night, or even better cast the deciding vote against his partner. He would have gained our unwavering trust, would he not? What better way to kill us all? As a trained assassin he would have no loyalty to the woman in general but whatever cause it is for which he believes himself to be fighting. I cannot believe that accusing him is going to be the way to save you, Wil. Instead, I must cast my suspicions elsewhere for the time being." OOC: A changed vote for MeThinksUFoolish - Wetherby Danielson

OOC: awesome. I'll post something there some day. For now, the end of this one... Greeb left Rekkle's hands with a startled gasp, and then... floated. "Holy cow!" he whispered excitedly, "Rekkle, I can fly!" The chemist gave him a surprised look, replying, "That could help us, Greeb. But we're going to need to think quickly." Rekkle looked around, panicking. Seeing an old tome standing on a pedistal, the chemist rushes toward it. It is a spell book. Flipping madly through the pages, the man tries to find something that might help them. "What's that smell?" comes a voice from up the stairway. "He's coming down!" whispers Greeb, plainly worried. He floats, still getting used to the different body, away from obvious sight. "What are we gonna do?" Still paging through the book, Rekkle doesn't answer. The door to the basement opens, and the wizard comes into view. He's eating something, and his eyes register shock at seeing the chemist. "How did you find me, old man?" "Find you? Uh... Underestimated me, did you? If you don't try to hurt me, I'll let you go with just returning my stuff to me." The chemist manages a fairly believable expression, but the wizard just laughs. He raises his wand arm, saying, "No matter how you found me, then. How do you propose to escape?" Looking around in concern, Rekkle spots a rock. Stooping to pick it up, he ss surprised when it skitters away from his outreached hand. Glancing up, he sees that the wizard is moving it. That done, the wand moves in a different motion, bringing the stone up and then down toward the chemist. Now it's the wizard's turn to be surprised, as Greeb shoots down and knocks away the rock before it hits his friend. Turning in midair, the gnome-turned-dagger heads toward the wizard. Caught in shock, and unable to control a living creature, the wizard is unprepared and Greeb succeeds in his dive at the man's hand. He shouts and drops the wand, and Greeb dashes at it, cutting it to pieces before it even lands. Then he rushes to the wizard's face, stopping just inches away and then backing beyond reach. "I could kill you in an instant, wizard." Greeb almost spits the word. "I don't want to leave you alive, but I don't want to stoop to murder either." Greeb turns to Rekkle, as if for advice. In that moment, the wizard lunges, grabbing Greeb and running toward Rekkle with a glint in his eye. With all the force he can muster, he plunges the dagger toward the heart of the chemist, who is too stunned to react. Greeb concentrates all his effort to stop the wizard's arm, discovers that he can't, and then tries instead to redirect the blow. Split second decisions, with his friend's life at stake, cause him to force the arm into a circular route, straight into the wizard's own stomach. "You have killed a mighty man, you immovable dagger and your ancient friend!" curses the wizard. "For removing me from the world, and for all your despicable actions, you deserve to die. I would have been great, you low-lifes. Can't you understand something better than yourselves?" With those words, he collapses, breathing heavily for a moment before breaths stop coming altogether. The chemist and the dagger just look at him sadly. "I wouldn't have done it, Rekkle, except that he would have killed you." "I know. I mourn for his death, even though I can't help but despite him." "Well..." Silence passes with the minutes while they look at the dead man. Finally Greeb speaks again. "Should we just go home?" "What about you? Without the man, we have little hope of transforming you back, without the wand, even less, but shouldn't we try?" The dagger laughs, a strange sound from his metal body. "No, Rekkle. I think I like it much more in this body. I'm just as fast as I ever was, but no limbs to control, nothing to slow me down - I'm much less clumsy now. My memory is back altogether, I don't think that's a concern any more. Let's just go!" Rekkle smiles. "Okay, my good friend Greeb. If you're happy, I'm happy. Let us leave this terrible place. Race you home!" And Greeb shoots forward, avoiding the sides of the window and all the obstacles on the way. He gets there a full three hours before Rekkle, who loses his way a few times. And Rekkle has to remove Greeb from the tree in front of the house, where he had logded himself in his excitement.

Wow, Wyvern has an onion that could have made him money, and it hasn't been sold yet? Scary. Count me in. I have multiple characters but presumably people would want to play the primary one, Katzaniel. Looks like we only have one "new" player so far though. Stick, you may want to not be quite so rushed about getting to step two... or so I think. I figure there's lots of people out there who will be interested when they get a chance to read this. It sounds like loads of fun. Critical....

Awesome, this sounds great! I don't think you should limit us to just the blurbs though... I mean, if someone wants to add a question or two for someone, that would add to it a lot. I guess you'd have to compile them, though... hm... My nominations: Gyrfalcon, Brute, Vlad (Like the rest of you, I'll have to say there's probably more to come). Did you say we had to write the blurbs for the people we nominate? ----- Stick, Falcon, Wyvern, Peredhil, Yui, Quincunx, Orlan, Ayshela, Deg, Zool, Gwaihir, Gyrfalcon, Brute, Vlad

Katharine is looking very tired and pale, as the days go on she is beginning to droop more and more. She turns to Wil, as she has many times in the day or two. "Wil, you told us straight off that you haven't seen anyone else's guilt or innocence. You have no way of knowing that the two remaining females are innocent, as you keep asserting, and you have no way, beyond what the rest of us can also see, of knowing anyone's guilt." Looking back to the rest of the crowd, Katharine continues. "That said, I don't believe that Ms. Christie is guilty, though I keep an eye out for her as I do for everyone. And obviously I do not suspect myself. But I think that point needed to be made, Wil. You have given us reason to believe in you. No one else is beyond the possibility of guilt. Lady Galanodel, supposedly frail and helpless, has proven that to us." "The votes of the dead are useless to us: Mr. Cuthbert voted for the butler and then changed that to himself, but before he could possibly have seen any evidence. Mr. Norfolk voted twice for the Lady Galanodel, who voted twice for Mr. Norfolk. Mr. Vahktang voted for our seer and our baner respectively, and our baner voted first for Mr. Cooper and then for Wil. But again, that first vote was before he could have known anything." "I turn then to the votes of the living. The butler agreed with the rest of you about the chemist's guilt, and the second day voted for the stableboy. A plausible tactic for a hidden assassin. The stableboy cast the deciding vote, as you say, against Mr. Norfolk and then refrained from voting. Plausible tactic, but poor I think. Very obviously connecting himself to the guilty by refusing to condemn her. I can't help but think that he, like so many of you, simply had trouble throwing away the frail image of the woman. My son has voted twice for the deceased but innocent, poor boy, obviously having trouble not following the crowd. More than any of you I trust Marcus, though he may have chosen poorly. Wil himself accused the chemist the first night, before turning to and sticking to the Lady. Ms. Christie voted for Mr. Cooper, Mr. Norfolk and Lady Galanodel. Also a possible tactic. Voting against a cohort and then when death is inevitable, accusing her along with the rest of us. And Mr. Cooper himself." Katharine looks directly at Edwyn. "You voted for two different people who had no real evidence for or against them. Good, innocuous accusations, neither with or against the rest of us. Then when there was no other choice you voted for Lady Galanodel. You would make a good companion for the Lady, someone opposite in temperament." Appealing now to Wil and the rest, Katharine finishes her long spiel. "The excitable Mr. Cooper has claimed to protect us, and then allowed himself to say out loud that his 'plan has failed'. He accused himself! What innocent would do that? Either he is an assassin or he wants them to succeed. My votes I have not yet tallied: I voted for Mr. Cooper the first night, on nothing more than vague suspicion that is true, but then twice for what was in my mind a clearly guilty woman. And now I am holding firm in my accusation of the guilty American."

"I had certainly hoped that if you were truly our only protector, you would not have admitted it openly. I did wonder if this was the case, and also whether you were a mere innocent trying to create a diversion from Wil. But the fact that you are giving yourself up would seem to contradict the latter; I see no reason why you would pretend to be guilty if you were not." Eyeing Edwyn suspiciously, Katharine then states, "With that in mind, I have little reason to do other than believe in your guilt, Mr. Cooper, as I did from nearly the beginning. Unless you have evidence to the contrary, Wil?" OOC: Vote for Eyremon - Edwyn Cooper Edit: just making it more clear

Yeah, that's true. But it still adds to the wrong sort of speculation, I think. Anyway, I had an OOC note for Gnarlitch that I think was getting too long, so I decided to put it in this thread: I think that what you said about werewolves will be pretty hard to undo. However, if you are a seer we could pretend that what you saw was a seer-analogy to the assassins, and since you have little experience with that kind of seeing (you are fairly young and have probably not lived through any murders) you misinterpreted what you saw and took her for a real werewolf. Whatever we say, though, it will probably have to be clarified later. Like if you live through tonight, you could have another dream that explains it better. Or, if you were a wolf after all, you could explain it away easily by saying you were trying to distract us from the real problem. And possibly decided later that it was backfiring. I guess I'm just saying we don't have to try to erase what you said; it might be easier to find another explanation for it. Also, I have had no problems with your role-playing style. Either it's similar enough to ours, or you're adapting better than you think. And if you're referring to the whole OOC thing, don't worry, it's a mistake anyone could make. And now that your secret's out: Good luck!

Katharine stood up to add a few words to Edwyn's. "I would like to add that Lady Galanodel has had ample time to defend herself and has opted against it. She has not let us see whether her shoes show any wear - although this evidence would not prove her innocence, I think that her silence proves her guilt." Looking at the man who just finished his plea, Katharine continues. "And since you have been protecting us, Mr. Cooper, will you accept my apologies for distrusting you, and also tell us who you have protected thus far?" OOC: Gnarlitch: please see OOC thread, I have a comment for you.

I've noticed in previous games people posting OOCs like, "Sorry, I was away for a week." and no one commented, but it sure makes it look like you're innocent since the wolves can't really go away for a week and still play the game, at least not when there's only one wolf left. I think this is something where we really just need to say, "Use your common sense". I know it's easy to step OOC and not really think about what you're saying, so if we just realize that we need to be careful about it, I don't think there will be a problem.