[TOWN WINS] Third Anniversary Fanfic Mafia - Game Thread

[Dragonfree]

May listened to the back-and-forth, frowning. "Okay, so the Absol, Espeon and Nickit are all corroborating each other in ways they couldn't fake. Unless they're all an incredibly bold mafia, I think we've got to be able to trust them about what they've been telling us, even if not about their alignments. Like, if Espeon was lying about getting that message, how did they know about the swap before Nickit said he swapped them? If Nickit was lying, why did Absol detect him? So it sounds pretty clear they did what they did, and Archie did send that message." She looked at the pirate. "I'm not sure if that means he's mafia, but at least it's a lead. So talk."

[[Going to hold off on voting until we've heard from Starlight, but definitely a good thread to pull on.]]

 

[Negrek]

Twenty-four hours remain in Day Two. The vote stands thus:

Starlight Aurate - 3 (NeoLurosa, DawningWinds, Inkedust)

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Steven hadn't moved in a long time. He hung at the edge of the group for most of the day, silent. The dark circles beneath one eye matching the fading bruise of the other. He'd emerged into the nothingness that morning, and Karo was gone. Not just gone, either, but revealed to be neither Town nor Mafia; a third party in this game. Hostile? Or simply caught between two factions, alone. He knew the feeling all too well. Not first hand, but close enough that he wasn't sure which option hurt more. At least he wouldn't ever have to know. The nothingness felt even emptier that day.

[[Hello, sorry for being gone all day. Busy weekend and finally a nice day meant it was housework/gardening day. I guess it works though, just picture Steven standing in catatonic shock at losing his ronk friend.]]

She turned sharply at the Floatzel's voice, and hesitated, a bad taste in her mouth. "I thought he might be one of the mailmen," she said. "He was the one who immediately came up with there being one on each side, and then was interested in the parrot idea, but only mentioned the one mailman who sends multiple messages theory as an afterthought summing up the possibilities after that'd been pointed out to him again. I thought that might mean he knew that wasn't it. And since if there was a mafia mailman they wouldn't go out of their way to point out that's possible, I figured he was probably the town mailman. But apparently he wasn't town, so I don't know. With three messages last night, maybe there were three mailmen, one of each faction, and the third message the first night just happened to go to the Inteleon."

Steven's gaze slowly moved from the blank white spot on the floor he'd been staring. The blue haired girl was talking about Karo. May, he thought he heard her name was? He'd been listening to the day's conversation, but only faintly, halfheartedly.

"Also wasn't there that whole problem where the mailman's letter only goes out at sunrise, so if a parrot visits them, there ain't enough time for them to write up a whole letter of their own? That'd probably happen even if a parrot visited the mailman who was too fraidy to send a letter on the zero night."

"Maybe the three mailmen theory is right," he finally said, voice rough from disuse. "Or at least two mailmen and one person masquerading as one. I admit, the parrot theory has left me thoroughly confused, and because of that it's likely too convoluted to be true. Perhaps the best solution is the simplest one."

Mayyybe theoretically if someone got their message a little while after the start of the day; I know I got mine before.

"The message I received came right before the start of the day. According to the timestamp, by mere minutes. I'm happy to share it in full if it helps, though I'm not sure it will."

'There’s so many pirates in this game.'

His gaze become downcast again. "That's it. That's all it said."

Third Mailman is still a massive big thonk on my end. Depending on how many messages we see N2 might clear a couple things up. For now my pet/joke theory is that it might be TP for le luls just like Namo's TP Bus Driver but don't stake anything on that.

Steven thought for a moment longer before he frowned, still staring at the ground. "I can't help but wonder if this message actually came from... came from Karo? He and I, when we were talking yesterday, I remember saying something similar. This message is conversational, not important to game set up. If there was a TP Mailman simply to cause confusion, it would explain why it didn't try to do much more than want to chat and make friends."

"If Karo was TP and a not-hostile message sender, that could explain why we've only had one death per night."

His shoulders slumped. "I have no real proof of any of this, though. It's just one possibility that could explain three mailmen, or two and an absorber. Like the Luxray said, I'm sure we'll have a better idea when tomorrow comes and there's only two messages received in the night."

"Of course," Steven said, glare hardening as he turned toward Archie, "the theory could still work if there's only one message sent tomorrow, too. I'm going to wait to hear what you have to say before casting my vote, but trust me when I say I won't be very sorry if your explanation falls short."

"I mighta figured out who the other mail guy is now! But I'm not telling!" This was definitely not a way to cover up the fact that she wasn't sure if it was a good idea to reveal or not.

Steven looked toward the excitable Floatzel, the first time faint signs of a smile appeared on his face that day. "That's good," he said. "If their message is to be believed, then they are the best chance of being our friendly mailman. I have a potential guess myself, but keeping it quiet might be a good idea. There's strength in numbers, and if the scum can't cross names off their list in trying to find those who have the most powerful roles, it gives us a better chance of keeping those roles safe."

[[So, I think I'm all caught up now? I hate messaging powers in Mafia, they confuse the shit out of me. Pls sanity check me if any of this doesn't make sense. I'm already on my pepe silva theory crafting bullshit, and it's only D2]]

 

[Chibi Pika]

Steven thought for a moment longer before he frowned, still staring at the ground. "I can't help but wonder if this message actually came from... came from Karo? He and I, when we were talking yesterday, I remember saying something similar. This message is conversational, not important to game set up. If there was a TP Mailman simply to cause confusion, it would explain why it didn't try to do much more than want to chat and make friends."

"If Karo was TP and a not-hostile message sender, that could explain why we've only had one death per night."

"I was kinda wonderin' about Karo cuz like... if he was on a team by himself and tryin' to kill the rest of us, wouldn't he have some kinda defense? That'd suck pretty bad being on a team by yourself if you go down in one hit. And I don't buy the bad guys wasting some big attack on him neither." A couple people had mentioned a 'serial killer' but Karo didn't sound like one of those at all.

 

[Starlight Aurate]

[[Okay, welp, looks like I need to claim now.

As everyone seems to have pieced together, I am a Mailman. I'll explain why I did stuff the way I did.]]

[[I think you're confused on what Chibi is getting at; they're not talking about subsequent nights there at all.

I think the difference between death flavor and this hypothetical mailman parrot is that if as a GM you tell the parrot to write a message before the outcome of the night has been 100% determined, you're either leaking an unacceptable amount of info to them, or will actively mislead them. Suppose you get the parrot to write a message for the mailman they targeted; this tells them that the target is a mailman (already kind of giving the parrot an amount of power they shouldn't have). Now suppose that at the last minute a bus driver changes their mind about their action and makes it so that the parrot actually targets a non-mailman. Now either

- you tell the parrot actually they aren't going to be sending a message whoops, telling them not just that their target was a mailman but also that their target was messed with; a player shouldn't get to know this for reasons outside the natural scope of their role
- you don't tell the parrot this, and thus they assume they sent a message that they in fact never did at all

This just strikes me as a can of worms? I wouldn't want to GM this way. Mayyybe theoretically if someone got their message a little while after the start of the day; I know I got mine before.]]

[[Okay, so THIS is where I was getting wrong.

I assumed the Parrot was working on the same night they targeted someone. So, yes, I thought a Parrot might have targeted me N0 and that was why I received a message. But, given that Parrots work only on subsequent nights, I think this theory is dead. It looks like we have:

- Three mailmen (me, whoever messaged Free N0, and whoever messaged me N0).

"I wish to look at other players individually before casting a firm vote, and I certainly hope to get the assent of Neo and his Voice before committing to a vote, but... At this time, I believe this sailor is possibly our Mafia Mailman or Absorber, and has thus far attempted to avoid controversy and attention, or getting caught on a wagon...

"I vote for Archie."

[[I didn't want to claim I was a Mailman D1 because communication roles are (I think) valuable for Town and I was worried I would be targeted by the Mafia at night. I tried to target NeoLurosa because their play read as very Towny to me and I thought I could trust them. Yes, I wrote my message in pirate speak and included stuff about "message in a bottle" purely for flavour because I was really enjoying the RP aspect of this game (again, sorry a lot of it was obfuscating and took away from the actual game ._.).

I didn't send a message out on N0 because I didn't know anything about the game play and I didn't think I'd have anything useful to contribute. And honestly, it looks like the messages we received have made us more confused than anything--as of now, I certainly don't know what to make of the item messages that Free and Neo (though supposed to be Wind) received, and I definitely don't understand the quote from my message on N0. That's why I was positing that maybe those mailmen only sent out letters to let us know they existed, since it seems to be that's all they've done.]]

"I mighta figured out who the other mail guy is now! But I'm not telling!" This was definitely not a way to cover up the fact that she wasn't sure if it was a good idea to reveal or not.

"Oh yeah? And what makes you so sure of that?"

Discussion of how a parrot would work after interacting with a mailman. This has since been discussed quite a bit, and I agree with Free's most recent take: if a parrot exists in the game and is able to mimic a mailman, they would have to be sending the same message. The alternative would have to be that they can't mimic mailmen for whatever reason.

[[But wait, the Parrot would HAVE to be sending the exact same message that the Mailman tried to send? So if I tried to send a message saying, "Yarr!" and the Parrot targeted me, I'd receive a message saying, "Yarr!"? I just want to know if I'm correctly interpreting what you're saying.

If so, that's not what I was thinking when I discussed the Parrot theory... and I'm sorry for bringing it up in my message to you/Neo, Wind, and for causing so much more confusion.]]

I don't want to say anything definitive until Star has had a chance to defend herself but the most recent posts just... idk, I find it weird that star was bringing up the possibility of one of the recipients lying when she would know there would be a third recipient. Maybe it was to coverherself and try to not come across as having a messaging ability

[[As I stated above, yes, I brought up the possibility of there being something other than three Mailmen because I didn't want to give away that I was one of them.]]

Why would it be so important to not let the Mafia know that you're a Mailman that you'd mislead Town? Obfuscating roles in the early game is pro-Town, but not this sort of thing... The more I think about it, the more I feel this is scummy stuff. Firm vote.

[[I wasn't intending to mislead Town, I was only intending to cover my own tracks. I'm not opposed to the possibility of three Mailmen; I went along with the Parrot theory because:

1. I thought Parrots worked by targeting their target on the same night
2. I thought a Parrot was plausible because I received a message and I am a Mailman
3. I didn't want to roleclaim as a Mailman because I thought the usefulness of my role was partly in keeping it hidden

I just thought it was so weird for me to receive a message when I'm a Mailman, to see that Free received a message, and to know that I can send messages too; I thought three Mailmen sounded like a lot, though now, it looks like it's the most plausible theory. know I made a mess of things, and I'm sorry. But I wasn't lying about receiving a message N0 and I was trying to make more use of my Mailman ability by teaming up with NeoLurosa, which I think is more than whoever sent out the message to me did. I know now that my playstyle is not very good or coherent, but as anyone who has played this game with me knows, I'm not very good at this game ^_^;)]]

Starlight's theory of a Mafia Mailman reminds me a lot of second anni's Mafia Doctor, where the scumteam gently pushed the theory so they could appear helpful.

[[When did I theorize there was a Mafia Mailman?]]

[[With that said, it doesn't look like we're any closer to finding out anything useful. I'm a Mailman, and I've explained my motives for my lack of action N0 and for what I did N1. Yes, they weren't good, and I'm sorry for causing a snipe hunt and misleading Town. If this puts a Mafia target on my back tonight to prevent me from communicating, all I can say that is that I tried to be helpful, and I'm sorry it looks like we only wasted half a day phase by causing turmoil about all of this. If anyone can make sense out of the messages Pano or I received, then by all means, go for it. I'm still confused by the item messages meant for Free/Wind.]]

[[People also pointed out that they thought I lied on getting a message N0 because Free said it before I did. I'm gonna be honest: I had that RP-post typed up ahead of time and posted it immediately in the hope that I lived. I didn't actually have time to go through things and post until hours later, after Free had put in that she received a message, too. ]]

[[A couple people also point out that I'm non-committal when it comes to voting, so I'll place a vote now and see what people say.

Reads:
NeoLurosa, DawningWinds, and Windskull have all had corroborative actions from last night, so I'm Townreading them. I was Townreading Neo and Wind before, and DW admitting to swapping them makes her look more innocent. Granted, Mafia Bus Drivers have existed in the past, so I don't think this proves DW is innocent, but her explanation is solid.

Soft Town vibes on Inkedust and Dragonfree. She rerailed us when pointing out that the Mailmen theory discussion was completely unhelpful and has been bringing up good points. Free has let us know she got a message, and she brought up good points (pointing out how Parrots actually work, so thank you for that ^_^;), so I'm soft Townreading her now.

I'm more confused by Chibi than anything. Jet put a vote on DawningWinds D1, claimed it wasn't random, and now claims to know who one of the messengers is but won't say. I understand wanting to keep some information private in the game, so I won't pressure too hard, but honestly I can't read Jet's motivations and I'm getting a null right now.

I'm also totally null on Pano, AbraPunk, Bench, Virgil, Flyg0n, and Sind. Pano received a message and divulged its contents, but not much else. She admits she's been busy, which is fair, but I'm not getting scummy or Towny vibes from her. Sind posted a readslist and has contributed to discussion, but hasn't said much since D2 started. Bench and Abra haven't said much at all. Virgil brought up the Absorber theory, which is helpful I guess? I also just haven't seen Flyg0n say much yet so I'm curious to hear more from her.

Just to get things rolling more, I'm placing a vote on AbraPunk. If you've got stuff to contribute, come and feel free! I have made my case and want to hear what others have to say in the next 21.5 hours.]]


"And whoever sent me that message on N0, I got one thing to say to you," Archie growled.

"It's a neighborly day in the beautihood."

 

[Sinderella]

[[Well better late than never. Got home just a bit ago and before I got on to type this, my showerhead detached itself from its holder and fell on my head, leaving me more smoothbrained than I normally am. Please please enjoy this scattered and as-coherent-as-possible summary of D2 up until this point haha]]

Spoiler: Dorien has really nice, effeminate handwriting (don't say this to him tho)

Dorien has really nice handwriting, it's really effeminate (don't say that to him though)

Karo (Sike Saner) has been eliminated. He was neither Town nor Mafia.

Well shit, RIP my dude Karo, wtf were you up to.

I intended to ISO everyone last night but time constraints happened and I only got two done.

DW summarizes Inke and Starlight posts.

"Good morning, all. I received a message tonight."

Wind got a message.

[[Okay, that's interesting. Third-party but only one death a night. Either this was a case of a non-hostile, or we got hella lucky with heals or something. Either way, that doesn't matter much now. I have a small theory on the letters, but I don't have the info to back any of it up currently, so I'll be keeping a close eye on it for the time being.

Inke claims they have a small theory on the letters.

[[Anyway, because this is starting to annoy me, my play here is more lowkey because 1: D1 doesn't provide much for information, so I literally cannot comment on anything thus far unless someone else brings up something interesting; 2: I'm playing a different character - one who I've gone on record saying that I have a harder time getting into proper flavour in Mafia (I chose him because I wanted to try and rectify this); and 3: last time I played hard, my mental state took such a nosedive that I was in severe fucking distress throughout most of the later days. Sorry for caring for my mental health, ig.]]

Inke defends themselves on their play style for this game.

"Fascinating. We also received a message last night. One addressed to you. It began, 'Dear Muse'."

HelloJackie also got a message.

"Really now?" Muse tilted her head. I wonder if we may have a bus driver among the party. My. message was not addressed to anyone in particular. I'll withohold the details for now, as I would like to wait for more of our party to chime in. But suffice to say that if the message I received is honest then it may reveal notable information about our setup. For the moment, I'll say that my message mentions parrot theory."

Wind drops some info on the note they got, poses question about bus driver.

I did it.

DW claims that they bussed Wind/HelloJackie

I'm a JoaT. Bus Driver is one of my abilities. I was trying to kill NeoLurosa because I scumread them- I saw windskull as a likely nightkill target because they're among the most widely townread players.

DW claims and explains their JOAT role and why they targeted Wind and HelloJackie

This bothers me. For one, how would a mailman, a role that's purely communicative, know about information regarding the game's setup? Also, while not improbable, I do find it convenient that the two note receivers were swapped, which is why I'm beginning to think that the messages might be faked to try and divert/distract Town from properly scumhunting. Again, it ties back into the push for a "Mafia Mailman" theory - a theory that I noticed several insisting on, though doesn't hold much water under scrutiny? This is entirely speculative, of course, but it's something that's been giving me a lot of pause.]]

Inke poses a question on how the Mailman who messaged Wind knows anything about the game setup. I actually agreed with her.

@DawningWinds Well since you claimed JoaT, can you elaborate if one of your abilities involves sending messages like a mailman?]]

Flygon asks for clarification on DW's JOAT powers

[[This means that whatever message wind received, it was meant for us, and vice versa. Ours was plainly meant for wind as it is addressed to Muse. Jackie is asleep and I am traveling but I will share the contents of this message in a bit. It actually seems…potentially helpful? I don’t think we should be too quick to trust it, but I do think at least one of our mailmen is trustworthy. Two scum mailmen just doesn’t make sense—but we’ve been over that thought many times so I don’t intend to linger on that too much more lol]]

HelloJackie (Yellow) says some more about their letter.

My question is, based on what Wind said in their post about the note contents, how tf would a mailman know anything about the game setup at this point? Something either happened to one of their messages i guess (aside from the bussing obv), they have some sort of weird modifier that tells them info on whoever they send shit too (I believe Negrek mentioned in the sign up thread that some roles might be modified or something???? I wonder if there’s a Wiki confirmed modifier for something like that, I’d have to look), or they’re scum and lying/somehow know because they’re scum.

I also ask how tf the Mailman knows anything about game setup.

[[Wanted to add this in here before the messages discussion gets too far along (since I'm headed to bed). I also got a message last night. It wasn't nonsense like the messages claimed on D1, but it also wasn't terribly important. Almost conversational, and quite short. So that's another message sent last night to consider.

Pano also got a message,

"I thought he might be one of the mailmen," she said. "He was the one who immediately came up with there being one on each side, and then was interested in the parrot idea, but only mentioned the one mailman who sends multiple messages theory as an afterthought summing up the possibilities after that'd been pointed out to him again. I thought that might mean he knew that wasn't it. And since if there was a mafia mailman they wouldn't go out of their way to point out that's possible, I figured he was probably the town mailman. But apparently he wasn't town, so I don't know. With three messages last night, maybe there were three mailmen, one of each faction, and the third message the first night just happened to go to the Inteleon."

Free provides some thoughts on Karo.

[[No, I cannot send messages.

DW clarifies they don't have a message sending power after being asked

I don't like being too aggressive D1 and trying to lynch someone because so little information is known. And I think a good outcome happened between D1 and N1: no townies were killed, and a third party died (would've been nice if we caught a Mafia, but eh). If we can piece together more info today that makes reasonable sense, I'd be happy to more firmly commit to voting someone off. I'd like to join on Chibi with voting you, except that with the games I've played with you, you have always been very aggressive and still town. I guess how I'm told that I always play scummy and am yet still town (^_^;). I'm also far from the only player who didn't play aggressive or very committal last day phase, so I'm curious as to why you're honing in on me in particular and if it's only because I received a message that I had literally no control over. I know people were curious as to one of the recipients lying about receiving a message D1, but now it looks like there were THREE messages received last night. ]]

Starlight defends their play against DW's summary

[[The only way I think a mailman might know about a Parrot is if the Parrot targeted a mailman, since the Parrot copies peoples' abilities. So I don't think that a mailman pushing for a Parrot is too far out there.

I do agree that it's convenient (or weird) that both message recipients were swapped yesterday. It's not impossible, of course, just weird. Looks like we had two messages N0 and three on N1. But Wind and Neo both claim to have gotten messages meant for each other? One of them or Pano could be lying about receiving a message, of course, but it's still odd. Or maybe someone was Parrot'd last night, and that's why there's an extra message?]]

Adds some thoughts on Parrot debacle, and offers that somebody might be lying?

Dear Muse:

Congratulations! You received a [item]!

250 ch limit, one message/night. [Item] does nothing, but can name items later as proof of identity. Think you are town.

Unsure how best to help town, can assist with role coordination?

Good luck!

Italics were added by me just to make the message stand out. Similar to what Free did yesterday, we decided not to publicly share the item mentioned in case it’s somehow important or dangerous to reveal...and I do think this message does make the whole item thing make a little more sense?]]

HelloJackie reveals letter contents.

[[I'm having a very hard time buying three mailmen, let alone two. Granted, there are explanations as to why only two messages were received on N0 and three on N1 (recipient was Namo, third mailman got blocked, we actually do have a Parrot here). A Parrot could explain a couple things, but it doesn't exactly line up completely. For one, it'd mean that either NeoLurosa or Wind is a mailman... Actually hold that thought. How would a swap interact with a Parrot? If the Parrot copies the swappie, wouldn't that mean that both Wind and NeoLurosa are mailmen? This just in: Inke fucking hates Bus Drivers because they make her head hurty.

NeoLurosa's message sounds like a genuine article here, seeing that it was directly addressed to Wind and DW did verify that they did swap the the two last night. Wind's message is one I'm the most :absus: about because I doubt a mailman would have knowledge on certain aspects of the game's setup. Why provide that info N1 instead of immediately on N0? If it is a Parrot, then refer to the previous paragraph. Pano's message is also enough for me to raise a brow. It does corroborate Starlight's N0 message (just nonsense that doesn't mean anything) but enough for me to wonder if it's a coordinated thing. Will need more time to think on this. But until I hear back, Wind has thoroughly earned my sus.]]

Inke begins to sus Wind because of their letter, unsure why sus is specifically going to Wind when they're just the recipient??

Maybe we have three messages because one was parroted yesterday and the parrot message came through today?]]

????? Wait but how would that work, why would the Parrot be delayed???

[[Wait wait WAIT YOU GUYS I just double checked the list of potential roles and I think I have a theory to explain why three letters happened today and not yesterday. However, I’m not going to say anything just yet until I can run things past Jackie. But I suggest everyone take a look at that list of roles again. There are some potential explanations in there.]]

HelloJackie says they have a theory?

I can redirect people, redirect people, redirect people, and oh yeah, I can also redirect people. Really diverse set of abilities, isn't it?
(Bus driver, reflect role used on me back to user, force another player to use their night actions on a player of my choice, and force a player to target me.)
No, I didn't use the bus driver N0- JoaT abilities are one shot each. Bus Driver's the only one I've used so far.

DW further explains their JOAT role--seems they're just a master busser uwu

[[The 3p role could easily be one of the two custom roles as well. There's a possibility of a SK, not a guarantee- Negrek might've come up with something else.]]

Agreeing with this, also keep in mind that Negrek mentioned that some roles could be modified--if Sike was an SK then they might have had a sort of modifier that kept them from killing before they were actually killed lol

For the moment, I'm not going to post the message in full, since it heavily implies either the mailman's identity or someone trying to impersonate this player. But to paraphrase, the sender said not to discount parrot theory because they're a messangers, and they did not use their ability on N0 because they didn't know who to trust.]]

Wind further teases letter contents

DW's claim to be a JOAT is an interesting one. If this is true then it would mean she's innocent. Swapping JackieYellow and Wind doesn't really seem that beneficial to the Mafia unless one of the two is Mafia, but I didn't really get that impression of either of them.

JOAT does not mean innocence, JOAT could literally also be a scum role.

3) Alright, and now onto the messages, which I think is the most interesting. Yesterday's messages didn't really give us much, but things are different here. From a first glance, there appear to be three Mailman at the moment:

1. The person sending unimportant stuff (messaged Starlight on N0 and Pano on N1)
2. The person sending "items" (messaged Free on N0 and tried to message Wind on N1, but ended up messaging JackieYellow instead)
3. The person claiming to not have sent anything on N0, and that there might be a parrot (tried to message JackieYellow on N1, but ended up messaging Wind instead)

It does seem a bit strange to me that there are three Mailman, so I'd like to present a different theory:

The messages so far have been sent by two Mailman, a Parrot, and an Absorber.

A Parrot is able to use the role of the target against him. So if a Parrot targets a Mailman, then the Parrot is allowed to send a message to the Mailman.

An Absorber is able to absorb roles that he got targeted with and use them on subsequent nights.

At first the Parrot theory seemed unlikely to me, since the people messaged on N0 are completely different than N1. This would make it impossible for a Parrot to have messaged someone on N0 and N1. However, with an Absorber in the mix the Parrot theory actually is possible! Basically on N0 a Mailman targeted the Absorber, while the Parrot also targeted a Mailman. Then on N1, two Mailman send out a message, with the third being sent by the Absorber.

This means one of two things:

1. Free is a Mailman, while Starlight is an Absorber
2. Free is an Absorber while Starlight is a Mailman

I did like this breakdown, but I didn't understand the idea behind the messages being sent by "two Mailman, a Parrot, and an Absorber" when only 3 messages were sent...is this implying a letter was redirected back to a mailman and they didn't say anything about it??? Is something flying over my swollen head???? Or was it a typo LMAO

Jet flicked an ear toward the Espeon's Voice. "Sounds like one a the guys sending mail is using the power kinda like that fruit-selling power so they can prove who they are later." That was a pretty smart plan. She definitely would have come up with an even smarter plan if she'd got mail, though.

My thoughts exactly, especially from N0, but ig we technically have a fruit vendor role of some sorts with whoever is sending out the items?? Idfk.

"I already told you yesterday I'm not a mailman. I'm not an absorber either. I didn't send any messages to anybody." May took a breath. "Also, didn't the person saying there might be a parrot say they deliberately didn't use it on the first night? So if they're an absorber they were lying about it."

Free responds to Virgil's post, rebuttal against theory that they are mailman or absorber.

"Also wasn't there that whole problem where the mailman's letter only goes out at sunrise, so if a parrot visits them, there ain't enough time for them to write up a whole letter of their own? That'd probably happen even if a parrot visited the mailman who was too fraidy to send a letter on the zero night."

Wait what?? I thought Parrots sent exactly what the initial Mailman message was supposed to be I am so fucking confused LOL

[[Okay, I will return to discuss in more detail after work because I need to think on the implications and look back at the user's iso, but I know with certainty the identity of the person that messaged me/tried to message Jack/yellow, and I have reason to believe they're telling the truth about not sending a message N1]]

More teasing on their letter

That said, I think it's interesting that you claim to neither be an Absorber or a Mailman. This means one of two things:

1. We have three Mailman after all
2. You're lying about your role

More theory from Virgil

...Why wouldn't I just claim a regular bus driver instead of coming up with three other fake redirections roles. Or claim a more varied JoaT; I think scum would expect eyebrows to be raised if all the abilities on a JoaT claim were kinda doing the same sort of think, wouldn't you?

Anyway, scum lose in one-for-one exchanges; with scum at smaller numbers, it benefits town. Town is bigger and can take more losses, which means a scum going down needs to insure more town deaths and/or another scum's survival to be worth it. It's not beneficial to bait out a bus driver. I'm always getting lynched here, so realistically, especially as the most voted player yesterday, I would probably assume town would vote me off before whoever counterclaimed me, and then the doc if they exist which they probably do might protect the bus driver claim because their the only somewhat-confirmed town.
So its not even one for one. It's one for nothing. Which is super skewed in town's favour so if that's what I'm doing y'all should start planning town's victory party cause scum clearly has no clue what they're doing.

DW further defends themselves

[[I think you're confused on what Chibi is getting at; they're not talking about subsequent nights there at all.

I think the difference between death flavor and this hypothetical mailman parrot is that if as a GM you tell the parrot to write a message before the outcome of the night has been 100% determined, you're either leaking an unacceptable amount of info to them, or will actively mislead them. Suppose you get the parrot to write a message for the mailman they targeted; this tells them that the target is a mailman (already kind of giving the parrot an amount of power they shouldn't have). Now suppose that at the last minute a bus driver changes their mind about their action and makes it so that the parrot actually targets a non-mailman. Now either

- you tell the parrot actually they aren't going to be sending a message whoops, telling them not just that their target was a mailman but also that their target was messed with; a player shouldn't get to know this for reasons outside the natural scope of their role
- you don't tell the parrot this, and thus they assume they sent a message that they in fact never did at all

This just strikes me as a can of worms? I wouldn't want to GM this way. Mayyybe theoretically if someone got their message a little while after the start of the day; I know I got mine before.]]

Technical talk on gameplay ig, I actually don't know why I grabbed this

[I have no clue what's going on anymore, and am completely stumped. Only thing I can think of is that someone's lying about their message.]

Bench confused

This is the message I received.

Yarr!! I be thinkin' that ol' Parrot theory goin' on may have some truthin' to it. I can send messages in bottles, like this 'un, but I held m'self back N0 because I could'nay tell who ter trust. Now, I do.

Last night, I watched myself, and was visited by two people: DawningWinds, and Starlight Aurate. DW has already confessed to being the swapper, which leaves starlight as the only possible person that could be the messager. The style fits tbh lol.

So the conclusion I am drawing here is that either
A. Starlight is being 100% honest in that message.
B. Starlight is an absorber and is lying about why she didn't send a message N1

Wind reveals their message AND their role--they're a modified Watcher.

I recall Starlight completely discounting the Parrot theory before, so I'm kinda curious what lead her to change her mind here. I can see why a mailman would skip out on night 1 like Star's claim to have here; I probably wouldn't have done so with that role, but it could risk giving more extra information to just Mafia.]]

DW questions Starlight's actions

Lurosa put a thoughtful paw to her mouth as she looked back on the instances where Archie had spoken. After the game truly began, he had contributed [[to gameplay]] on nine discrete instances... And to spout off an awful lot of smack-talk.


"I wish to look at other players individually before casting a firm vote, and I certainly hope to get the assent of Neo and his Voice before committing to a vote, but... At this time, I believe this sailor is possibly our Mafia Mailman or Absorber, and has thus far attempted to avoid controversy and attention, or getting caught on a wagon...

"I vote for Archie."

HelloJackie votes Starlight

"Ah, I have conferred with my partner for a moment, and we are sticking with the Archie vote for the time being, but we'd like to ask @IFBench and @AbraPunk to contribute more. We would ask the same of Rascal, but we know her Voice has fallen ill... Such a misfortune. But still, it is critical to Town's odds of success that nobody drifts along voiceless, yes? Perhaps after further conference and some rest we'll make a consensus 'readlist' to share."

[[Quick and lazy readlist is that we particularly like Wind and Dawning for Town right now as a result of this swapping business and have ambivalent thoughts about several others.]]

HelloJackie also wants to hear more from Bench and Abra and Flygon. Lazy reads on DW and Wind.

"I mighta figured out who the other mail guy is now! But I'm not telling!" This was definitely not a way to cover up the fact that she wasn't sure if it was a good idea to reveal or not.

Unsure if this was RP flavor or Chibi deadass theorizing.

I don't want to say anything definitive until Star has had a chance to defend herself but the most recent posts just... idk, I find it weird that star was bringing up the possibility of one of the recipients lying when she would know there would be a third recipient. Maybe it was to coverherself and try to not come across as having a messaging ability? IDK, it's kind of tingling some alarm bells.

More player reads and a vote to come later tonight.]]

Wind questioning Starlight's actions

[[I agree with others that Star being a mailman and casting so much doubt on the swap situation seems really weird. Obviously NeoLurosa is telling the truth about their message since they would otherwise not know about the swap, and she knows NeoLurosa was supposed to receive a message as well so from her perspective there should not really be a reason to doubt it at all. I understand her not wanting to say "this is 100% true" but I'd expect a her as town mailman to act like she believes it at least? Same thing with the third mailman- obviously she knows its gonna be true, so she has no reason to spend time casting doubt on it except to make others look bad.

I also still find Star pretty scummy after my previous ISO of her so I'm gonna join in on voting her.
Vote: Starlight Aurate

DW votes Starlight and explains why

Starlight's theory of a Mafia Mailman reminds me a lot of second anni's Mafia Doctor, where the scumteam gently pushed the theory so they could appear helpful. It also explains why I thought that the theory was weird to begin with (and likely a scum distraction), because much like a Doctor, someone's first thought when seeing a duplicate largely Town role is probably not "there has to be a Mafia version as well!" - at least I don't.

Third Mailman is still a massive big thonk on my end. Depending on how many messages we see N2 might clear a couple things up. For now my pet/joke theory is that it might be TP for le luls just like Namo's TP Bus Driver but don't stake anything on that.

As for other things I've noticed about other players...

Bench and Abra have been remarkably quiet, should probably pressure them to speak up more. Not necessarily sus, but definitely not very helpful. A player that has risen a brow from me is Virgil (holy shit, he just posted as I was typing up this post. Speak of the devil). He has been making decently large posts but something I noticed about them is that they're straight up unhelpful. He's not really making any new observations, just basic parroting of the information we already know with very simple "this is weird", or "I agree with this". It's something I definitely intend to look over more later.

Anyway, if only for the sake of pressure...
Vote: Archie]]

Inke votes Starlight and explains why. Also points out Bench and Abra being quiet, and Virgil being mostly unhelpful with large posts--I partially agree with this. Found their theory post half helpful and half confusing, but that's been the most they've contributed since.

"Okay, so the Absol, Espeon and Nickit are all corroborating each other in ways they couldn't fake. Unless they're all an incredibly bold mafia, I think we've got to be able to trust them about what they've been telling us, even if not about their alignments. Like, if Espeon was lying about getting that message, how did they know about the swap before Nickit said he swapped them? If Nickit was lying, why did Absol detect him? So it sounds pretty clear they did what they did, and Archie did send that message." She looked at the pirate. "I'm not sure if that means he's mafia, but at least it's a lead. So talk."

Free makes more thoughts on this messaging debacle

"The message I received came right before the start of the day. According to the timestamp, by mere minutes. I'm happy to share it in full if it helps, though I'm not sure it will."

'There’s so many pirates in this game.'

His gaze become downcast again. "That's it. That's all it said."

Steven thought for a moment longer before he frowned, still staring at the ground. "I can't help but wonder if this message actually came from... came from Karo? He and I, when we were talking yesterday, I remember saying something similar. This message is conversational, not important to game set up. If there was a TP Mailman simply to cause confusion, it would explain why it didn't try to do much more than want to chat and make friends."

"If Karo was TP and a not-hostile message sender, that could explain why we've only had one death per night."

Pano reveals the contents of their letter and thoughts about Karo's role; might have been a TP Mailman?

As everyone seems to have pieced together, I am a Mailman. I'll explain why I did stuff the way I did.]]

Starlight reveals themselves as Mailman, and explains their tactics leading up to now.

 

[Sinderella]

[[So after all of that...normally I'm a lot more thorough with these afterthoughts but my head hurts so fucking badly right now and I just want to be useful and contribute after being AFK all day so I'm going to just post some lazy thoughts and come back tomorrow with less of a maybe concussion and be more thorough. Holla.

Idfk what Karo was but if they were SK they definitely had some sort of night modifier that they didn't get to use before dying. Peace be with you and with your spirit child, ily

DW is uber aggressive and per the one time I played with them in Humble Vale gave me scum vibes initially, but the more I read their posts the better I felt. Aggressive yes, but their claims seem way too detailed and out there to come from scum ig--claiming a JOAT that is all redirecting powers just seems like a crazy thing to lie about. Then again that could just as easily be Mafia aligned too. Not entirely certain, but I feel better about them at the moment.

I also think I have good feels about Wind and HelloJackie for now. Wind full on coming out with her ability and play from the night before reads very uber town to me right now, and HelloJackie has just been very helpful, ALSO revealing their note and whatever. My thoughts from my previous readlist about them still stand too.

Chibi is a big what the actual fuck because they said something about theorizing/knowing who the other mailman was and then just...didn't say anything else about it??? Idfk. Also why did they specifically call Free out to talk about Karo, was there some interaction between the two of them that I missed? Brain bleed, I am sorry LOL

Free has decent feels right now ig? Nothing about anything they've said is hard pinging me. They did call me out yesterDay for vague sussy baka vibes and I want to acknowledge it and say "I'll respond to that when I'm not falling asleep uwu"

Honestly, I believe Starlight's whole claim LOL. They really do just give off such scummy vibes always only to turn around and be some useful role (fucking cop in overdrive smh). Not that this entirely clears them of not being scum because a Mailman could also be scum but like, idk, I feel like the whole tangent they just gave tracks with how I've witnessed their play.

I mentioned this in my post but Virgil seems to have a knack for posting really really long messages that do nothing more than reiterate things that have already been said, so I am having a very hard time with them. As I like to say, super "smoke blowy" feels right now. Their theory post about the absorber was nice at some points, but left me confused in others, so really they're just a giant ? for me currently.

Pano's also a goddamn ? and they've been AFK today as well so all I have is that they revealed their note; will revisit when they post again.

Inke....idfk man the change in play is fucking with me the more I compare it to Humble Vale (yes I know they weren't town in Humble Vale but they were town ALIGNED which has me thinking the play would be similar, no???) but I also WHOLLY understand the need to turn it down a notch for the sake of the Mental Health Thing(tm), so like....yeah idk, weirdchamp right now. You join the ? gang.

Bench and Abra need to say more, y'all have been extremely silent. Flygon has posted SOME, but the heart wants more bby. Bench, I know you're lost, but now you have a summary! Have at it please

Also I fucking hate bus drivers. With a burning passion.]]

 

[windskull]

[[Got busy. God I'm tired rn. Gonna do a quick and dirty readlist

Strong town vibes:
-HelloJackie - their posts have felt substantial and informative, and they've been open with information that is pertinent to the situation in a way that feels like they're trying to solve the game.
-DawningWind - was quick to admit to the swap. Their claimed use of bus driving lines up well with the way they played town bus in first anni. I'm not discounting the possiblity of scum!DW but right now town feels more likely.

Soft town
Chibi Pika - posts have felt helpful, but not overtly so
Dragonfree - posts have felt helpfu, but free is really hard to read as scum
Sind - feels generally helpful, hasn't said anythign that puts me on edge.

Complete Null
Virgil - I'd give a slight town lean for his recent posts, and especially being the first to bring up the possibility of an absorber, but has been pretty quiet otherwise. Would want to follow other leads first before revisiting.
Inke - Has felt somewhat helpful, but still feels pretty null to me. Could go either way, and I can think of reasons why she might be null despite being town.
Pano - has not felt as helpful as usual, though there are logical reasons for that.

Null/mild sus
Tetra/Flyg0n - Lack of substantial posts, though I understand the reasoning. Would want to explore other avenues before exploring voting her out.
AbraPunk - As more players are coming into certain niches, the mudsdale comment is starting to really rub me. I may be overthinking it though. But also has been very quiet since and not contributed a lot.
IFBench - Limited contributions/lack of substantial posts, would like to hear more.
Starlight - Starlight's answer to how things shook out seems reasonable, but isn't really enough for me to shake my doubt. I will say that, to be honest, Starlight wasn't really pinging my scum radar (was remaining a solid null) until I reread her posts and made note of her mailman comments, particularly the one about one of the recipients lying.

With these categories written out. I'm going to say... I think there is at least one mafia within each of the soft town/complete null/mild sus categories. Chibi, Free, and Sid are all good enough players that I could easily see them stealthing. But I want to hold off on that line of thought until later.

Among my sus pile, starlight is already getting some pressure, so I'm going to put a pressure vote on Abra, since they've been quiet and I still haven't cleared my concerns with them. However, I WOULD like to see starlight discuss her reads more, if possible. Particularly, where she thinks the vote should go. Since it's likely to be between her and one of the null pile.

Vote: AbraPunk]]

 

[Chibi Pika]

"Y'know... if Archie really did have some kinda absorbing power... wouldn't his team have told him not to make himself so obvious in the message? Since he'd only be able to do it once, that'd look pretty weird if he made himself look like a mail guy and then just stopped with the messages."


"And if he was a bad mail guy from the start, it'd be kinda stupid if his team just couldn't think of what to do with his power at all on the zero night!"


"Oh and I guess my 'Voice' says that it's normal for Archie's Voice to get confused about powers and stuff. It's also sayin' that it pretty much always has the opposite reads of the Nickit's Voice, so that was makin' it think twice about Archie anyway. Whatever."

 

[AbraPunk]

AbraPunk - As more players are coming into certain niches, the mudsdale comment is starting to really rub me. I may be overthinking it though. But also has been very quiet since and not contributed a lot.

[[ I've been quiet since then for two reasons:
1. I still feel bad about all of that whole thing, since it was a stupid thing to get fixated on, and all it did was waste everyone's time and put me squarely in sus lists.
2. I just don't know enough to be able to contribute to all of this parrot/mailman/swap theory stuff

though offhand comment, I am wondering if sikesaner would have been a custom role (I can't pull up the sign-up role post on mobile, so I'm going off of what I remember being there)? I think Negrek mentioned there being some present in this game. ]]

 

[Chibi Pika]

"I was thinking if the Garchomp thought that Dorien said something weird about Mudsdale, and he asked his team (and they were bad guys) 'hey do you guys think this was weird?' and they'd be like, 'no.' So he might not be a bad guy."


"Seems like there's been a lotta games where the bad guys couldn't talk and they acted really stupid. But this game probably isn't like that, so they might be a little bit smart." (Not as smart as her, of course.)

 

[NeoLurosa]

Neo blinked and yawned, then gave a small start when he realized he was surrounded by everyone once again. Hadn’t he been asleep in his den? …Oh, maybe the other Espeon had taken over while he was asleep. Huh, sharing a body was weird.

He listened quietly for a moment to everyone’s thoughts. Hmm. Lots to figure out! Not to worry, though—if anyone could sniff out the bad guys in record time, it was Neo himself, obviously.

He jumped up on a small pedestal that materialized out of the ground as soon as he envisioned it (COOL!!) and commanded everyone’s attention with a bark. Time to share his thoughts on everyone!

Good Guys:

• Himself and his Head-Friend, duh. They were obviously the smartest of the bunch so far!

• The Snippy-Fox was probably a Good Guy—or at least, probably not on the Bad Guy Team. They sure shared a lot about their powers, and it didn’t seem like the fox was capable of making it all up. He did wish they were less mad and yappy, though—it was hard to want to work with a teammate that was always baring their fangs. [[Nefari/Dawning.]]

• Slice-Cat seemed nice! Even in spite of her scary horn. She was really smart and helpful—not as smart as he was, of course, but that was a given anyways. Neo appreciated her efforts. [[Muse/Wind]]

Unsure/Neutral:

• Blue Girl seemed nice and smart. She was kind of quiet, but still appeared to be trying to help find Bad Guys. Neo wanted to say she was a Good Guy, but he just wasn’t sure yet. [[May/Free]]

• The Giant-Lizard hadn’t said much. It was hard for Neo to know where she stood yet. [[Rascal/Flygon]]

• Creepy-Guy definitely set Neo’s fur on edge, but he wasn’t sure if that was because he might be a Bad Guy or simply because he was…creepy. It was hard to know if he had good intentions or was just pretending to have good intentions. [[Dorien/Sind]]

• Not-Wes seemed really nice, and Neo wanted him to be a Good Guy. But he couldn’t be too careful. The guy seemed quiet and reserved, and Neo wasn’t sure if that was because of personality or…because of Bad Guy reasons. [[Steven/Pano]]

• Floaty-Dog was really smart! Neo was almost inclined to say she was a Good Guy, but he wasn’t completely sure yet. He wondered if she had anyone else she was suspicious of now that Snippy-Fox seemed less sneaky. [[Jet/Chibi]]

Seems sneaky/might be a Bad Guy:

• Pirate-Guy…hmmmm. Neo really didn’t trust him, but he also wasn’t sure if he was truly a Bad Guy. He hadn’t been very sneaky so far! Wouldn’t the other Bad Guys have helped him be more sneaky? But Neo still didn’t like his reasoning. He wasn’t sure if he was the most dangerous guy out there right now, though. [[Archie/Starlight]]

• Punchy-Bug was really weird. He’d said a handful of things, but they didn’t seem to be saying much except to agree or repeat what others had said. This looked like a sneaky tactic to Neo! [[Kichiro/Virgil]]

• Sparky-Cat seemed guarded somehow. Neo noticed he didn’t make any extreme statements one way or the other, as if he were trying to lie low and stick to the shadows. It felt kind of sneaky, like the times when Novo would sneak up on Neo and pounce from a shadow behind him. (Ugh, he hated that. His brother was such a cheater. At least Neo was definitely way better at this game than Novo would be…heh.) [[Altair/Inke]]

• Chomp-Lizard had also been quiet, except for when he questioned the creepy human. Neo was unsure if he could trust him. [[Antares/Abra]]

• Fire-Lizard (wow, lots of lizards!) was very quiet, perhaps the quietest of them all. Neo found this a little odd. Surely anyone would have at least something to say by now! Unless he was hiding something. [[Burhalla/Bench]]

 

[NeoLurosa]

[[Quick ooc post to add more detail my scumreads:

Sus of Inke because her play just seems very different from previous games. And yes, of course altering play style to manage mental health is valid! I just can’t shake the feeling that something is off, though. That, and she was initially sus of Wind for…reasons??? When I’ve only ever gotten a towny vibe from Wind this whole time. It was only after people started actively placing Wind on their townreads/Wind was more or less cleared along with me/Jackie and DW, that Inke redacted her suspicions. Hmmm.

Bench is absurdly quiet which is extremely unusual and this is pinging my scum radar like crazy. I need to hear more from him asap. Even if he doesn’t have many thoughts to share on the game itself, he’s usually MUCH more active on the RP side of things. So this is major Weirdtown.

Abra is only mildly on my sus radar largely due to being so quiet, but also I know Abra is trying to overhaul their play style and they always ping scummy even when they’re not. I also feel like the whole Mudsdale thing wouldn’t have happened or at least wouldn’t have dragged out as long if they’d had a scumteam guiding them.

Virgil is pinging me with bad vibes largely because they have been very low-key and have been making fairly large posts that don’t actually say a whole lot. Like Sind said, feels kinda smoke-blowy.

Last but not least, Starlight. I was very sus of her earlier today, but after her most recent defense, I think I’m inclined to believe her a bit? (Jackie may disagree with me, lol.) Starlight’s play consistently comes off as scummy, and honestly I can follow her reasoning that she gave for her play so far. Again, I feel like she wouldn’t have made such a big fumble if she had a scumteam behind her. Plus, I’m still struggling to wrap my head around why a scum would so boldly try to lie about messages. HOWEVER, this line right here has me very “?!” rn:

"And whoever sent me that message on N0, I got one thing to say to you," Archie growled.

"It's a neighborly day in the beautihood."

What, WHAT is happening here, is this some kind of code?? Why is nobody commenting on this? This feels weirdly out of nowhere and I don’t like it. No clue if this is just an attempt at humor or what, but it sure comes off as some sort of coded message and I don’t think it should be overlooked.

Ok now I am off to bed, I hope I can get a few more posts in before I go AFK for a few days, but I can’t promise anything. If I don’t see you, the best of luck to you all!]]

 

[Inkedust]

Sus of Inke because her play just seems very different from previous games. And yes, of course altering play style to manage mental health is valid! I just can’t shake the feeling that something is off, though. That, and she was initially sus of Wind for…reasons??? When I’ve only ever gotten a towny vibe from Wind this whole time. It was only after people started actively placing Wind on their townreads/Wind was more or less cleared along with me/Jackie and DW, that Inke redacted her suspicions. Hmmm.

[[I've literally explained my stance on that read and immediately went to redact it as soon as Wind clarified. I thought the message was weird and I am bad at reading Wind. I am doing my best to find leads so a weird message caught my attention enough to press/follow, and I am very content to where it ended up leading as we now have a solid lead. The only reason it wasn't in a massive effort post was because of the fact that I was currently in a lecture. Also yes, my play would be different because wouldn't ya know it, this is the first time that I'm actually Town. For real this time. I promise.

Inke....idfk man the change in play is fucking with me the more I compare it to Humble Vale (yes I know they weren't town in Humble Vale but they were town ALIGNED which has me thinking the play would be similar, no???) but I also WHOLLY understand the need to turn it down a notch for the sake of the Mental Health Thing(tm), so like....yeah idk, weirdchamp right now. You join the ? gang.

A lot of people (read: Sind) seem to want to compare my play with Humble Vale where I was Town-aligned, and while true, my play there wasn't completely Town. See, a major component of my play there was that I was actively trying to get the game into a state where I would win no matter what as I had my two wincons open from the start (for context, I was an Alien that game and got Activated N0) so I felt that I could be bold with my play seeing that the outcomes I saw were "wow, she seems really towny" or "wow, she seems really aggressive, let's lynch her!" That strategy ended up paying off as I managed to evade attention from both Town and Mafia in that way, essentially locking me into a victory on the final day.

That's another reason I haven't exactly been thrilled with folks comparing my play with prior games because alongside me just trying to take it easy...I've literally never been Town before on TR. Every game prior to this one has been played with an agenda in mind, yes even Humble Vale.

Anyway, to address Starlight's response she makes a compelling case and Chibi's defence has given me a bit of thought. She's still near the top of my list for vote candidates as she feels like one of the only solid leads we've actually got, and we can attain a fair amount of knowledge from their flip based on voting/defensive behaviour. My only other real candidate for voting is Virgil due to the aforementioned unhelpful posts (something I was also quick to catch onto).

A player that has risen a brow from me is Virgil (holy shit, he just posted as I was typing up this post. Speak of the devil). He has been making decently large posts but something I noticed about them is that they're straight up unhelpful. He's not really making any new observations, just basic parroting of the information we already know with very simple "this is weird", or "I agree with this".

Guyyyyyyys, why are you ignoring me when I'm making actual observations??? :sadcat:

 

[NeoLurosa]

"Hmm! The game has progressed while I rested. Excellent. I'm starting to feel more confident of my 'reads' by now, though I'll need some time to actually lay out my thoughts. I'm willing to reconsider voting for Archie, because while I don't like any of the decisions he's made, it seems moderately plausible that they were made as Town. I just can't help but wonder, though..."

I didn't want to claim I was a Mailman D1 because communication roles are (I think) valuable for Town and I was worried I would be targeted by the Mafia at night.

"...Why would the Mafia try to kill a Mailman, actually? They seem so much less important than Doctor, Cop, Vigilante, Tracker, or Watcher... Claiming Mailman would be an excellent way to get a Mafia target off your back, I should think! This is so obvious to me it makes me wonder if Archie really believes it!"

 

[IFBench]

[I'm really sorry I couldn't post much yesterday! It was my sister's birthday, and I was also busy with Speed Catnip and other stuff. I'll try to post more today, but I'll need to host Gartic Phone, too.]

Burhalla looked up at where the voice was speaking from. "Can't you focus on this? Lives might be on the line here!"

[Sorry.]

"Anyways, I should reveal some info about my ability. It's an ability that can only work a single time," Burhalla said. "Me and my...Voice, have been trying to figure out a good way to use it, but we've had no luck so far."

 

[IFBench]

What, WHAT is happening here, is this some kind of code?? Why is nobody commenting on this? This feels weirdly out of nowhere and I don’t like it. No clue if this is just an attempt at humor or what, but it sure comes off as some sort of coded message and I don’t think it should be overlooked.

Ok now I am off to bed, I hope I can get a few more posts in before I go AFK for a few days, but I can’t promise anything. If I don’t see you, the best of luck to you all!]]

[[OH!]]

[I think that was another quote from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood that Archie said.]

"And what's that?" Burhalla asked.

[TV show. Never watched it, but it sounds like something that could be from it.]

 

[Dragonfree]

"The message I received came right before the start of the day. According to the timestamp, by mere minutes. I'm happy to share it in full if it helps, though I'm not sure it will."

'There’s so many pirates in this game.'

His gaze become downcast again. "That's it. That's all it said."

Steven thought for a moment longer before he frowned, still staring at the ground. "I can't help but wonder if this message actually came from... came from Karo? He and I, when we were talking yesterday, I remember saying something similar. This message is conversational, not important to game set up. If there was a TP Mailman simply to cause confusion, it would explain why it didn't try to do much more than want to chat and make friends."

"If Karo was TP and a not-hostile message sender, that could explain why we've only had one death per night."

Idfk what Karo was but if they were SK they definitely had some sort of night modifier that they didn't get to use before dying. Peace be with you and with your spirit child, ily

though offhand comment, I am wondering if sikesaner would have been a custom role (I can't pull up the sign-up role post on mobile, so I'm going off of what I remember being there)? I think Negrek mentioned there being some present in this game.

May frowned. “Look, if he was a serial killer, he didn’t kill anyone so far, unless a doctor got lucky or something. I don’t think that makes much sense.”

[[I’ve got an interesting working theory on Karo. What if he was a third party mailman whose win condition was to have sent a message to everyone alive by the end of the game? That would explain him seeming like a mailman, and flipping third party, and messages that don’t say anything useful at all.]]

May scowled. “Yeah. Something like that.”

[[But wait, the Parrot would HAVE to be sending the exact same message that the Mailman tried to send? So if I tried to send a message saying, "Yarr!" and the Parrot targeted me, I'd receive a message saying, "Yarr!"? I just want to know if I'm correctly interpreting what you're saying.

If so, that's not what I was thinking when I discussed the Parrot theory... and I'm sorry for bringing it up in my message to you/Neo, Wind, and for causing so much more confusion.]]

[[I also tried to quote another Starlight message suggesting the parrot’s message goes through the next night. To be clear, that’s not how a standard parrot works; it uses the action on the same night. That’s why I think used on a mailman it’d be hard for the parrot to have time to write a new message, so they’d probably be sending the same message, but that is speculation.]]

as of now, I certainly don't know what to make of the item messages that Free and Neo (though supposed to be Wind) received, and I definitely don't understand the quote from my message on N0.

My thoughts exactly, especially from N0, but ig we technically have a fruit vendor role of some sorts with whoever is sending out the items?? Idfk.

May sighed. “The message Muse got already explained what was up with the item thing. They were just using the messaging to simulate being a fruit vendor, so that they can prove who they are later by naming the items we got. Technically they could still have been originally trying to be misleading, but if we believe them, the item mystery is already solved.”

"Y'know... if Archie really did have some kinda absorbing power... wouldn't his team have told him not to make himself so obvious in the message? Since he'd only be able to do it once, that'd look pretty weird if he made himself look like a mail guy and then just stopped with the messages."

“Doesn’t absorber permanently copy the power, though? It’s parrot that only uses it once, right?”

What, WHAT is happening here, is this some kind of code?? Why is nobody commenting on this? This feels weirdly out of nowhere and I don’t like it. No clue if this is just an attempt at humor or what, but it sure comes off as some sort of coded message and I don’t think it should be overlooked.

“I think that’s just the message he got on the first night, the one I think was from Karo. It matches what he originally said about it.”

"...Why would the Mafia try to kill a Mailman, actually? They seem so much less important than Doctor, Cop, Vigilante, Tracker, or Watcher... Claiming Mailman would be an excellent way to get a Mafia target off your back, I should think! This is so obvious to me it makes me wonder if Archie really believes it!"

“I thought so too, but apparently Steven also figured Mailman was pretty valuable. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable line of thought.”

 

[Inkedust]

"Anyways, I should reveal some info about my ability. It's an ability that can only work a single time," Burhalla said. "Me and my...Voice, have been trying to figure out a good way to use it, but we've had no luck so far."

[[Okaaaaaaaay. Weird thing to suddenly reveal. One-shot and your comment on finding a way to use it implies that it's active, and an action that you can only use once...

Custom elements are obviously on the table here, but I'm going to put a pin in this if my second observation is correct.]]

 

[NeoLurosa]

Lurosa composed herself, closed her eyes, and took a slow breath. "Neo and myself are not wholly aligned in our thinking, but we have similar conclusions about the trustworthiness of our fellow participants. I'm certain my thinking on this will evolve when I've done more of these 'ISO's, and after we've had our first confirmed Mafioso."

Hard/Confirmed Town:
NeoLurosa
Nefari
Muse
Qitlan

Soft Town:
Altair
Jet

Ambivalent/Unsure:
May
Dorien
Steven

Suspicious:
Archie
Kichiro

Antitown:
Karo

Null:
Rascal
Antares
Burhalla

"Notably, I am more willing than my partner to trust Luxray Altair."

Lurosa frowned, wishing she had her magic, that she could effect some change, glean some certain knowledge. Or to converse with other trapped souls, and not only their Voices...

[[RP is fun, you guys! Maybe not entire chapters' worth of RP with no gameplay, but y'gotta love some flavour!]]

She cleared her throat, and her gem glinted as she consulted the known information about the game. "Ah, I notice Charmander Burhalla claims to have a oneshot power. I intuit that this power might be Vigilante, Gladiator, or perhaps Seraph Knight...? All rather risky powers, honestly! I will give some thought to this."