[COMPLETE] Humble Vale Mafia

[HelloYellow17]

Palkia sat there and stared at the ground. His sandwich lay half-eaten next to him.

The phone had stopped playing music, and the screen was shattered, as though something very heavy had struck it.

He held his head in his hands.

I should have been stronger.

I could have stopped Dialga from attacking us.

Misery squeezed his heart. He knew that something like this had happened twice.

First with Ava, now this...

Thousands of years, and all this emptiness couldn't stop history from repeating itself.

I'm so sorry.

I still love you, Ava, even though you've been dead for thousands of years. If only--

He broke off into a sob as he thought about what could have, should have, been.

And Chappie... I couldn't find you. I couldn't because I'm so damn useless and now you're probably dead somewhere. And it's all my fault.

Then, he quickly stood and walked very, very far away. He screamed. It was all he could do.

A roar some distance away caught her attention. Rui saw Palkia (Palkia! By the gods, she still couldn’t believe it, he looked so real!) sitting with his head in his large paws. She carefully walked over and put a hand on his leg.

“H-hi, um…” Wow. Was she really doing this. Was she trying to talk to the Sinnohan deity as if he were no more than a next-door-neighbor? Oh, come on, Rui. This is a dream, remember? A dream! Plus, he looked so sad. She couldn’t just leave him all alone.

“Are you okay? Can I…do anything to help?”

 

[DawningWinds]

???????????????? Linda, WHAT. This makes no damn sense. We'd be better off abstaining vote at the point we're at. I'm having a terrible time parsing "I don't like being townread for talking meta so have a vote." Way haphazard.

I'd argue with you on the abstain but that will probably accomplish nothing but clogging up the thread. I will always be against the concept of not killing D1, and I will always be inclined my vote one the first person who makes me think they're scummy. And, if the second person I notice something scummy from is scummier, then I'll put my vote there instead. I am just that haphazard, if that's the word you want to use. I get that some people and most people here don't like voting until they have stronger reads though, so I get why this'd throw you off, specially since I don't think we've played together before so you wouldn't know to expect this from me.
I voted Q because I did not like her townreading me (or anyone for that matter, but I feel like I catch it more when it's me) for doing something that guaranteed accomplishes nothing because, well, it accomplishes nothing, thus pointless, thus an easy halfassed read for scum to make from my perspective, and from other people's perspectices, an easy way for the person getting townread to pretend to be doing something and blend in. It's a weak read no matter what q's alignment and at the moment I hadn't noticed anything better...

 

[HelloYellow17]

I will always be against the concept of not killing D1, and I will always be inclined my vote one the first person who makes me think they're scummy. And, if the second person I notice something scummy from is scummier, then I'll put my vote there instead. I am just that haphazard, if that's the word you want to use.

[[Ok, so this is your play style then. I’ll admit it threw me off but now that I know that’s just how you like to do things, it makes a bit more sense to me. However, I still thing throwing out votes completely on a whim can be dangerous and can lead to more harm than good. I of course agree that we should lynch someone today, especially since we know there are two shooters out there, but I feel like there’s a…more precise way to figure out who to vote for? Anyway, we have some time to gather more info so I’ll be holding off on voting until I feel more sure about who to vote.

I voted Q because I did not like her townreading me (or anyone for that matter, but I feel like I catch it more when it's me) for doing something that guaranteed accomplishes nothing because, well, it accomplishes nothing, thus pointless, thus an easy halfassed read for scum to make from my perspective, and from other people's perspectices, an easy way for the person getting townread to pretend to be doing something and blend in.

This is quite a lot to read from a single off-hand comment. Idk how often you’ve played with kyeugh or how well you know her, but that’s just her humor. She is facetious a lot of the time, but when she’s being serious, she makes it fairly clear. Though I can see how this would throw off someone who isn’t familiar with that.

Long story short, I hope you don’t side-eye her for the whole game just because of a miscommunication. I have a very null read of kyeugh right now, and I’m definitely not prepared to vouch for her innocence at the moment, but I still think it’s wise to take each player’s personality and play style into account when analyzing things.]]

 

[DawningWinds]

ok i’m done thinking the dw thing is hilarious and will come clean now for full transparency: i was being facetious when pretending to TR them and have not really moved off null for them still. or i guess i’m more ambivalent now than null but it boils down to meh

What is the difference between ambivalent and null? And do you think you learned anything at all from your fake TR on me? I'm hoping it wasn't entirely for memes and was at least partially intended to give you some useful reaction.

 

[Sinderella]

She fiddled sheepishly with her necklace. “Sorry about that! I misunderstood. I’m a lot less confused now that I’ve heard the proper explanation, and I think she—uh, Mademoiselle? Is telling the truth. Even if she scares me a little…”

"Yer good, bro. Like I said, coulda been you misreading, so I'll accept that...for now."

“But, in the letter I got—” Rui pulled the envelope from her jacket pocket, “it only said there may be—what was it? Prank callers? In this game. It’s not a for-sure thing. So…maybe Amy saw or heard something that proved there are prank callers? Or maybe she was just confused.”

Rui turned to the young girl for the first time. Heavens, she was even younger than she’d realized, and to be in a game like this…no, no. It was fine, because this game wasn’t even real in the first place. There was no real danger here, and Rui would keep telling herself that until she believed it through and through.

He pursed his lips. "Could just be a wording thing. Dunno why it would even be mentioned if it wasn't gonna be included, 'specially because this version of Lycanrock seems soooo...outta pocket. I dunno. But sure, maybe that other small girl can clarify."

I'd argue with you on the abstain but that will probably accomplish nothing but clogging up the thread. I will always be against the concept of not killing D1, and I will always be inclined my vote one the first person who makes me think they're scummy. And, if the second person I notice something scummy from is scummier, then I'll put my vote there instead. I am just that haphazard, if that's the word you want to use. I get that some people and most people here don't like voting until they have stronger reads though, so I get why this'd throw you off, specially since I don't think we've played together before so you wouldn't know to expect this from me.
I voted Q because I did not like her townreading me (or anyone for that matter, but I feel like I catch it more when it's me) for doing something that guaranteed accomplishes nothing because, well, it accomplishes nothing, thus pointless, thus an easy halfassed read for scum to make from my perspective, and from other people's perspectices, an easy way for the person getting townread to pretend to be doing something and blend in. It's a weak read no matter what q's alignment and at the moment I hadn't noticed anything better...

[[Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm okay, you got me, that kind of makes sense. I guess I can somewhat agree that killing on D1 is essential, but I also find it counterproductive to wing votes out when we know nothing. Buuuuuuuut I'll give this one to you, it's your play style.

However, I know Q is kind of a smartass (I say lovingly) so flinging a vote at them for what I read as something pretty smartass-y threw me off. But, that's the nature of text 😬 ]]

 

[kyeugh]

What is the difference between ambivalent and null?

to me null means no real thoughts. i use it to describe people whose play has been unremarkable and hasn’t really pinged on my radar. that’s not true of you, but i’m not walking away from your posting with a read, either. it could have come from either direction. so no real lean, but not really null either.

And do you think you learned anything at all from your fake TR on me? I'm hoping it wasn't entirely for memes and was at least partially intended to give you some useful reaction.

it was entirely for memes, but that doesn’t mean i didn’t learn anything as a bonus, hey. mostly i just have a better grasp on your playstyle now, which is nice. i’ll say that i like the early vote pressuring etc in principle. i’m unsure about your application of it. i think the primary towny utility for that kind of play is to create pressure and hopefully produce a reaction to analyze, but you didn’t actually press me at all beyond declaring the justification for your vote and if anything it seemed like you were the one reacting, so i’m unsure what the point of it was really and am left wondering what your motivation was. “just throw a vote on the person who feels scummiest to me at the moment and see what happens” feels a bit wolfier than not, but i fully believe it’s possible you were just kind of doing stuff to do stuff, so i don’t know. your actual actions feel a bit strange and undirected but i also sort of sense a solvey intent (albeit far from unfakeable) that i’m not getting from anyone else right now, and maybe the unagendaed feeling is a positive. don’t know. still sitting in the middle. guess we’ll see.

 

[DawningWinds]

This is quite a lot to read from a single off-hand comment. Idk how often you’ve played with kyeugh or how well you know her, but that’s just her humor. She is facetious a lot of the time, but when she’s being serious, she makes it fairly clear. Though I can see how this would throw off someone who isn’t familiar with that.

Long story short, I hope you don’t side-eye her for the whole game just because of a miscommunication. I have a very null read of kyeugh right now, and I’m definitely not prepared to vouch for her innocence at the moment, but I still think it’s wise to take each player’s personality and play style into account when analyzing things.

However, I know Q is kind of a smartass (I say lovingly) so flinging a vote at them for what I read as something pretty smartass-y threw me off. But, that's the nature of text 😬

I'm kinda at a major disadvantage when I comes to taking people's personalities into account, considering the last time I was even remotely active in posting TR for anything aside from Mafia was probably in 2019 or early 2020, and even then I never really engaged with anyone, so I basically know nothing about any of you. I really only know q at all from the first anni game, which was a while ago and I remember her taking things a lot more seriously, so.
I'll definitely try and keep this in mind reading q going forward. And I wasn't leaning scum that hard on her, it was kinda placeholderish vote? Definitely not something I'm planning to hold against her all game. I plan to push Jackie harder then I did q when they wake up but it's hard to push someone who's not available to post.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

[[Am awake, am tired, might just go back to sleep. Thought I'd come up with a plausible explanation for two nightkills that tied into this game's major gimmick, but I guess that's sus? Okay, sure. I think the role PMs specifying that buddies can win independently of their faction are gonna do more to turn town against each other than my pet theory, honestly.]]

[[No idea what to make of q's shitposting right now, gonna sleep on it.]]

 

[DawningWinds]

Am awake, am tired, might just go back to sleep. Thought I'd come up with a plausible explanation for two nightkills that tied into this game's major gimmick, but I guess that's sus? Okay, sure. I think the role PMs specifying that buddies can win independently of their faction are gonna do more to turn town against each other than my pet theory, honestly.

I do agree that buddies being able to win separate from factions is... a weird design choice to say the least. But. You described a town/SK buddy system as effectively a scumteam. Which as far as I'm concerned, it's not, or at the very least, it depends heavily on the players in the particular buddy system. Other players might not agree, but to me I don't think just a buddy system victory would feel as much like a victory as actually winning with my alignment, so I would most probably out a buddy claiming to be a hostile faction right away, since I see killing scum as my main wincon.
And I do realize some people might not feel the same as me on prioritizing wincons, but assuming everyone who might be put in such a situation with an anti-town buddy would choose to aim for their buddy victory over their town victory this early is kinda ridiculous, specially with the fact that either buddy could well die before endgame without them helping it anyway, thus eliminating the chances of them winning by both buddies surviving.
And any scum-team ish strategizing between the buddies also depends on the anti-town buddy taking the gamble of outing themselves. Which I do not expect to happen this early.
Plus SK dying puts town players wincon back to town/found family with whoever they end up with, and landing in a buddy system with a hostile twice in a row seems improbable at least, so if SK dies their buddy shouldn't be treated as still a threat regardless. But that's not what your wording implied, just "they're a scumteam, that's that".

All of this creates the impression, to me at least, that you want town to not trust anyone who could be buddy systemed with someone who they think is scum, or even to some extent, anyone who was buddy systemed with a dead scum.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

[[As usual, Dawning's takes are deeply unintuitive to me, but their posts read like town with a normal, non-custom role to me. Very slight positive read.]]

[[Anyway I could have sworn the game was described as role madness in discord a while back, and my own role is, uh... very not normal.]]

[[No hard reads from the thread yet, mostly just vibes, but I've got a working assumption that my buddy is town.]]

 

[Equitial]

1. unrepentantAuthor (Salem the Purrloin morph) (pets kitty) -- vibes, admittedly weakest read

Quick post, my reason for not wanting to lynch uA is because I figured they had a role. Not saying I think they're innocent (in fact they've kind of been rubbing me strangely), but I don't want to risk them if they are Town on Day 1 at least.

I didn't spell that out initially, though, because I have taken constructive criticism from my last game xD

 

[Flyg0n]

Anyway I could have sworn the game was described as role madness in discord a while back, and my own role is, uh... very not normal.]]

Fry is a busy possum, but concurs that this was what he'd heard at some point, and therefore not a strong enough reason to think Cat was bad.

While he is not sure who he trusts fully yet, he also does not smell anything Bad about Cat.

However, Fry does wonder if perhaps even bad guys can be super strong, tough enough to survive and attack.
Not that he thinks anyone smells really bad. Yet.

 

[Sinderella]

[[Nah. One pair of scum, and a second pair of scum. It's a little like having a scumteam and an SK in vanilla. As far as I'm concerned, a third party with a buddy is another scumteam. It's my working assumption for now.]]

[[I’m still stuck on this. It’s kind of odd to me to automatically assume that third-parties are automatically scum oriented in a game where all the roles are unknown (and from what I’m reading, weird, according to some people.)]]

 

[kyeugh]

[[I’m still stuck on this. It’s kind of odd to me to automatically assume that third-parties are automatically scum oriented in a game where all the roles are unknown (and from what I’m reading, weird, according to some people.)]]

meh. i think that’s kind of an uncharitable read. third party is generally anti-town and have win conditions that are incompatible with ours. it’s in the interest of town as a faction to eliminate them. i don’t think it’s weird to describe that as scum, unless you’re interpreting “scum” to specifically mean “mafia-aligned,” which jackie explicitly explained is not the way they were using it earlier.

 

[kyeugh]

[[No idea what to make of q's shitposting right now, gonna sleep on it.]]

you want to make light and have a good time with your friends.

 

[Sinderella]

meh. i think that’s kind of an uncharitable read. third party is generally anti-town and have win conditions that are incompatible with ours. it’s in the interest of town as a faction to eliminate them. i don’t think it’s weird to describe that as scum, unless you’re interpreting “scum” to specifically mean “mafia-aligned,” which jackie explicitly explained is not the way they were using it earlier.

[[No I know uA didn’t mean “scum” in tandem with “mafia-aligned.” My whole gripe is that we don’t know the roles, and I’m getting the vibe that there’s shit going on that might not appear in a “typical” mafia game so to immediately jump to that sort of conclusion is a little :/ But I won’t read so hard into it right now, there just isn’t a lot to go on at the moment 🤷🏼‍♀️]]

 

[kyeugh]

[[No I know uA didn’t mean “scum” in tandem with “mafia-aligned.” My whole gripe is that we don’t know the roles, and I’m getting the vibe that there’s shit going on that might not appear in a “typical” mafia game so to immediately jump to that sort of conclusion is a little :/ But I won’t read so hard into it right now, there just isn’t a lot to go on at the moment 🤷🏼‍♀️]]

i’m not sure i’m understanding how it’s :/. what’s the scenario you’re envisioning where third party is not anti-town?

 

[Sinderella]

[[Idk, one of these "weird" roles I saw claims to having? I'm just trying to keep an open mind, because again, the roles are unknown, so I'm not entirely sure WHAT to expect here.]]

 

[kyeugh]

[[Idk, one of these "weird" roles I saw claims to having? I'm just trying to keep an open mind, because again, the roles are unknown, so I'm not entirely sure WHAT to expect here.]]

i think it’s fine to keep an open mind and we should all be doing that, but i don’t think shutting down speculation because “the setup is wacky and it could be anything” is really that—in fact i’d say it’s the opposite, and casting shade on people for making fairly reasonable assumptions about the game (regardless of whether you agree with their particular theory) has me downright side-eyeing you. like, dw disagrees with uA too, but they’re disagreeing with the conclusion, not saying that the mere suggestion that a hostile third party might exist is scummy.

ultimately that kind of play comes down to getting people to second-guess any information or preconceived understandings of how the game works, which makes it completely impossible to solve and denies town the ability to meaningfully discuss the game. i understand that you’re not going in on them super hard or anything but i’m not getting good vibes from that approach.

 

[AbraPunk]

A roar some distance away caught her attention. Rui saw Palkia (Palkia! By the gods, she still couldn’t believe it, he looked so real!) sitting with his head in his large paws. She carefully walked over and put a hand on his leg.

“H-hi, um…” Wow. Was she really doing this. Was she trying to talk to the Sinnohan deity as if he were no more than a next-door-neighbor? Oh, come on, Rui. This is a dream, remember? A dream! Plus, he looked so sad. She couldn’t just leave him all alone.

“Are you okay? Can I…do anything to help?”

Palkia had spent enough time crying, and now just sat there.

He flinched at the touch and took his hands away from his head.

"No, I'm not okay. Thanks for asking," He said in a monotone voice. "...But if you wanna like, hang out with me or something, that would be cool."