The IroNoman Marathon: Season 2

Oh, frigging nice, people! More, more, more?

[quote=Barselaar]I have a sneaking suspicion the melts were kinder than last year’s, but there we go.[/quote]I was under the impression that the melt rate was going to be much higher, overall. Maybe someone from last year can compare?

Anyway, here’s from today’s Time the Healer: &quotYou’ve lost 141 x Noman’s Friend (new total 35 - The Noman is almost gone).&quot

That means we’ve done it, Barselaar. Next Monday is the first day of Spring. I’m thinking on that day, in celebration, I shall do what’s proper: give my poor Noman the Sense of an Ending. Might as well get an Elemental Secret out of it, rather than letting him melt for nothing. He’s suffered long enough.

Melt rates this year have been gentler than last, by a little.
For example, my melt rate for February 24th last year was 136, and it would have been much higher if not for a last minute reprieve from FBG over people’s distress.

[quote=Mordaine Barimen]Melt rates this year have been gentler than last, by a little[/quote]Thanks for the link. Interestingly enough, your melt of 136 on 2/24 fits exactly into my data for this year. In fact, my melt for that same week this year was 136 as well.

I’m going to go through that thread, plus another one I found, and compile all of the data like I did for this year. Then I’ll compare and post the results.

Yeah, but past where that was recorded (i.e. March) the rates shot way up iirc.

So I’ve gathered up, sorted, and compared all of the available Noman melt data from 2016 and 2017. As it turns out, the two years are very close in number, aside from that period in 2016 when FailBetter lowered the melting rate for a bit. Here’s the summary:

Again, all of the data is from the Noman threads in 2016 and 2017 which I painstakingly went through, deciphered, and sorted. There was minimal guesswork involved, since it’s all based on actual data, but there’s alway some questions left when there are only so many data points available. I took the liberty to assume in those cases. More complete data available upon request.

Final verdict: The melt rate was not increased this year. Almost all of the 2017 data fell in line with the 2016 data (again, aside from the respite in 2016). The range of melting week-to-week was altered, but the medians were the same for most weeks.

If FailBetter wants me to remove or edit this for any reason, I’ll be glad to acquiesce.
edited by idyl on 3/14/2017

The First Noman of Spring. It could not remember. We shall.

Oh my, there’s something about the last few Nomen surviving till spring that’s so ephemeral, poetic and ineffably sad!

My Noman has now been forced to suffer long enough to see the wonders of Spring for the first time through a Noman’s eyes. Its melting is imminent; its death a rapidly-approaching inevitability. Although I write this with a harrowing sense of foreboding, I know that the Noman feels quite the opposite, indeed. It is eager for death, desirous to return whence it came.

Idyl’s Noman outlives mine by a scant few hours yet, but the time came for this patch of snow to melt into the Spring. In giving Nomen life we hang the spectre of death over them, yet in his brief time he saw many things, perhaps more than any others of his kind. He got to taste Spring - such as it is, down here in the Neath - before his time came, and when it did, he accepted it with grace.

Ink-in-Waiting, who grew latterly to choose his own name, 17th January - 21st March 1895.


Melodrama aside, this has been an extremely fun challenge. Congratulations to everyone who took a Noman to the Feast and beyond, thank you to everyone who cheered us on, and thank you to idyl, who made my poor lacre-golem’s final weeks a lot less lonely. As the last of the Neath-snow melts, I wish everyone (a day late) a happy Spring!

Gone, gone the Noman!
Gone the white mirror, gone the Face
I wore in lacre, Me in Snow.
Gone is the snow that saw the Spring.

Gone, gone the Noman!
Melted and gone, though I loved, though it loved,
Though it lived! A moment that faced dissolution
And dared to claim at the last, I’ll be free!

Free, free the Noman!
Though Cider and Mountain should flow in my veins,
Though I rewrite the Judgments, remake the stars,
I will envy at last, or will die, or will-

  • &quotPenstock Elegy&quot by Prof. Sian Kan
    edited by Siankan on 3/21/2017

And a quickly fading shadow waves goodbye to its kin, tarrying a moment before joining them in oblivion.
edited by Mordaine Barimen on 3/21/2017

And here I am, with my Noman not even making it until February.

I wasn’t aware that Mordaine Barimen’s Noman was with us all this time. So, along with Barselaar and myself, that makes three that have made it to see Spring. Exciting times.

I guess you could say it was the third who walks behind.

And now it has joined its brethren.

I think I will leave the 0 x Noman up on my Mantle for a while. It seems fitting…
edited by Mordaine Barimen on 3/21/2017

[quote=Mordaine Barimen]I guess you could say it was the third who walks behind.

And now it has joined its brethren.

I think I will leave the 0 x Noman up on my Mantle for a while. It seems fitting…
edited by Mordaine Barimen on 3/21/2017[/quote]
If its like last year, they hide the noman icon at some point so that even if you have it on your mantle, and never play the melt must storylet, it will show up as a blank slot. I didn’t keep track of exactly when that occurs but it wasn’t for a long time.

(congrats to everyone who made it to spring!)
edited by NiteBrite on 3/22/2017

[quote=NiteBrite]If its like last year, they hide the noman icon at some point so that even if you have it on your mantle, and never play the melt must storylet, it will show up as a blank slot. I didn’t keep track of exactly when that occurs but it wasn’t for a long time.[/quote]Do you know if it’s the same with Pails of Snow? Because I’m quite proud of my Springtime snow at the moment, but I’ve got a nagging suspicion that it won’t be there for too long…

Impressive, really impressive!
But with this records, does this mean some of you managed to get another gant tattoo of the Noman? If so, this means that the achievement to get 7 of those can take less than 7 years!

And did anyone kept their Noman to check the most recent melt rate?
edited by Skinnyman on 3/22/2017

I only gained one Gant Tattoo this year.

[quote=idyl][quote=NiteBrite]If its like last year, they hide the noman icon at some point so that even if you have it on your mantle, and never play the melt must storylet, it will show up as a blank slot. I didn’t keep track of exactly when that occurs but it wasn’t for a long time.[/quote]Do you know if it’s the same with Pails of Snow? Because I’m quite proud of my Springtime snow at the moment, but I’ve got a nagging suspicion that it won’t be there for too long…[/quote]’
Im not sure. I don’t think they would get turned off because its basically unnecessary and takes care of itself. The TTH melt is always on throughout the entire year, so any pails you make from a belated noman death could last at most a single week before they go poof.