halgia

Thanks for the protection Biz, much appreciated. :) Drogo, I was confused by the amount of shade you were throwing at Lisin, since you had pretty much come right out and said you were Joxer. I thought I had figured out your brilliant plan: 1) Accuse Lisin of being bad. 2) Heroes know not to do anything about it. 3) So, anyone who picks up on it too much is then a villain, and outed to all the heroes. That's even more violating the spirit of the Celebrity rule than what you actually did, but if it had worked, might have even been worth it.... Then I thought: "hmm, Xena does turn evil all the time, and we know Lisin is Xena, but we don't actually know if she's a hero, do we? What if he knows something about that?" That could have been super-cool but very hard to pull off, since any sign that Xena's turned bad in the story and most people know who to DL. Celebrity in general I think was really interesting, but the whole knowing information you're not allowed to talk about thing is complicated. About powers: getting the original role PM and finding out you're a vanilla hero is pretty disappointing, at least to me. Most powers probably don't actually make that much of a difference to how the game goes, and obviously the game can still be fun – this one definitely was – but having an interesting power or especially being a villain just makes the prospect of it much more interesting I think, and makes me more excited to get into the game. I agree that having multiple Day clues in place of Night clues is totally fine. And I really liked Twilight, not only because Spruce's power was super cool but also because it lessens the pressure of "let's not put this vote through get so we have time to talk."

Yep yep, good find. 2 to DL Jesse (HM, Dougal) 4 to go the Full Monty in killing off the villains (I just got back from a production of that show, directed by Patrick Wilson, who both played the lead role on Broadway and was my whole life on Fargo S2. So good.)

I agree with saoirse on this: I'm totally down for a Jesse DL, I'm just more confident about a Machiabelly one at the moment. 2 to DL Jesse (Lisin, MarkHB), 5 to to uproot evil 4 to DL Machiabelly (Drogo, saoirse, yeswedo, Dougal), 3 to keep the plotting and scheming away from our food! Hopefully enough people chime in soon to push this through.

I'm not crazy about this, but since I can't really be on again before the deadline.... 6 to DL aquarian1 (saoirse, HM, Drogo, Lady Calypso, Athena, Dougal), 2 to have Hamilton stuck in my head yet again for another week or so, thanks Drogo

Way to go Eli with the clutch healing. I agree that the shopping list seems a bit weird, but we just used a food-based clue that seems to be a legitimate clue (and payed off – we got that grouse (and rabbit) for dinner tonight), so I don't know if there'd be another one so soon? I dunno, maybe. A1's defense about Aquarius seems reasonably legit, and though Spruce defending her is of course a bit suspect, it doesn't really seem like enough to go on unless we're out of other ideas. I probably won't have time for an in-depth clue hunt before Night, but I'll let it rattle around.

*celebrate* So, this weekend / early next week I'm going to a conference called AAAI. It's usually pronounced "triple-ey eye", but in my head, I'm now going to pronounce it like the start of Xena's war cry.

Yeah, the Macbeth -> Scottish-> Dougal connection could potentially be a clue, except that I'm a hero. I may have shown up just by accident, but I'm on the side of justice and delicious campsite meals.

Now to finally get that roast grouse I was really hoping for... 8 to DL The Crazed Spruce (Drogo, yeswedo, HM, Jesse, saoirse, egavasc, Athena, Dougal), 1 to seal the deal

Oh nooooooo

Tips for preparing spruce grouse. Apparently it's much better to eat it fresh....

We have spruce grouse, freakin' = crazed, and three 5s = 15 = number of letters in "The Crazed Spruce". Any single one could be anything, but with three of them, I'm still feeling stronger about this than anyone else.

Yep, let's do this. 6 to DL The Crazed Spruce (Oinky Boinky, saoirse, Drogo, MarkHB, SVNBob, Dougal), 4 to break out the toast

Xena was fishing at the start of the story. Could be a thing, but it seems more natural a part of the story than grouse to me.

Not that this probably matters, but I think it was Minya who wanted grouse, not Gabrielle. They are, though, not that uncommon as a game bird in especially northern parts of our illustrious moderator's native UK. I dunno, it seems possible, but definitely not a sure thing.

Yeah...hmm. I did a little googling and didn't find any relevant hits for "xena grouse" and such things, so it doesn't seem like a show reference, and it does feel like a somewhat strange choice.

Sure didn't. Only person whose life seemed threatened was Gabrielle, but she seemed like she handled herself okay. Unless it was some kind of Xena protection thing, what with her name driving them off, but that feels like a stretch....

Whoever playing Gabrielle: write real small on the scroll, "The villains all suddenly and unambiguously reveal themselves." None of those three clues jumped out at me, though I agree it seems like a lot of fives. Will take a look again later....

Yeah...nothing stood out to me in that story, so I don't have much to add. I guess this is mostly straight from the pilot? Watching it side by side might be helpful, but I don't think I can do that tonight.

Me too!

I've never watched the show, but my cousin's boyfriend's sister is named Xena, so that's good enough, right? Drogo Aquarian1 Machiabelly Lisin BizBuzz Athena Jesse The Hanged Man MarkHB Oinky Boinky caprice SVNBob TJtrack99 The Crazed Spruce egavasc Lady Calypso stacey yeswedo Dougal

I read the book like two years ago, but as I remember it it's fairly close to what happens there, with some changes to pull character things out more quickly and such (and Avasarala with a new small storyline since she wasn't in book one). The book writers were also fairly involved in the show from what I've read. That said, I'll agree that the style of the show is pretty confusing at points. I think they're going for more of a let-it-wash-over-you-and-you'll-figure-it-out-eventually approach....

Stakes are raised!

Yes! Five total so far, and another one this summer.

Someone's mentioned previously that the crash couches are itsy little things on the show; apparently that's fine, because the Tachi's "full burn" at the end of episode 4 looked real casual. Holden was moving his head around off the couch, even. I guess face-stretching high-g effects are hard (dunno how you'd do them other than full CGI or a centrifuge or something complicated like that), but hopefully they do something more than shake the camera a bit for the life-threatening speeds they go at later on.

I'd forgotten she was Nigerian in the book, but that's sad. Kind of exacerbated by half of her character's onscreen purpose being the zero-g sex scene. I think they've been pretty good otherwise on that front, though. They're definitely "geographically" distinct, but in the economy of the Expanse they serve similar purposes and are populated by similar people. The gas giants themselves are difficult to tap, but their moons function similarly to the big planetoids in the Belt like Ceres.