[COMPLETE] THE MADEMOISELLE'S BANQUET (December Mafia)—GAME THREAD

[Flyg0n]

{{*or something, oops.]]

 

[HelloYellow17]

The cat-girl was…gone? Neo’s tail drooped. He knew he’d gotten a good feeling from her, even if they never spoke…and now she was gone. Where did she go to? Was she just kicked out because the big Bacon Bird decided she wasn’t good enough? Did she go home?

Neo hoped so. He didn’t like to think about where else she might have—no, no, she definitely went home. This was just a game, after all. And those who were bad at it were kicked out. A bit harsh, but at least he didn’t have to worry.

But still…something…something didn’t feel
right. He glanced at Snot Bird. He was still here, and still not providing any useful information despite demanding it from anyone else. How funny! He really was bad at this game.

Neo addressed him with a chirp. Why was he so quick to accuse without giving reasons for his accusations? Why was he so suspicious of Dragon Bird? Neo wasn’t sure what to think of her yet, but he didn’t think she was responsible for Cat-Girl getting kicked out.

He then turned his head and narrowed his eyes at the other cat, who was curled up and fast asleep in a corner. He took a moment to wonder over her mottled, multicolor pelt (what was going on there? Was she sick?) and then flicked his tail.

She hadn’t said too much for most of the precious day, and then…out of the blue, she suggested nobody vote for anyone. But that wasn’t how you won a game! You won by figuring out who was who, and you won’t get there if you do nothing!

Especially since there were so few of them here. If the bad guys were kicking out the bad players, then they couldn’t afford to sit around. So why would this splotchy cat suggest that? While also at the same time accusing the Dragon Bird for defending herself?

…Hm. Neo wasn’t quite sure what to make of everything yet, but one thing was for sure: he did not feel good about Snot Bird and Splotch Cat.

[[Quick ooc note: at EoD I was so busy I was BARELY able to skim the thread to know what was going on. Going back through, Jackie was the first to suggest an abstain, which…seems odd! From what I can recall, Jackie is usually against abstaining on D1, especially in smaller games, and this is one of the smallest games yet. It was also odd that they pushed for an abstain while also accusing Tetra.

Due to the low activity on D1, it wouldn’t be wise for any mafia to throw suspicion on anyone out of the blue. They didn’t have much to work with, so pushing to abstain while throwing sus on a few other players to sow seeds of doubt would be the best play. And Jackie did exactly that. Highly sus of Jackie rn.

As for Pano, the jury is still out, but I didn’t miss that she dodged questions and was very aggressively digging for info at the same time. The aggro approach is something I’ve never seen from Pano before, but it could also just be RP flavor, what with a different character and all. So I’m mostly unsure, but I sure am side-eying.

As for Tetra, she was also dodgy with answering questions—but this could be chalked up to being Town and not wanting to give any hints about her role. (The same could apply to Pano, too, if she’s town.) Buuuut I dunno. Something about her play seems off but I can’t put my finger on it.

Buuut, both Pano and Jackie have been pretty accusatory of Tetra. Either this is a mafia ploy to stage fights amongst each other to avoid suspicion, or Tetra is Town and both of them are Mafia. Those two are my top suspects rn. Would love to hear a defense from either of them.]]

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Hana waved her claws frantically in the air in a pacifying motion. "I just meant that because only one person has died each night, not two! So Either the serial killer is waiting or we have someone who can't nightkill. I had nothing to do with this!"

[[Gah sorry, I don't mean Free was third party killed, I meant that because there was one death it means there might not be an SK]]

Steven's anger cooled at the Flygon's clarification. But only just. "Either that," he snapped, "or the healer in our midst chose well... Though how well remains to be seen." He scowled at the ground. "The Meowstic is gone and I had some questions for her today."

He began to pace back and forth in front of the grandfather clock, seemingly deep in thought. It was obvious he was avoiding the area where the shattered game pieces lay. The Meowstic's death clearly frustrated him. Finally, he stopped and turned to the room.

"I expect to hear from several of you in a more... timely fashion today. The Purrloin in particular. You got your abstained vote, you got your extra time. Has it paid the dividends you were hoping for?"

"And you," he turned to the Espeon, the smarmy little thing. "Still have that swagger after another innocent is dead? Any brilliant deductions as of last night, or are you still happy to toot your own horn as the bodies pile up?"

"And don't think I've forgotten about you," he said, glaring at the shadows hanging at the edge of the room. The Sableye and the Mimikyu were out there, somewhere, and that Phantump, too. "Two nights of lurking about in the dark and still no help in catching our killers. Unless of course you're the ones with blood on your claws."

As he went on, his words felt more and more hollow, and he grew more and more frustrated. "Surely I can't be the only one trying to stop this!"

 

[Flyg0n]

[[I Think I might post my pre-pared advanced post from before, since it clears up some stuff?]]

 

[HelloYellow17]

Neo suddenly remembered something Snot Bird had muttered under his breath the previous day. He also had his reservations about Splotch Cat…maybe…maybe he wasn’t as suspicious as Neo originally thought?

Not that that meant Neo had been wrong, of course. It was Snot Bird’s fault for being so bad at this game!

[[Yes soooo I really should have read over the thread thoroughly before posting, lol. Anyway, I’m still behind and catching up on EoD shenanigans. Pano mentioned vague suspicion of Jackie a couple of times—which definitely doesn’t clear her, but my suspicions have lessened slightly.

Free also defended Tetra in her last post. Free generally has good insight so I’m inclined to trust her instincts, but ALSO nobody is perfect and she could be wrong. However, she made a good point when she said Tetra was flailing a bit, and that didn’t read like someone who has a mafia team behind them.]]

 

[HelloYellow17]

[[also Pano you’re not bad at this game, you are lovely and based, Neo just doesn’t know how to acknowledge that he’s ever been wrong. 🤣]]

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

[[haha all good, I've been insulting people left, right, and center in this game so I get that the IC posts are definitely part of the show!]]

 

[Flyg0n]

[[Okay a beeg post. This will probably contain references to yesterday that are now mostly cleared up but I don't have time to edit fully. I tried to get the worst of it out.

Anyways this long ramble should cover most of the important stuff. Sorry its so long haha

Spoiler: beeg

Alright I'm back and ready. I pretty much believe I answered all questions reasonably in one of my last posts so just refer to that. But lol, it seems its becoming a trend to falsely accuse me D1 and and I have to fight about it, haha. Oh dear. Anyways I kinda of borked things yesterday so i really wanna clear the air. Hopefully I can clear any remaining stuff on me, redeem myself, and get on the path to victory for town here...

I'll post thoughts on deaths later but first -

First I wanna post a disclaimer. I admit I knew my own townplay would feel off, and I knew I would get sussed. Some part of me knew that my down mood would rub off on mafia a bit, despite my efforts. But thats because in the pregame days laeading up to mafia some stuff happened and I was torn between low energy and low social energy and irl stuff and being busy (birthday, like I said).
So I admit yes, I know my plays were waffley but I was honest to goodness so out of it and my brain refused to muster any interest in the game. Rather unexpected too because usually I get very gung ho for mafis off rip!

Anyways for the major thing: Why would I bother trying to defend myself when last game people just tried to kill me anyway right up until I roleclaimed? Nobody listened to my defense except Pano. That was part of why I didn't muster any defense. Worth noting one of the key things about Mafia about not being too certain of anything too early. If recall that game, free was convinced I was something else too and was wrong, and even after people were still hesitant! So yeah, I didn't really see any point defending my role when I didn't want to reveal. Any defense I had would have amount to "I swear I'm useful please dont".

Much in the way people were convinced abra was guilty when they were just my lover, haha.

Despite the (I will assume) misplay from jackie, waffling on wanting to abstain but voting me in the same post, I don't think yet that jackie is scum.

I also stand by that Wind voting and then fairly swiftly retracting the vote on me doesn't seem bad yet. It doesn't gurantee anything but it seems mostly innocent enough, generally speaking. As I have said, I don't hold anything against Wind for this because they retracted! Free refused to retract and has continued to hone in, but it may just be another case of town-tunneling. So don't try to say its inconsistent when one person retracted and the other refused. Nonetheless, my suspicion of them has not gone down.

Sure, you can say my play was more cautious but I don't think my play not feeling like a previous game is ground for immediate death.

AGAIN sussing me for being cautious would be one thing! But I was voted for which is pretty different! In a hidden role madness game. It's risky!

Also I did not go off voting anyone immediately, I sussed some people because thats how it goes. It's mafia. I didn't vote anyone until I was voted for. That was Free and Jackie. So as for the complaint that I apprently went off accusing everyone, no, I did a vote back after receiving a potential death sentence vote. I've never made a show of trusting anyone or even strongly suspecting anyone until Free jumped on me. And for the record other people were mildly weirded out by jackie not posting too! I was not the first person to cast a side-eye at having 0 posts!

Now we have an explanation so for now I won't hold that agaisnt them too hard.

As for why I didn't roleclaim... Well, let's start with the obvious. I'm not a lover. I roleclaimed last time because killing me would kill two town players. My role here is way less deadly/detrimental to town. And more helpful obviously.

Anyways for some more reads.

Yellow: Well we know she can play a fairly convincing scum! Which is cool. Nothing strong honestly. Too early to say.

Seren: Nothing else strong

In fact the only semi strong reads I might have are town Pano and maybe town UA.

Shinji/Goomy: Nothing really. Hasn't done a ton which is mildly sus but might have perfectly reasonable explanations.

minty: Nothing strong but... hmm.... keeping an eye on?

 

[HelloYellow17]

[[BLESS YOU TETRA for kind of summing that up. I haven’t read the whole thing in-depth yet, but it really did strike me more as a misplay/town fumbling than anything suspicious. It looks like Free only voted for you because she was suspicious of your silence, and then retracted and was pretty convinced of your town alignment afterwards.

I’m still highly sus of Jackie, but very open to what they have to say when they get up.

Two more things I forgot to say: one, I was VERY against abstaining yesterday because this is a small role madness game and abstaining just felt way too risky. However I wasn’t in a position to voice my thoughts on it so I just had to throw in the towel and vote abstain, even though I didn’t want to.

Second: I’m also side-eying Gojira juuuuust a wee bit. Shortly after Jackie pushed to abstain, they voted to abstain as well, saying there wasn’t enough information yet. This reads a lot like scum following a teammate’s lead to me—but it also could just be a new player wanting to play on the safe side of things. Either way, I want to hear a lot more from them.]]

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

But still…something…something didn’t feel
right. He glanced at Snot Bird. He was still here, and still not providing any useful information despite demanding it from anyone else. How funny! He really was bad at this game.

Neo addressed him with a chirp. Why was he so quick to accuse without giving reasons for his accusations? Why was he so suspicious of Dragon Bird? Neo wasn’t sure what to think of her yet, but he didn’t think she was responsible for Cat-Girl getting kicked out.

Steven was so incensed that he almost missed the Espeon's question, and when he did reply, it took everything he had to keep his voice steady.

"I'm trying to get answers! Information is the only way we will be able to find the culprits! I've said this before, but the killers already know who among us are their targets; they simply don't know who to kill first. We've lost two of our own, and we're no closer to finding those holding the knife. The town knows nothing, we're completely in the dark!"

"Either we start sharing information, or we all take our chances that the target doesn't fall on us next. Those who are the most silent are still the most suspect. What better way to avoid suspicion than to remain out of the spotlight themselves?" His gaze fell again on the Purrloin, but also swept over the Goomy, the Gardevoir, and the ghosts.

Steven then fixed the Espeon with an intense stare. "And before you accuse me of avoiding the question again, I'll be as blunt as I can. My defense is the same as the Flygon's. My powers can help the town's cause, but I cannot do this on my own. Only time will tell between us whose target has been painted bigger."

It looked like he had finished saying his piece, but then Steven brought a hand to his chin. "...Unless of course we all agree to paint targets on our backs at once. If what the Flygon thinks is true, and the scum can only kill one of us per night, invariably some of us will survive the next night. I'm not sold on this idea, though, as other powers may be in play rendering this an outright terrible plan."

 

[HelloYellow17]

It looked like he had finished saying his piece, but then Steven brought a hand to his chin. "...Unless of course we all agree to paint targets on our backs at once. If what the Flygon thinks is true, and the scum can only kill one of us per night, invariably some of us will survive the next night. I'm not sold on this idea, though, as other powers may be in play rendering this an outright terrible plan."

Neo listened intently to Snot Bird’s outburst. Despite his misgivings, he had to admit that he sounded…sincere. Hmm. He was still unsure of him, but for now, the thought of the bird raised his hackles a little less.



He did, however, angle his ears back a little at Snot Bird’s suggestion. It wasn’t a terrible idea, but it certainly was risky! And how could they know who was telling the truth or not? What if everyone just claimed to have useful powers…what then?

He did, however, like the idea of messing with the bad guys. He couldn’t wait to finally catch them all!

 

[Flyg0n]

Hana frowned and nodded fiercely. Both the Espeon and the Empoleon had made good points, she had much to think on.

[[grabiin food and doing stuff, will be away a bit]]

 

[MintyMimix]

Gardevoir felt sick to his stomach. Letting someone innocent die just so they could gather information... could he truly consider himself a good Pokémon in good conscience anymore? Even so, the chatter rattled him out of his thoughts as he took in a deep breath and clutched tightly onto his chest horn, trying to relax. He murmured to himself, "I need to stay focused; we're all counting on each other..."

He cleared his throat and fumbled on his glasses as he prepared his response, "I will...echo the sentiment on interrogating the quiet ones. Though my assessments have been admittedly bumbling, I am trying to assess. You'll have to forgive my nerves." ((I actually am unsure as to what to do to gather information; I am trying not to overstep my bounds but I also don't know what moves are available persay.)) "I'd like to propose further inquiry of the Sableye and Goomy. They contributed very few insights... or observations for that matter outside of reactions. Such actions - er, inaction - would indeed make good accomplices."

He then placed a hand on his chest spike, trying to calm his emotions, "I'd be happy to answer any questions you all have. It's the least I can do to make up for my earlier... passiveness."

((I'm willing to do whatever it takes or provide any information as needed; just a bit lost! Jackie and Tetra were suspects based on Day 1, but Free being eliminated also made it almost too obvious as a play to divert attention to Tetra to me? Abstaining would be the highest benefit to killers no matter what, so for me suspicion naturally falls on Gojira and Jackie in that instance. I abstained admittedly just because it was getting late and I had no idea what to do. On that note, @Flyg0n what your thoughts on Sind & Wind, since they didn't quite get a mention on your reads?))

 

[Flyg0n]

This was just like last game maybe, people who seemed nice were bad, and people who seemed bad were nice. Hana wrung her claws together to hide them from trembling. That Empoleon fellow seemed to be of good trustworthiness, for now, though. And maybe that weird Mimikyu? "What's your name again?" she asked, directing her question at the Empoleon. Might as well try to get to know the other players better at least.
(( @Panoramic_Vacuum just some fun flavor))

((I'm willing to do whatever it takes or provide any information as needed; just a bit lost! Jackie and Tetra were suspects based on Day 1, but Free being eliminated also made it almost too obvious as a play to divert attention to Tetra to me? Abstaining would be the highest benefit to killers no matter what, so for me suspicion naturally falls on Gojira and Jackie in that instance. I abstained admittedly just because it was getting late and I had no idea what to do. On that note, @Flyg0n what your thoughts on Sind & Wind, since they didn't quite get a mention on your reads?))

[[In all honesty right now I tentatively remain neutral on both.

I do, for now, remain neutral-ish on the whole group, save for Shinji tbh. Not a full sus but I'm more uncertain of them than anything else.

That said... do you have anything to offer? Any thoughts? hmm.... (not like, sussing to be clear)

I do think that whoever killed Free did it to make me look bad.]]

 

[HelloYellow17]

I do think that whoever killed Free did it to make me look bad.]]

[[Did they, though…? I mean, Free was defending you by the end. My guess is they got rid of Free because she’s a very good scum hunter.]]

 

[MintyMimix]

That said... do you have anything to offer? Any thoughts? hmm.... (not like, sussing to be clear)

((Yeah that's kind of the issue. Other than The Big Red Button that is the role itself, I don't have any further thoughts that haven't already been echoed.))

 

[windskull]

Another day. Another death. And more bickering amongst the group, as was to be expected. Just another day in the game.

His attention turned first to the Empoleon.

It looked like he had finished saying his piece, but then Steven brought a hand to his chin. "...Unless of course we all agree to paint targets on our backs at once. If what the Flygon thinks is true, and the scum can only kill one of us per night, invariably some of us will survive the next night. I'm not sold on this idea, though, as other powers may be in play rendering this an outright terrible plan."

"I don't think this is a terrible idea... but I think it's not the best time to do it. See... the last time I was in a game like this, there was this Yamask, Altair. He was... well. He was looking out for himself. A killer without a team behind him. But he also had the ability to survive a shot once. It's a little different in his case, since he was a bad guy. But let's say there's a good guy here that has that power. If everyone reveals their roles, they either have to lie and hope the badguys fall for their bait, AND that the good guys don't mistake them for lying because they're a bad guy. Or their power becomes functionally useless and the bad guys can choose to ignore them and pick off other roles. Informative roles. Protectors."

He turned away, addressing the rest of the crowd. "As for the purrloin... I was thinking of their behavior and the things they said last night and... I actually trust them. I... could be wrong, but I have a hunch. A hunch that I think is best left unsaid.

"As for people I would like to speak up... I, too, would like to hear more from the Gardevoir, the Goomy, and the Mimikyu in particular. The Sableye, too, but especially those first three."

((Probably at least one more post coming before I go to bed. I want to address the stuff regarding tetra but I need a little time to unwind before reviewing it.))

 

[Flyg0n]

[[Did they, though…? I mean, Free was defending you by the end. My guess is they got rid of Free because she’s a very good scum hunter.]]

[[They were? I never got that impression tbh. They only seemed like they wouldn't press it because everyone was abstaining. They still voted for me at EoD]]

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

This was just like last game maybe, people who seemed nice were bad, and people who seemed bad were nice. Hana wrung her claws together to hide them from trembling. That Empoleon fellow seemed to be of good trustworthiness, for now, though. And maybe that weird Mimikyu? "What's your name again?" she asked, directing her question at the Empoleon. Might as well try to get to know the other players better at least.

Steven paused what he was doing and turned toward the sound of a voice. Did the Flygon just ask him who he was? He almost laughed out loud, except he remembered his circumstances here. Not a masquerade like he assumed when he'd brushed off the Bisharp. No, at this point, anonymity didn't really matter did it.

"Steven. Steven Stone." He stuck his hand out on reflex, before realizing how unsuited an Empoleon was for handshakes. He withdrew his fin with a scowl. "And stop doing that with your claws. It's unbecoming for a dragon."

 

[ShiniGojira]

[[FYI, my time zone's GMT+8, so when most of you are active, I'd be sleeping. That and I'm still kinda new to this forum and haven't learn everyone's names yet, like which one is Jackie again? The player pings only list your forum names.

And I still had schoolwork to do so I've been a bit busy.

Anyway, with that being said.

Tetra, I'll admit, I felt a bit sus of them at EoD but to me it felt like it was a bit too early to vote someone out, that and I'm still quite new to the game so I'm still not sure what I was supposed to be doing. Though after reading through their big post, I don't really feel much about them.

Pano, I feel good about them being town. Doesn't feel like they're doing or saying anything too sus.

Yellow's neutral. Not feeling too much about them.

Ua's pretty neutral, again not sure what to feel about him.

The other players, Hmm, I still need time to think about it.