Nightlit

It can be, but it can also be a distraction. People grieve in different ways, and some people don't grieve at all. I don't really think the pack council was really doing that for the pack, or for unification. They were doing it because it's tradition and because it's what they needed, but that doesn't mean that's what the pack needed. I'm not saying that it ISN'T what the pack needed, just that I don't think the needs of the pack really were what was motivating them at the time, which is a problem. Well, it's likely no one could have STOPPED what happened, but, that doesn't change what I said. Sure, a criminal can always find a gap. But you could use the exact same logic to say a defender can find a hole in a criminals plan. The important thing here is accountability. Dorian wasn't being accountable to the part he played in what happened. Was it his fault? Of course not. But he wasn't just an innocent bystander either. It would not be a leap of logic for someone in the pack to see this as a failure on Dorian's part. And whether or not one personally agrees, it is a justifiable position.

Don't count Meg out yet! Even if Meg IS ruined, that doesn't mean she can't take everyone else down with her. If anything, Meg is at her most dangerous. She is full of spite, and little to lose, and has proven to be a long game player when it comes to vengeance, or this wouldn't have even needed to happen (since she wouldn't have spent all that time going after Jake) and that's IGNORING anything the rest of her family, or Brian, might do. I don't think this is over. But we'll see.

That's part of WHY I DIDN'T make it an imperative that they do content. Because I DIDN'T want it to be clear cut that DOING content, especially hard content, is the right thing to do. Instead, the story is focusing on the decisions the characters make and their consequences, without moral judgment from up high as to whether they are right or not. The view you are stating? That doing content is too dangerous? Is absolutely a justifiable position, that many characters in the story no doubt have (I don't refer to them as "players" because they are actively avoiding PLAYING the game, making them really more just, people who happen to exist on the server). I chose to focus on the characters who DID choose to play the game, because the other characters wouldn't really generate a narrative of any kind. Unless you like reading about a bunch of people sitting around their rooms doing nothing.

That it might work as a TV show is probably partially because it was inspired in part by Sword Art Online. That's an interesting theory!

Yeah. Wake is one of my favorite characters. He's this guy who is large and scary looking, but it's just skin deep. In truth, he's one of the sweetest guys you could ever meet. He just... has cartoonishly evil features.

Well, I don't know how to clarify this in the story? But it's not that they stopped being friends. It's more that their friendship was so codependent that they needed to take a break from each other. And they are worried they might not be friends when this break ends? But, that's just a worry at this point. They never stopped being friends.

Yeah. For the most part, you don't really need to know how the mechanics work. The important mechanics are explained in context when they matter. But I did want to include the characters talking ABOUT the mechanics as gamers would, for authenticity mostly. Though the mechanics ARE consistent, as much as I've defined them. Isn't it though?

The server started with 1000 people, and at this point around 800 of them are left. Normally, there could be people who started the game in another part of the world, but as this started from a special event with a small set of people, they all started in the same place. At least, as far as they know anyway.

LOL yeah. The lodge is VERY gamey. But here's hopefully an overview that helps you. The layout of the "top floor" of the lodge is the same for everyone. It's a U shape with 2 doors at the top of the stairs in the middle (unless you are logged into your own room, in which case there's only one) and then 20 more doors laid out around the rest of the hallway. When you log into a room, it creates an instance which is shared by everyone else logged into that room, with the door at the top of the stairs leading to the room everyone is logged into. As previously mentioned, there is a second door for each person logged in (except for the person whose room everyone is logged into, where the second door can't be used). Here's where it gets gamey. The second door leads to the room of the logged in player. So if Asa, Luke and Ardine were to log into Asa's room for example. Any of them would be able to use the door at the top of the stairs to get into Asa's room. The second door would be locked for Asa. If Luke went into the second door, he'd end up in his room. Similarly, if Ardine were to use the second door, she'd end up in her room. Neither of them would be able to access each other's rooms however. Similarly to how the 2nd door at the top of the stairs always leads to the room of the logged in player. Each door in the hallway leads to a different place based on the player who opens it. Each player has a "top friends" list, that list determines where those doors lead as you can access the room of your top friends from that hallway. That means that, though the hallways looks identical (and is a shared space for everyone logged into any room), where the doors lead, except the door that leads to the main room everyone is logged into, varies. Also, if you are logged into a room that is on your top friends list. The main door still leads to that room, but so does the door that normally does. And if you exit the room, you'll end up next to YOUR door to that room, not the main doorway, even if you are logged into that room. The hallways is not shared by EVERY player though. Logging into a different room creates a different instance of the hallway. So everyone logged into different rooms are effectively in different hallways, while everyone logged into the same room is in the same hallway, but the doors all lead to different places except the "main room." It's actually really simple, like... if i could just drop you into the hallway and let you fool around? You'd be able to understand it almost immediately. But it's kind of weird and existential to explain. Also, you're right. The layout of the hallway isn't all that relevant to the story. It's mostly flavor. Yeah. No way it's not deliberate. Beyond that though, is anyone's guess (obviously I know, but... benefits of being the author). Indeed. Though people very quickly both stop caring.

Spite is at least a motivation. I'm sure Ciprian has killed for no reason at all than that he felt like it (which, I suppose, is technically a motivation, but I digress). Which means Ciprian still wins the asshole award.

Not really. He was still a student at a school. A school with a student body who obviously knew who he was, because everyone in his SOCIETY knows who he is. All it would take to keep tabs on him was striking up conversations about him with various random students around school. They wouldn't even necessarily know they were doing anything, as I'm sure, like many celebrities? Random conversations about the specials aren't that rare. And people wouldn't need every detail of Dani's life. The things they'd need would be very easy to see by anyone who happened to interact with him in any meaningful way, since they are core personality traits, rather than specific information about him. And that's ignoring the fact that Arani Deadnus has the power to bug his room. Not to mention I'm sure the Carandini's have a least a few supporters everywhere, that would include Dani's school, so they could have bugged his room there as well. The only way to keep Dani from being watched? Would be to literally lock him up and never let him interact with anyone. Since Vinicius didn't do that? People would have been able to keep tabs on him, if not the details of his training as a special, at least the general way he grew as a person.

[ “Good thing we’ll never have to know,” I replied, and he nodded in agreement. ] Famous last words. A Danish gambit... well... so apparently NO ONE in power is competent. One reason a Danish gambit works in chess is that everyone has finite forces and those forces follow explicit rules. Neither is the case in real life. PLANNING to sacrifice ANYTHING in the wake of such uncertainly? Is beyond foolish. It's simply stupid. Outside of the fact that you can't really know how useful a "pawn" might be in real life? You can't know that sacrificing them will even get you anything! After a conflict has started and people have revealed their hands, maybe. But that's not the case yet, so they have no idea whether their plan has any CHANCE of working. And Ciprian continues to showcase why he just needs to die. He says everyone is evil. And he's not wrong, that everyone has the potential for evil. But he is oversimplifying the opposite direction. And worse, he's not doing it in some overarching metaphysical sense. He's doing it to self justify selfish behavior. He is the lowest of the low. And I don't know why anyone thinks he has likable qualities. He is, hands down, the most deplorable character so far. Yes. More deplorable than Arani Deadnus. At least Arani Deadnus has some kind of code. Some reason outside of herself for doing what she's doing. Mind you, I also think Arani Deadnus needs to die, but Ciprian is nothing but trash. I should point out that. I'm speaking of Ciprian the person. Ciprian the character? Is actually quite enjoyable. Sometimes you just want a villain who is just that. No need for tragic explanations or anything like that. Sometimes you just want that asshole whose purpose is to be as dickish as possible until they go out in a blaze of deserved glory! (Or win in an equally epic tornado of darkness). Ciprian? Is that villain in this story. In any event? Dani really doesn't have a choice right now. It's not even that the Carandinis are his safest options. He's made a serious of stupid decisions and put himself in a position where his options are: Join the Canadinis, fight and kill all the Carandinis right now (something he could PROBABLY do, but likely he'd kill himself in the process) or die. Because, lets face it? Ciprian is using Vincent. I don't believe for a second that Vincent could actually stop Ciprian from killing Dani if he actually tried to. I am curious to see what happens now? Because if there isn't a plot twist? This is going to be a very predictable story about a foolish idiot who was manipulated by slightly less foolish idiots into a position that destroys their entire society. But I'll finish reading it regardless. Since I'm pretty convinced any actual war would be the sort that no one wins. Neither the Carandinis NOR the state can realistically win anything, as by the time the dust settled? There'd be nothing LEFT to rule/lead, rendering the entire conflict pointless. Though.. that said? There's little evidence that the leaders of the two sides of the conflict even care. Arani Deadnus may have a code? But ultimately, she seems to care more about destroying the Carandinis than safeguarding the status quo. And similarly, I think Vincent IS fully willing to burn the world to avenge his family, without a care as to whether there'd be anything LEFT to rule in his wake.

That's a lot of worst case scenario supposition. Even blindly murdering Vinicius, as foolish as that would be, is unlikely to have caused that. And anyone who was paying attention could very MUCH predict what Dani might do. Like I said, it would be completely foolish to just KILL Vinicius. But why would you assume that's what they did? They could have been watching Dani before that. Potentially for years. If they had been watching Dani? They'd have realized that he was highly unlikely to go off the deep end. Not only is he a rather timid, indecisive person in general, but Vinicius had been specifically training him to be non violent, so anyone who had been following Dani's progression, which I assume was every player involved? Would be aware that Dani going off the deep end and becoming a massive threat? Was exceedingly unlikely. On the other hand, the probability that Vinicius would get in the way of any attempt to persuade Dani to anything other than whatever role Vinicius had intended for him? Was nearly assured. And Dani's lack of general agency? Would make that work in their favor doubly, as Dani has a tendency to look to others over making his own decisions, anyone who realized that (say, Vincent?) could easily come to the conclusion that without Vinicius as a buffer, Dani would be very pliable. Like... who said anything about leaving Dani alone in the world? Vincent very quickly stepped in and tried to replace Vinicius in Dani's life. And whether that's entirely a facade, or there are legitimate feelings there, that does not change the fact that Vincent swooped in at Dani's low point and attempted to provide the stability he had lost by Vinicius' death. In the risk reward assessment? Having Vinicius there is a FAR bigger likely threat to everyone's plans than any potential fallout from his death, once all the data is taken into account. Data that wouldn't be particularly difficult to acquire, given that Dani was living at a school, not like, some secure government facility.

I actually agree with all of this. At no point did I think that Ciprian was foolish. That said, he is a bit rash, and you have to remember that "time" is a relative term. Sure, 18 years seems like a long time to US? But to an immortal? It's a drop in the bucket. So, by the standards he'd live by? He is a bit rash. Though, there is a difference between being rash and foolish. Just because Ciprian CAN play the long game, doesn't mean he's content or happy to. Clearly, he cares about his night to night life. He cares about his present, not just his future. If he CAN have something sooner rather than later? That's what he'll pick, and he's clearly willing to take a few risks to that end. But like... if anything? This is just another reason why Ciprian needs to die. He's ultimately a selfish asshole. And a strategic selfish asshole is WORSE than a short sighted one. While it's quite possible that Vinicius' killer hasn't been introduced yet, and there are potentially players we haven't seen, the reason for anyone to kill Vinicius is pretty clear, and has been there from the very beginning: Dani. Anyone who was paying even the remotest attention to Dani would be aware of Vinicius' greatest failing - he didn't prepare Dani for having any sort of agency. And we can argue back and forth as to what Vinicius' ultimate goal was, but sufficive to say, with him dead, what he intended has become irrelevant, at least, as far as we can tell. And now Dani has no mentor and was clearly not prepared to be out in the world on his own. Given that Dani (and all the other specials too, but Dani was both the most powerful special, and the one with the mentor who was the hardest to manipulate and the one who prepared his special the least) is being vied for by everyone involved? Killing Vinicius could have been as simple as pulling out Dani's safety net to make him more pliable. And ANY of the people involved could have killed Vinicius for that reason alone, independently of anything else (such as rebirth) that might be going on. Heck, with that simple a motivation? The killer might not have even KNOWN that there was any other reason TO kill Vinicius outside of Dani!

Well. I'm not talking about the outcome of the story. That's still up in the air. The Carandini's will not be content to rule unless they rule all. Whether or not they succeed is beyond the point, they will keep fighting, and interfering with everyone else in the world, until they either achieve their ends, or can't fight anymore. Even if Vincent could be convinced that the royal family isn't necessary or important (which I think he could, since he doesn't seem to have much interest in royalty, more in vengeance/justice for his family) his older family members are too corrupt to accept anything but total dominance. So, outside of the outcome of the Carandini's indeed becoming the ruling class again, their destruction, either through death or disbandment (simply locking them up would only delay the conflict) is necessary for ANY outcome.