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[INNOCENTS WIN] First Anniversary Fanfic Mafia - Game Thread

Dragonfree

Moderator
Staff
Location
Iceland
Pronouns
she/her/hers
Partners
  1. butterfree
  2. mightyena
  3. charizard
  4. scyther-mia
  5. vulpix
  6. slugma
Of course I didn't realize when I decided to do the rereading today that I've got drawing class after work and probably will not be able to get much of a lengthy analysis post in after work. Instead you get a quick lunchpost from a partial read, hopefully more after some phone reading later in the day.

So far, I think I'm inclined to vote for Equitia. From my reread of their posts so far, Windskull's play feels like it comes from a more towny perspective. In particular, Equitia pushed for lynching Namo after the vigilante claim (of course the mafia would quite like to get rid of him), while Windskull was more conservative and pushing for lynching DawningWinds when people were gunning for Sike because it'd be a lesser loss for town if DW was innocent, which strikes me as more genuine towny thought. Will revise as I read more, though.

But also:

[[The sudden sound of gunshots sent the blood running cold in Dave's veins. In a flash he saw the Archopy falling down, silently, suddenly glassy-eyed in a spreading puddle of red (but no, just the leaves, and he scampered unharmed up his tree).

"Fuck!" His heart was pounding somewhere in his throat. "Jesus. What the hell's wrong with you? I didn't think those were loaded. Fucking Christ."]]
 

Dragonfree

Moderator
Staff
Location
Iceland
Pronouns
she/her/hers
Partners
  1. butterfree
  2. mightyena
  3. charizard
  4. scyther-mia
  5. vulpix
  6. slugma
Oh, something else I forgot to take into account in my previous post re: things that could cause Namos vig. shot to fail: aiming at a bulletproof player.
Evidence that Windskull is genuinely bulletproof, or had guessed qva is bulletproof, question mark?
 

Dragonfree

Moderator
Staff
Location
Iceland
Pronouns
she/her/hers
Partners
  1. butterfree
  2. mightyena
  3. charizard
  4. scyther-mia
  5. vulpix
  6. slugma
That said, I could be convinced to lean towards Non, but so far the argument for her I've seen is more or less "she's been inactive and she seems like she's playing differently from last year." If I missed or forgot something on the argument towards non tho, feel free to throw it my way so I can reevaluate my stance.
windskull defends NonAnalogue here, buuut to be fair it’s a totally valid point that there wasn’t all that much to the case on her at this point... hrmmm.
 

elyvorg

somewhat backwards
Pronouns
she/they
heee I forgot Dave had gunshot PTSD. Three-for-one trauma, excellent!

(yes, Dave, I know, I'm a terrible person.)

Tefiren's lucky he can only hear us and not any of the characters' inner monologues, because he would not have appreciated that mental image Dave just had.

[["...When was this?" Diyem asked, rubbing his scales again. "I'd be in favor of voting for Jen as well, if I knew what you were talking about."]]
Since Tefiren has apparently completely resigned from his self-appointed role of pointing things out to everyone to make himself feel clever, I guess I'll do this.

Jen claimed to have tracked Lauchs on night 1 and seen him do nothing. However, that's the night of The Big Swap, meaning Jen was actually tracking Chibi. If we believe that Chibi really was a doctor, which I think we have little reason to doubt at this point, Jen should have seen him visiting whoever he was trying to heal that night. So either Chibi just forgot to do anything that night, Chibi was roleblocked (very unlikely, because we already know Ntairow was) or Jen is lying and forgot about the swap when making up their fakeclaim info.
 

Tanuki

Friend of All Chu
Location
Rhyme City
Pronouns
He/him/his
With all the fiber of my being I despise the hardware this shitty company gave me.
N1 - qva, tracked to no one
This is basically impossible. Desper explained it, but he’s, uh. He’s been asleep for a while. Really asleep. He’s not moving.
 

Namohysip

Dragon Enthusiast
Staff
Partners
  1. flygon
  2. charizard
  3. milotic
  4. zoroark-soda
  5. sceptile
  6. marowak
  7. jirachi
[[

"Hmm... I see." Diyem nodded. "All things considered, we have a means to test Nip's innocence on the night after this one... assuming I live. If not, there are other ways to investigate things. But for now, I do not trust this claim from Jen."

He looked down, pensive, and said, "I do not think we have enough time to plan things out. I hope you take my words from earlier to heart when looking into your actions. Espurr, please be sure to look at someone that you suspect will be targeted tonight, such as Desper, Tefiren, or myself, if Desper does not protect me... Hmm... Do any of you have alternative plans?"

]]
 

Dragonfree

Moderator
Staff
Location
Iceland
Pronouns
she/her/hers
Partners
  1. butterfree
  2. mightyena
  3. charizard
  4. scyther-mia
  5. vulpix
  6. slugma
Equitia does list NonAnalogue as a scumread here; however, I don't think they've brought up NonAnalogue at all before or since, except in the claim post where suddenly NonAnalogue is supposedly their biggest mafia suspect. I feel good about my vote.
 

Dragonfree

Moderator
Staff
Location
Iceland
Pronouns
she/her/hers
Partners
  1. butterfree
  2. mightyena
  3. charizard
  4. scyther-mia
  5. vulpix
  6. slugma
Like, where did their suspicion of Tanuki go? Yesterday they absolutely seemed way more suspicious of Tanuki, and tracking Tanuki to someone who died would be much more ironclad evidence than tracking NonAnalogue, who hadn't claimed anything.
 

elyvorg

somewhat backwards
Pronouns
she/they
Not that it really matters at this point, but I have been leaning more towards Equitia because of the points Dragonfree's been making. You don't mind if I change your vote for you, right, Tefiren?

[["Whatever! It's one of them anyway. Just make this game end already so I can go back to the better one with Sira in it."]]

Yeah, the "better" game where you'll have a lot more than being shot to worry about.

[["The Raichu only got me because I wasn't expecting it from this game! I'm not going to go making an obvious mistake like that in the proper game!"]]

He's actually not just saying that to save face. Apparently everyone else has been getting gradually more paranoid and jumpy as this game's gone along, but Tefiren's been the opposite, getting more and more relaxed the more it's sunk in that there's no danger at all in the daytime. At least, he was until what happened with Desper.
 
Day 4 End

Negrek

Play the Rain
Staff
The shock of finding two of their number dead weighs heavily on the people who remain, and their discussion is subdued--well, until Desper decides to shoot at Tefiren, that is. That distraction aside, most people by now seem suspicious that either windskull or Equitia must be a member of the mafia--and perhaps the final one. Jen, in his rush to defend himself, ultimately babbles out something he perhaps should not have. As evening creeps up on the group, he ultimately finds every finger pointing at him.

Nevertheless, Jen still looks confused as the malleable ground begins to draw him down. Even now, he isn't quite prepared to meet his fate, though he seems too stunned to even say anything as the mire closes in over his head. At least those watching can be reassured by the wave of red that ripples out from the spot where he disappeared.

Jen (Equitia) has been jailed. He was Mafia.

As for what might happen to Jen, or any player jailed beneath the strange dimension's surface, who could say?

Jen sat alone in the dark, justifying his actions to himself. What else was he supposed to have done? With the ability he had been given, no one would have believed that he was innocent even if he really was. Even if he had worked for the “innocents”, they disappeared people too. They just did it in the light of day.

But, with Charizard’s revelation last night, Dave’s confirmation… Jen didn’t believe there were “board game gods”, but he had been inexplicably teleported into a strange gray place with strange rules, and he did hear a voice in his head. He just pushed it out of his mind, even now as it butted in saying it wanted to apologize for something.

Anyone would have done what Jen had done if they were in his position. He shouldn’t feel guilty for doing what he had to do.

But, for a game. Jen helped to remove people for a game. And did he remove people from whatever this place was, or from life? He told himself it was probably from the former, and what was he supposed to do if it was the latter, but…

Red light filled the room. Jen jumped to his feet, Psychic energy rushing instinctively to his palms. The walls and floor glowed and contorted. Within seconds the only possible escape route disappeared, enveloping him in this room completely.

With nowhere to go and the walls closing in, Jen collapsed to the floor, squeezing his eyes shut. It was fine, he told himself. Whatever force had brought him here wouldn’t have let him go if he had won anyway. And it wasn’t like he didn’t have this coming.


Final Vote:

6 Equitia - Tanuki, Dragonfree, Namohysip, qva, windskull, elyvorg
Not Voting:
Equitia, SparklingEspeon

Night 4 begins now and will last until 9:30 PM UTC/5:30 PM EST May 20th, or until all night actions have been received.

(( Jen's death flavor was written by Equitia! ))
 
Game End

Negrek

Play the Rain
Staff
Nip wasn't the only one awake in the unnatural darkness of the night, but it was easy for him to avoid the others. He blended perfectly into the shadows, and there wasn't even moonlight to gleam from unsheathed claws.

He was the only one left.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Genesis… They may not have seen eye to eye, but she was just as trapped in this situation as he was, and her skills had been a valuable asset.

Fiametta… He didn’t understand everything she said about her situation, but he trusted that she was in just as much danger as the rest of them and deferred to her wisdom.

Jen… The young not-quite-human had been a quiet ally. And when they screwed up and he had to watch them be dragged away under the mysterious surface of this prison, it had struck fear into his heart.

He was a survivor. He outlasted all his allies. But now, he was alone. And that meant he had to make a decision. He would no longer be able to take a passive role. Tonight, he would have to make a hit to survive.

Who could he take out? The sirfetch’d would survive his attack, and then they would all know. He was certain he could take the charizard, but the raichu would likely guard him. The raichu would be an easy target but… he was the only one he might be able to turn the crowd against, if he was lucky. Tefiren? He feared he was too clever for him.

Espurr? No. Just… no.

The human. The human was his best target. He seemed weaker, with no claws or special weapons to defend himself with. He would do.

--​

The dreams are pretty lucid - more lucid than he thinks his real-world dreams ever have been, not that he usually remembers them. Just the ability to ask a question that makes any fucking sense into the void is not exactly regular dream material. But the people in them are always vague and fuzzy, and entirely silent. This time, just as he's trying to concentrate, a crystal-clear voice speaks behind him.

"Hi."

He jolts and whirls around and finds - she's not even the ghost he was trying to reach this time, but honestly he'll take it. Mia stands there plain as day, half of her face a bloody exit wound, looking disinterestedly at him with her remaining eye.

He looks off to the side. "Jesus, Mia. Can't the fucking afterlife fix that?"

In his peripheral vision she shrugs.

Dave sighs, hears his voice shaking weirdly. "Christ. Mia, I'm... I'm stuck in this fucking game. It's the second time and the first time there was something pretending to be you. There are these, these fucking things, things that are disappearing people and trapping others in these sick murder games. Maybe you're the lucky one. I mean, apparently there's a fucking afterlife. What are any of us still doing here?"

Mia tilts her head, her brow furrowed. "That's stupid."

"Yes, yes, I know it's stupid as shit, but here you are, so unless you want to tell me you're a fucking hallucination, this is where we're at."

He half-expects her to take him up on that (because it's probably true, really), but she just narrows her eyes at him.

"This doesn't make any sense."

"Yeah, congratulations."

She pauses. "Maybe I can kill you. Then we can see properly how the afterlife works."

Something squirms in his stomach. "Uh, I mean, I doubt that's gonna work. You're a ghost in my fucking dream."

She steps forward and experimentally pokes him in the chest - she's solid. She prods him again for good measure, then grabs his hand and raises her other arm, scythe gleaming. "Hey! Mia, n- hold on." He reaches out to stop her. "Can we just..."

He stops, squeezing her hands.

"What?" she says.

"Just... stop."

She gives him a skeptical squint. Maybe he can distract her with some bullshit. Honestly she'd probably enjoy the puzzle of the game. He could tell her about it. Just stand here and talk for a bit, like old times, until whenever the end of the night tears him back. Maybe two minutes into the explanation she's going to immediately identify all the mafia and look at him like he's a fucking dumbass for not figuring it out. That'd be nice.

But just as he's finishing that thought, he starts to realize that something's wrong. There's a crawling, cold, numb sensation in his feet; he looks down and finds them disintegrating, just fucking dissolving into a glitchy distortion that's creeping up his legs.

"Shit," he mumbles. It's just some weird fucking dream thing, he thinks, but somehow, he knows it's not. "Oh, fuck."

Mia looks down and tries to pull him away, but it's still there. Of course.

He never even got the fucking answer to his question.

"Nononono. Not now. Not now! You twisted fucking pieces of shit!" He grits his teeth, staring into the void. "What the fuck did I ever do to you motherfuckers?"

"There's nobody there," Mia says. And... yeah, she's right. His 'guardian angel' isn't actually here, right now, or at least he hasn't heard its voice. But it's not as if it matters if they hear him, anyway, does it? They don't care and they never fucking will.

"I hope you all get fucking bone cancer, you evil shitheads," he snarls. That horrible numbness has spread past his knees, confused nerve endings firing on all cylinders telling him it's freezing and he needs to get to warmth and shelter. "Fuck all of you. Why don't you just..."

(Is this what happened to the ones he targeted last time? He'd told himself they were getting out of here, but - that wasn't ever true, was it.)

Mia frowns. "Who are you trying to talk to? They aren't here."

"Ffff... go fuck yourselves, you..."

His stomach's dissolving and he's nauseous and this is fucking pathetic, isn't it, just yelling ineffectually at thin air. Mia probably thinks he's lost it.

"Mia?" he starts. He's not sure what he's going to say to her, but his throat is closing up anyway. She looks at him, suspicious. Before he even knows what's happening, he's pulling her closer, half-collapsing into her arms.

He can practically see the look that must be on Mia's face as he start sobbing uncontrollably, but she holds him anyway, and he holds her tightly, hands clutching her bloodstained shirt, as the coldness takes him.

Dave (Dragonfree) has been eliminated. He was innocent.

Meanwhile, Tefiren huddled in his latest hiding place, hating the Archopy-sized empty space he could feel next to him. Every single hiding place he'd made here - he'd had a different one each night, of course - had been the size of two Archopy, not one. And he'd only just noticed that fact tonight.

He grumbled to himself, trying to will the space to close in and get smaller. It wouldn't. He tried to will it to fill up instead - if he could make things happen just by thinking in this world, then he should be able to just think Forsira into being there next to him, like she always should have been. But that wouldn't happen either. This world refused to give her back, or to let him out of here, until he either won or lost this stupid game.

His injured crest leaves stung as they pressed against the roof of his enclosure, and it irritated him. This whole game here was supposed to be just battling - he'd figured that out himself today, and the voice that followed him around had said as much. The mafia - not Them - only vanished people. Just like fainting. No real loss at all.

But he couldn't get rid of the sound of that Raichu's attack roaring in his ears, the way he'd felt in that moment: realising he'd messed up, he'd let his guard down, if it'd been Them he'd have been--

The wounds in his leaves were healing, but for now, the stinging pain was still there, constantly reminding him of the stupid mistake he'd normally have never been able to afford.

Idly, he morphed his front wing leaves into glowing blades, and then back again, blades and back again, trying to distract himself from the pain. But each time he did, he felt a familiar tingle of sharpness along their edges.

Not just battling, not for everyone. Maybe the mafia thought that, but apparently the Raichu didn't. No-one had ever said it was just battling, so there was no reason to follow that rule.

It shouldn't have mattered, should it? The game would end tomorrow, anyway. They'd all come out, someone else would have been vanished (not Tefiren; his hiding places were far too clever for anyone to find him), and then they'd all vote to get rid of the black weasel, the only one left it could possibly be, not for clever reasons but for boring reasons. That stupid voice might even take over and do the vote for him. That same voice had voted for him both times they'd actually got rid of a mafia, as if Tefiren was no good at this game and didn't even need to be here. As if all he'd done in this game was waste his tricks, be wrong about the one thing he'd figured out by himself, and let his guard down like a moron.

No. He was better at this game than that. He was better at every game than that.

The voice followed him around during the day, but it went away at night. It wasn't here right now. Tefiren could be the one to win this game, tonight, by himself. And the sooner the better, right? The sooner this game ended, the sooner he'd see Forsira again.

Stealthily - there was no way he was letting his guard down, not ever again - Tefiren crept out of his hiding place and dashed across the bare ground. The holes in his wing leaves stung in the cold air, but that wasn't enough to stop him from taking off silently into the treeless night sky. Even with his poor night vision, it wouldn't be hard to find where the black weasel was hiding. Everyone in this game but him was so stupid when it came to choosing good hiding places.

Just to test it, he swiped one of his wings mid-flight and felt the satisfying swish of an air blade shooting towards the ground below, without a sound. His trick, that he'd figured out all by himself. Usually he used it to fend off Them during his many daring escapes - but it could be more than that. He could use it to attack from a distance, unexpectedly, so his enemy would never see it coming.

He'd never even thought to use his air blades like this before, not in his real game - but then, that was because They lived on the other side of the island in such great numbers that it'd obviously be foolish to even try. But here, when his enemy was isolated and alone? When the point of the game was to catch the enemy, and not just escape them? There was no reason not to.

There was no reason not to.

Tefiren was going to get back to his own game and see Forsira again, using his tricks. Because he didn't lose. Not at any game, not ever.

He was going to win, like always.

--​

In his haste, distracted by what he had to do, Nip forgot to watch his back.

As he turned away from Dave’s shelter, he tripped, biting back an alarmed cry. And when he tried to push himself up, his front paw began to sink into the ground. Alarmed, he whipped his head around, and caught sight of a figure in the darkness. Tefiren.

“You really are the smart one, aren’t you?” he growled, struggling, managing to pull his paw free. Not that it did much good. As he had twisted and flipped and struggled to pull it out, it had only hastened the sinking, and it was already up to his waist.

“So, this is the way it’s going to be, is it?” He shouted into the darkness. “You’ll turn on me because that’s the only way you can ‘win.’ I was only doing what I had to, to survive, don’t you understand? Maybe some of your innocent friends were alright staying here, flinging distrust at each other until no one was left, content to avoid taking action. But some of us would like to be free. Some of us had reasons to fight!”

He tried to drag himself forward, but only succeeded in getting his arms stuck.

“I only did what I had to! I’m sick of suffering because of the inaction of others, and I won’t take it anymore!”

Nip was almost fully submerged now, having to tilt his head up to suck in the air for just a bit longer. The feeling of the strange material was uncomfortable, though not painful. Would he be able to breathe once he was pulled under? Or would he drown, as if in water? He didn’t know. He didn’t want to find out. He didn’t want to die.

He didn’t want to die.

The last thing he managed to say was, “I hope Yveltal curses you all,” before succumbing, and all that was left where Nip once stood was a ripple of red.

Nip (windskull) has been eliminated. He was Mafia.

The Innocents win!


(( Various portions of this post were written by windskull, Dragonfree, and elyvorg! ))
 

Negrek

Play the Rain
Staff
And that's a wrap! Not as short a game as we had last time, but nonetheless a pretty commanding performance from the Innocents. Congratulations on your detective work, and good show from the Mafia, despite a particularly rough Day 1 after it turned out the Innocents' night actions had lined up kind of perfectly. I hope everyone had a good time; there was loads of great RP this game, and I look forward to checking out the stories for some of the characters that were unfamiliar to me.

As usual, I've compiled all characters' role PM's and the night action log below, for the curious. You may notice an unusually high number of protected/protective roles; in addition to there being the potential for three kills in a night with the basic setup, I was also planning to introduce another mechanic that would have introduced the potential for another. I ended up not doing that based on the way things played out in the first night/day, so the setup may look a bit funky as a result.

qva - Lauchzelot from Wandersword
Ability: Tough Old Bird

They call the ducks of Fetscheim too tough and stringy to eat, and most ducks aren't wearing full plate, ohoho! No mere scratch will deter a knight of the realm like you.

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Once per game, if you would be eliminated during the night, you will survive instead. You will be informed when this ability has been activated, but not why or by whom.

Starlight Aurate - Yami Bakura
Ability: Spirit's Insight

How did you end up trapped together with all these fools? Whatever magic's wiping them out of existence, you'd love to learn more... But for now, you suppose, you'd better make sure it doesn't happen to your host. The blind lot of them are all stumbling around, wondering who could be a traitor in their midst. Pathetic, although it serves your purposes. After all, if they had even the faintest clue to your identity, they might start trying to cause trouble for you, too. As it is, you can easily discern who here wishes you ill. All you need is time.

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Once per night you may choose another player and look into their soul. At the end of the night you will receive a PM disclosing whether that player is aligned with the Innocents or the Mafia.

Persephone - Genesis from Broken Things
Ability: Chronically Well-Meaning

You've only ever wanted to help people. Sometimes you mess it up. Actually, a lot of the time you mess it up, but you really are trying. And there are rules. If people don't follow the rules, they're going to get punished. You have to try and remind them of what they need to do. You can't help it if they won't listen. But you wish... You wish it didn't feel like every time you tried to help, you only made it worse.

You are aligned with the Mafia and win when Mafia-aligned players make up the majority of remaining players. Your associates are Nip (windskull), Fiametta Fortunata (NonAnalogue), and Jen (Equitia). You may communicate freely with other Mafia-aligned players outside the game thread.

Once per night you may choose to "help" two other players. If you do, any other night actions that would have targeted the first player target the second player instead, and vice versa. If NonAnalogue and Equitia have been eliminated, you will lose this ability and instead gain the ability to choose one other player to eliminate per night.


Namohysip - Diyem
Ability: BANNED

You've had it up to here with these weird characters and their special powers and did you even read the rules for that ability? No, you can't use it without a source of water. No, your magic wave pendant thing doesn't count as a source of water! If you don't stop trying to rules-lawyer your way past every single encounter you're going to be oout of this game so fast your head will spin!

Your long past of suffering through gamer bullshit has left you well-prepared for what appears to be some interdimensional, extra-level gamer bullshit. If people are causing trouble for the players here (including, notably, you), you aren't going to put up with it. You can't summon the strength to kick one of them out of the game every night (too much dice-rolling, not enough training?), but woe betide any who piss off the Diyem. Especially one who can literally breathe fire.

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Beginning Night 1 and on every odd-numbered night thereafter (Night 3, Night 5, etc.) you may choose one player to incinerate. That player will be eliminated.

Dragonfree - Dave from Morphic
Ability: Some Kind of Psychic Bullshit

So it looks like you're back here again. Again? Something's hazy about what exactly happened the last time. If there was a last time.

You could do with a lot less fucking haze right about now, and especially without these weird dreams. Like you need any more reminders about how they're dead. About how Mia's dead. (Again? No, that's fucking stupid.) Hell, in the last one, it almost seemed like she could hear you, somehow. God, what the fuck. What, is it time to go out and buy a crystal ball and incense and start ripping off the gullible idiots who'll pay to hear from Grandma one last time?

It seems like you're stuck with your bullshit visions, though. And it's not like you believe in any of this bullshit, obviously not, but, hell, why not try to experiment with it a bit? See exactly how deep this delusion goes. You know Mia's dead. You're totally sure. But still...

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Once per night you may choose to pray ask for guidance experiment with your newfound "psychic powers." You may send a message up to 250 characters long to a dead player of your choice. This message may contain a yes-or-no question; the recipient will be able to respond with only "Yes," "No," or "Don't Know." PM your message to Negrek. If the recipient responds before the beginning of the next night phase, Negrek will report their response to you.

DawningWinds - Professor Finnar from Tale of Legends
Ability: The Manipulator

You're not much for front-line fighting; got out of that years ago, as a matter of fact. In a crisis like this your greatest assets are going to be your observational skills, your fearsome level of organization, and your scientific curiosity. After all, whatever brought you here no doubt believes it has the situation under control. What if you were to just... change a few variables? Perturb the system? You're very curious to see what sort of results you get.

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Once per night you may choose two other players to experiment with. If you do, any other night actions that would have targeted the first player target the second player instead, and vice versa.

Tanuki - Desper
Ability: Frontier Ingenuity

Life's hard out in the desert. You ain't like those city-slickers all getting themselves in a tizzy if . In the desert you can't just take yourself to no fancy hospital if a varmint up and bites off yer leg! No, a frontier 'mon has to be hard, and he has to be adaptable. You ain't got no fancy degree, but you're a scientist, a mechanic, and a chef all rolled in to one. And if there's any skill out there you haven't mastered yet, by god you're ready to step up and learn it on the fly if the situation calls. So if the town doc goes down, you're ready to grab your bone saw and get to work--or whatever else it turns out you might need to do.

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. The first time that an Innocent-aligned player with an ability you're capable of emulating dies, you'll quickly learn to take over their role in the game, and their ability will become yours for as long as you remain alive. Not all Innocent-aligned abilities can be learned in this way; Negrek will inform you when another player's death causes your ability to change.

NonAnalogue - Fiametta Fortunata from Not a Number
Ability: AXSIS Erase

You can't really remember how you got here, or what was happening just before--never a good sign, but you're surprised that the powers that be apparently decided to put you in some kind of VR sim-game instead of sending a couple standard-issue lightning bolts. Assuming they found you, which they must have, because how else could you have ended up here? You have your marching directions, too: eliminate the other players. Win the game. And then they'll let you go? You somehow doubt it, but what else are you going to do?

At least they've started you out with some pretty powerful magic, and you didn't have to spend a single pieces of AXSIS Gold to get it.

You are aligned with the Mafia and win when Mafia-aligned players make up the majority of remaining players. Your subordinates are Genesis (Persephone), Nip (windskull), and Jen (Equitia). You may communicate freely with other Mafia-aligned players outside the game thread. Once per night, you may choose one other player to eliminate.

Sike Saner - Ntairow from The Origin of Storms
Ability: Fearsome Defender

You may not have Esaax's healing abilities, but a kwazai is a dangerous creature to cross. You don't need to heal people if you can stop them from getting hurt in the first place, and you'll do everything in your considerable power to ensure that you won't have to see anyone else die.

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Once per night you may choose another player to defend. If you do, that player will be immune to any attempts to eliminate them during that night.

Windskull - Nip from Places We Call Home
Ability: Survivor

It's true, you've done a few things you regret. Maybe someday you'll have to add this to the list, too. But it's not about killing anyone--vanishing them, whatever. This is what you have to do to survive. And if you're going to die... If you're going to die, it certainly can't be here in this godless wasteland.

You are aligned with the Mafia and win when Mafia-aligned players make up the majority of remaining players. Your associates are Genesis (Persephone), Fiametta Fortunata (NonAnalogue), and Jen (Equitia). You may communicate freely with other Mafia-aligned players outside the game thread.

You cannot be eliminated during the night. If all other Mafia-aligned players have been eliminated, you will lose this ability and instead gain the ability to choose one other player to eliminate per night.


Equitia - Jen
Ability: Psychic Static

There's nothing easier for a psychic than to project their own emotions onto other people. And, unfortunately for you, your emotions haven't been terribly pleasant ones, lately. After everything you'd already gone through, now... this. There are too many people here who want to hurt you. They don't understand you, which means they want to be rid of you, and who could blame you for fighting back? You're only doing what you have to do. Sharing some of your own painful thoughts might just be the best defense you have.

You are aligned with the Mafia and win when Mafia-aligned players make up the majority of remaining players. Your associates are Genesis (Persephone), Fiametta Fortunata (NonAnalogue), and Nip (windskull). You may communicate freely with other Mafia-aligned players outside the game thread.

Once per night you may choose another player and fill their head with so much psychic interference that they'll be incapacitated with a splitting headache. Any ability the targetted player tries to use that night will fail. If NonAnalogue has been eliminated, you will lose this ability and instead gain the ability to choose one other player to eliminate per night.


Elyvorg - Tefiren from Foregone Conclusion
Ability: Bag of Tricks

Mysterious disappearances? Strange creatures from other worlds? Some kind of silly "game?" Ha! You've trained for this sort of thing your entire life. This is going to be awesome! Whoever out there's "disappearing" people, you're stronger than them, you're smarter than them, and if they come after you, they're only going to end up looking like fools. In fact, you have some new tricks that you're just itching to try out.

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Each night you may choose to use up to one of the following abilities:

- Air Slash: You've spent a lot of time perfecting this one--no one else can conjure a burst of wind so strong, or whip it up so fast. If it comes down to a one-on-one fight, a couple of these will be enough to send your opponent packing. On the night you use this ability, choose another player. That player will be eliminated.

- Detect: Vigilance is important. Be aware of those around you, what they're doing, why they're there--you can't let anyone catch you with your guard down. None of Them are here, and this evil might be a bit more subtle than They are, but if you pay close enough attention to how people act, you'll be able to spot who you need to worry about in no time. On the night you use this ability, choose another player. You will receive a PM indicating whether that player is Innocent or Mafia.

- Fly: All these strange pokémon gathered here, and you're a better flier than any of them! Soar way up high, and none of them will be able to reach you. Although you can't stay airborne forever, you wouldn't want to anyway. Where's the fun in that? On the night you use this ability, any actions targeting you will fail, including actions that would otherwise eliminate you.

- Sky Drop: Sure it's risky, swooping in and hauling someone into the sky. But the look on their face when you drop them from twenty feet up--priceless! On the night you use this ability, choose another player. Any actions that player attempts to take during the night will fail.

After you've used an ability once, you won't be able to use it again for the remainder of the game.


Chibi Pika - Chibi from The Legendarian Chronicles
Ability: Determined Defender

You've seen a lot of violence in your life; you've suffered a lot of losses. One in particular. And you may not be able to prevent yourself from losing more, but damn it, at least you can try. If you can stop even one person from being disappeared, then every effort you could make would be worth it. So you'll make the effort. If there's one thing your legendary heritage is good for, it's giving you the power to actually fight back when evil comes calling and defend what matters most.

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Once per night you may choose another player to defend. If you do, that player will be immune to any attempts to eliminate them during that night.

SparklingEspeon - Espurr from Do Psychic-Type Pokemon Dream of Electric Sheep?
Ability: ESP

The dark is no barrier to your psychic insight! People might think they're sneaky, doing all their dirty work at night, but you can tell what they're up to perfectly well. And you'd better put that ability to good use--with people up and vanishing into thin air, it's not like normal forensics can help you track down the culprit!

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Once per night you may choose another player to watch. If you do, at the end of the night you will receive a PM containing the names of all the players who used their abilities on your target during the night.

== NIGHT ZERO

- Equitia blocks elyvorg
- DawningWinds swaps Chibi Pika and SparklingEspeon
- Persephone swaps Chibi Pika and SparklingEspeon (thus cancelling the above)
- Starlight Aurate inspects Dragonfree (response: Innocent)
- Chibi Pika heals NonAnalogue
- Sike Saner heals SparklingEspeon
- NonAnalogue kills SparklingEspeon (blocked)

No one dies!

== NIGHT ONE

- Equitia blocks Sike Saner
- SparklingEspeon watches Chibi Pika (sees: DawningWinds)
- DawningWinds swaps qva and Chibi Pika
- Persephone swaps NonAnalogue and DawningWinds
- Starlight Aurate inspects qva (response: Innocent)
- elyvorg inspects qva (response: Innocent)
- Sike Saner heals Chibi Pika (blocked!)
- Chibi Pika heals elyvorg
- NonAnalogue kills qva

Chibi Pika dies!

- Tanuki becomes a doctor!

== NIGHT TWO

- elyvorg blocks DawningWinds
- Equitia blocks Dragonfree
- DawningWinds swaps qva and windskull
- Tanuki heals SparklingEspeon
- Sike heals Namohysip
- Starlight Aurate inspects Sike
- Dragonfree communes with Chibi Pika (blocked!)
- NonAnalogue kills Starlight Aurate

Starlight Aurate dies!

== NIGHT THREE

- Equitia blocks Tanuki
- SparklingEspeon watches windskull (sees: nothing)
- Tanuki heals SparklingEspeon
- Sike Saner heals elyvorg
- Dragonfree communes with Starlight Aurate
- Namohysip kills NonAnalogue
- NonAnalogue kills Sike Saner

NonAnalogue dies!
Sike Saner dies!

== NIGHT FOUR

- SparklingEspeon watches Namohysip (sees: nothing)
- Tanuki heals SparklingEspeon
- Dragonfree communes with Starlight Aurate
- elyvorg kills windskull
- windskull kills Dragonfree

windskull dies!
Dragonfree dies!

Innocents win!
 
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kyeugh

you gotta feel your lines
Staff
Pronouns
she/her
Partners
  1. farfetchd-galar
  2. gfetchd-kyeugh
  3. onion-san
  4. farfetchd
wow! good read, elyvorg. man, we worked it out pretty early, dang... good game from the mafia though! in the end, my only active scum reads were townies, and all the scum were just null for me at worst. thanks to everyone for the fun rp, and thanks to negrek for putting this game on and writing such delightful flavor! :D
 

Namohysip

Dragon Enthusiast
Staff
Partners
  1. flygon
  2. charizard
  3. milotic
  4. zoroark-soda
  5. sceptile
  6. marowak
  7. jirachi
[[

Diyem sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "Time to go," he muttered, dispelling his shadowban hammer. "I have a world to investigate."

]]

Here are the notes that I took. They got a little less thorough near the end and more "in my head" as the number of players went down and I was able to keep track on my own, but I took a looooot of notes on day 2 and 3 in particular because I was readying my mafia kill and trying to figure out what to do. Anyway...

Content warning: I swear a lot in my notes.

qva (Lauchzelot) - Bulletproof? Starlight Aurate (Yami Bakura) - Seer probably, innocent Persephone (Genesis) X - mafia Namohysip (Diyem) - Odd-Night Vigilante Dragonfree (Dave Ambrose) - speaks to the dead, possibly? DawningWinds (Professor Finnar) - Bus driver - Innocent, probably true Tanuki (Desper) - Backup -> Doctor from chibi (unproven) NonAnalogue (Fiametta Fortunata) - mafia Sike Saner (Ntairow Fade) - Doctor (questionable) Windskull (Nip) - Bulletproof? Equitia (Jen) - Tracker elyvorg (Tefiren) - Jack Of All Trades Chibi Pika (Chibi) X - Doctor (unproven, but innocent) SparklingEspeon (Espurr) - Watcher (unproven) -- qva (Lauchzelot) Dragonfree (Dave Ambrose) Tanuki (Desper) NonAnalogue (Fiametta Fortunata) Sike Saner (Ntairow Fade) Windskull (Nip) Equitia (Jen) elyvorg (Tefiren) SparklingEspeon (Espurr) Day 1: Nobody died on Night 0 - someone blocked, somehow. qva (Lauchzelot) - High aggro. Attempting to go for the kill despite evidence saying otherwise. Strange behavior. Is it enough to suspect? Maybe not. Slight suspicion. Starlight Aurate (Yami Bakura) - Did he just outhimself as seer?????? Persephone (Genesis) - True Neutral, very busy due to finals, no clue where her head's at. Dragonfree (Dave Ambrose) - Neutral DawningWinds (Professor Finnar) - Not much info to go by, but is generally friendly and helpful. Tanuki (Desper) - Paranoid, but doesn't seem to be acting consistently scummy. Uncertain, cautious optimism that Desper is innocent. Tanuki is notoriously paranoid and the idea of me being mafia probably terrifies him. NonAnalogue (Fiametta Fortunata) - True neutral, no clue what's going on here. Sike Saner (Ntairow Fade) - Hard to tell, probably lower suspicion for now. Windskull (Nip) - Neutral, not much else to say. Equitia (Jen) - Same, neutral. elyvorg (Tefiren) - Very active, currently helpful, neutral input otherwise. Keep an eye on if the advice becomes less helpful. Chibi Pika (Chibi) - Seems knowledgeable and despte my pressing for the potentially wrong path, was quick to correct and make sure things were safe. Very likely innocent. SparklingEspeon (Espurr) - Doesn'nt seem to know the rules, generally naive player, doesn't seem to be mafia, but it's hard to tell. Could be working the ignornace as a front. Day 2 Chibi taken down, innocent. qva (Lauchzelot) - Generally a hard read. Aggro play style. Quick to accuse a lot of people. But she did accuse Persephone, who turned out to be mafia, so... And continued to drive this point along with Persephone at the start. Also the first to take aim at me. Kind of suspicious. But then unvoted shortly after... which I doubt a mafia would willingly do. Odds are "like 1/10" for a roleblock kill? Eh, that's a reasonable number to guess. Starlight Aurate (Yami Bakura) - How the FUCK are you still alive. Also, jailing Diyem like all the rest... Jesus fuck how did I climb out of this? Persephone (Genesis) - mafia. Obviously went for me, but only AFTER raising the idea and letting others roll with it. For all I know, anybody between here also aimed for the kill against me. Really pushed for Sike's kill. Sike could be innocent. Then switched to Dawning Wings - if DW is mafia, they could be trying to have Persephone take the fall in an effort to protect, but they could both be telling the truth if a roleblock happened. Dragonfree (Dave Ambrose) - Also aimed to go for me, but it might have been a bandwagon effect. No proof of being mafia or innocent imo. Quietly and curtly unvoted. - Started the bandwagon against Persephone. DawningWinds (Professor Finnar) - Claims bus driver. Nobody claimed against. Day 1, swapped Espurr and Chibi. Night 2, swapped qva and Chibi. This, combined with Sike's story, makes no sense so far. Also aimed to vote for me for the same bandwagon reason. Tanuki (Desper) - "All three mafia" - Did he seriously just...? NonAnalogue (Fiametta Fortunata) Sike Saner (Ntairow Fade) -- DOCTOR????? Ah FUCK someone protect this person. Nobody claimed against. Protected Espurr night 0 and Chibi night 1, but that got swapped into qva. THIS STORY DOES NOT ADD UP UNLESS SHE WAS ROLEBLOCKED. Espurr claimed to perform the swap. Says some odd things, though... ALSO AGREED TO THE ALPHABET SPLIT, which was a horrible idea. Also aimed for me, then eventually retracted and then went innocent. Windskull (Nip) - True neutral. I have no idea what's going on with this player. Equitia (Jen) - Went for me after everything was said and done. What's with the logic there? - and when she woke up, she contnued to suspect me and said she was torn between me and Sike. Could Sike be innocent after all? elyvorg (Tefiren) -- Quick to claim that DawningWinds is innocent, but I don't think that's truly confirmed yet. However, is generally helpful, and came through with the same conclusions that I had for the most part... but a little too soon, in a way. Also aimed to vote me out, but long after everyone else. Bandwagon effect. Also was quick to unvote for later, so I'm thoroughly convinced this one is innocent. SparklingEspeon (Espurr) - Cat. LYNCHED: Persephone, who was mafia. HOW THE FUCK? Day 3: Notes to present: Persephone was among the first to raise questions about me in particular and trying to interrogate my aggressive stance. And while I agree I was aggressive, I'd at least like to point out that it was Genesis who spoke up first. This was followed by several others, including Dawning Winds, Sike, and Persephone at the end of the accusations. Tefiren and Lauchs also accused me. Lauchs - "Maybe we could win instantly" with three town shots. Three is a common number being raised for mafia counts. Why? 3 out of 14? Sike might have been roleblocked by someone because Persephone voted for Sike before going to bed, like it was a final one. Does that mean DW might have been the mafia killer after all? KILLED: Yami - Goddammit. That was our Seer. qva (Lauchzelot) - Everyone thinks qva is innocent and after what happened last night, maybe so. But it's still hard to tell why they targeted qva. It just doesn't make sense. Was it really to throw us off??? Or did they recognize qva as a huge threat? Dragonfree (Dave Ambrose) - Not much new info here but definitely seems innocent. DawningWinds (Professor Finnar) - Lynched, innocent. Switched qva and Windskull, nothing of effect was known. Tanuki (Desper) - What in the world are you even doing at this point NonAnalogue (Fiametta Fortunata) - Literally no information except is still really focused on Desper. Sike Saner (Ntairow Fade) - Hmm... Now that qva was switched with Chibi, Sike is back under fire, possibly... Protected me. Windskull (Nip) - Not a lot of info, but reads kinda innocent. Look over more thoroughly. Equitia (Jen) - Same deal as Nip. elyvorg (Tefiren) - Probably still innocent. SparklingEspeon (Espurr) - Almost definitely innocent due to the meta. Day 4: qva (Lauchzelot) - Due to being targeted, is probably innocent. Dragonfree (Dave Ambrose) - Due to behavior, is neutral Tanuki (Desper) - wtf Windskull (Nip) - Currently no info Equitia (Jen) - Currently little info, kinda aggro, but voted no-lynch, so maybe that's why they were suspicious of me. elyvorg (Tefiren) - Due to behavior, is neutral SparklingEspeon (Espurr) - Due to meta, is probably innocent
 
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elyvorg

somewhat backwards
Pronouns
she/they
WOOOOO TEFIREN DID A BIG OL' MURDER

which seemed to have been turned into something much less obviously murdery by this world's mechanics, apparently, so maybe he actually didn't. I am slightly sad about this (with no offence meant to poor Nip, of course, who didn't ask to be mafia in the first place).

But still! I'm so delighted that I somehow managed to piece together something of an actual character arc for Tefiren during all this, culminating in him being willing to (at least possibly) murder someone he knows isn't even one of Them just to hopefully get back to Forsira and prove he'll totally never lose at his real game. I was always kind of hoping I could do some fun RP with the kill power when I saw that I had it, but that worked out wonderfully.

(Shout-outs to Desper for shooting Tefiren yesterday, by the way. Just before that point, Tefiren had finally realised this game wasn't actually life-or-death, at least probably not, which kind of put the damper on the possible-murder I was already sort of planning to have him do tonight if need be, in that he'd know it wasn't murder at all. That'd be no fun. But then Desper managed to push him back into thinking maybe people could still die in this game after all and he would still potentially be killing someone! Hooray.)

Thoughts from looking at the role list/night actions:

- what the fuck there actually was a mafia bus driver and not a strongman, that explains why a certain couple of people who later turned out to be mafia kept insisting DawningWinds could be mafia bus driver. Good thing Persephone was the first one we lynched, things could have gotten hella complicated if she wasn't.

- Nip actually was bulletproof, but also mafia, something I had begun to suspect after aiming my kill at him - thank god he lost the bulletproof part after becoming the only mafia left.

- qva, you were lying when you said you learned the identity of the one who shot at you. Any particular reason for this? Trying to manipulate windskull into saying they had the same thing in order to then call out the lie, I guess?

- Chibi tried to protect Tefiren the night he was eliminated! Man, if only Tefiren knew that. Also, Ntairow tried to protect Tefiren the night she was eliminated. Apparently that's a thing doctors should not do, geez. See, Tefiren's tricks are the best, he can totally protect himself, leave him alone, guys.

- Nip actually avoided going to eliminate Tefiren on this final night because he thought Tefiren was too smart for him! That's a delightful little detail. Tefiren totally needed his ego inflated even more than it already is after this win that was definitely all his doing and nobody else's.

- Someone's going to notice it sooner or later so I might as well own up to it now: yes, I roleblocked DawningWinds the night before I then insisted they still had to be mafia, specifically the don, even though a kill had gone through anyway. In my defence... shut up; they looked really, really guilty and I was so sure I was right about my read, and so I believed it was more likely that the (actually non-existent) strongman could have killed Starlight Aurate than that my read was wrong. I didn't ever bring up this fact until now because I didn't want to look like an idiot. Tefiren wanted that even less.

In fact, I was so sure I was right about DawningWinds being mafia and therefore so sure that my roleblock would result in a no-kill night that I had a whole scene of RP prepared for the next morning. I had a lot of fun writing that scene, so even though it's non-canon, enjoy:

(This would have followed on from the part I actually did include in my first D3 post in which Tefiren convinced himself that me hijacking his vote was totally his intuition letting him sniff out Them because he's just that good.)

[[And then, snug in his latest hiding place (he made a different one every night, of course, each one more cunningly hidden than the last), he'd thought more about the strange way a certain person he'd been mad about all day had acted during that last heated argument over who to get rid of. He'd thought about everything that person had done that day some more. And everything had clicked into place.

So Tefiren had hatched a brilliant plan to use his tricks to catch another one of Them, all by himself, that very night. He was the best at this game - he was going to win it so completely that he'd make Them look like utter fools.

And that morning, as they all emerged to find that nobody had been caught last night, Tefiren knew his plan had worked.

The moment the last member of the group was accounted for, Tefiren began giggling to himself, gleeful, singsong giggles that started quiet but began to grow louder. He climbed his tree, leapt from the top with his wings spread and swooped with huge, wild cackles towards the white-coat Human, the one that had infuriated him so much the day before, grabbing her in his foot-claws and lifting her into the sky with him as she flailed and protested.

"Is it fun? Hm? Is it fun to get to fly like this?" he taunted. "Because They don't get to fly like this at all normally, do They?" He kept flying in low, wide circles around the whole group, the human still in his claws, his voice loud enough that all of the rest of them could hear him, too.

"Was it fun? When I let you fly last night, too, like this?" he went on, his words punctuated by gleeful chuckling. "When I grabbed you like this and carried you up and up and up - so high! - and then I dropped you - the look on your face - priceless!" He broke off for another few giggles. "You looked so surprised, falling and landing - crash! - from so high like that. You must have been so surprised and dazed that you couldn't do anything at all for the rest of the night, right?"

He giggled again, louder, fiercer, as he looked over at everyone else, all of them staring at him. "And now look what's happened! Nobody got caught last night. Why do you think that is, hm? It's because you're the one who would have caught someone, isn't it? You thought you'd tricked me! You thought you'd fooled me, and made me think you weren't one of Them at all - but I figured you out, and then I tricked you!

"You don't swap things. You never swapped Chibi with anyone! The feline one saw you near Chibi because you're the one who caught him." Tefiren's voice grew more and more fervent, a wild gleam in his eyes as he continued to fly in faster and faster loops around the rest. "You went to catch Chibi, while another one of Them stopped the blue one from protecting him. Clever tricks for Their standards, huh? You probably all think you're so smart, don't you, with all the tricks you have in this game, hm?

"Well, my tricks are cleverer than yours! I stopped you from catching anyone last night, and now I'm going to finish catching all of you!

"And if you think," he added, still with a wheezy, furious giggling, "if you think it's going to be easy for you, now that you know my trick - haha! - so stupid! I have so many tricks, not just this one! And I'd never be so predictable as to use the same trick twice - of course not! I'm not stupid like you are!"

He flew higher and higher with the white-coat Human in his claws, up, up as high as his wings could take him. "None of you can stop me!" he roared. "I am the best at this game!"

Directly above his tree, he finally let go of the Human. She fell, yelping and flailing and crashing in a heap in its branches.

Tefiren landed in front of the tree with a dramatic fwoosh of air from his wings, fixing the rest of the group with an adamant stare. "I'm getting rid of that white-coat Human today and none of you can change my mind."]]

I was very excited to post that bit of RP and very sad to see that someone had died and therefore I couldn't, which probably has something to do with why I got so bummed-out in general on D3 when things just weren't panning out like I'd hoped. That's also why Tefiren was bummed out, too, and why he made a few internal comments that morning grumbling about Yami's dramatic spectacle of a death - because he'd wanted to be the one to start the day off with a dramatic spectacle.

I'm also kind of sad I never got to use my Fly ability. We were talking about a strongman all game, and as far as anyone knew, nothing would block the strongman kill - but Fly would. It'd also have blocked the weapon the mafia actually had, namely the bus-driver switching. The mafia had no idea that anyone had an ability like that, so they'd never have seen it coming! I had all these ideas of Tefiren showing up the next morning giggling to himself with glee after yet another cunning, totally-inevitably-successful escape from Them that made Them look like fools.

I had vague plans for the whole game to bait in the strongman kill by roleclaiming something relatively important - maybe by softclaiming an inforole after my inspection, maybe by my claim that would have happened if DW was actually mafia - in the hope it'd make the mafia want to eliminate me while also expecting me to be probably healed. Then I'd just Fly right above their supposedly-unblockable shot and make it go to waste. ...Or at least I would have if their unblockable weapon had ever been a one-shot thing, but still.

Unfortunately, things never quite panned out for me to really get a believable not-too-obviously-baiting roleclaim to work. By the time I'd actually roleclaimed on D4 - which I sort of did because I still had this in mind, incidentally; it wasn't just because Tefiren wanted to brag - I realised that things were so close to ending that I'd be better off just doing that murder I'd wanted Tefiren to do all along.

Anyway, good game! This was so much fun. Dunno if I'd want to play more forum mafia without RPing being involved, but this was A Good Time and I don't regret signing up last-minute one bit.
 
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